Northwestern University - Syllabus Yearbook (Evanston, IL)

Page 28 text:

l856fFlRST UNIVERSITY LIBRARY was started on a 53,000 fund voted by the Board of Trustees. Space was provided in University Hall after 1869 for study and storage of books. Cast iron stove provided localized heat. expert swimmer, rescued seventeen survivors from the pounding surf and Northwestern acquired its first hero. lt almost acquired a life-saving station as well, for public opinion demanded the construction of a station, but the XYar between the States prevented im- mediate action, and eleven years passed by before the demand was answered. That autumn there were many important things to think about. The Hinman Society and the newly-formed Adelphic Society de- bated the significance of Harper's Ferry, and Mr. Lincoln, fresh from Cooper Union, visited his friend Julius White of Evanston, and was serenaded by the students. South Carolina seceded and the new President of the United States expressed the hope in his First In- augural that: The mystic chords of memory . . . will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as they surely will be, by the better angels of our nature. Soon he was making another appeal, for twenty-live thousand volunteers, because Fort 24 Sumter had fallen and war had begun. Allen YV. Gray of the University class of '63 marched away to Chickamauga, Mission Ridge and Kenesaw Mountain Ccoming back for his degree in 1912j, and William H. Raleigh of Maryland took the long Southern road that led to Appomattox. A rush ofvolunteers to the colors was temporarily delayed by the Sunday closing of the Chicago recruiting oH'ice, but soon John A. Page was on his way to Cairo and Drilll drill! drill! . . . Articles of war or regulations were a myth to us. We were obedient, and performed our allotted tasks because we had been brought up to do so. We did not have any reverence for rank, nor did we appreciate the difference between a general, colonel or captain. On the home front, the girls of the Female College prepared hospital supplies and mended an old Hag, to fly at the masthead for the inspiration of the whole town. The more belligerent men organized the Union League to defeat Copperhead machinations, and ,,

Page 27 text:

vivors of the original class of ten freshmen were awarded the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and one later entrant the degree ofBachelor of Philosophy. An address was delivered by Dr. Evans in which the past of the University was proudly reviewed and its future confidently predicted. In the course of his remarks Dr. Evans appeased the dissatisfaction of persons whose sons had not been admitted to pre- paratory instruction on scholarships. The difhculty was removed and he hoped that the self-sacrificing and laborious gentlemen of the faculty would be sustained in this and the preparatory department crowded. Slowly the University recovered from the damage of 1857. Seven students were gradu- ated in the class of 1860 and an enrollment of 600 was predicted for the near future. Dr. Foster left to take up a pastorate in New York, and after the refusal of Dr. Erastus O. Haven, editor of the Methodist weekly Ziofzlv Herald and formerProfessor of History and English Literature at the University of Michigan, to take his place, Professor Noyes again be- came Acting President. One September night in 1860 the steamer Lzmfv Elgin sank off Wlinnetka. Next morning HOUSE ON THE SNYDER FARM, which the Uni- versity purchased for land, was an early Ridgeville home. 1 LQWLTL mg. ,.-..,.:'.. ., 'g.i. ZLgfLL.'...... S. . .., . . the full horror of the situation was revealed to the helpless watchers lining the shore, as Edward Spencer, a student who was also an IN 1898 the University dedicated this plaque to Edward Spencer, who saved seventeen from drown- ing in the Lady Elgin disaster. LADY ELGIN, excursion steamer, collided on Lake Mich- igan with schooner Augusta on September 8, 1860,during storm. The tragedy occurred two days after this picture was made. Z3

Page 29 text:

Bishop Simpson's condemnation of the Con- federacy lived in Frances XVillard's memory, as an occasion when the very air seemed surcharged with the thunder and lightning of God's wrath against secession and slavery. The exciting novelty of the war disappeared as the casualty returns came in and the Evanston Company of the Eighth Cavalry charged at Gettysburg. Alphonso Linn, a tutor of Latin, raised a platoon of University Guards and marched away to die of typhoid fever at Cairo. Professor Blaney resigned his professorship to enter the army. Then the firing ceased in 1865 and the University counted the cost. Seventy-seven North- Westerners, colonels, majors, captains, chap- lains, doctors, sergeants and privates, had gone to the war and seven were dead. Despite the decline 'in the student body caused by the call to the colors, the revenue of the University increased rapidly from the war appreciation of its property. The in- debtedness of the 1850's was liquidated by 1868 and more land was purchased on the North Shore, including the Snyder Farm south of Dempster Street in Evanston. Nor FIRST CAMPUS EXTRA CURRICULAR activity was Hinman Literary Society founded in 1855 for mutual improvement in mind, manners, and fra- ternal regardsf' Group met in later years in Univers- ity Hall, among appropriate decorations and furniture. f , OLD UNIVERSITY MUSEUM, pride of the University in the l86O's, filled with fossils, skeletons and students. was the expansion of the University itself neglected. :X gesture toward the beginning of graduate work was made when degrees of Master off-Xrts and Master of Philosophy were First awarded in 1863. Scholarships were instituted for Chicago high school graduates, and the Preparatory School was given a per- manent status. The Museum was expanded and enlarged by Dr. Oliver Marcy, Dr. Blaney's successor as professor of natural science. Dr. Marcy was one of the most distinguished naturalists in the country, being an authority on the geology of the Northwest and having served as naturalist on the federal governments road survey through Idaho and Montana in 1865. For thirty-seven years this beloved teacher served as professor of natural history and physics and at various times added to his duties those of teacher of Zoology, moral science, philosophy, natural theology, mathe- matics, geology, mineralogy, botany, chem- istry, physiology, logic and Greek, in addition 25