Ursinus College - Ruby Yearbook (Collegeville, PA)

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.MX'MM OF I'KKKI.AKD SKMINAKY

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TIIK RUBY STAFF

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iFrrrlmift Snmuarij Jl'NE. to to. the alumni of Freeland Seminary met at I'rsinus in a reunion to celebrate the sixty-second anniversary of that institution, which has furnished so many men of prominence in this state. To meet the increasing demand for educational facilities in eastern Pennsylvania, in iKjS. at the place now occupied by ITsimis College. Reverend Abraham Ilunsicker. a bishop of the Menonite Church. established Freeland Seminary. Soon after this Mr. Ilunsicker lost favor among his Menonite brethren and was excommunicated: hence the school, although started under the influence of that denomination, was continued on a strictly non-sectarian basis. The Seminary opened November 4th. 184S. with four pupils only, but before the end of the scholastic year the numlter had increased to seventy-nine. No school in eastern Pennsylvania was more |K pular. Students from all denominations of English and Herman communities lictween the Susquehanna and the Delaware, parts of New Jersey. Delaware and Maryland, (locked to the jxipular lio.arding-school. Here I.ucrctia Mott, the Quaker preacher, lecturers on the aln lition of slavery and tem| erance reformers found congenial spirits. The school had many unruly Ih vs. and severe chastisement was regarded as a defence of virtue in those days. Four strokes of the razor strop on the Lire back was a cure for truancy: for tearing down the limbs of trees the switching of the offender in the presence of the whole school with the limbs he had broken was a reminder that the offense must not be rejieated: and for other offenses the student was flogged until he cried for mercy and promised to do better. During the seventeen years of Rev. Henry . Ilunsicker's principalship. three thousand seven hundred and ninety students were under his instruction. The rise of state normal schools about iXf«o threatened seriously the existence of academies, hut Freeland succeeded in holding its own for several years longer. The C ivil War was a great blow to many northern school-- which dc| cndc.l largely on the South for their pat-ronage. but the firing on Fort Sumter only served to fire the patriotism of Freeland Seminary No institution was more loyal. The very name. Freeland, tells its own story. From the very first rumor of war the practice of military manunver-ings and tactics was the order of the day. In 18 19 the pro| erty of Freeland Seminary was turned over to the newly incor| oratcd Cr inus College, and in this larger and more comprehensive form the educational work commenced on this sj t by Freeland Seminary was happily transformed and perpetuated. 13