Wabash College - Wabash Yearbook (Crawfordsville, IN)

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U9 PESI With the completion of the academic year 1957-58, the spirit of XVabash will have spanned a century and a quarter. XVith this proud heritage to draw from, we have decided to include a brief resume of the preceding years. Wabash has seen her lean years but the overall history of our school is a proud one. Since her modest. inception. VVabash has emerged as one of the outstanding small schools in the country. The story of tl1is development fol- lows a11d we urge all to read and enjoy it. Un November 21. 1832, nine men gathered in Crawfordsville, lnd.. to discuss founding a college somewhere in the Wabash country. The next day the original land for what was to become VVabash College was dedicated. The land dedicated by these men kneeling in the snow was a 15-acre tract. between what is now West Market Street and the south side of Sugar Creek. The idea of founding a Midwestern Christian eollege had been germinating in the minds 'of prominent Presbyterian ministers long before the actual meeting of the founders. The United States was rapidly expanding west. and the prospects for growth seemed tremendous. The first settler had arrived in lllontgomery County just ten years before the founding. and Craw- fordsville already had a population of about Ttltl. A second courthouse had just been built in the town. and more and more settlers were arriving to claim the fertile lndiana land. ,Xlllt'I'lt'?liS future depended upon the Midwest. and the Midwest needed educational facilities to provide teachers and ministers. w' - ' .3 hlve ot the men who met on Nov. -l were t ministers: the other four were prominent lay- men, three from Crawfordsville and one from Rochester, N. Y. The man who called the meeting. -lames Thompson. if one man may be W,,1,,,,S.1,'S 5,-Sf ,,,.C,,ic1c,,,,, Emu, Baldluill Page F our

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The founding fathers kneel in the snow on the bflnks of Sugar Creek given the credit, can be singled out as the Founder. He was educated at Miami and was the Presbyterian minister in Crawfordsville at the time of the founding. The oifer of land for the College came from Major VVilliamson Dunn, who is also considered a founder of Hanover and Indiana University. According to Drs. Gronert and Osborne, Ed- mund O. Hovey is the man to whom VVabash College undoubtedly owes more than to any other man. llovey was a life-long trustee from the founding and served on the faculty from 1831 until his death in 1877. During his student years at Dartmouth he met Caleb Mills, who was destined to become the first VVabash teacher. Mills is remembered not only for his contribution to VVabash but also for his suc- cessful eiforts in . raising educational standards in Indi- ana as a whole. The indiana leg- ' islature granted VVabash a charter over protests by some of the people ot' Crawfordsville during the Winter session of 1833-34. Caleb Mins The provisions of the charter, a compromise, 1 made it impossible for the Presbyterian Church to keep absolute control of the College. Then on Decem- ber Iii, 1833, Caleb Mills taught the first class at Wa- bash College in newly-com- pleted Forest Hall. One of the most pressing needs of the College was a president. Elihu Baldwin. the minister of a prosperous and fashionable New York church, came to VVabash in January, 1836, to begin an administration due to last until his death in 1840. In the spring of 1835 the trus- tees bought 160 acres of land including the present compus. Construc- tion of a new dormitory was soon begun, and the future of the College seemed to offer prog- ress and prosperity. Then, fire struck the aImost-completed dorm in September of 1838. The fire was a financial disaster, but the spirit of the college community and its friends was not to be so easily broken. The struggle was not easy, and the odds were high, but de- termined attempts at fund-raising brought Wa- bash through its first, and perhaps most im- portant, crisis. Dr. Charles White, second president of Wa- bash College, began his twenty-year administra- tion in the summer of 18-ll. VVhite was also an Eastern minister and the brother-in-law of llovey. ln the early years of lVhite's lead- ership. NVabash had to pass through a '2-1. if - ' ..... - Miva... is . V s.. - as W9 'nie Q , .. , f ,M ff? . , Y sal . M if 1 . difficult phase of its ever-recurring crisis - finances. if Money was needed for new buildings his ,ss S 241432. and to pay the fac- f ulty members. To this end. lVabash owes much to wealthy churchmen of the East. Page Five Edmond O. Honey