William Oxley
Thompson 103
ber of men and women of the state than
any other per-
son, he has, by personal example, set
the impress of his
own character and ideals. To no one of
his generation
is the commonwealth under greater
obligations; to no
one does it accord higher respect. A
power for civic
righteousness; a lover of his
fellow-men; a broad-
minded, generous, courteous Christian
gentleman:
"Truly he has had
The heart to conceive,
The understanding to direct,
And the hand to execute."
WILLIAM OXLEY THOMPSON*
BY JOSEPH V. DENNEY.
In his last paper before this
Club--that on Wither-
spoon--and in his last funeral
address--that on Profes-
sor Matthew B. Hammond--Dr. Thompson
emphasized
the significance of family stock and
inheritance. In his
own person he once told me he often
felt the stirrings
and impulses of his own ancestry; the
adventurous spirit
of that paternal grandfather who, a
weaver by trade,
came from the north of Ireland in 1814
and settled on
160 acres of land in Guernsey County
near New Con-
cord, Ohio, where he lived as a farmer
until his death;
the more contemplative inclination of
his maternal
grandfather, the wool-carder, of
Irish-English stock,
who after losing most of his property
by flood, moved to
Cambridge, Ohio, where his youngest son
David, a
shoemaker, met and married Agnes Oxley,
the school-
* Read before the Kit-Kat
Club February 20, 1934.
104
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
mistress, in 1854. They had ten
children, of whom Wil-
liam Oxley Thompson was the first, born
November 5,
1855, in Cambridge.
His teacher-mother taught him reading
and spelling
before he entered the village school at
New Concord
when he was five years old. He went to
school one win-
ter at Zanesville and attended several
village schools
thereabouts until at fifteen he entered
Muskingum Col-
lege in 1870. Of his village schooling,
Dr. Thompson
remembered chiefly the value of mental
arithmetic and
his first instruction in Latin and
algebra at Brownsville.
The year before entering Muskingum he
worked as a
hired hand on a farm at eight dollars a
month and board.
When he entered college he was
acquainted with farm
life and village life and knew how to
earn a little money
and to save for his schooling. In 1872,
finding no op-
portunity to teach in Ohio, he went to
Illinois where an
uncle procured him a school in Marshall
County. After
teaching three winter terms there and
doing farm work
in the summers, he returned from
Illinois to Muskingum
College continuing steadily through two
years, also act-
ing as janitor for one year and later,
on the sudden dis-
appearance of a professor, as tutor in
mathematics. De-
spite another winter of teaching and
saving, he needed
$100, in order to finish his course at
Muskingum. Learn-
ing of this, two farmer friends in
Illinois borrowed and
sent the money to him. He not only won
friendships
during his youth but created in his
friends a deep per-
sonal loyalty and concern for his
success. This, too,
was his good fortune through life.
These practical ex-
periences certify his worth as boy and
youth to his first
employers and associates, who
recognized in him the
William Oxley Thompson 105
quality of which real manhood comes.
His strength,
persistence, and ambition to get on,
his wit and good
humor in the face of difficulties, his
immediate under-
standing of the people whom he met,
especially of average
working American pioneer humanity,
continued through
life and made him the great commoner
that he became,
known and beloved by all.
He returned to village teaching in
Illinois immedi-
ately after graduation from Muskingum
in 1878, repaid
with interest the note for $100 by
teaching and farm
work among his former friends, and
entered the West-
ern Theological Seminary at Allegheny,
Pennsylvania,
from which he was graduated in 1882.
Then, as during
the Muskingum years, his studies were
interrupted by
lack of funds. A friendly professor saw
both his need
and his ability and procured for him a
twenty weeks'
summer school at Plumville,
Pennsylvania, which he
conducted on a subscription basis and
thus reached his
Senior year in the Seminary. Licensed
to preach in 1881
he ministered to two country churches
during the sum-
mer while he also taught at Glade Run
Academy, return-
ing to the seminary for his last year.
A scholarship of
$200 from an unknown giver enabled him
to complete
the course.
In the spirit of his forbears he sought
adventure and
at once offered himself as a missionary
to Siam. Instead
he was located as home missionary at
Odebolt, Iowa,
without assurance of salary, to build
up a church that
was reduced by quarrels to a membership
of twenty, of
whom but three were men. He arrived
early at Odebolt,
filled impromptu the place of a missing
Fourth of July
orator and found himself in demand as a
preacher not
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Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
only at Odebolt but also at two country
schools in the
neighborhood with over half of a
promised $900 salary
pledged. For three years he served
Odebolt and during
the remainder of his life often
referred to his success in
making that a peaceable and happy
community. Dr.
Thompson was often chosen as a mediator
in the years
that followed. Here in Ohio both in
church circles and
in schools and later in business groups
he was sought
for his help and influence in times of
trouble. He had
a gift for such services. He seldom
failed to find a com-
promise that was at least tolerable.
Confidence in his
judgment was equalled by confidence in
his good inten-
tions. He took every situation as it
stood at the moment
and sought the immediate and most
practical methods of
carrying on. And among the thousands of
his friends
I think he never lost one.
His pioneering spirit took him from
Odebolt to Long-
mont, Colorado, in 1885, where he
repeated the Iowa
experience of preaching at Longmont
church and also
serving several outlying log
schoolhouse meetings every
Sunday. From these, two churches were
organized. The
Colorado Synod had decided to establish
a college at
Longmont, Dr. Thompson assisted in
raising the last
$50,000 of endowment, and was elected
its first presi-
dent, a position that he held for three
years.
Coming to Detroit as a commissioner to
the General
Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in
July, 1891, he
learned that he had been recommended
for the presi-
dency of Miami University, Oxford,
Ohio, and while a
spectator of the State Republican
Convention in Colum-
bus a little later, was notified of his
election. He began
his eight-year service at Miami in
August, 1891. To
William Oxley Thompson 107
this old College with its roll of
distinguished alumni he
brought a renewal of life and hope and
a firm belief in
a grand future. Soon he was president
of the Ohio
State Sunday School Association and was
heard in many
pulpits in the State as well as many
educational gather-
ings. During the seventy-fifth
anniversary of the found-
ing of Miami Dr. Thompson was elected
president of the
Ohio State University and for the
succeeding twenty-
five years, state and land grant college
education became
his dominant life-interest. All that he
had done previ-
ously seemed to be a direct and
designed preparation for
his administration of the University on
broad principles
of state and national service.
He was fortunate indeed in beginning at
the time
when the State had been made ready for
an unprece-
dented educational growth, not only in
higher institu-
tions but in the local schools. It was
fortunate for Dr.
Thompson that his own education was
always accom-
panied by labor and was often
interrupted. A whole
system of alternating work and study
has been since or-
ganized in order to conserve the values
inherent in what
was to him a practical necessity. He
always took his
pleasure in applying to any work in
hand such learning
and knowledge as had become his own by
experience.
Theory and practice were so closely
united in his life
that his career represents the theory
of practice. His
fellow-students at Muskingum regarded
him during the
Senior year both as student and
official of the small in-
stitution. He always impressed his
colleagues in the
University with the feeling of personal
responsibility for
the way in which things were going.
Minor matters of
administration, he seemed to allow to
take care of them-
108
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
selves. It is remarkable how many times
they did. The
man on the street would pronounce him
extremely lucky
but the fact is that his practical
personal resources were
far greater than those of the men about
him. He had
an unswerving faith in "the power
not ourselves that
makes for righteousness." Not only
in the great issues
and conflicts of the world but also in
the smallest details
of daily life he felt that inner power
and the light that
it gave, and received abounding
strength and joy for his
work. He was, therefore, never a
defeatist in any of
his activities and he made easy
adjustments to new de-
mands without sacrifice of principle.
It was inevitable that Dr. Thompson
should be called
during the Great War into the councils
of the Nation.
He was one of the first of the
university presidents to
telegraph to the Administration at
Washington placing
the entire resources of our University
at the disposal of
the Government. In the state and
national Councils of
National Defense he rendered
conspicuous service. He
was designated by the Department of
Agriculture for a
trip through the northwest in the
interest of increased
production and conservation of food and,
incidentally,
on his return favored this Club with an
account of his
experiences. He was sent as chairman of
a commission
to England and France on a similar
mission. After the
war President Wilson appointed Dr.
Thompson a mem-
ber of the Industrial Commission on the
relations of la-
bor and capital, and later as chairman
of the commission
to mediate between the anthracite coal
operators and the
miners.
He was active for many years in the
Association of
Agricultural Colleges and Experimental
Stations and
William Oxley Thompson 109
the National Association of State
Universities, and par-
ticipated actively in executive
committee work preparing
legislation for enactment by Congress
for the benefit of
agriculture and the institutions that
teach agriculture.
The land grant colleges looked upon Dr.
Thompson as
their most influential leader in
securing federal aid and
regulation.
Dr. Thompson refused to be considered a
great
scholar in any line. Scholarship apart
from practical
application to ordinary human life
aroused no enthusi-
asm in him. He refused to be considered
a specialist
even in education but constantly
supplied to the specialists
on his Faculty the humanizing example
that was needed
to shrink their theories to what was
practicable in the
humblest schools and homes. He refused
to be consid-
ered a theologian but he was a close
friend of the great
theologians, knew their conclusions,
and was regarded
by them as their statesman, the practical
mediator in
theological difficulty, the outstanding
figure to assuage
dissension. He conceived that his own
function in all
of his varied activities was a
socializing function in
which the specialties lost themselves
in human service
and true American citizenship.
When such a man, in the fullness of
years and hon-
ors with magnificent work magnificently
completed and
duty nobly done, with faith in a happy
outcome for com-
mon humanity still strong and virile,
passes to his final
rest, it is no time for mourning our
personal loss. It is
rather a time for solemn triumph over
the great possi-
bilities of our common human nature;
for joy in the as-
surance that America will continue to
produce from the
ranks, high exemplars of those fundamental
American
qualities that give us abiding courage,
hope, and faith.