Union College - Garnet Yearbook (Schenectady, NY)

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HICKOK .gi -4 f- wait and held through a long and active life a commanding position as an educator. A few years' experience showed that the site in the city was not sumciently ample, and the observing eye of Dr. Nott, at an early period in his presidency, had noticed on the suburbs a better one, which combined in a rare degree every advantage desirable. On the eastern border of the city the fields rose by a gentle slope to a plain of moderate elevation and easy access. Near the upper edge of this slope the construction of terrace a few feet high would afford a level campus of ample space, and a site for buildings that would overlook the valley, the river, and the neighboring city, while northward glimpses of moun- tains blue in the distance, and southwestward ranges of hills dividing the waters of the Mohawk and Susquehanna rivers, would present a panorama of peculiar loveliness. A gently murmuring brook, issuing from dense woodlands, fiowed across the grounds just north of the proposed site and into the river. Alternat- ing fields and groves extend several miles eastward to the Hudson. The Union College of today is located on the same, beautiful 100 acres of land overlooking the Valley of the Mohawk. Jacques Ramee, the famous French architect, who was for a time employed by the National government in plan- ning fortifications and public works, drew up a campus and building plan in 1812, which has been followed throughout the years. From the time of the new college on the hill the number of students steadily increased until in 1820 the nuinber in all the classes exceeded 300, and the graduating class alone contained sixty-five. In 1825 Union had passed Harvard and Yale in the number of its students, and, with the exception of a few inter- vening years, held for a quarter of a century the honor of being the largest college in the United States. The fame of Dr. Nott as an educator, the high reputation of the college, the excellence of its system and management, drew students from all parts of the nation to Schenectady, and large numbers came from lower classes of other institutions to see and hear President Nott. It is not too much to say that during the administration of Dr. Nott he alone shaped the policy of the college and controlled its affairs as absolutely as any monarch who ever ruled an empire. Union was the first college to break away from the standardized and tradi- tional classical course and to place scientific instruction on a plane of equal dignity. At Union also originated the so-called optional system, which it has always exercised to a limited degree but never to the extent of license which it afterward attained in other colleges. The first course of civil engineering oPfered in an American College was established at Union in 1845, by Professor Williaiii M. Gillespie and has ever since been successfully continued. The prosperity of the college grew with the fame of Dr. Nott and his staff of well known educators. Then came the news of the Civil XVar. The classes V 22 Q, f

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State Assembly for a college charter. However, since the petition sought to establish a college without the auspices of any single church, it came to naught. In February, 1785, measures were taken for the establishment of a private academy at Schenectady, by mutual agreement among leading citizens, and it was placed in the charge of twelve trustees. An academy building was erected a few years later on the northwest corner oflwhat are now Union and Ferry streets. This academy was the seed of Union College. Next to Dominie Romeyn, to General Philip Schuyler belongs the honor of establishing the college at Schenectady. The city of Albany had offered strong pecuniary inducements for making the capital the site of the college, but the vigorous efforts of General Schuyler so reinforced the Schenectady petition that it secured the young institution for that town. The college was organized on the 19th of October, 1795, by the election of the Rev. John Blair Smith, D. D., of Philadelphia, as president. The first commencement was held in May, 1797, in the old Reform Dutch Church, and the first degrees conferred upon three young men who had finished the course of study then required. . President Smith resigned in 1799, and was succeeded by Rev. Dr. Jonathan Edwards, the younger, who died in oflice in August, 1801. His successor was the Rev. Dr. Jonathan Maxcy, who resigned in 1804. Although the college was still feeble, it was not without enterprise. Under the presidency of Dr. Edwards, in 1798, a new edihce was begun on a scale magnificent for that day. This was afterwards known as VVest College, located on the corner of Union and College streets, and was finished in 1804. An event occured in 1804 which proved to be of peculiar and lasting advantage to the institution, and from which its success may bejustly dated. This event was the choice of the Rev. Eliphalet Nott as president. He had not yet become known for that talent in the education of young men which this election gave him the opportunity to exercise, and which has never been surpassed in the history of any American college. En- dowed by nature with a keen perception of character, a discriminatingjudgment in developing latent talent, a dignity ofmanner commanding both love and respect, a facility in governing young men, the secret of which lay in teaching them to govern themselves, and a zealand earnestness in the discharge ofevery duty, he acquired m '7 .. :L T11 C I' 4 he PU C 'A i I JR. Q ., . :K-1,1 is---asa - 1 ' '5' 771 73' ffffgs-,fbi . 3 ' mga' 1 ' 'T z-if Riff . D 1451311-'li 1 V . ..,. vw. . gn-I. V4 A F . 1 gw af.-6

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of 1860 and 1861 were among the largest in the history of the college. Through nearly a quarter of a century the south had sent more students to Union college than to any other, and the classes of those years were made up of represent- atives from nearly every southern state. Thus when the break came that divided the union of states the college also was to be divided. When the shells began to fall on Sumter the last band of Southern students left to join the ranks of the Confederate Army. Scores of northern students forsook their books to take up the musket against those who had been not only fellow-members of Philomathean or some campus society but fraternity brothers as well. The Union Campus became a drill ground. The gallant young Professor Piessner, recruited a company on College Hill and led them in person to the front where he fell on the bloody field of Chancellorsville, with a colonel's stars on his shoulders. In 1866 Dr. Nott passed away at the age of ninety-three years. He was succeeded by Dr. Hickok. Two years later, in 1868, Dr. Hickok resigned. Following a brief interregnum, the Rev. Dr. Eliphalet Nott Potter, grand- son of President Nott, was elected to the presidency. Dr. Potter had the distinction of becoming the hrst Chancellor of Union University. The crea- tion of graduate departments at Schenectady was not practical in those early days of 1795. But when the need for such institutions formed expression, schools of law, medicine and astronomy which had already been founded in Albany, only twelve miles distant, were incorporated with Union College to form Union University in 1873. In 1881 the Board of Governors of the Univer- sity founded the Albany College of Pharmacy. When Dr. Potter retired, in 1884, the Hon. Judson S. Landon became president ad interim until the election, in May, 1888 of Harrison E. VVebster, LL.D. In 1894, President VVebster was forced to resign due to ill health and the trustees elected Andrew V. V. Ray- mond. When Dr. Raymond became President of Union, the college was at the lowest ebb in its history. The enthusiasm., oratorical ability, and the remarkable personal influence which Dr. Raymond pdssessed were in no small part factors in again placing the college on the up grade. The number of students doubled, the teaching force was increased, scholarship was elevated and an endowment of about half a million created. Silliman Hall was acquired during his administration and electrical engineering courses introduced. Dr. Raymond resigned in 1908 after the death of his wife. Dr. Charles Alexander Richmond succeeded Dr. Raymond in 1909. His presidency, which lasted for twenty years, coincided with the boom years of the country. A four million dollar endowment was built up and in addition an active building program was successfully completed. During these twenty years the new gymnasium was finished, Buterheld memorial erected as a chemistry lab- Al li EN :gf LSE. v '53, , . 1 H . Y, 1. i7 ' itil: ' ' 4 23 A V: ,, Q V .t . 'eff '--Y