Wilmington College - Wilmingtonian Yearbook (Wilmington, OH)

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home in Webster, Indiana. President Unthank lies buried in Sugar Grove Cemetery in Wilmington. Albert J. Brown Fifth President, 1903-1912 Albert J. Brown, a graduate of Leland Stanford University, and a prominent minister of the First Friends Meeting in Indianapolis, began his duties as president in the fall of 1903. He was a scholarly man and an able public speak-: er. He was a strong promoter and able to place the college before the public in a very forceful manner as. evidenced by two suc- cessful financial campaigns, one in 1904-06 and the other in 1910, bringing the endowment from $31,000 to $80,000. In the 1910 campaign, 510 subscriptions were received from individ- uals outside the Friends meeting. President Brown was a man with a mag- netic personality. He made friends easily and was loved and respected by his faculty, stu- dents, and hosts of friends. He was greatly in demand as a public speaker and carried the name of Wilmington College far and wide. During President Brown’s administration, many improvements were made in the physi- cal plant. The gymnasium was enlarged with modern toilets added. The athletic field was graded and a grand stand erected. Twin Ash Hall was purchased in 1904 from its private owners, and Bailey Hall of Science was erected in 1908-09. In the course of study, many improvements were made and new departments were added. One of his big achievements was the better- ment of public relations between the college and the community. President Brown lived in the home on West Main Street, now the residence of Dr. Kelley Hale. He drove a black horse to his work at the college. His daughter, Althea, and son, Sidney, were graduated from the college. He resigned in 1912 to accept a position with the Farquhar Furnace Company. Samuel Hodgin Sixth President, 1912-1915 Samuel Hodgin, a graduate of Harvard University and professor of English at Guilford College, became the sixth president in the fall of 1912. President Hodgin was at Wilmington only three years, but he accomplished much in the way of reorganization. His first task was to reorganize all the courses in the college with an attempt to standardize them so that they could be credited and evaluated for transcript purposes. The three-term plan, adhered to from the beginning of the college, was changed to the semester plan of the present day. The writer of this article regrets that the term plan—which was almost the quarter plan, with only a slight dif- ference—was not made into the quarter system. The Ohio State Univer- Say De

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David Dennis Third President, 1879-1881 David Dennis, professor from Earlham College, came to the presi- dency in 1879. He taught Latin and Greek, and his wife, Mattie C. Dennis, taught rhetoric and grammar. William Cul- len Dennis, who became president of Earlham College at a later date, was a small baby when his parents came to Wilmington. These two teachers gave vigorous service for two years, after which time President Dennis went to graduate school, later to take up his former chair at Earlham College. In the early days, ilmington College depended considerably on Earlham College for its leadership, as shown py the training of the early presidents and members of the faculty. Dennis is one of the sreatest scientists to come from Indiana, hav- ing introduced the “modern” laboratory meth- ods in both chemistry and biology. It was President Dennis who started the first endowment for the permanent support of the College. James B. Unthank Fourth President, 1881-1903 James B. Unthank who had been a member of the faculty of Wil- imington College for seven years, took over the presidential duties in 1881. He was a classmate of Benjamin Trueblood at Earlham College and came to Wilmington with him in 1874 as a teacher of language and his- tory. President Unthank was an able teacher and organizer. He strengthened and added to the departments of the college. Many old debts were paid off and the endowment was increased which totaled $31,000 at the time of his leaving in 1903. The library was in- creased to 3500 volumes, which were partially classified, and a library room equipped. The science laboratories were developed, along with a natural science museum. A gymnasium and an astronomical observatory were erected. The college buildings were modernized by adding hot-air heating plants in 1898. He gave strong emphasis to the spiritual | needs of the students and established strong connections between the church and the college. The enrollment rose to the highest figure up to that time in 1899, when 150 students enrolled. The size of his faculty increased to 10 members. He gave to the college twenty-nine of the best years of his life. This long period of service carried the college through a critical period and placed it upon a higher lane. ; He built a home for himself on College Street which is now the resi- dence of Miss Elsie McCoy. He resigned in 1903 to return to his former ay fae

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sity was at that time on the semester system, and that, being the institution to which many of our students transfer, caused the faculty to decide on the semester plan. Ohio State later adopted | | the quarter plan. : | The Home Economics department and the Department of Education were first introduced by Samuel Hodgin. A summer session with 62 students was held in 1914. Dr. O. J. Thatch- er, a member of the college faculty, was a member of the Ohio Legislature at that time and was instrumental in getting Wilmington College approved for teacher training. Wil- mington was one of the first colleges in the state to receive this privilege. The two joint boards of the college, the Board of Managers and the Board of Trustees, were merged into a single Board of Trustees of nine members. A new charter was received by the college in 1914 changing the manage- ment of the college from Center, Miami, and Fairfield Quarterly meetings to that of the Wilmington Yearly Meeting, which had been organized snice 1892. President Hodgin started the idea of a Living Endowment in 1914, in which he had individuals pledge the interest on a given sum of money, rather than give the full amount of the principal sum. He left too soon afterward to give the plan a fair trial. This plan was later used suc- cessfully by Dr. S. A. Watson. ' The construction during this administration consisted of equipping a laboratory for the Home Economics Department, in the basement. of Bailey Hall and the addition of a cement veranda to Twin, Ash. Samuel Hodgin resided on North Lincoln Street. In the spring of 1915, he resigned to:take.over the management of a southern agency for the Farquhar Furnace Company. =| a J.‘ Edwin’ Jay Seventh President, 1915-1927 To succeed Samuel Hodgin, Edgar Lewellen, a prominent educator of Indiana, was employed. He came to commencement, was announced as president, but asked for one year of time to finish his contract as a school superintendent. John Edwin Jay was employed as acting president and field secretary for this period. Mr. Lewellen decided to remain in public school service, and Mr. Jay was made president with full authority in 1916. President Jay was a graduate of Earlham College and Yale University and was a former professor in Guilford College, North Carolina. The ad- ministration of President Jay was a fruitful one, with the college rising to a new level. He conducted two successful financial campaigns, one in 1917 and the other in 1923, which raised the endowment from $80,000 to $231,000. He possessed a rare ability for remodeling old structures and erect- ing new ones. He has an outstanding record for increasing the size of the oy fs