Swarthmore College - Halcyon Yearbook (Swarthmore, PA)

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New Jersey, New York, and Maryland. At length, a sufificient amount having been received to make it safe to begin the work, on the loth of Fifth month, 1866, the corner-stone of Swarthmore College (so called at the suggestion of the wife of Benjamin Hallowell, from the name of the home of George Fox, in England), was formally laid with appropriate public exercises. These were conducted by Edward Parrish, who, as the most active and efficient promoter of the work, had been ele cted by the Managers the first President of the college. Among the letters read upon this interesting occasion was one from Samuel M. Janney, of Loudoun County, Va., one of the signers of the address issued to Friends five years before, and in this letter he expresses his warm sympathy for the work in these characteristic words: It is the purpose of our higher schools and colleges to place within the reach of the student the stores of knowledge accumulated by the wise and good of former ages, and to assist in developing the intellectual powers and moral principles. In executing this great trust, the teacher of youth should ever remember that the development of the intellect, though highly important, is of far less value than the cultivation of moral excellence, and that the benign principles of Christianity can alone secure happiness here and prepare the soul for eternal felicity here- after. ' ' After the laying of the corner-stone in ' 66, the building progressed slowly, as the necessary funds were raised, Friends determining, with their usual care and foresight, not to begin this great work encumbered by a burden of debt. It was more than three years later when, on the 8th of Eleventh month, 1869, the college was opened with about one hundred and seventy students, of both sexes, an almost equal number of each. Two days later, on the loth of Eleventh month, the formal inauguration of the college took place, and in his inaugural address President Parrish outlined the general policy of the college and the several courses of study to be pursued. Addresses were also delivered by Lucretia Mott and William Dorsey, of Philadelphia, and by John D. Hicks, of New York. As an- nouncing the broad, unsectarian principles upon which the college was founded, I quote these significant words from the address of John D. Hicks : 24

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a higher grade began to l)e widely fell. ' I ' liis interest seemed most active Avithin the limits of the yearly meetings of l;altini(;rc, i ' liiladelphia, and New York. The first movement toward pnblie action upon this subject came from Baltimore, and for the earliest and most earnest expression of this need we are undoubtedly indebted to that valued friend and able in- structor, Benjamin Hallowell, then of Alexandria, Va., and Martha Tyson, of Baltimore. As a result of the public interest thus aroused, a joint com- mittee was appointed by conferences of Friends in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, and this committee issued, in 1861, an Address of some members of the Society of Friends to their fellow-members on the subject of education, and on the establishment of a boarding school for Friends ' children, and for the education of teachers. The idea of a college is not expressed in this title and was not at first generally entertained among the Friends active in the movement. They were satisfied with a boarding school, and named what then seemed to some the liberal amount of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the purchase of a farm, erecting the necessary buildings and furnishing them for occupation, and also for the purpose of a fund, the interest of which is to be used in educating young Friends for teachers. It was also decided to organize and to elect managers when one-half of this sum should be subscribed. From this comparatively humble beginning the idea of a college gradually took its rise. During the next five years the work of interesting Friends and raising the necessary funds was vigorously prosecuted by the private and public labors of many Friends, prominent among whom should be mentioned the names of Edward Parrish, William Dorsey, George Truman, Samuel Wil- lets, Lucretia Mott, Rachel T. Jackson, and Hannah W. Haydock. In 1865 a small volume was published by Edward Parrish and widely circu- lated, entitled, Education in the Society of Friends ; Fast, Frcsent, and Frospective. This little work made very evident the necessity of an insti- tution for higher education among Friends, and was one of the efficient means of promoting the movement to that end. Three years before, in 1862, the necessary sum having been subscribed, the first Board of ]Mana- gers w as selected, consisting of Friends of both sexes from Pennsylvania, 23

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' Our college associated byname wilh I ' lieiuls, and establishcfl by them and those in symi)athy with their views, might be expected to be sectarian in its character, and in one sense it may be so, but in another, a broader and more correct one, we trust it will not be. We have no creed, no con- fession of faith, no formalism in worship. We ])ropose, as far as practi- cable, to influence the students in the recognition of general principles of well-doing, that each individual is sovereign in his responsiljility to the higher law of his Creator, manifested in his own heart, from the dictates of which spring all the Christian virtues, leaving all questions of theology for individual judgment and disclaiming the right of any to dictate. This we claim to be too broad for sectarianism, and we trust tliat the students of Swarthmore will leave its halls impressed with principles which all their after-knowledge and reflection will only deepen and confirm, but never contradict. Of the students who had presented themselves for examination twenty- six were found prepared to enter the Freshman class, according to the stand- ard then established. As these constituted at first the entire body of college students it will be seen that the institution was at the beginning chiefly a preparatory school. Helen G. Longstreth had been appointed Matron of the college (a title which in later years has been changed to that of Dean), and Edward H. Magill, Principal of the preparatory school. The Faculty for the first year consisted of but four members — the President, the Matron, the Principal, and Clement L. Smith, who left at the end of the first year to accept a professorship at Harvard College, which he still holds at the end of nearly a quarter of a century. The first year the President gave instruc- tion in ethics, chemistry, and natural science: the Principal, in the Latin and French languages, and Clement L. Smith in Greek and German, he being also by title Acting Professor of Mathematics, although pure mathe- matics was taught from the beginning by Susan J, Cunningham, who subse- quently became Professor of Mathematics and a member of the Faculty. The other branches were divided among seven resident teachers and three non-resident lecturers. But one regular course of study in the college was at first established — that leading to the degree of Bachelor of Arts. This 25