Oberlin College - Hi-O-Hi Yearbook (Oberlin, OH)

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Q do four cents an hour. To equalize matters somewhat, the price of board was seventy-five cents a week for young women and a dollar for young men. When Professor Finney found the chapel of Colo- nial l-lall too small for the growing community, he took occasion to say at a Sabbath service-- Brethren, the Lord's work in this place demands of us a house of wor- ship that will accommodate the people, and whatever the Cabine' H311 Lord's work requires of us we can do. We must build a church. Now come together tomorrow at one o'clock, all of you, and we will talk this over, for it can be done. It was the greatest enterprise the colony had undertaken. ii'lii Professor Finney gave more than any one else. Other professors sub- iii? scribed 5200.00 each, from their meager salaries, and most of Q.. 9 Q 0 them doubled the amount later. It was decided that the building should be plain, but substantial and large, since it was the only it ' ' f f V church in the community. The colonists had little money, but they had willing hearts. Those who had teams hauled loads of brick, ' stone, and lumber over roads which were almost impassable at President Finney times. A year was spent in gathering materials and letting contracts. ln June l842 the corner stone was laid and the commencement of 1843 was held in the church, though it was not quite finished. The building embodied Professor Finney's ideas and he preached in its pulpit thirty years. There was no larger or better audience room west of the Alleghanies, when it was built. Professor Morgan was associated with Professor Finney in the pastorate of the church, usually preaching at the second service and supplying the pulpit in Mr. l7inney's absence. No persons had so large a share in shaping the Oberlin of .fi the past as these two men. Though always warm friends they were , very different in characteristics and attainments. Professor Finney it was not a college graduate, but a man of great originality. He was ,,l' f - . 1 the author of a new system of theology much discussed in the early days of Oberlin. He had had a legal training which made him ii 'fi l , invincible in argument. l-le attacked the sins and shames of the day A without mercy. 'V Professor Morgan was a graduate of Williams college, broad Professor Mwgan in his scholarship and of wide reading. It was said of him that he could give instruction in any branch of the college curriculum with- out an hour's notice, but his sedentary habits were not in accord with the college ideal of Learning and Labor. The fact weighed upon Professor Finney's mind and, as he was wont to bring all his burdens to the Lord in prayer, he offered this petition- O Lord, brother Morgan knows more than any of us, but he is so lazy. Volumes could be collected of President Finney's funny sayings. Many of those reported are no doubt apochryphal, but the following incident really occurred and illustrates - I3

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57 During the same building period, a roomy brick dwelling house arose on the corner where Finney Chapel now stands and another, almost a duplicate, on the Conservatory corner. In the first Professor afterward President Finney lived and died. The other was the home of President Mahan during the fifteen years he remained in Oberlin, and afterward of Professor Morgan. Dr. and Mrs. James Dascomb arrived at the beginning of the first term of school, May, 1834. He came from Dartmouth College, and she from the Seminary at Ipswich, Mass., where she had received instruction from Mary Lyon and , other teachers who afterward founded Mt. l-lolyoke. Dr. and Mrs. Dascomb represented the best culture of Newvlingland. She was principal of the Ladies Department, as it was then called, for many years, and was admirably fitted to form the tastes and manners ol the generations of young women who came under her care. Dr. Dascomb was Professor of Botany, Physiology, and Chemistry, and beside that, being the only physician, he looked after the health of the colony. For his use what was long known as the Old Laboratory was erected, which stood almost on the site of Sturges Hall. This was the second brick building. It was ol one story with rising seats, a skylight over the lecturerfs table, and appliances for illustrating the study of Chemistry. Dr. Dascomb greatly rejoiced in these quarters and was for forty-four years a thorough and successful teacher of the three branches belonging to his department. Dr. Dascomb The following incident illustrates a phase of his character which came to be known to some mischievous boys of the village. A grape vine grew over a window of the Laboratory, which bore fine grapes. The boys annoyed the doctor by taking these grapes without permission. l-le stopped their depredations by putting the college skeleton just inside the window with eyeballs of phosphorous. The college was co-educational from the first, it being pait of Mr. Shipherd's plan to give to the misjudgecl and neglected ,ilgihltf sex such opportunities to improve their minds as were custom- arily accorded only to men. Very few women in the earlier years took the college course: the three who graduated ini l84l were the first in the country to receive the degree of A. B. The women at that time were generally satisfied with the Ladies' Course, a shorter curriculum conforming to that of the best female seminaries. . Mrs. Dascomb Manual labor was part of the early Oberlin plan. The late President Fairchild says: The first year four hours daily labor were required of every student. The manual labor bell rang at one o'clock in the afternoon and each young man repaired to the field or the forest, the shop or the mill for his work, for which he received from four to seven cents an hour according to his efficiency or skill. The young women performed the domestic labor in the boarding hall, for which they received three to I2 I

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1. - ... . .,,, . ., .. K -0 1 X.--ff I r 1-,,4p5fji1'I'--f'W' A135-:Jef-.I ' Af-, -77 ,X ,t 'l' Fl- '-1 , .ff. E' T . .F VE., 1514, Y... '34 :Fifi , 3 a characteristic of the President. Preoccupied with high thoughts, he was very forgetful of names, f., yet so friendly in his disposition Geology and Natural History. There was no organ or piano in town when he came. X fy r. H..:fH:f',' , that it was his habit to speak to V :gg TVL1-445,25 X' .f?.j,'7 -.5 I .,.-L, everybody he met. Out for his 3, fy --. . Niifgkqp ji: as 1 ,gr-fsgggc iii! daily walk, he repeatedly met the 'jj Sr, late Judge Steele, then a young ' ,WH ,,,,gg I ,U .rw my ' -1 5 - - tt 2, rp. -93,1 .1 lf! I ,g:5.ff,. man, with the salutatlon Good , 115' ,Q 1i,tfQgjwQ,g'J ,:,,-'sa rf , -- 1: ,L fag . . ,, ggfigffilx gvf rui u l morning! What IS your name? ---feng., - . swf -cz ' - vi f-5 55. ff--' x . -g 1:41 5, ,- . M . . - .1 - - iff? 1 , - 'af f'ef :af f ff Fdllf- Weary of the -repetition, young Music Han Steele ventured one day to give a new name, John Smith. The new name surprised the President and jogged his memory. Fixing his piercing eyes on the young man he said, john Steele, how you do liell' The musical interest of' the early Oberlin must be credited to the efforts of George N. Allen, who was appointed teacher of Sacred Music in IS37, and later was elected Professor. He had been a pupil of Lowell Mason, of Boston, and was naturally a musical genius, but his compensation was only half a salary, as there was added to his duties, at first, the superintendence of the Preparatory Department and, later, instruction in The Trustees had decided that it piano music. Prof. Allen trained the choir of the church. ln 1841, of this and later concerts paid for of the older professors. He saw provided. was inexpedient for the college to afford instruction in an orchestra of wind and stringed instruments, and led a concert was given at Commencement. The proceeds an organ for the church, the chapel bell, and portraits that pianos were purchased and competent instructors By uniting with the college literary societies, he secured the frame structure known as the Music l-lall, about the size of the Laboratory, which stood on the west side of South Professor Street, not far from the site of Baldwin Cottage. Here he trained classes in vocal music and laid the foundations for the future Conservatory. The Oberlin hymn Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone,', and the tune to which it is sung, which Professor Allen com- posed, have kept his name in remem- , brance among his successive genera- tions oif' students. A new college chapel was completed in IS55. On the first floor were offices, lecture rooms, a literary society room, and a library. The auditorium was on the second floor with the platform at one end, Qld Laboratory I4