Taylor University - Ilium / Gem Yearbook (Upland, IN)

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REV. CHARLES W. WINCHESTER, D. D. The President of Taylor Uuiversity was born in Westminster, Vt., anil was converted at the early age of fonrteen. Preparation for college was made at Springfield, Vt., and he was graduated from Genesee Col- lege, now Syracuse University, in the class of 1867. After graduation he taught at Fairfield, Herkimer County, N. Y., and at Cazenovia, N. Y.

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LOCATION AND HEALTH IN CHOOSING a school, from among the hundreds scattered over our land, a very important consideration is the healthfuluess of the location. We mean physical healthfulness. It is unnecessary to say that the moral and spiritual atmosphere of the institution of learning is everything. No matter how magnificent the equipment, or how able the instructors, if there is poison in the religious and moral teachings of the school, it should be shunned as a pest house would be. There are institutions, called colleges and universities, which utterly ignore the spiritual element, or even do worse than that. Of other schools, of which this cannot be truthfully said, there are all degrees of spiritual good from the highest down to the vanishing point. Taylor University has always stood among the very highest in this respect. But we started out to speak of physical healthfulness. Certainly no young person would wish to go to school in a locality where the atmos- phere was poisoned with malaria or where the drainage, or absence of drainage, was such as to make the conditions hostile to health and vigor. Everybody remembers reading of the dreadful scourge of typhoid fever which swept through one of the largest universities of the State of New York one or two years ago. It was the poorest possible advertisement that the university covild have had. How many hundreds of students were thereby turned aside to other institutions, no one can tell. We are confident that no institution is better situated in regard to sanitary conditions than Taylor University. It is situated on the highest land in all this part of the State of Indiana — the highest between Columbus and Chicago. Healthful breezes sweep over the Campus and University Extension from all quarters. Pure air and pure water and a safe dis- position of sewerage are the possessions of Taylor University. We are not drawing on our fancies for what we have said. The United States Health Bulletin publishes the following: The United States Health Bulletin has had occasion to examine into this subject quite extensively ; and if some of the facts that have come to our notice during these investigations were generally known, we believe that prosi3ective patrons would be shocked at the unsanitary and disease-breeding conditions existing at some of the highest-priced and most fashionable schools. ' ' These investigations have been made without the instigation of the proprietors ' and generally without their knowledge, consequently they are absolutely unbiased and unprejudiced. ' ' Among the schools that met with the general approval of the experts investigating these matters for us, and which we have no hesi- tancy in recommending to our readers, is the Taylor University, Upland, Ind. ' ' We know nothing about the course of study at this chool, for it is of no interest to us, but if the same care is taken with mental welfare of pupil as is shown, and plainly shown, to be taken with the physical, we feel that it deserves the support of parents and encouragement of the public. ' ' Are the days of Dotheboys Hall so long past that parents can trust their children ' s future to the care of strangers without the most search- ing investigation?

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-:p%, In 1869 he reeeived his first license to preach, and joined the East (lenesee Conference in the State of New York in 1870. After reorgan- ization and consolidation of Conferences, and after changes of boundaries his work fell in what is now the Genesee Conference. From that time until Jau: 1,3, 1904, when he began his duties as President of Taylor University, he was a tireless worker within the bounds of the Conference, lie was pastor of some of our best churches. He served Corning Dis- trict, Genesee Conference, as Presiding Elder from 1891 to 1897. T find by consulting the Minutes of the Conference that the membership of the District increased during his term of office, notwithstanding re- movals and deaths, from 6,734, when he began his work, to 8,393, when his term expired. There was an increase in the amount given for mis- sions during his presiding eldership over the preceding six years of $4,756.00 and an increase in all the regular benevolent collections of .$6,3.54.00. He closed his last annual report to the Conference by saying: ' ' May the motto, ' Holiness to the Lord, ' burn at the head of the marching columns of the District, till its brightness shall illumine every congregation, class, Sunday School, League, home and heart witliin her bounds. ' ' Dr. Winchester sat in the General Conference of 1896 and was a delegate to the Methodist Aecumenical Conference held at Washington in October, 1891. He ' as the efficent secretary of his Conference for eleven consecu- tive years and then his duties as Presiding Elder necessitated the elec- tion of another man. In 1902 he was appointed Conference evangelist. After assisting a number of churches during the fall and winter of 1902-3 in revival work, he was elected editor of the Buffalo Christian Uplook, and was occupied in that work when elected by the Board of Trustees of Taylor University as President of the University. Since he began his duties here as President, he has been invited to preach in a large number of pulpits of the North Indiana and other Conferences, and was invited to transfer his membership to the North Indiana Conference by a rising vote. Last summer he spent about six weeks in visiting camp meetings, and representing the various phases of the work done here in the University. He has written three books, ' ' The Wells of Salvation, The Victories of Wesley Castle ' ' and ' ' The Gospel of Foreign Travel, ' ' all of which we recommend to the students, patrons and friends of the ITni- versity, as books well worthy of perusal. Dr. Winchester is an interesting and instructive preacher. He has finalities of mind of a high order. He believes in a pure morality, in the best intellectual culture and in the highest standard of New Testament piety. He will do his utmost to place Taylor University in the front rank of educational institutions. Let us all co-operate with him in all his efforts to build up the cause of education and religion, and God will surely crown our efforts with abundant success.