Ohio History Journal

AN EARLY REPORT ON OBERLIN COLLEGE

by GEORGE PEIRCE CLARK*

Among the most copious diarists of nineteenth-century America,

though certainly not among the best known, was the Rev. John

Pierce (A.B. Harvard, 1793), Congregational pastor of Brookline,

Massachusetts. Nineteen manuscript volumes deposited in the

library of the Massachusetts Historical Society¹ testify at once to

the industry and the limitations of Pierce as a chronicler of the

res gestae of his time. In the Proceedings of the society have ap-

peared, from time to time, a number of extracts from his volumes,

but perhaps attention has been most notably called to him by the

late Bliss Perry in his well-known essay, "Emerson's Most Famous

Speech."² Dr. Pierce, "indefatigable attendant and note-taker of

Harvard anniversaries," as Perry neatly characterizes him, was

among the distinguished audience that heard Emerson deliver his

celebrated Phi Beta Kappa address, "The American Scholar," on

August 31, 1837; and his dour verdict furnishes, as Perry observes,

a solid antithesis to the ecstatic pronouncements of Holmes, Lowell,

and other young intellectuals upon the address:

Rev. Ralph Waldo Emerson gave an oration of 11/4 hour, on The American

Scholar. It was to me in the misty, dreamy, unintelligible style of Sweden-

borg, Coleridge, and Carlyle. He professed to have method; but I could not

trace it, except in his own annunciation.³

But it is an entry in an earlier volume that makes Pierce of par-

ticular interest to Ohioans, for in August 1836 he had received a

visit from Philo P. Stewart, lately co-founder (with the Rev. John

J. Shipherd) of Oberlin Collegiate Institute. Stewart by this time

had severed his active association with the college and had returned

to the East to seek a more congenial employment, first as a teacher

* George Peirce Clark is associate professor of English at Northern Illinois State

Teachers College.

1 I am indebted to the kindness of Stephen T. Riley, librarian of the society, for

permission to print the ensuing extract from Volume VI of Pierce's diary, pages

426-429.

2 In The Praise of Folly (Boston and New York, 1923).

3 Ibid., 93.

279

• 1
 

280     Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

 

in New York City and later as the successful inventor of a cooking

stove. It is not difficult to surmise what brought the parson and the

teacher together. On the one hand it was Stewart's continuing in-

terest in raising funds for the poverty-stricken college, and on the

other it was the interest of a fond parent in a son who was having

difficulty finding himself.

The son, John Tappan Pierce, had graduated from Harvard in

1831 (John Lothrop Motley and Wendell Phillips were among his

classmates), and had gone first to Princeton Theological Seminary

and then to Lane Seminary in Cincinnati. But hardly had he become

settled at Lane when, with the majority of the seminarians, he found

himself in open revolt against the policy of President Beecher which

forbade the students to engage in discussions about the slavery

question. And so, in 1834, young Pierce journeyed to the newly-

founded and highly controversial Oberlin to finish his studies.

These he had just about brought to a close when father Pierce

managed to extract from Philo Stewart a first-hand account of the

Ohio experiment.

Considering the conservatism of the Rev. Doctor Pierce (he

could abide alcoholic spirits even less well than Transcendental

ones), one must applaud the open-mindedness with which he records

Stewart's comments. There is no indication that his visitor asked

Pierce's good offices in fund raising, but Mrs. Stewart, in her bio-

graphical sketch of her husband, states that after leaving Oberlin

(she places his departure in the fall of the year) he "traveled

through most of the New England States in its behalf. He solicited

funds, disarmed prejudices, and made many friends to the institu-

tion."⁴

There are, of course, many documents of greater reliability than

John Pierce's bearing on the early history of Oberlin. How accurate

his account is may be judged by comparing it in detail with Pro-

fessor Fletcher's scholarly study of Oberlin's early years.⁵ In-

accuracies range in seriousness from the spelling of the name of

Oberlin's first teacher (Pierce has Scovil for Scovill) to a great

deal of oversimplification in his account of the buying of the college

4 P. P. Stewart, A Life Sketch (New York, 1873), 69.

5 Robert Samuel Fletcher, A History of Oberlin College (2 vols., Oberlin, 1943).

• 2
 

An Early Report on Oberlin College               281

 

land. It is interesting to notice Stewart's recollection that the idea

of founding a college for the common people occurred both to him

and to John Shipherd as they were engaged in discussing Henderson's

account of his travels in Iceland. Shipherd's own recollection was

that as they were speaking of the Christian simplicity of the Ice-

landers, "I proposed to Br. S. [italics mine] that we form a Colony

for the promotion of like, or superior, intelligence & Christian

simplicity.^"6 But this is probably natural enough.

Brother Pierce's meticulous record of his conversation with Philo

Stewart has, perhaps through its very artlessness and inadvertent

humor, a charm that lies beyond the merely factual. It surely de-

serves to escape the confines of those yellowed pages in the Massa-

chusetts Historical Society library and find freer range in the

published annals of the Ohio Valley.

 

On Friday, 12 August, Philo P. Stewart, Steward of the Oberlin Institute,

Ohio, gave me the following account of its origin.

Mr. Stewart is a native of Fairfield, Conn. From 1821 to 1830 he was

missionary to the Choctaws, with the exception of 21/2 years, when he visited

New England for his health.

On returning from this mission, he went to study Divinity with the

Rev. John J. Shipherd, minister of Elyria, Ohio. While there, he read to

Mr. Shipherd the interesting account of Oberlin, pastor in Switzerland.

They asked each other, why cannot we project some Institution, by which

we may elevate the common people, as Henderson represents the lower

classes in Iceland to be improved. Mr. Stewart had long been thinking of

the need of improvements in female education. Accordingly they resolved,

if they could get people interested, they would attempt something of the

kind.

After much conversation, many consultations and numerous projects,

they at length formed a company, purchased 5000 acres of land for 11/2

dollars per acre, which they agreed to sell in lots, to none more than 200

acres, at $21/2 per acre, and thus put $1 per acre into the Treasury.

They elected a Board of Trustees, and the Rev. J. J. Shipherd left his

parish in Elyria, and went, as agent for the Institution, over the New

England States, soliciting charitable contributions.

At the formation of the Institution, they hesitated some time for an

appropriate and popular name. At length, Mr. Shipherd came down from

6 Ibid., I, 87.

• 3
 

282      Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

 

his study one day, and said, "Brother Stewart, I have thought of a name,

which will exactly answer our purpose; and that is Oberlin, a history of

whose useful life you not long since read to me." This was considered, as

a highly suitable appellation.

The bargain for the land was made, in Dec. 1832. In April, 1833, the

first tree was cut down.

In Dec. 1833, instruction commenced in the preparatory department,

where were both males and females. The first teacher was John F. Scovil,

who taught with great interest and acceptance, till he lost his health.

The theological department was at once occupied by students from Lane

Seminary, Ohio, who, under the superintendence of Dr. Beecher, were

forbidden to agitate the subject of slavery. This prohibition the young men

considered a violation of their dearest rights. They accordingly repaired to

Oberlin (my son, on 1 May, 1835) where they were received with open

arms.

This institution is founded on abolition principles, and differs from all

Institutions in our country, in admitting young ladies to board at the same

table and to recite the same lessons with the most advanced of the male

pupils.

This is pretty generally considered as a startling and injudicious measure.

By the last catalogue, of 276 pupils, 73, more than one quarter, are females.

There has been a great outcry against this innovation. But Mr. and Mrs.

Stewart both inform me, that thus far it has more than answered their most

sanguine expectations; so that, at a meeting of the Trustees, this summer,

some, who at first opposed the measure, became its warm advocates.

They say, that Judge Stewart and wife, of Michigan, visited the In-

stitution, last June, with prejudices against it. After spending 4 days, they

left it not only with favorable impressions, but also with the resolution to

establish a similar one in their own State.

The same result has followed the investigations of many others.

President Mahan says, that, for the two years, in which the experiment

has been tried, there are fewer engagements to be married, than were formed

by the students of Andover, while he resided there.

So strict is the surveillance, that a youth from New York for merely

entering the chamber of a female without leave was required to make a

public confession for violating the laws before the whole Institution.

Mr. Stewart maintains, that the female appendage has done more to

recommend the Institution, than any other cause. But time, which tries

all things, must unfold. There are now about 70 families in the village.

• 4