Elias Loomis and the Loomis
Observatory
By BONNIE S. STADELMAN*
ON APRIL 14, 1836, the trustees of
Western Reserve College
in Hudson, Ohio, made some very
significant decisions. Their
meeting opened with prayer, as usual,
and eventually the dis-
cussion turned to the vacancy in the
mathematics and natural
philosophy department. The Rev. Jarvis
Gregg had been
filling this position, but he was
appointed to the chair of
sacred rhetoric, making it necessary to
appoint a new pro-
fessor in his place. The result of the
trustees' discussion was
that Elias Loomis of Yale was elected
to succeed him. Follow-
ing this decision, the trustees
appropriated $4,000 for the
purpose of purchasing philosophical and
astronomical appa-
ratus,1 no small sum in days
when the annual salary paid
professors was $600.2
The hiring of Elias Loomis and the
appropriation of $4,000
for equipment were far-sighted actions
which proved to be
very wise. With the coming of Loomis,
astronomy was
introduced into the curriculum at
Western Reserve College
and the mathematics and natural
philosophy department was
greatly strengthened, because the
former professor, Jarvis
Gregg, was a minister who had not been
greatly interested in
those subjects. Loomis, on the other
hand, was well prepared
to teach both subjects.
* Bonnie S. Stadelman received an M.A.
degree in history at Western Reserve
University in February 1960. She is a
resident of Perry, Ohio.
1 Records of the Trustees of Western
Reserve College, Hudson, Ohio, from
May 6, 1835, to July 12, 1855
(typewritten copy), p. 144; to be cited hereafter as
Records of the Trustees. Western Reserve
University Archives, Western Reserve
University.
2 Ibid., 137.
158
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Elias Loomis was born in Willington,
Connecticut, in 1811.
He received his early training from his father, who
was a
clergyman. When he was ten years old, he could read
the
New Testament in Greek. He entered Yale
when he was
fifteen and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in
1830. He studied
theology at Andover Seminary, but he
did not graduate. In-
stead, he returned to Yale as a tutor
in mathematics and
worked with Professor Denison Olmsted,
an eminent science
professor at Yale, who encouraged his interest in
astronomy.3
Yale had a fine telescope, as Loomis described it in
his book,
The Recent Progress of Astronomy, but its location provided
a severe handicap: "It was placed
in the steeple of one of the
college buildings, where the only view
afforded of the heavens
was through low windows, which
effectually concealed every
object as soon as it attained an
altitude of thirty degrees above
the horizon."4 The uneven floor
over which the telescope was
rolled made accurate measurements very
difficult. Despite
these handicaps, Tutor Loomis and
Professor Olmsted made
the first observations in America of
Halley's Comet in 1835.5
Another of Loomis' scientific projects
at Yale was carried
on between November 1834 and November
1835. Each day
during this year he made
"seventeen hourly observations
of the variation in the declination of
a compass needle which
he had carefully and accurately mounted
near the north
window of his room."6
After Loomis accepted the professorship
of mathematics
and natural philosophy offered to him
by Western Reserve
College, but before he took up his
teaching duties, he spent a
year in Europe collecting necessary
equipment. He sailed
for Europe in July of 1836 and he
returned to the United
3 H. A. Newton, Elias Loomis, LL.D.,
1811-1889, Memorial Address Delivered
in Osborn Hall, April 11, 1890 (New Haven, 1890), 3-4.
4 Elias Loomis, The Recent Progress
of Astronomy, Especially in the United
States (New York, 1851), 160-161.
5 Ibid., 161-162.
6 R. H. Cleminshaw, "Astronomy in the Early Days of the Western
Reserve,"
Popular Astronomy, XLVI (1938), 559.
THE LOOMIS OBSERVATORY 159
States in September 1837. During his
trip he sent back a
series of thirty-six letters to the Ohio
Observer, a newspaper
published in Hudson, Ohio. In these
letters he described the
sights he had seen, the lectures of
Biot, Poisson, Dulong, and
Pouillet he had attended,7 and
his impressions of the astro-
nomical observatories he had visited.
Before he sailed for
home he had accomplished the major
object of his trip: the
purchasing of scientific equipment.
When Professor Loomis arrived in Hudson
in the fall of
1837, he brought with him a transit
circle and an equatorial
telescope made by Simms of London. The
transit circle had
a telescope of thirty inches focal
length, with an aperture of
nearly three inches. The circle was
eighteen inches in diam-
eter, graduated on platina to five
minutes, and there were
three reading microscopes, each measuring single
seconds.
The equatorial telescope was five and a
half feet in focal
length and had an aperture of about
four inches.8
A third piece of equipment was a clock
made by Molyneux
of London. Professor Frederick C.
Waite, the historian of
Western Reserve University, wrote in
the 1940's that this
clock "is believed to have been running
continuously since
it was installed in August 1838. It is
known to have been
in continuous use since 1882. It is now
in the Physics Labo-
ratory of Western Reserve University
and is accurate within
about three seconds a month."9 In
1960 the clock still re-
mains on the first floor of the Physics Building of
Western
Reserve University.
In November 1837 the trustees of the
college voted to erect
an observatory on the campus, "to
be built of brick 36 feet
long by 14 feet wide, or a little
larger if found expedient,
on the plan proposed by Professor Loomis."10 The
site chosen
7 Seymour C. Loomis, Loomis Genealogy
(typewritten copy). Western Reserve
Academy, Hudson, Ohio.
8 Loomis,
Recent Progress of Astronomy, 164.
9 Frederick
Clayton Waite, Western Reserve University: The Hudson Era
(Cleveland, 1943), 196.
10 Records of the Trustees, November 30,
1837, p. 187.
160
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
for the new observatory was on a little
knoll in the south-
western corner of the campus. The
little observatory, which
was built under the supervision of Elias Loomis during
1837-38, was the third college
observatory built in the United
States and the first to be built west
of the Alleghenies.
The first college observatory was built
at the University
of North Carolina. It was begun in 1831
and completed in
August 1832.11 The Williams Alumni
Review of June 1926
states that this building was only a
"temporary shack to house
astronomical instruments. . . . It
burned in 1838 and was
never replaced."12
The second college observatory was
Hopkins Observatory
built at Williams College. In 1834, Albert Hopkins,
for
whom the observatory was named, visited
Europe and brought
back scientific equipment, especially astronomical
equipment.
The observatory was begun in 1836 and
was finished in June
1837, about one year before the one
built at Hudson. Pro-
fessor Hopkins helped quarry the stone
for the observatory,
which is still standing.13 Thus
the second oldest existing
college observatory in the United
States is on the Western
Reserve Academy campus in Hudson, Ohio.
The question arises why such a small,
young college in
the West should have an observatory
before most of the
older, established eastern colleges.
Even Harvard, Yale, and
William and Mary, the oldest American
colleges, did not have
observatories at the time, although
they did have astronomical
equipment.
Perhaps the first answer to the
question is to be found in
the type of people who settled the
Western Reserve, especially
Hudson. They came largely from Goshen,
Connecticut.14 They
were Connecticut Yankees of
Congregational stock, with a
great interest in education. It was
part of early New Eng-
11 Letter of W. W. Campbell, University
of California, to Harold T. Clark,
Cleveland, December 17, 1923. Western
Reserve Academy.
12 Willis I. Milham, "Astronomy
at Williams," Williams Alumni Review, XVIII
(1926), 372.
13 Milham, "Astronomy at
Williams," 373.
14 Waite,
Western Reserve University, 15.
THE LOOMIS OBSERVATORY 161
land tradition to be concerned about
education and to be
interested in scientific matters.
A second answer may be found in the
individuals who con-
stituted the trustees of the college
when plans were made to
invite Loomis and to erect an
observatory. Of the thirteen
men, including the president of the
college, ten were college
graduates, seven were from Yale, and
seven were clergymen.15
Another consideration is the character
of the Yale which
the majority of these men attended.
During the first part of
the nineteenth century Yale had a
strong science department.
Jeremiah Day had been a science teacher
at Yale before he
became the president of the university.
Denison Olmsted,
the professor with whom Elias Loomis
worked, taught astron-
omy and physics. Eli Ives taught
natural history, and Ben-
jamin Silliman, for whom one of the
Yale colleges is named,
taught chemistry.16 It is
likely that the seven men who later
became trustees of Western Reserve
College were strongly
influenced by the scientific outlook at
Yale.
The character of the president of
Western Reserve College,
George Pierce, was influential also.
Pierce graduated from
Yale in 1816, and during his college
days had been very much
interested in mathematics and
science.17 He was eager to
build the reputation of the new college
in the Western Reserve,
and his energy and forceful personality
must have had con-
siderable influence upon the trustees.
The final consideration was Elias
Loomis himself. When
Loomis was called to his new post, the
trustees specified that
the observatory was to be built
according to the plan of Pro-
fessor Loomis, as he was probably the
only one with any
experience with observatories. He had
visited several in
Europe and studied their structure. He
came back with a
plan in his mind for the type of
observatory he would like to
see built on the campus. Possibly it
was his suggestion which
15 Historical Material of Western Reserve University, Hudson Era, collected
by Dr. Frederick C. Waite, Box 6.
Western Reserve University Library, Western
Reserve University.
16 Waite, Western Reserve University,
161.
17 Ibid.
162
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
caused the trustees to consider
building an observatory. If
this is so, he was fortunate that the
trustees were a group
of men who were receptive to his idea.
Professor Loomis described the
observatory as "moderate
in dimensions," thirty-seven feet
in length and sixteen feet
wide. The foundations were of hewn sandstone and the
brick walls one foot thick. The transit
room had a flat tin
roof. There was a sandstone pier in the
transit room which,
as Loomis explained,
is entirely detached from the building,
and the floor is nowhere in con-
tact with it. The openings for the
transit are fifteen inches wide, the
side openings being closed by solid
wooden shutters, and a single trap
door covers the entire top. This covering
is such as effectually to
exclude the most violent rain. The
transit commands an unobstructed
meridian from ninety degrees zenith
distance on the south, to eighty-nine
degrees on the north.18
In the central room there was "a
circular platform, ten feet
in diameter and four feet high, upon
whose circumference
rest twelve small cherry columns, which
help sustain the
dome." The dome, Loomis'
description continued,
rests upon ten wheels of lignum vitae,
five inches in diameter, placed
equidistant from each other, running in
a grooved channel, and set in
a wooden ring, consisting of five arcs,
joined by hinges, to allow greater
freedom of motion to the wheels. The
dome has an opening fifteen
inches wide, reaching from the base to
eight inches past the zenith,
closed by three doors, the top one
closing last, and the joints being so
secured as effectually to exclude the
rain. The whole is covered with tin,
and a single person can readily revolve
it by hand. . . . The west room
contains no instruments, but is provided
with a stove, and serves as
a convenient anteroom.19
In the paper which Loomis presented
before the American
Philosophical Society on October 4,
1839, describing the
18 Elias Loomis, "Astronomical Observations Made at
Hudson Observatory,
With Some Account of the Building and
Instruments," Transactions of the Ameri-
can Philosophical Society, New Series, VII (1841), 44.
19 Ibid.
THE LOOMIS OBSERVATORY 163
observatory he also gave a full
description of its equipment.
The equatorial telescope, he pointed
out,
has six celestial eye-pieces with
magnifying powers from 20 to 400;
a terrestrial eye-piece; an eye-piece
with five parallel spider lines,
crossed by as many others at right
angles. . . . A lamp, suspended from
the side of the tube, illumines the
field of view when it is necessary to
use the micrometer by night.20
The clock
loses no time in winding, an operation
which I perform every Monday
morning. It is regulated to sidereal
time, and its rate is tolerably
uniform. It is suspended by a stout iron
hook, which was inserted in
the north wall of the transit room as
the building was erecting, and
which passes through the oak back of the
clock case. It is rendered
steady by two screws, which pass through
the back of the case, near the
bottom, and enter a timber inserted in
the brick wall. The case does
not touch the floor. An opening in the
side wall, between the transit
and equatorial rooms, allows the clock
dial to be easily seen from the
platform of the dome, and thus the clock
is made to serve two instru-
ments. The instruments were first placed
in the observatory on Sep-
tember 8, 1838.21
Loomis' name is found on the list of
new members of the
American Philosophical Society printed
in its Transactions in
1841. Michael Faraday's name appears on
the same list.
In his inaugural address delivered at
the college on August
21, 1838, Elias Loomis expressed his
confidence that the new
observatory would add a great deal to
American science. "Of
all such establishments," he said,
it is believed the one erecting in this
place will be among the most
efficient. It will be a European
observatory in miniature, and as
auxiliary to the instruction of a class
will serve nearly the same purpose
as a large observatory. It is believed,
moreover, that observations may
be made here which from their locality
will be considered valuable even
by European astronomers.22
20 Ibid., 46.
21 Ibid.
22 Elias Loomis, An Inaugural Address (New
York, 1838), 36.
164 THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
From the rest of the address it is
obvious that Loomis was
conscious of the dependence of the
United States on Europe
for its cultural and scientific
stimulus. He said:
In no country in the world is it so
rare a phenomenon to find an in-
dividual who can neither read nor write
as it is in some of the States
of this Union. But the fact is
notorious that we have hitherto done
very little to extend the boundaries of
science. Numerous works of
science annually issue from the
American press, yet they are almost
without exception compilations of
European treatises. We owe every-
thing to Europe; Europe owes almost
nothing in science to us.23
He went on to say that he thought that
the government
should help finance and encourage
American scientific work
as was done in many European countries.
Then he gave some
examples of work which could be done in
science which would
be worthy contributions to man's
scientific knowledge. He
felt there was a need in America for
studies in longitude
and latitude, magnetic observations,
observations of tides
and of meteorological conditions, and
studies in types of soils.
It is interesting to note that Loomis
did significant work in
several of these fields after he made
this speech. He had
already made magnetic observations,
which he continued to
make in various parts of the country.
He became much in-
terested in meteorology, especially in
storms, which were the
subject of several of his published
works. He also made meas-
urements for the determination of
longitude and latitude.
Loomis concluded his address with these
remarks, "Enough,
I trust, has been said to show that
those who are disposed to
devote themselves to the cultivation of
science in this country
need not remain idle for want of
employment; and if my re-
marks shall have the effect of
stimulating a single individual
to this work, they will not have been
made in vain."24
Loomis' address was given during the
two-day commence-
ment ceremonies of the year 1838. His
speech lasted two
hours, and according to newspaper
accounts, he had a large
23 Ibid., 36-37.
24 Ibid., 37.
THE LOOMIS OBSERVATORY 165
audience, which listened attentively.
An unidentified news-
paper, probably the Ohio Observer, quoted
by Dr. Waite,
continues:
During the recess on both Tuesday and
Wednesday, an opportunity
was afforded to see the Philosophical
and Astronomical apparatus
recently procured from Europe. A mere
hasty glance affords but an
indifferent means of forming a judgment
respecting it; yet every article
seems of admirable workmanship and I
doubt not the Instruments were
judiciously selected.25
While Loomis was a professor at Western
Reserve College,
he found many things to interest him.
He submitted many
articles to newspapers, especially the Ohio
Observer and the
Cleveland Observer, on such topics as "The Meteoric Shower
of November 13, 1837,"
"Hourly Meteorological Observa-
tions for the December Solstice of
1837," "Splendid Meteor
of May 18, 1838," "On a
Tornado Which Passed Over May-
field, Ohio, February 4, 1842,"
"Observations on a Hurricane
Which Passed Over Stow, in Ohio,
October 20, 1837," and
many others. He had articles published in the American
Journal of Science and in the American Philosophical Trans-
actions. While he was at Western Reserve College, he read
nine papers before the American
Philosophical Society and a
tenth paper was read the year he
resigned, but it concerned
studies he had made at the Hudson
observatory.
In one of these papers, "On the
Storm Which Was Ex-
perienced Throughout the United States
About the 20th of
December, 1836," which was read
before the American
Philosophical Society on March 20,
1840, there is evidence
of the beginnings of what was probably
his greatest original
contribution to science. Loomis, from
the data he collected
from observers all over the country,
compiled a chart connect-
ing places with equal barometric
pressure. From this chart
he saw that atmospheric pressure passed
"like a wave over
25 A
newspaper report of the 1838 commencement, quoted by Dr. Waite in
"Commencement at Western Reserve
College a Hundred Years Ago," p. 7, in
Historical Material of Western Reserve
University, Box 13.
166
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
the entire country, from west to
east."26 Elias Loomis was
the first to connect places of equal
barometric pressure and
because this method of charting weather
needed observations
from many locations, he was influential
in the establishment
of the United States Signal Service,
which began to publish
daily maps of the weather.27
Professor Loomis also found a wife
while he was at West-
ern Reserve. A letter to the Rev. Henry
N. Day of Water-
bury, Connecticut, from Professor
Laurens P. Hickok, a
fellow faculty member at Western
Reserve, in May 1840,
reported that Loomis was occupying
"the entire vacation
in a tour with his lovely bride to the
southern part of this
state."28 This honeymoon
was not as lengthy as it might
appear at first sight, for there was no
summer vacation in
colleges at this time. There was a May
recess of three weeks
before classes resumed for the summer,29
and Professor
Loomis took advantage of this vacation
to get married. The
only hint as to where Professor Loomis
and his bride made
their home is found in the Records of
the Trustees for Nov-
ember 14, 1839. At that time the
trustees "resolved that
Professor Loomis may have the use of
the Clark place after
Esqr. Hudson's year expires for $100.
per annum."30
The salaries of professors had been
raised to $700, so
Professor Loomis was paying one-seventh
of his salary for
rent, which compares favorably with the
one-fourth of the
salary which budget planners now
recommend. Nevertheless,
Professor Loomis' financial condition
was not good, partially
because the college could not pay all
of his salary. Most of
his salary was paid in produce, because
money was scarce.
One of his letters indicates that there
was not enough money
26 Elias Loomis, "On the Storm Which Was Experienced
Throughout the
United States About the 20th of
December, 1836," Transactions of the American
Philosophical Society, New Series, VII (1841), 125.
27 Newton, Elias Loomis, 25.
28 Laurens
P. Hickok to Henry N. Day, May 10, 1840. Henry Noble Day
Collection, Western Reserve University
Library.
29 Waite, Western Reserve University, 126.
30 Records of the Trustees, November 14,
1839, p. 226.
THE LOOMIS OBSERVATORY 167
in the college treasury "to take
him out of the state."31 Finally
his financial embarrassments became so
great that he had to
write the trustees, who referred the
matter to the financial
committee, but without relief for the
professor.32 Finally,
when Loomis resigned in 1844, perhaps
partly due to the
unsatisfactory financial arrangements,
the college had to
pay his back salary in land, valued at
the time at $4.00 an acre.
The catalog of Western Reserve College
for the year
1839-40 gives a detailed description of
the instruments used
in the scientific courses, but very
little information concern-
ing Professor Loomis' course in
astronomy. "A part of the
regular instruction of the senior class
in astronomy," it reads,
"consists in an explanation of the
construction of these instru-
ments [the previously described
telescope and transit circle]
and an exhibition through the telescope
of the most prominent
objects in the heavens."33 This
course was given the last
term of the senior year, presumably
after the students had
acquired some knowledge of physics,
especially optics, in
previous science courses. The textbook
was Astronomy, with
the Calculation of Eclipses, written by Loomis' Yale friend,
Professor Olmsted.
After Loomis left Western Reserve, he
taught at New York
University, then at Princeton, and
finally he returned to his
alma mater, Yale, where he spent the
last twenty-nine years
of his life. He continued writing on
meteorology, astronomy,
and the magnetism of the earth. He also
wrote books on
mathematics, including Elements of
Geometry and Conic
Sections; The Elements of Algebra,
Designed for Beginners;
and The Elements of Analytical
Geometry. He also did a
comprehensive study of his family
genealogy.
When Elias Loomis died in New Haven in
1889, President
Timothy Dwight of Yale gave the funeral
address. Presi-
dent Dwight said:
31 Newton, Elias Loomis, 5.
32 Records of the Trustees, August 4,
1843, p. 271.
33 Catalogue of the Western Reserve College, 1839-40 (Cleveland, 1839), 13.
168
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The peculiar constitution of his mind .
. . disposed him to quiet re-
flection, and to solitary searching
after truth. . . . He had, moreover,
a satisfaction in his own researches and
in his own thinking--a calm joy
in the accurate and steady and even
working of his powers. . . . Nature
and education, also, made him a man of
few words. But he was not a
lonely man . . . he was ready to teach
others, and to work and write
for their benefit. He was kindly and
generous . . . glad to talk with
his friends. He had a penetrating
insight which enabled him to see
and apprehend mathematical truth. . . .
There was no friction, no dis-
turbance or perturbation, no loss of
force, no weariness, no undue
haste, no failure in patience, or
energy, or honest intention, or honest
work.
Among all the lecturers whom I have ever
heard, I know of no one
who surpassed him in this respect. His
words were excellently chosen.
There were just enough to express his
idea, and no more.
Few of them [his students] knew him
well, because of a certain re-
serve which characterized him, but all
respected him and had no doubt
as to his intellectual gifts, or his
knowledge.34
The impressions of two students help in
rounding out our
picture of Elias Loomis. Frederick
Ashley, a student at
Western Reserve Academy and later at
Yale, wrote:
I did see him often in 1885-86, but I
was too shy to speak to him.
The Yale students used to say that his
undeviating line of march around
the campus was never half an inch
different from one trip to another.
I think he would have been interested if
I had told him that the wind
gauge that he installed in North College
[a building at Western Reserve
Academy] was still whirling.35
Another student, Arthur Bostwick, took
a course on
meteorology taught by Loomis at Yale.
His comment ran
as follows: "Mr. Loomis was an
eccentric man, very short
and brief in what he had to say. He was
sometimes so
amusing, without meaning to be so, that
being still very
young and not having our emotions in
good control it was
34 Typewritten copy of the funeral
address as published in the New Englander
and Yale Review for October 1889, pp. 311-315. Western Reserve Academy.
35 Frederick Ashley to Western Reserve Academy, April 27,
1938. Western
Reserve Academy.
THE LOOMIS OBSERVATORY 169
all we could do to keep from laughing
out loud."36 Bostwick
related that one exercise which Mr.
Loomis gave them to do
was to predict weather from weather
maps. The students
would give the usual prediction, and
Professor Loomis,
knowing that conditions other than the
usual had resulted,
would "turn over the leaf with a
glitter in his eye and say:
'A little surprise for you.'"37
After Elias Loomis left Western Reserve
College, Pro-
fessor James Nooney took the chair of
mathematics and
natural philosophy. He remained until
1848, but did not
use the observatory or its equipment to
any great extent.
There was no professor of mathematics
and philosophy again
until 1856, when Charles A. Young came
to Western Reserve,
where he taught for nine years, using
the observatory
extensively.38
Following Charles Young, the
observatory was used very
little. Perhaps the professors did not
have the interest, or
the capability, or the training to make
effective use of the
observatory for original research, or
perhaps astronomy had
made such great strides that the
boundaries of knowledge
had surpassed the average professor of
mathematics and
natural philosophy. Probably the
equipment limited original
work as more and more powerful
instruments became neces-
sary for research. A combination of
factors caused the
observatory to be abandoned, and after
the college moved to
Cleveland in 1882, the building
deteriorated.39 It was repaired
sometime before 1920 and it appears to
be in good condition
at the present time.
In 1938, the one hundred year mark for
the observatory,
an anniversary celebration was held at
Western Reserve
Academy to commemorate the occasion.
During the activi-
36 "Loomis' Human Side Portrayed by His Pupil," a clipping from
an un-
identified newspaper. Western Reserve
Academy.
37 Ibid.
38 Cleminshaw, "Astronomy in the Early Days of the
Western Reserve," 564.
39 Waite, Western Reserve University,
196.
170
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
ties on May 7-8, 1938, an astronomical
symposium was held,
at which several astronomical papers
were read. Open house
was held at the observatory, and a
bronze plaque was placed
on the side of the observatory stating
that it is the second
oldest college observatory in the
United States. It also
indicates that in this building Elias
Loomis and Charles A.
Young did important astronomical work.
Elias Loomis and the Loomis
Observatory
By BONNIE S. STADELMAN*
ON APRIL 14, 1836, the trustees of
Western Reserve College
in Hudson, Ohio, made some very
significant decisions. Their
meeting opened with prayer, as usual,
and eventually the dis-
cussion turned to the vacancy in the
mathematics and natural
philosophy department. The Rev. Jarvis
Gregg had been
filling this position, but he was
appointed to the chair of
sacred rhetoric, making it necessary to
appoint a new pro-
fessor in his place. The result of the
trustees' discussion was
that Elias Loomis of Yale was elected
to succeed him. Follow-
ing this decision, the trustees
appropriated $4,000 for the
purpose of purchasing philosophical and
astronomical appa-
ratus,1 no small sum in days
when the annual salary paid
professors was $600.2
The hiring of Elias Loomis and the
appropriation of $4,000
for equipment were far-sighted actions
which proved to be
very wise. With the coming of Loomis,
astronomy was
introduced into the curriculum at
Western Reserve College
and the mathematics and natural
philosophy department was
greatly strengthened, because the
former professor, Jarvis
Gregg, was a minister who had not been
greatly interested in
those subjects. Loomis, on the other
hand, was well prepared
to teach both subjects.
* Bonnie S. Stadelman received an M.A.
degree in history at Western Reserve
University in February 1960. She is a
resident of Perry, Ohio.
1 Records of the Trustees of Western
Reserve College, Hudson, Ohio, from
May 6, 1835, to July 12, 1855
(typewritten copy), p. 144; to be cited hereafter as
Records of the Trustees. Western Reserve
University Archives, Western Reserve
University.
2 Ibid., 137.