Westminster College - Blue Jay Yearbook (Fulton, MO)

Page 23 text:

ings now on the campus only Westminster Hall was then standing, and at .that time it was both new and a model college building. A large frame house which had formerly been Fulton College, the predecessor of Westminster, was standing a short distance from the northwest corner of the main building, and a two-room brick structure, used as a dwelling by one of the professors, stood immediately in the rear of Westminster Hall. The main building then contained the chapel, recitation rooms, oiiices and literary society halls. No changes have been made in the exterior of the building except the replacing of the classic gable roof with the bZ2lZ7 7'E mansard, which was accomplished at the time of the building of the new chapel. Student life in war times differed materially from what it is now. Aside from the fact that ,war was raging, and that the country was in tense suspense con- cerning the outcome of the confiict, those were heroic days in Missouri. The state was young and civilization was more or less primitive. But men were strong physically and mentally. They knew what it was to pit physical strength against the terrors of the wilderness. Contact with God's world as He created it brought forth a race of men that God in His goodness has never duplicated. Those elements of flesh, mind and spirit which gave men the hardihood to found settlements in unexplored country, combat savages, and subdue nature, made men of intellectual parts. When the sons of these men came to college, books and study and recitations were what they were here for, and they improved, each shining hour. . .. , The collegian of the civil war period was primarily a student. He had 'few sports. Foot ball was unknown in the western world. Match games of base ball came with a later generation. Intercollegiate athletic contests were not even remotely considered. Yet your collegian of 1861 was an athlete. He could run, jump, wrestle, and, if necessary, fight, and fight hard with his fists. He had the brawn that comes from plowing in newly-cleared ground, the training of the fields and forest, the agility of primal man. His favorite game 'was town ball, in which sides were chosen by two captains and played with home-made bats, and balls. Pitchers knew nothing of curves, masks and gloves for catchers had' not been invented, and the game itself had not been reduced to professionalism. s The ball ground was in the field across the creek just back of the college. 1 Diversion in student life was found chiefly in the literary societies. Both the Philologics and Philalethians were in existence, and the writer has been assured that much better work was done in them than is done now. Fraternities had not been introduced, and that in a boy's nature to which secret societies appeal was gratified in the literary societies, both of which were secret organizations. The names of the officials of the societies were kept profoundly secret, and it would have been basest treason for a member to reveal anything that occurred during a meeting. At intervals open sessions were given to which the public was invited, and on those occasions there was a satiety of oratory, declaiming, essaying and debating. We are told that oratorical duties were always performed in the so- cieties at that time, for the spirit of the old south was in the youth of the land, 15

Page 22 text:

? Viv - v K , if 1, Westminster During the Civil War. that did not close during the civil war. Wlien the war began a few of the students left to join the army, but their leaving did not interfere with college work. The only time lost by the school during the war was in the fall of 1861, when the opening of school was delayed until December because four of the five mem- bers ofthe faculty had resigned and instructors to take their places could not be secured earlier. Dr. Laws, who resigned the presi- dency of the college in J une, 1861, and a number of the board of trustees thought it advisable to close the institution until after . ESTMINSTER is the only college in Missouri outside of St. Louis six s M f ' N War should subside, and that their suggestion was not adopted cannot be better explained now than by saying that Westminster was not born to die. Attendance at the college was increased during the war, the number of stu- dents running close to two hundred, and being greater than at any other time in its history. The law that forbade drafting students into the army had something to do with increasing the attendance, for it is stated authoritatively that a num- ber of men well advanced toward thirty years of age were in school simply be- cause it protected them from military service. Though the country was involved in civil war, the only times that the full senior honors of the college--valedictory, Greek salutatory, and Latin salutatory--have been conferred was in 1861 and 1864, which indicates, as well, perhaps, as anything else could that the affairs of the college were kept well in hand during that time. Fulton during the war was a town of perhaps a thousand population, the greater part of which lived south of what is now known as Fifth or Asylum street. The northern portion of the present Fulton was largely vacant land. Some of it was i11 it - woods, and other parts of it were used as farm- ing lands. ' Students coming to college from a dis- tance came by the way of St. Aubert Know Mokanel and Mexico, taking the stage-coach at those places to complete their journey to Fulton. Those coming by way of St. Aubert reached that point by boat on the Missouri river, and those coming from Mexico generally used the old North Missouri Railroad Know the Wabashl, which had been completed then as far west as Mexico The college was eight years old at the beginning of the war Of the build OLD WESTMIYSTER HALL 14 ,

Page 24 text:

and the first ambition of all was to be an orator with power to hold and move audiences. Orations were rehearsed weeks ahead of the time of their delivery. The embryo orators went frequently to the woods to Hpractice their pieces. A wood on the hill west of the college was the favorite practice-ground of more than one aspiring statesman, andthere in the presence of trees the fate of the nation, no doubt, was often decided. Commencement during the war period was something fearful and grand. People came from remote parts of the state in large numbers to attend the annual closing exercises, and on commencement day the town was thronged by a multi- tude that came to celebrate that greatest of all great days, An hour before the exercises began the college campus was filled with the vehicles and horses ofthe rural Callawegians, and the old chapel was crowded to the suffocation point. There was no cynicism about commencement in that uncommercial age. Col- lege diplomas were respected, and the young bachelors were expected to conquer and rule the world. How times have changed! Or, is it that the old commence- ments appear big because they are of the past? One of the strange facts of life is ,that everything looks large and grand in retrospect. The commencement of 1861 stands out clear above all the others in the his- tory of the college. Dr. Fisher, in his history, says: H Simple justice demands the statement that the halls of Westminster never witnessed a more thrilling day than that fourth Thursday of June, l861. Nine men were graduated, but only seven were present to receive their diplomas. Daniel H. McIntyre and Joseph S. Laurie were the absentees, and they were captain and lieutenant? respectively in the irst company of Confederate soldiers enlisted in Callaway county: Several other students of the college were enlisted men in the company, among them, Joseph C. Watkins, now dead, who returned after the war and completed his course, W. S. Duncan, now of Pony, Mont., John P. Bell, of Fulton, and George liavis. The company joined General Price and remained with him throughout t e war. . . a Captain McIntyre and Lieutenant Laurie had completed the work necessary to obtaining their degrees, had stood all the examinations, and were awarded their degrees by unanimous vote of the faculty and board of trustees, notwith- standing several of each body were Union sympathizers. i Captain McIntyre has served the state as attorney general and now resides at Mexico, Mo. Lieutenant Laurie is now a resident of St. Louis. Of course the events of the war were interesting to the student-body. Mis- souri was in a tumult, and the homes of the students were affected by the confiict. The sympathy of the students was largely with the Confederacy, though a few Union sympathizers remained at college. The faculty forbade the discussion of . There is some dispute about M-r. Laurie's connection with the first company of Confederate soldiers raised in Callaway county. Dr. F1sher's history credits him to the company, but some of the membersiof thegcompany who are now living say that he certainly had no more than a tempo- rary connection with it. It seems to be pretty well established that he was with it a very short time, if at all. ' 16