Wheaton College - Nike Yearbook (Norton, MA)

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WHEATON THROUGH THE YEARS ... A TRADITION OF CHANGE The daughter of Judge Laban Wheaton and Fanny Morey Wheaton, Elizabeth Wheaton Strong, died at the age of 39 in 1834. Planning to erect a stone monument to memorialize their daughter, the Judge and his wife were persuaded by their daughter-in-law to act differently. Eliza Baylies Chapin Wheaton, the wife of Laban Morey Wheaton, suggested that the parents create a female seminary in memory of their daughter. The Seminary opened in 1834 and was directly connected to the Wheaton family until the death of Eliza Baylies Chapin Wheaton in 1905. With the help of Mary Lyon, a teacher at the Female Seminary in Ipswich, Massachu- setts, Laban Morey Wheaton and Eliza Bayles Chapin Wheaton were able to create a pro- gram for the students of the new school. Tuition was set at ten dollars for each of the two terms a year. On Wednesday, April 22, 1835, Wheaton Female Seminary opened, with classes held in the newly built Seminary Hall. Eunice Caldwell, another teacher at the Ips- wich school, became the first principal of the new seminary and boarded in Norton homes along with other teachers and the first fourty-nine students. Finding this situation impractical, Mary Lyon convinced Laban M. Wheaton to erect a dormitory, which was begun in December of 1835. A period of great instability which plagued the school from 1837 through the late 1840's was caused by the opening of Mount Holyoke Female Seminary by Mary Lyon. Not only was Mary Lyon unable to help the Wheaton’s run their school, but she took with her to this newer school Wheaton’s Principal, Miss Cald- well, one of Wheaton’s two full-time teach- ers, and several students. After several prin- cipals, a precipitous drop in enrollment, and serious financial problems, Elizabeth Cate be- ARCHIVES INFORMATION PROVIDED BY ZEPH STICKNEY

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fe ag aed weet eae a fees ig eee Pt Tp ae a tage ee hi a came principal in 1847 and began to turn things around. Laban Wheaton provided des- perately needed financial support during these difficult years and had a gymnasium built. This small building, located between Seminary Hall and the dormatory, may well have been the first separate building con- structed for the sole purpose of use as a gym. Because of the upturn Elizabeth Cate was able to create, more modern facilities were soon needed. Laban Wheaton donated $10,000 in 1848 towards the building of a new Semi- nary Hall, which, dedicated in 1849, served the school well until 1879. This ten year period began shakily for Wheaton Seminary but end- ed in growth made possible only because of the Wheaton family’s commitment to the Seminary. A. Ellen Stanton was a strong and effective principal of the seminary from 1880 to 1897 and was able to boost enrollment to 100 stu- dents in I89I-92. Major changes in women’s education began to occur in the late 1890's, such as the opening of women’s colleges, led to the drop in enrollment at Wheaton to 38 students in the 1896-97 academic year. Semi- naries were quickly becoming stepping stones to college, changing to colleges, or vanishing. In order for Wheaton to stay com- petitive, a college preparatory program was developed upon the recommendation of the trustees. When A. Ellen Stanton resigned in 1896 a replacement could not be found and she was asked to stay on for the following year. It was not until the winter of 1897 that the Rev. Sammuel Cole agreed to become the next leader of the school. In his acceptance speech at his inauguration, President Cole made it clear that Wheaton Seminary would soon be Wheaton College. Mrs. Eliza Baylies Chapin Wheaton, who had remained in the background yet keenly interested in the school’s welfare since her husband’s death, had prompted the trustees to ask Rev. Cole to become the new principal, she named him “president”, and she supported the transi- tion from seminary to college. Both the Rev. Cole and Mrs. Wheaton realized that not only would enrollment increase, and the curricu- lum expand in the change from seminary to college, but the facilities would have to be increased as well. Mrs. Wheaton sold nearly half her property to create the beginnings of Wheaton’s endowment fund, giving the