Ohio History Journal

The Centennial of Miami University.      325

realizing that, after all, the big thing about the celebration was

not the general air of jubilee or prosperous contentment. It was

the realization,-hard enough to express, but pounding at the

heart of every visitor familiar with the facts,-of all the years

of struggle with accumulated adversity through which the little

old college has heroically progressed, and the immense poten-

tiality Miami has been in the development and refinement of the

Middle West. The story has been told often within the past

year, from various points of view and with various degrees of

completeness; but it is highly desirable that the obvious facts

from the University's first century of achievement should be at

least hurriedly summarized for those intimately concerned with

the development of the commonwealth.

After negotiations extending over more than seven years,

John Cleves Symmes received on September 30, 1794, letters

patent from the United States Government, placing him and his

associates in possession of "All that tract of land, beginning at

the mouth of the Great Miami river and extending from thence

along the river Ohio, to the mouth of the Little Miami river, and

bounded on the south by the said river Ohio, on the west by the

Great Miami river, on the east by the said Little Miami river,

and on the North by a parallel of latitude -so as to compre-

hend the quantity of three hundred and eleven thousand, six hun-

dred and eighty-two acres of land with the appurtenances." Cer-

tain specific reservations were made from this "Symmes Pur-

chase," one of the most important reading as follows: "It is

hereby declared, that one complete township or tract of land, of

six miles square, to be located with the approbation of the gov-

ernor, for the time being, of the territory northwest of the River

Ohio, and in the manner and within the term of five years afore-

said, as nearly as may be, in the center of the tract of land here-

inbefore granted, hath been and is granted and shall be holden in

trust to and for the sale and for the exclusive intent and pur-

pose of erecting and establishing therein an academy and other

public schools and seminaries of learning, and endowing and sup-

porting the same, and to and for no other use, intent or purpose

whatever."

This statement may properly be interpreted as a national

The Centennial of Miami University.      327

necessary to settle upon a tract entirely outside the Purchase,

but in the so-called District of Cincinnati - the unsold portion of

Oxford Township and two and one-half sections adjoining.

This settlement was not to go into effect for five years, in the

hope that during the time an available complete township might

turn up somewhere within the Symmes land.

Accordingly it was 1809 before the state of Ohio formally

created The Miami University, provided for the Trustees and

Faculty, drew up a charter of rights and privileges, and arranged

to make the lands productive of funds for maintenance. These

provisions were made by an act of the Legislature, February 17,

1809. With this act began the legal career of the University,

recognized without reservation as an institution of the State of

Ohio. It was a long way from this Legislative document and

thirty-six sections of unbroken timber and undergrowth to a

smoothly running educational machine. People didn't yearn

greatly for these lands at first, under the terms of lease pro-

vided by the state. These leases were to be for ninety-nine

years, renewable forever, and the tenants were to pay an annual

rental of six per cent on the land value of their property, with

a revaluation every fifteen years. Then the state, with a com-

mendable desire to get things going but a sad misconception of

future needs, repealed the clause regarding revaluation, fixing

the land rent to the University forever at the rate of six per cent.

on the original valuation. Hence it is that during the long

heart-breaking years, while the state denied further aid, the uni-

versity struggled on desperately in a cramped and half bankrupt

condition; and that nowadays, when the state is conscientiously

administering the trust, these annual land-rents are about suffi-

cient to maintain three professorships.

There was trouble for years over the location of the actual

university, much as there had been over those precious lands.

The creating act of 1809 definitely appointed a locating commis-

sion, instructed to select a spot "In such part of the John Cleves

Symmes Purchase as an eligible place can be found." One com-

missioner failed to act, and the other two agreed upon Lebanon,

Ohio, as the University site. At the next session of the Legis-

lature, under various kinds of pressure, the proceedings of this

The Centennial of Miami University.       329

it and accumulated little. Gradually money was secured for

the erection of buildings, beginning with the "school-house" that

cost one hundred and fifty dollars, and culminating in a fairly

adequate college building, under construction from 1820 to 1824.

By this time the income had accumulated so as to justify the em-

ployment of a small faculty and the initiation of college work.

Robert Hamilton Bishop, the first President, was inaugurated

March 30, 1825, having undertaken the duties of his office the

November previous. By the day of inauguration the roster of

students had already grown from   a mere handful at the

opening session to nearly a hundred; and there was never a day

thereafter, while the portals were thrown wide, that there were

not eager youths in considerable numbers waiting to be taught

With the machinery once in actual motion, Miami's skies for

a time continued clear. President Bishop, a sterling  Scotch

character with vigorous mind and engaging personality, had as

sociated with him men capable of great influence upon the pio-

neer country. Young McGuffey, fresh from college, served here

his apprenticeship in teaching, and conducted the experiments

out of which came finally the old Eclectic Readers of blessed

memory. John W. Scott came early into this group, before he

had tried his hand at imparting higher education to young

women, or had a daughter old enough to win the heart of a fu-

ture president. Three buildings -the two present dormitories

and a little one-story Science Hall,-were erected in Doctor

Bishop's time, bringing Miami into the front rank among western

colleges in material equipment. So careful indeed was the Doc-

tor's management of funds, that the records of his administration

often show a surplus, sometimes as high as $2,000.

In this period, too, ventures were made in the direction of a

real university scheme, with professional colleges. In 1827 it

was a law school that the Trustees contemplated, and the Presi-

dent was authorized to prepare plans for the work and look out

for a competent professor. For some reason this was dropped,

and in 1830 a medical school was the focus of attention. This

time a dean was actually selected and empowered to choose his

colleagues, and announcements were printed and circulated.

The Centennial of Miami University.        331

periment was not a success. The transition from President

Bishop's somewhat milder methods was perhaps too abrupt.

Then too the ex-president was still on the ground, a constant re-

minder to his many partisans of what they considered the unfair

treatment he had received. The choice of so noted a Presbyter-

ian zealot turned the eyes of the other denominations upon

Miami, and led to the charge in the religious press that this state

institution was being managed solely in the interests of the Pres-

byterian faith. The abolition movement was then in vogue

throughout Ohio, gathering many Miami people to its support.

Dr. Junkin, while an anti-slavery man, was firmly opposed to a

rabid abolition, and took occasion to say so freely in the coun-

cils of his church. This rounded out his list of opponents, and

he withdrew in 1844 to resume his old position at Lafayette.

In his stead came Erasmus D. MacMaster, one of the deep-

est logicians and ablest orators of the Presbyterian church.

Moreover, he was an ardent adherent to the cause of abolition.

His greatest service to the University was in the line of scholar-

ship, the curriculum being raised to a level with the strongest in-

stitutions in the East. Soon after his arrival he presented once

more to the Trustees plans for a complete university, including

a Normal School and School of Agriculture, with those profes-

sional schools considered earlier. His weakness, in Miami at

least, appears to have been on the personal side, for he seems

never quite to have won the hearts of the undergraduate body.

Pestilence was abroad during his stay and frequently threatened

and even visited the little college town. Dissatisfaction among

the boys led to numerous open outbreaks, one of these resulting

in an almost wholesale expulsion from the student ranks.

The administration of William C. Anderson, from 1849 to

1854, was in many respects the most prosperous in the early his-

tory of the University. The enrollment, which was down to

sixty-eight when he came, increased rapidly to over two hundred

and fifty. Yet intellectual standards were in no sense depreciated

and hard work was the order of the day. The faculty grouped

about him were men of unusual attainments and influence. Doc-

tor Moffat held the chair of Latin until recalled to Princeton,

when he was succeeded by young Robert Bishop, destined to serve

The Centennial of Miami University.      333

him. But many of the arguments used for his undoing involved

matters entirely out of his control. Thus it was urged that at-

tendance fell off sadly, interest in college work declined, dis-

cipline was lax. What else could be expected of those stormy

years when Miami gave freely of her best, and those left behind

were frantic in their longings to join comrades at the front.

Money became again a serious issue. The old college curriculum

began to seem inadequate to many people, who clamored vigor-

ously for expensive modifications and enlargements. Some of

these were indeed attempted. A Normal-English course was

maintained for a time with a professor all its own. A gymna-

sium was opened on a limited scale and an instructor added.

Practical Engineering was also undertaken. Modern Languages

were offered for a time as a substitute for Greek, and unsuc-

cessful steps were taken to endow a chair of English Literature,

to be occupied by the brilliant thinker Swing.

Funds were if anything even lower at this time than for

years before. During the war, for instance, it was necessary at

least once to reduce the salaries of all the instructors pro rata,

the reason given being "the present condition of the country and

the existence of the Civil War, the consequent depreciation of the

value of property and reduction of the prices of living, and the

inevitable diminution of the income of the University." In 1865,

there was favorable consideration of a proposition from the Pres-

byterian Synod of Ohio, to direct their endowment funds to

Miami rather than to the founding of a new denominational col-

lege at Wooster. The Miami Trustees were about to accede to

the stipulations involved, when it was discovered that these

would require an amendment to the state constitution, and so the

old University continued the peculiar property of the common-

wealth.

President Robert L. Stanton came to Miami in 1866, with

no disposition to dodge issues or to mince matters in discussing

them. The institution was in sore straits, impoverished in the

midst of an impoverished land. Students had fallen off in great

numbers, and with them the very essential tuition fees they

brought. The old buildings, however staunchly erected half a

century before, were sinking into decrepitude. Rival colleges

The Centennial of Miami University.      335

made to get this new educational work and the accompanying in-

come divided between the two state colleges already existing.

The legislature decided otherwise, however, and established a

third state institution, at Columbus, as the Agricultural College.

By the time that Doctor Stanton, defeated and discouraged,

retired in 1871 in favor of Professor Hepburn of the faculty, the

fate of Old Miami, for a time at least, appeared settled. Even

a last resort had failed, an attempt to consign the whole institu-

tion, on almost any terms, to such religious denomination as

would refit it, endow it, and put it on its feet again. So it was

generally agreed to cease work for a time and allow the regular

income to accumulate, as it had in those preliminary years be-

fore 1824. As this income was still limited by legislative enact-

ment to little more than it had been in pioneer days, while the

scope and expense of college efficiency had magnified many fold,

the prospect was not particularly pleasing at its best. Anyhow

the doors were closed to college classes with the Commencement

of 1873, and the buildings relegated to the uses of a private acad-

emy, conducted first by Professor Bishop and afterwards by

Trufont and Marsh.

In 1885 the friends and well-wishers of Miami could wait

no longer. They began to realize what those of the present day

are having constantly brought home to them, that this widening!

gap in the activity of the school was certain to be felt seriously

later on, when callow graduates grew into prosperous middle-

aged men of affairs, capable of helping Alma Mater. Anyhow

Miami had money in the bank and influential friends at court

just then. Why delay? With a loud flourish of trumpets the

old weather-beaten machinery was set in motion again and the

University began to make up for lost time. Truly a new era was

dawning. For the state at this point gave up the played-out role

of responsible but disinterested administrator, acknowledged the

duty to support her ward, and made a first appropriation of

$20,000 for buildings and repairs. During the two years of

reorganization, Doctor McFarland, formerly the Professor of

Mathematics, occupied the president's chair, with the understand-

ing that he was not a candidate for permanent appointment.

Four other presidents have served since this formal re-

The Centennial of Miami University.        337

Normal College has been instituted and is in thriving condition,

being fitted out as rapidly as possible with its own buildings and

equipment. The old name Miami University, always a misnomer

in the strictest sense, is still retained as the corporate title, hav-

ing gained a sentimental reverence through the years. But no

one thinks of making Miami more than a college, and a small

college at that:-the high-grade small college representing the

best system of higher education yet devised in the east or west.

This has been a long arid recital of ancient history and you

are lucky if you have weathered through it. But the aim has

been throughout to make clear to the reader the environment of

discouragement and enforced poverty through which little old

Miami plodded heroically to this auspicious completion of her

first centenary. The remarkable thing about it, however, is not

merely that Miami has completed this century of years amid

adversity. Many an ordinary turtle lives a great deal longer,

and progresses with much difficulty too. The thing that should

direct the eyes of all Ohio to this Centennial celebration is the

inestimable services the University has rendered, directly and

through her alumni, in the development of the state and of the

nation. There is but one way to get at such a proposition: by

marshalling in rapid review before the reader, with a mere apol-

ogy of a system, a small assortment of the Miami men whose

lives have meant something for humanity.

"The pioneers of southwestern Ohio," said Chancellor Mac-

Cracken, of New York University, in his Centennial Address,

"were of near a dozen different national stocks, but mainly non-

English Puritans. They were largely of Scotch and Scotch-

Irish blood, like most of the early graduates of Miami. Of the

twelve names of alumni of the twenty-five classes from 1826 to

1850, who are still alive, ten are Scotch or Scotch-Irish, from

McCaughan of 1837 to Andrew Brooks of 1850. Many grad-

uates were of Welsh blood, like Chidlaw, Thomas E. Thomas,

and Senator Pugh. Others were Huguenots, like the Monforts;

or Dutch, like Schenck and Groesbeck; or Palatinate Germans,

like Shellabarger and Kumler: or they were of English Vir-

ginia blood, like President Benjamin Harrison. Miami was the

Vol. XVIII -22.

338        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

offspring of the highest intellectual aspirations of a fusion of

Protestant races, mostly of Puritan training, thrown together

upon the Ohio frontier."

From such material the various classes of Doctor Bishop's

long administration were able, almost without exception, to grad-

uate men who promptly achieved a national reputation.      Exam-

ples might be of interest.

1826. Ebenezer E. Pressly, founder and first president of Erskine Col-

lege in South Carolina, and a leader in religious work in the

south.

1827. Robert C. Schenk, foreign envoy, congressman and brigadier-

general; finally ambassador at the Court of St. James.

1828. William M. Thompson. minister and foreign missionary; author

of "The Land and the Book."

1829. Ralph P. Lowe, governor of Iowa.

James Reily, U. S. Minister to Russia.

1830. Thornton A. Mills, editor of the Central Christian Herald and a

leader in the Presbyterian Church.

1831. Freeman G. Cary, founder and first president of Farmer's Col-

lege.

Theophilus L. Dickey, Assistant Attorney-General of the U. S.

Duncan F. Keener, president of the Louisiana Constitutional con-

vention.

1833. Charles Anderson, scholar-statesman; offered appointment as As-

sistant Secretary of State and served as a war governor of Ohio.

Benjamin W. Childlaw, the great Sabbath School missionary.

1834. William Groesbeck, congressman, candidate for the presidency, and

counsel for President Johnson in his impeachment trial.

John J. McRae, U. S. senator and governor of Mississippi.

Joseph G. Monfort, editor of the Herald and Presbyter.

Thomas E. Thomas, president of Hanover College.

1835. Samuel F. Cary, temperance lecturer.

William Dennison, was governor of Ohio and U. S. Postmaster

General.

1836. James Birney, war governor of Michigan and U. S. minister to

Holland.

1837. James B. Howell, U. S. senator from Iowa.

1838. John S. Williams, brigadier-general in the Confederate army and

U. S. Senator from Kentucky.

1840. George E. Pugh, U. S. senator from Ohio.

1841. Charles H. Hardin, governor of Missouri and founder of Hardin

Female Institute in Missouri.

Samuel Shellabarger, congressman and U. S. minister to Portugal.

340      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

oughly in the give-and-take of the old Literary Halls. One pres-

ident of the United States heads the list of these-Benjamin

Harrison of the class of '52. Behind him troops a respectable

following of cabinet officers and ambassadors to foreign lands.

Of the first type not already noted may be named Caleb B.

Smith, Secretary of the Interior in Lincoln's first cabinet; Wil-

liam H. H. Miller, Attorney General, and John W. Noble, Secre-

tary of the Interior, under Harrison. Most prominent of

Miami's diplomatic representatives in recent years is Whitelaw

Reid, former minister to France and now ambassador at the

Court of St. James.

The list of governors of states is an imposing one, and the

faithful alumni secretary is still unearthing new ones from time

to time. Five famous war governors are included: Dennison

and Anderson of Ohio, Morton of Indiana, Yates of Illinois, and

Birney of Michigan. The noted lecturer Will Cumback, for-

merly lieutenant-governor of Indiana, was a Miami man, and

Governor Harris of Ohio, recently retired, brings the list down

to date. The most recent of Miami's U. S. Senators was Cal-

vin S. Brice, who died in 1897. The lower house of Congress

nearly always had Miami men in it, so that the task of citing

them would be almost as lengthy as to enumerate state legisla-

tors, common pleas judges, or plain everyday college professors.

It has been seen how the Civil War broke into the academic

calm of Miami, situated as she was so near the border. There

were many lads from the South in attendance up to that time,

and the University gave freely to both parties in the struggle.

Several of our great eastern universities have made much of their

patriotic service in the rebellion, commemorating it with Soldiers'

Fields and splendid Memorial Halls. But figures show beyond

doubt that of all the colleges then active in America, little Miami

sent by far the largest proportion of her students and alumni into

service. They did service too, even the youngsters fresh from

Euclid, in a way of which the state may be always proud. Many

of them fought along in the obscurity of the ranks; but a sur-

prisingly large number rose to conspicuous heights.

By the end of the war, half a score of Miami men had at-

tained the rank of General in the Union army. The roster is

The Centennial of Miami University.             343

ous specialists who have added valuable monographs to scien-

tific knowledge, men like James T. Whittaker and S. C. Ayres.

Most famous of her sons in this field is John Shaw Billings, the

leading medical librarian of the country, and now at the head of

the New York Public Library.

All the arts have found her ably represented, even in these

latest years. The artist James Carter Beard, the eminent

musician of the northwest Alfred M. Shuey, the critic William

Sloane Kennedy, the artist-architect Heistand, the brilliant news-

paper and magazine correspondent Edwin Emerson, and the ris-

ing young poet and dramatist Ridgeley Torrence, have all of

them spent their apprentice years with old mother Miami, and

bear evidence to the versatility of her product. Robert B. Stan-

ton and Philip N. Moore, in New York and St. Louis respec-

tively, rank among the first of civil and mining engineers. Busi-

ness and finance have claimed many of the ablest minds from

Miami, among them William Beckett, the pioneer paper manu-

facturer; A. C. McClurg, founder of the great Chicago Pub-

lishing house; John H. Patterson, of National Cash Register

fame, and Senator Brice, the railroad magnate.

Some years ago the alumni secretary of the University com-

piled statistics of the Miami men, producing a table of the deep-

est significance to all who concern themselves with the possibili-

ties of a small college or have ever questioned the justification of

such an institution's existence. The result is appended.

PUBLIC OFFICES.

Presidents of     the  United  States....................  .....                          1

Governors        of   States  ...................................                             10

Lieutenant-Governors ....................................                                    2

Cabinet     Officers  ....................  ....................                                  3

Foreign     M inisters       .......................................                            5

Attaches and    Consuls   ...........................  ......                                1

United  States   Senators  ..................................                                 7

Congressmen ........................................                                              23

State Senators ........................................... 30

State  Representatives  ....................................  69

Federal, State, County and Supreme Court Judges........ 53

United States Army Officers with the Rank of Captain and

above .............................................  66

344       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

EDUCATIONAL POSITIONS.

College Presidents ....................................... 30

College  Professors,  etc ...................................  76

City and County Superintendents ........................ 52

Other Teachers ........................................ 116

GENERAL OCCUPATIONS.

Teachers  ................................................                                         274

Lawyers ...............................................                                            327

M inisters  ................................................                                       313

General Business ....................................... 111

Physicians  ...............................................  122

Editors and Journalists .................................. 50

Authors    .................................................                                       50

Farmers    ................................................                                        80

Bankers    .................................................                                       13

Manufacturers ........................................... 17

Engineers  ...............................................  24

At that time the total number of Miami graduates was 1,826.

Thanks to the reader's patience the purpose of this paper is

at last accomplished; the task of showing what was really in the

hearts of loyal Miami men, as they strolled idly but fondly be-

neath the elms and walnuts on this recent centennial occasion.

The hope is that everyone who worries through the detail may

feel with them that the glory of Old Miami is not to have lived

one hundred years, but to have survived such hardships and dis-

couragement and to have produced and effected so much.