Ohio History Journal

Horace Mann and Antioch College.           13

was a city of 116,000. Cleveland and Sandusky were important

lake ports.  The little Miami Railroad, from  Cincinnati to

Columbus, was opened in this year, and Columbus felt a new

spirit of enterprise.

Education had kept pace. In 1802, even before Ohio was

definitely set off as a state, a bill was passed establishing Ohio

University, at Athens. This was opened in 1804. Next, Miami

University was established in the township of Oxford. But col-

leges increased most rapidly from 1835 to 1845, reaching by 1845

more than twenty denominational institutions. Within the next

ten years eight institutions were added; one of these was Antioch

College. Its source was religious.

Late in the seventeen hundreds, a great religious revival

swept over the United States. Its effect was to send men with

tender hearts and open minds to their Bibles to learn the truth.

From this condition arose many denominations, and, about the

time Washington was entering upon his second term, there sprang

up in North Carolina, Kentucky, New York and Vermont, con-

gregations of believers holding the Bible as their "only rule of

faith and practice," and answering to no other name than Chris-

tians. At first these people had not looked with favor upon an

educated ministry, but fifty years' experience had taught them

many things and a great wave of educational enthusiasm swept

over the country, leaving deep in their hearts the determination

to found a college.

It was supposed that the institution would be located in some

pleasant town between Buffalo and Albany, on the highway of

travel made famous by the Erie Canal; but Yellow Springs, Ohio,

offered special advantages in central location, in climate, in

money, in citizens, and, most of all, in its leading citizen, Judge

Mills, who gave a tract of twenty acres of land for the college

campus, and contributed liberally of his money for the founding

of the institution. He laid out a large part of his farm in town

lots, and in every way sought to promote the interests of the town

and of the college. He was a broad-minded, far-sighted man,

devoted to the welfare of the community and to the cause of edu-

cation in the West. Friends, under the leadership of Elder John

14       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

Phillips, agent for the college, raised within the borders of the

State nearly $100,000.

The wheat field which Judge Mills had given as a college

campus was measured off, the best point selected, and the founda-

tions of the college buildings were laid. But other things besides

the buildings were in the making; the process of construction was

slow, being hindered by many uncertainties and insecure arrange-

ments, particularly on the financial side. The master-builder had

been called from Massachusetts, but many of his workmen were

of slight experience and the undertaking, for that time and place,

was a great one. The leaders had planned largely, and they

were building largely. Their ambitions were high, and with the

spirit of true liberality they looked the country over to find a

man worthy to be the first president of the new college.

Head and shoulders above all other educators in the land,

stood Horace Mann, of Massachusetts. He had developed and

established there the common school system. He had traveled

in Europe, and brought home ideas, ideals and methods. He had

enlisted in the work of education the foremost men of the nation.

At his call Daniel Webster, Henry Ward Beecher, Gov. Andrews,

John Quincy Adams, Dr. Channing, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Dr.

S. G. Howe, Rev. Cyrus Pierce, Hon. Henry Wilson and R. G.

Wintrop, leading men of the state and nation, had campaigned

Massachusetts for education from one boundary to the other.

Ohio was eager for the best things. Its eyes were con-

tinually turned to New England, and when Horace Mann was

finishing his second term in Congress, the leaders of the college,

movement in Ohio met in the little town of Enon, near the pres-

ent line of the Big Four Railroad, between Springfield and Day-

ton, and named Horace Mann as their first president. This had

not been done without many an anxious thought and much cor-

respondence among friends. When the matter was first men-

tioned to Mr. Mann, he gave it slight consideration, but with the

turn in political affairs and with the renewed ascendency of his

interest in the cause of education, he paused and pondered, and,

at the age of fifty-eight, again entered on the work of a pioneer

in education.

16        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

it should provide for the largest individual liberty consistent

with the general good. Every student was his brother's keeper

and was to render him all services within his power, but he was

also the keeper of the honor of the State and his was the duty

of keeping its banner unstained by falsity, dishonor or political

corruption. Mr. Mann's new interpretation of the code of

honor among college students held that the reputation of each

was the concern of all, and that whoever knew of a serious fault

in his fellow was bound to acquaint those in authority with it,

in order that the student might be reclaimed from the error of

his way. He held that the doctrine of emulation might develop

keenness, but that it would produce tricky merchants and dis-

honorable politicians. The ideal was sublime, the effort to

accomplish it heroic.

He had put his hand to the plow and would not turn back,

but when a man of fifty-eight undertakes to plant himself in

wholly new surroundings and to establish not only himself and

family, but wholly new ideals and a new institution in a young

and growing community, he is attempting a work for which even

the vigor and enthusiasm of youth are not more than adequate.

The journey from Massachusetts was long and difficult. At

Antioch nothing was in readiness. "Though the trustees had

resolved that the college should be opened early in October, yet,

said Mr. Mann, 'nothing was ready but our own hearts,' add-

ing, 'if Adam and Eve had been introduced into Paradise, as

early in the progress of creation, in proportion, as the faculty

were introduced at Antioch, they would have been created about

Wednesday night.'"

The days of summer slipped away; it was now October.

Though the main college building was still unplastered and

unheated, the leaders, with undaunted courage, determined to

launch the great enterprise. The dedication was but little adver-

tised, lest the village could but half accommodate the people who

would come. October 5th arrived, and more than three thousand

people in wagons, in carts, on horseback and afoot, came from

far and near to the dedication of this joy and hope of the Chris-

tians. It was an imposing sight. On the great white steps at

the east front stood Horace Mann, tall, erect, refined, intelligent,

Horace Mann and Antioch College.           17

with keen eyes, and face luminous and sensitive. About him

stood the leaders of the Christian connection and of that part

of Ohio-judges, lawyers, and officers of State were in that

little group; and in the audience were sturdy farmers, dressed

in their Sunday best, young men and maidens, mothers with

children in arms - a miscellaneous collection from far and near,

all waiting to see what would happen next. But for the great

leaders there was no hesitation. After a hymn and prayer, Rev.

John Phillips, a man of God, came forward with three Bibles,

and delivered them to Mr. Mann with these words: "In the

name of the Great God, I present these to you as the Constitu-

tion of the world. I pray that you, and those under your care,

may be guided by their heavenly teachings, and made better by

their counsels." Horace Mann answered thus, in manly words

of high purpose and unfailing faith: "Did time and occasion

permit, I might give myself free scope to enumerate and enlarge

upon the grand characteristics and prerogatives of this volume

of the sacred Scriptures; I might speak of the venerableness of

its antiquity; of the sublimity of its eloquence; of the splendor

of its poetry, whose words shine out as though precious stones

had been scattered over the page; of its touching pathos; of its

precepts and examples of wisdom and truth, and its inspirations

of devotion and love; but in this pressure and urgency of the

hour it seems more fitting that I should, so far as I am able,

accumulate all excellences in one phrase, concentrate all eulo-

giums into a single expression; ay, sweep the horizon of time,

and of eternity, too, gathering their glories into one refulgent

blaze, and say that it is a book which contains the truths that

are able to make men wise unto salvation."

"Now, sir, no one knows better than yourself that a single

institution cannot compass all purposes. As our college is not

to be a theological or divinity school, we do not propose to incul-

cate creeds, articles or confessions of faith; but we do intend,

and, with the blessing of God, we do hope, to train our pupils to

a practical Christian life, and to make divine thoughts and con-

templations become to them, as it were, their daily bread."

These exercises occurred at ten o'clock.

Vol. XIV- 2.

18        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

At twelve o'clock a procession was formed, which moved

into the college chapel, a spacious apartment seating fifteen hun-

dred people. After a hymn by the choir, Rev. Isaac Walter

delivered to the President the charter and keys of the institution.

A man of large mold, he voiced in noble words the hope of the

Christians for this great institution, and their ambition "that its

light might continue to attract the seekers after truth and the

lovers of duty until it should shed its radiance on the evening

of the world."

It was a great occasion, but Horace Mann was worthy of

it all. He saw a beginning, which, stretching out into the centu-

ries, would grow to the largest plans and hopes. In thrilling

word he dedicated the building to the glory of God and the serv-

ice of man. I have heard a few inaugural addresses and I have

read many more, but not one that equals the inaugural address

of Horace Mann. Throughout, its thrilling words were tuned

to the grand key, "God, Duty, Humanity." He saw, as with a

prophet's vision, the great opportunity, and voiced it in noble

words to men who were to help him build it into the life of the

great new West!

"And a youthful community or State is like a child. Its

bones are in the gristle, and can be shaped into symmetry of

form and nobleness of stature. Its heart overflows with gen-

erosity and hope, and its habits of thought have not yet been

hardened into insoluble dogmatism. This youthful Western

world is gigantic youth, and therefore its education must be such

as befits a giant. It is born to such power as no heir to an earthly

throne ever inherited, and it must be trained to make that power

a blessing and not a curse to mankind. With its mighty frame

stretching from the Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains, and

with great rivers for arteries to circulate its blood, it must have

a sensorium in which all mighty interests of mankind can be

mapped out; and, in its colossal and Briarean form, there must

be a heart large enough for worlds to swim in. Wherever the

capital of the United States may be, this valley will be its seat

of empire. No other valley - the Danube, the Ganges, the Nile

or the Amazon-is ever to exert so formative an influence as

this upon the destinies of men; and, therefore, in civil polity, in

20        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

to garner the fruits of knowledge under the guidance of this

great apostle of education. It was a slow process, but with a

heart of love, with unfailing patience, and with all the richness

of personal magnetism and wide experience, Horace Mann and

his devoted colleagues gave themselves to the work of enduing

this company with life and power.

Although the Christians had already announced as the lead-

ing principle of the institution the non-sectarian and co-educa-

tional ideals, yet, for most of them, the non-sectarian ideal was

only that all might become Christians. As for the co-educational

ideal, it was still in the experimental stage.

To Mr. Mann's surprise and disappointment, he found him-

self restricted in all quarters save with the students. Many of

the ministers who came there to co-operate in the work of the

institution were unable to realize the plan which he had been

asked to finish and make effective. He was an educated man,

a person of rapid action, impatient of delay, and of great

resources in bringing things to pass. They were not accus-

tomed to the surroundings and the spirit of labor, nor to the rapid

method by which he had wrought all the large things which he

had already accomplished. Soon distrust began to be felt in the

hearts of the ministers in the smaller churches. It spread far

and wide, and he found himself growingly restricted. But there

were two obstacles that were sufficient to discourage the stoutest

heart - lack of money and conflict of authority. Bills began to

come in much more rapidly than the money with which to pay

them. A committee was called to examine the accounts of the

institution, and, after sitting almost steadily for forty hours, they

thoroughly satisfied themselves that there were no satisfactory

records of the debts of the institution. Representatives of the

college were sent to the various banking institutions at Spring-

field, Xenia and other cities near at hand, to inquire what paper

was held against the college. After a time, a somewhat unsatis-

factory list of claims was made out, but this working in the dark

with reference to debts against the college continued until the

institution was sold by the sheriff.

The conflict of authority grew out of the peculiar form of

the organization, which left in the hand of the Superintendent

Horace Mann and Antioch College.         21

the many questions of policy and administrative detail which in

this day would without question pass into the hands of the Presi-

dent. This conflict of authority produced continual irritation

and misunderstanding. Mr. Mann was not really able to build

in the small way which these men demanded of him, and he

lacked the patience and insight to deal with them according to

their limitations.

The story of Mr. Mann's work is one of sunshine and

shadow. The high hope and inspiration and courage and pa-

tience of this man were marvelous. The young people were

open-minded and teachable. Many were crude and in some

respects uncouth, but their hearts were rich and their aspirations

were high. They may have lacked the best ideals, but it was

these they were seeking, and within the year the company that

Horace Mann and his fellow-laborers had met, were transformed.

Love, kindness and gentlemanly behavior had been instilled, and

the aspirations of the college group had been turned into new

channels. But it had cost hardships not a few. There was a

kind of raw democracy, which tended to a constant leveling

down. All the little arts and refinements of cultivated life were

looked upon as so many earmarks of a supercilious aristocracy.

Stools were used for seats, and when some of the ladies of the

President's household brought chairs, their action was regarded

as extreme and unreasonable. Napkins found no place, and the

effort to secure clean plates for the pie was made a matter of

dispute and contest.

To aid in instruction, Horace Mann had brought his nephew,

C. F. Pennell, and his niece, Rebecca Pennell, two well educated,

finely trained, Massachusetts teachers. All the other officers and

teachers of the institution were selected by the Superintendent

and the local trustees, upon little or no consultation with Mr.

Mann. Bookkeeping had been advertised as one of the branches,

and the man selected to teach it had never studied it a day in his

life, but the Board had felt that he would be a good man because

he represented certain religious ideals for which they were jeal-

ous. Like incidents were of frequent occurrence.

The deepest and darkest of all the trials which fell on Hor-

ace Mann was the great spirit of doubt and distrust growing out

22       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

of the sectarianism which was called non-sectarian, but which

had its set of definite beliefs and requirements that were as inex-

orable as any Thirty-nine Articles that were ever penned. Mr.

Mann's motives were impugned, and the ignorance and intoler-

ance which failed to understand him embarrassed his work on

every hand.

But there is another side to the picture. Though the con-

test had cost him many a heart throb and many a waking hour,

the men who wronged him so sadly believed in their own hearts

that he had as sadly wronged them. They charged him with hav-

ing sold out the Christian interests to Unitarian friends in the

East. They believed that his interpretation of non-sectarianism

was permeated with rank infidelity. They thought that his demand

for higher educational standards for students and teachers was

only that he might bring Eastern friends of Unitarian faith to

displace the sons and daughters of their neighbors and friends.

However deep may have been his trials, theirs were no less deep.

At many a family altar, and in many a pastor's prayer, a cry

went up to God that He might save the faith of the Christians

and bring to naught the counsels and plans of this strong man,

who had proved untrue to the trust they had placed in him. But

the struggle grew more bitter. Mr. Mann took a stand against

them. He was strong, resourceful and aggressive; they were

less so. The friends of his early manhood were loyal, every one

feeling that his was a mission from God, who wrought mightily

to accomplish His purpose through Horace Mann.

The institution was practically bankrupt when Mr. Mann

entered upon his work as President. Though by the plan of

organization, he was in no way responsible for the financial man-

agement, yet it is evident that until the matter was pressed upon

him, he had given so little attention to the financial standing of

the institution as not to show ordinary business prudence. Those

who had the construction in charge had given notes in many

quarters, and kept no record of them. Agents had been sent to

solicit funds throughout the Christian Connection, but with the

customary negligence of the time no records were kept, and con-

tributions were not sent promptly to the college. As the financial

stress became greater, more agents were employed, and some of

Horace Mann and Antioch College.            23

these received large commissions, which, with their traveling

expenses, materially reduced the funds collected. Worse still,

the institution was founded on a scholarship plan, which, in the

very nature of things, was fatal. The holder of a $100 scholar-

ship was promised that he might keep one student in the college

free of tuition perpetually. Many of these scholarships were

represented only by notes, and it came to be understood that the

giver would never be required to pay the principal so long as the

interest was promptly paid. In some cases there was not even

a note, but simply the promise of some well-to-do man to help the

college. There is little wonder that such a financial plan proved

disastrous.

The institution was steadily running behind; salaries were

unpaid, and bills were accumulating far more rapidly than dona-

tions. From time to time new claims would appear. There

seemed to be no hope of adjustment except assignment; accord-

ingly, steps were taken to that end, and on the twentieth day of

April, 1859, the institution was sold in Cincinnati, O., by Hon.

John Kebler, Master Commissioner, for the sum of $40,200. It

was "knocked off" to the only bidder, Moses Cummings, for

Frank A. Palmer, of the Broadway Bank, New York City, a

member of the Christian denomination. Later, Mr. Palmer

agreed to turn it over to a close board, consisting of Josiah

Quincy, Charles E. Bidler, Eli Fay, Artemus Carter and Thomas

McWhinney. At the same time he surrendered his claim of

$18,000, which thus became his gift to the new college. These

men prepared articles of incorporation, and in that form duly

carried on the institution until the succeeding June, when a full

Board of Trustees was appointed under the new charter. The

tuition was raised and the general management of the institution

was very much the same as before, except that closer attention

was given to finances.

The new Antioch, free from its old promises to pay when

there was nothing to pay with, and its old false hopes, built on

a speculation, in its way, as wild as that of the South Sea Bubble,

was formally opened, and Horace Mann looked forward to a few

years of joy, comfort and triumph in this educational child of his

old age, developing in the new West, with new opportunities and

24       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

new hopes, surrounded by a fresh, strong civilization, somewhat

crude it is true, but virile and promising. For him this was

not to be!

For months preceding the Commencement of 1859, Mr.

Mann had been giving himself with the strength of his whole

nature to the effort of adjusting the financial affairs of the insti-

tution. It was seen at last that assignment was the only course,

and with tireless energy he labored to organize a new company

of friends to take hold of the institution and carry it on after

assignment. The earlier weeks of summer were spent in this

way, and soon after Commencement he found himself prostrated

with fever. It did not seem serious, but his health was failing.

On the morning of the second of August, the physicians an-

nounced that he had but a few hours to live. With steady

courage he called about him his students and friends, some forty

in number, and gave to each one the caution or encouragement

which he felt to be the special need of the hour. It was near

sunset, and he was heard to say, faintly, "Now I bid you all good-

night!" . . . The great heart ceased to beat-Horace Mann

was dead.

The whole community was stricken. One hundred of the

students came from their summer homes to take a last look at

the face of him whom they loved and honored. On the day of

burial a great concourse of men and women came to pay the last

sad tributes of respect and affection. A hymn was sung by the

choir of the village church where he used to worship. Prayer

was offered by Rev. H. I. Nye, and the Rev. Eli Fay spoke ear-

nest and stirring words in testimony of Mr. Mann's great worth

and the mighty work he had undertaken and carried forward

in Ohio.

A year later his body was disinterred and removed to the

Old North Burial ground, at Providence, R. I., and laid in eternal

rest beside his first wife, the daughter of Dr. Messer, once Presi-

dent of Brown University.

But what are the tangible results of Horace Mann's work in

Ohio? Like the influence of the sunlight as it plays on a thou-

sand hills, or the dew as it blesses the varied landscape, these

influences are hard to gather and to name. Horace Mann worked

26        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

Altogether apart from Mr. Mann's visible work in the insti-

tution, may be found agencies which he set in operation, whose

influence only eternity can measure. It was a great thing for

the new West that a high standard of scholarship should be

placed before her sons and daughters, and that a few of them,

trained by "teachers with the discipline of West Point and the

conscience of the Massachusetts Normal School," should be sent

out into every corner of the State and ultimately to the farthest

boundaries of the nation, with the sound scholarship and the love

of truth that never failed.

Mr. Mann's reputation as a great apostle of education gave

his opinions greater weight than those of almost any other man

in the country. As a result, the most radical educational ideas

were received from him with respect, and he carried forward

the practical embodiment of co-education and non-sectarianism

as few other educators could have done. He went into every

corner of the State and into the great West, and by public

addresses and personal contact kindled in the minds of thousands

of the young people a devotion to truth and duty which, in their

old age, still holds its inspiration.

But, with due allowance for all other things, Mr. Mann's

greatest work in the West was done in Antioch and through

Antioch. Many of his students have followed his ideals with a

high devotion, and have made them living forces in education,

particularly in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and California.

In the great work that Dr. Harris did in St. Louis none sup-

ported him more loyally and none contributed more largely in

patience and faith, in enthusiasm and the vision of truth, than

the Antioch trained men and women.

Horace Mann's life at Antioch was full of petty annoyances,

grievous disappointment and heart sacrifices, but at the same

time it was rich in victory for the cause in which he labored. In

those years he wrought mightily for the higher education and

elevation of woman. He demonstrated that men and women can

be educated together with profit to intellect and to morals. He

gave an interpretation of non-sectarianism which was wholly

new to the thought of his time. He showed that conduct and

character are the central elements in the intellectual and moral

Horace Mann and Antioch College.            27

life. Greater than all, in those six years he stamped upon hun-

dreds of young people such high ideals and touched them with

such glowing inspiration that their influence was always to count

mightily for the highest and best. Far and near he stimulated

thousands of people to nobler thinking and higher living.

After his death friends carried on as best they might the

work which he had undertaken. Willing hands were found and

tender hearts and true, but the great master spirit was gone.

The college has undergone many hardships, and its work at times

has suffered sorely, but still there are found signs of the old

ideals and there breathes yet about its spacious halls something

of the large devotion to truth, of the steady following of science,

of the earnest love of learning, and, most of all, of that large-

minded devotion to truth which has gone so far to make ours the

land of free thought and of free speech. The spirit of the real

Antioch could never be kept within bounds. It must have a field

proportionate to the high ideals and the broad range of its

interests.

"The real Antioch promptly slipped the fetters of the little

Ohio town. It took possession of great hearts in great commu-

nities, backed by great commonwealths. A non-sectarian, co-

educational, co-racial war-cry became the bugle notes that gave

success to Ann Arbor, Cornell and the long line of State Univer-

sities that have come to be in the Western States since Antioch

was born. . .. Whatever becomes of the Yellow       Springs

Antioch, the Antioch of Horace Mann is one of the greatest edu-

cational successes of the century."*

* Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones, in New Unity.