Wesleyan University - Olla Podrida Yearbook (Middletown, CT)

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O L L A P O D A 1'1BWM'011- WM 1-: 515110051 ' ' 90043111 '1D40M01'11979MM11 'L even to come to Middletown. In January, 1841, realizing that he ought not to allow his continued illness to embarrass the college any longer, he resigned, and the trustees elected Dr. Nathan Bangs president. Bangs, then missionary secretary and one of the foremost leaders in Methodism, was reluctant to accept. But the faculty went to New York in a body to plead his acceptance, and his fellow ministers in that city represented it to be his duty to accept in order to save the institution, which during the long interregnum had been losing students and was dangerously running into debt. Finally he consented to be president and the next August at Commencement he delivered his Inaug- iral Address. Bangs, ecclesiastical executive of rare skill, great-hearted in his sympae thies, loved the young college ardently: he was Wesleyanis friend from the start, and later served as trustee for eleven years. He sacrificed his leader- ship in the church to be- come president and to save Wesleyan from ime mediate dissolution. He found conditions in a de- plorable state and at once worked desperately and successfully to raise funds to tide over the threaten- ing crisis. But not being . V e a , e . , Left to right: North Lnngrcgalmnal Lhureh wetne- 0f 83 21 C011C3gC ngIdULHE 1101' fa' Ctumiu'ncemvntL Past Other. McDum-ugh Iluusc miliar with the tech nique of college administration, which he felt he was too old t641 to learn, he soon became enmeshed in dilhculties; and one year after his inaugural, learn- ing that Olin was restored to health, he resigned in his favor; and on August 2, 1842, Olin was reelected president. Stephen Olin, successful president of Randolph-Macon College tuntil his illnessa, was one of the most eloquent orators of his day. Whether preaching before Congress or lecturing to Wesleyan students tCollege Life was a post- humous publication of these lecturesL he cast a spell over his audience. At once he enhanced Wesleyan prestige and collected funds needed to steer the collegiate ship into deeper waters after Bangs had so narrowly rescued it from the rocks. Student activities began to expand. The Junior Exhibition started in 1844. Phi Beta Kappa was established in 1845. A glee club and a band Hour- ished. Great Fourth of July celebrations Flamed. Fraternities developed. b 70 TWI'IIvaIIIITI'

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OLLA PODRIDA I-llamml-lwwwll-IEWJ-Jl . . mmmmwm'mmmol-l minimum tunless you except student preaching in the suburbsy. The lower classmen furnished a football for the college body to kick about the space now occupied by the Chapel and college theatre. But there were no organized athletics. The trustees in 1833 tthe day before the first graduating Commence- meno voted to make each student do mechanical and agricultural labor for two hours daily, uso that parents may have assurance that the physical as well as the intellectual and moral education will be attended to. tAlasl only a few students accepted the invitation. and they for Financial rather than physical bettermenta. Weekly brhetoricals were held for the whole college in compo- sition and declamation. The Philorhetorian, Non Nomenantla and Adelphian literary societies met on Tuesday evenings. T116 Classic or College Monthly, started in 1840, was an outgrowth of this literary activity among the students, though the paper was short-lived. The men of the lThirties in after years testified that one of the happiest memories of those college days was the stimulating personality of President Fisk. His success in inspiring his students, as well as in funtl-raising and in handling the technique of college administration, fortified the fragile institu- tion; but his prodigious labors cost him his health. In September, 1835. Fisk left for a Fifteen months tour in Europe in search of better health and of scientific equipment for the college. The latter he secured tto the value of about $7,000, including a fine telescopea, but his quest for renewed strength was not so successful. After his return to Middletown, November 29, 1856, he continued gradually to decline until his death, a little over two years later tFebruary Z3, 1859y He passed away in the new Presidents House, which the college had completed, a year before; and he was buried in the little college cemetery, now known as Wesleyanis uGodls Acre. Professor Augustus W. Smith, who had presided during Fiskls European tour, was again appointed acting president. Little did he, or anyone else. dream that he would have to serve for nearly two and a half years! In August, 1839, the trustees elected Dr. Stephen Olin presi- dent and he accepted; but he did not return from . Europe until the fall of Former Presidential Home. Now Home 1in Professor Ximlwn 1840, and was then EOO lll Tu'mIv-m'u

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siCemetery Dayii was observed in Iune, when the Iuniors cleared up the college cemetery; 11Tree Planting Day in Aprilw Chapel exercises were advanced from 6 to 7:45 A. M.-what :1 relief! The curriculum in 1847 was rearranged by years, instead Campus from the Southeast. in the Seventies of departments as before. Com- mencements expanded; twenty graduates giving eighteminute orations in August, 1842. In 1849 there were twenty-eight Commencement speakers! Sometimes the graduating exercises had to be held in two sessions-linked sweetness long drawn out! President Olin on June 1, 1846, went to England, in part for his health, which had been worn down by his heavy activities; returning in November. On the night of his return to Middletown the students arranged the lights in the dormitory so as to spell 1111K. OLIN. For a while his health and his labors benefitted by this journey. But four years later he again declined for some months, and in July, 1851, in the midst of an epidemic of dysentery in Middle- town, he and his wife and two-year-old son, James, were seized by the malady. tHis other son, Stephen H., had been sent away to safety in Rhinebeck, New Yorky. On August 1 the boy Iames, and on August 10 President Olin, died. For a year, during which Professor John Johnston was acting president, the trustees sought a new president; once electing Dr. John McClintock who declined. Finally on August 3, 1852, they chose Professor Augustus W. Smith, the Hrst layman to be elected president, :1 mathematician of national reputation through his masterpiece on Mechanics, and the righthand man in college administration of each of his predecessors. He sensed that the method of raising funds for current expenses threatened the permanence of the college; and accordingly he launched into the dithcult Centum Milia campaign for $100,000 of endowment. It was all subscribed tProfessor Harvey B. Lane aiding the president in the campaigny; but only a small part of it had been paid, when President Smith, sensing that the trustees were not unanimous in their support of him, resigned on August 5, 1857. His Five years of heroic work, not fully appreciated at the time, resulted in laying the foundation of endow- ments which. as they have developed, have made possible the century of Wesleyanis rich service to education. It was during Smiths administration that South College Ohe Lyceum, it was then calledy was adorned with its commemorative tablet over the doorway and its tower remodelled to protect the bell tmade in East Hamptonl The twenty-fifth anniversary of the college was held on August 6, 1856, in McDonough Hall. Twrnly-Mm