Wesleyan University - Olla Podrida Yearbook (Middletown, CT)

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Wesleyan history naturally divides itself into the periods of the several presidential administrations, each dis- tinguished by its own characteristic tone, but all Htting in a continuity of some: what logical development into the cen- turywoltl college of today. In turn these presidential periods may be grouped into larger periods, rounding out new stages Umm. chum-whm Religmt Servlees in the progress of the college. With the were hchl. resignation of President Smith, the col- lege completed the Period of Inception. W'ith the election of Dr. Ioseph Cum- mings, '40, tpresident 0f Genesee Collegey to the Wesleyan presidency on August 5, 1857, there began the Period of Construction. Cummings was the first Wesleyan graduate to become president. He reaped the harvest of Smiths Centum Milia Fund by bringing collections up to about $80,000. But he further developed the endowment, chiefly through large donors, Isaac Rich, Daniel Drew and others, until it had in 1873 a book value of $376,860. The financial panic 0f the middle lSeventies, however, deflated the endowment, and in 1879 it amounted to only $166,150, a serious embarassment at the end of Cummings's administration for a college which had expanded its budget. A permanent addition, however, to the college, which panics could not melt away, resulted from Cummingsls program of construction. He built the ubrown old row of college halls, adding south of the Dormitory and Lyceum 0r Old Chapel tcalled after September, 1871, North and South Collegey the $60,000 Memorial Chapel U87D, erected to the memory of Wesleyan men who died in the Union Army during the Civil War, Rich Hall 086$, the $540,000 gift of Isaac Rich, and Orange Iudd Hall of Natural Science t187D, the $100,000 gift of Orange Judd, '47. Also a tower was added 086$ t0 the old Boarding Hall, changing it into Observatory Hall, wherein a new telescope was housed. Previously the nine-foot octagonal observatory which stood on the site of Rich Hall was removed to In- dian Hill where a Mr. Truit thereafter used it as a hen-house tfrom astronomy t0 poultryU. A library fund of $27,000 was raised by the alumni, and many valuable additions were made to the scientihc col- lections. . y The from campus began to look more Lmver ClmpeliSCt-ne ul College Bony . . . mminm mmmm m. as It does today, 111 glonous contrast to the Tu'rnty-fil'e

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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

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O L A P O D R, I D A 1'11MLH111' WOW WEI ' m . 0W05H1-1LW31'1LW1'1 barren parade-ground the college had inherited from Captain Partridge. In 1858 walks were laid out. The annual Arbor Day, managed by the Sophomores, increasingly brought new trees to the campus: and while the Sophs marched downtown to bring their trees 11in formal state, the Freshmen rang the college bell in celebration of the absence of their rivals from the campus; and this usually precipitated a class scrap on their return. A revolution in college methods was engineered by the younger members of the faculty in 1873, which scarcely had the full approval of President Cums mings: in fact, its details were worked out during his absence in Europe from the fall of 1872 until May, 1873; Professor I. M. Van Vleck serving then as act- ing president. The elective system was adopted; the curriculum was rear- ranged into three courses, Classical, Latin-Scientihc and Scientiflc; coeducation was established: and students, were given laboratory work in the sciences and Erstehand methods in other departments. The annual examinations at the close of the year were superseded by examinations at the end of the term, or of a subject. Student life, though ruled under a rigorous discipline by President Cum- mings, Hourished under more liberal privileges. Commencement was held in June for the Hrst time in 1859; the vacations being four weeks in winter, two in spring. eight in summer. In 1867 the fall term began on September 12, instead of in August. Many new undergraduate customs began under Cum- mings: the Washington's Birthday celebration in 1859, Class Day in 1863, the burning of Mathematics in 1867, the Sophomore Exhibition in 1868. Evening chapel was abolished, September, 1874. The OLLA PODRIDA first appeared in 1858 tfolio 12 x 17 inches; price four centsy, the Argus in 1868, the Alumni Record in 1869. Athletics began to thrive, boat clubs in 1858, baseball clubs in 1861: the playground of 1863, west of North College, was laid out as a ball field in the spring of 1874, and a frame gymnasium was erected. Gas was installed in halls and reci- 3; tation rooms in 1860, and steam heat in South Col- lege in 1874. The greatest national event of this age was the Civil War, which called 133 Wesleyan students and alumni to the Union Army and some to the Confederate Army tin M .1 n which one alumnus Campus tram Cnlh-ge Cemetery, in the Seventies served 35 3 gCHCI'le. Stut Tu Wily -,:i.r