THE INFLUENCE OF NEW
ENGLAND IN DE-
NOMINATIONAL COLLEGES
IN THE
NORTHWEST, 1830-1860
BY E. KIDD LOCKARD
By the third decade of
the nineteenth century, New England
had come to regard the
Northwest as a boundless meadow spir-
itually
"whitening for harvest." The West itself, cognizant of its
latent possibilities
in secular as well as in ecclesiastical affairs,
felt the increasing
necessity for college-bred churchmen.1 The
need rose to such
proportions that both parties felt that the only
feasible solution was
educating ministers near the fields in which
they were to labor.2
In their evangelistic enthusiasm the denomi-
nations, aided by New
England, competed with one another in
establishing colleges.
Such a policy could result only in a heedless
and an often
disastrous duplication of effort.
Occasionally a
westerner warned against the mushroom
growth of colleges and
their subsequent abandonment "to the
cold charity of a
speculating world."3 This was, however, a voice
crying in the
wilderness; despite the varied nature of the popula-
tion, the lack of
material development of the section, and the
difficulty in securing
charters, the multiplication continued un-
abated.4 Within two brief decades the number of institutions,
1 American Quarterly
Register (Andover, Boston, 1827-43), 1 (1828-29), 63-5;
ibid., II (1829).
12-4: ibid., V (1833), 331.
2 Ibid., VII (1836),
366-8 ibid., XI (1838). 212-3; Philander Chase, Remi-
niscences (n. p., n.
d.), 208-9. Edward N. Kirk, An Address before the Society for
Poromotion of Collegiate and
Theological Education at the West (Boston, 1851), 1;
Edwin Hall, A Discourse Delivered at the Ninth Anniversary of the Society for
the
Promotionof
Collegiate and Theological Education at the West (New York, 1853), 21-4.
3 Western Monthly
Magazine (Cincinnati, 1833-37), V (1836), 222; American
Annuls of Education
(Boston, 1826-39), VI (1836), 376; Caleb Atwater, A History of the
State of Ohio, Natural
and Civil (Cincinnati,c1838),285-6.
4
American Quarterly Register, II (1829),75; Western Monthly Magazine, I
(1833),
197; ibid., V (1836). 225; Cincinnati Mirror and Western Gazette (Cincinnti,
1831-33),
I (1832), 31; Charles F. Thwing. A History of Higher Education in America
(New York, 1906), 215-7; Edward A. Miller, "The History of Educational Legislation
in Ohio from 1808 to 1850," Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly (Columbus,
1887--), XXVII (1919),
179-90.
I