UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 ILLINOIS LIBRARY 
 
 AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 
 
 ILLINOIS HISTORICAL SURVEY. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://archive.org/details/stillabidesmemorOOtenn 
 
c 
 
 G85Kt 
 
 "Still Abides the Memory 
 
 V 
 
 by 
 MARY TENNEY 
 
"STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY" 
 
"Still Abides the Memory" 
 
 by 
 
 MARY A. TENNEY 
 
 y/i^Uy {aM<^ / 
 
 TOWER PRESS 
 
 of Greenville College 
 
 Greenville, Illinois 
 
Published by Greenville College 
 April, 1942 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 
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 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
 
 This, despite its title, is not primarily a Memory Book. Neither 
 is it a history in the usual sense of the word. The alumnus who 
 expects to find his name in these pages may be disappointed, and 
 the collector of historical data may search in vain for some minor 
 facts. 
 
 The governing purpose in the organization of all the material 
 that has been examined during the past two years has been to 
 leave with the reader a clear and unbiased impression of the spirit 
 and purpose of such colleges as Greenville College, which have re- 
 mained close to the original ideals of the founders of denomin- 
 ational schools a century ago. 
 
 Such an impression, it was thought, can most effectively be 
 rendered to the common reader by a variety of styles. As a result 
 these pages present a motley of exposition, narration, journalese 
 and poetry. They offer also a motley of pictures, good, bad and 
 indifferent, their quality depending upon the excellence of the 
 originals. If pictures of great significance seem lacking remember 
 that the maker of this book could use only what material was 
 furnished her after urgent requests extending over a year's time. 
 To those who generously contributed such material and to those 
 who gave hours to identifications many thanks are due. 
 
 Acknowledgment of a debt is due, also, to those who have sup- 
 plied data, particularly to various members of the families most 
 closely associated with the administration of the college: the 
 Morses, the Whites, the Hogues, the Whitcombs, the Marstons, 
 the Longs and Mrs. Burritt. Several books have proved of val- 
 uable assistance: Col. Jonathan Merriam and Family, compiled by 
 the Merriam family; Wm. Carson's History of Greenville; W. T. 
 Hogue's History of the Free Methodist Church; R. Blew's Master 
 Workmen. 
 
 To the thirty and more editors of the Vista and the Papyrus goes 
 a word of appreciation. To the many Greenville residents who 
 have given interviews and to those of my colleagues and mv own 
 
ACKNOWLEDGMENT 
 
 family who have assisted me in many ways go my hearty thanks. 
 
 The greatest debt, however, and one that can never be paid, I 
 owe to the faithful student assistants, who have labored through 
 hundreds of hours with an unflagging enthusiasm and devotion 
 that is rarely to be found. These are Charles Cronkhite, printer, 
 Jess Hoffman, general assistant, Marion Vincent Hoffman, col- 
 lector of data, Vincent Bessey, manager of engraving, and Ola 
 Mae Nimmo, typist. 
 
 Mary A. Tenney. 
 Greenville, Illinois 
 
 April 4, 1942 
 
Contents 
 
 1. "IN THE MIDST OF ROLLING PRAIRIES' 
 
 I THE DREAMERS 1 
 
 II THE DREAM COMES TRUE 17 
 
 III THE DREAMERS PASS 27 
 
 2. "STANDS OUR NOBLE ALMA MATER' 
 
 IV FAITH OF OUR FATHERS t 47 
 V FAITH AND WORK 73 
 
 VI THE MONUMENT TO FAITH 93 
 
 3. "OUR COLLEGE HOME" 
 
 VII OUR COLLEGE HOME 111 
 
 4. "STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY" 
 
 VIII FIRST DAY 137 
 IX IN RETROSPECT 155 
 
 X MARCHING FEET 181 
 
 XI MASTER BUILDER 207 
 
 5. "SPEED IT ONWARD" 
 
 XII CURRICULUM PLANNING 245 
 
 XIII GREENVILLE COMES OF AGE 263 
 
 6. "HAIL TO THEE, OUR ALMA MATER" 
 
 XIV AN OLD GRAD RETURNS 293 
 
A Foreword 
 
 A century ago the Middle West was invaded by a great host of 
 men and women whose philosophy of life rendered them superior 
 to their material environment. They deliberately chose the hard 
 conditions of pioneer existence because they believed themselves 
 bigger than nature and, therefore, able to master it and transform it. 
 
 This faith in themselves arose from their faith in God. They 
 knew that God was "bigger than anything that could happen to 
 them"; this was the central fact in their universe, and, because 
 nothing could ever shake this assurance, they had few of the fears 
 that assail the modern and many satisfactions little known today. 
 Their pleasures were not dependent upon material possessions nor 
 upon highly paid entertainers. But joy they knew, home-spun, 
 abundant, woven from the warp and woof of their own physical 
 and spiritual resources. 
 
 Because they believed in God and in themselves, they thought of 
 themselves as residents of three worlds. There was, first of all, 
 their own inner world, of which it had been said, "Greater is he 
 that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city." Much of their 
 time and thought was spent in establishing and maintaining this do- 
 minion. Purity of heart mattered immensely, "for out of it are the 
 issues of life." 
 
 An outer world of time and space encompassed this inner world 
 and threatened to gain the ascendency over it. It must be con- 
 quered, they believed, and held in its proper place. Nature unreg- 
 ulated grew weeds, wild beasts, took human life; but brought to 
 heel it obeyed, adding its abundance to man's possessions. 
 
 Yet even this sovereignty in two worlds, good as it might be, was 
 not the final goal of existence for them. Their citizenship ex- 
 tended into an eternal world where only spiritual values counted. 
 Here man might live forever if "the cares of this life and the ex- 
 ceeding deceitfulness" of material things had not choked out 
 
A FOREWORD 
 
 their awareness of this larger existence. One who would keep this 
 awareness must behave very much like a pilgrim, running down 
 the road with his ears stopped to the clamor of material values, 
 and shouting, "Life, life, eternal life!" Such conduct might seem 
 very peculiar to persons living in one world only. 
 
 To aid them in this pursuit of spiritual values, these men and 
 women of a hundred years ago had adopted a way of life which 
 they believed would assure them of success. It was not a new way 
 of life; indeed, it had been outlined by a man named Jesus and 
 had been adopted time after time wherever men had come face to 
 face with Him. It was a much misunderstood way, perhaps be- 
 cause it was so exacting, so inconsiderate of men's natural fieshli- 
 ness and moral indolence. But it had always brought success. 
 These pioneers had seen its success demonstrated in the founding 
 of the civilization which they had left behind them when they 
 came West. 
 
 This way of life was often described as Puritan or ascetic — by 
 some men in derision, but never by these pioneers, who were fully 
 aware of the fact that throughout the history of religion a return 
 to primitive Christianity has always been accompanied by the 
 adoption of Puritan disciplines. 
 
 When these pioneers laid out a village they immediately se- 
 lected a place for a school and a church, because they looked to 
 these institutions to present the way of life in which they believed. 
 Never a school without a church; never a church without a school. 
 Religion and culture went hand in hand. The term, Christian 
 education, would have seemed to them a tautology, for what was 
 education if not Christian? The function of a college was the 
 preparation of young people for life after the Puritan pattern. 
 Many colleges came into being through the Middle West because 
 of this philosophy of education. 
 
 When, however, these pioneer founders of colleges had passed, 
 the way of life which they had advocated met with disfavor. It 
 was too rigorous, men said; it interfered with worldly success; it 
 was too meticulous about the minutiae of living, too greatly con- 
 cerned with doctrinal distinctions. 
 
 When Puritanism fell upon evil times, the Puritan college, also, 
 came into disfavor; and so, little by little, it modified its program 
 
A FOREWORD 
 
 to meet its critics. Finally it forgot completely the union that had 
 existed between religion and culture and divided education into 
 two mutually exclusive types: religious and secular. In so doing 
 it ignored the fact that one cannot safely "rend the seamless gar- 
 ment of thought." 
 
 Yet here and there remained educators who believed that the 
 success of the pioneer had been due to his Puritan philosophy and 
 his rigorous application of it to living. Religion, they declared, 
 must be kept at the center of education, and religion for them, 
 involved the adoption of the principles of primitive Christianity, 
 even in this modern world. 
 
 This is the story of a college which still believes in the way of 
 e advocated by the pioneer founders. 
 
 life 
 
"IN THE MIDST OF ROLLING PRAIRIES" 
 
AUMIRA BLANCHARD MORSE 
 
CHAPTER I 
 THE DREAMERS 
 
 "That there's a schoolmaster from down in Tennessee — old 
 friend of our leading merchant," announced Jack White to the 
 half-dozen passengers who had just alighted from the stagecoach 
 before his tavern verandah. "Has a school for girls," he contin- 
 ued as all eyes followed the trim, erect figure of their fellow pas- 
 senger around the square. "Can you imagine that a female 
 seminary? Funny ideas these Easterners have!" 
 
 "Yes," he nodded to a lifted eyebrow, "he's a Yankee, but 
 he's been down South school-teachin' for a long time now. 
 Wonder what's brought him here to sec Morse. Bet they have 
 some scheme on foot for improvin' the town. Morse an' his 
 wife never've been satisfied with Greenville. Nice folks — but 
 they're from the East, too, you know." 
 
 The stout tavern keeper frowned and shook his head in dis- 
 approvaal at the hulky young stage driver. Then, suddenly re- 
 membering his place as master of ceremonies, he shouted, "Come 
 right in! Come right in! Supper's ready and waitin' for you." 
 
 In the meantime the subject of village speculation was en- 
 joying his release from the day's captivity in the rocking, rat- 
 tling stagecoach, while he eagerly inspected the \illage square 
 for signs of changes accomplished during the sixteen years which 
 had elapsed since he had last seen ft. 
 
 The old frame court house where he had spent a few brief 
 months as probate judge was gone. In its place stood a brand 
 new brick structure, shapely, commodious, and needing only 
 the Christopher Wren cupola which was later added to make it 
 the architectural prize of Bond county. The old log jail, which 
 had stood for years on the square, was in the process of being 
 dismantled. An unsightly mass of logs and bricks littered the 
 yard, but above the debris flamed the autumn golds and reds 
 of native trees, which grew abundantly about the new building 
 
IN THE MIDST OF ROLLING PRAIRIES' 
 
 and gave a setting for an attractive civic center when once the 
 work of town improvement was completed. 
 
 Three places on the south side of the square attracted his 
 attention as he passed. On the east corner was a blacksmith 
 shop where a huge man in smithy apron was talking loudly to 
 a high-booted, overalled farmer. He was evidently giving legal 
 advice, for he finally shouted a dismissal to the complainant by 
 saying, "Can't help it, Joe. Your case is set for a week from 
 to-day, and I can't do a thing about it till then." Here prob- 
 ably was the present incumbent of the county judge's office. 
 
 In the middle of the block hung the post office sign before a 
 small, shabby grocery store. Most of the buildings were poor 
 
 and insignificant, but 
 diagonally across from 
 the southwest corner 
 of the square rose a 
 sizable structure bear- 
 ing the sign, T. W. 
 Smith and Co. In 
 front were displayed 
 goods of various sorts, 
 evidently for retail 
 purchase, but at the 
 side before great doors 
 four wagons were 
 backed up loading and 
 unloading, and the 
 freight handlers were 
 
 BOND COUNTY COURT HOUSE 1854-1883 callin g to one another, 
 
 "Put that plow in for 
 Effingham"; "Get that load off for Fayette county right away"; 
 "Has the lumber for Vandalia come in yet?" Here was flour- 
 ishing business of wholesale size. 
 
 Directly across from the T. W. Smith building on the west 
 side of the square was a neat, prosperous looking little store 
 displaying on its window the name, Morse and Brothers. The 
 stranger glanced inquiringly within, but failing to find what he 
 looked for, left the square and went on to the west of the 
 
THE DREAMERS 3 
 
 store. Here were two brick residences, at the first of which 
 he stopped and knocked lightly upon the heavy oak door. Al- 
 most immediately it was opened by a stout, short, but well-pro- 
 portioned man whose round rosy face and dark eyes fairly glowed 
 with delight when he saw the new arrival. 
 
 "John!" he exclaimed, "How did you get here today? We 
 weren't looking for you until to-morrow evening. Otherwise 
 I would have been over to the tavern to meet the stage." 
 
 "Well," said his friend, "I was several hours ahead of schedule 
 all the way from Brownsville, and the boat from Memphis got 
 into St. Louis in time so that I could catch this morning's stage 
 
 THE SQUARE IN THE 80's 
 
 Looking North on Looking South on 
 
 Second Street Second Street 
 
 over; so here I am," and he grasped for a second time the hand 
 of his friend. 
 
 "Stephen," he said, "it's good to see you again. How long 
 is it? I haven't seen you since you left Wakeforest in 184^, 
 have I? We never seem to get back to New Hampshire at the 
 same time. And since your family moved out here you don't go 
 back often, anyway, do you? Of course I have to get back to 
 see my folks once in a while still, but you don't have any ties 
 left there at all." 
 
 "No, John," Stephen's voice was vibrant, "I've taken pretty 
 
4 "IN THE MIDST OF ROLLING PRAIRIES" 
 
 firm root in Illinois, and the biggest reason is — well, I'll show 
 you." 
 
 "Almira," he called. 
 
 A light step sounded in the adjoining room and at the open 
 door appeared a dark-haired, round-faced, serious-looking young 
 woman, who took John's proffered hand and said gravely but 
 graciously, "It gives me very great pleasure to meet Stephen's 
 friend. From the moment when I first met Stephen, I have 
 heard about John White. 1 have tried to recall some meeting 
 with you while you were in Greenville in 1837, but I cannot. 
 I guess I was too young to be impressed." 
 
 "I hope," said John White, bowing over her hand, "I have 
 better success on this occasion." 
 
 His eyes twinkled at her, and she responded with less se- 
 riousness, "Yes, John White. I assure you I am very much im- 
 pressed to meet a college president, and I believe we are going 
 to be very happy working out this plan which Stephen and I 
 wrote you about. I want to thank you for coming so promptly." 
 
 "And now," said she, "if you will excuse me, I'm going to get 
 supper out of the way so that we can have a long evening to 
 talk everything over." 
 
 As sounds of supper preparation came from the rooms to the 
 rear, the two men relaxed in happy conversation before the 
 open fire. It was a friendly fire; indeed, the room itself was 
 friendly. Light, airy, simply furnished, it warmed every com- 
 er with its welcome. Books scattered about and choice pictures 
 on the walls indicated the intellectual level of its occupants. 
 It was not the usual home of southern Illinois in 1854, for not 
 only its master but its mistress, also, was college-bred, a thing 
 most uncommon before the Civil War. 
 
 And more uncommon still, both of these pioneer home-makers 
 were advocates of education for women. It was this mutual in- 
 terest in college training for women • that had brought these 
 three people together on this evening of 1854. 
 
 Stephen was telling John about Almira's accomplishments 
 as they sat listening to her moving about in the dining room. 
 She had spent three years following her childhood education 
 in Mr. Wilcox's school for young ladies in St. Louis. But her 
 
THE DREAMERS 5 
 
 lather, Seth Blanchard, was not satisfied with what the St. Louis 
 environment could give her. Indeed, he had never been fond 
 of St. Louis. He had come out from Massachusetts in 1819 ex- 
 pecting to settle there, but after one year of disgust, as he put it, 
 with "the Frenchy atmosphere", he had moved fifty miles north- 
 east to a lovely stretch of land and here with his brothers had 
 taken 1600 acres, built his home and assisted the handful of 
 earliest settlers in surveying and laying out the little town of 
 Greenville. Of small moment to him was the fact that the very 
 
 ALMIRA'S PIANO 
 The first in Bond County 
 
 land in St. Louis which he had abandoned later became the 
 site of the great city court house. He was always devoted to 
 the town he had helped to found and concerned with main- 
 taining there, as far as possible, a contact with the Eastern culture 
 he had left behind. 
 
 For that reason, he insisted upon sending Almira^ after an 
 additional year at nearby Hillsboro Academy > to a famous school 
 for women at Middlebury, Vermont, where she became proficient 
 in music, drawing, painting, French and other subjects con- 
 sidered practical for young women in the 1830s. Then, de- 
 termined to make of his home a place where beauty could 
 blossom in the midst of wilderness, he had bought at great 
 
6 "IN THE MIDST OF ROLLING PRAIRIES" 
 
 cost a lovely hand-carved, rosewood piano in New York City 
 and, after its long journey around by the gulf and up the 
 Mississippi, had had it carefully hauled out from St. Louis 
 and installed in his house on the hill overlooking Green- 
 ville. It was the first piano in Bond county. 
 
 "And so," said Stephen, "I had to come clear out to Illinois 
 to find a girl with the education that you and I have always 
 said a young woman has a right to have." 
 
 "Do you remember," he continued, "how we used to talk 
 even in our prep days about the way our sister's education 
 was neglected? And when we were roommates at Brown I be- 
 lieve we discussed woman's rights as much as we talked about 
 slavery. Of course Wayland kept us alive on the question of 
 abolition, but — " 
 
 "Stephen," John broke in, "those are the two big issues still 
 so far as I am concerned. I'm here to talk to you about 
 woman's education in Illinois, but I'm getting out of the South 
 as fast as I can, for things are growing hotter there for a North- 
 erner. 
 
 "When I left the presidency of Wakeforest College two years 
 ago to take charge of Brownsville Female College, I thought 
 I might find an environment more friendly to a Yankee. Of 
 course, when I first went to Wakeforest I felt no sectional dis- 
 tinctions. You know how it was yourself; you were there from 
 '39 to '41, and I'm sure you never sensed any dislike for North- 
 erners. 
 
 "But a change has come over the South. Little by little I 
 found out what they were saying against me — 'A New Englander, 
 rude in speech and manner,' — 'A Northerner unfit to preside 
 over a Soi thern college.' I had to bear all sorts of impertin- 
 ences from students, and when the storm broke in the Baptist 
 state convention over a scandal involving the Raleigh Moderator, 
 and I had, in all conscience, to push the investigation, my rep- 
 utation in Carolina was gone. Even my best Baptist friends 
 resented the fact that a Northerner should be so aggressive in 
 the case. 
 
 "I suppose, Stephen," John's voice deepened with emotion, 
 "this hatred of injustice is bred in my very bones. None of us 
 
THE DREAMERS 7 
 
 trained by Wayland could be otherwise. If I see a wrong I've 
 got to fight it. And I can't live much longer in slave country 
 and keep still. 
 
 "The people at Brownsville are very kind. They are paying 
 me $1500 a year and furnishing a house to live in. Best of all, 
 my girls can all be at home while attending school. At Wake- 
 forest I would have had to send all four away. Another fine 
 thing about Brownsville is that some of my wife's relatives are 
 there. Mary's brother, Jonathan Merriam, and her sister Abbie 
 are on the faculty. 
 
 "But in spite of all these advantages, I cannot remain much 
 longer at Brownsville. My children are growing up in the 
 presence of the slave traffic and are learning to take it as a 
 matter of course. I can't bear it, Stephen. 
 
 "Imagine this! Aunt Amy, the old mammy who has taken 
 care of all my children, is buying her freedom, and her daughter's, 
 from me. From me, Stephen. Do you see why I say there are two 
 issues that have brought me here promptly in response to your 
 letter?" John reached over and laid his hand upon Stephen's 
 knee. 
 
 "Now the other — education for women — but here's Almira. 
 And after all I've just heard about her, I'm sure she must be 
 in on every discussion we have of that subject." 
 
 They rose to greet her and then went on out to the dining 
 room. But the mellow glow of candles, the welcome smell 
 of food, and the deep delight in friendship, once more renewed, 
 immersed them in such complete content that they could not pur- 
 sue the previous tenor of their conversation. It was too weighty 
 with problems, and matters of more personal import arose 
 spontaneously. First Almira must hear about John's Mary. 
 Where had she had her education? Where had John met her? 
 Was it true that she had interfered with John's legal career? 
 Did he really prefer teaching to presiding over an Illinois court? 
 How many children had they? And wasn't it wonderful to have 
 a daughter teaching on the same faculty with himself? 
 
 John White was only too happy to talk about Mary Merriam. 
 He had thought of her often to-day, particularly of her confession 
 to him as he had left, that she did not feel well, that she had 
 
8 
 
 IN THE MIDST OF ROLLING PRAIRIES' 
 
 not felt really well since they had come to Brownsville. He 
 wanted her here beside him; he wanted these friends to meet her, 
 to see her lovely oval face, to watch the light in her eyes, to feel 
 -the strong, calm spirit ^hat emanated from her-. He remembered 
 
 John B. 
 
 YOUNG MEN AT BROWN 
 White Stephen Morse 
 
 the small daguerreotype which he carried in his carpet bag and 
 went to find it. His friends were plainly impressed. Indeed, 
 anyone who saw Mary's face paused to look again. 
 
 "I can easily believe now," said Almira, "that you could never 
 do anything that she deeply disapproved." 
 
 "That's it," said John White. "You see, I was prepared for 
 either teaching or the law. Stephen and I had both gone back 
 to New Hampton Institute to teach after we received our M. A.'s 
 at Brown in 1832, and during our spare time we studied law and 
 prepared for a possible opening. Then in 1836 Stephen got 
 the fever for the West and, for the first time since we were young, 
 we boys were separated. 
 
THE DREAMERS 9 
 
 "I suppose he has told you how he settled at Alton after his 
 two weeks trip by boat down the Ohio and up the Mississippi. 
 Alton was on the boom in those days. But I don't need to tell 
 you about the rivalry between St. Louis and Alton, and the good 
 chance for a lawyer to hang out his shingle there and in a short 
 time have all the work he could handle. It wasn't long until 
 Stephen had persuaded me that teaching young boys and girls 
 in New Hampshire was pretty slow business and I had joined him 
 in Alton. 
 
 "Within a few months the opening came at Greenville and 
 almost before I knew it I was probate judge. Well, Mary and 
 I had been writing back and forth, and suddenly the little girl, 
 whose beauty had charmed me even when she was my pupil, 
 developed a mind of her own. She became convinced that no 
 lawyer could be a Christian, and she would not let the question 
 drop. It became a sore point between us, for I felt that in every 
 sense I could truly be called a Christian lawyer. But finally I 
 went back to talk it over with her, knowing that whatever her 
 opinion, I must not lose my Mary. 
 
 "Well, she was down in South Carolina, teaching school near 
 Wakeforest. Her uncle, Samuel Wait, was president of Wake- 
 forest College, its first president, in fact, and in need of more 
 teachers. He came right to me and pleaded with me to remain 
 and take the professorship of mathematics and natural philosophy. 
 So — between Mary and her uncle — what could I do? And — in 
 fairness to Mary — I must admit that subsequent observation has 
 convinced me that her opinion of the ethical code of lawyers is 
 correct in the main. 
 
 "There are exceptions, of course. From what I hear of this 
 Lincoln in your state a man can maintain his standard of hon- 
 esty. But I am glad Mary had her way. I became a minister 
 instead of a lawyer, and a college president instead of a judge. 
 You may be sure I wouldn't exchange my fifteen years of train- 
 ing young men at Wakeforest for the ministry for all the rewards 
 of the law." 
 
 The talk shifted then to the female seminary at Brownsville, 
 to the pioneer work which White was doing there, to the assist- 
 ance which he was anticipating from his own girls as they came 
 
10 "IN THE MIDST OF ROLLING PRAIRIES" 
 
 on. Emily was already giving some instruction in Latin, Juliette 
 was preparing to teach English, Lucie's interest was music, and 
 he hoped to send her to the conservatory at Boston. Little Annie 
 was too young still to forecast. But he and Mary were determined 
 that their girls should have their chance along with the boys, 
 John and William, for the best educational opportunities. 
 
 "Now," said White, as they left the table and settled them- 
 selves before the big fireplace, "tell me what the prospects are here." 
 
 Stephen and Almira, it seemed, ever since their marriage ten 
 }ears ago had been talking about higher education in southern 
 Illinois. "In fact," Almira remarked meditatively, "I suppose 
 one reason why I liked Stephen from the beginning was that he 
 was fair-minded on the subject of education." 
 
 They had followed with interest the history of college making 
 in that part of the state. They spoke of the founding of Rock 
 Springs Seminary, north of Alton, by the Baptist missionary, John 
 Mason Peck, in 1827. At the same time, they said, John Millot 
 Ellis had been looking over the state for a likely place for a 
 Presbyterian school. There was a quaint story of Ellis' com- 
 ing one day upon Peck as he felled the trees and cleared a place 
 for his building. 
 
 "What are you doing here, stranger?" Ellis asked. 
 
 "I am building a theological seminary," Peck replied. 
 
 In amazement Ellis exclaimed, "What, in these barrens?" 
 
 "Yes," said Peck, "I am planting the seed." 
 
 They had heard that Ellis discovered settlers along Shoal Creek 
 in Bond county who had intellectual interests and greater en- 
 thusiasm for his project than he had found elsewhere in the 
 state. These friends of learning went so far as to organize a 
 board of trustees and adopt a name for the proposed institution. 
 It was to have been called the Fairfield Literary and Theological 
 Seminary. But the plans of Ellis were thwarted by interference 
 from Presbyterians farther north around Springfield, and, as a 
 result, a founding was finally made at Jacksonville; Illinois 
 College was the outcome, one of the greatest schools of the state. 
 
 Rock Springs Seminary had been moved to Alton in 1831, and 
 in 1835, just before Morse and White went West for the first 
 time, had become Shurtleff College. Two of their mates from 
 
 O 
 
THE DREAMERS 11 
 
 the class of '32 at Brown, the Leverett twins, had come out in '36 
 to serve on the faculty of the newly chartered school. And Mary 
 Merriam's uncle, Jonathan, had been one of the early trustees 
 and had served as pastor at Upper Alton in 1839. 
 
 The rapid progress made by the Western Baptist Educational 
 Association after its organization in 1833 was known to them all. 
 Whereas in 1827 Rock Springs Seminary was the only Baptist 
 school between western New York and the Pacific coast, now 
 men might find training under church auspices all through the 
 Middle West, and several experiments in girls' schools were on 
 foot within Illinois. At Springfield, Canton, Carrollton, Peoria 
 and Rock Island female seminaries had opened their doors in 
 the last four years. The cause which had interested the two col- 
 lege boys at Brown had become a common cause, but Bond 
 county was still waiting for the institution of learning which 
 had passed it up back in 1827. 
 
 There was long and earnest conversation between the three 
 friends far into the night, until Almira, suddenly remembering 
 that their guest had travelled several days to meet them, sug- 
 gested that what remained to be said could wait until another 
 day. "But," said she, "let us pray now before w r e retire that God 
 may direct us in every decision we must make." They knelt in 
 earnest intercession, each one awed with a realization of the 
 great responsibility which rested upon them for carrying for- 
 ward the work begun by the early educational missionaries. Like 
 the Yale band on their mission West, they knew that "both 
 churches and schools must keep pace with the tide of migration," 
 and that the soundness of frontier civilization depended upon 
 the thoroughness with which the higher institutions of learning 
 pursued their task of disseminating Christian culture. 
 
 The dramatic significance of their proposed enterprise stirred 
 the imagination of Almira and appealed to her deepest sense of 
 devotion. For some days a question had been recurring to her: 
 What could she contribute personally to the education of Illinois 
 girls? Like all Christian women of her day she cherished a be- 
 lief which can hardly be dismissed as mere mid-Victorian senti- 
 mentality that women are the makers of the race. To her a 
 woman's college was an indispensable factor in pioneer progress. 
 
12 '72V THE MIDST OF ROLLING PRAIRIES" 
 
 In the morning after meditation and prayer about the family 
 altar she announced her decision. Her portion from the estate 
 of her uncle would soon be coming to her; she would turn it 
 all toward the founding of the new college. An initial gift of 
 $6000 would launch the project with sufficient impetus to at- 
 tract other donors. 
 
 "Well," announced John White, "that settles one question 
 — we shall have a college at Greenville. And are we agreed on 
 the next one, that it shall be a woman's college?" 
 
 Further discussion was irrelevant, for from the beginning there 
 had been a tacit understanding between Morse and White that 
 their particular interest lay in that direction. Now all circum- 
 stances indicated that the time had come lor the accomplishment 
 of their long cherished desire. 
 
 A problem which received lengthier consideration and prayer 
 was the nature of the proposed institution. Should it be a 
 private enterprise, as were many girls' schools of the time, or 
 should it be an act of incorporation, authorized by the state 
 and sponsored by the Baptist church? The latter alternative 
 was finally chosen to insure, so they felt, greater perpetuity to 
 the institution. 
 
 With these initiatory decisions made, the three friends were 
 ready to consider a site. Already Stephen and Almira had oc- 
 casionally entertained themselves by choosing a location and 
 planning a building. After much friendly controversy a heavily 
 wooded section not far from the village square was contracted 
 for. It faced upon Main Street and was bounded on the east by 
 Locust Street, on the west by Prairie Street. At the north it ex- 
 tended beyond the Vandalia Road. That it was more extensive 
 than would be required for a college campus was fully rec- 
 ognized; the entire tract was taken with the intention of selling 
 off single lots for home building, thus providing for a small 
 college subdivision, as well as for returns from the land invest- 
 ment. 
 
 With a satisfied sense of auspicious beginnings, John White 
 boarded the stage a few days later and turned his face again to- 
 ward Tennessee. A local committee of citizens interested in 
 
THE DREAMERS 13 
 
 education had been tentatively selected and Morse was ready to 
 proceed as business manager of the project. 
 
 On December first, 1854, this original executive committee 
 met and left on file its first minutes, the sum and substance of 
 which were that "Stephen Morse secure if possible 70,000 brick 
 for the purpose of erecting a building for a preparatory depart- 
 ment," and that at the next meeting each member present a plan 
 for this building. 
 
 Further executive sessions during December determined that, 
 since no brick were to be had immediately, this first building 
 should be made of wood, that it have two stories, and that its 
 dimensions be twenty-four by thirty-two feet. The contract was 
 let for $1350, and $500 was borrowed on the credit of the com- 
 mittee. From the beginning Stephen Morse threw into the en- 
 terprise a generous portion of his personal fortune and the mem- 
 bers of the committee gave liberally also. 
 
 By May first, 1855, the new building was ready to be turned 
 over to the incoming president when he finished his year at 
 Brownsville. A meeting was called on Christmas day, 1854, to 
 give an official invitation to John White to become "principal 
 of the Female College in Greenville and act as General Agent for 
 the committee." Eight hundred dollars was alloted him as salary 
 for the first two years, about half of what he was receiving at 
 Brownsville. In addition he was granted travelling expenses 
 and the use of the building then in process of construction, with 
 all that could be made from a school conducted therein. 
 
 The next problem to be dealt with by the committee was the 
 securing of material for further building. It finally became 
 evident that the most expedient method would be to manufac- 
 ture brick upon the spot, and so a certain James Caton was en- 
 gaged "to make 500,000 brick on the college grounds for $4.75 
 per thousand," these to be finished by November first, 1855. 
 At the same meeting plans were made for laying out the col 
 lege campus. 
 
 As spring came on this spot of land, which had awakened 
 from its winter sleep to the call of the cardinal for ages unaware 
 of its destiny in the lives of young men and women, became the 
 scene of lively activity. The heavy tree growth at the eastern 
 
14 "IN THE MIDST OF ROLLING PRAIRIES" 
 
 end of the tract was thinned out and logs were brought to feed 
 the fires in the brick kiln or were stored away for use in the fire- 
 places of the schoolmaster's residence. Other workers marked out 
 the limits of the college campus and planted elm trees of speci- 
 fied size — four inches in diameter — about the square. Already 
 in the imagination of the Morses a spacious building stood look- 
 ing down "a vista of stately elms." 
 
 Down in Tennessee with the White family there was also 
 great busyness. John mapped out the first financial appeals 
 which were to be followed up by summer travels and shaped the 
 course of study for the prep school, which was to open in the fall. 
 Mary prepared for the trip which she was to take to northern 
 Illinois in late March. Her parents lived now at Tremont, 
 Illinois, and the plan was for Mary and the children to go ahead 
 and make a long visit there while John finished his work at 
 Brownsville and prepared the new home in Greenville for their 
 coming in July. Emily, only, was to remain with her father, 
 in order to complete her year's contract with the seminary. 
 
 In late March the little party left Brownsville by buggy for 
 Memphis. There they boarded their first river boat, which 
 brought them as far as St. Louis. At that place a momentous 
 event in the White family history took place: Aunt Amy, Uncle 
 Anthony, their daughter, Hester, Uncle Ross and Aunt Riny — 
 all the slaves, who had served them in Carolina and Tennessee — 
 received their freedom. Of course, Aunt Amy and Uncle Anthony 
 went on with Mrs. White, for they could not be separated from 
 the family whom they loved. 
 
 With a gay wave of farewell John looked down the row of 
 happy faces, big and little, black and white, ranged above the 
 deck railing of the Illinois river boat. They were now on the 
 last lap of their journey; at Pekin river travel would end, and 
 grandpa and grandma Merriam would carry them by horse and 
 buggy over to Tremont. 
 
 Little did he dream that less than a month later he and Emily 
 would be boarding the same boat in a frantic race with death. 
 Mary had not been well, but he trusted to the change in scene 
 and occupation to work a cure. Some ten days after his return 
 to Brownsville there came a letter saying that she was rapidly 
 
THE DREAMERS 15 
 
 growing worse, and, immediately, he and Emily set off over the 
 same course, but with what different outlook. The boats were 
 slow, and at Pekin, where he had expected a conveyance or 
 some word, at least, he had to hire a carriage. 
 
 Then, arriving in the outskirts of Tremont, he found himself 
 at the end of a procession returning, apparently, from the grave- 
 yard, and, inquiring with faltering words whose funeral it might 
 be. he was told, "Mrs. White's, you know, who was visiting the 
 Merriams." The shock was almost more than he could bear. 
 He wrote to his mother back in New Hampshire, "In vain will 
 it be to describe my feelings," and then in his effort to find 
 expression he set down in glowing terms the characteristics he 
 had loved in her: 
 
 "She possessed energy, intelligence and piety for any sphere 
 and all was bestowed with the most untiring industry to adorn 
 home and make hers the happiest of homes. She was successful, 
 too. More as a companion, wife and mother could be desired in 
 no human being . . . Seldom or never have I met with anyone, 
 even as a companion, that excelled in amiability, sprightliness 
 and a deeply interesting intelligence." 
 
m*»i 
 
 JOHN B1RQWN WHITE 
 
CHAPTER II 
 THE DREAM COMES TRUE 
 
 And now what should be done with the Greenville project? 
 He had intended to travel all summer lor its promotion, but 
 double parental duties must be his henceforth. He appealed 
 to his mother, telling her how William, his youngest, then be- 
 tween four and five years of age, had entered his room as he was 
 writing and stood looking as if he wanted something, then put- 
 ting his arms affectionately around his father's neck had said, 
 "Will not Grandma White come and live with us little children?" 
 
 This hope unrealized, the youngest children were left with the 
 Merriams in Tremont for a time and the other four accompan- 
 ied their father to Greenville and set up a home with Aunt Amy 
 as cook and housekeeper. There heroically he carried forward 
 the work of the summer, and in September the prep school 
 opened on the second floor of his small residence. 
 
 No records remain to indicate the number of students nor 
 the nature of the course of study, but a beginning was made 
 and in the mean time White and his committee threw themselves 
 energetically into the task of raising funds. In November, 1855, 
 the first installment from subscriptions came in, and, shortly after, 
 a walk was built from the college premises to the town square, 
 "across Raspberry Alley, Prairie Street, Mulberry Alley and First 
 Street" — so read the minutes. Immediately the college began 
 its contribution to the material improvement of the little village, 
 which was at this time about 500 in population. 
 
 For a year the bricks for the large building were in the making. 
 In May, 1856, they were inspected by the committee, found 
 merchantable, and settlement was made. Another summer of 
 soliciting funds passed, White being assisted by interested friends 
 West and East. Then in August came the day when the com- 
 mittee authorized White and another member "to proceed to 
 Jacksonville to visit the public buildings there, and confer with 
 an architect." A plan, drawn by J. O. Johnson of Jacksonville, 
 
18 "IN THE MIDST OF ROLLING PRAIRIES" 
 
 was adopted in September and a contract was let for the con- 
 struction of as large a section of it as was warranted by the funds 
 on hand. 
 
 The following February a charter for one more Illinois col- 
 lege was passed by the legislature and approved by Governor 
 Bissell. The name of this college was Almira. Many names 
 and many sums had been added to Almira Blanchard Morse's 
 initial $6000 but to her name unquestionably belonged the hon- 
 or, for, in the words of future Almira women, "she gave all that 
 she had." 
 
 The founders met at the Baptist church of Greenville, June 
 4, 1857, and, after an address by Rev. H. G. Wiston of 
 Peoria, adjourned to the upstairs school room to hear a re- 
 port from John White. $11,500 had been subscribed. Thirty 
 trustees were selected, and officers elected to head the first board. 
 Those intrusted with this responsibility were Alexander Buie, 
 President; Stephen Morse, Treasurer; and W. D. H. Johnson, 
 Secretary. 
 
 For another year instruction was given in the small frame 
 building, while White divided his time between teaching and 
 travelling the field. In July of 1858 he reported that during the 
 year he had travelled as agent 4756 miles. Through all the 
 adjoining states he had gone, sometimes by horse and buggy, 
 sometimes by stage-coach, but seldom by train, for railroads 
 were still rare in the Middle West. The closest connection 
 with St. Louis by rail was through Carlyle; not until 1868 did 
 the St. Louis, Vandalia and Terre Haute Railroad, later to 
 become the last division of the Pennsylvania line, complete its 
 route through Greenville. The task of making friends for the 
 new college was strenuous, indeed, but it was accomplished by 
 untiring industry and invariable tact. The consequence was that 
 after a few years Almira drew students from Indiana, Wisconsin, 
 Missouri, and Tennessee as well as from the immediate territory, 
 and the friends and supporters of the institution extended across 
 the country from the Mississippi to Boston. 
 
 After 1857 John White occasionally had company on his horse 
 and buggy trips, for in that year he remarried. Elizabeth Rich- 
 ardson Wright was the young woman whom he chose to make a 
 
THE DREAM COMES TRUE 19 
 
 home for his six children and assist him in his educational designs. 
 She, too, was a New Englander, and from a family active in the 
 causes of religion and education. The name of her uncle, Stephen 
 Olin, was well known in the history of early American Method- 
 ism. She, herself, was a teacher of no mean ability. She had 
 taught twelve years in Springfield when White met her, and 
 had made a place for herself not only in the educational sphere 
 but in social and political circles as well. Among her immediate 
 friends was the man who a short time hence was to make Illinois 
 famous throughout the world. Later Mrs. White was to tell 
 Almira girls how she used to meet Mr. Lincoln each morning on 
 her way to school and exchange pleasantries with him. 
 
 In her new role as stepmother she was immediately and un- 
 usually successful. Her brilliance of mind won the admiration 
 of her older daughters, and her personal magnetism and great 
 goodness of heart bound them all, little and big, to her. The 
 work of building a college went on smoothly under her skillful 
 management of the home and the dormitory quarters, and her 
 intelligent cooperation in civic affairs. 
 
 One of the town projects which engaged her enthusiastic 
 efforts soon after her coming to Greenville was the new Library 
 Association which Almira and a few of her friends had organ- 
 ized about a year before. It was by this time well established, 
 thanks to the industry and financial skill of the founders. They 
 were all expert seamstresses and at the outset had cleared seventy 
 dollars from a sale of such feminine commodities as sunbonnets, 
 night caps and pantalettes. This initial fund had been loaned to 
 Stephen at the munificent rate of ten per cent, and before the 
 year was over $100 was ready to spend upon the desired books. 
 A closet in the friendly living room which had welcomed John 
 White upon his arrival in Greenville became the depository 
 of these books and to this home-made library came the readers 
 of current literature. The Ladies Library Association soon drew 
 the support of all the civic minded women of the town. 
 
 Another occupation which absorbed much of Elizabeth Wright 
 White's time was the landscaping of the college grounds. She 
 possessed more than the customary information known to 
 women of that time concerning trees, flowers, and shrubs. 
 
20 "IN THE MIDST OF ROLLING PRAIRIES" 
 
 and by adding each year abundant and varied plantings she 
 finally produced a campus which had uncommon botanical interest 
 as well as natural beauty. 
 
 As political affairs in the state converged more and more closely 
 with the development of national issues, John and Elizabeth 
 White assumed their share of Greenville's participation in the 
 coming struggle. With their New England training, they could 
 be nothing but ardent abolitionists and clashed often with the 
 descendants of Southern settlers who had come in large numbers 
 lo early Bond county. 
 
 The opportunity for the Whites and their college family to 
 take a public stand on the question came in 1858 when Douglas 
 and Lincoln in turn visited Greenville in the course of their 
 campaigning. The statewide debates, of which there had been 
 seven, were over; Douglas had refused to continue them, and 
 Lincoln was now following Douglas in his rounds of speech making. 
 
 On the day Douglas had spoken Lincoln's men had placarded 
 trees, fences, buildings, and windows with signs reading, "One 
 week from today Abraham Lincoln will appear in this town to 
 reply to the speech of S. A. Douglas." With great enthusiasm 
 Greenville abolitionists prepared for the coming of their cham- 
 pion. Colcord's grove south of town was transformed into an 
 open-air auditorium with rough seats made from boards laid 
 upon small uprights, and near at hand tables were spread to 
 accommodate hundreds of people at a great barbeque dinner. 
 
 When the appointed hour came Lincoln, wearing a loose linen 
 duster over his suit of homespun, slowly raised his gangling 
 length from a low, platform chair by grasping the rude reading 
 desk which stood before him, and, making an awkward gesture 
 with his right hand stretched at arm's length, he began talking in 
 a quiet, natural tone of voice. He first conceded the virtues of 
 his opponent by saying, "I understand my friend, Judge Douglas, 
 was here the other day. He is a great jurist, an eminent lawyer, 
 a fine debater and an able statesman, who has done honor to his 
 state and country." 
 
 With that he proceeded to read from a slip of paper the first 
 argument used by his opponent and, after tearing it verbally to 
 pieces, threw it out into the crowd. The effect upon the listen- 
 
THE DREAM COMES TRUE 21 
 
 ers was instantaneous, impressed as they were at the beginning 
 with the justice of Lincoln's recommendation of his opponent, 
 and stirred in turn by the logic of his refutation. This effective 
 method of appeal was repeated over and over until Lincoln had 
 the crowd on their feet, shouting hysterically and fully won to 
 his support. 
 
 That evening he was the honored guest of the town at an ice 
 cream social held at the Robinson home. In the many windows 
 on the first and second floors high candles blazed, one at each 
 of the twelve panes. This was the brilliant background for a 
 lawn party which was the talk of Almira college girls, in fact 
 of all townspeople, for years after. They never forgot the entrance 
 of Lincoln at the archway where all comers paid the twenty-five 
 cent admission fee which entitled them to eat all the home- 
 made ice cream they wanted. So tall, they said, he was that he had 
 to stoop to get in, and again at the arbor where the ice cream 
 was served from a large can set in a tub of cracked ice he had 
 difficulty in entering. They remembered his long, beautiful 
 hands and his expressive eyes, which were quiet and kind as 
 he chatted with the girls and boys, but glowed with hidden fire 
 when later in the evening he gave a short, political talk. 
 
 Greenville was one of the few towns of its size — it was now 
 approaching one thousand in population — to be visited by Lincoln. 
 Perhaps it was the unusual group of forward-looking citizens that 
 drew him hither. He commented upon the intellectuality and 
 peacableness of Bond county people and remarked that, although 
 all the surrounding counties had frequently required his legal 
 services, Bond had so little litigation that he had never been 
 called here. 
 
 Civic support of the new college continued steadfast. In 
 May of this year the brick building was occupied for the first 
 time, although only two rooms besides the chapel hall at the 
 east end were complete. However, in the fall the formal opening 
 took place. One wing was completed, and somehow room was 
 found for one hundred and nine girls. Of course many of 
 these were day students from town, yet the catalogue of pupils 
 names a great variety of residences, including points so far remote 
 as Waterford, Tennessee, and Harper's Ferry, Virginia. 
 
22 "IN THE MIDST OF ROLLING PRAIRIES" 
 
 In this first catalogue, White presented the town of Greenville 
 as "remarkably healthy, being situated on the most elevated lands 
 between the Mississippi and Wabash rivers," and mentioned its 
 stage connections tri-weekly with Hillsboro, Vandalia and Carlyle, 
 each twenty miles distant. Of the prospects for the future of 
 Almira he wrote, "the work of founding this institution has been 
 going steadily forward for the last four years. Half the building 
 is already finished. The plan for finishing the dormitories, 
 and other rooms, is that any person, or society, subscribing a 
 sufficient sum to finish and furnish one room will be entitled 
 to one scholarship for a year." 
 
 "From the engraving," he says, "may be obtained an idea of 
 the new and spacious building. It presents one hundred and 
 sixty-two feet front, and it contains seventy-two large and ele- 
 gant rooms." 
 
 The first faculty to enjoy the comforts (and possibly the dis- 
 comforts) of these "large and elegant rooms" was entirely feminine 
 with the exception of the presiding officer. Six young women 
 stood with President and Mrs. White to welcome students and 
 townspeople at the monthly receptions of that first school year. 
 They were Frances H. Chase, teacher of intellectual philosophy 
 and drawing, Marcia Savage, teacher of mathematics and French, 
 Emily M. White, by now an experienced teacher of Latin and 
 higher English, Lucinda C. Ford, announced as teacher of 
 English branches, Leonora L. Ormsby, director of the primary 
 department, and Lucie C. White, the second daughter of John 
 White, who, after one year of study at Boston conservatory, 
 and one year of teaching at Bluff Springs Seminary in Tennessee, 
 had returned to Almira as teacher of vocal and instrumental 
 music. Instruction in natural sciences and Greek fell to the 
 lot of President White. 
 
 The course of study comprehended three stages in the pur- 
 suit of learning: a primary department, which might be de- 
 scribed as the near equivalent of a rural school course of today, 
 were it not for the inclusion of Swift's Easy Lessons in Philosophy 
 and Wood's First Lessons in Botany; a preparatory course of two 
 years, which offered, in addition to the usual high school branches, 
 the study of "Watts on the Mind" and "Smith's Astronomy"; and 
 
THE DREAM COMES TRUE 23 
 
 a collegiate course of three years which ranged through the 
 usual college subjects such as Latin, history, rhetoric, geology 
 and chemistry, and reserved for the third year the more knotty 
 problems of intellectual philosophy, moral science, natural the- 
 ology, political economy and evidences of Christianity. 
 
 "Those who finish the college course," it was announced, " will 
 be entitled to a diploma." "In addition to this," continued the 
 announcement, "there will be for the Second Degree a course 
 of two years." This, it would appear, was a non-scientific cur- 
 riculum featuring the study of Greek, philosophy, mathematics 
 and the Bible. It included such texts as Kame's Elements of 
 Criticism, and Butler's Analogy, and Whately's Rhetoric, famil- 
 iar to college students of a century ago. A supplementary note 
 gave recognition to the required subjects of composition, read- 
 ing, writing, vocal music and calisthenics, in each of which there 
 were regular exercises each week for every student. 
 
 Commencement of 1859 saw the first conferring of degrees. Two 
 young women, Miss Louisa Howell, of Mascoutah, and Miss 
 Kate Slowey of Benton, successfully passed the examinations 
 and came up for the anniversary exercises, as they were then 
 called. 
 
 For five years the arduous task of assuring for Almira College 
 a permanent existence continued without abatement. The strug- 
 gle with debt was severe. Loans made by Eastern friends could 
 be met only by personal notes from the members of the execu- 
 tive committee. Finally, even these were declined. Additional 
 agents were appointed to assist White in the field. Lots in the 
 tract adjoining the college campus continued to be sold. By 
 1864 about $10,000 had come in from these transactions and 
 the sale of other lands donated to the college. Subscriptions 
 up to that time amounted to about $20,000. But the amount 
 of expenditures exceeded these totals by almost $19,000. Again 
 Stephen Morse came to the rescue and offered to provide $15,000 
 of this sum if the other members of the executive committee 
 would supply the balance. Their response was generous, John 
 White, however, giving the lion's share of $2000 out of his 
 slender earnings. 
 
 Life in the little college went on very happily during these 
 
24 "IN THE MIDST OF ROLLING PRAIRIES" 
 
 five years, regardless of the fact that frequently the well-modulat- 
 ed voices of the lady instructors had to compete with the rasp of 
 saw and thud of hammer as a new room came to completion. The 
 catalogue authorized by the board for publication in 1863 an- 
 nounced a faculty of eight persons, one of whom was the Mon- 
 sieur S. M. Morel, who presided over the department of modern 
 languages. Another member of distinction was Miss Mary A. 
 Davis, M.L.A. from Groton, Massachusetts, who taught Greek 
 and natural and moral sciences. President White now had 
 classes in history, intellectual philosophy and evidences of Chris- 
 tianity. Miss Florence Holden, who was later to be con- 
 nected with Almira in other capacities, taught higher English. 
 
 Most of White's faculties were Eastern trained and interested 
 in a program of broader scope than that of the finishing school 
 of that day. In his statement of the aims of Almira, White said, 
 "Its object is to secure for females, not only an accomplished edu- 
 cation but one as thorough and as liberal as is enjoyed by the 
 other sex." He believed, however, as did all educators of that 
 day, that some distinction should be made between schools for 
 men and those for women. This he made clear in his description 
 of the "Intellectual Culture" of Almira. 
 
 "The range," he said, "given to this will be seen more fully 
 from the course of studies. In adopting it, reference has been 
 made partly to the different pursuits of life between the male 
 and female, partly to the peculiar mental characteristics of the 
 sex, and partly to secure a thorough mental discipline, and de- 
 velop the tastes and strength of the most favored minds. A 
 wide range has been given to language and general literature, 
 as well as the natural sciences, and as peculiarly appropriate to 
 female tastes and pursuits." 
 
 The chief justification, perhaps, for a woman's college in 
 those days was the special attention it could give to the develop- 
 ment of "proper social and domestic habits." "These," the 1863 
 catalogue declared, "are of primary importance, and without 
 them no female can adorn her residence with the charms of 
 home. Social decorum may be taught in the recitation room, 
 but domestic habits, if improved at all in school, will be from its 
 home-like arrangements, and from its silent and family influences 
 
THE DREAM COMES TRUE 25 
 
 thrown around the pupils. The internal and domestic arrange- 
 ment of the establishment will be so directed as to develop order 
 and neatness as a model for housekeeping." 
 
 Special mention was made in this bulletin of further benefits 
 to be gained from the beautiful campus surroundings . . . "the 
 grounds are so cultivated as to afford amusement and exercise 
 for pupils, and also to enlarge their knowledge of flowers and 
 shrubbery, fruits and trees, that so much beautify home and 
 render it attractive. Upward of three hundred varieties of these, 
 besides about fifty of the choicest house plants, were cultivated 
 last year, affording recreation and amusement to the young 
 ladies." Mrs. White's avocation of floriculture had produced 
 abundant results. 
 
 The founders of Almira College left no doubt as to the place 
 religious training occupied in their educational designs. Every 
 catalogue contained some such statement as the one incorporated 
 in the 1863 announcement: "A constant aim will be to make 
 it (the college) the center of all Christian influences, and a 
 nursery of every good and noble enterprise. Teachers of gen- 
 erous impulses and elevated piety will be employed, who will 
 make the Holy Scriptures the basis of government and religious 
 instruction, and inculcate such obligations of love to God, and 
 sympathy for all great Christian efforts, as to win the favor of 
 good men, and receive the blessings of our Heavenly Father. ' 
 

CHAPTER III 
 THE DREAMERS PASS 
 
 In the summer of 1864 immediately following the heroic ef- 
 forts of White and Morse to free Almira College from its bondage 
 to debt there came to Greenville and the surrounding section 
 of Illinois a crisis in Civil War events. For three years guerrilla 
 warfare had been going on, fanned frequently to a flame by the 
 activities of Clingman, a notorious horsethief, and his band, in 
 the counties of Bond, Montgomery and Fayette. At one time 
 an attacking party of six hundred citizens assembled to meet 
 Clingman near Van Burensburg, and many times small parties 
 were sent out. Finally one hundred guns and the necessary am- 
 munition were stored for the use of Greenville, and a military 
 post was proposed. Later in the year this was actually established. 
 Every night the streets of Greenville were patrolled, and, what 
 with the news from the battlefield each day, brought from St. 
 Louis, via Carlyle by stage coach, and the constant rumors of 
 possible raids from Clingman, the atmosphere was conducive 
 neither to quiet study nor to placid home life. 
 
 Furthermore, John White could no longer be content with 
 so passive a part when the great issues which had so long distressed 
 him had reached their crisis. He must find some place of active 
 service. On August 4 he enlisted, but it was October 12 before 
 he was mustered in. 
 
 In *the meantime Mrs. White had made some decisions, and 
 the older girls, also, had matured some private plans. Fearing 
 to stay longer in Greenville, where the terrors of war seemed 
 inescapably present, the family resolved to remove to northern 
 Illinois. With them was to go Miss Mary A. Davis, M.L.A., their 
 accomplished teacher of Greek and science. The scheme which 
 the girls, aided and abetted by their father, had on foot is in- 
 dicated by a letter which Lucie wrote to her soldier lover on 
 August 28 from Champaign, Illinois. 
 
28 "IN THE MIDST OF ROLLING PRAIRIES" 
 
 ' 'Juliette and Miss Davis will have a select school for young 
 ladies here this winter beginning in October,' she says. 
 
 " 'On the strength of that decision father sent Juliette and me 
 up here to get acquainted, etc. — also to buy or rent a house and 
 be ready to receive the family in about ten days . . . . ' 
 
 " 'I am still undecided as to my course this fall. As I expected, 
 Father is very anxious for me to teach here and thinks I can do 
 so and still attend to my studies. I cannot see it thus and have 
 almost decided to go East. I feel now is my last opportunity.' " 
 
 Incidentally, Miss Lucie neither went East to finish her musical 
 education nor remained long at Champaign to assist in the fin- 
 ishing school, for her colonel came suddenly home on leave in 
 the fall, proposed immediate marriage, and took Lucie off to 
 his farm home. The place which love of country occupied in 
 the emotions of young college women of that day is set forth in 
 one of Lucie's letters just before her marriage. 
 
 " 'Our country's interests,' " she writes, " 'are and should be 
 first in our hearts at the sacrifice of every other feeling. These 
 words of the immortal Shakespeare — "Let all the ends thou aim'st 
 at be thy country's, thy God's and truth's; then if thou fall'st 
 a blessed martyr!" — are no less noble and true today, than when 
 written two hundred years ago. There can be no higher or 
 nobler title than to be called a true patriot.' " 
 
 For nine months John White served as chaplain for the 117th 
 111. Vol. Inf. Upon his discharge in August, 1865, he and his 
 family went to Upper Alton, where a similar school for girls was 
 opened. John White sponsored both of these enterprises. But 
 Almira was calling insistently for his return. 
 
 During his three years absence the Rev. D. P. French had been 
 acting as president and financial agent. Academic affairs for 
 part of this time had been directed by women principals. Miss 
 Marcia Savage and Miss Chaplin each served a half year in 
 this capacity. The Morses, too, for a time held staff positions. 
 
 For some time before this, French had assisted White as field 
 agent and had exhibited particular ability in raising funds. 
 During the years of his presidency he collected $7000 and com- 
 pleted the west half of the building. Heartened by the prospect 
 
THE DREAMERS PASS 
 
 29 
 
 of a solvent institution, the Greenville citizens raised another 
 $5000 and invited White back. 
 
 The ten years which followed were the great years in Almira's 
 history. The women's colleges which had opened in northern 
 Illinois in the early fifties had had a mushroom existence and 
 were entirely gone by the end of the war. Of the Illinois schools 
 under Baptist auspices in 1867, Shurtleff College, Chicago Uni- 
 versity* and Almira were the only ones in thriving condition. 
 The fame of Almira spread. 
 For a time enrollment was 
 so heavy that President White 
 had to advertise that no 
 more students could be ac- 
 commodated. 
 
 Through trains from In- 
 dianapolis to St. Louis, which 
 after 1870 numbered four- 
 teen a day, brought in the 
 fashionably gowned, hoop- 
 skirted young misses from 
 the towns and cities, while 
 the stages, which still ran 
 from up-country, or the fam- 
 ily surreys, brought the rosy- 
 cheeked girls from the farms 
 and the villages. Rates at 
 Almira were always kept low, 
 in order, as President White 
 said, "to bring its advantages 
 within the reach of persons 
 of moderate means, and en- 
 able it to accomplish an im- 
 portant public work." 
 
 The spacious building, which had been so long in the process 
 
 GIRLS OF 1865 
 
 *This predecessor of the present Chicago University was founded, 
 like Almira, in 1857. In 1886 it surrendered its charter, and in 1891 
 the new university was founded. 
 
30 "IN THE MIDST OF ROLLING PRAIRIES" 
 
 of becoming, had now fifty dormitory rooms, every one of which 
 was astir with school girl life. The school day began early with 
 the clang of the rising bell sounding through the halls at six 
 o'clock. Immediately the girls must jump out of bed and begin 
 the hour's work if they were to escape deduction on their merit 
 cards for tardiness or untidiness. The rule governing such mat- 
 ters read, "Deportment should be perfect, as deductions are made 
 only for irregularities and bad habits, such as idleness and in- 
 attention to studies, absence without excuse, unladylike conduct 
 and want of neatness and order." 
 
 Every moment counted. Kindling had to be brought from 
 the wood-box just outside the door, and a fire nursed carefully 
 to the staying stage. Next one's toilet was made, and toilets were 
 no small undertaking — consider the prevailing methods of hair 
 dressing. Then the walnut beds with their straw-filled ticks and 
 their bright homemade quilts must be shaken and tucked into 
 order, and dust — every speck of it — must be removed from com- 
 mode tops and dressers. If there were flower pots on the deep 
 window seats, and there usually were, the verbenas or geraniums 
 had to be watered. After that came the grand finale procession 
 of slop-pails down three flights of stairs and out through the 
 chilly morning air to the nineteenth century predecessors of our 
 modern pastel-tinted bathrooms. 
 
 Early morning duties over, the group of chattering girls pro- 
 ceeded as swiftly as ladylikeness allowed toward the large hall 
 at the west end of the lower floor. It took no effort to discover 
 an appetite. Tantalizing smells of coffee floated out from the 
 kitchen, and sights of golden Johnny cake, heaped high beside 
 platters of fried eggs met the eye upon entrance to the dining room. 
 
 In no time at all it was eight o'clock and chapel bell rang. Usually 
 President White or one of the teachers had charge, but occasion- 
 ally a visiting speaker came in, sometimes an old time evangelist, 
 such as old Peter Long, whose nasal tones and interminable ahs 
 at the end of his words would have convulsed the girls with laugh- 
 ter had not their president warned them in advance of their 
 guest's peculiarities. 
 
 Immediately afterward, study and recitation began. The 
 chapel was used as study hall. Only by special arrangement 
 
THE DREAMERS PASS 31 
 
 could girls of good study habits occupy their rooms during the 
 day, and $4.50 a cord was the extra charge lor wood. The rooms 
 in the lower hall, except those needed for culinary purposes, were 
 the meeting places for the classes. Here occurred those unforget- 
 able discussions of current affairs, of ethical problems, of poetry 
 and history and foreign literatures that constitute the most im- 
 
 Program of Commencement Mnsic. 
 
 Rovoil du Lion-Op. 115 DeKONTSKI. 
 
 (Two Pianos— Four Performers.) 
 
 L'Africainc RAFF. 
 
 Priest's March Mendelssohn. 
 
 (Two Pianos— Four Performers.) 
 M arc-he Aux Flambeaux Scotson- Clark. 
 
 (Two Pianos— Four Performers.) 
 Les Preludes LlSZT. 
 
 (Two Pianos— Two Performers.) 
 
 Rhapsody Hongroise, No. 2 LISZT. 
 
 Sonata-Allegro— Andante BEETHOVEN. 
 
 LeProphete Meybbbeeb. 
 
 (Two Pianos- Two Performers.) 
 
 Overture to Zampa HAROLD. 
 
 Vocal Duet— Alpine Morning KUCKEN. 
 
 Trio— 1 Waited for the Lord MENDELSSOHN. 
 
 Vocal Solo— Sancta Marie. Faube. 
 
 Double Trio— Cuckoo HlLLEB. 
 
 Vocal Quartette— t;i) The Angelus Bells,; n _ VllI , 
 
 (b) old Folks at Home, \ UE VILLA - 
 
 Vocal Duet— 'Till We Meet Again. BAILEY. 
 
 Voc 1 Solo— LeTortorelle Arditi. 
 
 Vocal Trio— Lift Thine E>es Mendelssohn. 
 
 Vocal Solo— (a) Barcarolle Schdbebt. 
 
 (b) Last night KJEBULF. 
 
 FROM THE MUSIC SCHOOL OF 1887 
 
 portant part of a college education. Here occurred, also, oc- 
 casionally those humorous incidents that gray-haired women love 
 to tell their grandchildren. 
 
 A favorite one related to Professor White. One day after he 
 had replenished the smouldering fire with a fresh stick from the 
 wood-box just outside the door, he had seated himself and was 
 resuming his instruction. Suddenly he rose and grasped his 
 right sleeve with his left hand. Very quietly he moved toward 
 
32 "IN THE MIDST OF ROLLING PRAIRIES" 
 
 the door, still continuing the discussion. At the door he paused 
 and, looking pointedly at his daughter asked, ''May I speak to 
 you, Juliette?" 
 
 Once outside the closed door, he explained, "Juliette, there was a 
 mouse came in with that stick of wood. Will you please help me 
 get it?" 
 
 Dinner was served at noon in those days. Much that appeared 
 on the tables was grown in the large garden which lay near 
 the barn well back from the building. Here, also, was a rapidly 
 developing orchard, where pears, apples, and peaches tempted 
 the appetites of hungry girls. 
 
 In the afternoon, study and recitation continued from one 
 until three or shortly after. Lessons in drawing and music were 
 given on the second floor. The practice rooms for students of 
 piano were here, also, and the teachers' studios. This was a 
 busy department. Even in 1864 when Lucie White was assist- 
 ant instructor, most of the girls studied piano. She wrote to a 
 friend, "I have been trying for several days to find time to an- 
 swer your most welcome letter but could not. This year we 
 have 95 girls. This week Miss Palmer was at home . . . and in 
 addition to my usual number of lessons I have had all of hers, 
 which occupied my entire time from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m. I did 
 quite often heartily wish we had a Great Instrument or some 
 other machine for grinding out musicians." 
 
 From the close of classes until supper time at five, the schedule 
 provided for "Recreation and Exercise." Exercise meant walking, 
 that is, a daily promenade — an event which interested every cit- 
 izen of Greenville, for at that time all the feminine beauty which 
 was imprisoned within the brick walls of Almira Hall, or within 
 the w T hite paling fence which surrounded it, was displayed to 
 the curious and often admiring gaze of the town. There was, 
 however, no interchange of conversation — nothing beyond a nod, 
 a smile, a word, perhaps — for at either end of the procession 
 walked a vigilant lady teacher, whose critical eye appraised every 
 youth who gave any sign of budding interest in her charges. 
 
 Strangely enough, however, even a smile or a glance, when 
 they alone were alowed, was an effective substitute for the long 
 drawn out communications between modern lovers, and the story 
 
THE DREAMERS PASS 33 
 
 is told that one young man, who was later a prominent judge 
 in Greenville, said to his friend standing beside him as he looked 
 into the depths of two snappy black eyes, "There's the girl that 
 I'm going to marry." And, sure enough, Miss Amelia Maria 
 Tripp shortly lost all her desire to become one of the alumnae of 
 Almira College and married before she was twenty. 
 
 These walks extended through the main streets of the town 
 and often on out to favorite spots such as appeal to every student 
 generation. The Almira College Quarterly of 1876 in its "Town 
 and College" column remarks that girls are petitioning "for walks 
 to 'Mossy Dell', 'Idle Wild Park', Earthquake Hollow', and other 
 places of historic interest to the past and present dwellers of this 
 legion." 
 
 "Recreation" consisted of games upon the campus or gym- 
 nastics in the long wide halls. The director would stand on the 
 top step of the flight of stairs leading up to the hall and from that 
 station would give commands to the girls as they formed in rows 
 and waved their wands or dumb-bells. Out on the grounds ball 
 games of various sorts were played, but the favorite sport of all 
 was croquet. For years a court was set out every spring just out- 
 side the chapel at the east end of the building. A weeping willow 
 cast its shadows over the court, and to one side stood an arbor 
 where players could sit and chat as they waited their turns. 
 
 When supper was over and the seven o'clock bell had rung, 
 "silent half-hour" began. All assembled in the chapel for Scrip- 
 ture reading and prayer. Then while one half of the girls re- 
 mained in the chapel for whatever occupation they might choose, 
 the other half went to their rooms for a half hour of medita- 
 tion, prayer or Bible study. At the end of the half hour the groups 
 exchanged places, thus insuring to each occupant of a room a 
 period for devotional purposes. 
 
 How often these half hours were given to occupations other 
 than those intended will never be known. How effective the 
 method was in producing spiritual growth is likewise a ques- 
 tion. But the fact remains that the makers of the educational 
 program realized the necessity of including in it a provision 
 specifically for the cultivation of the inner life. And so, even 
 though the little school lay "in the midst of rolling prairies" far 
 
34 "IN THE MIDST OF ROLLING PRAIRIES" 
 
 from the soul-cramping pressures of modern life, these girls were 
 
 || in ijjy^ bmti&jg^„ 1Lj„„ m „ Sieutzetther<: & Manchester . r. 
 
 5r§B»S%^ - , . '%. v , • . , .. Miss "Belle Harrison. 1 
 '"-4, itirtte Oomingo Spe^^^ ,'/; ;. % Miss Mice Good'M- j 
 %htJJ"is mwdm$&al. Heur»fWaHace:'- ^ ' ^J 
 Misses'. '$#}$* , 'Miss ^nd Ck$ltendenft : 
 p. ' M4$s .Gi&M^im 
 
 gp ? Stoiit£en$erg ahd Ha 
 \£i$sj&clle if&risv%: 
 
 mid CktUe\ 
 . y&issJf-eBuS 
 . ' ^ 
 
 taught that everyone needs a quiet time alone each day when 
 spiritual poise is renewed. 
 
 From eight o'clock till the curfew bell at 9:30, study ensued in 
 the rooms. Lights were surprisingly good when lamp chimneys 
 had to pass inspection and lamp bowls receive regular replenish- 
 
THE DREAMERS PASS 35 
 
 ing from the big can of coal oil down on the first floor under the 
 stairs. Study, also, flourished when teachers resided on the same 
 floor with students and occasionally cast a reconnoitring eye 
 over the room. 
 
 Even then, however, pranks inevitably occurred. Undoubt- 
 edly they varied little from the pranks played in any college. 
 Some event transpired which gave rise to a myth which is prob- 
 ably a part of the lore of every girl's school. A basket, they say, 
 was let down one night to convey to a maiden's room her fond 
 and waiting lover. But, instead, who should appear in the 
 basket as it came up to the window ledge but President White 
 himself, who had laid the trap. However, continues the story, 
 he laughs best who laughs last. President White was threatened 
 with sudden and disastrous descent to the ground unless he prom- 
 ised to withhold all punishment. 
 
 The actual event which might possibly have furnished a slen- 
 der strand of truth for this myth concerns an incorrigible young 
 woman who insisted upon continuing a friendship disapproved 
 by the school authorities. At the monthly college receptions to 
 which townspeople were invited no young man was welcome 
 who was not given a "character" by those in charge. This 
 young woman had suffered the humiliation of such a refusal, 
 for the youth of her dreams had been blacklisted as an intem- 
 perate ne'er-do-well, and she had paraded her grief by sitting 
 sulking on the stairs in plain view of the crowd as they prom- 
 enaded the hall below. 
 
 It was known that she was in frequent communication with 
 the censored one, and suspicion suggested that the method might 
 be by way of notes from her bedroom window. Accordingly, 
 certain teachers watched proceedings from the room below and 
 were rewarded for their trouble by discovering a note tucked 
 in a bottle which had descended by a string from the window 
 above. As the empty bottle came on down to the waiting 
 youth he was heard to protest in a whisper, "There's nothing 
 here," while a voice above huskily insisted, "But there must be. 
 I put it there." 
 
 The upshot of it all was that President White got out his 
 horse and buggy the following Saturday and made a trip down 
 
36 "IN THE MIDST OF ROLLING PRAIRIES" 
 
 into the country. Although he had feminine company down, 
 he returned alone. 
 
 Undoubtedly, Almira Hall was the cynosure for many youth- 
 ful night rovers. Stories are told of how boys with boxes of 
 candy would steal through the gates, post themselves below the 
 windows of the favorites, and signal to them by a shower of 
 peanut shells. Then down would come string and up would 
 go sweetmeats accompanied by even sweeter messages. One 
 Sunday night, when the girls as usual walked in procession be- 
 hind the chaperone home from church, two bold adventurers 
 borrowed girls' coats and walked in disguise to the campus. 
 One of them delayed his whispered good-night until too late 
 and had to continue in line clear up to the third floor. There 
 he managed to maneuver his way down the hall unnoticed and 
 drop from the rude fire escape to the ground. 
 
 The monthly Friday night receptions were gala occasions. 
 Students and townspeople were the guests of the faculty. Down 
 the long hall and through the parlors they paraded in their best 
 frocks and suits, while music played, and, occasionally, a full 
 evening's concert was given. Here girls often met their future 
 husbands, and town and gown mingled in friendly intercourse. 
 
 There was a time when it became the practice among the young 
 men, because of the rareness of the occasions when they might 
 make the acquaintance of Almira girls, for them to promenade 
 with one after another, racing to see who could count the most 
 heads for the evening. 
 
 On the Friday nights between these monthly events there was 
 entertainment of many sorts. In the winter there were oyster 
 suppers and taffy pulls and sometimes sleigh rides, when the 
 snow was heavy enough. Lectures and concerts occurred now 
 and then, sponsored as often as not by the literary society, the 
 Calliopean. In time, by means of these paid programs a fund 
 was built up for making valuable additions to the library. 
 Original programs, composed of essays, music, charades or tab- 
 leaux, were also given regularly by this society. 
 
 Various other clubs flourished at times. The Quarterly of 
 1875 described the organization of the T. B. and D. circle, whose 
 object was "to promote fancy work," "to store minds with facts 
 
THE DREAMERS PASS 
 
 37 
 
 concerning history" and "to cultivate taste for poetry." "No 
 member," they announced, "would be allowed to use slang." 
 The following year these serious minded ladies are said to be 
 "reading Aims and Aids for Young Women." Another circle 
 
 
 •;_ at rug 
 
 ALLIOPEAH 
 
 Atmira College, 
 
 PART FITOT. 
 iauo Dttct, L* nslliwlitrt. 
 
 QUOTATIONS. 
 Fmyir Oar Ci*Mie Ililit, MImm Itertfatl a& 
 
 %, &*.-* - B*ttl«Ory of 
 
 MOUSE'S MALI, 
 
 "Resolved, Tfeat w« «* (fe« Cm&r** *far«*»M*»« j*» 
 
 ^•Mtfjtjfl|£llM ttttfef^ JN|*8**t »■» * mm? " 
 
 fUc***** «Hfc T«W.««-V*r»4». «B*j|» Mel,' **/"*• 
 *'* ; - ttiy» Tnr<§», Cft W ga r? »*i lAnd^i 
 
 
 1£P3K 
 
 frequently mentioned by alumnae was a prayer group which 
 met voluntarily. 
 
 Tuesday night was the regularly appointed time for the college 
 prayer meeting. Through all the years this tradition has con- 
 tinued. Each Tuesday has brought the school family together 
 for worship. 
 
 The Sabbath was observed in keeping with Puritan standards. 
 Bible study was set for eight-thirty, allowing perhaps for a half 
 hour longer abed, and again at one-thirty a Bible class was held. 
 Morning service was attended wherever desired, but in the eve- 
 ning the girls were conducted to a church of the teacher's 
 choosing. The Baptist denomination, of course, wielded the 
 greatest influence over the religious life of the school. Revivals 
 
38 
 
 'IN THE MIDST OF ROLLING PRAIRIES' 
 
 were frequent and many of the girls came to an understanding 
 both intellectually and experientially for the first time of the once 
 widely accepted doctrine of assurance. Their letters relating their 
 
 religious experiences afford ev- 
 idence of the effectiveness with 
 which Almira College nurtured 
 the spiritual life of its stu- 
 dents. 
 
 With the enrollment at its 
 peak and the dormitory filled 
 to capacity, it must have been 
 distressing to John White and 
 Stephen Morse to see the debt 
 which still remained rapidly 
 augment itself, like a rolling 
 snowball, with new accretions. 
 College debts have a way of 
 doing this because of the inse- 
 curity of invested moneys, the 
 problem of institutional up- 
 keep, and, above all, the spur- 
 ious subscriptions which swell 
 the lists of field agents. 
 
 In 1870 disaster came; the fi- 
 nancial rock upon which Al- 
 mira College had built was removed. Stephen and Almira Morse 
 failed in business and with the hope of repairing their fortunes 
 went to Kansas. His resignation as treasurer was received by 
 the board with extreme reluctance, and the following resolution 
 was recorded: "Whereas, Stephen Morse, Esq., the founder of 
 Almira College, and from the first its treasurer, and a working 
 member of its Executive Committee, has resigned these positions, 
 therefore, resolved that we regret the necessity that compels this 
 action, and record our high appreciation of his long continued 
 and onerous services in connection with this institution." 
 
 To what extent the unstinted generosity of this noble man 
 and woman in supporting the school had effected their personal 
 prosperity no record will ever tell. Without doubt they had 
 
 STEPHEN MORSE 
 
THE DREAMERS PASS 
 
 39 
 
 placed the success of their dearest project above any personal 
 ambition and if they spent their last days in comparative pov- 
 erty they still did not regret that "they gave all they had." 
 
 There at Paola, Kansas, they continued their public-spirited 
 career, Almira serving for a time as county superintendent of 
 schools, and regularly as teacher in Sunday school. Then when 
 the two mile walk in to church from their farm home proved 
 too fatiguing, a grove nearby was fitted with seats, and on Sun- 
 day afternoons neighbors gathered in for services; and here at 
 the last friends came in 1881 to do honor to Almira Morse when 
 her work was done. Stephen lived on for two more years. 
 
 For some time after the departure of the Morses, efforts were 
 made to bring the college directly under the supervision of the 
 Baptist General Association of 
 Illinois, but the required fi- 
 nancial basis could not be se- 
 cured. During the panic of 
 1873 the trustees despaired 
 and said that the building 
 must be sold for what it could 
 bring, but alumnae protested 
 and rallied to form the Al- 
 mira College Educational So- 
 ciety with a large subscribing 
 membership and a representa- 
 tive out in the field. 
 
 Mrs. Mary P. Lemen of Sa- 
 lem was the person chosen, and 
 her work for a time was effec- 
 tive. The Almira College 
 Quarterly was published dur- 
 ing this period as the medium 
 for keeping in active touch 
 with friends and graduates. 
 Registration continued good, 
 
 for the school was advertised far and wide, and exhibit be- 
 ing placed even at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. 
 When the twentieth anniversary was celebrated it was reported 
 
 ALMIRA MORSE 
 
40 
 
 "IN THE MIDST OF ROLLING PRAIRIES' 
 
 that over 2000 students had been enrolled thus far in Almira 
 
 College; a yearly average of one hundred two and a graduating 
 
 class a little better than four was President White's estimate. 
 
 The fight for debt liquidation went on, each measure a bit 
 
 AT TIME OF RETIREMENT 
 John B. White Elizabeth W. White 
 
 more desperate than the preceding. Supporters in the commun- 
 ity were determined that Almira must be saved; the Hoiles fam- 
 ily, for example, repeated once more their liberal gifts to the 
 institution. In 1876, two hundred and fifty friends of the in- 
 stitution were sought to buy shares of $100, and the agent was 
 instructed "to express everywhere firm determination and confi- 
 dent expectation to succeed in freeing the institution from its 
 embarr^ ssment." In 1877 a plea was sent again to the Baptist 
 General Association. But by 1878 it was evident that the prop- 
 erty must be sold. 
 
 John White had grown old under the double weight of finan- 
 cial management and academic administration. He had reached 
 the end. His final ambition was to see the kind of program he 
 
THE DREAMERS PASS 
 
 41 
 
 had inaugurated continued. The accomplishment of such a de- 
 sire depends greatly upon the preparation of a successor by the 
 originator of an educational pattern. This preparation must 
 reach beyond objective features. It comprehends not only a 
 knowledge of the traditions, of the course of study, of the body of 
 rules and regulations; it must include also a deep sense of that 
 undefinable element known as esprit de corps, and a devotion 
 to the institution and its ideals which is heroic in its strength. 
 
 This necessity President White had perhaps not realized. 
 Many a great educator has not. And to say that his dream of 
 a college for women was not fulfilled by his successors is not to 
 condemn him nor his successors. 
 The fact is that, so far as rec- 
 ords show, an earnest effort was 
 made to continue the whole 
 scheme which he had set up. 
 The announcement of aims re- 
 mained much the same, the de- 
 nominational connection was 
 not severed, and Almira alum- 
 nae rallied to support the new 
 venture. 
 
 The purchasers were admir- 
 able people. Florence Holden 
 Houghton, half-owner and prin- 
 cipal, had been for some years 
 upon President White's faculty 
 and was, therefore, thoroughly 
 conversant with the Almira stan- 
 dards. Her interest did not long 
 continue, however, for, after two 
 years of principalship, she re- 
 married and left. 
 
 The second investor was an 
 educator of state-wide recogni- 
 tion. During Mrs. Houghton's principalship he served Illinois as 
 State Superintendent of Public Instruction. President James P. 
 Slade had risen rapidly from a rural school position near Belleville 
 
 JAMES PARK SLADE 
 
42 
 
 'IN THE MIDST OF ROLLING PRAIRIES' 
 
 in 1856 to principalship of the Belleville high school and then to 
 superintendency of instruction in St. Clair county. He was not 
 only a competent school administrator; he was a great Christian 
 teacher. He taught for the love of teaching and, above all, for 
 the consciousness of divine approval. 
 
 Writing at one time of this to a friend, he said, " 'to be regard- 
 ed as successful in any useful, therefore honorable, calling by 
 those we esteem is a great satisfaction, but to be really successful 
 and accounted faithful by Him who judges of the worthiness or 
 unworthiness of all our efforts, would be a joy beyond measure.' " 
 He was regarded by those who knew him as a man of missionary 
 stamp; as one said "Pay them and they will teach. Take away 
 
 their pay and they will 
 teach anyway." 
 
 This was the man who 
 gave fourteen years to 
 the attempt to save Al- 
 mira College. He was 
 loved by his students, 
 and alumnae placed 
 great faith in him. In 
 1880 they gathered in 
 large numbers for elab- 
 orate exercises in observ- 
 ance of the 25th anni- 
 versary. There was a 
 week of concerts and literary programs, culminating in a great 
 alumnae reunion, with four hours of speeches, a dinner and a 
 reception. 
 
 But in spite of all these auspicious beginnings, and in spite of 
 the fact that the nightmare of debt was ended, the hope of pre- 
 serving Almira College gradually waned. Enrollment steadily 
 decreased. Between 1875 and 1880 the average attendance 
 dropped from 102 to 85, and, from 1880 on, continued to decline. 
 One reason assigned for the loss of patronage within the im- 
 mediate territory was the rivalry offered by the new and thriv- 
 ing state school at Carbondale, Southern Illinois Teachers' Col- 
 lege. Possibly another cause was the rapid growth made by 
 
 In the 1870's 
 
THE DREAMERS PASS 43 
 
 the competing denominational schools of the area, such as Shurt- 
 leff and McKendree, which were now coeducational. 
 
 Various changes were made in an effort to secure wider pat- 
 ronage. A good normal course was introduced, a logical step, 
 since two-thirds of Almira graduates had gone into the teach- 
 ing profession. The art department catered to the interests of 
 townspeople and received enthusiastic support. One of the great 
 events of the school year at the last was the art exhibit and re- 
 ception, a sort of aftershine of the glory that had radiated from 
 the monthly receptions during President White's administration. 
 Towards the end, a business course was installed, which, in the 
 last year, opened to men. The emphasis of the curriculum be- 
 came less and less collegiate, for the school had not kept pace with 
 advancing standards, and now dropped to the level of a finishing 
 school. 
 
 In 1890 President Slade, weary of the effort, rented the build- 
 ing to Prof. A. G. Smith to conduct whatever sort of course he 
 desired. Members of Greenville families that had supported the 
 educational project from the beginning stood loyally behind 
 Professor Smith, although well aware of what the outcome must 
 be. For two years the struggle for a lost cause went on, while 
 Professor Slade from his place in the East St. Louis school system 
 looked for a buyer. 
 
 Stephen Morse and John White had gone to their eternal re- 
 ward,* but the spirit of sacrificial service which had characterized 
 the founders of Almira College and the way of life which they had 
 taught by precept and example had not perished from the earth. 
 
 ♦John White died in Greenville, February 12, 1887. Elizabeth 
 Wright White liged an for some years, giving financial assistance 
 to several Greenville College students and continuing her civic ac- 
 tivities. She died March 11, 1910. Both of them are buried in 
 Greenville, close to the entrance of Montrose cemetery. In the 
 Hoiles-Morse lot not far away lies the body of Almira Blanchard 
 Morse. Stephen Morse was buried in Kansas. 
 
"STANDS OUR NOBLE ALMA MATER' 
 
WILSON THOMAS HOGUE 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 FAITH OF OUR FATHERS 
 
 The Thomas House bus with passengers from the afternoon 
 train rumbled down College avenue in a cloud of dust and stopped 
 before the high arched gate that opened upon the campus. Two 
 gentlemen descended the awkward steps, paid black-faced old Eli, 
 and then stood gazing up the brick walk to the flight of stairs 
 that ascended into the shadowy recess above the spacious arch- 
 way of old Almira. 
 
 The smaller man of the two set down his large, well-made 
 \alise and looked scrutinizingly about him. Trees in great need 
 of pruning grew profusely over the whole ground, spreading a 
 gloomy shade. The white paling fence that enclosed the square 
 was in need of paint and repairs. Here and there it sagged to 
 the ground, and at one point a fallen sapling sprawled against 
 it. At the side entrance the gate lay flat. Small elevations, which 
 marked the site of one-time flower beds, grew scrubbily with weeds 
 and high grass. It was not a sight to delight the eye. 
 
 He turned a troubled face to his companion, a man of power- 
 ful build, who seemed to radiate optimism from his very being. 
 There was between the two all the contrast that proverbially ex- 
 ists between Easterner and Westerner: Hogue, with his sensitive, 
 intellectual face, spare figure and quiet bearing; Ashcraft with 
 his rugged features, giant stature, and confident stride, that con- 
 noted plainly the spirit of aggressive evangelism which had made 
 his name known all through the West. 
 
 Hogue was silent. He was wondering whether he had been 
 too sanguine in his response to the call of his bishop. Three 
 days ago his wife had brought a telegram to his study in the little 
 parsonage at Buffalo. Opening it, they had read, "Will you 
 accept the presidency of Greenville College? Bishop Roberts 
 recommended you. If you can or cannot accept come at once 
 for counsel." Aware that far greater responsibility than he had 
 yet carried awaited him, he still had come gladly, for the heroic 
 
48 
 
 'STANDS OUR NOBLE ALMA MATER" 
 
 efforts of Bishop Roberts to raise the intellectual level of a rapidly 
 expanding religious movement had commanded his admiration 
 and roused his imagination. Here was pioneering of the first 
 order: first, to save a man's soul, then to enrich his redeemed 
 
 spirit with all that was good and beau- 
 tiful from the past. 
 
 He had assisted the bishop in the 
 founding of Chesbrough Seminary, 
 close to the cradle of infant Free Meth- 
 odism, and now in Illinois, where 
 simultaneously with the eastern move- 
 ment the return to primitive Method- 
 ism had spontaneously taken place, 
 another experiment in character edu- 
 cation was to begin. He was stirred. 
 He loved young people. He pictured 
 them coming from all over the Mid- 
 dle West, from farms, from small vil- 
 lages, from little churches composed 
 predominantly of old people, coming 
 with eager anticipation of the under- 
 standing and comradeship which their 
 fellows could give them. He himself had known the lone- 
 liness which a farmer boy from a minority church, much 
 maligned in the community, may endure in public school, for 
 his own father, with Scotch Covenanter blood in his veins, had 
 been read out of the local Methodist church because of his de- 
 fense of the original doctrines and practices of Methodism. 
 
 But the dream which had fired him on his journey out across 
 Ohio and Indiana faded as he surveyed his neglected waste 
 on a hot July afternoon. He was called from his dejection by 
 the bracing voice of Ashcraft continuing the conversation which 
 had begun in the bus concerning the purchase of the property. 
 The place was run down, said he, but that very fact, of course, 
 explained the extremely low price which had been placed upon 
 it. For only $12,200 the Board of Trustees elected by the Central 
 Illinois Conference had secured this four story building with 
 
 W. S. DANN 
 
FAITH OF OUR FATHERS 
 
 49 
 
 grounds of ten acres and a considerable supply of school equip- 
 ment. So far as repairs were concerned, he said, it might be 
 that they could not be entirely completed when school opened 
 in September, but the people of the town and the conference 
 were behind the project and would eventually finish it to 
 everyone's satisfaction. 
 
 As they walked into the cool spacious hall and turned to- 
 ward the high ceilinged, well furnished parlors, Hogue's first 
 impression of the place was modified. True, some of the furni- 
 ture looked hard used, but an atmosphere of quiet dignity 
 pervaded the rooms. Across the hall they found a library with 
 several hundred volumes, and to the right of the main hall was 
 a well equipped art studio. 
 
 The tour of inspection proceeded on down to the lower floor. 
 At the west end of the hall a group of women were working and 
 singing. And looking about, Wil- 
 son Hogue saw a need for both. 
 The kitchen walls were grimy, and 
 the floors were rotted and broken. 
 Apologetically Ashcraft explained, 
 "These rooms were left in such con- 
 dition in June that the rats were 
 about to take possession. But never 
 fear, you'll never recognize it in 
 September. Every woman in the 
 Greenville church, rich or poor, 
 young or old, is giving time here, 
 and glad to do it in order to have a 
 college for our young people." 
 
 The little group gathered about, 
 greeting Hogue effusively, and ex- 
 pressing their hope that he was 
 pleased with the prospect. Partic- 
 ularly urgent were the girls, conscious at first of their flushed 
 faces, grimy hands, and soiled calico dresses, but soon at ease in 
 the presence of his urbanity and genuine friendliness. 
 
 Directing the workers was the man who had sent the telegram 
 
 F. H. ASHCRAFT 
 
50 "STANDS OUR NOBLE ALMA MATER" 
 
 of a few days before — W. S. Dann. With instinctive liking 
 Hogue shook his hand. He was mild faced and gentle mannered, 
 and his long beard gave him an air of patriarchal dignity. Later 
 Hogue was to learn that he had drawn his aspirations for the 
 new college from his acquaintance with Oberlin during the days 
 of Finney and considered no sacrifice too great for bringing to 
 pass this ideal. 
 
 The fact was that history was repeating itself. Greenville's 
 leading merchant of 1892 had dedicated himself to the same 
 sort of sacrificial giving as Stephen Morse had chosen in 1855. 
 In his home in 1880 had been organized the first Free Methodist 
 society of Greenville. A year later when a church edifice had 
 been erected his financial support had made the enterprise pos- 
 sible. Now he was pouring his energy and means into the reno- 
 vation of the building which Morse's devotion had brought into 
 being. Hundreds of dollars he was to give that first year to re- 
 store the college property to its original state. Music was his 
 particular predilection, and presently, when equipment was need- 
 ed for the music department, it was he who sponsored the pur- 
 chases and who gave almost a thousand dollars for a small pipe 
 organ, or vocalion, as it was then called. 
 
 The enthusiasm of Dann and his workers banished Wilson 
 Hogue's gloom. As he surveyed the chapel at the east end of 
 the hall upon leaving the kitchen quarters, he was deeply moved. 
 The thought of the young people who might gather together 
 in this room on occasions to talk of God and His love and His 
 holiness, converted its bareness into a sanctuary. Then as he 
 stood beside Ashcraft at the rear of the building, looking over 
 the open country to the east and north, and listened to his glow- 
 ing word pictures of a college community which might be built 
 up here as supporters of Christian education the country over 
 chose Greenville as their home, he forgot the heat of the July 
 afternoon and the ugliness of the weed patch that stretched out 
 beyond the dilapidated buildings. 
 
 At his meeting with the committee appointed by the Central 
 Illinois Conference, he learned much that confirmed his growing 
 belief that this was not a scheme of fanatical dreamers, but in- 
 stead a sound provision for the need which he had recognized 
 
FAITH OF Ol)R FATHERS 51 
 
 in his church for higher education. With this realization came a 
 personal conviction that he was to be the pioneer who would 
 make the necessary adventure of faith. 
 
 He knew that he must travel a wilderness trail beset with 
 obstacles almost insuperable. There would be, for instance, 
 multifarious and life-taking tasks, with little or no remuneration, 
 and he was not surprised when his salary was set at two hundred 
 and fifty dollars, and when, a little later, the editorship of the 
 denominational paper was added to his duties. There would 
 be, at first, constant opposition from obscurantists within the 
 church, who identified culture with irreligion; hence, he was 
 prepared for the battle which he had to fight with his own 
 board at the end of the first year, when he insisted upon setting 
 up a full four year program. There would be the never-ending 
 mission of interpreting to a materialistically minded public the 
 way of life which revived Puritanism required, for he was aware 
 that the educational pattern which early Methodism had followed 
 and which Free Methodism, in turn, must adopt differed widely 
 from current schemes of education. 
 
 Puritanism in the Middle West had been for some time now 
 on the wane. The way of life which it had taught was in ques- 
 tion, if not abandoned. The emphasis upon doctrine which had 
 been at the heart of all Puritan movements was disappearing. 
 More and more the denominational college was adopting as its 
 function purely secular training. The old disciplines enforced 
 by Puritanism were now disparaged, and the old doctrines were 
 challenged by agnosticism. 
 
 The source of the religious movement known as Free Method- 
 ism, which had originated, in 1860 in eastern New York, had 
 been a recognition of this departure from the original ideas of 
 Wesleyanism. The Methodist church of that area would not 
 tolerate a straightforward appeal for an unequivocal return to 
 the position of Wesley on such matters as slavery, Christian per- 
 fection, non-conformity with worldly practices, and evangelical 
 interpretation of doctrine. 
 
 B. T. Roberts, who became, like Wesley, unpremeditatedly 
 the leader of a new movemnt, had recognized early in life, even 
 before his conversion, the anomaly of slavery-minded Methodists, 
 
52 "STANDS OUR NOBLE ALMA MATER" 
 
 and had written, "They have too much of the slavery spirit here, 
 even among the descendants of the Puritans, to worship the uni- 
 versal father in the same temple with their sable brethren." 
 Later, like Wesley again in his resolute sense of the necessity 
 of personal holiness and the demands of a social gospel, he re- 
 turned to the very fountain springs of religion, with all that that 
 involves in the rediscovery of doctrine and the adoption of 
 "those techniques by which spiritual development may be obtained. 
 
 These were the forces which had produced eastern Free Meth- 
 odism thirty years before, and these, also, were the forces at 
 work in Illinois, using as effective instruments such men as Ash- 
 craft, Dann, Colt, Fleming, and many others with whom Hogue 
 was to work. Bands of men and women, fired with their per- 
 sonal discovery of the meaning of the Wesleyan doctrine of 
 Christian perfection, had gone on preaching missions throughout 
 the state. As a result, spiritual vigor had returned to many con- 
 gregations, but too often the enemies of religious fervor had 
 frowned upon the revival of Weslayanism in their midst and had 
 expelled its advocates. These outcasts became the nucleus of 
 a new church, which, in time, joined hands with the eastern church 
 under the episcopal leadership of Roberts. 
 
 The mission, then, of a new college in Illinois was, first of all, 
 to educate the youth of the recently founded church, for there was 
 as yet no program of higher education. The clientele of the college, 
 however, would not be exclusively Free Methodist. The preaching 
 mission, with its message of holiness, had reached many in var- 
 ious denominations, and these heartily advocated an institu- 
 tion where the search for vital religion could be pursued without 
 obstruction. In fact, the first donors to Greenville College were 
 not Free Methodists. Mr. and Mrs. James T. Grice, who pro- 
 posed the founding gift, never left the church of their early 
 choice. Disheartened, however, with the trends taken in the de- 
 nominational college which they had liberally supported for 
 years, they were looking for a religious group which would invest 
 the last money they had to give, in a program more to their liking. 
 
 Thus it was that James T. Grice, convinced of the validity of 
 Free Methodist doctrine, and impressed by the soundness and 
 intelligence of the Illinois leaders, went to Ashcraft during a camp 
 
FAITH OF OUR FATHERS 
 
 53 
 
 meeting held at Prairie City, Illinois, in the summer of 1891, 
 and proposed to give a sum of $6000 for the founding of a 
 college which would be supported by a church avowedly devoted 
 to holiness doctrine and practice. In the fall when this proposal 
 was submitted to ministers and laymen of the Central Illinois 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. James T. Grice 
 
 Conference and to the bishops, it met with unanimous favor. 
 Bishop Roberts, who had sponsored the founding of Chesbrough, 
 was particularly assured of providential guidance in the matter. 
 For several years the Illinois leaders who lived in and about 
 Greenville had watched the decline of Almira College and had 
 wished that if this program which had had such worthy begin- 
 nings must end, another of equal worth, to their thinking, might 
 build upon it. The trustees, therefore, who were chosen by the 
 Central Illinois Conference in the fall meeting were many of 
 them selected from the Greenville area. Nine in all were ap- 
 pointed to carry out Mr. Grice's proposal and to look for a lo- 
 cation and further financial resources. Men of versatile abil- 
 
bfl 
 
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 ft 
 
 O 
 
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 73 
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 O 
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 ^ tcj 
 
 0) 
 
 be 
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 O 
 
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 M 
 
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 .5 
 
 e 
 
FAITH OF OUR FATHERS 55 
 
 ities and homespun virtues they were, whose names deserve re- 
 cording: F. H. Ashcraft, W. B. M. Colt, Charles A. Fleming, 
 Thomas A. Marsh, Robert W. Sanderson, William T. Branson, 
 James Moss, Isaac Kesler and Walter S. Dann.* 
 
 The outcome of their endeavors was that simultaneously with 
 the completion of the negotiations with the Grices came the de- 
 cision by Professor Slade to dispose of all his interests in Almira 
 College. The price which he placed upon the property was 
 $12,200 in cash. The balance still to be met after the Grice gift 
 was received was borrowed from a Greenville banker, John Brad- 
 ford, the trustees signing a personal note. On April fifth all the 
 negotiations had been completed and the first steps were taken 
 to incorporate under the name of Greenville College. 
 
 These were the facts that Wilson Hogue became conversant 
 with in his sessions with the executive committee appointed by 
 the trustees, a group of three Greenville men: Ashcraft, Dann 
 and Moss, all men of liberality and sound business sense. Their 
 appeal for his consent was insistent, but he considered every 
 aspect of the project before announcing his decision, for he was 
 a man who held his call to the ministry as transcendently sacred. 
 
 When only a boy of eleven, he had been aware of his coming 
 vocation, and at the age of sixteen he had reached a decision 
 which was without recall. For almost twenty years he had served 
 the church in various New York pastorates. He was a scholar 
 by nature, a teacher even in the pulpit. Perhaps that fact made 
 a decision to leave the ministry more difficult, for might not his 
 love of learning, even when devoted to so sacrificial a cause, lead 
 him away from his appointed place. But as he pondered and 
 prayed, he became certain, and on July 18, 1892, he signed the 
 contract which made him the first president of Greenville College. 
 
 The significance of his decision can never be properly evaluated. 
 The attempts of students to put into words the estimate of his 
 service and personality verge upon hero worship. One has said, 
 "I once regarded Bishop Hogue as the greatest man in the world, 
 and in my association with many men since that time I do not 
 
 *No picture of this board is to be found. The earliest obtainable 
 was taken in 1895 when the group had increased to twelve. 
 
56 "STANDS OUR NOBLE ALMA MATER" 
 
 know that so far as my personal knowledge and associations are 
 concerned I have had occasion to change my mind." 
 
 Another has said: "He had that unflinching tenacity of pur- 
 pose, that patience in dealing with details, that spirit of tolera- 
 tion toward those of differing opinions, that poise in times of 
 stress and strain which made him an administrator of the first 
 order . . . Greenville College stands as the living monument of 
 Wilson T. Hogue." 
 
 The concluding sentence of this eulogy suggests the reach of 
 influence exerted by the first president of Greenville. His con- 
 ception of Christian culture was so sound, his definition of policy 
 was so clear, his administration of that policy was so competent, 
 that the fitness of it was recognized by students, by townspeople, 
 and by the church constituency. As a consequence an educational 
 pattern was evolved by which all later administrations have been 
 measured. Fifty years have passed since Wilson Hogue signed 
 his contract, but the educational ideal which he denned has not 
 altered in its essentials. 
 
 In his announcement of the fall term, which was to open Sep- 
 tember twentieth, Hogue outlined in brief but clear statement 
 the aim of the new college. Incidentally, one notes how cur- 
 iously similar it was to the statement of aim written by John White 
 thirty-five year before. "The aim of this institution," he says, 
 "is to promote true and thorough Christian education. 
 
 "No means or effort will be spared in endeavoring to give every 
 student the best advantages for securing a liberal culture. 
 
 "With that type of education which limits its aim to this world, 
 rejecting the grand motive forces, drawn from a future life, this 
 institution will have no sympathy. 'Education for character' 
 will be our motto. Hence the Bible will have a place in all our 
 courses of study." 
 
 The evangelistic character of religious exercises within the 
 college home was suggested by the last paragraph. "All students 
 residing in the college building will be regarded as members of 
 the college family, which will be conducted like a well regulated 
 Christian home, and the faculty will ever seek by all suitable 
 means to bring the gospel to bear in its regenerating and puri- 
 
FAITH OF OUR FATHERS SI 
 
 fying power upon the hearts of all who are in any way connected 
 with the institution." 
 
 The sane pursuit of this objective produced an atmosphere 
 conducive to the finest spiritual growth. Sectarianism was never 
 stressed and students from every denomination received wise 
 guidance toward an earnest, honest search for truth. One such 
 student, recalling those days, says, "From the family worship in 
 the dining room in the morning until the close of the day, seven 
 days in the week, the service of God had first place, but it was 
 not a forced or dreaded service; we were one large, happy family." 
 
 The opening of the new college upon September twentieth 
 excluded all expectations in the number of registrants and the 
 enthusiasm of the constituency. President Hogue had not been 
 certain of the response of the church, neither had he known what 
 to expect from a community which had become disheartened with 
 the Almira experiment and which, in some quarters, at least, 
 might lack sympathy with the efforts of a minority church. But 
 his fears proved unfounded, for students arrived from all over 
 the country, and the reception which had been arranged by 
 local leaders left him in no doubt as to the genuineness of their 
 interest and the warmth of their support. 
 
 Once again the Vandalia line brought girls from the towns 
 and cities — girls dressed in the accepted style of severely fitted 
 basques and plain full skirts. From the farms came the phaetons 
 and springboard wagons, rolling in over the dusty September 
 roads. But this time the brothers came, also, for Greenville now 
 was to have a coeducational school, and the young men and wo- 
 men would mingle freely together in wholesome association. 
 Coeducation in fact had become the rule of the day throughout 
 the Middle West. 
 
 The convocation set for ten o'clock in the circuit court room 
 of the county court house was a memorable episode in the lives 
 of these young people. One of them arrived at the railroad 
 station at midnight and for lack of a better bed, slept on some 
 mail bags in the agent's office. The citizens of Greenville, too, 
 regarded it as a red letter day, for the mayor had called them to- 
 gether to give welcome to the newcomers, and the most distin- 
 
58 
 
 "STANDS OUR NOBLE ALMA MATER' 
 
 guished resident of the town, Lieutenant Governor Northcott, 
 was to be the principal speaker. 
 
 His address was followed by speeches from other prominent 
 citizens. Almira graduates were present with words of wel- 
 come. It was apparent to 
 President Hogue that the 
 community was solidly be- 
 hind the new enterprise, 
 and he and his board were 
 cheered by the spirit of co- 
 operation. 
 
 Another event of the day 
 long remembered by the 
 earliest arrivals upon the 
 campus was the first din- 
 ner served in the dining 
 room. Only a few days be- 
 fore the opening Miss Mattie 
 Sanderson had received the 
 announcement from F. H. 
 Ashcraft, the president of 
 the board of trustees, that her services were desired as "chief 
 cook." Amid considerable confusion she began the work of or- 
 ganizing the culinary department, and the story goes that so 
 difficult was the task that her father, big-hearted Bob Sanderson, 
 a member of the board, came to her assistance in serving this first 
 meal. 
 
 Water had to be carried in by hand from the hydrant at the 
 south west corner of the building; wood had to be cut and 
 brought in from the woodpile on the back campus; bread had 
 to be set the night before and baked in the small oven of the one 
 cook stove available. It was a far different prospect than that 
 facing a modern institutional manager, and it became an in- 
 creasingly greater undertaking during the five years that Miss 
 Sanderson served as cook. Fifteen people sat down to that first 
 dinner; later, when the dining room filled with hungry students, 
 her baking requirement on bread alone, was thirty loaves a day. 
 
 FIRST BREAD KNEADERS 
 Mattie Sanderson Dr. Backenstoe 
 
FAITH OF OUR FATHERS 
 
 59 
 
 A dozen good sized pies or a little less of cake met the demands 
 for dessert. 
 
 At two o'clock that afternoon registration began. Mrs. B. H. 
 
 A KITCHEN SCENE 
 Sanderson, Upton ,Boss, Niswonger, Neisler, Maxon, Ryno, Young, Hill 
 
 Roberts, a daughter-in-law of Bishop Roberts, and an able member 
 of the faculty of Chesbrough Seminary, had come out from New 
 York to assist President Hogue in this task. Students were met 
 by these two in the chapel and conducted through the awe-inspir- 
 ing rites of matriculation. To whom belongs the distinction of 
 being the first to sign his name upon the roll of Greenville Col- 
 lege remains a moot question. Probably the honor goes to 
 Bertha Ahlemeyer, daughter of the local Free Methodist pastor. 
 She with other members of her family had spent many hours 
 upon the renovation of Almira Hall preparatory to the opening 
 
60 
 
 STANDS OUR NOBLE ALMA MATER' 
 
 of school. Other registrants whose names were recorded near 
 the top of the list were Sarah Ahlemeyer, Samuel Upton, Robert 
 Upton, and Ella Maze. 
 
 After the tension of this ordeal had passed — and every one- 
 time student remembers the emotional reaction which sets in as 
 
 Rev. H. G. Ahlemeyer, first college pastor, with 
 Mrs. Ahlemeyer and daughters, Sarah and Bertha 
 
 the experiences of the first day draw to a close — homesickness was 
 staved off a little longer by a trip to the barn for straw for the 
 bed-tick, a visit to the coal-oil can for fuel for the study lamp, 
 and perhaps by an initiation into duties as a worker in kitchen, 
 dining-room or halls. 
 
 President Hogue was at hand to note the woebegone face and 
 speak an understanding word or perhaps propose a lively game 
 that would engage everyone. One of the stories which students 
 
FAITH OF OUR FATHERS 61 
 
 love to tell of his easy camaraderie relates how an onlooker one 
 time, noting the freedom of his participation in a student ball- 
 game, observed to Mrs. Hogue, "Isn't President Hogue afraid 
 of losing his dignity in such play." Mrs. Hogue replied, "The 
 kind of dignity Mr. Hogue has isn't so easily lost." The famil- 
 iarity of President Hogue was never "that which breeds contempt"; 
 yet every student regarded him as his personal friend. 
 
 A notation in a student diary made a few days after the open 
 ing affords an instance of this happy relationship. "Helped 
 Principal Hogue move his bed and carpet to the room opposite 
 mine. He gave me 25c to buy a melon with for that. The melon 
 only cost 10c. He helped me eat it. I gave him his 15c." And 
 a week later: "Principal Hogue gave me 50c for helping him 
 with his stove Saturday. I charged him only 25c; so he said I 
 could fill his wood-box for the rest." 
 
 Incidentally it should be added that this business of keeping 
 a filled wood-box was one o fthe most unique features of Green- 
 ville to the newcomer. Another old grad has written of his first 
 impression of this particular aspect as follows: 
 
 A Cameo of the Past 
 The College Buzz Saw 
 
 The hinge of the past swings backward and the door to- "Ye 
 Olden Times" stands ajar. Through that open door a cameo that 
 was novel and unfcrgettable rises before my vision. It is not 
 a picture of a library or a classic avenue of elms but a whizzing 
 buzz saw. 
 
 Reared in a city in Pennsylvania where Nature ihas given abund- 
 ant supply of coal and gas, I had never used a wood stove. I was 
 surprised upon being taken to the room which was to be my dom- 
 icile for several years that there was a long boxlike wood stove 
 which would hold chunks of wood about two feet long. One of the 
 practical arts of the newcomers was to learn to regulate the wood 
 stoves. Many were the trials and tribulations of the girls in 
 particular in learning to keep their fires. 
 
 Large wood boxes were placed in the halls throughout the build- 
 ing. It was the task of two stalwart students who worked for 
 their board to carry the rack piled with wood, one man at each 
 end walking between the projecting handles. The writer can re- 
 member as though it were yesterday the names of the two faith- 
 
62 
 
 "STANDS OUR NOBLE ALMA MATER' 
 
 ful men he first saw carrying these heavy leads up the stairs. Both 
 became preachers and truly they could sing, "Must I be carried 
 to the sfcies on flowery beds of ease." They surely entered the 
 
 ELEVATORS OF 1895 
 Howard Ball Raymond Smith 
 
 ministry by the hard way. Every fall a portable buzz saw was 
 set up and a mountain of wood was piled high near the rear en- 
 trance. 
 
 In those early days "Old Main" constituted the entire physical 
 plant of the college. On the first floor was the dining hall at the 
 west end and the chapel at the east end with recitation rooms sand- 
 wiched in the center; on the second floor the executive offices, the 
 public parlors, the library along with some classrooms; on the 
 third floor the girls' dormitory, while on the fourth floor (and near- 
 est to heaven) was the boys' dormitory. All these rooms were 
 heated with individual wood stoves. In the closing years of his 
 life, while conversing about the early days of the college Bishop 
 
FAITH OF OUR FATHERS 63 
 
 Hogue said, "I lived in constant fear of a fire and it was only by 
 Divine Providence that we never had a c:nflagration." 
 
 In memory I hear again the minor whine of the buzz saw as it 
 tears through a knot and I see the toiling students carrying the 
 great rack piled high with wood to be distributed in Old Main. 
 
 R. R. Blews, '04. 
 
 The work of each department commenced with enthusiasm. 
 President Hogue's classes drew a large enrollment, for those pre- 
 paring for Christian service were numerous, and, too, all students 
 desired at least one course in Bible under him. The new and 
 very important department of theology, which was to provide 
 training for both prospective ministers and missionaries, fell 
 under his particular supervision. Greek, philosophy, physiology, 
 hygiene, medicine, and nursing, as well as Scripture Exegesis, 
 church history, Christian evidences, and other studies of theolog- 
 ical nature constituted the course of study. 
 
 Another department, which from the beginning had strong 
 support, was that directed by Prof. Melvin Green Clark. In 
 the last years of Almira, courses in business science had been 
 scheduled and made available to both men and women. The 
 offerings planned by Professor Clark were varied and comprehen- 
 sive, and his teaching ability was of the first order. As a result, 
 the department rapidly achieved a reputation in the community 
 and provided the training sought by most of the coming business 
 men, as may be seen today by a canvas of the gray heads in 
 business concerns in Bond county. 
 
 Until the collegiate courses became well enough established 
 to produce graduates, the main feature of Commencement week 
 was the exercises given by the business and shorthand classes. A 
 detailed report in the Greenville Sun of 1895 indicates the pop- 
 ularity of this program. It was presented before a large aud- 
 ience in Moss Hall from a platform elaborately decorated and 
 bearing the class motto, "Purpose, Perseverance, Accuracy and 
 Honesty", written in shorthand symbols. Walter Joy gave the 
 salutatory, entitled "The Short Route", and told of the rapidity 
 of modern business transactions. Other orations which followed 
 were "Stick to Your Text" by Sherman Cooper; "Rooms to Let" 
 by Lena Henry; "Masters of the Situation" by Bert Springer; 
 
64 "STANDS OUR NOBLE ALMA MATER" 
 
 "Specialists, the Demand of the Day" by Will Carson. A Class 
 History was read by I. Walter Kessler and a Class Prophecy was giv- 
 en by Mattie F. Drake. Of the closing speaker the reporter wrote, 
 "If Walter Jackson can handle his future business affairs as easily 
 
 program: 
 
 MISS LENA E. HENRY. 
 
 Selection. "Masters of III*' Situation."' - - Field. 
 
 •"^— J-"" A. BERT SPRINGER. 
 
 invocation. Y oval Solo. --A Hint from O'er the Sea." While, 
 
 MISS GRACE HOGG. 
 Instrumental Duet. Overture. Rom« mkI Julie*,*. '" Bellini. 
 
 MISS CLARA HOGG AND K. B. SMITH. Oral ton. "S ialists. the Demand of the l>a> . 
 
 Salutatory. "The Short Koute." 
 
 WALTER A. JOY. riass Pro,.h, 
 
 Claw History. 
 
 I. WALTER KESLER. 
 
 Oration. -Stick to Your Text." 
 
 SHERMAN C. COOPER 
 
 Vocal Duet. "Master and Pupil." - - Hewitt. 
 
 MRS. BENNETT AND PROF. WETZEL. 
 
 Selection. "The Deacon, Me and Him." Elsenbels. 
 
 ELMER C. NEEDLES. 
 
 WILL C. CARSON. 
 
 MISS MATTIE F. DRAKE. 
 
 Oration with Valedictory. 
 
 "American Progress Through Individual l»cveto|i nt." 
 
 WALTER E. JACKSON. 
 
 Vocal (Melle. -liond-Nighl 
 
 COMMENCEMENT, 1895 
 PREP AND BUSINESS DEPARTMENTS 
 
 as he did his oration, 'American Progress through Individual De- 
 velopment,' success is already assured him." 
 
 Perhaps the most enthusiastic departmental head was Miss 
 Jessie Augusta Duff, Director of the School of Music. She is 
 regarded by all students of that day as the most distinguished 
 member of the faculty. She had graduated from the University 
 of Leipsic and, accordingly, organized her department after the 
 model she had known in Germany. 
 
 In her first announcement she explained her methods as fol- 
 lows: "The department is conducted on the conservatory plan. 
 Both the Class and Private Lesson Systems are employed. There 
 are peculiar and great advantages in the former, but to those 
 who are unfamiliar with it, a few words of explanation may be 
 necessary . . . The Class or Conservatory System consists in ar- 
 ranging students in graded classes. The lesson, in classes of 
 four, is one hour in length, and each pupil receives a proportion- 
 ate share of individual instruction, while having the advantage 
 
FAITH OF OUR FATHERS 
 
 65 
 
 of all criticism made by the teacher or others in the class. This 
 mode of instruction excites emulation; ambition is aroused; 
 the student is spurred on to greater efforts by observing the pro- 
 
 JESSIE AUGUSTA DUFF 
 First Director of Music 
 
 ficiency of those who have attained a higher degree of per- 
 fection ..." 
 
 She immediately organized a complete school of music, an- 
 nouncing full courses in each of the following departments: 
 piano-forte, voice, organ, sight singing and chorus practice, har- 
 mony, counterpoint, composition and instrumentation, musical 
 history and biography. These courses required "three years each 
 for completion." With the ambition of a truly great teacher she 
 
66 
 
 'STANDS OUR NOBLE ALMA MATER' 
 
 determined to make her department the greatest in Greenville 
 College and to make Greenville College known for its musical 
 talent. Naturally this effort did not always elicit the unqualified 
 approval of other department heads. Yet Miss Duff was uni- 
 
 ■ 
 
 FIRST FACULTY 1892-1893 
 
 Stand ng: Shay, C. Hcgue, Phillips, Clark, Sanford. 
 
 Seated: Duff, Pres. Hogue, Mrs. Hogue. 
 
 versally admired, for she possessed other rare talents besides those 
 of a specialist in music. 
 
 She had, for example, very broad sympathies. She was the con- 
 fidante for many a student, who, sensing the depth of her under- 
 standing of youth, came to her with his problems. Her sympathy 
 extended even beyond the school circle to the needy of the town. 
 Quietly, with no talk about her benevolence, she visited the sick 
 and gave to the poor. Her friends at one time were much con- 
 cerned over the personal danger she was incurring in giving mas- 
 sage treatments to a tubercular patient. 
 
FAITH OF OUR FATHERS 67 
 
 She had a commanding presence and was a stickler for social 
 niceties. Her counsel and example went far in awakening ill- 
 bred students to their crudities. In her own department she had 
 the reputation of being unrelenting with the indolent or indif- 
 ferent. The story is told of a youthful pupil from a Greenville 
 home who attempted to play a trick on her and hide at lesson 
 time in the top of a campus tree. She ferreted him out at once 
 and commanded him to appear at the studio. When he ven- 
 tured the justification that he had a "very sore thumb" and could 
 not play, she ejaculated* "Nonsense! What would you do if you 
 had no thumb?" 
 
 For nine years she poured all her energies into the work of 
 building a self-sustaining school of music. She kept her own 
 books, ordered her own music, made the department a financial 
 asset to the college. But she sacrificed her health in doing so 
 and had to retire to her home in Canada for her few remaining 
 years. She left behind her the memory of "a great lady," but, 
 more than that, the tradition of a great music department which 
 which has spurred her successors to maintain the same standards. 
 
 The school of art with a three year course, was very prominent 
 in those days, and under Mrs. Anna Sanford Brodhead, a grad- 
 uate of Chicago Art Institute, established a splendid reputation 
 in the community. For years various pictures painted by her and 
 her pupils hung in the parlors, and her portrait of President 
 Hogue still remains there, preserving to this generation his like- 
 ness in 1892, when he wore a full beard and dressed in a Prince 
 Albert. The custom of giving an Art Reception during Com- 
 mencement week which had persisted throughout Almira days, 
 continued, drawing to the parlors and halls of the college all the 
 elite of the town. 
 
 The standards of the preparatory school during this first year 
 were high and so recommended themselves to the community that 
 for years the academy was a rival of the local high school. Miss 
 Helen Owen Shay, Miss Emma Adine Phillips and Charles Wes- 
 ley Hogue were excellent teachers, spending full time during this 
 year in the department, while Professor Clark and President 
 Hogue divided their time between classes here and in their fields 
 of specialization. 
 
68 
 
 STANDS OUR NOBLE ALMA MATER' 
 
 Preparatory courses offered were two: Classical and Scientific, 
 comprehending the usual subjects given in the high schools of that 
 day. Intermediate studies were also given, for provision had to 
 be made for rural boys and girls who were not yet ready for Prep 
 school. 
 
 A primary school was conducted in a small frame building sit- 
 uated on College Avenue on the 
 then vacant lot across from the 
 college campus. Instruction was 
 given here by the wife of the 
 president, Mrs. Emma Jones 
 Hogue, a teacher of unusual 
 abilities and marked success. 
 She had grown up in a home 
 where education was a major 
 interest, her father being a lib- 
 eral supporter of two college en- 
 terprises, Oberlin and Wheaton. 
 Courses in the Jamestown high 
 school and later in the Colleg- 
 iate Institute had fitted her for 
 the social and pedagogical re- 
 sponsibilities which devolved up- 
 on her when her husband ac- 
 cepted his new role. Although 
 she was in extremely poor health 
 at the time of her arrival at Greenville, she heroically accepted this 
 position, which it seemed impossible to fill otherwise, and for five 
 years continued a school which won the support of the most dis- 
 criminating parents in Greenville. 
 
 Her originality in inventing kindergarten methods before the 
 day of kindergartens is remembered by many a gray-haired man 
 and woman in the Greenville community. Attendance usually 
 numbered thirty or more. The commencement program always 
 provided one evening for the exercises of the children, who 
 took as much pride in their musical and declamatory attainments 
 as did the winners of degrees. 
 
 Perhaps the most notable graduate from the primary depart- 
 
 EMMA JONES HOGUE 
 
FAITH OF OUR FATHERS 69 
 
 ment was a Japanese student, Masazi Kakihara, known as Paul, 
 for, like Paul of the Scriptures, he had experienced shipwreck. 
 He appeared at Greenville one fall so disreputable looking from 
 
 IpliGlAHo 
 
 «*»444tC<fr»t« 
 
 Recitation, The New Year's Ledger, Miss Florence Joy 
 Piano Trio, Serenade, - Shubcrt 
 
 Misses Carson, Denny, and Joy 
 Recitation, The Boy to the Schoolmaster, - Homer Terry. 
 Piano Solo, Peaceful Evening, Op. 216, - Gurlitt. 
 
 Miss Louise Maynard. 
 
 Chorus, .... Gathered Once More. Recitation, My Mother, - - Miss Ruth LaDuc. 
 
 Address of Welcome, - - Miss Belle Eason. Chant, The Old Clock on the Stairs, - McGranahan. 
 
 Piano Duo, Sonatina, - - - C. M. von Weber. Recitation, The Tale of a Tadpole, Miss Gertie Frensley. 
 
 Misses Vinnie and Blanche Coleman. Piano Duo, Shottisch, Le petit Carnival, Op. 105, Streabog. 
 Recitation, An Indignant Scholar, Master Howard Marsh. Misses vinnie and Grace Coleman. 
 
 Piano Solo, Mignonette, Op. 122, - Rheimlander. Recitation, Books, - - Master Henry Coleman. 
 
 Miss Louise Morey. Piano Solo, Madrid Spanish Dance, Op. 12, Moszkowski 
 Recitation, The Dead Doll, 
 
 M 19 s Martha LaDuc. Miss Be89ie Hoiles - 
 
 Recitation, Granny's Come to Our House, Miss Mary Coleman. 
 Nursery Rhyme, - - - - . Veaztc. 
 
 Song, Arise with the Lark, ... - White 
 
 Recitation, The Secret, - Master Artie Minor 
 
 — . ™ L ,r- j .u /-.u-i.1 vc T„.„„M n „„o r ^ Recitation, Partnership, - Miss Myrtle Ftcnsley. 
 
 Recitation, The King and the Child, Miss Louise Maynard. •'• •' J 
 
 „ _ _ •*.!_» i n r o u~ Piano Solo, Nocturne, Op. 72, - - Chopin. 
 
 Piano Solo, The Departure from the Alps, Op. 5, Bohm. ' J • v 
 
 Miss Hattie Larson. 
 
 Recitation, Our Hired Girl, - Master Lueien Hoiles. 
 
 Miss Maud Armstrong. 
 Recitation, A Laughing Chorus, - Miss Lydia Murden 
 
 — mL ^ r, o r, m -.u-i Piano Solo, Good-Night, Op. !l">, - Lnesehhorn. 
 
 Duet, The Sweet Red Rose, - - Mosenthal. * v 
 
 Miss Florence Joy. 
 
 Miss Belle Eason and Master Lueien Hoiles. 
 
 Recitation, Grandmother's Stories, - Miss r?es:ic llni.es. 
 
 Piano Duo, Polonaise, Op. 60, - - Diabclli 
 
 Misses Amy Northeott and Mary Coleman. Chorus, .... Son;; of Pan inc. 
 
 The Closing Exercises of the Junior Department, Monday, May 31, 1897 
 
 his long trek across country from California that the Hogues 
 were loathe to give him admittance; he had walked at least five 
 hundred miles. But he became a successful student and upon 
 his return to his native country he won from paganism Kawabe, 
 a man who has since become the heart of a great missionary move- 
 ment in Japan. Greenville College from the beginning had a 
 world vision and began a mission of world service. In the first 
 five years of the school's history, five Japanese students received 
 instruction, and representatives of other foreign races found gra- 
 cious reception there. 
 
 The achievements of the first year were highly gratifying. The 
 registration, which at the beginning numbered eighty-one, reached 
 a total of one hundred and sixty-three. Student addresses given 
 in the first annual register cover a much wider area than those 
 listed in the Almira catalogues. Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, 
 Indiana, and Kansas are included, and within the state the range 
 is correspondingly wider, 
 
70 "STANDS OUR NOBLE ALMA MATER" 
 
 At commencement time the local newspaper gave a glowing 
 account of the exercises. Orations, according to custom, formed 
 the center of the two hours program and were given by Ethel Reed, 
 Robert Upton, Clarence Sickard, E. O. McCracken, Delia Brads- 
 by and Ella Maze. Essays were read by Nannie Davis, Grace 
 Hogg, and Josephine Seaman. Vocal and instrumental music 
 was interspersed, the performers being Josie Seawald, Nannie 
 Martin, Mrs. L. E. Bennet and Mmes. Clark, Hoiles and Bradford. 
 Elva Weise and May T. Titterington contributed recitations. 
 
 The article concluded by saying, "the college under the man- 
 agement of Bishop Hogue has been a decided success. The first 
 year's patronage has met all expectations, and it is evident the 
 next year's enrollment will be much larger. The citizens have 
 aided the management with all necessary support and each has 
 been and will continue to be of much mutual benefit to the 
 other." 
 
 The adventure of faith, upon which Wilson Hogue had entered 
 nine months before, had succeeded beyond his highest hopes. He 
 had won the support of the church and the community, he had 
 convinced his board after much argument that a program of higher 
 education was both necessary and feasible, and he had seen the 
 registration mount to double the total he had anticipated for 
 the first year. 
 
 If only he could have continued to devote all his time to the 
 enterprise, the institution would without doubt have shortly at- 
 tained first rank; but early in 1893 a second full time vocation 
 had been thrust upon him. He was now Bishop Hogue. His 
 beloved Bishop B. T. Roberts had died, and in the interim be- 
 tween the quadrennial church conferences the executive officers 
 looked upon Hogue as the logical substitute. The summer was 
 spent largely in the performance of his episcopal duties, while 
 the financial agent, F. H .Ashcraft, was left to carry on alone 
 the work of institutional promotion. In the areas of personal 
 solicitation and public representation Ashcraft rendered a very 
 important service during this period, for he was a great preacher 
 and an able financier, but, in the very nature of the case, he 
 could not fill the place of the absent president. 
 
 In all his spare moments, however, Hogue was preparing him- 
 
FAITH OF OUR FATHERS 71 
 
 self for larger service to Greenville College. He did not hold 
 the academic degrees essential to his position as president of a 
 liberal arts college. As soon as possible he finished his under- 
 graduate work through correspondence courses with Illinois Wes- 
 leyan and received the degree of Ph.B. in 1897. Then at once 
 he entered upon advanced study, which led finally to the doc- 
 torate in 1902. He was an extraordinarily rapid reader, and, 
 with his habit of rising at four for study and working again at 
 the close of the day after others were lost in slumber, he man- 
 aged to carry an unbelievably heavy program. 
 
 With the meeting of General Conference in the summer of 
 1894, Hogue was relieved of his duties as bishop, which he had 
 performed all through the school year of 1893-94, but another 
 commission was then given him. He was appointed editor of 
 the church organ, The Free Methodist, a publication which has 
 only beginning to attain stability at that time. For the remain- 
 ing ten years of Wilson Hogue's administrative stay at Greenville 
 College he ably edited this paper, spending one week of each 
 month in Chicago at the publishing house. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 FAITH AND WORK 
 
 Commencement day of 1898! The long awaited hour had ar- 
 rived. With great solemnity the Board of Trustees had voted 
 the degree of Bachelor of Arts to W. W. Loomis, and now the 
 first graduate stood before a large (and perspiring) audience in 
 old Moss Hall delivering his oration upon "The City of Today." 
 In well chosen phrases he described the city in the social, polit- 
 ical and economic life of 1898. It was not a lengthy program, to 
 be sure, although there were music numbers to fill in the hour; 
 but the momentousness of the occasion was felt by all when Pres- 
 ident Hogue gave his brief address preliminary to conferring the 
 first degree granted by Greenville College. 
 
 One passage in that address has often since been repeated. It 
 was an allusion to Aesop's fable of the lioness and the fox. The 
 lioness, taunted by the fox concerning her single offspring, had 
 replied, "What you say is true. But what were your children? 
 Foxes! I have but one, but remember, that one is a lion." 
 President Hogue then remarked, "Critics of larger institutions, 
 whose graduating classes number scores, may look with disdain 
 upon our class of '98 with its single member. But remember, 
 he's a lion." 
 
 The deepest meaning of the event could hardly be put into 
 words. With the formal completion of a liberal education by 
 W. W. Loomis had begun the major contribution of Greenville 
 College to the Free Methodist church, namely, a properly 
 educated ministry. This was perhaps the objective nearest 
 to President Hogue's heart; not that he minimized other equally 
 important functions of a college, but his prime incentive to ac- 
 cepting the call to Greenville had been his realization that the 
 intellectual level of the church could never rise above the intel- 
 lectual level of its ministry. "Like pastor, like people." With 
 the graduation of W .W. Loomis the attack upon anti-intellect- 
 ualism was begun, for Loomis was dedicated to the service of the 
 
74 
 
 'STANDS OUR NOBLE ALMA MATER' 
 
 church and has since fulfilled that consecration, first as an itin- 
 erant minister, and later as the inspiring instructor of several gen- 
 erations of Christian workers. The first graduate of Greenville 
 
 College represents ad- 
 equately one aspect, 
 and perhaps the great- 
 est aspect, of the insti- 
 tution's contribution 
 to society. 
 
 In 1894, when Loom- 
 is entered Greenville, 
 Hogue had completed 
 the plan which he had 
 in view when he un- 
 dertook in 1892 the 
 supervision of the theo- 
 logical department. 
 This was to )ffer two 
 curricula: one, a short 
 diploma course of two 
 years beyond the first 
 two years of the class- 
 ical preparatory course, 
 for those who lacked 
 the time and means for 
 further study; the other 
 an advanced course, into which he directed every prospective min- 
 ister he could possibly influence, and which required as a back- 
 ground for professional training the complete liberal arts course. 
 To consummate these plans, an expansion of the faculty of the 
 theological department was necessary, and for some time he had 
 looked about for a person properly qualified. In April of 1894, 
 while visiting the Washington-Oregon conference in his capacity 
 a$ bishop, he discovered the desired candidate. He was not the 
 holder of a college degree. He had had, to be sure, excellent form- 
 al training through, and somewhat beyond, secondary school, 
 and had taught rural school. But he was a born scholar if ever 
 there was one, reading in a few weeks, for instance, so prodigious 
 
 W. W. LOOMiIS, A. B., 1898 
 First Graduate of Greenville College 
 
FAITH AND WORK 75 
 
 a work as the complete set of Gibbon's History of the Decline and 
 Fall of the Roman Empire, and annotating it with such illuminat- 
 ing comments as would make it a valuable addition to the college 
 library. He had an encyclopedic, erudite type of mind that pre- 
 served in an astonishing way facts of every sort. But they were 
 never left in isolation; they shone with meaning as he related 
 them to the subject in hand. 
 
 One of President Hogue's accomplishments was to "know a good 
 man when he saw one." In this case even the candidate himself 
 did not recognize his own rare abilities; he was always the most 
 self-depreciative of men. He had been itinerating on a large Or- 
 egon circuit, living on starvation wages, but satisfying his insatiable 
 •thirst for learning, as he mastered Greek while riding from point 
 to point on his pinto pony. When President Hogue revealed to 
 John LaDue the place for which he knew he was fitted, LaDue's 
 first reaction was expressed in the remark, "This was an amazing 
 proposition to me." 
 
 He believed himself inadequate academically, and he feared his 
 hereditary tendency toward tuberculosis, with all that that meant 
 in a day when climate alone could work a cure; but, above all, he 
 was possessed of a conviction, deeper, perhaps, than has impelled 
 any other person ever connected with Greenville College, that 
 his work would inevitably be identified with the final, all-com- 
 prehending purposes of the institution. In his diary he wrote, 
 after arriving at Greenville, "How important it is that a deeply 
 spiritual, unworldly, and Christ-like, apostolic type of religion 
 should prevail here. The whole church will be more or less in- 
 fluenced from here." 
 
 Such prophetic insight does not make for facile decisions. It 
 produces the self-humiliation of an Isaiah and the agonized out- 
 cry, "Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean 
 lips." But the decision, "Here am I, send me," once made, may 
 shape the future of many besides the seer. This fact was borne 
 out almost forty years later when hundreds of Greenville's alumni 
 from every quarter of the globe joined in a project to memorialize 
 the teacher who had been "a tower of strength to perplexed youth 
 struggling in the crises of the college age." Many of these would 
 have accepted as equally true for themselves the declaration made 
 
76 "STANDS OUR NOBLE ALMA MATER" 
 
 by Leroy Lowell, that "of all the men who have touched my life, 
 Professor LaDue has had a stronger influence than any other of 
 whom I am conscious." 
 
 In the fall of 1894, John LaDue came to Greenville as Profes- 
 sor of theology and Bible exegesis and as pastor, also of the Free 
 Methodist church. His total salary was only $400, and the next 
 year, when he gave full time to teaching, he received only $300 — 
 this with a growing family and frequent ill health among them. 
 The circumstances under which he lived and the spirit with which 
 he met every exigency led students to look upon him as "the 
 very personification of unassumed humility and unconscious great- 
 ness, a demonstration and living example of real piety and heart 
 purity." 
 
 He studied constantly after his arrival at Greenville in an effort 
 to make himself as liberally educated as he would expect his 
 students to be. It was altogether fitting, therefore, that upon the 
 Commencement Day when W. W. Loomis, the first graduate, com- 
 pleted his formal education, John LaDue should be awarded an 
 A. B. for his progress in self-education. No one who knew him 
 would have denied him the right to it, for he had a breadth of er- 
 udition that would be the envy of many a specialist who holds a 
 Ph.D. 
 
 By 1898 many other fine additions had been made to the faculty. 
 In the second year of the school two young men recently from Ro- 
 chester University were engaged. Professor A. H. Stilwell had re- 
 ceived his master's degree from that institution and had taught 
 for thirteen years. He served Greenville ably for three years as 
 professor of Latin and philosophy. The other young man who 
 affiliated himself with Greenville in 1893 had by this act chosen 
 his life career, for he, with Professor LaDue, was to have a term of 
 service far exceeding that of all others in the history of the school 
 to date. 
 
 Greenville College in the second year of its existence must have 
 seemed to Eldon Grant Burritt very rudimental. Only a genuine 
 spirit of Christian pioneering could have called him away from an 
 assured future in Eastern academic circles, and only the deepest 
 devotion and faith could have held him to his early choice. 
 
 He and J. Howard Bradstreet, son of the Mayor of Rochester, 
 
78 "STANDS OUR NOBLE ALMA MATER" 
 
 had opened a College Preparatory school for boys in 1891 upon 
 their graduation. At once the academy took a leading place in 
 the city and received a "large and lucrative patronage." His per- 
 sonal advantages were many in Rochester. He was known as one 
 of the honor men of his class chosen as Commencement orators. 
 Years later he was called back by Rochester to receive the Phi Beta 
 Kappa key when distinguished alumni were recognized by the re- 
 cently organized chapter. During his junior year he had been 
 president of his class and editor of the yearbook, Interpres. He 
 had carried on advanced study while conducting the private school, 
 and in 1893 had received the degree of Master of Arts. Had his 
 goal been material possessions or fame as a scholar he would have 
 remained in the East, and he could have attained either. He had 
 the qualities which take a man to the top, tact, courage, adaptability, 
 tenacity of purpose, untiring industry and understanding of human 
 nature. 
 
 But he saw something at Greenville — even in the embryonic col- 
 lege of 1893 — something which held him there for most of thirty 
 years. What he saw was beautifully described by one of his stu- 
 dents in lines written at the time of President Burritt's death: 
 "Master Builder and Lover and Moulder of Youth! 
 
 With faith in youth and noble womanhood, 
 By prayer he chiseled out the steps to truth, 
 
 Making molehills where the mountains stood." 
 He was a lover of young men and women; he was always also a 
 believer in Christian education, and he considered the investment 
 of his life in this enterprise no sacrifice whatsoever, but rather the 
 most profitable use he could possibly make of it. 
 
 In his first period at Greenville he served in various capacities: 
 first as professor of Greek; later as professor of higher mathematics, 
 as well. For a time he was librarian, dean of men, and in 1897 
 he became vice-president. His versatility and his co-operative 
 spirit became evident during these early years. 
 
 Orrin Edward Tiffany came to Greenville in 1896 to teach 
 history and political economy. He had spent five years at the 
 University of Michigan after graduation from Spring Arbor Sem- 
 inary, taking the degrees of Bachelor of Arts in 1895 and Master 
 of Arts in 1896. His contribution to the early success of the col- 
 
FAITH AND WORK 79 
 
 lege was very great; perhaps his most significant service was the 
 reorganization of the curriculum, which, until his coming, had 
 been rigidly classical. For seven years he was to carry forward 
 his work of liberalization, becoming finally dean, and during the 
 frequent absences of President Hogue, bearing the major re- 
 sponsibility for the academic program. 
 
 Another, professor, whose stay at Greenville was to parallel that 
 of Professor Tiffany, was Robert Byrns English, who held his de- 
 grees, both the A. B. and the M. A., from the University of 
 Rochester. In 1896 he began his work as head af the Latin de- 
 partment, and later he was assigned the duties of superintendent, 
 also. 
 
 The successor of Professor Clark in the business department 
 was Walter Armstrong Orr, who came in 1896 fully prepared to 
 maintain the high level of work begun. The advanced course, 
 leading to the B. C. S. degree, and requiring both a two years' 
 preparatory and a two years' collegiate business course, became 
 increasingly popular, and large classes were graduated each year. 
 So great was the demand for business education during this period, 
 that an assistant to Professor Orr was necessary, and Sherman S. 
 Cooper, who had now received the B. C. S., was engaged for the 
 purpose. 
 
 The three young college professors who arrived in Greenville in 
 1896, Tiffany, English and Orr, came enjoying all the privileges 
 of "single blessedness." That state, somehow, did not last for long. 
 The first married a sister of the second, Grace English, the com- 
 petent director of the normal department, or, in modern parlance, 
 the head of the department of education. The second married 
 Grace Hill, the talented instructor in art, and the third married 
 the eldest daughter of the president, Nellie Hogue. 
 
 It was in 1896, also, that Miss Myrtle S. Taylor came from In- 
 dianapolis to establish a school of art offering four well-planned 
 years of work. Practice was given in all mediums, and all the 
 methods then in vogue were studied. A series of courses in the 
 history of art was included. During that period the painting of 
 china was an avocation pursued by many women of leisure. Miss 
 Taylor was an expert in this craft and drew a large patronage from 
 the community. Even in her first year, the department made the 
 
80 
 
 'STANDS OUR NOBLE ALMA MATER" 
 
 best record it had ever enjoyed and, as she continued instruction, 
 
 the final exhibits became the pride of the college and the town. 
 
 The success of the music department under Miss Duff during 
 
 the first year had warranted an addition to the staff at once, and 
 
 fDrag 
 
 ram: 
 
 p>pocj 
 
 ram: 
 
 PART I. 
 
 INVOCATION, REV. GEO. J. E. RICHAROS. 
 
 , PUnoTrio, {% ^^rDon e Ju E .n dUrSy,nPh0n,C • } *—»- 
 MISSES RICHARDS. COLCORD AND ADAMS. 
 
 t. Piano Impromptu. No. 4, Op. 00, - • Sehubon. 
 
 MIG8 CLARA HOGG 
 
 1. Vocol Duct, "When the Robin* Neat Afraln." Howard. 
 
 MISSES MOSS AND MATHEWSON. 
 
 4. Piano Trio, 
 
 MISSES BESSIE HOILES. CARSON ANO JOY 
 
 6. I'lano— R»l!»de, A FlM iimjor. Op. 47, 
 MISS BURG 
 
 6. Vocal Solo, -Three Thought*," - - 
 
 MISS HART 
 
 7. Plana— I .mi Hope. - 
 
 MISS GRACE HOGG. 
 
 i. I'lano Chm-orUHiick In K minor. 
 
 • •MIO M»»0 Ot MAMCI. AlltOMO ...»i 
 
 MISS CLARA HOGG. 
 *l II....... MISS MATHEWSON. 
 
 n. I Adante de la S> mphonle. No. I. - lie 
 MESSRS. JOY. CUSICK AND REED. 
 
 I'lnno t)iio. AufforHeriinK ziim Tun/. Op. fi3. 
 
 MISSES JONES, VAUGHT. MARTIN AND HOGG. 
 
 Vnenl Duet. ••() Wert Thou In Hie Cauld Riant." 
 MISS MATHEWSON AND MR. MIER. 
 
 Iinprninplii. Op. ill, 
 
 MISS HOILES. 
 
 Piano, ■•old Hundred." ParophnMP de Conec 
 MISS MATHEWSON. 
 
 Vocul yimrtet. •■(iood Ni)(ht."' - - - Ki 
 
 MESSRS. MIER, P. SMITH, COOPER AND V. SMITH. 
 
 Fourth Annual Recital of th 
 Tuesday, June 2, 1896, 
 
 e Department of Music 
 Moss Hall, 8:00 P.M. 
 
 in 1893 her neice, Miss Catherine Hamilton Duff, had come from 
 Canada to assist her, remaining for two years. Other assistants 
 followed: Miss Mabel Hart, and after her Miss Mary Brown. 
 3n 1896 a third member was added to the department, Miss Minnie 
 Brown, a pupil of famous voice teachers in Boston, Chicago and 
 St. Louis, and a very successful instructor in voice culture during 
 her stay at Greenville. 
 
 It is evident that by 1898 President Hogue had gathered about 
 him an excellent faculty. They were young men and women of 
 unusual ability; many of them later held administrative positions 
 in large institutions. The conferring of the first degree was, there- 
 fore, symptomatic of a change in the status of Greenville College, 
 for it marked the entrance of the institution into the ranks of 
 colleges properly equipped for secular education as well as for the 
 training of ministers. 
 
 Evidence of the cultural benefits brought to the school family 
 
FAITH AND WORK 
 
 81 
 
 by a group of alert and gifted teachers is to be seen in the expansion 
 of extra-curricular activities around the turn of the century. There 
 had been during the first years, too severe curtailment of all normal 
 group expression through social activities. Class parties and 
 
 picnics as well as all organized ^ ^ program. * •» 
 
 sports had been frowned upon www 
 
 by a portion of the constituency 1™™™*, • • - r«=v. e. i> »m ».«i.. 
 
 - , , __,. . |. piano Duet-lnrtrumenul <S«H»I> Brilliant*, 
 
 supporting the school. This **»*«*• *•»» 
 
 point of view did not accord ii—c^y« *»*-»*«* 
 
 r *. Recitation— Taming an Alligator. 
 
 with President Hogue's philos- mi« clara h«h»o. 
 
 ophy of education, but he was * B ^ y " 1 *^ l "5w^w t iuw. *""" 
 wise enough to take the time 4. soio-twm e»p« stole My h«h Away, 
 
 . ° <?u»tavu» ti«>«ry. 
 
 necessary for re-educating the mu*lk*am<**, 
 
 rigorists. Gradually a place * '^SSSST^SZ^Zt 
 
 was made for legitimate social be* i»t*r*.u or the country. 
 
 r A 0lmaUve-McMn>. Wolcott and Mitchell. 
 
 lUnCtlOnS. Negatlve-Meeer.. Robb and Ball. 
 
 The first organization to pro- •• piano-"simpi* avm,^ — — 
 vide some outlet for buoyant r ReC Hatkm-Th* chariot Rae*. - - - - 
 youthful spirits, had been the "*! . _ kKD . 
 
 / r t Oration- National Progress • • 
 
 Wilsonian Literary Society, M«.R.w.rm>». 
 
 named for Wilson Hogue. Its ' Joon,ftl " * * Mi * e .a rk«<«> 
 
 first president was Walter Jack- ». mb* by ti»eoiiege Quartette. 
 
 son. Since the function of this The Exercises of the Fourth An- 
 
 club was avowedly literary, or- niversary of the Wilsonian Lit- 
 
 • • . A 1 , erary Society, June 1, 1896 
 
 ganization was permitted dur- J J ' ' 
 
 ing the first year; and, while the programs fulfilled the pro- 
 fessed purpose, they afforded also a place and time for a cer- 
 tain amount of freedom for social expression. Probably the mem- 
 ories of Friday evenings spent in Wilsonian are among the happiest 
 cherished by students before 1900. 
 
 There was, for instance, at the outset of each meeting hilarious 
 sport in taking the roll call, for members would. invent all sorts of 
 original responses, spinning out even a long continued story of mel- 
 odramatic nature when persons early in the alphabet were clever 
 enough to start a plot. There were impromptu speeches thai 
 tested the wits, and impromptu debates that gave opportunity for 
 display of native humor or clash of discordant personalities. 
 
82 
 
 STANDS OUR NOBLE ALMA MATER" 
 
 ZZ™* ' **- 
 
 GIRLS OF 1896 
 
 Back row: Campbell, English, Burton, Rodgers, Vaught. Third Row: 
 Cooper, Loomis, Adams. Second Row: Drake, Gillaland, Jones, Ritch- 
 ards. Front row: Hogg, Clark, Myrtle Drake, Mattie Drake, Latzer, 
 Mathewson, Hogg. 
 
 MEN OF 1896-97 
 
 Back row: Carter, Smith, Ghormley, Mack, Reed, Ball. Third row: 
 Kemp, Smith, Loomis. Second Row: Young, Mier, Needels, Loomis, 
 Smith, Upton, Dare. First row: Robb, Leach, Harvli, Clark, Backen- 
 stoe, Wolcott, Cooper, Cusick. 
 
FAITH AND WORK 83 
 
 There was even opportunity for journalistic experience in a monthly 
 newspaper read before the club. 
 
 The copy of Volume I, Number 1, of the Wilsonian Literary 
 Journal still remains in the possession of its editor, Will C. Carson, 
 who went on from this first venture to a journalistic career which 
 has extended through forty-six years. His paper, the Greenville 
 Advocate, has three times been awarded first place for all-round 
 excellence among the bi-weeklies and tri-weeklies of the state in 
 the annual Illinois newspaper contest. The initial effort, there- 
 fore, of a budding journalist makes this issue particularly interest- 
 ing. 
 
 His editorial, after an announcement in grandiloquent style of 
 the inception of the paper, continues, "The Journal of a Literary 
 Society bears the same relation to the society as does the newspaper 
 to the community. In other words it is the medium through 
 which all the workings of the society are made public; and, al- 
 though a single individual is appointed each week as its editor, 
 yet the success of that journal depends to a certain extent upon each 
 member of the society, for the greater the number of contributors 
 the greater will be the interest taken. 
 
 "Let us then share in the trials and triumphs of each successive 
 editor and, as there is strength in union, so will the Wilsonian 
 Literary Journal have a successful career." 
 
 There follow many news items of the type whcih still furnish 
 matter for the collegiate columnist, mirth-provoking and often 
 times intelligible only to the campus reader. For example: "Quite 
 an enjoyable time was had by those who participated in a sleigh 
 ride the other night. And, although umbrellas were taken along 
 for — well, probably as a kind of protection from the rays of the 
 moon, the party came home so thoroughly drenched that many a 
 wash bill was saved — and the money spent for chewing gum." 
 
 One which portrays the primitive life of those days runs as 
 follows: "Tuesday morning, last, the peaceful quiet of the chapel 
 was thrown into confusion by the alarm of fire. Upon investi- 
 gation the conflagration was located in a room in the dormitory. 
 To Fire-chief Hutchinson and able assistant, S. H. Upton, is due 
 great credit, for the fire was not only put out, but was turned into a 
 flood." 
 
84 "STANDS OUR NOBLE ALMA MATER" 
 
 The same Samuel Upton figures as chief character in a serial 
 which apparently continued through many issues, a sort of prophetic 
 travelogue dated in the distant year of 1915, which follows the 
 wanderer to many a foreign port, where, strange to say, he meets 
 various former friends of Wilsonian: Lawrence Young, Benjamin 
 Ferris, Walter Jackson, Victor Thrall, Delia Bradsby, Josephine 
 Seaman — the list is too long to complete. 
 
 Another issue still preserved by its editor, W. A. Joy, is Vol- 
 ume VI, Number 1. The current topic, which was then of more 
 than campus interest, becomes evident in the very first paragraph. 
 "This paper," it announces, "has all the latest and freshest news 
 from Spain and Cuba in regard to the war. We have many not- 
 ed correspondents in Cuba and Spain, all of whom hold cer- 
 tificates in the Universal Liars Association. You are thus sure 
 of the most fascinating and sensational reports." 
 
 The attitude of Editor Joy toward the national crisis is shown 
 in his editorial which follows. "This edition of the Journal," he 
 states, "is very incomplete from the fact that all our office men, 
 with one exception, have been off to recruiting meetings. Yes, 
 the war spirit has suddenly seized all our men and with a shout 
 and musket they have left for the military companies. But we 
 must honor one of our men right here by saying that amid the 
 excitement and flurry of the recruiting scenes when men were 
 tearing hither and thither and women were wailing and walking 
 the streets at midnight — mid it all this faithful typesetter kept 
 quietly at work in our rooms, doggedly maintaining that all was 
 quiet along the Potomac to-night; that men would never get into 
 a fight; that Spanish troubles would come out all right if we would 
 wait till the dawning of the light. All hail to the one calm head 
 without whose help this paper would never have been published." 
 
 Later a report from one of the aforementioned members of the 
 "Universal Liars Association" is given. It comes from the bat- 
 tle of San de le Rame. He says in part: 
 
 "Our boys from C. o' G., an hundred strong on their arrival 
 at Cadiz, were placed in Commander Wendell's division, which 
 was to march around to Madrid and cut off its communications 
 from Barcelona. This division consisted of 120,000 of the brav- 
 est U. S. volunteers, all young and full of vigorous life. The 
 
FAITH AND WORK 85 
 
 first part of our journey was over a rough country, and the Span- 
 ish continually harrassed our march. The boys, unaccustomed 
 to the privations of a military life, suffered much by the march, 
 yet they were jolly and cheerful. Around the campfires all was 
 kept gay by the jests of White, McNeill and Seibert . . . . 
 
 "At San de la Rame twenty miles from Madrid we suddenly 
 encountered the main branch of the Spanish army ... It was 
 almost six o'clock. The battle had gone against us all day. 
 Most of us had fought very bravely but the Spaniards had the 
 advantage of choosing their own ground. The last charge of 
 the U. S. troops had almost failed and the enemy were swooping 
 down upon us when suddenly Murden, who was leading the C. 
 of G.'s rushed up and by us and, heading with a whoop for the 
 Spanish, cried to us, "Give them the college yell, boys! Give 
 them the college yell!" And we aroused to the highest pitch of 
 fury and courageously rallied around him and plunged madly 
 at the center of the Spanish line, screaming with all our breath 
 that terriffic yell. 
 
 "The Spaniards, terrified by the hideous sounds of that Indian 
 war whoop, thinking the demons of darkness had all broken 
 forth upon them, fled in every direction, throwing their arms 
 away and calling for mercy. The whole tide of the battle was 
 changed, we closed the day by utterly routing and destroying 
 the whole Spanish army. We are now marching upon Madrid, 
 which is entirely unprotected." 
 
 The editor then reports that "since the letter was written Madrid 
 had capitulated" and predicts that in all future histories the 
 college yell will be accredited with gaining the memorable vic- 
 tory. 
 
 The self-complacency of campus life was little disturbed by 
 the Spanish American War. Probably the prevailing attitude 
 toward the outcome is illustrated in the editor's comment, "If 
 Spain should be destroyed what a panic in Castile soap there 
 would be." 
 
 Without doubt much keener interest was shown and far great- 
 er moment attached to the dismissal of a certain student, who will 
 remain unnamed — one of those necessary acts of a long-suffering 
 faculty, which can never bo fully understood at the time by the 
 
86 
 
 'STANDS OUR NOBLE ALMA MATER' 
 
 student body. This victim of the disciplinary committee is af- 
 fectionately, though humorously, addressed as follows: "Since 
 you have left, everything seems to be in tacit communion with si- 
 
 DINNER GATHERING 1896 
 Left to right: Mathewson, Hoiles, Vaught, English, Burg, Wolcott, 
 Needels, Carter, Smith, Kemp, Reed, Ball, Mack. 
 
 lence. The books silently sulk on the shelves, the candy sits 
 poutingly on the third story window, the apples remain deathly 
 
 still in the barrels and Miss weeps in the chapel. O, , 
 
 everybody and everything misses you. The cooks moan in the 
 kitchen, the cupboards groan with their undisturbed weight of 
 cakes and cookies, the food lies uneaten on the tables, and the 
 words are frozen on our lips. 
 
 Come back to us, beloved one. 
 
 We mourn our dear beloved son. 
 
 In war or peace we'll think of thee, 
 
 We'll think of thee till we shall dee. 
 
FAITH AND WORK 
 
 87 
 
 A contributed poem which follows jocularly presents a half 
 dozen members of the faculty and as many more students who 
 had played a part in the events attending the departure of the 
 culprit. At this remote distance the lines of greatest interest 
 
 George Cusick 
 
 INTERIORS OF 1896 
 H. E. Wolcott 
 
 Miss Belle Edic 
 
 are those revealing the manner of life of that day, as, for instance: 
 
 "He provided Miss with power and goodness 
 
 And the parlor stoves with plenty of woodness." 
 or "He played at dominoes, authors and poker — 
 The latter only when he fixed his fire 
 Or when in speech his hat rose higher ..." 
 
 One of his pranks may be surmised from the following quatrain: 
 
 "But he was always wide awake, 
 Ne'er missed a chance to steal a cake. 
 Whate'er he wanted, that he took, 
 And everlastingly worried the cook." 
 
 Those who bewail the modern trend in student gossip col- 
 umns or look with consternation upon present day student mis- 
 demeanors would do well to review these issues of the Wilsonian 
 Literary Journal. They reveal all the typical irregularities in 
 student conduct, and they bear all the earmarks of collegiate 
 
88 "STANDS OUR NOBLE ALMA MATER" 
 
 journalism. So began the predecessor of Greenville College's 
 Papyrus. 
 
 While much levity attended the meetings of Wilsonian, the 
 members took great pride in their accomplishments, and genuine 
 merit characterized the program which closed the year's work 
 at Commencement time. The oration and the debate received 
 considerable emphasis, and before long clubs which specialized in 
 these two forms came into being. One can recognize in the Fri- 
 day night sessions of little Wilsonian the beginnings of all the 
 multifarious extra-curricular interests which today are sponsored 
 by the deans of students, by the departments of public speaking 
 and journalism, and by the clubs for debate and creative writing. 
 
 Another institution which had social and literary value, and 
 which has become a tradition of almost fifty years standing, was 
 the annual lyceum course. The demand for entertainment of 
 a high character and by artists not available locally seems to 
 have arisen from students, and perhaps from the younger faculty 
 members, the second year. A faculty-student committee was ap- 
 pointed, composed of C. W. Hogg, Eldon Burritt, M. G. Clark 
 and Robert Upton. There appeared in the Greenville Advocate 
 the following notice: "Greenville needs a lecture association . . . 
 only the best speakers shall be hired, and the course will consist 
 of four lectures and one musical number." Season tickets were 
 priced at $1.40 to students and $1.75 to others. 
 
 The response was so enthusiastic that lyceum evenings be- 
 came the outstanding social occasions of the winter season, 
 when the Thomas House bus was kept busy carrying town 
 and college folk in their best apparel to Moss or Armory 
 Hall. The season proved financially successful, also, and the 
 series soon became an indispensable cultural asset to the com- 
 munity. 
 
 Many a college romance began in those days with the announce- 
 ment of the first lecture in the fall, and so common has been the 
 recurrence of this phenomenon that an investigator of marriages 
 made between Greenville college students might find the lyceum 
 course to be the chief precipitator of matrimony. 
 
 The few formal social events of the year were held in the 
 parlors and the long hall. Pianos were placed at either end of 
 
FAITH AND WORK 
 
 89 
 
 the hall, and music by Miss Duff's pupils furnished a pleasant 
 
 accompaniment to the conversation and promenading. Fifty years 
 
 ago commercialized amusements furnished no detraction to simple, 
 
 unaffected neighborliness and 
 
 community solidarity, and a 
 
 college reception was looked 
 
 upon as an "At Home" to all ;! 
 
 Greenville. 
 
 Social activities in the 
 home, too, were much more 
 frequent than today, and 
 thus a place was provided 
 for many events which would 
 never be scheduled on the 
 official calendar, and yet 
 would yield as much pleasure 
 to the participants. Picnics 
 on the lawn, taffy pulls in 
 the big kitchen, oyster stews 
 at the quickly extended din- 
 ing-table after a long sleigh 
 ride over to Smithboro or a skating party out on Shoal Creek: 
 these were the homely pleasures of that day. 
 
 Very early in the history of the school a favorite haunt of pic- 
 nickers was the hillside persimmon grove out on the farm where 
 Almira Blanchard Morse had grown up and to which the fa- 
 mous hand-carved piano had first been brought. Another place 
 was old Brown's Mill ten miles or so out on the Old Ripley road, 
 to which hayrack riders loved to jaunt in the springtime, when 
 violets purpled the hills and pink-fringed bluebells made the 
 valleys look like bits of dropped sky. 
 
 Even religious exercises had a quality of spontaneity that is 
 possible, perhaps, only with a small homogeneous group. The 
 service which most completely possessed this quality was Sunday 
 afternoon chapel; this students attended gladly, though under 
 regulation, for they loved to listen to President Hogue's quiet, 
 informal, soul-searching talks. In that hour decisions were made, 
 
 A BIRTHDAY PARTY 
 Back row: Hogue, Smith, Moss. Sec- 
 ond row: Robb, Ahlemeyer, Reed, 
 Drake, Needels. First row: Hogue, 
 Robb, Backenstoe, Drake, Upton. 
 
90 "STANDS OUR NOBLE ALMA MATER" 
 
 philosophies were formed, that changed completely life pat- 
 terns for many. 
 
 It was President Hogue's good fortune to be able to broaden 
 the intellectual horizon of his students at the same time as he 
 deepened their spiritual fervor. This double benefit which his 
 listeners received in the Sunday aternoon service has called forth 
 frequent comment. One of the most interesting comes from a 
 woman whose background, like that of many of her fellows had 
 been anti-intellectual. She says, "At one time my father wrote 
 an article for the Free Methodist paper, deploring the day when 
 education would take the place of spirituality. President Hogue, 
 being at that time editor of the paper, received the article and 
 immediately came to me for my testimony to insert in the paper, 
 never mentioning my father's article to me. Of course I praised 
 the school and spoke of its deeply spiritual atmosphere, and the 
 next week my father's article and my testimony were both pub- 
 lished in the paper." After this skillful manner Wilson Hogue 
 worked, fashioning student opinion and character, stilling the 
 voices of obscurantism, building "a culture alike for the good of 
 the individual, the church and the state." 
 
 Undoubtedly his most nearly Herculean task was the acquisi- 
 tion of financial resources for the institution. The minutes of 
 his executive committee and of his board of trustees during these 
 first years, indeed during his whole administrative period, record 
 a baffling, never-ending struggle. During the very first year one 
 of his most liberal and sympathetic supporters died, W. S. Dann. 
 Expenditures the most minute had to be carefully considered. 
 Each year the same demands return: there should be a heating 
 plant installed; the chapel is inadequate — there must be a new 
 building; the library needs $1000 at the least; there should be 
 a campaign for endowment. Sometimes funds come in from 
 the field through the efforts of an agent; sometimes no agent 
 can be secured and the district elders in the supporting church 
 territory hold education day meetings. 
 
 In the spring of 1895 President Hogue was so nearly broken 
 in health that Greenville citizens determined to make possible 
 a leave of absence. A purse was made up and presented to him 
 with the request that he spend it upon a two months' trip to 
 
FAITH AND WORK 91 
 
 Europe. Gratefully he set out upon an itinerary which includ- 
 ed Holland, Germany, France and Rome in addition to the 
 British Isles, where he spent much time visiting educational 
 centers. Scotland had particular interest for him, since his 
 father was born there; James Hogg, the famous poet friend of 
 Shelley, came from the collateral line of Hoggs. 
 
 Hogue returned from this journey renewed physically and 
 mentally, but the difficulties remained, incurable apparently. He 
 talked with members of his faculty in the fall; they were loyally 
 working for a mere pittance. In January a crisis came; his 
 board seemed powerless to meet the emergency, and in March, 
 despairing of a solution, he resigned. Then the whole consti- 
 tuency awoke to the need. A committee was sent to him to 
 beg him to reconsider. He answered them by promising to 
 stay if the needed financial assistance was given. At the June 
 meeting $2000 was raised by the trustees alone. 
 
 One thousand of this came from a man who had been sponsor- 
 ing Greenville College from the beginning, J. H. Moss. He had 
 made the third member of the executive committee along w r ith 
 Dann and Ashcraft, and this was not his first gift. But he came 
 to the front now as a savior of the institution, and again later 
 his generosity was to bring about a solution of most serious finan- 
 cial problems. The progress of the institution during this per- 
 iod, in fact, its very existence, was probably due to the devotion 
 and liberality of this man. 
 
 By 1898 the financial foundations seemed surer. Various be- 
 quests had been made, and the Augsbury scholarship foundation 
 had been established. This gift from John A. Augsbury of Water- 
 town, New York, which for almost fifty years has brought aid to 
 needy students, had been solicited by President Hogue under 
 rather dramatic circumstances. While on a trip to New York he 
 had set out to visit Mr. Augsbury during a severe storm, and be- 
 fore he had reached his home, he had had to wade through snow 
 drifts waist deep. But he found awaiting him, when he finally 
 arrived, a kind, elderly gentleman who, like Grice, was eager 
 to bestow his remaining funds upon an institution pledged to 
 Christian education. 
 
S tf .J 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 THE MONUMENT TO FAITH 
 
 "Well, Okaw has it," announced the editor, as he counted the 
 last ballot and turned to the class. There were only seven of them, 
 but, even at that, they composed the largest senior class that had 
 as yet come up for graduation. They were an enterprising class, 
 too, and the publishing of the Okaw, the first yearbook of Green- 
 ville College, was a proof of it. 
 
 There had been vague talk heretofore of a school annual, but 
 the decennial Jubilee had furnished sufficient additional incite- 
 ment to cause the senior class of that year to take action. Pro- 
 fessor Tiffany probably had something to do with the decision, 
 also, and it was his work in obtaining advertising from Greenville 
 merchants that assured the project of financial success. The 
 whole class had shared the responsibility, but the staff officially 
 named were H. K. McGeary, editor; Alfred H. Joy, business man- 
 ager; R. W. Upton, art editor; Marcia Caroline Hill and Clarence 
 Stephen Marsh, associate editors; with O. E. Tilfany as faculty 
 advisor. 
 
 The school-wide contest for a title had met with a gratifying 
 response, and now it was evident that the name of a favorite 
 haunt of picnickers and nutters about ten miles from Greenville 
 was to be the choice. How appealing that spot was to the stu- 
 dent imagination may be seen by a little essay devoted to the 
 subject in the first yearbook. It describes the Okaw river as 
 winding peacefully on its way through the length of the state 
 "between wooded banks, fragrant with sweet william and .wild 
 fern. 
 
 The scene comes to life as the essayist continues: "Here its 
 bank slopes gently back to little mounds covered with trees and 
 wild flowers, and there rising abruptly from the stream, it shows 
 a washed out surface of dry, yellow clay, with gnarled, twisted 
 loots sticking out near the top. There is a diagonal ford at a 
 shallow place near the foot of a hill, and at that bend is the 
 
94 "STANDS OUR NOBLE ALMA MATER" 
 
 loveliest spot of all the Okaw. The southern bank is gloriously 
 golden in the sunlight, and the north dark and high in contrast 
 against the brilliant sky . . . Then the river flows on toward the 
 west for about a mile and a half, when with an abrupt curve it 
 turns toward the south and continues its course through woods 
 and pastures, until it loses its identity in the muddy waters of the 
 Mississippi." 
 
 Perhaps the historic fame of the Okaw, more widely known as 
 the Kaskaskia, in pioneer Illinois days had something to do with 
 the selection of the name, but more likely the memory of a day 
 spent in blissful idleness upon the "glorious golden bank" en- 
 dowed the word with richer connotations. That section of stu- 
 dent vocabulary which is learned out of the classroom is not- 
 ably more meaningful than that learned within. 
 
 However that may be, the book opened with the proper trib- 
 utes to those who then presided over the classroom before pre- 
 senting the extra-curricular interests which furnish the chief 
 raison d'etre for a yearbook. The dedication poem addressed 
 to President Hogue and written by R. E. Adams was full of sin- 
 cere admiration: 
 
 "To thee, great worker from the east, 
 
 Whence dawns our learning and our light 
 
 And comes our champion strong and brave, 
 
 To thee, who with courageous might 
 
 In darkest hour hoped and toiled, 
 
 Till in the night a glimmering way 
 
 Foretold success, and growing bright, 
 
 Revealed the splendor of the day, 
 
 Our cordial greeting we extend. 
 
 And since ten years thy leadership 
 
 Has brought our college great renown, 
 
 Thou shoulds't have love and praise and friends 
 
 For thy rewarding and thy crown. 
 
 All these, indeed, thou hast, and friends 
 
 And love and praise await to meet 
 
 Thy smiling face and kindly eye; 
 
 And here we all unite to greet 
 
 Our much beloved President." 
 
THE MONUMENT TO FAITH 95 
 
 Pictures of the faculty were presented on artistically mounted 
 plates and even certain members of faculty families received atten- 
 tion. These children who appealed for one reason or another 
 to student choice were Wilson Cathey LaDue, Charles English 
 Tiffany, Emma Margaret Orr, and Byrns Hill English. 
 
 The student activities to be represented were more numerous 
 now than they had been five years before. There were now two 
 literary societies, for a sense of solidarity in the college group had 
 developed and produced a demand for separation from Wilsonian. 
 The College Literary Club was the result, organized early in 1900. 
 Walter Joy was the first to occupy the president's chair and beside 
 him sat an efficient young secretary known in those days as Laura 
 Richards. The report of this club in the first yearbook rings 
 with enthusiasm. 
 
 "The college is justly proud of the literary work done in C. L. C. 
 It cooperates with and supplements the regular class work. It 
 extends its scope beyond this by affording the student opportun- 
 ities for original expressions and thought. The practice gained 
 by the exercise in public speaking and debating is most advanta- 
 geous to the students. The ease of manner, forcefulness in 
 argument, and knowledge of rhetorical effect acquired by mem- 
 bers in the club is of immense value to them as men and women 
 in active life . . . C. L. C. is the social center of the college life, 
 for it is here that a kindly social spirit is fostered. Acquaint- 
 ances are made and college friendships forged which time cannot 
 sever. College life at dear old G. C. would be lacking in one of 
 its brightest spots were we to be deprived of the rousing and in- 
 spiring meetings in the parlors." 
 
 Friday night was. indeed the high point in the week. The little 
 group, numbering around twenty-five at the beginning, would 
 gather in a more or less informal way in the parlors. Here the 
 atmosphere was conducive to easy, natural participation in public 
 speaking, singing and playing. In one room stood the piano, 
 about which all might gather for a sing; in the other was the vo- 
 calion, played by many under Miss Duff's instruction. Long 
 after the formal programs were over the club members lingered 
 on "forging the friendships" which make college days so precious. 
 
 Wilsonian still met in the old chapel and continued the tradi- 
 
96 
 
 'STANDS OUR NOBLE ALMA MATER' 
 
 tion for good speaking among the preps that had been theirs 
 ever since 1893, They took delight in boasting of their seniority 
 and worked hard to outdo the new society. Commencement pro- 
 grams, or exhibitions, as they were called, were climactic events 
 with both societies. 
 
 An Advocate of this period describes an annual public pro- 
 gram of C. L. C. given in the town court room to a crowd that 
 filled the place to the doors. Decorations were always elaborate, 
 
 SEVEN STARS 
 
 CANDY CANES 
 
 requiring hours of work by specially appointed committees. 
 In this case the Greek motto of the club was displayed against a 
 background of club colors mingled with the college gold and black, 
 while potted plants filled the space below. 
 
 Another club had sprung up in 1902 to afford further practice 
 in debate. This was Qibbuc, organized in the old chapel in 
 November of that year by twenty men. Membership was open 
 to both college and prep students, and support at the outset was 
 most ardent. The club performed an important function in 
 familiarizing young men with politics and current history. Par- 
 liamentary practice, too, was well planned and spirited. 
 
 It was not until 1904 that the women of Greenville became de- 
 bate-minded, but the society then launched was large and very 
 conscious of its importance. Thirty-three members signed the 
 charter and adopted the extravagant titles by which they ad- 
 dressed one another, such, for example, as Lady Magnanimity, 
 
THE MONUMENT TO FAITH 
 
 97 
 
 Lady Prudence, and Lady Psyche. Their ambition was to out- 
 rival the men's club in their knowledge of parliamentary law and 
 dexterity in forensics. Occasionally they clashed in joint meet- 
 
 QIBBUC CLUB, 1907 
 
 First row: Kline, Wheatlake, Simpson, Holtwick, F. Adams, R. Millican. 
 
 Second row: , lies, F. Millican, W. Adams, Kimbro, Cline, Lane, 
 
 Risheill, Meyers, , Anthony. 
 
 ings. The excellence of their annual public programs was their 
 boast. 
 
 The oration was a form of public speaking much cultivated 
 during the early years of the century. It found a place on every 
 college program and was the piece de resistance at Commencement 
 time. Every ambitious scholar, while he maintained his high 
 grade record, looked, also, for opportunities to make himself a 
 finished orator. The organizers of the Inter-Collegiate Prohibi- 
 tion Association made skillful use of this custom and planned 
 their national program around oratorical contests. 
 
 Greenville college, with its emphasis upon the Puritan disciplines, 
 had always stood solidly for total abstinence; hence Greenville stu- 
 dents took a vital interest in collegiate temperance movements 
 and were ready to sponsor a campus chapter of the Prohibition 
 Association. Already in 1903 the organization was large and later 
 at times it led the state in membership. From the beginning 
 
98 
 
 'STANDS OUR NOBLE ALMA MATER" 
 
 oratorical programs were given, and, as time went on, campus 
 orators were developed who competed successfully in the state and 
 interstate contests. What with two debate clubs and an orator- 
 
 VOLUNTEER BAND 
 Back row: Millican, Damon, Rice. Second row: Risheill, Simpson, 
 Dake, Sherman, Thomas, Saunders, Hudson. First rcw: Adams, Thomp- 
 son, Allee, Jolly. 
 
 ical society of at least one hundred members the campus reverber- 
 ated with forensic activity. 
 
 Of religious organizations there were three in 1903. The Col- 
 lege Missionary Society had been organized during the first year, 
 it was perhaps the first extra-curricular organization at Green- 
 ville and certainly is the oldest now existing — a unique society with 
 few parallels, one imagines, among modern college clubs. Its 
 object has remained much the same throughout the years: to 
 present the cause of missions informatively, inspiringly and so 
 effectively that every student will assume his proper relationship 
 to world Christianity. The result has been the removal of race- 
 prejudice, the development of a world view, the encouragement of 
 liberal giving, and often self-dedication to foreign service. 
 
THE MONUMENT TO FAITH 
 
 99 
 
 The fall of '03 saw the formation of a second club of like na- 
 ture, the Student Missionary Volunteers. The College Mission- 
 ary Society had served a campus-wide purpose; the new club uni- 
 fied the small group of prospective foreign workers, and, since 
 
 MINISTERIAL ASSOCIATION 1899-1900 
 Back row: Lude, Samuelson, Cooper, Millican, Stoll, Burns. Second 
 row: W. Houts, Whitten, McEwen, Harden, Lawson. Front row: I. 
 Houts, Athey, LaDue, Fritchie, McElfresh. 
 
 it was a chapter of a national organization, it brought in off-campus 
 contacts that were valuable. Edith Jones, who had joined the 
 faculty in 1902 as an able teacher of Greek, was responsible for 
 the origin of this society. Fresh from her student days at Syracuse 
 University, with a knowledge of the national movement in the 
 East, and with a great passion for service, she aroused desire for 
 a local organization. The Volunteers grew rapidly, going from 
 four members to twenty-eight in three years, and sending out to 
 the field during that time four missionaries. 
 
 Along about 1898 those interested in the ministry as a pro- 
 fession formed an organization which would supplement theoret- 
 ical training with practical activity. The Ministerial Association 
 
100 "STANDS OUR NOBLE ALMA MATER" 
 
 has ever since provided pulpits and programs for young men and 
 women who wish to begin life service immediately. 
 
 The picture of a Tennis Club outfitted in jaunty caps and col- 
 legiate jackets took a prominent place in the first yearbook. The 
 early opposition to all organized sports was disappearing. Games 
 
 THE PRIMARY (SCHOOL 
 
 had first been played on the grassy lot beside the primary school 
 across the street from the campus. Pick-up teams kicked a foot- 
 ball about or shouted over home runs in baseball. Couples began 
 their courting over a tennis net set up across the grass. 
 
 But in 1898 the little building had to make room for the new 
 church which was to be built on the corner. It was moved to 
 the main campus and for some time stood close to the site of the 
 future auditorium. The vacant lots beside the church were 
 soon sold, and the athletes had to look for another field. Each 
 year, as the demand for properly organized sports grew, the board 
 was met by student petitions of one sort or another, and each 
 year they responded with the prohibition, "No matched games." 
 Tennis, however, was not so classified; so the lovers of sport de- 
 voted all their energies to the promotion of this one organiza- 
 tion. 
 
 Meanwhile the work of wearing down opposition went on; the 
 need for wholesome well-regulated recreation of some sort became 
 
THE MONUMENT TO FAITH 101 
 
 finally acknowledged, and in 1904 the minutes of the executive 
 committee included the resolution that "the ladies be permitted 
 to organize an athletic association," and, further, that "the Athletic 
 Club be allowed to use the ground floor of the barn for a gym- 
 
 GREENVILLE COLLEGE QUARTETTE 1898-1899 
 Wm. E. White Wm. H. Murden S. E. Cooper R. B. English 
 
 nasium." In the same year, also, the ground between the col- 
 lege building and the barn, that is, our present Scott field, was 
 granted to the boys for their pick-up games of baseball. What 
 solution the players found for making home runs around apple 
 trees and locating fouls among falling pears is not on record. It 
 was some time before the orchard was completely cut down. 
 
 Various sporadic organizations were prompted by the interest 
 in music during these years. Among them was a Mandolin Club, 
 of which Alfred Joy seems to have been the leader. Chorus work 
 early sent groups off campus. The Okaw describes in playful 
 style excursions made by the singers to neighboring towns. From 
 the beginning Greenville has been a "singing" college. Quartets 
 were numerous, particularly male quartets. The one represent- 
 ed in the 1903 annual is composed of N. W. Fink, William F. 
 Murden, Joe Manning and Professor Ernest H. Eisner. 
 
102 "STANDS OUR NOBLE ALMA MATER" 
 
 The strong department built by Miss Duff in the first ten years 
 of the school accounts probably for the place which music oc- 
 cupied in student favor. In 1901, the middle of the year, Miss 
 Duff became so ill that a successor had to be secured. Miss Kay, 
 a graduate of the New England Conservatory at Boston, and a 
 teacher of wide experience in Michigan, came in April to fill the 
 vacancy. Under her direction the department continued to main- 
 tain a high standard. 
 
 President Hogue's best thought was given to selecting and hold- 
 ing a properly certified faculty. The group which appear in the 
 first volume of the Okazu are such a staff as any college president 
 could confidently publicize. In addition to the names which ap- 
 peared on the list in 1898, namely, LaDue, Orr, the Tiffanys, and 
 the Englishes, are the newcomers, Eisner and Kay in the Music 
 School, James Robb, professor in science and mathematics, and 
 Edith Jones, professor of Greek. 
 
 Professor Burritt had been granted leave of absence for study 
 at the University of Chicago in 1899, and, had it not been for in- 
 terruption by a serious illness and operation, would have secured 
 the doctorate during this time. Professor LaDue, also, was study- 
 ing with the University of Chicago, working through correspond- 
 ence largely, and gradually moving toward the Master of Arts 
 degree, which he received in 1904. President Hogue had now 
 achieved his academic goal, had completed a thesis on The Phil- 
 osophical Basis of Theism and been granted a Ph.D. by Illinois 
 Wesleyan. 
 
 The liberalizing of the curriculum initiated by Professor Tiffany, 
 had been gradually taking place, until now courses leading to 
 three degrees were offered: The Bachelor of Arts, marking the 
 completion of a classical course, in which Greek, Latin and math- 
 ematics were the major subjects; the Bachelor of Science, awarded 
 in a course where modern languages and science took the place 
 of Greek and Latin; and the Bachelor of Philosophy, given in a 
 course more nearly equivalent to a modern curriculum with its 
 choices in history, economics, philosophy, sciences and languages. 
 A Master of Arts degree was also granted to a few upon the com- 
 pletion of one year's resident work beyond the A. B., the presenta- 
 tion of a thesis and a satisfactorily passed final examination. 
 
THE MONUMENT TO FAITH 103 
 
 Examinations, even for undergraduate degrees, were compre- 
 hensive, covering the entire four years' work. Entrance, too, 
 into collegiate courses was by examination over preparatory sub- 
 jects, except for transfers from a few approved schools. The 
 standards set for graduation were high, and not everyone attained 
 the distinction. That fact explains, in part, the small number of 
 graduates who finished at Greenville College during President 
 Hogue's administration. 
 
 Probably the chief cause, however, was the incompleteness of 
 preparation which most registrants brought with them. As one 
 student of that day has remarked, "Greenville received a good deal 
 of 'raw material,' " and many young men and women had neither 
 the time nor the money to remain through seven or eight years 
 of intensive formal training. It was, in fact, a matter of pride 
 with some when their stay at "dear old G. C." extended over a 
 decade. Alfred Joy commented upon this in his Decennial ar- 
 ticle, read at the "exhibition exercises" of C. L. C., stating, "Mr. 
 Cooper holds the record for being here the longest, having been 
 located in the college building for ten consecutive years. Mr. 
 Upton, who is a close second, is the most indispensable man. He 
 is recognized authority on all questions pertaining to college 
 life . . . ' Let it be said in explanation of this statement that 
 the above mentioned men served the college in all manner of 
 capacities during this period: in janitor work, bookkeeping, and 
 assistant teaching, for example. Wiry persistence and ready adapt- 
 ability were as requisite as intellectual caliber in such cases, and 
 the man who won a degree in the end could well be self-congratu- 
 latory. 
 
 During the first ten years the total number of graduates from 
 all departments was one hundred and fifty. Only twelve of these 
 received baccalaureate degrees. But what these twelve lacked in 
 numbers they made up for in esprit de corps. They were devoted 
 to the little college and never have lost that original loyalty. 
 With them began several of the class traditions, the most not- 
 able, perhaps, being the planting of the ivy upon class day. 
 
 This practice was not borrowed. It grew out of a local need. 
 The old Almira building had been stripped bare of its beautiful 
 mantle of ivy during the first year after the change of owners, 
 
104 
 
 'STANDS OUR NOBLE ALMA MATER' 
 
 when a cement facing was placed about the building for the pur- 
 pose of re-enforcement. Student sentiment, thus, led to a practical 
 act of service as well as to the inauguration of a beautiful custom. 
 It is significant to note that forty years ago the planting of the 
 
 
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 Back row: 
 
 COMMERCIAL DEPARTMENT 1903 
 -, - — , Hentz, - — , Allendorf, Doering, Whitcomb, 
 
 Strong, Carlyle, Travis, Northup. Middle row: Risheill, Roberts, 
 
 Andrews, Royer, Cummings, Holtwick, Potter, Young, Henry, 
 Treeloggen. Front row: Hayden, Harem, Orr, McGreary, Adams, 
 Shaul, Hentz, Baisler, Stonnemann, Ward, Smith, Bost. 
 
 ivy symbolized the forward look of graduates toward future stu- 
 dent generations. Today the ceremony of ivy-cutting symbol- 
 izes the last backward look as the student separates from his own 
 student generation. 
 
 Another commencement event which originated almost as 
 soon as there were graduates of any sort was the alumni banquet. 
 All holders of degrees participated in this annual affair, and 
 perhaps the most enthusiastic group was composed of those from 
 the business school. At this period they were both numerous and 
 active in the school program. One of the most glowing depart- 
 mental write-ups in the 1903 Okaw is a poem penned by Enoch 
 Arden Holtwick, which opens with the following quatrain: 
 
THE MONUMENT TO FAITH 
 
 105 
 
 A SATURDAY HIKE 
 Back row: M. Cusick, Peterson, J. Cusick, Jones, Blakely, Fleming, 
 Marsh. Front row: Cook, Holtwick, Rose, Annis, Wheatlake, Northup, 
 Barnes, Roberts. 
 
 "Of all departments of the school 
 
 I'm sure we're not the least. 
 
 We occupy three cozy rooms 
 
 On the main floor toward the east." 
 And later, extolling their virtues, he says: 
 
 "Tis among these business boys and girls 
 
 That Rush and Push is found; 
 
 There is always something doing here, 
 
 And for play no time is found." 
 As entering classes grew in size, the sense of rivalry increased. 
 The college class which registered in autumn of 1903 claims the 
 distinction of being the first freshman group to organize. On 
 January twenty-second, 1904, they elected the following officers: 
 president, Jess Marston; vice president, F. R. Millican; secretary, 
 Adelaide Fleming; and treasurer, Hugh Griffith. Class colors 
 were chosen and in the spring the campus was electrified by the 
 appearance of chic little hats on the heads of seventeen cocky 
 Freshmen. 
 
106 "STANDS OUR NOBLE ALMA MATER" 
 
 Such an innovation was bound to provoke emulation from the 
 incoming class of the next year. The crisis in class spirit occurred 
 upon St. Patrick's Day and is described in the history of the class 
 as follows: 
 
 "Perhaps the most conspicuous contest and victory of this year 
 was what has been remembered as the Battle of St. Patrick's Day. 
 On the morning of St. Patrick's Day the freshmen appeared in 
 chapel wearing green ties. This was more than the sophs would 
 permit, so at 11:15 Wheatlake and Adams, just outside the library 
 door, undertook to remove C. D. Marston's belligerent green 
 tie. Roy Millican soon came to Marston's assistance and a battle 
 royal was on. 
 
 "Then in quick succession Bost, a Freshman, and Anthony and 
 Dreeson, Sophomores, entered the fray. On the left wing of the 
 battle line, Wheatlake and Anthony soon had Millican's colors 
 and put him to rout. In the center, a hard struggle raged be- 
 tween Marston and Adams, but finally Marston's colors were off. 
 But on the right wing between Bost and Dreeson the battle raged 
 fiercely. The dinner bell closed the conflict. However, the 
 freshmen were all untied, and their colors so badly used up they 
 were never worn again, thus leaving the advantage of the day 
 with the sophomores." The perennial warfare over "class dis- 
 tinctions" had begun. 
 
 Registration during the last years of the Hogue administration 
 ran well over two hundred each year. The school was growing 
 steadily in spite of the fact that debts kept accumulating, teachers 
 continued ill-paid, and the Board seemed helpless to cope with 
 the problems. In 1900 President Hogue, for the second time, had 
 asked to be allowed to withdraw. But he had been met by a storm 
 of protest from faculty, citizens and students. Almost unnerved 
 by the situation he waited for some overture from the trustees. 
 But they had no further proposals. 
 
 Then it was that his devoted faculty came to his aid. Six of 
 them consented to take upon themselves, as a college council, the 
 operation of the school for three years. They agreed to assume 
 the responsibility for the running expenses, taking salaries from 
 the earnings, and, in case of a deficit, soliciting funds to cover it. 
 Hogue would act as chairman, English as secretary, Robb as 
 
THE MONUMENT TO FAITH 107 
 
 treasurer. Tiffany, Orr and LaDue completed the group. The 
 plan was successful, and in 1903, at the conclusion of the three 
 year period, Hogue consented to take the presidency another year 
 under the same arrangement. 
 
 But in June the General Conference of the Free Methodist 
 church met at Greenville and asserted a prior claim to the serv- 
 ices of the only man in the church who at that time held a 
 doctor's degree. Some would say that this distinction constituted 
 a sufficient reason for Dr. Hogue's refusing the church's call and 
 continuing his great role as an educator. But this was not 
 Wilson Hogue's sense of it. As has been said before, for him the 
 call of the church transcended all others. He completed the term 
 of his contract and in June, 1904, resigned, having already begun 
 his work as bishop. 
 
 The Baccalaureate sermon which he delivered to the graduating 
 class of that year made a profound impression upon the students 
 who had come to intellectual maturity under his tutelage. For 
 them Greenville college would never be the same after his de- 
 parture, for he to them was Greenville College. This sense of 
 his identification with the very soul of the college has been elo- 
 quently expressed by a member of that class, Richard R. Blews. 
 
 "On a beautiful September morning long years ago," he says, 
 "I alighted at Greenville, Illinois, from an eastern train. Green- 
 ville was not a great city, a cozy community of twenty-five hundred 
 inhabitants with nothing to perturb its repose, which is so ideal 
 for a college town. The campus, although attractive, was not 
 large. No great quadrangle with stately halls of Gothic greeted 
 the eye. There was one plain substantial brick building. The 
 material assets were meager, the enrollment was small, the fac- 
 ulty were few in number. But in one particular the new-born 
 institution was great — it was great in the person of its founder 
 Wilson Thomas Hogue." 
 
OUR COLLEGE HOME" 
 
AUGUSTIN LUlOIEN WHITCOMB 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 "OUR COLLEGE HOME" 
 
 "On returning to school in September, 1905, we assembled for 
 the last opening to be held in the old chapel. Already the sound 
 of hammers and the buzz of saws announced we should soon 
 have a more spacious Assembly Hall." 
 
 So reads the opening paragraph of Chapter III of the Class 
 History of the '07s. 
 
 The Vista, which a few months before had come into being as 
 a monthly magazine, announced in its first fall issue, "the work 
 of constructing the new building is progressing nicely. The build- 
 ing will be four stories high. The dimensions are 48 x 80 . . . 
 The assembly hall has a seating capacity of 800. There is a 
 large gallery to the main hall, 14 feet wide on three sides. The 
 rest of the building will be devoted to recitation rooms, labora- 
 tories and a gymnasium." A new enterprise was on foot, and on 
 the grounds east of Old Main, where games had been played 
 after the south campus was sold, a commodious building, which 
 would provide class rooms and a chapel, was to be reared. 
 
 Who was responsible for this fresh activity? When President 
 Hogue had resigned in June of 1904, there had been a question 
 concerning Greenville's future. Could the church provide a 
 leader of the intellectual caliber and the admistrative skill 
 requisite to the forward movement of the institution? Bishop 
 Hogue thought he knew such a candidate. Several years before 
 he had recommended him to the board for the work of field 
 agent, feeling that his ability to present college interests to the 
 constituency was unparalleled in the Free Methodist church. 
 
 Hogue's efforts at that time were unsuccessful, but in 1903 
 Augustin L. Whitcomb had been persuaded to come to the 
 Greenville church as pastor, and with the resignation of Presi- 
 dent Hogue he became the logical candidate. What Hogue 
 thought of his qualifications he wrote later in a history of Free 
 Methodism and its institutions. "Mr. Whitcomb, M.S.," he said, 
 
112 "OUR COLLEGE HOME" 
 
 "was a man of marked ability, whose piety, scholarship, dignified 
 and spiritual bearing, eloquence in the pulpit and on the plat- 
 form, energy and tact in matters of discipline, executive skill, 
 and economy in the management of temporal matters, admirably 
 fitted him for administration over such an institution." 
 
 President Whitcomb had obtained his higher education at 
 Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, receiving the degree 
 of B.S. in 1885 and that of M.S. in 1888. Philosophy and math- 
 ematics constituted his major subjects, although his study of 
 languages was unusually extensive, also. As in the case of Pres- 
 ident Hogue, his vocational calling was to the ministry, and for 
 six years after his graduation he had served the Methodist Episco- 
 pal church. Then in 1890 he became a Free Methodist and began 
 his long and distinguished service in this connection. It has been 
 his honor to preach the anniversary sermons at the observance of 
 both the fiftieth and the seventy-fifth anniversaries of the church's 
 founding. 
 
 His brilliance as a pulpit orator was not, however, the most 
 significant recommendation for his appointment to Greenville 
 college, for he was a teacher, as well as a preacher. He had al- 
 ready proved himself an administrator of unusual ability in a 
 four years principalship at Evansville Seminary, Wisconsin. This 
 appointment he had accepted upon the agreement that he would 
 continue it until he had freed the institution from debt, and he 
 had been as good as his promise, leaving the school in excellent 
 condition. 
 
 In his entrance upon the new engagement, his major goals were 
 the enlistment of church-wide backing for the college and the en- 
 largement of the material resources. The educational program 
 established by President Hogue, the excellent faculty which he 
 had assembled, the student morale which had evolved were in 
 no need of alteration. Accordingly, President Whitcomb took a 
 light teaching load and spent most of his time in field work. 
 This financial agency was the particular commission given him 
 by the trustees; in fact, he was expected even to raise most of 
 his own salary. 
 
 With him came a very interesting family and a very devoted 
 wife. President Whitcomb's marriage had been the outcome 
 
OUR COLLEGE HOME' 
 
 113 
 
 of a college romance. Helen North and he had registered upon 
 the same day at Lawrence University, and their acquaintance had 
 ripened into affection as they attended classes together and their 
 interests became one. In 
 the performance of her du- 
 ties as the wife of a college 
 president she was very suc- 
 cessful, making herself be- 
 loved by students. 
 
 During President Whit- 
 comb's first year at Green- 
 ville the arrangement of the 
 program of instruction and 
 the regulation of campus af- 
 fairs remained in the hands 
 of a Faculty Council, but 
 after that it seemed best to 
 create a vice-presidency for 
 a closer unification of these 
 duties. To fill this office 
 an administrator who had 
 now served a very successful 
 apprenticeship was called 
 back to the campus. Student 
 
 reaction to this appointment was most enthusiastic. The history 
 of the '07s records: "We were greeted at this opening by one, 
 who though a stranger to most of us, was, nevertheless, well known 
 in the earlier histor of Greenville College. As Prof. Burritt con- 
 ducted the chapel exercises that morning we were led to feel that 
 a master hand was at the helm." 
 
 With this "master hand" directing academic affairs and another 
 master hand in charge of the financial management, the school 
 flourished, as Bishop Hogue has said, "in almost every sense of 
 the word." During Whitcomb's first year a sufficient sum was 
 raised to warrant the commencement of the new building proj- 
 ect, and, during the next two years, money poured in to cover 
 its complete construction as well as to provide for some much 
 needed improvements, such as the installation of a steam heating 
 
 HELEN NORTH WHITOOMB 
 
114 
 
 "OUR COLLEGE HOME" 
 
 plant and modern lavatory equipment. Funds to the amount 
 of $20,000 were procured during this period. 
 
 Let it be added that credit for this achievement belongs as 
 well to certain members of President Whitcomb's board, whose 
 
 liberality was most abundant. The 
 largest amounts given toward the 
 building of the Assembly Hall Build- 
 ing, as it was then called, came from 
 a man who had served with Dann 
 and Ashcraft on the first executive 
 committee of Greenville College. 
 James H. Moss possessed the rugged 
 personality of the pioneer Free Meth- 
 odist, "foursquare toward everything 
 evil. His wisdom, courage and 
 wealth were at the constant disposal" 
 of Greenville College from the day 
 when he was appointed by the Cen- 
 ral Illinois Conference to a place on 
 the board of trustees to the day of 
 his death. Since he knew little of 
 the problems attending a program 
 of higher education, he was dismayed during the first years of his 
 trusteeship at the mounting cost of the Greenville project, and in 
 the heat of the moment he declared that he could give no more, for 
 it was like pouring "soap suds in a rat-hole." However, upon a 
 wider acquaintance with the financial intricacies involved he gave 
 more and more liberally. 
 
 His personal fortunes were in time augmented by the real 
 estate developments which attended the incoming of residential 
 supporters of the college. The section lying east and north of 
 the campus became, as Ashcraft had anticipated, the scene of 
 extensive home-building and three additions laid out during these 
 years were named for Moss. From these personal gains he con- 
 scientiously returned a generous share to the contributing cause 
 of his success. So large was his donation, and so faithful was his 
 personal supervision of the construction of the new building, that 
 it might very appropriately have been named Moss Hall. 
 
 JAMES H. MOSS 
 
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 w 
 
 W 
 
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 03 
 
 <3T* •« 
 
"OUR COLLEGE HOME" 117 
 
 It was a coincidence which called for comment that his life 
 should come to an abrupt end before the new building was ded- 
 icated, just as W. S. Dann's career had closed in the midst of his 
 devoted endeavors for the college's earliest success. The debt of 
 Greenville College to these pioneer donors and supporters can 
 never be calculated. Students of that year expressed their sense 
 of loss in his passing, extolling him as "loyal, staunch, generous, 
 sympathetic, pure, humble, self-forgetful." 
 
 Another laborer with President Whitcomb during this period, 
 without whose faithfulness the new building could never have 
 been completed, was F. H. Ashcraft, president of the first board 
 of trustees, and of later boards, as well, and financial agent at 
 various intervals over a period of thirty-two years. It was this 
 dynamic person, as we have already seen, whose optimism led 
 Wilson Hogue to his initial decision. He brought to every under- 
 taking connected with the college like staunch support, and the suc- 
 cess of the campaign for funds for the auditorium was greatly due 
 to his resourceful direction. 
 
 By June of 1906 the new chapel was ready for Commencement 
 Exercises. This occasion was celebrated with a long series of 
 programs, which began with the annual C. L. C. night on May 24 
 and closed with the exercises of the College of Liberal Arts and 
 Associated Schools on June 14. Bishop Hogue gave the Com- 
 mencement address. On the list were four music recitals, repre- 
 senting completion of courses on various levels. The most not- 
 able of these was given by Miss Bertha White, the youngest col- 
 legiate music graduate in the history of the school at that time, 
 and, also, one of the most brilliant pianists of all time. From 
 Greenville she was to go on to outstanding work at New England 
 conservatory. 
 
 Another noteworthy event which found a place on this cal- 
 endar was the college praise service set for Sunday afternoon 
 following the Baccalaureate sermon. Evidently this service had 
 become traditional by this time, perhaps as an adaptation of the 
 customary Sunday afternoon meeting, and to this day it con- 
 tinues — a period which most appropriately belongs to Commence- 
 ment time, since it involves both prospect and retrospect in the 
 sharing of religious experiences by seniors and their friends. 
 
118 
 
 ''OUR COLLEGE HOME' 
 
 Praise services at that time, as today, were great occasions at 
 Greenville. The convocation praise service of the fall of 1906 
 went on record as continuing for almost two hours, attended we 
 are told, by a special sense of the divine presence. 
 
 An added reason for the length of this service was the size of 
 
 t* 
 
 
 
 'm I 
 
 AN AFTERNOON STROLL 
 Barnes, Roberts, Blakeley, Holtwick, Flemming, Marsh, Rose, Wheatlake 
 
 the student body at this period. An increasing influx of students 
 now characterized registration time. The entering college classes 
 from 1905 on reached beyond the thirty mark. Greenville Col- 
 lege was growing rapidly and drawing from a wider territory. 
 In 1907 representatives of twenty states lived in the dormitories. 
 During these years the total enrollment in all departments often 
 approached three hundred fifty. Registration in the college of 
 Liberal Arts and Sciences numbered around seventy-five and was 
 usually paralleled by a similar aggregate in the Prep school. 
 
 With this increase in the size of the student body and the re- 
 cent improvements in the living conditions, life in Greenville 
 College took on a new tempo. There were some who mourned the 
 passing of the old chapel, with its memories of Mrs. Hogue at the 
 organ Sunday afternoons and President Hogue pointing the way 
 to higher spiritual and intellectual attainments. But in the new 
 auditorium Professor LaDue, now chaplain, accomplished in his 
 own unique way the same mission, and hundreds of alumni today 
 
"OUR COLLEGE HOME" 119 
 
 look back upon those vesper services with a feeling of inexpress- 
 ible gratitude for hours of deepened spiritual insight. 
 
 If there was any mourning for the passing of the wood-box and 
 the coal oil lamp, no record of it was left. President Burritt once 
 facetiously attributed to their departure even an improvement 
 in student morals, declaring, "Righteousness became easier with 
 the new era, when the boys were required no longer to carry up 
 wood; thefts from wood-boxes were no longer prominent stu- 
 dent sins, when the girls no longer dropped big sticks of wood on 
 their bare toes, or tried to light their morning fires by touching a 
 match direct to green and sappy chunks. Wood-box avenues 
 were renamed. Disappeared the gigantic wood-piles from the 
 area which now is the parking place of automobiles, and no sub- 
 stitute was found on which the felons of those strenuous days 
 could 'do time' and work out their oft-time penalties." 
 
 An innovation during Piesident Whitcomb's administration high- 
 ly indicative of the fine student morale was the founding of a 
 monthly literary and journalistic magazine. For two years now 
 the Okaw yearbook had comprehensively presented campus in- 
 terests, R. R. Blews following McGeary as chief of the staff in 
 1904. But many students felt that more frequent communication 
 with the public was desirable. Their conception of the function 
 of a college publication is evident from a statement made by the 
 originator of the scheme, Oren Fero. He says, "Carl Howland 
 was then in the high school department, and myself a Junior in 
 college and roommates. We keenly felt that the college would 
 be a greater force in our church and the world at large if we 
 were better known." 
 
 Animated by this desire to extend the reach of college influence, 
 they went to Sherman Cooper, who at that time was director of 
 the business department, and asked for his assistance. He there- 
 upon assured them of financial sponsorship, if they would under- 
 take the editorial duties. The articles were to be solicited from 
 members of C. L. C. and Wilsonian Literary Society. Faculty 
 approval came promptly, with the one stipulation that the staff 
 assume all financial responsibility. 
 
 Oren Fero, logically, became the first editor. Elections there- 
 after were conducted by the College Literary Club and became 
 
120 
 
 OUR COLLEGE HOME' 
 
 very important occasions. Associate editors during 1905 were 
 Jesse Marston, Florence Murray, Carl Howland, and Alfred 
 Simpson. Ernest L. Bost acted as assistant business manager to 
 Professor Cooper. 
 
 VISTA STAFF, 1905-06 
 Standing: Adams, Dreesen, Holtwick, Wheatlake. Seated: Hunter, 
 Young, Bus, Mgr., Millican, Editor, Thompson. 
 
 The choice of a name for the new magazine was determined by 
 a contest in the literary societies. When announcement of the 
 selection was made by the committee appointed for the purpose, 
 the contributor of the name was not given official notice, for the 
 reason that she proved to be a faculty member, belonging to C. L. C. 
 Her unusual originality should, however, have been recognized, 
 for the title, The Vista, has far more appropriateness than many 
 one finds upon the covers of annuals. No student among the 
 hundreds who have stood under the tower of Old Main and 
 looked down the vista of stately elms to College Avenue has failed 
 to catch the peculiar symbolism of the word. 
 
 It has furnished inspiration for many an artist and writer. In 
 
"OUR COLLEGE HOME" 121 
 
 the yearbook of 1908, for example, appeared a full page picture of 
 the trees and an essay, which concluded in sentimental vein, as 
 follows: "Friendships are cemented, broken and recemented under 
 their favoring influence. And when the graduate leaves his 
 Alma Mater, if his eyes are not too full, the last view that meets 
 them will be the old college tower among the trees." 
 
 Later on, in 1926, another student writer caught in beautiful 
 poetic phrases the immemorial significance of the elms. Burton 
 T. Burritt's poem, "Our Campus", deserves a wider acquaintance 
 than it has had among alumni. 
 
 Our Campus 
 
 The sixties energies endow 
 
 The elms the years have worn, 
 But youngster Naughts are old folks now 
 
 And Thirty's nearly born. 
 
 Here academic marchers meet 
 
 With lingering processions 
 Of weddings, funerals and the sweet 
 
 "We won!" of victory's sessions. 
 
 Here ghosts of hearts and hopes exist 
 That now are with the nations. 
 
 And litanies of love rekissed 
 To girls in generations. 
 
 The elms will not — to elms again! 
 
 Men, women spend and die; 
 And lives, like elms, eternal strain 
 
 Their trunks against the sky. 
 
 — Burton T. Burritt, '19. 
 
 It was in February, 1905, that The Vista made its first appear- 
 ance, a slender little magazine of 16 pages, size 9^x13% inches. 
 Articles contributed by student and faculty writers filled the ma- 
 jor portion. Meager columns of campus brevities appeared toward 
 the end. As a journalistic genre it belongs to the same class as 
 the eighteenth century essay periodical, for the modern function 
 of news dissemination was, for the most part, lacking, but it 
 
122 "OUR COLLEGE HOME" 
 
 fulfilled the editor's purpose of publicizing Greenville College. 
 The principal essay of the first number, contributed by Profes- 
 sor R. R. Blews, presented ably the advantages and objectives of the 
 school. His statement of aims of the institution, coming from a 
 graduate of the previous year was significant: — "to form a moral 
 Christian type of manhood, not for any ecclesiastical or narrow 
 reason, but because the Christian type is the noblest, the fullest, 
 the largest type of manhood." 
 
 As the monthly issues continued, news columns became more 
 frequent, and long news stories upon noteworthy campus events 
 began to find a place. Editorials, too, took on their proper char- 
 acter of news-interpretation. One of the most interesting of 
 these appeared about a year after the periodical began publica- 
 tion. C. L. C. at the time of the mid-semester election of new 
 officers had been the scene of unprecedented political activity. 
 The girls of Philomathean had "ganged up" on the men of 
 Qibbuc and succeeded in running in their feminine candidate 
 for the presidency. The editor explained, "The girls had pulled 
 their wires to perfection, and, as a result, Mamie Anthony, over 
 the head of all the puny resistance offered by the masculine por- 
 tion of the club, went sweeping into the president's chair. The 
 victory was complete." The editorial bewailed the development of 
 political antagonisms and called for the good old days of unan- 
 imity. 
 
 Symptoms of lively school spirit were increasingly manifest 
 as time went on. In May of 1906 the campaign leading up to 
 Vista elections was the hottest yet staged, Dreeson defeating C. 
 D. Marston, his opponent lor the editorship, by only two votes. 
 There were now two staff elections, since the June issue of the 
 Vista had become a yearbook and required a separate board. 
 Consequently, literary or executive ability found abundant op- 
 portunity for extra-curricular employment, and the honor of 
 election to the offices was much prized. 
 
 All the student organizations of this period abounded in vi- 
 tality. Members of the College Literary Club were delighted 
 with their new meeting-place, the chapel, and boasted of the high 
 quality of the programs presented there. A requirement that made 
 participation by every member during the semester obligatory 
 
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124 "OUR COLLEGE HOME" 
 
 produced proper cooperation and insured variety in numbers. 
 Qibbuc and Philomathean were enjoying the heyday of their 
 rather brief existence. Indeed, forensics were so popular that 
 another organization for the discussion of political and sociological 
 questions sprang up. This was Ciceronian, composed of seven 
 aspiring young intellectuals. 
 
 In 1907 Qibbuc ambitiously conducted debate upon the con- 
 gressional plan, dividing into House and Senate for discussion of 
 subjects of national import. The term of office was limited to 
 four weeks in order to widen opportunities for participation. The 
 girls of Philomathean followed the same system and gave Lady 
 Bo-Peep, Lady Francheska, Lady Muffet and seven more ladies 
 a chance during the year to use the gavel. 
 
 Rivalry between the two societies ran high, but never too high 
 to forbid an occasional joint program, such, for example, as is 
 recounted in the following news item: "An interesting and enter- 
 taining program was rendered Wednesday evening, May 2, by 
 the Philomathean for the Qibbuc club. As the ladies, dressed 
 in white, entered single file singing the college song, they were 
 greeted with cheers from the boys. The debate showed quite 
 an exhaustive study of the question: Resolved, that the country 
 is more suited to human development than the city. The solo 
 by Miss Dake and the Philo song were well rendered." 
 
 Another flourishing organization was the Inter-collegiate Pro- 
 hibition Association. Membership at this time comprehended 
 almost the entire school, and was far from purely nominal. Dur- 
 ing the school year of 1906-07 the Greenville club gained recog- 
 nition as the largest chapter in Illinois. The state contest was 
 attended by a large delegation with the hopes of sending their 
 man to the top. These meets, in fact, during these years always 
 called out a crowd of banner bearers such as football games elicit 
 today. The lively Juniors of 1905-06 tell how, after the failure 
 of their contestant to land the prize at the big Springfield meet, 
 they proceeded to the top of the state house and sang the college 
 song "for the benefit of the Governor and other state officials." 
 
 The monthly programs of the club called forth the best talent 
 of the school. Constant practice in forensics, particularly in the 
 oration, was afforded here, and Greenville College has probably 
 
'OUR COLLEGE HOME" 
 
 125 
 
 never since had a situation so conducive to good public speaking. 
 Results were soon to be seen in the success which orators achieved 
 in state and interstate contests of various sorts. 
 
 Another notable aspect of this organization was the outlet 
 
 WILSONIAN LITERARY SOCIETY, 1907 
 Front row: Sharpe, Sala, Elam, Hunter, Anthony, Risheill, Willard, 
 Coibert. Second row: Lee, Thompson, White, €. Sherman, L. Sherman, 
 Cusick, Kingen, Stunkard. Third row: Boucher, Whitcomb, Joy, 
 Deremiah, Kline, Merry, Helsel, Carlson, Seaman, Merrithew. Fourth 
 row: Dake, Graham, Babcock, MoCracken, Parsons, A. Colbert, M. 
 LaDue, Crawford, Jchnson, Boyd, Behner, Dunn, Hyde, Ashcraft, Pink- 
 staff, Andrews. Fifth row: M. Deremiah, Angerstein, — — , Cline, 
 3. Cook, Howard, Sharp, R. Cook, Ellis. Sixth row: Rose, Whitcomb, 
 
 , , Sherman, , A. Williams, R. Benton, Watkins, . 
 
 Seventh row: Benton, Williams, Damon, Mayhew, Rice, R. LaDue, 
 Saunders, H. Sherman, Adams, , , G. Dunn. 
 
 which it provided for youthful interest in reforms. All the moral 
 ardor which students of the mid-nineteenth century poured into 
 the abolition movement, or which young twentieth century ideal- 
 ists have expended upon the promotion of pacifism or socialism, 
 was contributed to prohibition agitation during this period. It 
 was about this time that the Lincoln Temperance Chautauqua 
 
126 "OUR COLLEGE HOME" 
 
 began visiting Greenville on its summer rounds of entertainment 
 and instruction, arriving usually in early September at the proper 
 time to catch the student audience. Here were heard for the first 
 time such orators as Clinton N. Howard, Aaron Watkins, and 
 Senator Frank Hanley. Chautauqua managers were often chosen 
 from among Greenville students, and platform experience, gained 
 from these appointments, encouraged further enthusiasm for 
 forensics upon the campus. 
 
 Other outlets for youthful energies besides the literary and the 
 forensic were now afforded in a student-directed athletic pro- 
 gram. With the completion of the new four story building a 
 place was ready for indoor gymnastics, and, more than that, proper 
 recognition had finally been achieved for all sports. A petition 
 from students to the board asking for a new playground to take 
 the place of the old one, which had been pre-empted for the 
 Assembly Hall, met with approval, and a portion of the old 
 orchard was demolished root and branch — "not a great loss," said 
 students, "for the trees are so old and unproductive." 
 
 In 1905-06 a very enthusiastic organization was formed which 
 called itself the A. A. A., the Alpha Athletic Association. Member- 
 ship was open to all who would pay the required dues, and these 
 could be worked off by a few hours labor on the tennis courts 
 or basketball grounds. In the Vista of October, 1905, the new 
 student activity was presented with the proper recommendation 
 of its attendant advantages. 
 
 "The preparation of the new gym," the article states, "is being 
 carried on with much enthusiasm. The management will be 
 under the direction of the A. A. A. officers of the college. During 
 the long, cold and damp winter months, students are liable to 
 not take sufficient exercise without which no student can expect 
 to do the best mental work. Too often students impair their 
 health for life. The new gym will completely remedy this dan- 
 ger. Already the new association has fifty members, each one 
 of whom on becoming a member paid his initiation fee of one 
 dollar." 
 
 Physical culture classes were begun before the new gym was 
 finished, and frequent exhibitions were put on with a small charge 
 for the purpose of collecting money for buying athletic equip- 
 
'OUR COLLEGE HOME" 127 
 
 ment. Such a program is described in a Vista article as including 
 drills with wands and Indian clubs, as well as featuring ball games 
 and races of various types, directed by Miss M. Adams, teacher 
 of "the ladies" physical culture class. 
 
 GLEE GIRLS, 1907 
 Front row: C. Dake, Merry, McGeary, Sands, Harvett, Ebey, R. Dake. 
 Back row: Burnes, Kline, Eakins, C. White, Smith, B. White, Burns. 
 
 By the fall of 1907 the gym had been equipped with rings, 
 weights, a "horse", and all the customary paraphernalia of the 
 day. Out-of-doors the A. A. A. had prepared five tennis courts, 
 a quarter mile track "under the shade of the old apple trees," and 
 a baseball diamond, and were proposing two handball courts to 
 be built in the gym during the winter. The distance runners 
 formed a Cross Country Club which sponsored a five mile con- 
 stitutional for early hours before breakfast. 
 
 Music lovers made a place for themselves in the extra-curricular 
 events. The first glee club was organized in 1907 by girls under 
 the leadership of Miss Luella Eakins and was known as Glee Girls. 
 Their rehearsals were held regularly Fridays at four and before 
 the year was over they had contributed numbers to various pro- 
 
128 'OUR COLLEGE HOME" 
 
 grams and were ready for a final concert. During 1908 and 1909 
 under the direction of Carrie Dake the club became one of the 
 most popular and active campus groups. Their lead was followed 
 by an organization among the men, but the Glee Girls seems al- 
 ways to have held first place. The best of men singers went in 
 for quartet arrangements, and there were several good ones at 
 this time. 
 
 Another group of the musically minded formed an orchestra 
 of ten pieces and filled several engagements. Their pictures may 
 be seen in the 1907 yearbook. 
 
 The Student Missionary Volunteers continued the record which 
 they had set at their beginning and did much toward making all 
 missions-conscious. In 1906 they sent seven delegates to the 
 Nashville convention, and in 1907 their membership numbered 
 thirty-one. From their ranks came the men and women who 
 have formed the very backbone of the church's work abroad. 
 The departure of one of their number, George Schlosser, for 
 Africa is the subject of considerable news interest in Vistas of 
 1906-07. A crowd of two hundred escorted him to the train. 
 There are quite a number who can recall similar leave-takings 
 in the years which have followed, when some other member of 
 this missionary family has left the Greenville College home for 
 foreign service. 
 
 The spirit which pervaded Greenville during those days may 
 be best described by comparing it to that which characterizes a 
 well-ordered family. In fact, the catalogues published a state- 
 ment which made family life the objective. "We aim, they an- 
 nounced, to avoid everything institutional . . . and spare no pains 
 to make college life for students and teachers as pleasant and 
 home-like as possible." 
 
 Students and faculty together composed a cooperative so- 
 ciety in which each member took an enthusiastic and responsible 
 part. We have recognized this spirit in the founding of The 
 Vista: a publication was needed to gain wider recognition for the 
 institution, and so the responsibility involved was voluntarily as- 
 sumed by students. A publicity manager was a being unknown, 
 and unnecessary, had he been known, for students took joy in 
 being themselves advertisers of their college. The comparative 
 
Ot/R COLLEGE HOME' 
 
 129 
 
 insignificance of the institution which they represented was, of 
 course, recognized; but they took pride in its brief history and 
 had great confidence for its future. Above all, they believed in 
 the cardinal principles which had brought their college into being. 
 This faith in ances- 
 try and traditions, this 
 glad desire "to serve 
 the present age," this 
 planning for future 
 
 %$A 
 
 ^ % H ft 
 
 HFJ 
 
 • m - '■ m Ml 
 
 AN APPLE BUTTER BEE 
 
 generations, are the ele- 
 ments that create fam- 
 ily solidarity, and they 
 are also the ingred- 
 ients which go into the 
 making of a unified col- 
 lege community. 
 
 Responsibilities of 
 all sorts were shared. 
 We have seen the ap- 
 peal for cooperation 
 
 in the installation of an athletic program. Duties which to- 
 day belong only to a director of physical education were dis- 
 tributed among the whole student group. This spirit of 
 communal industry distinguished almost every activity. It ex- 
 tended even to the work of the culinary department. The follow- 
 ing news item from a Vista of October, 1905, gives a picture of 
 a very simple, but, withal, a very happy kind of community life. 
 
 "When apple-butter making time comes, there is great conster- 
 nation in the school. The pantry and kitchen are filled with 
 great people, little people, large and small sizes of people making 
 butter. September twenty-eighth happened to be the day. After 
 the work had been going on all day the teachers and students 
 took up the task when the club and lit. were over. When they 
 had finished, watermelon and fudge were passed around. They 
 retired at eleven." 
 
 In such a community the social distance between faculty and 
 students almost disappears. An illustration of this occurs in 
 the frequent receptions and parties given by faculty groups to 
 
130 "OUR COLLEGE HOME" 
 
 student groups, for instance, the reception occasionally given by 
 the faculty to the seniors after their farewell program to C. L. C. 
 Such faculty-prompted affairs were not at all rare — Thanksgiving, 
 Christmas and Valentine's day parties, or picnics out at Brown's 
 Mill, or over at Hudson Lake. 
 
 One faculty member who will always be remembered for his 
 
 OLD BROWN'S MILL 
 
 contribution to such occasions came to Greenville in the last year 
 of President Whitcomb's administration. This was Vincent Hollis 
 Todd, fresh from his years at Harvard, always a student in spirit, 
 yet a master linguist and an unforgetable instructor. At various 
 intervals he was to reside at Greenville, enriching the social life, 
 and extending the intellectual outlook of the students who were 
 so happy as to know him. The "feeds" which he sponsored, the 
 teas which he suggested, the picnics and sleigh rides which he 
 chaperoned, are probably too numerous ever to be counted, but 
 the memory book of several generations of students would reveal 
 the place he occupied in their lives. 
 
 Under his direction the Modern Language courses reached a 
 new level of excellence. But his was not the only department to 
 make progress in the Whitcomb administration. Similar gains 
 in the field of physical sciences were achieved with the coming of 
 Jacob Moyer in 1907. The proper provision for this department 
 was made in the architectural plans for the first floor of the new 
 
'OUR COLLEGE HOME" 131 
 
 building. Upon its completion one thousand dollars was spent 
 for equipment; lecture rooms and a dark room were furnished, 
 and complete facilities for over thirty students were provided. 
 Professor Moyer, returning from advanced study at the University 
 of Michigan, took charge of this department and remained at 
 Greenville for ten years of very valuable service. During these 
 years he was also Dean. 
 
 Another flourishing department of this era was the Normal 
 school, headed by Miss Candis J. Nelson, who had had extensive 
 training in Iowa colleges and teaching experience in Lincoln, 
 Nebraska. A curriculum was planned to suit all needs: profes- 
 sional work for those of senior college standing; a two year course 
 leading to the degree of Bachelor of Pedagogy, a four year nor- 
 mal course for elementary teachers, and teachers' review work 
 for candidates for rural schools. 
 
 Through her wise administration Greenville's reputation for 
 successful teacher training was established in southern Illinois. 
 One of her methods which proved very effective was an occasional 
 reception in the parlors to teachers of the public schools, mem- 
 bers of the college faculty, and students of the Normal school. 
 Topics of mutual benefit were discussed at these gatherings, and 
 community of interest was promoted. 
 
 The commercial school, which had various directors during 
 the period, W. E. Milliken, Sherman Cooper, Rumsey Young, 
 and Harry Jett, continued to prepare a large group of students 
 for the business world. In the music department the high stand- 
 ards which had been set by Miss Duff and Miss Kay were main- 
 tained by their successor, Miss Ella Mabel Jones, director from 
 1907 to 1910. Both departments had new and more extensive 
 quarters, for the old chapel and the adjoining rooms were now 
 occupied by commercial students, and on the upper floor of the 
 new building a suite of music rooms had been fitted out. 
 
 Members of the faculty during this period numbered usually 
 about twenty. Instruction in languages, literature, history, phil- 
 osophy, mathematics, sociology and physical sciences was well pro- 
 vided for. Many of the teachers in these fields had graduate de- 
 grees. But the natural sciences received scant attention, and as 
 yet no laboratory facilities were provided. The instructional load 
 
132 
 
 OUR COLLEGE HOME" 
 
 was frequently thirty hours and comprehended courses ranging from 
 the freshman preparatory to the senior college level. 
 
 Much remained to be done to make of Greenville a fully ac- 
 credited institution, but the foundations had been laid, and this 
 
 BUSINESS DEPARTMENT, 1906 
 
 fact was recognized even in 1908, when the University of Illinois 
 included Greenville among the colleges which received yearly 
 scholarsships to be assigned to the highest ranking Seniors. Two 
 of the year's class received recognition, B. H. Gaddis and E. H. 
 Bost. A year of graduate study was granted them, with tuition 
 and fees paid, and a stipend of $250 added. 
 
 The forward movement of the school was not retarded by a 
 change in administration which took place at the mid-year board 
 meeting of 1908. President Whitcomb at that time presented 
 his resignation. He had been restive under the urge to return 
 to his calling. He has said since that he had promised Bishop 
 Hogue to assume the duties of the presidency only until he could 
 train a successor and that the invitation to Professor Burritt to 
 return as vice-president had been a step toward the fulfillment 
 of that plan. 
 
 There was no doubt as to the fitness of his understudy for the 
 
134 'OUR COLLEGE HOME" 
 
 promotion. Neither was there any question as to the competence 
 of the one who had so graciously presided over Professor Burritt's 
 home. During the years while he had been serving in whatever 
 capacity was necessary, Mrs. Burritt also had adapted herself 
 to each new demand, teaching for a time in the primary school, 
 acting as dormitory preceptress for another period, and making 
 herself an indispensable member of the college community. Pres- 
 ident Whitcomb left Greenville for the pastorate of a large Los 
 Angeles church, knowing that the college would make a name 
 for itself under the supervision of the man and woman to whom 
 he had committed it. 
 
"STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY" 
 
ELDON GRANT BURRITT 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 FIRST DAY 
 
 In the late dusk of mid-September the buildings loomed, mys- 
 terious and romantic, and from the wide, high archway under the 
 tower, a light shone down the long flight of stairs and out across 
 the old red brick walk, which led beneath the colonnaded elms 
 to College Avenue. From some neighboring lawn came the heavy 
 fragrance of moon-vine flowers in full bloom, and off to the north 
 just near enough to be faintly recognizable, a whippoorwill was 
 calling eerily. The crowd of students who had just alighted from 
 the Thomas House bus after a clattering career down the newly 
 paved street passed noisily up the steps and thronged through 
 the widely opened doors at the top. 
 
 A spacious hallway with a walnut bannistered staircase descending 
 on the left greeted their view, and suddenly down this bannister, 
 with his speed accelerated by passage down three successive flights 
 of stairs, came a lithe dark-haired figure, that catapulted into 
 their very midst. 
 
 "Hi, Ziggy, still going strong," boomed a tall, brawny, bronzed 
 youth, who had been at the fore in the arriving group. 
 
 "Hi, Marv," shrilled the young broncho buster," "where'd you 
 pick up all the good looking girls?" 
 
 Once at the landing up the flight of steps where Ziggy's flying 
 figure had first come in view, the group separated, the girls 
 disappeared through a small open door, and the fellows proceeding 
 on up to the floor above. 
 
 The soft swish, swish of a sweeping broom against the door 
 and then off down the hall. The hard push against the ribs 
 from the coiled springs in the sanitary cot, as one rolled over and 
 came slowly to the consciousness that one was no longer beneath 
 the kindly sheltering parental roof. Sleep-drugged eyes opened 
 to the sight of astonishingly assorted furnishings: a lovely old 
 
138 
 
 'STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY" 
 
 walnut antique from Almira days, marble topped and Duncan 
 Phyfe in design, a crude wash stand, a shaky three-tiered book- 
 case, two or three nondescript chairs, a small electric bulb dangling 
 from the ceiling, a bare, rough wood floor below, and in the middle 
 
 of it a gray cloth-covered grip 
 with top and bottom thrown a- 
 part and overflowing with 
 dresses, petticoats, photographs, 
 pennants, and everything else 
 a girl forgets to put into her 
 trunk and has to cram the last 
 minute into the new travel case. 
 Suddenly the clang, clang of a 
 hand rung bell and the tread 
 of feet past the door brought 
 the sleeper bolt upright in bed 
 and sent her scurrying for tooth- 
 brush, washcloth, towel and ki- 
 mono and running down the 
 hall with a dozen others, sim- 
 ilarly clad, who were bent upon 
 arriving at the dining-room 
 down on first floor, west, when 
 the second bell should sound. 
 A half hour later the rush past the kitchen door brought a 
 glimpse of a rotund figure bustling about between the large 
 cook stove and the long tables, upon which bowls of oatmeal 
 were being scooped out from large gray enameled kettles and 
 huge cups of coffee were being poured from a giant pot. A round 
 rosy face looked up occasionally from the operations, and gray 
 eyes beamed benignly upon some former student among the pass- 
 ing throng. 
 
 Around the dining-room tables covered with coarse Indian- 
 head cloths swarmed the crowd in eights or tens, usually with a 
 teacher appearing from somewhere and seating himself at the 
 head as host. The tap of a bell then, bowed heads, and grace. In- 
 troductions followed, while the waiter received full trays at the 
 serving window, which opened from the kitchen, and brought 
 
 HARRIET WEISS 
 
FIRST DAY 139 
 
 them expeditiously to each table. Heaped plates of hot biscuit, 
 southern style, accompanied by pitchers of strained honey, re- 
 minded the Northerners and Easterners that they were now not 
 far from the Mason and Dixon line. 
 
 Conversation ran to identification of students and their native 
 habitats. "That group over there is from Michigan — most of 
 them went to Spring Arbor." "There's a big gang at that north 
 table from New York." "See those three girls over there? They're 
 from California." "That fellow in a lumberjack shirt is from 
 Minnesota — first student who's come from there." "Did you hear 
 the drawl of that guy from Texas?" "Well, no it isn't much worse 
 than we got last year from Missouri." "And talk about dialect — I 
 guess Pennsylvanians shouldn't be too critical with their 'pokes' 
 and 'homings', and even lllinoians say na-ow and ha-ouse." 
 
 Ten o'clock, and another bell! The reverberations swept 
 through the halls below the big tower in slow rhythmical measure. 
 Chapel time! Fall convocation — only it had not yet been 
 assigned so high-sounding a name — and slowly, chattering groups 
 of twos and threes sauntered down the front steps and across the 
 lawn to the auditorium. Up the long flight there they went, 
 grasping the iron rod that divided the staircase in two, commenting 
 upon the large arc light that hung above, reminder of the class 
 of '08. Entering then, with a look of expectancy toward the 
 faculty-filled platform, they filed into seats here, seats there, un- 
 til the central section was well filled and flowed over into the 
 wings at right and left. 
 
 Quiet attentiveness came as soon as President Burritt arose and 
 looked amiably over the crowd. His eyes glowed with kindly 
 interest toward the new students, and his facetious comments 
 upon old students and past events gave one an excited feeling 
 of being about to be initiated into a magical circle. 
 
 But that pleasure was nothing compared to the thrill that tingled 
 through one to the very finger-tips when the opening song had 
 been announced, and the group began to sing. Had one ever 
 thought to hear such singing this side of heaven! "When I 
 Can Read My Title Clear!" How the bass took up the strain! 
 
140 "STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY" 
 
 One's heart went up into one's throat and, after the twinge of 
 early morning home-sickness, one wasn't sure how many different 
 sorts of emotions went into the closing words, "And w-i-i-ipe my 
 weeping eyes." 
 
 Just to think that all these singing youths knew and loved the 
 way of life which you had been taught, and that upon that platform 
 sat men and women who could tell you more of that way of life, 
 filling your longing for intellectual satisfactions, aiding you in 
 solving the myriad of problems which had attended your search 
 for knowledge! The year stretched out alluringly before you down 
 a shadowy vista of experiences as yet unknown, even perhaps un- 
 dreamed of. 
 
 The spell you feared would be broken held even after your 
 visit to the president's and the dean's offices. President Burritt's 
 chapel manner you found was not professional; it was genuine. 
 He was glad you were at Greenville, not because your name helped 
 swell the roster, but because you were you. He knew your father 
 and mother, he thought they were "wonderful people," and he 
 seemed to have no doubt about your upholding the family reputa- 
 tion. Your final impression was best of all: here was a cultured 
 gentleman. He possessed something that you wanted to gain 
 from a college education. You couldn't put it into words upon 
 that first visit to his office, but it included poise and savoir-faire, 
 graciousness to others, an intimacy with books that kept cropping 
 out in his conversation. You had met it in others, of course, but 
 you had not met it as often as you wished in combination with 
 Christian humility and the spirit of service to others. 
 
 And the Dean! You had dreaded your conference with him, 
 for the choice of a college course with all its possible ramifications 
 seemed to you not far removed from the choice of hell or heaven. 
 What if you spent four years upon Greek only to waste it upon 
 "the desert air" of a husband! And what did one do in courses 
 in sociology and political science? Didn't Deans have the repu- 
 tation of being hard-boiled and pushing you into courses that 
 you didn't want? 
 
 But Dean Moyer immediately put you at ease about all that. 
 
FIRST DAY 141 
 
 He talked with you as any normal person would do, discovered 
 your interests, and explained the unintelligible words. Greek 
 and Latin, he said, although they had constituted the core ol 
 Greenville's requirement for the A. B. back in 1905, had been 
 
 THE OLD PARLORS 
 
 dropped, and now one had the choice of many electives, and the 
 course in the arts was as broad as the course in sciences. He gave 
 you casually a deal of friendly counsel about your first year's pro- 
 gram and sent you out of the office feeling very wise, very sure 
 of yourself, quite like a full-fledged college student, much more 
 complacent, in fact, than you were nine weeks later when you 
 answered his call upon the issuing of mid-semester grades. 
 
 Just across the hall from Dean M oyer's office was the library, 
 three rooms filled with stacks and presided over by a student of 
 
142 "STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY" 
 
 mature years and, presumably, skilled in handling persons of 
 non-studious or mischievious disposition. At the present mo- 
 ment general disorder characterized the place. Magazines were 
 scattered about; books, upon inspection, appeared imperfectly 
 catalogued; and, worst of all, former students, who seemed too 
 aware of their equality with the occupant of the librarian's chair, 
 were engaging in pursuits distinctly alien to the studious life and 
 inimical to the desire for a quiet hour of reading. Perhaps the 
 time for study had not yet arrived; after classes were organized 
 quiet and order would reign in this domain — . Alas, that time 
 never came to any great measure under student librarians. 
 
 From the hall outside came bursts of melody. Men's voices. 
 Yes, last year's quartet were getting together. In a cluster beside 
 the stairway they stood, tuning up; and the strains of "Sleep, 
 Kentucky Babe", "Annie Laurie", "I'll Take You Back Again, 
 Kathleen", floated down the halls. Admiring co-eds stood about 
 listening, when they were not gossiping. 
 
 Students ranging in age from fifteen to thirty, ran up and down 
 the stairs, gathered in talkative knots. Sedate looking men and 
 women of the faculty bustled through, smiling, nodding, occasion- 
 ally stopping for a familiar word with a group. 
 
 From the floor below, where the culinary department hummed 
 with dinner preparations, came smells of roast beef and cabbage. 
 One became aware of an enormous appetite at the same time as 
 one tried to adjust the mind to the propriety of pursuing all one's 
 academic career under the very same roof where one indulged in the 
 base activities of devouring food and sleep. Somehow cabbage 
 and culture did not belong in such close proximity. 
 
 Everyone was talking at once over the beef and cabbage. The 
 subject was literary societies. It seemed that there were two, 
 Phoenix and Aretanian, and the merits of both were transcend- 
 ent — impossible as that might be. Advocates for both were pres- 
 ent at the table, arguing, contradicting, explaining, exhorting, and, 
 in general, rendering the newcomer more and more bewildered, 
 
FIRST DAY 
 
 143 
 
 yet thoroughly convinced that the success of his whole college ca- 
 reer was dependent upon membership in one club or the other; 
 in fact, he was informed that membership was required of every 
 college student. 
 
 It seemed that two literary societies had come into being in the 
 
 WILSONIAN LTTEHARY SOCIETY, 1913 
 
 Back row: McDougall, Montgomery, Hoffman, Archer, Posey, Shay, 
 Evans, Fish, Peters, Hughey. Fourth row: Liechty, Hunter, Barnett, 
 Lovett, Shea, Derry, Todd, Peters, Weller, Burritt. Third row: McCas- 
 land, Medlock, Deskins, Sanderson, Eade, Lindh, Floyd, Backenstoe, 
 Mellinger, Ashcraft, Warren, Secord, Pederson, Klein, Northrup, Whit- 
 ten. 'Second row: Skeen, Cochran, J. Hoffman, Mellinger, Klein, L. 
 Hoffman, Coleman, LaDue, Fender, Line, Montgomery, Wilson, Back- 
 enstoe. Front row: Grigg, Smith, Yeagley, Chappelear, Lane, Riggins, 
 Montgomery, Ross. 
 
 spring of 1911 after a long extended discussion of the division of 
 old C. L. C. A membership of one hundred was too large for 
 effective work, it was decided. Vehement feeling attended the 
 occasion, and the split which finally came parted friend from 
 friend. With much pomp and color Phoenix had been organ- 
 
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146 "STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY" 
 
 ized, for the legend from which the name was derived inspired 
 an opening program of elaborate pageantry. 
 
 The Vista of March, 1911, recorded as follows the news of the 
 founding: "Hearing that the immortal Phoenix was about to 
 rise from the funeral pyre of C. L. C. a large commingling of stu- 
 dents assembled in the spacious parlors, Friday evening, March 
 the third, to witness the great event. A deep hush fell on the 
 waiting assembly as the solemn tones of the organ were heard 
 and the bird was about to rise from the pyre of C. L. C. before 
 which were burning rare spices and incense, diffusing rich per- 
 fume throughout the room, while waxen tapers lent their weird, 
 flickering light to the scene. Then with slow, majestic pace, the 
 priest and priestess of the immortal bird, together with their 
 black-robed attendants, marched round and round, halting at 
 length before the shrine, where, amidst the swinging censer and 
 the chanting attendants, the bird so sacred, under the most fav- 
 orable auspices, rose from the ashes of C. L. C. and is alive for- 
 ever more." 
 
 The Aretanians had organized with less display but had retort- 
 ed shortly with a brief but telling piece of verse, which made a 
 distinction that struck Phoenicians as altogether unfair: 
 
 "If fun you desire 
 And nothing higher, 
 You'd better inquire 
 About the Phoenix. 
 Then surely you'll laugh, 
 For more than half 
 Of their wheat is chaff, 
 This glorious Phoenix! 
 
 "If profit with pleasure, 
 Unstinted in measure, 
 You seek as your treasure, 
 The Aretanian 
 Will show you the way 
 To gain from all play 
 The thing that will pay. 
 Progressive Aretanian!" 
 
FIRST DAY 147 
 
 The Aretanian Society, so its members said, had continued to 
 live up to the meaning of its Greek name, the Best. What was 
 one to do, then, after being cudgeled with arguments which sound- 
 ed much the same when removed from the heat of the dinner-table 
 
 THE FOUNDING OF PHOENIX 
 
 battle? Probably ally one's self with the club where one's prev- 
 ious acquaintances were in a majority. Rational choice seemed 
 well-nigh impossible. But once in, one became completely con- 
 \inced of the superiority of the society of one's choice and, in turn, 
 a fanatically enthusiastic booster. 
 
 A strange, raucous voice grated upon the ear as the crowd surged 
 out through the dining-room doors. "Railroad! Railroad! Hey, 
 fellows, come on and help hoist these trunks!" 
 
 At the back door, the boys gathered about an overall-clad figure, 
 clapping him on the back, grabbing hold of the trunk which he 
 was about to lift from the ramshackle little dray, which tottered 
 under its load of luggage. "Hel-lo, Zed." "Well, how's our old 
 friend, Zed." And a long drawn out war of words ensued, in 
 which Zed held his own in spite of the skill of college humorists. 
 
 College had officially opened now, so it was said, for the arrival 
 as significant an event as those that appeared on the printed cal- 
 
148 
 
 'STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY' 
 
 of Zed Gum with a load of trunks from old Pennsy station was 
 endar. And Zed, himself, was a kind of traditional figure, as 
 famous in Greenville lore as Paul Bunyan in Minnesota lumber 
 legendry. 
 
 With the arrival of the trunks, the rooms on the third floor 
 
 underwent a marvelous 
 transformation. Dainty 
 dotted Swisses draped 
 themselves across the 
 windows. Colorful rugs 
 spread out over the 
 rough floors. Bedspreads 
 of harmonizing colors 
 disguised the wiry ugli- 
 ness of sanitary cots, 
 transforming them, with 
 the aid of many hand 
 embroidered cushions, 
 into tempting places for 
 relaxed intellectual ef- 
 fort- — too tempting, 
 alas. A gay flowered 
 runner over the antique table, a chafing dish in the middle 
 surrounded by a tea-set, anticipated the hours and hours that 
 would go in to feeds and out of books. 
 
 By four o'clock the pleasing results of three hours labor were 
 being proudly displayed by the newcomer to her next door 
 neighbor, who wasn't just exactly the type of girl she had asso- 
 ciated with before, but whom she had decided to cultivate in order 
 to broaden her social horizon. Later she was to discover how 
 pathetically narrow that horizon had been, and how petty had 
 been her social distinctions. The neighbor, likewise, exhibited 
 the effect achieved from her trunkful of furnishings, and shortly 
 the whole third floor resolved itself into a mutual admiration 
 society. 
 
 As for the fourth floor inhabitants, it is not likely that their 
 energies had been spent either upon unpacking trunks nor upon 
 beautifying their places of residence. Perhaps, if the truth were 
 
FIRST DAY 
 
 149 
 
 told — no fluffy curtains would adorn their windows until along 
 in midyear, when the announcement of Open House had pre- 
 cipitated them into their first acquaintance with the art of in- 
 terior decorating. 
 
 The fourth floor remained for the time bare, unlovely, a scene 
 
 ATHLETIC FIELD BEFORE 1915 
 
 interesting only to a second-hand furniture dealer, while the occu- 
 pants, after registration was finished, enjoyed the beauty of a 
 September day out on the tennis courts or on the baseball dia- 
 mond. Four courts were kept busy, as the candidates for the 
 fall tournament got into trim. Spectators sat and stood along the 
 side-lines, offering unrequested suggestions upon the plays, or 
 making extensive plans for the whole year's athletic program. 
 
 The brawny, bronzed figure who had led the arrivals of the 
 evening before was prominent in all this consultation. He had 
 the first word in the decisions. It was, "Marv," this, and "Marv," 
 that. Student athletic director he was, and the leadership which 
 students spontaneously conceded to him was evident. 
 
 * * 9 
 
150 "STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY" 
 
 Supper hour! What a babble of tongues! The exhibition in 
 house furnishings on the third floor and the parley over coming 
 athletic events out at the courts seemed to have done away with 
 all the inhibitions that had frozen speech at breakfast time. Cal- 
 ifornians boasted of their climate. An Iowan exchanged notes 
 on a relative who had wintered once in Long Beach. Somebody 
 from Kansas cracked a joke on California boosters. A New 
 Yorker was put in his proper place for a critical remark about 
 Illinois. Over the beans and fried potatoes the destruction of 
 provincialism had begun. 
 
 A sharp tap of a bell brought the hubbub to a sudden end. 
 The pleasant looking man whom they called proctor, and who 
 presided over the table at the far end of the room, arose and ex- 
 plained the procedure for family prayer. After all, it was sur- 
 prisingly similar to family prayer at home: a reading from the 
 Bible, a song led by some student (and again that amazing unison 
 of uplifted voices and hearts) and then prayer as all knelt rev- 
 erently and joined in spirit with the selected student who of- 
 fered thanks for this day's blessings. 
 
 Gratitude welled up in one's heart. To be sure, one had 
 made silent contrast between the pale oleo served here and the 
 rich yellow butter which one had to eat at home; but after all, 
 there were some good things here that one would never get at 
 home, nor anywhere else in the world, — and what was oleo, any- 
 way, compared to the wonderful sense of fellowship that came to 
 one kneeling reverently at this family altar! 
 
 It was amazing how many people crowded into the kitchen for 
 the after-meal jobs. There were the cleaners of tables, who 
 stacked the dirty dishes on the shelf at the open window which 
 connected with the dining-room. There were the dish-washers 
 with their hands thrust deep into great pans of soap fluff. About 
 them stood girls in big aprons, chattering loudly as they raced 
 with each other on the dish wiping. Another crew immediately 
 transferred the clean dishes back to the tables. Still others worked 
 with the pots and pans over at the other side of the kitchen. In 
 the midst of all the confusion, Miss Weiss, flushed with all the 
 
FIRST DAY 
 
 151 
 
 excitement, but nevertheless unruffled as to temper, moved quiet- 
 ly about giving orders, acquainting the newcomers with their 
 routine. 
 
 The girl sitting to the right of the newcomer at the supper 
 table had exclaimed as soon as she had set her chair back in place. 
 
 BASKETBALL SQUAD, 1912 
 Blowers, Ashwood, Marston, Griffith, Andrews, Dccrin< 
 
 TENNIS TEAMS, 1913 
 Back row: Secord, Ross, Dreeson, Roberts, Melton, Baker, Harford, 
 Clark, Secord. Front row: MeDougall, Griffith, Davis, Freeland, 
 Allen, Marston, Ashcraft, Bush. 
 
 "Don't you want to run out to the End of the World and see the 
 sun set?" 
 
 "Perfect!" 
 
 So out they had gone past the square with its quaint verandah- 
 like roofs extending from the stores over the side walks, and its 
 
152 "STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY" 
 
 hitching posts for the horses and buggies that came in from the 
 country in flocks on Saturdays. On past the Carnegie library set 
 in among the old-fashioned houses that remained from the days 
 of Greenville's founding. On under old locust trees and elms, 
 until they came to the abrupt end of the street and stood on the 
 brow of a hill, gazing out over a wide vailey. Below and on either 
 side descended the steep decline. Away off to the left the hill 
 finally curved to the west and shut in from that side the broad 
 expanse, but to the right the ridge and the valley extended in a 
 northward curve as far as one could see. This valley was thread- 
 ed by a little stream, Shoal creek. Crossing the stream to the far 
 right was a wide bridge, and the road which descended to it cut 
 in the hills deeply as it curved out from town. An ancient build- 
 ing beside the stream remained to identify the section as old Mill 
 Hill. 
 
 Beyond Mill Hill, said the old student, among the series of hills 
 that ran arc like out from north Greenville lay a graveyard, a 
 place which the newcomer should visit, if for no other reason 
 than to see the most extraordinary epitaph ever written. It 
 read something like this: 
 
 "Gone before me, O, my husband, to the better land. 
 
 Vainly look we for another in thy place to stand!" 
 
 Another cemetery, much older, she said, was also worth visiting, 
 for there lay the remains of the very first settlers of Greenville. 
 This stretched out along the brow of the hill to the left just be- 
 fore it curved off toward the west. 
 
 All of these hills were beautiful, each season bringing to them 
 some fresh charm, but at this particular spot where they stood 
 the sunset might been seen at its loveliest, a great red ball drop- 
 ping behind the ridge that rose far across the valley and leaving 
 in its wake a flame-tossed sky, which stretched out before you as 
 unobscured as a Turner canvas in a gallery. That was the reason 
 why students came out frequently to Sunset Point. 
 
 But it was time to go back, for this was Tuesday night, the 
 customary time for student prayer meeting. A tall, dark, rather 
 austere looking man announced the opening songs and then be- 
 
FIRST DAY 
 
 153 
 
 gan the reading of the Scripture lesson. There was nothing dra- 
 matic about his presence; in fact, one was about to wonder if this 
 college chaplain might not prove to be a bit boresome, when one's 
 attention was caught by the intellectual penetration of his inter- 
 
 DORMITORY FAMILY, 1913-14 
 Back row: Blowers, Secord, McDougall, Derry, Vennard, Burritt, Lo- 
 gan, Skeen, Moore, Marston, Tenney, McDonald, Chapman, Williams, 
 H. Chapman, A. Chapman, Burritt. Seventh row: Cross, Cady, Kinder, 
 Garlock, Henrickson, James, Armstrong, Ernsberger, Zimmerman. 
 Sixth row: Tuxford, Secord, Evans, Ingersol, Kline, Crampton, Bush, 
 Line, Riddle, Chase, Brown, Griffith. Fifth row: White, Chase, Dodd- 
 ridge, Marsh, Eales, Graham, Allen, Coleman. Fourth row: Longneck- 
 er, Coleman, Weiss, Rogers, Duell, Kline, Knoepfle, Shiels, Medlock, 
 Garlock. Third row: Tiffany, Burritt, Moran, Gustafson, Peters. 
 Second row: Burritt, Moran, Perkins, Barnett, Keister, Garlock, Mur- 
 ray, Robertson, Smothers. Front row: Garlock, Broadbrooks, Cochrane. 
 
 polated comments and the beauty of his language. 
 
 Slowly he built his appeal at this first religious service of the 
 year, until the uncertainties which had confronted one in enter- 
 ing upon a new life disappeared, and the shifting forces of moral 
 decision focused in a deep assent to the whole will of God. 
 Personal testimony came spontaneously when opportunity for it 
 was afforded at the close of the chaplain's talk; what one most 
 wanted, indeed, was a chance for self-expression. 
 
154 "STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY" 
 
 The sanitary cot, piled high now with downy quilts from the 
 trunk, adjusted itself pleasantly to the curves of one's tired body, 
 and sleep came drifting in . . . little waves . . . bigger waves . . . 
 Just as the last high breaker was about to roll over, a tremendous 
 metallic rattling shattered the blissful prospect of complete obliv- 
 ion. What in the world was the matter with the steam pipes? 
 They were resounding as one hoped they would never resound, 
 even in January, and here it was the middle of September. 
 
 Then a soft whistle from somewhere not far away suggested 
 strange, mysterious goings-on. It was time to investigate! Scram- 
 bling out of bed and wrapping a kimono hurriedly about her, 
 the newcomer proceeded to the open window. Her first instinct 
 to lean out and shout imprecations upon the intruder into her 
 dreams was quickly checked, for from the window adjoining came 
 the next door neighbor's voice. 
 
 "That's swell, John. Doughnuts'll taste fine before I go to 
 bed, and I'll keep some and eat 'em for breakfast. Then I can 
 sleep in in the morning. How'd you ever think about it?" 
 "Oh, just thinkin' about you. You know — 
 "Roses are red 
 Violets are blue, 
 Doughnuts are sweet, 
 
 And so ." 
 
 A soft ripple of laughter interrupted the mocking bass from 
 above. "Time to say good-night. See you by eight in the morn- 
 ing. Thanks a lot. Good night." 
 "Good night." chimed the bass. 
 
 "Good night." the merest whisper from the next window. 
 "Good night." the deep echo from the fourth floor faded into 
 nothingness. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 IN RETROSPECT 
 
 Looking back over the weeks and months that followed, one 
 finds this first day fairly typical of all the days that made up the 
 first years of President Burritt's administration — say, from 1908 
 to 1915, or even later. The most distinctive feature, perhaps, 
 was the life of simple pleasures which was shared by an intimately 
 associated, self-contained family group. Their world was very 
 small. There were no radios to afford world orientation, no com- 
 mercialized amusements imposing urban sophistication and pagan- 
 ism upon the small town, few automobiles, even to disturb the 
 placidity of rural life. Long walks and hayrack rides carried 
 one as far as one usually went outside the confines of Greenville. 
 
 For this reason "the gullies," as they were (and are) colloquial- 
 ly known, furnished the student some of his most unforgetable 
 experiences. A stroll across the hills upon a warm Saturday after- 
 noon in April, under the immaculate dogwood blossoms and the 
 rosy laciness of the redbud trees. Or earlier in the spring, a 
 search, always rewarded, for big, blue violets along Shoal creek. 
 Earlier still a tramp through the just-leafing trees to find the first 
 birds. Even when snow filled the sandy paths and hung on 
 weedy hillsides the trill of the cardinal delighted the young nat- 
 uralist. One of the loveliest poems printed during those years 
 arose from this very common experience. 
 
 To the Red .Bird 
 "In the stream's wide wooded valley, 
 
 Through the woods upon the hills, 
 Early on chill autumn mornings, 
 
 A wild bird sounds his sweetest trills. 
 
 "Whistling, thrilled to overflowing, 
 
 With the song he loves to sing, 
 He wakes the forest from its slumbers — 
 
 Makes the woods resound and ring. 
 
156 
 
 STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY' 
 
 ALL-COLLEGE HIKE TO BROWN'S MILL, 1914 
 
 "Drives the owl from his hunting — 
 Bids the sun to rise and shine; 
 
 Rouses the wild duck from his feeding, 
 Sends him on his southward line. 
 
 "Singing still and whistling ever 
 Wildest notes that e'er were heard — 
 
 'Tis the proud, high-crested cardinal, 
 Glorious, scarlet male red bird." 
 
 — Glenn I. Tenney, (ex-' 18) 
 
 When the late fall arrived and the ridges became a mass of gold 
 and crimson against a purple-blue Indian summer haze, persimmon 
 hunts were the thing, and the tart fruit could be found on almost 
 any trail leading out from Greenville. In January there was at 
 least a week when the low levels would freeze over. Then stocking- 
 capped and sweatered skaters would tramp out over the icy, 
 slippery hills to Shoal creek or to the little ponds in the wide valley 
 beyond, and, as they cracked the whip, would wish they were back 
 
IN RETROSPECT 157 
 
 in Michigan or New York, where skating wasn't quite such a lux- 
 ury. Each season the gullies offered some new attraction to hik- 
 ers, and the chances are that their idyllic beauty furnished the set- 
 ting for most of the proposals for marriage made during those 
 years. 
 
 Longer hikes took well-chaperoned couples to Brown's Mill or 
 Hudson's Lake, and many a long, lazy Saturday was spent in drift- 
 ing about in row boats, exploring the hills that surrounded, linger- 
 ing on over a glowing fire until dark drove them home to study 
 hour. 
 
 Winter, too, brought excursions, most often on a big bob-sled, 
 well provided with piles of warm quilts. See, for example, the fol- 
 lowing recipe for such a bob ride. 
 
 "The time — Night, eight o'clock. 
 
 First course — Ingredients: Moonlight, stars, sky of bluish gray 
 tint, a long winding road with shifting scenery on either side and 
 five or six inches of snow. Take three times as many boys and 
 girls as you have inches of snow, wrap each thoroughly in coats 
 and sweaters, mix these together well in a great bob sleigh and 
 cover with quilts. 
 
 "For novel and artistic effect . . . build a roaring fire in the 
 timber (see Al Grigg) . Roll great logs near, and let the girls 
 toast their feet, while the boys hustle for more kindling. Secure 
 three times as many buns and sausages as there are people.. Spike 
 a sausage with a long slender twig and hold above the coals at an 
 angle of 30 degrees. Set the coffee pot where it sizzles (it will be 
 necessary to try another method if the pot accidentally overturns) . 
 
 "The color scheme is white and gray . . . Moonlight above, snow 
 underneath, tall trees with an upward reach of branches, this 
 grayed considerably by night and shadows. High lights . . . the 
 fire shooting red winged sparks, fire light tint on each face, jokes 
 and good singing. 
 
 "Second course — Ingredients . . . drive in with the bob, again 
 mix well and cover as before, drive between tall trees until the 
 road is reached and proceed as before with a double team, jin- 
 gling sleighbells, and a great deal of fun. 
 
 "Time . . . one o'clock. (For further directions see Joe Grigg) . 
 
158 
 
 "STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY" 
 
 "We certify that the above has been thoroughly tested, and re- 
 sults produced are satisfactory." 
 
 One great tradition that has tenaciously held on from those 
 days originated in this love of the out of doors. The All-College 
 Hike is a custom peculiar to the Greenville campus. It was an 
 
 i 
 
 y* Hfc<A* 
 
 OFF FOR THE OKAW 
 
 outgrowth from nutting parties. Just when expeditions by col- 
 lege students to the Okaw bottoms for hickory nuts first began 
 would be impossible to say. Certainly the yearbook of 1903 re- 
 ceived its title from such association with the locality. 
 
 By 1912 the practice had become very common among college 
 men. The nut hunt that year was organized upon a grand scale. 
 Never before had Greenville College seen such an exodus of nut- 
 ters, nor such a liberal concession in holiday time. Marvin Mars- 
 ton, the athletic director, had been the promotor. Let the Vista 
 tell the story: 
 
 "The boys of Greenville College seemed to enjoy cross country 
 hikes so much this fall that M. Marston decided to give them a 
 good and profitable outing. On Thursday evening, October 10, 
 they started out on foot for the hickory grove at the Okaw river. 
 The company camped about six miles out of Greenville for the 
 first night. They broke camp about six Friday morning and 
 arrived at the river at nine-thirty. 
 
 "Most of the boys rested themselves until noon by taking a good 
 
IN RETROSPECT 
 
 159 
 
 cool swim in the river. After noon they started out to pick up 
 nuts, and returned to camp about dusk with their sacks well filled. 
 After supper the roll was called, and each got busy preparing a bed 
 
 SECOND HIKE, 1913-14 
 Back row: Montgomery, Broadbrooks, H. Todd, Garlock, Perkins, 
 Zeeb, M. Smith, K. Smith, Dilbeck. Second row: Grigg, Peters, Sager, 
 Wen. Shay, Skuzie, Brown, McDonald, Armstrong. First row: Hayes, 
 Chappelear, Lowell, Zimmerman, Wil. Shay, James, Burritt, Chase, 
 Prof. Todd, Ross. (Seated) Cochrane. 
 
 for the night. Everyone enjoyed sleeping in the open air, except 
 those who failed to take enough bedding with them. At daybreak 
 Saturday morning the campfire was revived and breakfast served. 
 A part of the company started home early, while others waited to 
 gather more nuts. All arrived home safely sometime Saturday 
 afternoon, each one with about a bushel of nuts, two sore feet and 
 many aching joints." 
 
 For weeks every cement window ledge in the dormitories was 
 strewn with hickory nut shells, and every fourth floor resident 
 who had any alliance with the third floor denizens had plenty of 
 hickory nut fudge to eat. But that was not the only consequence 
 
160 "STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY" 
 
 of this first Men's Hike. For Greenville women a hike of eighteen 
 miles was a bit formidable; yet they did not propose to sit in the 
 dormitory twiddling their thumbs for two days. Again let the 
 Vista complete the account: 
 
 <f An event of long memory was the girls' picnic, an exclusive 
 affair. The immediate provocation was the boys' hike. A meet- 
 ing in the sitting room culminated with definite plans . . . you 
 should have seen the queer facial expressions when the boys saw 
 the chapel poster, Girls only . . . Hudson Lake Picnic . . . Friday. 
 
 "That was a day of supreme delight. From Greenville to Mul- 
 berry Grove the passengers were entertained with songs and yells, 
 and the inhabitants of that little city saw the sight of their lives. 
 Hudson Lake has beautiful scenery: autumn colors of scarlet and 
 gold and evergreens for variety, hickory groves, rest houses, six 
 or seven row boats, and an Indian summer sky over all. We 
 walked, rowed, waded, talked, sang, laughed and reveled. 
 
 "The folks we left behind us met us at six in the dormitory halls 
 with unfeigned mourning. The rooms upstairs had a graveyard 
 appearance, something like the modern mausoleum, with epitaphs 
 of 'Petered out', 'Reklein in peace', so significant that the names 
 of the deceased need not be mentioned." 
 
 It was only a small remnant of these originators of the first 
 girls' hike who braved a night out under the stars in 1912, but in 
 1913 the spirit of the Amazons had entered the women of Green- 
 ville, and they went en masse to Hudson Lake, prepared for what- 
 ever battle with the elements might follow. Their resolution was 
 sufficiently tested before Friday night was over, for the rain came 
 in cold and windy torrents. The few small shelter houses could not 
 hold nearly all the bedraggled sleepers. Then someone remem- 
 bered the roller skating rink, standing dark and vacant, and bold- 
 ly burst the lock and proposed an all night skating party. 
 
 There was the manager of the rink to settle with the next morn- 
 ing, and there were sore feet to nurse when the hiker-skaters had 
 gone the last tired mile in the afternoon; but the precedent for 
 a two-day hike had been established, and always afterward the 
 women of Greenville claimed the same privilege as the men, and 
 what had been a man's cross country trip for nuts became the All- 
 College Hike. Today it is perhaps the most important extra-cur- 
 
IN RETROSPECT 
 
 161 
 
 ricular event on the fall callendar. It remains as an example of 
 the unique group life that once characterized Greenville College 
 and still, in a measure, gives it distinction. 
 
 This feature of family solidarity had both good and evil aspects. 
 
 HIKERS AND HAYRACKERS, 1914 
 White, Backenstoe, Schull, Eales, Vinson, Tenney, Wihaley, Zahniser, 
 Kelley. 
 
 Almost every activity upon the campus, except actual classroom 
 work, was student managed. We have noted the spirit of coopera- 
 tion which prompted the founding of the monthly Vista during 
 President Whitcomb's administration. We have observed also the 
 sponsorship of an athletic program by students — at first, entirely in 
 opposition to the board, later, under their permission, but still 
 with the assumption that athletics are purely extra-curricular and 
 have no place in the official academic schedule. If athletics were 
 successful, it was due mainly to fortunate leadership by mature 
 students. Grave possibilities of trouble lay in the excessive re- 
 sponsibility placed upon students in this focal campus interest. 
 
 Another significant instance of student management was the 
 customary appointment of deans of men and women from among 
 the more mature of the group. They were known as proctor and 
 preceptress and were strongly supported by a disciplinary com- 
 mittee from the faculty, but with all the backing they received, 
 
162 "STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY" 
 
 theirs was a tremendous obligation, and it is surprising that it 
 was fulfilled with no more failure than attended it. Under their 
 supervision in the dormitories were young men and women ranging 
 in age from fifteen to thirty, for the prep school at this period was 
 usually as large as the college, and the two groups had to live 
 together under the same regulations. More than that, young men 
 and women occupied adjacent floors, and some outbreaks of 
 rowdyism, remembered with regret by students of that day, are 
 directly attributable to the medley of ages and sexes and the in- 
 efficiencies of student proctoring. 
 
 The place where student initiative ended and faculty author- 
 ity began was too often obscured by the unrestricted participation 
 granted to students in all affairs. If a student is to be trusted 
 with management of athletics, the most comprehensive out-of-class 
 activity, and with supervision of dormitory life, the seat of all 
 problems in social adjustment, why, he may argue, should he not 
 take a hand in administrative matters as well? During this period 
 that question became at one time an acute issue, dividing the stu- 
 dent body and the administrative staff into bitterly opposed fac- 
 tions, and threatening for a time the complete extinction of the 
 enterprise, which had hitherto been characterized by unusual har- 
 mony. 
 
 That Greenville College weathered the storm of criticism and 
 the temporary alienation of friends that attended this crisis is 
 due very greatly to the courage and patience of the man who stood 
 at the helm. If any critic is still to be found, let him look at the 
 facts and figures of the years that followed, and he will find that 
 within five years the registration, which had dropped almost to 
 the zero point, had climbed swiftly back to the norm. Soon addi- 
 tions to the college plant were under way, fresh unity had come to 
 the student and faculty groups, and the pattern of education form- 
 ulated at the beginning was recommending itself to a larger and 
 larger constituency. 
 
 Towards the end of his life President Burritt, looking back over 
 this period and recognizing both its failures and its successes, de- 
 scribed some of the elements which go into the making of a college. 
 "Like a home", he said, "it takes 'a heap of livin' ' to make a col- 
 lege. It requires Christian optimism, it requires much labor and 
 
IN RETROSPECT 163 
 
 sacrifice, and praying, and living, and loving, and some crying, to 
 make a college." And then with the wisdom learned from per- 
 sonal experience he added, "That's what makes the soul of a col- 
 lege. And a living college has a soul." Anyone associated with 
 Greenville college during those dark years of patient, courageous, 
 indomitable rebuilding will say that soul evolution followed the 
 crisis. 
 
 Another aspect of the completely shared family life which has 
 called forth critical comment was the encroachment of extra-cur- 
 ricular demands upon the academic program. This is, of course, 
 a very common charge, even today, by the critics of college life. 
 But the source of the evil lay, in this instance, not so much in stu- 
 dent indifference to intellectual interests, which is often the case, 
 as in the pressure which fell upon every member of the small stu- 
 dent body for support of each campus project if it was to succeed 
 at all. 
 
 The publication of a monthly magazine and a yearbook, the 
 very ambitious forensic contests, the intramural athletic events, 
 the religious life activities, all these and more claimed the same 
 set of supporters. What wonder was it then that the scholarly 
 ambition which a serious minded student brought with him — and 
 Greenville students were serious minded — was submerged by the 
 flood of demands made upon his energies and enthusiasm? To a 
 student who came with aspirations for deep intellectual satisfac- 
 tions this condition brought great disappointment and constituted 
 the most serious fault he found in his Alma Mater. 
 
 To make the faculty culpable for this situation is to close one's 
 eyes to their problems. They were still carrying far beyond the 
 sixteen hour teaching load and assisting, in addition, with all the 
 campus enterprises. Very few of them were mentally stagnant; 
 most of them were very stimulating instructors, much more widely 
 read, much more animated by intellectual curiosity than one should 
 expect, if one compares their excessive duties with the restricted load 
 of many dry-as-dust university lecturers. But the fact remains 
 that Greenville of that day did not provide enough food for the 
 hungry thinker. There was too little exact requirement, too 
 little mental discipline, too much superficial ranging over unre- 
 lated fields, no well-directed effort toward unification of know- 
 
IN RETROSPECT 165 
 
 ledge, such as is attempted in the liberal arts college of today. 
 
 These adverse aspects compose, however, only one part of the 
 picture of Greenville in the nineteen-tens. They are outweighed 
 by the lasting values which are apparent today from a long range 
 view. It is the final fruits of a college education that determine 
 its adequacy. 
 
 First among these values certainly is the accumulation of inner 
 resources which those years of deepened spiritual sensitivity brought: 
 the ability to live with one's self, the subordination of material 
 values to their proper place, the entrance into one's spiritual her- 
 itage. An atmosphere pervaded Greenville which was conducive 
 to these attainments. It was created, not alone by frequent re- 
 ligious services, but also by a strict regulation of conduct which 
 left no haziness in student thinking concerning the disciplines 
 which are essential to vital Christian living. The Puritan way of 
 life adopted by the Almira founders continued in force. 
 
 President Burritt's position on this question was unequivocal. 
 Each year the catalogues bore such statements as the following: 
 "Since an essential part of a true education is to make men right- 
 eous — to form right attitudes, right principles — college training 
 must be given under conditions which are conducive to the de- 
 velopment of moral character and the cultivation of spiritual life." 
 Rules for dormitory relationships were made in accordance with 
 this principle. 
 
 Perhaps one of the finest expressions ever given by President 
 Burriti to his philosophy of Christian education was embodied in 
 his address before the convention of Conservative Protestant 
 Colleges of America. The following paragraph epitomizes his 
 thinking upon the place which personal religion occupies in 
 the history of civilization. "We find morality and moral progress, 
 if we find them at all, in the religion that begets loyalty to a per- 
 sonal God, and enthusiasm in making objective in this world his 
 great eternal purposes. We need an absolute God as the center of 
 vital religion, as the creator of moral standards, as the fountain head 
 of moral force which overcomes all obstacles in the realization of 
 moral ends. Without personal religion morality collapses, and 
 with it civilization." The function of the Christian college, then, 
 as conceived by President Burritt was the inculcation of vital per- 
 
166 "STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY" 
 
 sonal religion in an atmosphere that draws students magnetically 
 to the fountain head of moral force." 
 
 Another value of that period which one recognizes in retrospect 
 is the ability to live with others. No better school for the study 
 of human nature could be provided than life in the dormitories. 
 Acquaintance with types of personality, revision in judgments and 
 tastes progressed steadily, until one had formed for life his scale 
 of estimates in human worth. And in the process one had also 
 made one's self over. Selfish individualism had disappeared, crude- 
 ness and eccentricity had sloughed off, integrated personality had 
 emerged. Modern psychological and sociological guidance would, 
 no doubt, have improved the process, would certainly, have modi- 
 fied the trial-and-error procedure, but the results viewed in per- 
 spective are good. 
 
 Surely no better evidence could be presented than the findings 
 from a survey of marriages made among Greenville students. The 
 acid test of personality is admittedly the wear and tear of the mar- 
 riage relationship. Only two divorces among students of that per- 
 iod are reported. 
 
 The lack of mental disciplne has been noted. Nevertheless, 
 after the justice of this criticism has been granted, there still re- 
 mains the fact that from the classes that graduated before the World 
 War have come many of the scholars who have fulfilled the highest 
 hopes of their Alma Mater for her children. The three men who 
 have been honored with the Guggenheim fellowship belong to 
 this group: Coleman Griffith, Arthur Secord, and George Cole- 
 man. Fifty per cent or more of the classes of'02, '03, '04, '07, '08, 
 '09, '12, and '15 have graduate degrees. If these men and women 
 left college intellectually unsatisfied, was that not better, at least, 
 than the complacent faith in a diploma that characterizes the av- 
 erage graduate? They carried with them the humility and cur- 
 iosity which are most essential to the search for knowledge. 
 
 It has already been noted that in 1908, the first year of President 
 Burritt's administration, Greenville college was placed on the 
 list of Illinois colleges which received yearly scholarships for the 
 highest ranking Seniors. Except for a later decade of suspension 
 this relationship with the state university continued, the scholars 
 selected justifying the choice, in most cases, by research of dis- 
 
AY RETROSPECT 
 
 167 
 
 tinction. Criticism has also been made of the freedom accorded 
 student initiative; yet, among the enterprises promoted and man- 
 aged entirely by students during this era, two achieved such not- 
 able success that the results seem almost to outweigh the faults in- 
 
 herent in the policy. One was in the field of forensics; the other 
 in athletics. 
 
 We have been observing the gradual development of interest 
 in oratory under the spur of the Intercollegiate Prohibition con- 
 tests In the years 1907-08, 1908-09, and 1909-10, this activity 
 reached a climax of excellence that seems remarkable when so 
 little provision was made in the curriculum for public speaking. 
 
 Shortly after President Burritt took the chair in 1908 Greenville 
 College came to the front in state contests of various sorts. A. W. 
 Olmstead, who had had some previous speech training at Columbia 
 College of Oratory was student director of forensics and, not only 
 sponsored a live program, but brought laurels to the college on his 
 own account as well. At the State Woman Suffrage Oratorical 
 contest held at Galesburg in April he won the first prize of $100.00 
 against heavy competition. 
 
 In the same year he sponsored the first intercollegiate debate 
 ever staged at Greenville, a memorable meet with Wheaton col- 
 lege, which inaugurated the pleasant associations which Greenville 
 has enjoyed ever since with this sister college. At this first Green- 
 
168 'STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY" 
 
 ville-Wheaton encounter C. L. C. had charge of all arrangements. 
 A delegation met the Wheaton men at the station and escorted 
 them in a bus decorated for the occasion to the college campus. 
 The men comprising the Greenville team were A. W. Olmstead, 
 Silas Rees and A. H. Simpson, and the question discussed was: 
 Resolved that the passage of the fifteenth amendment to the con- 
 stitution of the United States has been justified. Wheaton was 
 the winner, but this does not seem to have dimmed the glory that 
 hung around this first intercollegiate event upon the Greenville 
 campus, for the story of it was handed down from generation to 
 generation. 
 
 So successful was this innovation that immediately the local chap- 
 ter of the Intercollegiate Prohibition Association decided to bring 
 the state contest or even the interstate meet to the campus if pos- 
 sible. The invitation in 1909 for the eastern interstate was un- 
 successful because of failure to secure the hundred dollar guar- 
 antee, but in 1910, when the chapter had swelled its enrollment 
 to 187 and become the second largest organization in the United 
 States, the state speakers gathered at Greenville and staged the 
 most brilliant forensic display ever enjoyed by a local audience. 
 More than that, the Greenville representative, Laurel Elam, placed 
 first in the contest. 
 
 This was not the only time that a Greenville man achieved this 
 distinction. In 1908 Gharles W. Young, accompanied by an en- 
 thusiastic delegation of twenty-four students, had gone to Spring- 
 field and placed first against rivals from Eureka, Wheaton, Shurt- 
 leff, Illinois, Garrett and Northwestern. In 1909 Frances Willard 
 had come in second in the state. But Laurel Elam had ability 
 i hat was to carry him on from the victory on the home platform 
 through the interstate eliminations to the National. This was 
 held at Valparaiso University in June. The report of the episode 
 by a thrilled Greenville College spectator vividly recreates the 
 scene for us after these thirty and more years: 
 
 "As we sat that eventful night in June listening to the five ora- 
 tors already victorious in previous sectional contests, we felt there 
 was indeed no power like that of victory. The contest was the 
 goal of all the oratorical effort and enthusiasm of the year, and in 
 our brightest dreams we had seen our college orator receive the 
 
IN RETROSPECT 169 
 
 chaplet of victory. Our hearts beat very rapidly. We whispered to 
 each other our confidence in our orator . . . 
 
 "The great hall was crowded with over 2,000 spectators, all 
 apparently intent upon the outcome of the contest. But it was 
 in the two rows of seats occupied by the Greenville delegation 
 that the utmost intensity reigned. Finally the orators took their 
 places on the platform. We eagerly scanned every face, desiring 
 to see if anyone displayed the mark of oratorical ability which 
 might menace the success of our orator. The perusal of faces 
 made us sink back in our seats satisfied with the prospects of our 
 triumph. 
 
 "After Valparaiso U. band had played a sprightly air, the con- 
 test began. Mr. Elam spoke first. We listened breathlessly. Our 
 enthusiasm kindled as he advanced in his oration. Well as he had 
 spoken in our contests he surprised us in the strength and bril- 
 liancy of his oratory . . . When he sat down the prolonged applause 
 gave expression to the appreciation of the audience . . . 
 
 "At last the judges returned. We leaned impatiently forward, 
 eager and yet reluctant to hear the result. The second prize was 
 announced, and Mr. Elam's name was not mentioned. Our hearts 
 stood still. Our dreams must come true! Then followed the an- 
 nouncement. First place, and one hundred dollars in gold, were 
 awarded to Mr. Laurel E. Elam, the Greenville college orator. 
 
 "We jumped to our feet, shouted our high gratification, while 
 one of our number rising to her full majestic height wildly waved 
 the Greenville pennant. Then we gave the college yell, and 
 dropped to our seats, almost overcome with delight and excite- 
 ment. As soon as the assembly was dismissed, many hurried for- 
 ward to shower congratulations upon the orators. Our delegation 
 surrounded Mr. Elam, and our admiring words and beaming faces 
 were eloquent witnesses of our satisfaction. As we stood there at 
 the rostrum we sang with all our hearts "Hail to Thee, Our Alma 
 Mater," and the crowds around sympathized in our enthusiasm 
 and must have realized that Greenville college is an institution 
 where success is the ony natural outcome of earnest and continued 
 effort." 
 
 Elam had exceptional ability. In this same year, having reached 
 Senior standing, he passed the examinations for the Rhodes schol- 
 
170 ''STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY" 
 
 arship. It was difficult to maintain the record which he had made 
 for the Greenville chapter.. Never again did any representative 
 place first beyond the state contest. The year following Elam's 
 victory Coleman Griffith took second rank in the state. 
 
 Gradually the enthusiasm for oratory waned. Even President 
 Burritt's ardent support through a Commencement program of 
 Senior orations proved insufficient stimulus to maintain it. This 
 custom, which had been followed at President Burritt's Alma 
 Mater, the University of Rochester, and in which he had partici- 
 pated as a Senior, was introduced in 1909. It was inaugurated with 
 great acclaim. Greenville College was proud of its oratorical rec- 
 ord, proud, too, of the personal record of the seven seniors chosen. 
 Among them were Olmstead and Young, winners of state firsts, 
 and Simpson, Kline, Holtwick, Howland, all veterans on the 
 Lincoln Temperance Chautauqua platform. For some years the 
 Senior oratorical program continued, until the lack of interest in 
 the oration made it seem merely the perpetuation of an empty 
 tradition. 
 
 The day of the oration passed. The organization jof the Inter- 
 collegiate Prohibition Association little by little disintegrated. 
 Interest in other types of reform took its place. Other forms of 
 public speaking supplanted the oration. An incident, which seems, 
 in perspective, an anti-climax to Elam's brilliant success, and 
 which certainly reveals the quality of college humor in those days, 
 occurred in 1915. It is the sort of narrative that deserves a place 
 among the rollicking tales recorded during that period in such 
 books as In the Days of Good Old Siwash or (on a move literary 
 level) Kipling's Stalky and Company. A winner in the local 
 contest had gone on up to the state meet, but without the old- 
 time campus supporters. Enthusiasm for oratory was gone, and 
 in this case enthusiasm went into a huge practical joke. 
 
 The first message received from the absent orator told of a con- 
 tested decision in which he might get second place. Then came 
 a telegram announcing the victory of Greenville's representative. 
 The campus was electrified; after all, honor should be given where 
 honor was due. A great parade was quickly organized to meet 
 the train, receive the conquering hero as he came, and carry him 
 in pomp back through the streets of Greenville. 
 
IN RETROSPECT 171 
 
 The Advocate of the day gave the following account: "... the 
 entire enrollment of the college, accompanied by President E. G. 
 Burritt and the faculty, went to the depot at 10:16 this morning 
 
 to accompany from the depot to the college. They had a 
 
 phaeton drawn by students decorated in college colors of gold and 
 black, pennants attached in every conceivable place and manner, 
 and had it backed up along-side the platform. A college band 
 had been hastily drawn together to head the procession to the 
 depot and, as the train pulled in, its melody (?) was spread upon 
 the balmy air of the bright spring morning. 
 
 "But, alas no arrived! Somehow the time of arrival was 
 
 delayed and the particularly brilliant reception was not held 
 for the young man, and he cotdd not witness the enthusiasm and 
 good feeling of the young folks in their gathering to give him a 
 proper ovation as his well-merited reward." 
 
 The paraders returned from old Pennsy station with downcast 
 or puzzled faces. Could there have been some error or (whisper 
 it softly) some conspiracy about all this? What about those tele- 
 grams? Who had sent them? Where was the boy who had de- 
 livered them? 
 
 The telegrams were inspected; they were "scissor and paste-pot'' 
 things. The messenger boys were quizzed; they claimed no alliance 
 with the Western Union, and, upon further pressure, they identi- 
 fied the senders, already under suspicion. The editor and busi- 
 ness manager of the Vista of that year were too well known as 
 campus wits to escape mistrust. 
 
 Then the storm broke. Feeling ran high for a few hours. A 
 student gathering was called to discuss the matter. The two jok- 
 ers were summond to the president's office, and the required 
 apology was made before the student body. Naturally a few per- 
 sons intimately connected with the affair looked upon themselves 
 as victims. But the years have healed the cuts, and the chances 
 are that the episode will become like the basket episode of Almira 
 days, except for its greater amount of truth, . the prize story in 
 the annals of Greenville campus humor. 
 
 As the oration lost in favor, debate gained in support, and in 
 1913 a new organization was chartered to take the place of old 
 Qibbuc, which had disappeared about 1908 and was by this time 
 
172 
 
 "STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY' 
 
 forgotten, so completely does each new student generation sup- 
 plant those of the past. 
 
 "A movement," says the Vista, "was started by Messrs. Skuzie, 
 Cochrane and Clark early in the year relative to the formation 
 
 GIRLS' ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION, 1909-10 
 
 Back row: Anthony, LaDue, Goodhew, Young, Knowles, , , 
 
 Seawell, Harding, Jolly. Third row: Deremiah, Montgomery, Watkins, 
 Chandler, Brown, Colcord, Logan, Freeland, Peterson, Dresselhouse. 
 
 Second row: , DeMombron, Benton Wood, Smith, Arnold, Merry, 
 
 Ashcraft, Wise. Front row: LaDue, Eakins, Bardell, Linton, , 
 
 Dunn, Barber, Newman. 
 
 of a men's debating club. After the necessary permission was 
 gained from the Dean, the charter members met one evening in 
 the college parlors and officially organized themselves into a club. 
 The membership was limited to twenty in order that each mem- 
 ber could have ample drill in public speaking and parliamentary 
 practice. Under the able leadership of our first president, Mr. E. 
 V. Davis, the club did some excellent work ..." 
 
IN RETROSPECT 173 
 
 In 1916 a similar organization was affected among the girls. 
 La Cercle was formed for the purposes of providing "young women 
 with an opportunity to make themselves conversant with present 
 day problems and current events 'and promoting' practical literary 
 ability and efficiency." Debating talent was discovered among 
 them in the first year, but not until later did the club engage in 
 any active debate program. 
 
 The climax which had been reached in 1910 in the extra-cur- 
 ricular work in oratory was paralleled in 1915 by a climax in the 
 student-managed athletics program. This program had become in- 
 creasingly effective from the time of its supervision by A. W. Olm- 
 stead and Bird Arnold in 1908. 
 
 In 1911 the following announcement appeared in the Vista: 
 "Extensive plans have been made this year toward giving the stu- 
 dents of Greenville college an opportunity to develop physically. 
 Mr. Marvin Marston, First Lieutenant of Company E of the Illinois 
 National Guards, will have charge of the work. He has been con- 
 nected with the college for two years, and has built up a splendid 
 reputation as an all-round athlete. Arrangements have been made 
 whereby college students will have the use of the militia armory 
 hall during a large part of 
 each week for basketball 
 practice, and general gym 
 practice." 
 
 The small basement 
 room in the Assembly Hall 
 Building had become in- 
 sufficient for the intra- 
 mural program which was 
 gradually evolving. The 
 armory, available because 
 of Marston's connection BASEBALL IN 1909 
 
 with the National Guards, provided a place for the time. 
 The success of Marston's intra-mural policy is to be seen in a re- 
 port made in the June following: "Enthusiastic physical cultur- 
 ists could find no fault with Greenville College. With the tennis 
 courts working overtime, with the new baseball diamond, the hand- 
 ball court prepared, and with the track in good condition every- 
 
174 
 
 "STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY' 
 
 one is accommodated. Athletic sports here are not monopolized by 
 a few. The central idea is to give an opportunity for all to take 
 
 good wholesome exercise . . . 
 During the winter months the 
 armory was used to the great 
 satisfaction of the boys. Spring 
 opened with a lively interest 
 in baseball, tennis and hand- 
 ball. Tournaments have been 
 played, and also inter-class and 
 inter-departmental games have 
 kept up a good-natured rival- 
 ry and spirit." 
 
 During Marv Marston's last 
 year at Greenville he worked 
 persistently, but diplomatical- 
 ly, for the construction of a 
 gymnasium, for the old armory 
 was anything but satisfactory. 
 His task, like that of any stu- 
 dent advocate of a new meas- 
 ure, was to mold student opin- 
 ion, and procure administrat- 
 ive backing. From the admin- 
 istrative viewpoint a new gym- 
 nasium was not an imperative 
 need. 
 
 President Burritt in outlin- 
 ing urgent needs in 1910 had 
 placed this building last in 
 a list that included a Ladies' 
 Hall, a Science Building, a 
 Music Hall and an Academy building for classroom purposes. 
 But President Burritt had the virtue of a flexible mind and 
 he recognized the arrival of an opportune moment for util- 
 izing unlooked-for resources. By midyear the time was ripe for 
 the proposal to the student body. The occasion made a colorful 
 Story for the February Vista. It runs as follows: 
 
 MARVIN R. MARSTON 
 
IN RETROSPECT 175 
 
 "How about that Gym?" 
 
 "There was quite a noisy noise in chapel the last Friday of the 
 semester. It sounded suspiciously like the watery mutterings 
 that announced a coming gymnasium shower. 
 
 "When President Burritt pointed first to the cloud of hope an 
 expectant lull spread quickly over the chapel; when he traced the 
 gathering mist that was forming into the clouds of a music hall 
 and a ladies' hall, faint rumblings became quite distinct; but when 
 he revealed the bright outlines of a new gym in the overhanging 
 heavens, the rumbling burst into a thunder-clap of applause. 
 Professor Layman aggravated the rising tempest by showing the 
 actual work already done. He produced plans of a proposed 
 building that could be erected at the cost of about $6000. 
 
 "Marston, then, seeing that the time was opportune, took the 
 lead and pierced the trembling elements with a command to shoot. 
 Immediately there was a downpour of good, substantial pledges 
 and before the storm abated the subscriptions had piled up to 
 exceed the $1000 mark. 
 
 "The atmosphere on Tuesday morning, the first day of the new 
 semester, was still tense with expectant showers and when the 
 wind steadily rose it soon swept away all hindrances and renewed 
 the downpour of the Friday previous until the $2000 mark in 
 pledges was passed." 
 
 Not until a year later did the Board of Trustees give full sup- 
 port to the project. Again the Vista records from the student angle 
 the situation: "On Monday evening the boys of the dorm held 
 an old-fashioned Kaffee Klatch and rousing yells were given for 
 the Board of Trustees and the Gym. The next morning in chapel 
 another yell was given for the Board and they were made to feel 
 that we were more in earnest than ever. Results were soon forth- 
 coming ..." 
 
 A representative of the board announced at that time "that build- 
 ing and finance committees had been appointed and that they 
 would immediately take steps to raise $4000 to meet the $2000 
 to be put up by the students." Many of the trustees gave most 
 generously to this fund. Indeed, had it not been for the abound- 
 ing generosity of such men as J. M. Daniels, F. P, Joy and C. L 
 
176 
 
 STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY" 
 
 Tenney, many of the enterprises of this period would have been 
 doomed to failure. 
 
 From this time forward the gymnasium boom moved accelerat- 
 edly. Although Marston was no longer a student he gave gen- 
 r erously of time and effort to the pro- 
 
 motional work, making frequent trips 
 back to the campus. On April 9 
 ground was broken. A large crowd 
 gathered upon the site and after a 
 musical number by a quartet, repre- 
 sentatives of three different groups con- 
 cerned in the enterprise spoke: Presi- 
 dent Burritt for the faculty, the Rev. 
 W. D. Cochran for the Board of Trus- 
 tees : and Wilson King for the students. 
 Piofessor G. M. Layman, who had been 
 very active in the athletic program, 
 gave a history of the movement and a 
 description of the architectural plans. 
 During the next school year, 1914-15, 
 the construction went on, dependent more or less upon student 
 labor. Upon one memorable occasion the whole school family 
 joined in a cooperative effort typical of the era. The reporter 
 writes: "Thanksgiving vacation, when did it begin? Wednesday 
 evening? Well, I should say not. 
 
 "Promptly at one o'clock books were discarded and classes 
 abandoned while boys and girls gathered to work for the college, 
 the boys on the gym, the girls on the campus. Not a house in 
 the neighborhood but contributed a rake and scarcely a girl that 
 did not help in clearing the campus of leaves . . . Under the lead- 
 ership of Misses Duell, Goodhew and Fender over thirty girls 
 worked until four-thirty when the last leaf was harvested and only 
 Jonathan was left to dispose of the debris . . . 
 
 "While the girls were bending wearily with their rakes, the 
 boys were working enthusiastically and noisily on the roof of the 
 new gym. Ever since the previous Monday morning in order to 
 finish the roof and get the building enclosed before stormy weather 
 set in, the students have been contributing their services. The 
 
 The Gym is Started 
 
IN RETROSPECT 177 
 
 work has been pushed forward, especially during school hours. 
 On Wednesday afternoon every hammer was in use, while many 
 of the boys were busy carrying up bricks, boards and other such 
 necessary things." 
 
 When the building was finally completed in February of 1915 
 
 CLEANUP DAY 
 
 an impressive program, in which the whole community joined, 
 was presented. "The big occasion," the reporter states, "was Friday 
 night. Following several selections by the Greenville band, Presi- 
 dent Burritt, by way of explanation, recounted briefly the events 
 leading to the construction of the gym and the purpose it was meant 
 to serve . . . He further stated that it was the plan of the college to 
 make the gym serve the whole community, to develop it into a center 
 of community interest, and thus the benefits would reach not only 
 the students of the college, but the whole city of Greenville beside." 
 
 Two representative citizens spoke then for Greenville: Jonathan 
 Seaman, and Judge Lindly. At the close of the program, without 
 any urgent solicitation, $250 was subscribed by the audience. 
 
 The total cost of the building reached $10,000, but the debt 
 was removed within a few years. The E. G. Burritt Gymnasium 
 stands today as a testimony to the achievement that is possible 
 when student demands and energies are constructively utilized. 
 In the generation that participated in the endeavor a kind of loyal- 
 
178 
 
 'STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY' 
 
 ty to their Alma Mater was bred which never can be known by 
 students who are merely passive members of an institution. It 
 is true in the realm of institutional relationships as anywhere else 
 
 mam**: 
 
 
 ■"■ » GH 
 
 THE GYM IN PROCESS 
 
 that he who gives gets. Perhaps the very basis of college esprit de 
 corps is properly stimulated and directed cooperation. 
 
 With just pride in themselves and their college, the students of 
 1915 announced: "A new era of athletics has dawned in Green- 
 ville College. The opening of our new gym has stimulated an 
 interest that never was possible before with limited equipment. 
 There are now fifteen basketball teams, two gym classes meeting 
 three times a week, all composed of boys and girls of the college. 
 Then there is a tumbling team of fourteen boys. 
 
 "The gym is also being used by the people of Greenville not 
 connected with the college. There is a large gym class composed 
 of the business men and another of the ladies of the city, each 
 of which meets twice weekly. In addition five basketball teams 
 from outside the college are practicing." This lively program, 
 carried on for two years by a student director, Coleman Griffith, 
 was one of the best ever set up at Greenville. 
 
 With the opening of the E. G. Burnt Gymnasium a new era had 
 
IN RETROSPECT 
 
 179 
 
 come, not alone in athletics, but for the whole institution. The 
 church, the community and the student body were solidly behind 
 the school. What pity then that forces were at work which would 
 
 THE GYM IN USE 
 
 ultimately disrupt not only Greenville College but every institu- 
 tion, every closely knit circle in the country! From Europe for 
 a year now had come the thunder rumblings of war. Two years 
 remained for peaceful pursuit of the academic life. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 MARCHING FEET 
 
 What a prospect for the celebration of the twenty-fifth anniver- 
 sary! Twenty-two G. C. men already enlisted, more to go any day, 
 student registration certain to continue a rapid decline, student 
 morale crumbling with the departure of the mature and stabiliz- 
 ing element, community support dissipated by war loan drives, 
 and even denominational assistance soon ro be weakened by the 
 national situation. Only invincible courage and a long range view 
 of the destiny of the Christian college could have inspired the elab- 
 orate program of June, 1917. 
 
 The week of May 30 to June 6 was given over to a scries of events 
 which brought together the best talent of the church, the campus 
 and the community. On the first day Aggressive Evangelism was 
 the subject, the chief speaker being ex-president A. L. Whitcomb; 
 other evangelistic leaders, such as H. F. Ashcraft and A. D. 
 Zahniser, contributed addresses also. Missions received emphasis 
 upon the following day, with talks from many returned mission- 
 aries, both home and foreign, a conference upon missionary meth- 
 ods conducted by Mrs. Carrie T. Burritt, a missionary exhibit, and 
 an address by the General Missionary Secretary, the Rev. J. S. 
 McGeary. Educational Day followed, affording discussion on the 
 role of the denominational college, and the next day brought at- 
 tention to the subject of Christian Stewardship, and featured speak- 
 ers from the board of trustees. 
 
 The baccalaureate speaker for the occasion was the Rev. J. S. 
 McGeary. On Monday came the Founders Day program, con- 
 taining the following addresses: "Events Leading to the Organiza- 
 tion of Greenville College," Rev. F. H. Ashcraft; "The Making of 
 a College", Pres. E. G. Burritt; "Early Ideals of Greenville Col- 
 lege", Bishop W. T. Hogue. Completing this afternoon series 
 were reminiscences by Rev. W. W. Bruce, Rev. C. A. Fleming, 
 Mr. J. Seaman, Rev. S. E. Cooper, Rev. J. P. Brodhead, and Mr. 
 W. T. Branson. 
 
 Anniversary Day saw the gathering of the alumni for a campus 
 
182 
 
 STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY' 
 
 SIMBINI M'KOMO 
 
 reunion in the afternoon just before the Class Day program. At 
 the Alumni dinner in the gymnasium in the evening S. W. And- 
 rews, '12, presided, and speeches were made by Walter A. Joy, '00, 
 Rev. T. C. Wendell, L. E. Elam, '10, Lawrence D. Carlson, '12, 
 
 and W. E. White, and others called 
 upon impromptu. 
 
 Commencement Day was, of 
 course, a great occasion that year. 
 Senior orations were still in vogue 
 and those honored with a place up- 
 on the program were Harry F. John- 
 son, Simbini N'Komo, Beryl J. Eales, 
 Sherman E. Cooper, Herbert C. 
 Brown, Archibald K. Bracken and 
 Harold A. Line. 
 
 Undoubtedly the most unusual 
 orator of the graduating class was 
 the young man who spoke on "The 
 Call of Africa", a dark faced Af- 
 rican straight from the tribe of the Bandawas. A herd- 
 boy, son of a renowned warrior, he had first attended a mission 
 school, had then gone on to a normal school, and in time had be- 
 come a teacher at the Free Methodist school at Edwaleni. There 
 he had learned of Greenville College and had determined to come 
 to America for higher education even though it meant earning 
 much of his way. 
 
 In the fall of 1910 he arrived in Greenville and, because ada- 
 demic classification seemed impossible by any other means, he 
 was given examinations in all eighth grade subjects. He passed 
 with high grades and continued a record for excellent scholar- 
 ship throughout his high school and college career. From Green- 
 ville he was to go on to Chicago University for the Master's de- 
 gree and thence to Tuskegee, where he occupied a place on the 
 staff until his death. Simbini in his years at Greenville made 
 a great place for himself, and his participation in the program 
 of the twenty-fifth anniversary added not a little to its distinction. 
 Simbini was, however, not the only member of the class of '17 
 who gave promise of future accomplishment. The general rec- 
 
MARCHING FEET 183 
 
 ord of the class was high, and has continued so. Perhaps one of 
 the greatest reasons why President Burritt faced the future with 
 equanimity was his confidence in the caliber of *he men and women 
 whom Greenville College was graduating. Student support of 
 the Greenville program at this time was something to rejoice the 
 heart of any college executive. It is doubtful whether any more 
 loyal classes can be found even today than the classes of this per- 
 iod. They possessed school spirit, they believed in the Greenville 
 way of life, and they went out into a war- torn world dedicated to 
 lives of Christian service. 
 
 Their group made many contributions to campus life. Through 
 their initiative came the formation of the two debate clubs, Las 
 Cortes and Le Cercle, the inauguration of the Big Sister-Big Broth- 
 er plan, the establishment of the Student Council, and the pro- 
 duction of some of the best literary work ever done by Aretanian 
 and Phoenix. The programs of these years were exceptionally 
 good. The Vista staffs, also, which came from these classes raised 
 the level of college journalism. 
 
 Another reason for President Burritt's belief in the future of 
 Greenville in spite of the threat of war was the support of a strong, 
 unified, devoted faculty. There was Professor LaDue, mellowed 
 with the experience of twenty-three years; Dean Mover, sound ad- 
 ministrator of the academic program; Professor Layman, faithful 
 both in the classroom and campus activities; Miss Ingels, fresh 
 from graduate study, enlivening her department by new courses 
 and the organization of a Mathematics Club; Miss Halliday, Mrs. 
 Baird, and Professor Kingsley, also recent additions, infusing new 
 life into their respective fields of instruction; Professor Shay, in 
 the midst of his establishment of a strong biology department; 
 Miss Goodhew, working tirelessly for both a stronger English de- 
 partment and a better library; Miss Maynard, continuing her val- 
 uable contribution to the preparatory department, and assisting 
 the able principal, Earl Baird, and the rest of his staff in main- 
 taining a good practice school. 
 
 President Burritt had had the satisfaction of bringing about a 
 separate organization of the two schools and a rearranging and ex- 
 panding of the collegiate program, so that now the Group System 
 had been adopted and ten equivalent groups or courses of study 
 
MARCHING FEET 
 
 185 
 A closer inte- 
 
 were offered, leading to the A.B. or B.S. degree 
 gration between fields of knowledge was the result. 
 
 Perhaps the significance of that integration was first felt in a 
 
 BUSINESS DEPARTMENT, 1913-14 
 Back row: Hunter, Garlock, McDonald, Snowden, Lovett, Cross. Tihird 
 row: Loomis, Gustafson, Peters, Reid, 0. Smith, Tiffany, Kelley, Hoff- 
 man. Second row: Archer, Chapman, Prof. Melton, Kahler, K. Smith, 
 Studebaker. First row: Crepps, Presgrove, Genre, Critchfield, D. Smith. 
 
 sense of the unity between so-called secular education and relig- 
 ious education. In the memorial edition of the 1917 Vista this 
 unity was pointed out. "Two concepts", the article stated, "are 
 held concerning the relation of the church to education. One 
 makes a department of religious education supplemental to a dis- 
 tinctly separate department of secular education, students choosing 
 whether or not they will dip into religious education. The other 
 holds that there is only one kind of education and that, 'if in the 
 process you neglect the development of the religious faculties,' 
 you not merely dwarf religion, but 'you make a mess of the whole 
 
186 
 
 'STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY' 
 
 business.' " This analysis, given by George Griffith, who was then 
 college pastor, and a person of great influence upon the campus, 
 sums up excellently what was to be the governing principle in cur- 
 riculum planning at Green- 
 ville College in the next 
 twenty-five years. An ac- 
 quaintance with one's 
 whole spiritual heritage 
 was to grow out of the 
 four years' study. 
 
 President Burritt had a 
 sound basis, also, for opti- 
 mism in the strong asso- 
 ciated schools which had 
 been developed during his 
 administration. There was 
 the school of Business Ad- 
 ministration, directed by 
 Professor Melton since" 
 1908, and offering several 
 degrees and a very compre- 
 hensive course of study. 
 The graduating classes 
 were large and loyal. Or- 
 ganization for social pur- 
 poses and for participa- 
 tion in the athletic program gave them a fine sense of solidar- 
 ity as well as of participation in the larger school program. 
 Many of the graduates were already distinguishing themselves 
 in the business world, and the school enjoyed an excellent 
 reputation. At Commencement time a full house greeted the 
 contenders for the Krause trophy. 
 
 There was the school of music, which had grown in an amazing 
 way under the intelligent ttid energetic direction of Bertha White. 
 Trained in the traditions established by Miss Duff and Miss Kay, 
 she had gone on to New England Conservatory to study under such 
 master teachers as Carl Baermann, Louis Elson, Benjamin Cutter 
 and F. Addison Porter. There she had become a charter member 
 
 BERTHA LOUISE WHITE 
 
MARCHING FEET 
 
 187 
 
 STUDENTS OF THE MUSIC SCHOOL, 1916 
 
 HAND CULTURE 
 
188 
 
 STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY' 
 
 of the Baermann society and had so distinguished herself in her 
 study with Baermann that she was given a scholarship in her Senior 
 year. 
 
 In 1910 she was readv to return to Greenville to undertake the 
 
 SIGHT READING CLAlSS, 1913 
 Cady, Bunch, Lawson (standing), Longnecker, E. Kelley, Haley, 
 Backenstoe. 
 
 work to which she felt herself called. She brought to this car- 
 eer not only brilliant musical ability but a kind of self-forgetting 
 devotion that is rare indeed, and she inspired her students with a 
 like spirit of conscientious industry. In her first year seventy-one 
 students registered in the piano department, and this enrollment 
 grew steadily until it reached beyond two hundred. 
 
 After a short time, she established the Normal Course, and of- 
 fered teacher training to advanced pupils. This required a prac- 
 tice school, which soon enrolled all the small boys and girls in 
 Greenville who could be persuaded by their parents to enter the 
 Saturday classes. The department in public school music finally 
 became the major division of the school. At the same time she 
 
MARCHING FEET 189 
 
 inspired every young musician who gave promise of soloist qual- 
 ity, and occasionally a brilliant Commencement recital would give 
 evidence of her power to develop musical genius. 
 
 The related departments of voice and violin grew, also, under 
 
 APOLLO-MEN'S GLEE CLUB, 1914 
 Back row: Armstrong-, Grigg, King, Sager. Second row: Smith, Per- 
 kins, Harford, Zimmerman. Front row: Smith, Blews, Choisel, Secord, 
 Broadbrooks. 
 
 her wise management, and in the fall of 1917 the school of music 
 was to open with a staff of five: Caroline McCracken and Lucy 
 Jane Harris, assisting in piano; Hedwig Niehoff, instructing in 
 violin; and Mrs. Mary Choisel, instructing in voice. A large 
 chorus annually gave the Messiah, and the Chaminade Glee Club 
 offered voice training to the girls, while the Apollo Club assembled 
 the men singers. Quartets, many of them doing excellent work, 
 were numerous. 
 
 Another department which had grown by leaps and bounds in 
 the last six years was the school of oratory. Prior to 1911 no pro- 
 vision had been made in the curriculum for specialization in pub- 
 lic speaking. Miss McCord, however, had given private lessons 
 for a time and had contributed greatly to the success of the con- 
 tests. Laurel Elam had been one of her pupils. 
 
 The campus flair for oratory in 1910 was a clear indication that 
 
190 
 
 'STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY" 
 
 the time had come for the opening of a new department. Accord- 
 ingly, Miss Mary Florence Rogers was engaged in 1911 to direct 
 all the speech activities which had previously fallen under student 
 management. She brought with her a viewpoint which she had 
 
 CHAMINADE-LADIES' GLEE CLUB, 1914 
 Back row: Wilson, Murray, Harden, White, Erickson, Tenney, Mont- 
 gomery. iSecond row: Chapman, L. Kelley, Kline, Secord, Cady, Tux- 
 ford. First row: Blowers, Lawson, White, DeMoulin, Snowden, E. 
 Kelley, (front) Mme. Choisel. 
 
 learned from Dr. Emerson in his school of oratory in Boston. 
 Interpretation rather than elocution was his emphasis in all phases 
 of speaking. Creative thought rather than oratorical display was 
 made the essential in the forensic forms, and clarification of mean- 
 ing was the objective in dramatic art. 
 
 Guided by these principles Miss Rogers broadened the public 
 speaking curriculum to include literary and dramatic interpretation. 
 As the intercollegiate contests waned with the passing of the I.P.A., 
 interest turned to other forms of speech. A degree of Bachelor 
 of Oratory was offered, and every Commencement brought excel- 
 lent graduate recitals. For several years an Oratory Club met 
 monthly for programs of readings, speeches and dramatic inter- 
 pretations. Shakespearean drama was accorded a proper place 
 in her plan of study. Her emphasis was never upon the stage; 
 
MARCHING FEET 
 
 191 
 
 costuming was not regarded as essential. Her objective was the 
 cultivation of appreciation of the great literary and dramatic val- 
 ues of plays. 
 
 The department of art was another associated school which up 
 
 THE ART STUDIO, 1916-17 
 
 until 1918 had a flourishing existence. Marguerite Kcister for 
 five years made her studio one of the most loved places upon the 
 campus, not alone for the excellent instruction which she offered, 
 but for the atmosphere of gracious friendliness which pervaded it. 
 Minta Tenney, who succeeded her for a year, gave a large group 
 of enthusiastic students the benefit of the excellent training she 
 had had at Drake University. 
 
 Perhaps the very greatest source of encouragement, and of 
 pride, as well, so far as associated schools were concerned, was the 
 school of theology. Professor LaDue had established for it a 
 reputation that reached far beyond the denomination. The reg- 
 istration had increased until an assistant was needed, and the Rev. 
 
192 
 
 "STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY' 
 
 John P. Brodhead was engaged in 1916. An active Ministerial 
 Association strengthened the sense of fellowship within the depart- 
 ment and afforded opportunities, also, for practical work. 
 
 Courses to suit every need, of religious workers were given, in- 
 cluding missionary training. An offering in this field which 
 
 MINISTERIAL ASSOCIATION, 1912-13 
 Back row: Evans, McKay, Skuzie, James, Fish, McDougall, Posey, 
 King, Marston, Derry, Clark, Harden. Second row: Layman, Line, La- 
 Rue, LaRue, Garlock, Sides, Sides, Shay. Front row: Fike, Fike, Klein, 
 LaDue, Burritt, Coohran, Pickens, Montgomery, Montgomery. 
 
 sprang into wider popularity as the war came on was a course 
 in nursing under the instruction of Dr. Easley. For several years 
 young women who anticipated defense service of some sort applied 
 themselves to the study of Materia Medica, First Aid and the like. 
 Nothing, perhaps, is more heartening to the head of an institu- 
 tion which is facing a storm than the expressions of enthusiasm 
 from the alumni. With the class of 1917 Greenville college had 
 an alumni association that totaled a membership of one hundred 
 eighty-five, a very small group, to be sure, but very loyal, and 
 steadily increasing their influence by the organization of chap- 
 ters here and there over the country. During the following year, 
 when war threatened to dissolve all the bonds that tie human 
 beings together, and to break all the codes by which the civil- 
 
MARCHING FEET 
 
 193 
 
 ized live, it must have gladdened the heart of President Burritt 
 to receive the letters that came from alumni in the camps and at 
 the front assuring him that the principles which he had kept con- 
 
 MISSIONARY VOLUNTEERS, 1918 
 Back row: McDowell, Mellinger, Davis, Nichols, Cowsert, Front row: 
 Myer, Ward, Mr. and Mrs. Brodihead, — — , Welch. 
 
 stantly before them were adequate in the Sturm unci Drang of 
 the time. 
 
 Still another group, and that not the least in importance, must 
 be mentioned, as one considers the basis for optimism in facing the 
 future with Greenville in 1917. This was the board of trustees. 
 President of the board that year was H. F. Ashcraft, to whose in- 
 fluence, we have seen, Greenville owed a great debt both in her 
 founding and in her continuing existence. C. A. Fleming, also, 
 had served on the board for most of twenty-five years. Another 
 minister who had long been associated with the college and who 
 was to continue his contribution through another quarter of a 
 century was W. D. Cochran, sage, deliberate, sure in his counsels. 
 Other ministers who would serve for long periods were B. F. Ray, 
 
194 "STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY" 
 
 John A. Watson, Fred L. Hall, W. H. Lawson and A. D. Zahniser. 
 
 Heavy responsibilities fell upon the business men of the group, 
 for demands were frequently made upon their personal resources 
 as well as upon their practical judgment. There were seven of 
 these: J. M. Daniels, C. I. Tenney, R. O. Young, J. D. Neece, 
 Walter A. Joy, S. W. Andrews, and T. C. Wendell. The faith- 
 fulness and generosity of these men deserve much more elaborate 
 treatment than can be given here. Time after time, as emer- 
 gencies arose, they gave of their best, and their names should stand 
 with those of the original donors who made possible the Green- 
 ville enterprise. 
 
 One of the group is particularly noteworthy in that he had 
 chosen to fill in the gap left by the death of his father. When 
 the devoted work of F. P. Joy had come to a sudden close in 191 0, 
 his son, Walter, had promptly taken his place, and there he has 
 remained heroically ever since. The Joy family, through its 
 continued connection with the administration of the school and 
 the relationship it has held to many different student genera- 
 tions, has made an invaluable contribution to the history of Green- 
 ville College. 
 
 With all these factors to cheer him, a unified faculty working 
 toward a common goal, a sacrificially minded board of trustees, 
 a loyal body of students and alumni, President Burritt could de- 
 clare with confidence in June of 1917: "Greenville college is 
 no longer an experiment. It has justified its mission, and has 
 proved its right to live and grow." 
 
 The resources of the institution, as stated by President Burritt 
 at the time of the twenty-fifth anniversary, were "three buildings, 
 with grounds, farm lands, and a cash endowment of $22,000." 
 The task of educating the constituency in the matter of endow- 
 ment had been one of the myriad duties which filled the days of 
 President Burritt. Until 1909, though the institution had been in 
 operation for seventeen years, it had not had a cent of endow- 
 ment. In that year a very small beginning was made, but pro- 
 gress proved distressingly slow. During 1917 a Forward Move- 
 ment Endowment Campaign was launched with a goal set for 
 $100,000 by June of the next year. Although the time was not 
 auspicious, the need was so very great that the man who gave his 
 
o 
 i-a 
 
 Cfl 
 
 
 
 
 
 *>r •- 
 
 'I*" 
 
 A0^ 
 
 m3& 
 
 C 
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 o 
 
 o 
 
 - Jh 
 
 O " 
 
 ^ be 
 
 «r.S 
 
 « g 
 
 "3 .SB 
 
 Q 
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 &c © 
 
 .5 ^ 
 
 * s 
 
 4-> TO 
 
196 "STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY" 
 
 life in dreaming dreams for Greenville college and then making 
 them come true was not deterred. If anyone would know what 
 these dreams were and how persistently they were held before 
 the constituency, let him go through the writings of President 
 Burritt, spirited little essays which appear from year to year in 
 annuals, newspapers and pamphlets. 
 
 The appeals of this period, however, were to fall upon deaf 
 ears, for war drives absorbed all the savings of would-be donors, 
 and within a year a financial program was set up by the support- 
 ing denomination which for a time made a special endowment 
 
 campaign well-nigh impossible. 
 
 * * * 
 
 "Hep! Hep! Hep!" 
 
 That sound of marching feet makes an undertone that runs like 
 a funeral theme through one's recollection of the disquiet life on 
 college campuses during 1917 and '18. True, Greenville was re- 
 mote from the centers of militarism. No martial music greeted 
 one's ears at every hour of the day; no owe-inspiring spectacle 
 of military review bred patriotic fervor. The color and pomp of 
 R.O.T.C. and S.A.T.C. offered no glamor to offset the dismay 
 that tore at the heart as one said farewell over and over again. 
 
 On the small campus the tone was bewilderment or apathy rath- 
 er than drama. Restlessness pervaded the men's dormitory; the 
 mature men were leaving for the front; the younglings were 
 eager to go, ready often to falsify their age in order to enlist. 
 What were books at a time like this when knowledge seemed 
 accessible so directly and dramatically through personal exper- 
 ience! Restrictions chafed; campus activities became tame and 
 insipid. Everything seemed to challenge the Greenville way of 
 life. The eternal conflict between the forces of evil and the 
 forces of righteousness heightened to fierce intensity, as it always 
 does during wartime. How can young men of eighteen see 
 their way through such complexities when the hearts of even the 
 wise and old fail them! Black becomes white, and the whole 
 spectrum of values shifts. 
 
 Various attempts at preparation for the future and orienta- 
 tion with the world situation were made. In April of 1917 
 Professor Young, who was then athletic director, gave restless 
 
MARCHING FEET 197 
 
 spirits an outlet by the formation of a drill company. The Vista 
 tells how the idea was accepted with great enthusiasm and "an 
 organization of eighty men perfected. Mr. Ben Williams, '19, 
 was elected captain and Henry Taylor, '17, and Earl Secord, '18, 
 first and second lieutenants, respectively; Mr. Grover, bugler." 
 The company is reported as "drilling twice a week" and "mak- 
 ing rapid progress in acquiring knowledge of military tactics." 
 The organization had no connection with government service, 
 however, but proposed "training preparatory to an eventuality 
 which might occur." 
 
 The following month this company took a leading part in a 
 Loyalty Day parade put on by the city, and a few days later those 
 of the group who were volunteering for service were given a re- 
 ception by the local Chamber of Commerce. 
 
 The Vista of that month bore on its first page the following 
 battle cry: 
 
 "Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just, 
 Let this be our motto, In God is Our Trust/' 
 and then announced: "The following G. C. students have en- 
 listed up to date; Privates: Orlando Devine, John Burleigh, 
 Dewitt Hoxworth, Virgil Sager, Ira Allen, Earl Secord, Richard 
 Donahue, Clarence Snyder, Ralph Zahniser, Ivan Gray, John Hol- 
 comb, Wendell Shay, Cyril Melton; Officers' Reserve Corps . . . 
 called out: Wendell Griffith, Claire Sager, Ernest Baker, Ray- 
 mond Zimmerman; awaiting orders: Herbert Brown, Henry 
 Taylor, Floyd Chase, H. C. Young, H. A. Line." 
 
 The fall term of 1917-18 opened with only eighty-seven registered 
 for college work, and each month brought more withdrawals. The 
 spirit of militarism was in the air. Even the style of reporting 
 adapted itself to the tone of the day, and the Vista reads at 
 times like a history of campaigns. The men's hike, for instance, 
 is described as "The great allied drive on the Okaw river". Com- 
 missaries, Shay and Grover "set out long before dawn to clear 
 the path of snipers, in general, and rabbits, in particular." "The 
 main army captured a train headed toward Mulberry." 
 
 The Vista undertook during this year with signal success the 
 task of maintaining a contact between the campus and the men 
 in service. Burton T. Burritt was the gifted editor, and much 
 
198 "STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY" 
 
 might be said in commendation of the large monthly issues which 
 were gotten out under great difficulties and with unusual journal- 
 istic skill. For the first time an approximation to the modern 
 newspaper was made in a little section headed Up-to-the-Minute 
 
 
 
 ■L^B 
 
 
 
 
 
 [ ?"iJH r"f9 ByfioS 
 
 
 fc * 
 
 
 L J 
 
 
 
 j^ J 
 
 HL*n| 
 
 
 
 
 **■'■• 
 
 
 LAS CORTES— A WAR BANQUET, 1917 
 
 Evans, Grigg, Taylor, Zimmerman, Davis, Swartz, Baker, Brown, Lith- 
 erland (standing), Pres. Burritt, Griffith (standing), Line, Williams, 
 Nelson, Scott, Moran, King, Kessel, Treloar, Frof. Melton. 
 
 News. Each month the magazine featured letters from the ab- 
 sent men. 
 
 Each month, also, a military chapel was conducted. An Oc- 
 tober item reads: "In a recent chapel service Professor Line laid 
 emphasis on the desirability of keeping in touch with former G. C. 
 students who are now in the military or naval service. He sug- 
 gested that a special chapel service be held once each month, to 
 which letters and parcels addressed to the soldiers might be 
 brought." 
 
 Another article in December reports the second military chapel 
 service of the year, the main feature being the reading by Professor 
 Layman of letters from three former G. C. boys. The item con 
 
MARCHING FEET 199 
 
 tinues: "John Burleigh \ ^o is a student in Naval Radio School 
 at Harvard U., told something of the social side of a Jackie's life. 
 Whatever you hear about Boston manners, it's true. The letters 
 from Dick Donoghue, Camp MacArthur, Texas, and Arvid John- 
 son, Camp Funston, Kansas, gave interesting information about 
 their work . . . These military chapels are doing much to main- 
 tain the spirit of unity and affiliation between the college students 
 and those who have left their ranks in response to the call of 
 country." 
 
 As the new year dawned the future looked very dark. The Jan- 
 uary issue caught and reflected the spirit upon the campus. The 
 editor wrote: "Now, we don't know, 1918, what you are going 
 to picture on this new canvas. We wish we did. Sometime be- 
 fore you finish it, we'd like to see you put in a soaring eagle with 
 an olive branch in its beak, and a spiked helmet lying in the 
 dust. But whatever the picture, make it one of swift vigorous 
 action. Let there be no hesitating, wavering lines, but bold, 
 flashing strokes of power and determination. And if it is neces- 
 sary to touch the canvas here and there with the crimson life 
 blood of Americans, add a little more white and blue and paint 
 the flag for which heroes have ever gladly died and which shall 
 wave through all the ages, the rallying standard of democracy, 
 humanity and freedom." 
 
 The communications increased in interest as the year went 
 on. From Fort Benjamin Harrison, Hobe Litherland addressed 
 the president of the junior class. "To the class of 1919: I only 
 wish I could answer your letter of cheer in a more business-like 
 way, but I am rushed for time, for we're quietly leaving tonight. 
 I can only say that I'll never forget the class of green and white, 
 and will do my best to hold up the standard of the class over 
 there. Hurriedly, Sgt. H. M. Litherland." 
 
 Ben C. Baker, '15, who had been reported in the December 
 issue as having been honored with an appointment to General 
 Pershing's staff, wrote in May: "Am now having a short rest 
 since my return to headquarters a few days ago from the British 
 front . . . We were on the left flank of the attack and managed to 
 hold them off and drive them southward into the apex; otherwise, 
 I wouldn't be here now. 
 
LOYALTY DAY PARADES 
 
 OFF TO THE FRONT 
 
MARCHING FEET 201 
 
 "Orders came for me to leave on the first day, but I had no 
 chance to leave until the evening of the second day, when the lull 
 came in the battle. I walked nearly all night to reach a transporta- 
 tion point, and once more my hiking experience stood me in good 
 stead. There were ten American officers who were caught in 
 the attack, and all but three of us came out O. K. One was hit 
 by a machine gun bullet, and two were gassed badly. I was 
 gassed slightly but have not had to go to a hospital." 
 
 From Paul D. Courtney, training in aviation school, came a 
 report tinged with typical war philosophy. "There have not been 
 any accidents since I got here, but the day before I came eleven 
 planes fell and three fellows were killed. Everyone has to take 
 a chance in this world, so when a fellow gets killed here, it just 
 keeps him from getting it 'over there'." 
 
 A letter from Doctor Todd, then at Washington D. C, reported 
 with his characteristic humor the rise in rank that had come to 
 several of the men. "I, as a moral man, am worried about my 
 wife's late actions. Her profanity is getting shocking. In one 
 day, on actual count, between nine and five she registered over two 
 hundred oaths. Perhaps in fairness to her I should say that the 
 oaths were officers' oaths of office. She wrote Zimmerman's com- 
 mission and filed Ben Baker's, Sager's, Griffith's, Chase's, Lovett's 
 and Denny's papers. She felt proud to write Zimmerman's com- 
 mission." 
 
 _^Each month saw the departure of more men from the campus. 
 The journeys to old Pennsy station were no longer hilarious, and 
 sober-faced little crowds returned to the dorm wondering whose 
 would be the next vacant room. All the old leaders were leaving. 
 One morning in March the resignation of the business manager 
 of the Vista was read before the student organization. Al Grigg 
 had enlisted in the Aviation Corps. The Vista reports that when 
 he left "he was given a farewell demonstration at the depot by a 
 large number of his schoolmates, and was presented with a knife, 
 fork and spoon kit in khaki case from the class of '19." "Al's enlist- 
 ment," it states, "authorizes the forty-second star on the Green- 
 ville college service flag." 
 
 This flag had been the gift of the girls' debating club, Le Cercle, 
 to the school. It had been made by their own hands, a white 
 
202 
 
 "STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY" 
 
 oblong stripe, bordered with red, and dotted with thirty-one stars 
 at the time it was presented. On February twenty-first it was 
 hung in the auditorium and unveiled with proper ceremony. 
 Each week new stars had to be sewed on. 
 
 A noteworthy farewell reception occurred when George W. Gar- 
 
 A^m¥>fmm::: 
 
 LE CERCLE— THE SERVICE FLAG, 1917-18 
 Back row: G. Aylard, E. Aylard, Brodhead, Myhre, Ingels, Line, Sager. 
 Second row: Harris, Freeland, Griffith, L. Zahniser, Davenport, Wat- 
 kins, R. Brodhead. First row: Sager, Wintsch, Ward, Harris, R. Zahn- 
 iser, LaDue. 
 
 lock left for Europe for work in the Y.M.C.A. Mr. Garlock had 
 been for several years a very popular proctor in the men's dorm- 
 itory. Soon after his graduation in '17 he had entered upon 
 Y.M.C.A. service in this country and had been very successful in 
 personal work among the men. He had brought friendship and 
 recreation to barracks where, before the institution of the Y, it 
 was reported that a suicide a day had occurred. 
 
 Later he was equally effective in England in a large camp just 
 out of London. From there he wrote, "These are busy days here 
 at camp. We are preparing to run three canteens, and perhaps 
 four . . . We are trying to fit up an officer's hut so that the officers 
 
MARCHING FEET 203 
 
 will have a place to go as well as the men in ranks . . . No one 
 understands what the Y means to men under such conditions but 
 those who are passing through it." 
 
 The small group which remained upon the campus kept the 
 "home fires burning" by participating periodically in the Liberty 
 Loan drives. In April the third appeal was made by the town 
 chairman in a military chapel program. "A ready response" is 
 said to have followed. "Almost the entire college turned out to 
 march in the parade which was a feature in the advertising cam- 
 paign." Then someone suggested that students club together 
 and buy a hundred dollar bond for the college. "Everyone was 
 at once enthusiastic over the idea," and a bond was purchased 
 and presented to the college as an addition to the endowment fund. 
 
 Commencement time found the class of '18, which had started out 
 with twenty-one members, reduced to twelve. President Burritt, 
 who had been their faculty sponsor, explained their plight in the 
 yearbook, saying, "Unselfishly we thought of our country before 
 ourselves, and at the declaration of war we sacrificed two of our 
 best-liked members, Earl Secord and Richard Donoghue. Our 
 great loss is the country's gain. We have a vivid picture of Earl, 
 as he, after a hard day in the trenches, cheers the tired soldiers 
 with his joyous wholehearted outpouring of song. Another of 
 our members, Mr. Ira King, is helping the government greatly with 
 his work in poisonous gases in an experimental laboratory. Two 
 more of our members, Miss Ruth Hoffman and Mr. William 
 Treloar, are 'doing their bit' by teaching in the place of men called 
 to the front. Mr. Jesse Moran is awaiting his call to the avia- 
 tion service. Although these cannot be with us in person, we 
 know that in spirit they are here and they still seem a part of us." 
 
 The darkest hour of all came in the fall of 1918. Plans had 
 been perfected during the summer for the establishment in con- 
 junction with the college of a Student Training Corps. When 
 school opened hopes were high for a very successful year. 1 he 
 registration was good, so good that the boarding department 
 promised to be larger than for some time. Additions to the cul- 
 inary staff seemed necessary. It was this occasion that brought 
 Mrs. Minnie Walker first to the college. Miss Harriet Wiess, 
 who had managed the department so competently for fourteen 
 
204 "STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY" 
 
 years, and who had seen several generations of waiters, table- 
 clearers, dish-washers and dish-wipers through the college, could 
 not handle the increased load without additional assistance. And 
 so Mrs. Walker had reluctantly left her small round of home 
 duties for the responsibilities for which she felt quite inadequate, 
 unaware that she was to become in time the least dispensable 
 member of the whole Greenville College staff. 
 
 But the plans which had been so well laid failed of consummation. 
 The commanding officer, for some reason, did not appear at the 
 appointed time. The men who had come for the purpose of 
 military training began to look for other schools where the course 
 was already in operation. Soon they were scattered all over the 
 state, and Greenville was left with a total of sixty-five students in 
 the dormitories. 
 
 And then came the Spanish influenza. What had before seemed 
 a dismal situation became now radiant in contrast with the grim 
 approach of death. No one who lived through those closing days of 
 the war and the terrible winter which followed can ever put into 
 adequate words the sense of impending doom that hung over 
 every congregated group. The disease, when once it entered a 
 circle, seemed to fasten itself vise-like and refuse to leave. Yet 
 the college was fortunate in that the epidemic totaled only fifteen 
 cases. 
 
 The girls who had looked beyond the college campus for use of 
 their training in nursing now found a place near at hand to prac- 
 tice all they had learned. The dormitory was converted into a 
 hospital, and under the direction of Alta Sager the battle proceeded. 
 The success of the amateurs is evidenced in the fact that only one 
 death occurred. 
 
 The victim was a fine young Italian lad, Anthony L. Catanese, 
 his death the second that has occurred on the Greenville campus 
 in the whole fifty year period. One who cared for him during his 
 last hours, Archie C. Wolcott, writes, "Anthony was a great Chris- 
 tian, and one of the finest spirits I ever knew." 
 
 His was the only death in the dormitories, but a faculty home 
 was robbed of one of the most loved members of the college com- 
 munity. Mrs. Jennie Cathey LaDue had made the home of the 
 "Rabbi" a favorite haunt for students. There one always found 
 
MARCHING FEET 205 
 
 song and laughter and a place for one more at the long table sur- 
 rounded by happy children. How she ever managed upon a 
 pitifully meager salary and amidst excessive family cares was a 
 mystery. 
 
 She was regarded by everyone in the local church as the most 
 completely victorious Christian in the congregation. Her radiant 
 face in testimony service was a sight one could never forget. In 
 spite of her busy life, she acted as spiritual counsellor to more stu- 
 dents, perhaps, than did any other member of the faculty group. 
 The class meetings of which she was leader constituted for many 
 the high point in the Sunday services. 
 
 When the telegram came saying that she had given her life in 
 her effort to save that of her daughter, Eunice, who lay close to 
 death in a South Dakota hospital, the shadow of tragedy fell over 
 the whole community. Why should it have been Mrs. LaDue? 
 was the question that went from lip to lip. Somehow the church 
 and campus never seemed quite the same after her departure. 
 
 Then into the midst of the gloom came the wonderful news, 
 THE ARMISTICE IS SIGNED. For some the revulsion of feel- 
 ing was almost too much. It was difficult to raise one's self out 
 of a bitter personal grief into the universal rejoicing. Peace had 
 come, and Greenville was proud of the contribution which its 
 service flag with its one hundred six service stars represented, but 
 some of those stars were gold, and the shout of victory choked 
 in the throat as one thought of the victims of war and pestilence. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 MASTER BUILDER 
 
 Commencement of '27 was a memorable occasion, a kind of 
 mountain peak one might say, as one surveys the fifty-year trail 
 which has been traveled by Greenville College. From that emin- 
 ence President Burritt could look back upon twenty-eight years of 
 service to the college, almost twenty of which had been spent as its 
 chief executive. During that time new buildings had brought 
 an enlargement of the school plant, student registration had been 
 pushed to the highest point it has ever reached, and an endow- 
 ment campaign had just been completed which promised the re- 
 turns necessary to give Greenville full accreditation. 
 
 There was, therefore, something peculiarly appropriate — in 
 fact, from a long range view, something that seems almost pre- 
 destined in the principal number placed on the Commencement 
 program, namely, the conferring of a degree pro honoris causa 
 upon President Burritt. Alumni and trustees were agreed that 
 it was high time that the institution recognize officially the leader 
 whose heroism and sagacity had brought it to a place of perman- 
 ence. 
 
 As one recalls him standing there that day, with the gaily col- 
 ored hood draped about his shoulders, and the bright light of 
 happy surprise shining from his eyes, and then thinks of the 
 sad events that followed in rapid succession during the summer, 
 one is reminded of the end of another educator and the tribute 
 paid to him. Matthew Arnold, looking back upon his father's 
 career and contrasting it with that of the usual traveler through 
 life, who manages only to save himself and reach the end, wrote 
 as one might wish to write of President Burritt: 
 
 But thou would'st not alone 
 Be saved, my father! alone 
 Conquer and come to thy goal, 
 Leaving the rest in the wild . . . 
 
208 "STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY" 
 
 If in the paths of the world, 
 Stones might have wounded thy feet, 
 Toil or dejection have tried 
 Thy spirit, of that we saw 
 Nothing — to us thou wast still 
 Cheerful, and helpful, and firm! 
 Therefore to thee it was given 
 Many to save with thyself; 
 And, at the end of thy day, 
 O faithful shepherd! to come, 
 Bringing thy sheep in thy hand." 
 One is reminded, too, of another traveler, as he stood upon a 
 mountain peak high in history and declared with certitude, "I 
 have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there 
 is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the 
 righteous judge, shall give me at that day." The happiness of that 
 moment in June was only a prelude to the eternal joy that was so 
 soon to be his. When September came, bringing with it another 
 student generation, President Burritt was not there to give his 
 usual gracious welcome. He had finished his course. 
 
 Why did the work of President Burritt come to so early an end? 
 One who knew him and his family well has said, "By right of 
 heredity and physique, he should have lived to seventy-five or 
 eighty years." Among the things one recalls most vividly about 
 his middle years are the buoyant energy and the spirit of animation 
 which he poured into every undertaking. He was not the sort of 
 man whose powers decay early. He should have given at least an- 
 other decade of service to Greenville. 
 
 Yet, when one reviews the activities of those last ten years of his 
 life — from the day in 1917, when he conferred the honorary degree 
 upon Greenville's first president, to the day when he was accorded 
 like honor — one finds many reasons for his sudden decline. Like 
 President Hogue he had set the goal of accomplishment beyond 
 normal human capacity. The individual is rare who could have 
 carried long the excessive load of responsibilities which he bore as 
 the institution grew. 
 
 The schemes which he carried through for the expansion of 
 Greenville's physical and financial resources would, quite apart 
 
MASTER BUILDER 
 
 209 
 
 from any administrative duties, have constituted full-time work for 
 the ordinary institutional director. Let us review them briefly. 
 
 In 1920 a new building project had been launched. When the 
 post-war return to col- 
 leges came, registration 
 figures mounted to a 
 new high. The dorm- 
 itories overflowed and 
 rooms in town were in 
 great demand. It was 
 necessary that the long 
 proposed Woman's 
 Building be construc- 
 ted immediately. Ac- 
 tion was taken by the 
 board of trustees in 
 February, 1921, to com- 
 mence the raising of a 
 building fund of $15,- 
 000. An announce- 
 ment which went out 
 at that time to all the 
 friends of the school in- 
 dicates the spirit of 
 optimism which fore- 
 saw this as simply the 
 first step in a forward 
 movement along all 
 fronts. 
 
 In March came the purchase of a site. An item in the 
 Papyrus states, "A very desirable piece of property was recently 
 bought by the college at a very reasonable consideration. The 
 property lies northwest of the present campus, just a stone's throw 
 away, and is a piece 236x154 feet, fronting on Beaumont Avenue." 
 Former students hailed this selection with pleasure, for they re- 
 membered well the gently sloping lawn with its great variety of 
 trees and shrubs and its spring carpet of violets. No lovelier set- 
 ting in town could have been found for a home for the girls. 
 
 Dr. and Mrs. Burritt, Commencement, '27 
 
210 "STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY" 
 
 Immediately architectural plans were made, bonds were issued, 
 alumni, former students and community supporters responded, 
 and in the summer along in August ground was broken and the 
 cornerstone was laid. The erection of the building was accom- 
 plished with equal dispatch. Looking back upon the whole tin- 
 
 DORM GIRLS, 1921 
 
 Back row: Bowers, Barnes, Dodds, Kinney, Holtforth, Britt, DeWitt, 
 Baker, Hawley, H. Secord,M. Smith, Secord. Second row: Butts, Don- 
 oghue, W. Rogers, Crusius, Merryman, Hart, Dodds, Portsrfield, Hill, 
 
 Pretty, Webb. Front row: , Wendell, Burritt, Noble, Baldwin, 
 
 Webb, Koepke, R. Rogers, Cooke, Bonham. 
 
 dertaking in 1926, President Burritt wrote of it as a triumph of 
 faith, saying: 
 
 "In 1920 a building was needed for the girls. Money was not 
 at hand, but faith was abundant, and in faith contracts were let 
 and everybody prayed and got busy ... A hundred thousand 
 dollar building sprang up costing somewhat less money, and every- 
 body who believed and prayed was happy in the new possession 
 and in a new faith and hope. Ninety girls live in comfort in the 
 Woman's Building." 
 
 In the fall of 1922 these girls entered joyfully upon the task of 
 furnishing and beautifying their new residence. They were aided 
 by many friends, who undertook by groups or as individuals the 
 
MASTER BUILDER 211 
 
 equipping of each room with the basic essentials in furnishings. 
 From generous contributors in town came funds also for the dec- 
 oration of the parlors and for medical supplies for the small in- 
 firmary. 
 
 For the first time a woman's dorm association was organized. 
 The dorm parties which were staged during this year were mem- 
 orable occasions, and even more memorable were the public ben- 
 efit programs sponsored by the association for the purpose of 
 accumulating enough money to purchase a piano for the parlors. 
 The entertainers who were brought to the campus under these 
 auspices were exceptionally good; funds came very readily; and, 
 before the year was over, the song fests which had made the old 
 parlors a favorite rendezvous were being carried on with even 
 greater enthusiasm about the new Baby Grand. 
 
 The new building was not entirely paid for, though well cov- 
 ered by the bond issue, when a great endowment campaign was 
 launched. In 1925 the time seemed at last propitious for the proj- 
 ect which President Burritt had been proposing ever since 1919. 
 One thing after another had arisen to Mock the progress of this 
 measure, which for years had seemed absolutely essential to finan- 
 cial security and further expansion. A sum of SI 00,000 had been 
 gradually accumulated, but $300,000 more was needed to complete 
 the amount required for obtaining full accreditation. 
 
 After long deliberation a plan for the conduct of the campaign 
 was prepared by President Burritt. Subscribers were to take notes 
 which were to be paid in equal semi-annual installments over a 
 period of five years, with the privilege of deferring payment and 
 paying interest instead when circumstances made this necessary. 
 Those to be solicited were divided into five groups, and chairmen 
 were appointed for each with tentative apportionments assigned. 
 The alumni were to be responsible for .SI 00.000, the trustees for 
 SI 5,000, the faculty and student body for $25,000 and the church 
 at large for $140,000. The total direction of the campaign fell to 
 President Burritt. 
 
 On January 27, 1925, the drive opened with a banquet for the 
 faculty and trustees. President Burritt from the toastmaster's 
 chair presented the plan and announced the first pledge, $10,000, 
 
212 
 
 'STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY' 
 
 from Henry Asplin of Cleveland, Ohio. The appeal of that eve- 
 ning brought a subscription list of $20,000. 
 
 The campaign among students got under way three months 
 later. For a week four minute speeches were made in chapel by 
 
 ENDOWMENT PARADE. 1926 
 
 representatives from the faculty and student body. The culmin- 
 ation was a great response on Friday morning to the amount of 
 $22,100. A gala spirit took possession of the campus, and in the 
 afternoon classes were dismissed, great banners were prepared, and 
 the town was treated to a big endowment parade. 
 
 During the following year the drive continued and another en- 
 dowment parade announced further pledges from the campus 
 group aggregating $11,500. In 1926 newcomers added to the al- 
 ready large total $6600, making over $40,000 subscribed in three 
 years. 
 
 In the meantime the chairmen of the other campaign sections 
 were at work. As a result the sum-total of pledges from the com- 
 munity reached $28,000 while that from the alumni soared to 
 $49,656. An incidental benefit which meant much to alumni 
 was the sense of unification produced by these booster meetings. 
 
 May 16, 1927, marked the end of the campaign. On May 25, 
 1927, a great Endowment Special was issued by the Papyrus staff. 
 
MASTER BUILDER 213 
 
 A "streamer" headline announced, in large bold-faced letters, 
 G. C. RAISES ENDOWMENT. The chief article opened with 
 the following statement: "The endowment fund campaign went 
 beyond its goal when the Rev. W. D. Cochran, the field secretary, 
 received pledges for $5,500 at Bloomington, Illinois, on May 16, 
 1927." 
 
 The editor, Glenn L. Archer, under the caption of "They said 
 it couldn't be done — but it was" reviewed in an editorial the 
 whole progress of the drive, and closed with a look into the future. 
 
 "And now what next? The first thing is to make the effort 
 sure by over-subscribing to make up for inevitable shrinkage. 
 We should subscribe at least $50,000 more to provide for losses 
 by death and other conditions. Second, we must pay our pledges 
 promptly, and in full, at the earliest possible date. 
 
 "Third, we must have added gifts for repairs and new buildings 
 if Greenville College is to progress and fill her mission. The 
 registration already has exceeded the five hundred mark. Major 
 departments are housed in basements and in inadequate quarters. 
 Would it not be exhilarating for three givers to be responsible 
 for the three units of a Science building? Or would it not refresh 
 the soul of some one with God's money to say, 'I will be responsible 
 for a music hall to house your music department with its two 
 hundred students?' " 
 
 Then the editor added in conclusion, "But at this time it is 
 fitting that we should pause to thank God for all His mercies in 
 the past, for His direction, and guidance in the prosecution of 
 this endowment campaign, for the spirit of prayer, of unity and of 
 faith. The thing accomplished has been the greatest achievement 
 so far in the history of the college, and for it all God has all the 
 glory." 
 
 There is something in these paragraphs which is very character- 
 istic of the spirit of President Burritt and of the atmosphere in 
 which students lived during his administration. The work of 
 building a college is never ended. Here on the very eve of the 
 greatest achievement yet reached he cannot rest; he pauses only 
 long enough to thank God for the present attainments and then 
 turns to the future and the work that remains. Students, too, 
 caught this spirit, giving of their best during their years within 
 
MASTER BUILDER 215 
 
 college walls and dedicating themselves to further and larger giv- 
 ing as soon as opportunity should come. It was during this cam- 
 paign that the slogan, "The little college serving a big world" 
 was coined, expressing very aptly the pride which alumni felt in 
 the potentialities of their Alma Mater. 
 
 The spirit of sacrificial giving for the progress of Greenville 
 found no greater inspiration than in the example of President 
 Burritt himself. Students were well aware of his complete dedica- 
 tion to the cause and were deeply moved by it. They knew he 
 was giving his all. During his last years they saw this desire to 
 see Greenville go forward become a kind of inner fire that spurred 
 him on, yet burned up his life forces. On, on, on he pushed in 
 spite of the concern of his friends, the warning of physicians, the 
 danger signals that he recognized himself. "Greenville College 
 and her glory" was his only consideration. 
 
 The attainment of financial security and physical expansion 
 was only one of many tasks which consumed his strength. The 
 mounting registration called for a revamping of the whole program. 
 The time was coming when the preparatory school must be elim- 
 inated. Carefully he built toward this end, seeing an increase 
 in collegiate enrollment each year to match the decrease in the 
 prep school. In 1926 this enrollment reached 257; it was evident 
 that the college had become self-sustaining. Accordingly, Presi- 
 dent Burritt's last year became the last year for the preparatory 
 department. The total registration in all departments that year 
 was 518, the peak for all time to date. 
 
 It is safe to say that President Burritt took a personal interest 
 in every one of these five hundred eighteen, and, further, that he 
 was never too busy to give expression to this interest. The sense 
 that one had upon entering college that he was an understanding 
 friend continued throughout one's college career — indeed, it did 
 not end then. Many alumni who met him for the last time at 
 the quadrennial meeting of the Free Methodist church in Roches- 
 ter, New York, remember with deep appreciation his animated in- 
 quiries into their work, his keen interest in their successes after 
 leaving their Alma Mater. The glow of enthusiasm which always 
 attended these conversations was not forced. President Burritt 
 really cared. 
 
216 "STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY" 
 
 This was one of his characteristics most emphasized by students 
 as they mourned his passing. One said, "Every student who has 
 entered Greenville College has felt that in President Burritt he 
 had a true and sincere friend . . . He was approachable, sympathetic, 
 with ability to make one feel at ease in his presence. He never 
 posed, he never strutted, but maintained his simple dignity al- 
 ways. These qualities made it very easy for students to approach 
 him and seek his counsel on various problems." 
 
 Another who had gone to the front rank as a scholar mourned 
 the loss of his intellectual camaraderie, saying, "During the past 
 few years I have enjoyed his rare intellectual companionship and 
 have found in him a depth of sympathy, a breadth of interest and 
 a fullness of appreciation of the world problems of today, educa- 
 tional, social, religious and philosophical, seldom encountered even 
 among younger leaders. Some of us are beginning to more fully 
 appreciate what he meant to us in intellectual stimulus and the 
 prevention of intellectual isolation and possible stagnation, and 
 we are lonely as we contemplate our loss." 
 
 These sentiments of single individuals were expressed for all 
 alumni by the committee who drew up the resolutions for the 
 Alumni Association, when they stated, "We express our appre- 
 ciation of his personal interest in the spiritual, intellectual and 
 physical well-being of each of us, which began with our matricula- 
 tion in the institution and did not cease with the conferring of our 
 diplomas, but grew in warmth of sincerity, fellowship and mutual 
 confidence so long as God permitted him to serve our Alma 
 Mater." 
 
 President Burritt gave himself as well as his time and his en- 
 ergy, and that sort of giving takes the heaviest toll of all upon 
 physical fitness. It called for hours and hours of personal con- 
 ference. Greenville College had no official personnel director 
 in those days; yet unofficially and quietly that work was done. 
 It resulted in his personal contact with every student and also 
 with every student enterprise. 
 
 The Vista, for example, and the new newspaper, the Papyrus, 
 developed into high class literary projects under his .stimulating 
 suggestions. Each week the editors and reporters went to Pres- 
 ident Burritt's office, not only as part of their regular news beat, 
 
, v : ; . -.v, -* ■ ;• -^ :-j. -'^#; 
 
 THE FIRST PAPYRUS STAFF, 1923 
 
218 'STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY" 
 
 but, also, for possible suggestions regarding the form they should 
 give articles. 
 
 The advent of the Papyrus came about as follows. By 1921 
 school sentiment as well as administrative opinion favored a 
 newspaper rather than the nondescript monthly, which neither 
 represented fully the journalistic talent upon the campus nor the 
 best literary skill. Through the leadership of Ira King, who was 
 then editing the monthly, the proposal for a biweekly was put to 
 a student vote, and the unanimous response called for a weekly. 
 The staff of the first Papyrus was composed of the following 
 students: 
 
 Editor, Ira King Assoc. Editor, Byron Lamson 
 
 Business Mgr., E. Steenburgh Asst. Bus. Mgr., Morse Cooke 
 
 Assistant Editor, R. Kamm Advertising Mgr., C. L. Nystrom 
 
 Organizations, Mary Van Deusen Alumni Ed., Freda Burritt 
 Athletic Editor, C. C. Chase Exchange Ed., Virginia DeWitt 
 
 Reporters: Laurence Arksey, Alice Hayes, Althea Backenstoe, Paul 
 Oehser, Ruth Barnes, Ed. Kessel, Herbert Griffith, Bessie Reid, 
 Anabel Hall, George Lewis. 
 
 President Burritt's supervision was of the sort that stimulates 
 the most ambitious effort, and, as a result, the Papyrus became a 
 thriving weekly issue of eight pages published by the most talent- 
 ed staff that could be assembled from the student body. Look 
 over the Papyrus files from these years and see the evidences of 
 journalistic ability. Or follow the history of the men and women 
 who held the chief positions upon the publications, and you will 
 discover the fact that the Papyrus was a school in which they pre- 
 pared for positions which they hold today, where a high order 
 of literary or executive ability is required. 
 
 The continuance by President Burritt of supervision over extra- 
 curricular activities after the school had reached proportions re- 
 quiring a delegation of some of these responsibilities to others was 
 one of the causes of his decline in health. All student affairs received 
 the same helpful direction as in earlier days, even, for example, 
 debate clubs and literary societies. 
 
 Debate had developed from its early beginnings in Las Cortes 
 to an important collegiate activity. Even during the war, when 
 mature, experienced debaters were hard to find, fifteen to twenty 
 
MASTER BUILDER 
 
 219 
 
 men went out tor it. While the department of oratory flourished 
 under Miss Rogers, men received excellent preparation for all 
 types of platform work. Interest in debate among women re- 
 
 VARSITY DEBATERS, 1923 
 Top: Timbers, Griffith, Smith. Bottom: Kamm, Habecker, Cooke. 
 
 vived, also, when Le Cercle was organized, but little speaking was 
 done by them off-campus. Intercollegiate debating by women 
 did not flourish until after Elpinice was formed. 
 
 Las Cortes and Le Cercle became in time rather exclusive social 
 circles. Their frequent joint meetings were times of jollification, 
 and their annual banquets were the most important social occa- 
 sions of the year, except for the Junior-Senior banquet which had 
 grown more and more elaborate. Membership in them became the 
 goal of every entering student, and the programs of Phoenix and 
 Aretanian paled into insignificance beside the activities of these 
 more select societies. Naturally animosities developed, since mem- 
 
220 
 
 STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY' 
 
 bership was limited and no objective standards had been set up for 
 admission. 
 
 The crisis of feeling came in 1923. The matter was brought to 
 
 Intercollegiate Debating League of Southern Illinois, 1924-25 
 Top: Munn, Gregory, Green. Bottom: Lasswell, Corser, Denton. 
 
 the attention of the faculty, and they finally prevailed upon stu- 
 dent leaders to disband the existing organization in order to dis- 
 perse the tide of intense resentment that had arisen. Debate so- 
 cieties there might be, but the day of Las Cortes and Le Cercle 
 was over. A rebirth something like that which had taken place 
 in the case of Phoenix would have to occur. 
 This new organization came into being early the next year. 
 
MASTER BUILDER 221 
 
 The Papyrus of October twenty-third gives the following account: 
 "The members of last years intercollegiate debate team are the 
 promoters of the new club called Agora. 
 
 "Ever since the disbandment of Las Cortes last spring it has 
 been the sense of those men in the college interested in debate 
 that a new club should be organized. It seemed impossible to get 
 anything started in the short time left before Commencement last 
 year. But with the opening of the new year the debaters im- 
 mediately got busy and drew up a constitution which has been 
 accepted in full by the faculty committee of organizations. 
 
 "The club has for its chief aim the advancement of debating in 
 Greenville College. To do this it requires as a prerequisite for 
 membership participation in the intercollegiate tryouts . . . ' 
 Richey Kamm was chosen as the first president. 
 
 Objective standards were thus set up. Tryouts which tested de- 
 lating ability became the criterion for admission in place of the 
 subjective evaluation given by society members. Cliquishness 
 disappeared. During the next year the women followed suit and 
 organized Elpinice. 
 
 The last decade of the Burritt administration saw the organiza- 
 tion of many clubs; in fact, the ambitious student found his pro- 
 gram altogether too full with extra-curricular interests, and asked 
 often for a point system which would arbitrarily limit his respon- 
 sibilities. 
 
 There were many study clubs, some of them of long standing, 
 others of sporadic existence. The Natural History Club had or- 
 iginated during the war years in the general interest in bird study. 
 Under the leadership of Robert Miller, '20, who has since made 
 a name for himself as a naturalist, on the West coast, it occupied 
 a very prominent place on the campus. The 1920 Vista, edited 
 by Miller, owes much of its distinction to this feature. There are 
 several pages of excellent out door scenes and an unusual collection 
 of small snapshots of birds, insects, etc., contributed by N. H. C. 
 Several poems, also, expressive of the naturalist's enthusiasm give 
 variety to this yearbook. "To A Wood Thrush," written by 
 Miller, will bring back to many Greenville bird lovers the recollec- 
 tion of a morning hunt through the gullies for this elusive songster. 
 
222 
 
 STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY' 
 
 
 
 v \f 
 
 
 ■Sa ; Ji 
 
 ■pP^^ 
 
 ,£**£ RJst:**, 
 
 
 
 1 " ' •',; 
 
 *** ■■' 
 
 , ,^ #i j - ., 
 
 SENIOR BREAKFAST AT BARREL SPRINGS, 1921 
 Back row: Schwartz, Chapman, Carlson, Honn, Young, Litherland, 
 Smith, Davis, King, Shaw, Comer, Baker, Slack, Baldwin, Scott, Zahn- 
 iser. Front: Johnson, Maynard, Roberts, Siever, Thompson, Davis, 
 Staines, Mrs. Burritt, Pres. Burritt. 
 
 "Hark to that caroling down in the glen, 
 Liquid and clear and repeated again; 
 The lark greets the morn, and the bluebird is singing. 
 But what is their lay when that melody's ringing 
 From yon leafy covert, 
 The Wood Thrush's den? 
 Of what is he singing, shy browncoated fellow, 
 For whom is he pouring those notes, soft and mellow? 
 Ah! let me whisper a secret to you; 
 Just peep in yon bush, all a-sparkle with dew, 
 And circled with butter-cups 
 Dainty and yellow. 
 Ah! you mischievious rogue in the wild cherry tree, 
 Don't fancy I know not the cause of your glee. 
 There's a little brown mate on the nest down below, 
 By the side of the stream where the blue violets grow, 
 And yet you pretend 
 That you're singing for me." 
 
MASTER BUILDER 223 
 
 After the coming of Professor Moreland to the Natural Science 
 department in 1921 this club broadened its program to include 
 many scientific interests. In 1923 it had four departments, with 
 leaders chosen as follows: 
 
 Botanical Cora Dodds OrnithologicaL_Beulah Burnett 
 
 Entomological Paul Oehser Gen. Zoological-Everett Ingersol 
 
 Speakers of note were annually brought to the campus and proj- 
 ects, such as bird-banding and tree labeling, were undertaken. 
 
 Another study group was formed when Professor Marston came 
 as head of the education department in 1920. This, the Educators' 
 Club, was composed of those who planned to teach, and had us- 
 ually a membership of about one hundred. The papers, some- 
 times given by students majoring in the education department, 
 and sometimes by invited speakers, aimed to develop professional 
 spirit and interest. Surveys of campus educational problems were 
 made, which had a direct influence upon the intellectual life of 
 the campus. 
 
 Another organization, the Mathematics Club, had originated 
 in 1914 at the instigation of Miss Ingels and continued an active 
 program under Dr. Merlin Smith, during his chairmanship of the 
 mathematics department, 1919 to 1927. Study clubs were also 
 organized by the language groups, Spanish, French and German, 
 but did not enjoy so long an existence. 
 
 The Apollo Club was more fortunate in the support which it 
 received for several years from students desirous of cultivating a 
 deeper appreciation of all forms of music. Mrs. Lucy Jane King 
 was the organizer and sponsor of this group. 
 
 During the same period when study clubs were flourishing, sec- 
 tional or state clubs seem to have had their greatest vitality. 
 Sometimes there were as many as ten of these. Hikes through the 
 gullies culminating in a steak fry or a wciner roast brought these 
 regionalists together in fall and spring, while faculty members 
 equally state-minded opened their homes to the groups during 
 the winter. 
 
 By far the most active boosters were to be found in the British 
 Club, which in 1923 numbered eighteen, really a Cosmopolitan 
 Club, since then some of them had lived under the British flag in 
 
224 
 
 STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY' 
 
 such far separated lands as Africa, India, China and the islands of 
 the sea. In their Vista write-up for 1923 they express their love of 
 Greenville as follows: "Oh, thou land of the stars and stripes, thou 
 
 
 
 K 3*1 
 
 ?t 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 L; 
 
 %• 
 
 >fi^ 
 
 
 w^ v 
 
 BRITISH CLUB, 1923 
 Back row: Kessel, Loveless, Eagle, Winans, Wilson. iSecond row: 
 Steenburgh, Cooper, Wilson, Arksey, Alexander, Agnew. Front row: 
 Reid, Fuller, Taylor, Gregory, Steenburgh, Gregory. 
 
 hast surely held out inducement to us — sons and daughters of the 
 British domains! . . . eighteen Britishers have come to enjoy the 
 benefits of one of your best Christian colleges." In this group were 
 many who have made their Alma Mater glad by their sacrificial de- 
 votion to world service. Today they are again scattered to the far 
 corners of the earth, carrying out the commission received while 
 at Greenville. 
 
 It is remarkable to discover that at the same time as these many 
 small organizations absorbed so much time and energy the two 
 literary societies continued to thrive. Aretanian, for instance, 
 reports in 1926, after membership in literary societies was no longer 
 compulsory, a roll of almost one hundred, and states that "Every 
 member is keenly awake to the problems of the day and shows an 
 active interest in the welfare of the society as well as in every 
 phase of campus life. The standards of the organization are high." 
 Phoenix reports an even larger membership, one hundred and 
 
ARETANIAN LITERARY SOCIETY, 1925 
 Back row: Greider, Whiteside, Talley, Goodwin, H. Webb, Daniels, 
 
 Bennett. Third row: Chase, , , LaDue, Edgbert, Goodwin,, 
 
 Thompson, Tanner, LaDue. Second row: Archer, Cooper, Harford, 
 Archer, Philpot, Spaulding, Watkins, Sherburne. First row: Hill, 
 Crawford, Corser, Greenwald, — — . 
 
 Back row: Newkirk, , Norbeck, Fleming, Greider, Shockey, 
 
 Gorham. Third row: W. Baldwin, Glosser, Morgan, Peterson, Miller, 
 C. Rixman, Wendell, Ernest, Nystrom. Second row: Moreland, More- 
 land, Mulford, Zurcher, Glosser, Cooley, Phillips. First row: Fair- 
 banks, Welker, Knapp, Glover, Nelson. 
 
if : li 3 iV#f 
 
 % W^^ 
 
 '^«#v' ^^ 
 
 
 
 it *** 
 
 PHOENIX LITERARY SOCIETY, 1925 
 
MASTER BUILDER 227 
 
 twenty, and the maintenance of the original purpose of intellec- 
 tual training and development of leadership qualities. 
 
 Each year rivalry between the two rose to a climax with the an- 
 nual oratory and declamatory contests. During the '20's Mr. Joy 
 offered a loving cup to the society which could produce winners 
 in declamation three years in succession. An entrance of ten can- 
 didates from each of the college clubs and seven from Wilsonian 
 was required. Elimination contests left eight speakers to appear 
 hi the final. Intense excitement attended this occasion, partic- 
 ularly in 1925, when Aretanian, after winning twice previously, 
 again produced the superior talent, and secured the Joy trophy 
 permanently. 
 
 There were many opportunities afforded during this period to 
 the student who desired to prepare himself as a leader. An in- 
 creasingly effective means to this end was to be found in the work 
 of the Student Association, which had been founded in 1920. 
 More and more responsibility had fallen upon this body, as time 
 went on, in the fulfillment of its twofold mission: the conducting 
 of the business of the student body, and the promotion of a genu- 
 ine all-college spirit. A new step toward the attainment of the 
 last mentioned objective was taken in 1926 in the introduction of 
 twelve All-College programs, which were to take the place of lit- 
 erary society meetings on the Friday nights designated through 
 the year. This innovation, with its aim of promoting a spirit of 
 unity among all departments, may have been one of the first 
 causes for the disintegration of Aretanian and Phoenix. 
 
 The opportunities for practical experience in religious leader- 
 
 Back row: Zahniser, Lutz, Davis, Towns, Chandler, Holtwick, Brown. 
 Third row: Phelps, Hayes, M. Chandler, Barnes, Embury, Holtforth, 
 Holtwick, Denton. Second row: Landis, Asfahl, VanValin, Munn, 
 Green, Eagle, Smith. First row: Clark, Starr, Fuller, Koepke, A. 
 Munn, Banks. 
 
 Back row: Woods, Norbeck, Simpson, Hicks, Dawson, Smith, Reid, 
 Watson. Third row: King, Moorehouse, R. Banks, Baird, Hall, John- 
 son, M. Munn. Second row: Andrews, Knoepfle, Fowler, Kamm, Ivers, 
 Thompson, C. Baldwin. First row: G. Baldwin, Wire, Wheat, Caswell. 
 Back row: L. Webb, Robinson, H. VanValin, Rochelle, Starr, I. Young, 
 Nelson. Third row: Hepker, Reyman, Henkle, Schroder, Gregory, 
 Deardorff, Moore, Baughan. Second row: Arrand, Westacott, Tourtel- 
 otte, Marston, Marston, Secord, Previte. First row: Nowlin, Mange, 
 Seiver, Ambrose, 
 
228 
 
 'STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY" 
 
 ship equalled those offered in other fields. The Ministerial Asso- 
 ciation was always large, and afforded practice in public work for 
 all those who desired it. The Student Volunteers during these 
 years were more numerous than at any other time in their history. 
 
 STUDENT VOLUNTEERS, 1921 
 Back row: Burritt, Elam, Rhodes, Bartley, Ghormley, Proud, Dodds, 
 MacDonald, Steenburgh, Lutz. Third row: Previte, Smith, Roushey, 
 Cooke, Himebaugh, McCann, Miller, Conde, Demaray. Second row: 
 Arksey, Stains, Enderlin, Henderlite, Morgan, iSecord, Thompson, 
 Landis, Fultz. Front row: Brown, Lewis, Fleming, Moreland Updyke. 
 
 The highest point in enrollment was probably reached in 1923, 
 forty-six members. It should be said in explanation of this in- 
 crease, however, that the doors of the chapter were opened at this 
 time to all interested in Christian service at home and abroad, 
 thus including many who today would enroll in the Life Service 
 League rather than the Student Volunteers. 
 
 Participation in the state and national meetings was very lively. 
 The 1921 Vista reports that Greenville College, in missionary 
 circles and at conventions "is looked upon as a remarkable school 
 because of its zeal and activity." "There is no doubt," the report- 
 er writes in an article on a convention just attended "that the 
 meeting has been a factor in making Greenville College better 
 
MASTER BUILDER 
 
 229 
 
 known throughout the state." During the following year the lo- 
 cal chapter, by that time the largest in Illinois, was host to the 
 state convention. For several years following this a local mis- 
 sionary institute was held which made use of both local and im- 
 ported speakers. Here it was that 
 many of the workers prominent 
 now in the denominational pro- 
 gram received their start. 
 
 Without question one of the 
 greatest causes for Greenville's con- 
 tribution to the missionary leader- 
 ship during this period was the 
 quiet work of one woman then 
 on the faculty. When President 
 Burritt's term of service ended, this 
 work ended also, for this unob- 
 trusive but pervasive influence for 
 missions had emanated from the 
 president's home — from the host- 
 ess who had presided so gracious- 
 ly there. 
 
 When one reads Mrs. Burritt's 
 resume in the 1926 Vista of ac- 
 tivities which kept the campus 
 mission-minded, one is amazed at 
 
 the number of these for which she herself was directly or indirectly 
 responsible: weekly meetings of Volunteers, monthly meetings of 
 the College Missionary Society, mission study classes, conventions, 
 institutes, supplies for the missionary section of the library, read- 
 ing campaigns, Christmas letters to missionaries, the yearly drive 
 for the support of our own missionary, farewells and gifts to those 
 going out to the field. 
 
 And when one reads the statistics which she presented at that 
 time concerning Greenville's contribution to missions, one realizes 
 that they were more than mere figures to her. They represented 
 the result of hours of work and prayer and years of faith and de- 
 votion. Eighty-one men and women, she says, who have been in 
 attendance at Greenville, are now in the field or have been for a 
 
 CARRIE T. BURRITT 
 
230 "STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY" 
 
 period. Of these two are medical doctors, three are nurses, thirty- 
 tour have received their A.B.'s from Greenville. Twelve percent 
 of the alumni, she says, have given missionary service. "One or 
 more native students from Japan, China, Korea, Africa, Italy, 
 and the West Indies," she notes, "have attended the college. 
 Thirty-one children of missionaries have also attended, thirteen 
 of these receiving their degrees." This in 1926 was Greenville's 
 contribution to missions, but to what extent it was also Mrs. Bur- 
 ritt's contribution can never be estimated. 
 
 An effort to recognize this outstanding service of Mrs. Burritt 
 to the institution and the church was made in 1927 by the board 
 of trustees in the conferring of an honorary degree upon her. At 
 the same Commencement where President Burritt received the 
 degree of L. L. D. Mrs. Burritt was made a Master of Arts. 
 
 The foregoing review of organizations in the twenties shows the 
 multiplicity of interests to which President Burritt still gave con- 
 siderable attention. In addition to that it reveals the unrestricted 
 endeavor by students of that period to carry on extracurricular 
 activities in altogether too many directions. "The little college" 
 of two hundred fifty was attempting the program of the large col- 
 lege of a thousand. The outcome was bound to be conflict among 
 activities for survival and, worse than that, superficiality in the 
 work accomplished by all of them. The thoughtful observer who 
 expects college to be something besides a social center, will im- 
 mediately suspect that the area which suffered most was the aca- 
 demic. There was, however, an antidote for this, which, during 
 the twenties, grew more and more effective. Standards of scholar- 
 ship had been rising; requirements had been stiffening. 
 
 One reason for this was the ideal which Dean Marston had set 
 up upon his arrival in 1920 as Registrar and Professor of Psychology 
 and Education. His management of the office was efficient and 
 painstaking, and his direction of the department of education 
 opened a new era in teacher training in Greenville. In the sec- 
 ond year of his appointment he was advanced in administrative 
 rank to the office of Dean of the College. His influence from 
 that time forward upon the whole academic program was mo- 
 mentous. The backing which he gave to teachers and students 
 interested in intellectual endeavor was most stimulating, and the 
 
232 "STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY" 
 
 thoroughness with which he discharged his duties as dean brought 
 the college to its proper place. This becomes evident when one 
 reads the evaluation of his work written into a report by G. P. 
 Tuttle, Registrar of the University of Illinois, following an in- 
 spection made by the university in 1925. 
 
 It reads as follows: "I went over in detail the scholastic records 
 of the school with Dean Marston. I have not found better rec- 
 ords in any of the colleges I have visited, nor more conclusive evi- 
 dence of a painstaking adherence to published standards. All 
 advice to students on educational matters is handled by the Dean. 
 Rules for probation, dropping for poor scholarship, withdrawals 
 from courses and the like have been adopted and are made effective 
 by him. They are not mere paper rules. The records show that 
 they have been put into operation." 
 
 This was the policy inaugurated by Dean Marston in the twenties, 
 and by this policy Greenville has ever since been governed. The 
 result so far as scholastic standards were concerned was revolution- 
 ary. The quality of scholarship steadily improved, and the con- 
 flict between academic interests and extracurricular pursuits grad- 
 ually found solution in the elimination of the least consequential 
 organizations and, finally, in the formulation of a point system 
 governing all activities. 
 
 Accompanying these changes emanating from the dean's office 
 came expansion in the faculty. In 1926 the president reported 
 a total of thirty upon the instructional staff, inclusive of the high 
 school faculty. Many new names appear upon this list, most of 
 them followed by the title of A.M. or Ph.D. For eight years Dr. 
 Merlin Grant Smith was professor of mathematics and physics. 
 In 1919 Professor Enoch Arden Holtwick began his long term of 
 service in the history department. Mrs. Mary K. Andrews was a 
 very successful professor of sociology and economics during the 
 twenties and on into the thirties. Edna Fay Goodhew, who had 
 been chairman of the English department from 1915 to 1921, was 
 followed by Mae A. Tenney for four years, who, in turn, was fol- 
 lowed by Sara E. Gregory. The department of modern languages 
 had as its chairman between 1922 and 1939, Bessie G. Tourte- 
 lotte. Frieda Barbara Knoepfle gave four years of service as 
 language teacher during the twenties. In the field of natural 
 
MASTER BUILDER 
 
 233 
 
 sciences Professor Moreland began his valuable contribution in 
 1922 following Miss Martha Montgomery. Others serving for 
 brief periods during President Burritt's last years were Mrs. More- 
 land, John Alexander and Mr. and 
 Mrs. Charles Peterson. 
 
 Of the associated schools, that 
 of music saw the greatest expan- 
 sion during the twenties. Bertha 
 White, as the head of this school, 
 had repeated the history made by 
 Miss Duff, both as regards high at- 
 tainments, and also, alas, in re- 
 spect to self-forgetful devotion to 
 excessive work. The result was 
 that in 1923 Miss White was forced 
 to withdraw from active duty for 
 the rest of her brief life. Hun- 
 dreds of students look back with 
 fond gratitude upon her thorough 
 instruction and deep admiration 
 for her beautiful character. Among 
 them is one, Russell Howe, who 
 gave perhaps the most brilliant 
 graduate recital ever presented at 
 Greenville, and who has since had a notable music career. To Miss 
 White he gives the credit for an unusually strong foundation for 
 his successes. 
 
 Another outstanding pupil of Miss White's, Mrs. Lucy Jane 
 King, took Miss White's place upon her resignation. Under Mrs. 
 King's very capable direction the department continued its steady 
 growth enrolling in 1926 over two hundred pupils. In 1925 eight 
 instructors made up the music faculty. It was during this year 
 that two new members, who brought with them a distinguished 
 record of study, joined the group: Mary Helen Watson, from the 
 music school of the University of Illinois, and Wayne A. Spalding 
 from the American Conservatory. 
 
 The voice department was also rapidly coming to the front. 
 Charles Rogers, in charge from 1922 to 1925, had done much to 
 
 LUCY JANE KING 
 
234 "STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY" 
 
 build an interest in choral work. The glee clubs had been ab- 
 sorbed by a large chorus in 1922, which gave several cantatas or 
 oratorios annually. Succeeding Professor Rogers, came Frank 
 Goodwin, fresh from concert work with the Dunbar quartet. 
 
 MEN'S GLEE CLUB, 1920 
 Back row: Riley, Snyder, Ping, Miller, Kawabe. Second row: Lutz, 
 Weidman, McDonald, Demaray, Moreland. Firts row: Diehl, Devine, 
 Smith, Linder, W. Smith, Baldwin. 
 
 Enthusiasm for private voice instruction and all types of ensemble 
 work grew under his encouragement. Community chorus work 
 continued to gain in popularity. 
 
 In the school of business administration brief terms of service 
 were given by Miss Gertrude Cleveland, Mrs. Lillian Beeson and 
 Professor Harry Ansted. In 1924 Professor Harry Brewer became 
 head of the school, remaining for fifteen years. 
 
 The department of physical education during this period evolved 
 the policy which is still in vogue at Greenville College, a policy, in 
 fact, which now governs all tfie schools sponsored by the Free Meth- 
 odist church. In 1921, after a long-continued request from many 
 quarters for an intercollegiate athletic program, the Greenville 
 
MASTER BUILDER 235 
 
 board of trustees decided to experiment with a season of varsity 
 basketball and appointed Joe Daniels as general manager for the 
 season, with Ralph Zahniser acting as student athletic director. A 
 splendid team was picked, and a schedule of eleven games was run 
 off. Eight of these games were won by G. C. men. So far as good 
 basketball is concerned, the experiment was a success, but, in other 
 respects, the project was attended by disappointment and disap- 
 proval from every quarter. Objectionable practices among the 
 players, influences destructive of high standards of scholarship as 
 well as of high ethical ideals, disruption of the whole academic pro- 
 gram, roused excessive criticism among the student body, not to 
 speak of opposition from the constituency. 
 
 The consequence of this experiment was a clarification in the 
 thinking of all concerning the advantages of a strictly intra-mural 
 program for the small denominational school. The way was 
 cleared for the formulation of a policy which is held today by 
 many schools, small and large. To inaugurate properly this pol- 
 icy, President Burritt engaged a full time director of physical edu- 
 cation, a man unusually well qualified for the place, broadly trained, 
 original in ideas and methods, and admirable in character. Wal- 
 ter Leon Scott became, not only the inaugurator of Greenville's 
 intra-mural program, but the beau ideal for every Greenville ath- 
 lete, and the influence which he exerted over young men during 
 his three years appointment was incalculable. 
 
 From the outset Scott offered no apologies for a physical edu- 
 cation program that was unconventional; in fact, he emphasized 
 the uniqueness of Greenville's policy, pointing out that under the 
 intercollegiate competitive system the few already possessing native 
 athletic ability receive over-training and unwholesome notoriety, 
 while the many in need of physical development receive little or 
 no attention. "We are glad to say," he announced, "that this is 
 not the case at Greenville." 
 
 Within a short time he had made a place for every student on 
 the campus in some sport. Over one hundred players came 
 out for basketball, necessitating the scheduling of both a major 
 and minor league series. Soccer, introduced by the British ath- 
 letes, rapidly became recognized as the favorite fall sport and en- 
 gaged the best talent in each class. The spring track meet was 
 
236 
 
 'STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY" 
 
 the occasion of a gala day, when at least one hundred and fifty par- 
 ticipated in events, and the whole school turned out for the spec- 
 tacle. Large and frequent classes in calisthenics supplemented 
 the seasonal sports. Hygienic and corrective gymnastics received 
 
 attention. Theory courses in 
 tennis, track, basketball, and 
 baseball drew large registrations. 
 The tennis classes, for instance, 
 had a registration of 85 in the 
 fall of '21. Off-campus reg- 
 istrants, in addition to regular 
 students, enrolled in the classes 
 in Scout leadership and first aid. 
 After a three years trial of 
 this policy Professor Scott sur- 
 t - ., veyed the results and described 
 
 them as follows: 
 
 "Our system of athletics in 
 Greenville College is unique; 
 we do not permit intercollegiate 
 contests. It is not implied that 
 we do not have contests; we do. 
 Our system is very similar to that 
 reactionary program as outlined 
 by Yale's famous coach, Walter 
 Camp. .Our athletics are all intra-mural and mostly inter-class; the 
 system has proved highly successful, and many athletes of excep- 
 tional ability are enrolled in the school. 
 
 "We aim to give every student all needed encouragement to par- 
 ticipate in classes and contests; native athletic ability is waived as 
 a prerequisite in our program. Students with very little natural 
 ability thus have an equal chance with the stars, and, needless to 
 say, receive wonderful physical development. Practical health 
 talks are given and corrective gymnastics are prescribed in the 
 interests of individual health. We aim to equip the body as a 
 servant of the mind ... to develop the individual symmetrically 
 for health and physical efficiency, so that the physical shell is sub- 
 ordinated to the mental self. 
 
 WALTER L. SCOTT 
 
MASTER BUILDER 237 
 
 "We aim to furnish ample opportunity where all students may 
 receive adequate technical training for leadership as teachers in 
 our public and private schools or as general community welfare 
 workers. We aim to interest every student in some form of exer- 
 cise or athletic activity, so that he will have a health building and 
 health retaining body for later life. While our athletic program 
 aims at physical efficiency, we are not unmindful of the moral, the 
 mental and the social self of each individual. We try to turn out 
 capable, symmetrically developed, four-square, women and men. 
 These classes include rhythmic calisthenics and military marching 
 as part of the programs. One hundred and five students have 
 taken work in these classes this year . . . Competitive inter-class 
 tournaments are held each year in tennis, basketball, baseball and 
 handball. A track and field meet is also held each year. Two 
 hundred men and seventy women participated in these tourna- 
 ments last year. Volleyball, indoor baseball and cage ball are the 
 most popular minor sports. Public gym exhibitions and public 
 games are staged periodically." 
 
 It was a matter of deep regret with President Burritt and all who 
 had observed the phenomenal success of Professor Scott's program 
 that funds allotted for the operation of the physical education de- 
 partment had to be curtailed in 1924. Professor Scott would 
 gladly have continued his services for the same small stipend he 
 was receiving; but a full time instructorship in physical education 
 seemed too great a luxury for the small college, and so again a 
 director was sought who could earn part of his salary elsewhere. 
 One cannot help but question the actual economy of such a meas- 
 ure, after surveying the results of this unusual experiment in intra- 
 mural athletics. 
 
 Warren Chase, the successor of Scott, working against these odds, 
 succeeded well in carrying on the program instituted. So, also, 
 Clarence Nystrom, who followed Chase; and the policy which had 
 been evolved became traditional and found expression in the 
 slogan still used today, "Sports for all within the walls." 
 
 Another department which underwent some radical changes 
 during the last years of President Burritt's administration was the 
 school of theology. This was reorganized as the Bible Training 
 School in the fall of 1922, and the following announcement was 
 
238 
 
 STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY" 
 
 made: "In the charter of the college the legislature of the state of 
 Illinois specifically authorizes Greenville College to conduct a 
 School of Theology, and to confer the degree of B. D. This de- 
 gree has never as yet been conferred by her . . . However, the time 
 
 has come when it seems advisable 
 to offer a more complete and thor- 
 ough theological course than has 
 been attempted in the past. The 
 Free Methodist church ought to 
 have one institution where her pro- 
 spective ministers can receive as 
 thorough and scholarly a training 
 as is provided in the theological 
 seminaries of other denominations." 
 Accordingly a faculty of five were 
 appointed, and a three year course 
 in thology was planned to follow 
 the completion of two years of 
 liberal arts work. Plans were also 
 made for a two year course leading 
 to the degree of B. D. after gradua- 
 tion from college. The members 
 of this faculty were Benjamin L. 
 Olmstead, dean; John LaDue, El- 
 don Grant Burritt, Carrie T. Burritt, and William T. Easley, 
 M. D. The plan met with an appreciative response from 
 many wishing fuller preparation for Christian service. Each year 
 brough several registrations by post-graduates, although it was 
 some time before the degree of B. D. was given. 
 
 Another measure which brought Greenville into further and 
 more direct service to the church was the inauguration of the Min- 
 isters Conference of Greenville College in 1926. President Burritt 
 issued that fall to the ministers in the territory adjoining the col- 
 lege an invitation to a ten days' retreat for "a study of the Bible 
 and sermonic prparation." Thirty-five responded, and thus was 
 instituted a denominational service which now benefits a group 
 numbering about two hundred. 
 
 With prospects bright for an ever enlarging contribution by 
 
 B. L. OLMSTEAD 
 
MASTER BUILDER 
 
 239 
 
 the college to Christian work, it was a matter of deep distress to all 
 
 who had been associated with Greenville to discover that the senior 
 
 member of the Biblical Training School was rapidly failing in 
 
 health. "The Rabbi," as he was familiarly known among students, 
 
 the beloved chaplain, Professor LaDue, 
 
 was approaching the end of his service. 
 
 In the winter of 1923 it had been the 
 
 happy privilege of his many friends and 
 
 student admirers to send him on a trip 
 
 to the Holy Land. Everyone had felt, 
 
 as President Burritt said, "that such a 
 
 trip was due him for his long continued 
 
 and faithful classroom service, and that 
 
 the rest and recuperation would bring 
 
 added strength and inspiration to him 
 
 as a teacher and preacher." Twelve 
 
 hundred dollars was collected from one 
 
 hundred individuals for his assistance. 
 
 For almost six months he lived among 
 those Oriental scenes which he had so 
 often imaginatively created from his 
 
 vast store of reading for eager student listeners. He returned re- 
 freshed and ready to share his experiences with the friends who had 
 made possible the voyage. But his strength was disappointingly 
 limited, and within two years he suffered a slight paralytic stroke. 
 
 In the fall of 1925 he was temporarily released from his duties 
 at Greenville for a winter's leave of absence in California. From 
 November to March he did some teaching at Los Angeles Pacific 
 Junior College, then came back to Greenville for the spring term. 
 In June he preached an unforgetable Baccalaureate sermon. But 
 his days were numbered, and in October, after spending a few 
 weeks more on the campus which he loved as perhaps no other 
 man has ever loved it, he left for the last time, hoping to find 
 health once more in the West. 
 
 Upon the day of his departure students through their represent- 
 ative, Helen Watkins, president of the student association, pre- 
 sented him with a purse of fifty dollars, and President Burritt 
 spoke some heartfelt words, addressing especially the incoming 
 
 The Rabbi and Prexy 
 
240 "STILL ABIDES THE MEMORY" 
 
 new students, who would never have the privilege that older stu- 
 dents had enjoyed, and concluded with the declaration, "I want 
 you to know that no ordinary man is leaving our campus today." 
 When the train pulled out from the Pennsylvania station that 
 afternoon, every member of the Greenville faculty and student 
 body was there to wave farewell and sing, "God be with you till 
 we meet again." 
 
 That was the first sad event in a year full of sad events. It was 
 little more than a week after that until students were standing be- 
 side the grave of their cherished friend and former dean of men, 
 Leroy Brown. Typhoid fever caught the whole town of Green- 
 ville in an epidemic that fall, and among others who lay at death's 
 door for davs was Professor Holtwick. 
 
 Then when he was about again, and students had cheered his 
 return to chapel with thundering applause, and he had responded 
 in his characteristic manner by a comparison of his legs to pipe 
 stems, his neck to a "peanut rattling in its hull," and his increas- 
 ingly bald head to "the smooth round of a billiard ball," another 
 disaster fell. President Burritt became so ill that he had to seek 
 counsel from th^ Mayos at Rochester. The Vista reported that 
 he had "put his entire energy into a special effort to push the 
 endowment campaign over the goal before Christmas, and this, 
 added to his other work, so taxed his energy that a rest and vaca- 
 tion were necessary." Professor Holtwick took the helm during 
 his absence. A few weeks later, when a return of the malady made 
 it imperative that President Burritt seek a leisurely convalescence 
 in the West, Professor B. H. Gaddis came as office manager, com- 
 petently directing affairs until the return of the Burritts. 
 
 At Eastertime, when the president resumed his duties, the fu- 
 ture again seemed bright. The endowment campaign, as we have 
 seen, was moving on toward a finish. One of the best years of 
 the institution, so far as registration and student cooperation are 
 concerned, was in progress. Satisfaction in personal attainment 
 was his also, for the highest honor accorded college executives in 
 the state had come to him in his election to the presidency of the 
 Illinois federation of colleges for the year 1926-27. 
 
 He entered vigorously into the duties of the last term, bringing 
 the endowment campaign to its close, arranging for a summer 
 
MASTER BUILDER 241 
 
 school session that he hoped would eclipse the original one, insti- 
 tuted the previous year with a registration of over a hundred. 
 Energy was his until the Commencement season was over. He was 
 able then to proceed to the quadrennial conference of the church, 
 which was held at Rochester, New York. But before many days 
 he became very ill and was taken to Clifton Springs Sanitarium for 
 treatment. A paralytic stroke followed; yet even after that his 
 resolute spirit asserted itself and declared for recovery. 
 
 On August 26, 1927, this friend and lover of youth passed on, 
 handing back to them the torch which he had carried so high, so 
 fearlessly. The student who wrote the following lines was not 
 the only one who caught the message which President Burritt 
 left to Greenville men and women. 
 
 Builder of Souls and Intellects! He falls — 
 
 But not among the ruins of his dream: 
 For growing shades of academic walls 
 
 Will hold the memory of a life supreme. 
 Master Builder and Lover and Molder of Youth! 
 
 With faith in youth and noble womanhood, 
 By prayer he chiseled out the steps to truth, 
 
 Making molehills where the mountains stood. 
 Builder of men! Serene, he did not fold 
 
 His hands and wait. But year by year he laid 
 The corner-stones of mansions manifold, 
 
 And patched their broken stairways, unafraid. 
 "Greenville," he says, "Greenville, carry on — 
 
 My work is done — yours, just begun." 
 
 — Paul H. Oesher. 
 
"SPEED IT ONWARD" 
 
LESLIE RAY MARSTON 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 CURRICULUM PLANNING 
 
 Among those Greenville men and women who caught the final 
 message of President Burritt and knew that their "work had just 
 begun" was one who had entered upon a professional career of 
 national scope and importance. 
 
 Leslie Ray Marston had left his position as dean of Greenville 
 College in the spring of 1926 under an appointment by the Nation- 
 al Research Council. A new office in the National Council had 
 been created by the Committee on Child Development, and a man 
 possessing unusually diversified abilities was sought. He must be 
 a'ie to coordinate child development research among the var- 
 ious scientists and research centers. He must travel from center 
 to center for the purpose of evaluating projects for the Committee, 
 acquainting one center with activities in others, and in a general 
 way overseeing the entire program of the Committee. He must 
 carry on extensive personnel work incident to the selection of 
 forty or fifty appointees to fellowships in child research from a 
 large group of university candidates. He must publish, after a 
 survey of research activities in the United States and Canada, a 
 Directory of Researcli in Child Development. He must also com- 
 pile and edit a series of Child Development Abstracts. 
 
 This was the four year project under a Rockefeller grant to 
 which Dr. Marston was called in 1926. He had accepted the po- 
 sition against the advice of most of his friends, who considered 
 this move as tantamount to his final loss to Christian education. 
 But there was one exception among his counselors: President 
 Burritt, whom he personally admired, and whose judgment he 
 respected, advised the acceptance of the appointment and en- 
 couraged him throughout the venture. He made it possible for 
 Dr. Marston to leave at once and direct at a distance the work in 
 the registrar's office for the remaining months of the school year. 
 
 The circumstances attending the offer of the position and the 
 acceptance of it by Dr. Marston give moving insight into the 
 
246 ''SPEED IT ONWARD" 
 
 motives which have governed all of his relations to the cause of 
 Christian education. Prior to his appointment in the fall of 1920 
 to the place of college registrar he had been the fellow from the 
 class of 1916 at the University of Illinois, receiving the degree of 
 Master of Arts in 1917, and completing another year's study in 
 1919-20, after a sixteen month's interval spent in World War 
 service. His doctorate in child psychology was completed at 
 the University of Iowa in 1925, following several summers of study 
 and one semester on leave from Greenville. 
 
 His doctoral dissertation, The Emotions of Young Children, 
 proved so basic a contribution in the field of child psychology that 
 it rapidly gained wide recognition. In fact, according to the re- 
 port of a psychologist recently visiting the Greenville campus, it 
 is currently quoted, even after these sixteen years. At the Uni- 
 versity of Iowa he was looked upon as a coming leader in the 
 field of child psychology, and in the summer after he received his 
 doctorate he was invited back to teach during the season. He 
 was then asked to transfer permanently to the university. His 
 refusal of the offer was not accepted as final, for a little later a 
 proposal was made that an assistant professorship which was then 
 open be temporarily filled for the immediate year, and be assigned 
 to him one year later. The invitation was urgent, calling his at- 
 tention to the unusual opportunity the position offered for work- 
 ing out some basic problems for himself as well as for gaining ad- 
 vancement in a rapidly growing field. 
 
 The salary proposed with this offer was $3500. At the time 
 Dean Marston was receiving less than half this amount at Green- 
 ville; yet he declined, replying that for the present, at least, duty 
 called in another direction. So fixed was he in his determination 
 to devote himself to the future of Greenville College that when 
 another letter came, this time offering him the new office created 
 by the National Research Council, he gave it for a time only pass- 
 ing interest. 
 
 Then, by a strange providence, he was led to pray about the mat- 
 ter, and so strongly was he impressed with the possibilities of the 
 position for training for larger service in Christian education that 
 he could do no less than permit the Committee on Child Devel- 
 opment to consider his appointment. He did this, however, only 
 
CURRICULUM PLANNING 247 
 
 after a private interview with the chairman for the purpose of 
 making clear to him that, should he receive the appointment, he 
 would not permanently break his connections with Christian ed- 
 ucation for a scientific career, but would probably return sooner 
 or later to Greenville. The chairman replied that he had expected 
 nothing else. 
 
 Such was the background for Dr. Marston's invitation back to 
 Greenville in the fall of 1927. During this period in Washington 
 he had carried on the extensive national program which had been 
 assigned to him, and had also seen a child research center estab- 
 lished in Washington under a generous Rockefeller grant. The 
 organization of this center had been effected by an executive com- 
 mittee of which he was chairman, and which was composed of 
 representatives of several government departments, universities 
 and national organizations. He served also on other national 
 groups, such as the National Nursery School Committee, and the 
 White House Conference on Child Health and Protection. 
 
 Upon September 6, 1927, the board of trustees met and voted 
 to extend to this distinguished alumnus an invitation to leave his 
 brilliant career and return to his humble Alma Mater as its chief 
 executive. They were not aware that an acceptance of this in- 
 vitation meant, not only a resignation from his Washington post, 
 but a renunciation, also, of a place just opened to him on the 
 faculty of Columbia University. When, after ten days, Dr. Mars- 
 ton gave his decision, he had closed the door upon untold oppor- 
 tunities for secular achievement, and had chosen irrevocably a 
 life of Christian service. 
 
 He would have been the last, however, to describe this choice 
 as an act of self-abnegation. In this point of view he was supported 
 by his wife, Lila Thompson Marston, an alumna of Greenville 
 College, who was wholly committed to its program. Like most 
 of the men and women who have been associated with the history 
 of Almira and Greenville, they placed complete faith in spiritual 
 values, and they knew that the way of life which they were choosing 
 would bring the fullest self-realization. 
 
 Undoubtedly Dr. Marston's scientific approach to the whole sub- 
 ject of Christian education, and, furthermore, his personal neces- 
 sity for thinking definitively in making a life choice were determin- 
 
248 
 
 "SPEED IT ONWARD' 
 
 ing factors in some of the major contributions which he was able 
 to make to Greenville College. One of these contributions 
 relates to his work as a class room teacher. He had a mes- 
 sage for his students. No one ever finished a course with him, 
 
 whether in psychology, educa- 
 tion, or philosophy, without 
 carrying away a strong sense 
 of necessity for personality in- 
 tegration — integration which 
 is Christo-centric. The course 
 was, perhaps, in ethics; or per- 
 haps it was a large lecture class 
 :-i5 " v ■ ■"",_ u ^P* H in mental hygiene, or a semin- 
 
 ar in child psychology, but al- 
 ways his emphasis was upon the 
 sort of self-analysis which re- 
 sults in self-knowledge and 
 power for living. 
 
 Two publications now em- 
 body the fruit of this class 
 room experience: Erom Chaos 
 to Character, an analysis of a 
 pattern of life which he says 
 "evolved as I attempted to 
 LILA THOMPSON MARSTON reduce to or dliness the chaotic 
 tangle of competing impulses and wobbling standards of post- 
 war youth"; and Youth Speaks, a study of factors which re- 
 tard Christian development among young people, as revealed 
 by a series of anonymous autobiographical sketches made by 
 his students over a period of eight years, as they attempted to 
 evaluate their adolescent emotional experiences. His mission as 
 moulder of sound Christian personality among youth has become 
 evident to all acquainted with his work as teacher, writer and 
 preacher. 
 
 From the administrative angle, one of his great accomplishments 
 was the denning of the function of Greenville College. The con- 
 ception of the place which the educational pattern that had been 
 evolving at Greenville occupies among modern educational pat- 
 
CURRICULUM PLANNING 249 
 
 terns had not been clearly apprehended. Under the leadership 
 of Dr. Marston the work of definition was accomplished by a var- 
 iety of measures. As a result the college was brought to the at- 
 tention of the educational world and to a greatly expanded con- 
 stituency. 
 
 During the first semester following his acceptance of the presi- 
 dency, Dr. Marston had had to complete his term of office with 
 the National Research Council and had divided his time be- 
 tween Washington and Greenville. But once free to study the 
 situation, he very properly made it his first business to formulate 
 a philosophy of education which should govern his future pro- 
 cedure; and by April he was prepared to expound it in one of the 
 most timely addresses ever presented to a Greenville audience. 
 The day of his inauguration, April 20, 1928, was the occasion 
 which he chose for it. 
 
 He adopted as his theme "The Christian Ideal in Education" 
 and announced that "from this ideal the governing policies of the 
 institution would take their form." After surveying the implica- 
 tions for education at the dawn of Christianity in Christ's message 
 concerning the worth of human personality and the love of a per- 
 sonal God, he reviewed the aims of education currently accepted 
 in the twentieth century. At the conclusion of his survey, he dis- 
 covered "that what is needed is perhaps not so much another aim 
 as an ideal or conception of life which recognizes the worth of 
 these many aims, but places them in their proper perspective and 
 relationship; which includes the scope of life in one comprehensive 
 view, revealing the essential unity of human experience." 
 
 Such a conception of life, properly coordinating and integrat- 
 ing "all of life's lesser aims and interests", and providing for "the 
 expansion and projection necessary to progress", can be found alone, 
 he declared, in "the Christian ideal as taught by the founder of 
 Christianity, — a supreme love for God the Father, from which 
 flows a universal love for man as brother." 
 
 From this Christian ideal he then drew certain guiding prin- 
 ciples for the Christian college; 
 
 1. "Since all experience educates", and since the public school, 
 of necessity, cannot offer the full round of experience, the Chris- 
 
250 "SPEED IT ONWARD" 
 
 tian college is an agency for broadening education beyond that 
 provided through governmental means. 
 
 2. The Christian college opposes all anti-intellectualism in its 
 recognition of "the central position of education both in the re- 
 ligious life of the individual and in the program of the Kingdom." 
 
 3. The Christian college, opposed to such education as produces 
 only surface changes, holds that true education "is essentially a 
 change of heart, which, through adjustment with God," brings 
 the individual into "coordination with all human institutions and 
 interests". 
 
 4. Since Christian education proposes "a unique product, Chris- 
 tian character, it follows that the materials and methods of such 
 education are likewise unique. Both subject matter and technic" 
 must be determined by the goal of Christian education. 
 
 5. "The Christian college regards all worthy objectives of ed- 
 ucation, such as complete living, social efficiency, appreciation of 
 life's values" as "means to the supreme value — adjustment with 
 God." 
 
 6. The Christian college is not a professional or vocational 
 school. "Its task is rather the training of lawyers, merchants, 
 doctors, teachers, ministers, and missionaries to live." 
 
 7. "Similarly, the Christian teacher's task is not to train . . . 
 specialists in any line but living. Fundamentally life is a unity, 
 and in the last analysis subject matter (human experience) is one." 
 Each teacher, hence, should contribute to this unified experience 
 of life. 
 
 8. In this program, extracurricular activities are "a vital and 
 integral part," not "distractions and necessary evils." "Held in 
 proper relationship to other aims and functions of the college", 
 they become "the means of education to the end of Christian char- 
 acter and world citizenship." 
 
 Concluding with the declaration that "the Christian college is 
 not a cloistered retreat from the problems of a changing world," 
 nor "the last feeble stand of a dying orthodoxy," but rather "a 
 foremost experiment on the frontier of educational advance," Dr. 
 Marston pledged his allegiance to the Christian ideal in education 
 and his energies "to the expression of that ideal through Green- 
 ville College." 
 
CURRICULUM PLANNING 251 
 
 During the following year the work of denning the Greenville 
 ideal continued. Ten aspects of this ideal were selected for em- 
 phasis, and in April of 1929 the Greenville College Quarterly, a 
 new periodical issued by President Marston for the discussion of 
 problems relevant to the Christian college, contributed a series 
 of little essays written by Greenville alumni upon these subjects. 
 Taken together they constitute a symposium upon the values 
 which may be "means to the supreme value" of adjustment to God. 
 The values enumerated were: abundant health, social grace, aes- 
 thetic appreciation, reverent scholarship, comprehensive interests, 
 purposeful choices, enduring loyalties, dynamic spirituality, con- 
 secrated service, world citizenship. 
 
 During the same year a curriculum study was begun which was 
 designed to bring the curriculum into complete accord with these 
 objectives and with the newly defined philosophy of education. A 
 report of this project appearing in the April issue of the Quarterly 
 opened with the following paragraph: "A faculty committee has 
 been engaged this year on a curriculum project which is attracting 
 wide interest. Favorable comments have come from educators of 
 national reputation in several leading institutions. The interest 
 in the project led to President Marston's call to New Orleans in 
 April to speak before the Education Section of the American Asso- 
 ciation of University Women and to lead a discussion of recent 
 changes in college curricula." 
 
 An outline of the project as presented to the A.A.U.W. followed. 
 The purpose of the project was "to unify the curriculum by center- 
 ing it in the development of the human organism." The basis for 
 a change in the curriculum was derived from current educational 
 trends. President Marston called attention to the shift of em- 
 phasis in general education from the materials constituting the 
 curriculum to the individual being educated thereby, and men- 
 tioned three areas where change was taking place, namely, on the 
 preschool level, on the elementary and secondary school level, and 
 at the post-school level. On the college level he saw the begin- 
 ning of a like movement which had been described as "the discovery 
 of the individual student as the heart of the college problem." 
 
 This movement he analyzed as a counter-swing from the extreme 
 departmentalization and specialization which had characterized 
 

 ^glN^V 
 
 
 
 «kt 
 
 •> 
 
CURRICULUM PLANNING 253 
 
 the college curriculum in the past. He granted that professional 
 schools must necessarily continue to stress materials of instruc- 
 tion rather than the individual instructed, but he insisted that 
 the liberal arts college connot remain liberal unless it makes the 
 student, as a developing human organism, the focus for all the 
 courses offered. Neither can these courses be taught by instruc- 
 tors "meticulously trained in the intricate obscurities of frontier 
 problems remotely related to normal life, forcing the liberal arts 
 college to the university pattern in training mathematicians, bi- 
 ologists, historians, linguists — in fact, specialists in every line but 
 living." 
 
 This developmental approach to college education led him to 
 the conclusion that "the curriculum is not closed and finished, 
 once for all delivered to the pedagogues, but, as racial experience, 
 it has become, and, in terms of developing individual experience, 
 it is continuously becoming." The task then, as he conceived it, 
 was "to relate the individual to the widest possible context of his 
 developing experience." In the accomplishment of this task, the 
 first step, he believed, was a changed point of view, which should 
 be adopted by the entire faculty, and should be expressed in a 
 vitalizing and humanizing of the content of their courses. 
 
 A further step involved significant formal changes in the curricula 
 for the purpose of applying the new philosophy of curriculum 
 building. Courses in education or sociology, for instance, already 
 contained explicit emphasis; others, such as biology or ethics, were 
 readily adaptable. The concept he found less applicable to such 
 courses as pure mathematics or ancient languages. However, a 
 faculty group was organized to study the application of the concept 
 to all college subjects and, in time, to extend the project to all 
 departments. 
 
 During President Marston's administration this work of survey- 
 ing and reorganizing the curriculum went steadily forward. The 
 new point of view was enthusiastically adopted by the faculty; 
 definite advancement was made in departmental cooperation and 
 correlation; and various changes in the different fields were effected 
 for focalizing the total program in the individual student. 
 
 In the meantime the problem was approached from still an- 
 other angle. The contributions which Greenville College had 
 
254 "SPEED IT ONWARD" 
 
 made and was making to the cause of education were surveyed 
 and evaluated in two very significant theses written by alumni 
 who were pursuing graduate study at this time. The first, A His- 
 tory of Greenville College with Special Reference to the Curric- 
 ulum, was presented in 1934 by Donald G. Miller, '30, as a part of 
 his requirement in qualifying for the degree of Master of Arts at 
 New York University. This thorough analysis of the changes in 
 curriculum and student activities over a period of forty-two years 
 gave background and support to the project which was under way. 
 
 Dr. Miller found that Greenville from the very beginning has 
 held a pattern, "distinct and well-defined," yet not fixed and static." 
 This pattern has proposed "the development of individuality" 
 yet has endeavored also "to counteract a rash and imprudent in- 
 dividualism which wastes itself in a chaotic . . . jumble of conflicting 
 life interests." An integrating principle for these interests has 
 been steadily kept in view in the emphasis upon the Christian re- 
 ligion as "the one all-inclusive interest." 
 
 He found further that a new curriculum organization had be- 
 gun in 1921-22, when t)r. Marston became dean of the college, and 
 that "the shift from subject matter to the student as a center of 
 interest" had been inaugurated at that time. "Education from 
 then on at Greenville College," he stated, "was not mastery of sub- 
 ject matter, but the fullest possible development of well-rounded 
 personalities, equipped to function adequately in their place in 
 society." 
 
 Because of its adherence to a pattern in which personality in- 
 tegration was the explicit goal, Greenville, he concluded, has be- 
 come a unique institution, performing a significant function in 
 giving a "high type of liberal academic training in an atmosphere 
 permeated with the leavening influences of the Christian religion," 
 and, furthermore, "in giving not only knowledge and learning, 
 but in helping the student discover how to translate properly his 
 fund of learning into life." Dr. Miller emphasized in conclusion 
 the adequacy of the Greenville pattern for accomplishing this 
 translation of learning into living. This, he declared, is the reason 
 for the existence of Greenville. 
 
 A further study of the Greenville pattern was made by Mrs. Lois 
 Wood- Woods in 1936 and was presented to the Winona Lake 
 
CURRICULUM PLANNING 255 
 
 School of Theology in meeting their requirements for the degree 
 of Master of Arts. Her thesis, entitled A Survey and Evaluation 
 of a Program of Christian Education, focused particularly about 
 Greenville objectives and the degree of their effectiveness as shown 
 by a study of alumni. 
 
 Her surveys re-emphasized Dr. Miller's conclusion that through 
 the years a clear-cut, distinctive educational pattern had been ad- 
 hered to. She found that the statement by President Hogue in 
 the first annual register comprehended the nucleus of the intel- 
 lectual and spiritual ideals "that have ever distinguished Green- 
 ville College." A slight modification of this statement had come 
 after fifteen years in an emphasis upon the fact that the college, 
 although denominational in auspices, was non-sectarian in spirit. 
 A further modification after ten more years was made, simply to 
 emphasize the growing interest in the student largely dependent 
 upon his own resources. 
 
 The modification of Hogue's original statement in 1921-22, 
 which shifted emphasis from subject matter to the individual stu- 
 dent, was interpreted by Mrs. Woods as "the germ of the idea" 
 that had now become under President Marston "the distinctive 
 contribution of Greenville to a new point of view in curriculum 
 making." These theses together make clear the evolution through 
 forty years, and more, of a consistent educational ideal. 
 
 The further objective in Mrs. Woods' research involved an eval- 
 uation of this pattern in terms of its product, the alumni. Ex- 
 tensive surveys brought several significant conclusions. In the 
 first place it was found that close to thirty percent of the alumni 
 in 1935 were engaged in some form of Christian service, a service 
 that compassed the globe. Forty percent were engaged in the 
 teaching profession, and a remarkably large section of this vo- 
 cational group were doing college and university teaching, twelve 
 percent of the total number of alumni, to be exact. About eight 
 percent had gone into the technical professions, such as engineer- 
 ing, medicine, law, etc., and about half that into business. 
 
 The record of graduate study proved "equally as interesting" 
 as the survey of professional distribution. In 1935 about thirty 
 percent of Greenville's graduates had received one or more degrees 
 following their baccalaureate, making the ratio of graduate to 
 
256 
 
 "SPEED IT ONWARD' 
 
 baccalaureate degrees 1 to 33, whereas the ratio throughout the 
 United States is 1 to 6.7. Statements voluntarily given in the 
 survey concerning benefits received from Greenville centered a- 
 
 l'SKS3«H(»SII** < «W88 
 
 
 TOP — Eighteen men from eighteen states: Turner, Kline, Robinson, 
 Iulg, Lamson, Smith, Chamness, Krantz, Bradford, LaQuay, Wesley, 
 Krober, Peebles, Miller, Hill, Knaak, Jolley, Green. 
 BOTTOM — Fifteen women from fifteen sattes: Brown Joy, Wade, 
 Tenney, Hill, Malone, VanValin, Head, Gillespie, Sportsman, Chandler, 
 Sides, Kelly, Hill Morrison. 
 
 round three foci: (1) change in personality traits; (2) liberal- 
 izing of the mind; (3) spiritual development and Christian serv- 
 ice. The first two received approximately equal emphasis, and 
 the last was the most stressed. Concerning the changing of per- 
 sonality traits, such comments as the following were representa- 
 tive: from a farmer: "greater perseverance"; from a college pro- 
 fessor: "social adjustments"; from a homemaker: "loss of an infer- 
 
CURRICULUM PLANNING 257 
 
 iority complex"; from a missionary: "cooperation and adaptabil- 
 ity"; from a business executive: "initiative and confidence in one's 
 self." 
 
 The degree of intellectual liberalization acknowledged counts, 
 also, on the side of sound personality development. Such responses 
 as the following are significant: from a plant pathologist: "began 
 independent thinking at Greenville"; from a professor of history: 
 "urge for further study"; from a minister: "broader sympathy with 
 interests not purely religious"; from a salesman: "broadening of 
 my views"; from a teacher: "removal of race prejudice".. 
 
 The reports upon changes in spiritual outlook stress conversion, 
 establishement in Christian living, deepening of devotion to the 
 church, broadening of human understanding and spiritual vision, 
 and strengthening of faith. 
 
 Dr. Miller's thesis had shown that a policy had been evolved at 
 Greenville "which integrated all campus activities in a total pro- 
 gram, every phase of which had educational significance", and 
 further that "a superior Christian environment" had been created 
 by which the whole experience of the student was directed "toward 
 the realization of the goal of Christian character." The results 
 of Mrs. Woods' survey proved that the final objectives proposed 
 by this program were "actually realized in the lives of alumni." 
 The second study thus strengthened the conclusions of the first, 
 that Greenville had a justification for its existence not only in its 
 philosophy of education but also in the measurable results at- 
 tending the practice of that philosophy. 
 
 The efforts made during President Marston's administration to 
 define the function of Greenville College and to relate its pro- 
 gram to current educational trends were bound to bear fruit. Al- 
 most immediately came the attainment of a new rating with the 
 University of Illinois. For ten years the fellowship award to the 
 highest ranking Seniors had been withdrawn. Early in 1930 this 
 was renewed, and the rating of the college was lifted from a basic 
 "C", with qualified "B" privileges, to a basic "B" with qualified 
 "A" privileges. 
 
 The following announcement was made at that time: "Under 
 the new rating Greenville students will transfer to the University 
 of Illinois (and likewise practically to all other universities) with 
 
258 "SPEED IT ONWARD" 
 
 substantially full credit, hour for hour, up to thirty credits a year, 
 and recommended graduates will be admitted to graduate schools 
 with no limitations on the full Class A basis. The university, 
 furthermore, will admit to the graduate school graduates who are 
 not especially recommended with an initial differential, which is 
 subject to reduction by excellent work at the university." 
 
 This classification, placing Greenville close to the full "A" stand- 
 ard, marked a distinct advance and lifted the college officially "to 
 a very desirable academic position among the smaller colleges of 
 the state." 
 
 The advancement of Greenville to a place of significance was 
 recognized in the fall of 1930 by an invitation extended to Pres- 
 ident Marston to speak before the State High School Conference 
 at the University of Illinois upon the subject, "The Shifting Em- 
 phasis in Education." One of the greatest services rendered by 
 President Marston to Greenville College was the securing of in- 
 creased recognition by the educational world. A tangible man- 
 ifestation of this benefit came in the improved relationship between 
 the school of education and the state department of instruction. 
 From a position of yearly renewal of accreditation the school was 
 raised to full and unqualified recognition. 
 
 Another consequence of President Marston's work was an ex- 
 pansion of the general constituency. This fact was noted in the 
 January issue of the 1930 Quarterly: 
 
 With the increased resources resulting from the growing endow- 
 ment and the Greater Greenville program, with increased depart- 
 mental and library faculties and improved instructional equipment 
 being added as rapidly as funds permit, with varied professional 
 provisions of the curriculum, with a faculty of increasingly high 
 certification, and with the increased rating just achieved, Greenville 
 College is in a position to serve the cause of Christian education 
 as never before. 
 
 The projects which were enumerated in this announcement were 
 all under way. Preprofessional work had been greatly strength- 
 ened in the fields of medicine, law, engineering and commerce. 
 Many members of the staff were engaged in advanced study and 
 additions to the faculty were made from those holding the doctor- 
 ate. 
 
 Improvement in instructional equipment had been progressing 
 
CURRICULUM PLANNING 259 
 
 steadily. In January ,1929, the following changes were noted: new 
 laboratories of biology and chemistry, an enlarged physics lab- 
 oratory, an enlarged and improved library, equipment for en- 
 gineering-drawing and surveying, reconditioned and redecorated 
 classrooms, and refurnished lecture rooms. Radical changes took 
 place in the laboratories, and instruction was brought to a high 
 level under the departmental supervision of Professors Long, More- 
 land and Timbers. A trained librarian took charge of a greatly 
 expanded library. 
 
 Many of the improvements in the physical plant at this time 
 were made possible by a generous gift from Mr. and Mrs. Charles 
 W. Peterson. Other like projects undertaken by alumni chapters 
 brought a new sense of solidarity to Greenville supporters. From 
 the Cincinnati chapter, for example, came the money for con- 
 structing the new north entrance to Old Main and for recondition- 
 ing the central lobby of the same building. During President 
 Marston's administration new chapters were organized to form a 
 network of loyal friends from coast to coast. 
 
 The responsibilities of the alumni secretaryship increased cor- 
 respondingly. For five years Professor B. H. Gaddis competently 
 carried forward this work along with his duties as vice-president. 
 In 1932 Mrs. Woods was appointed, and for years, with little or 
 no remuneration, she has conducted an alumni program which in 
 many schools would engage a full time director. Her devotion 
 to this task has displayed that rarely seen trait of pure disinterest- 
 edness. 
 
 One of the projects committed largely to her supervision was the 
 making of the first Alumni Directory, published in January, 1930. 
 She has since collected material for two more directories, the last 
 of /which, soon to go to press, includes the names of all former 
 students. 
 
JOHN LA DUE 
 
IN DEDICATION 
 
 Mid-afternoon in early spring. The sun 
 
 Pours languorous warmth through windows open wide. 
 
 Like pictures in a frame seem glimpses caught, 
 
 As one looks out of doors, forgetting for 
 
 The time the speaker's voice. Across the way 
 
 A peach tree flushes pink against an old 
 
 Gray barn. Another frame sets off a corner 
 
 Of Old Main, rugged and ivy-hung. 
 
 The shapely forms of ancient elms stand half revealed 
 
 Amid a drapery of palest green. 
 
 With quickening of senses one comes back 
 
 To listen once again. The subject is 
 
 The sacrifice of Abraham. One sees 
 
 In vivid panorama pass the anguished 
 
 Father leading up his trusting son. 
 
 It seems a story never heard before. 
 
 Old Abraham becomes a man like us, 
 
 A man who felt the thrill of springtime joy, 
 
 A man who might have known of springtime love, 
 
 And yet a man who knew far more than we 
 
 The hidden mysteries of life and death. 
 
 The spell of sense delight, so keen a moment past, 
 
 Is lost in something greater still, 
 
 A surge of longing for the Infinite, 
 
 A humble willingness to give one's all, 
 
 If only one might know true faith in Gcd. 
 
 With quiet voice he tells us of the time 
 
 When like the patriarch he left his home 
 
 To sojourn in a new and untried land. 
 
 He came not knowing what the end would be, 
 
 Arid nothing had been easy. Sickness, death, 
 
 Poverty, struggle, loneliness had made 
 
 His sacrifice appear at times too great 
 
 To be prolonged. But at these times God spoke 
 
 Again and said, "If you will lose your life 
 
 For me, I promise, you shall save not only yours, 
 
 But other lives as well." 
 
 Hushed silence falls upon us, and it seems 
 
 As if the very voice of God has spoken 
 
262 "SPEED IT ONWARD' 
 
 Through this simple, humble, holy man. 
 
 That time has passed. That quiet voice, that moved 
 
 Us with a power not often given to men, 
 
 Will never speak again. And all too soon, 
 
 As years march on and students come and go, 
 
 Will some one ask, "But who was John LaDue?" 
 
 It seems a bitter thing that one should make 
 
 So great a sacrifice and be so soon forgot. 
 
 Oh! We who heard that voice, 
 
 Who knew the selfless spirit of the man, 
 
 Who saw the reckless giving of his life, 
 
 Cannot consent to let his name die out* 
 
 We want to dedicate to him this place 
 
 Which he made sacred for us. 
 
 We want to say to all who enter here, 
 
 Tread softly, for thou art on holy ground; 
 
 Pray humbly, for before thee here thou seest 
 
 The tribute to a man who gave his all.' 
 
 But that is not enough. What would he care 
 
 For this mere symbol of his faith and love 
 
 If in the lives of those whom he has blest 
 
 Lives not the spirit of impassioned giving! 
 
 The cause which he loved more than life must not 
 
 Be lost. To forward it we pledge ourselves 
 
 In reverent devotion. Thus the grain 
 
 Of wheat which died will not abide alone, 
 
 But bring forth fruit unto eternal life." 
 
 — Mae A. Tenney, '14. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 GREENVILLE COMES OF AGE 
 
 Consciousness of one's place in society is perhaps the surest sign 
 of one's attainment to that stage in human development which is 
 known as coming of age. The individual who has reached ma- 
 turity and, likewise, the institution or the nation that has come 
 ditions, but above all, a distinctive function and place among 
 contemporaries, and, along with that, a milieu of history and tra- 
 ditions, bu tabove all, a mission which extends into the future. 
 Greenville College may be said to have passed into this stage in her 
 development during the administration of President Marston. A 
 recognition of the signs of this attainment gives fullness of mean- 
 ing to the story of this period. 
 
 The effort to define the place of the college in both the general 
 educational program and the field of Christian service constitutes 
 the first indication that Greenville was coming of age. It had 
 passed the embryonic stage of its development. It had always had 
 a raison d'etre, but it now became more self-conscious about its 
 existence and more deeply concerned over justifying this existence. 
 In the process of evolution it had not simply preserved a pattern 
 of education which was fairly common in the nineteenth century, 
 but, without destroying the Puritan foundations of that pattern, 
 it had adapted it to the needs of modern young men and women 
 and now clearly defined it in current scientific terms. The 
 recognition of "the individual student as the heart of the college 
 program" was not a new principle to Greenville educators. The 
 emphasis upon personal religious experience had always required 
 a sort of personnel program. The "developing human organism" 
 had always received the central emphasis. However, important 
 extrinsic changes took place at this time: a closer unification of 
 the curriculum, a clearer determination of the place of extracur- 
 ricular interests; a provision for more scientific methods of coun- 
 selling; and a more impersonal administration of regulations 
 governing dormitory life. 
 
GREENVILLE COMES OE AGE 265 
 
 A logical accompaniment of the definition of function was an 
 increased interest in traditions. It was only natural that as soon 
 as self-analysis began and the work of definition had progressed 
 the sense of historicity should develop. Probably the observance in 
 1932 of the fortieth anniversary of the founding marked the begin- 
 ning of tradition-consciousness with all who up until that time 
 had had any connection with the college. But an event had tran- 
 spired the year before which had awakened alumni to a realiza- 
 tion of their heritage. 
 
 The work of renovating the old chapel and dedicating it as a 
 LaDue Memorial was a labor of love, pure and simple. No gifts 
 to Greenville College ever came more spontaneously or joyously 
 than those which made possible this rebuilding. In January, 1930, 
 the plan was presented and the appeal made for "united, consistent 
 support," in order that "the memory of a life fully invested in 
 the service of God" might be perpetuated. About 450 main floor 
 seats were offered at fifteen dollars apiece, and 200 balcony seats 
 at ten dollars. Each seat was to bear a metal inscription of the 
 donor's name and his class. The proposed rebuilding would 
 greatly enlarge the audience room, the platform, and the balcony, 
 and modernize the whole structure. It would prepare the way, 
 also, for the later addition of a new unit at the north of the building. 
 
 There appeared in the College Quarterly of January, 1930, a little 
 story written by Mrs. Woods about the maker of a cathedral win- 
 dow, which expressed well the feeling of those who received this 
 appeal. The creator of the beautiful stained glass had offered at 
 the outset his services to the master builder simply for his "keep" 
 and "the honor of serving his master" Even so, "J onn LaDue 
 had studied under a Master-Workman and then had offered him- 
 self to Greenville for the joy of serving and the love of his Master." 
 In the minds and hearts of many "he had opened windows through 
 which had come clear visions of life's beauty and clear summons 
 to life's service." 
 
 Those acquainted with the circumstances of Professor LaDue's 
 passing knew how literally he had fulfilled up until the very end 
 his promise to serve for nothing but the honor of his Master. In 
 the fall of 1926, broken in health and with the merest pittance 
 upon which to live, he had gone West and found a humble little 
 
266 
 
 "SPEED IT ONWARD' 
 
 home near Los Angeles Pacific College in which to spend his last 
 days. About five months after President Burritt's completion of 
 his earthly career he, too, had answered the final summons. Many 
 
 
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 SAGITTARIA, 1933 
 
 eulogies were spoken and written at the time, but none expressed 
 more fitly the sentiment of alumni as a whole than the sentiment 
 by Carl Howland: "Most of us never knew a man so indifferent 
 to position and money . . . Withal he was more like the Lord Jesus 
 than any other man I ever knew." 
 
 On a Sunday afternoon in June of 1931, during the Commence- 
 ment season, the dedication of the LaDue Memorial chapel took 
 place. A large audience gathered in hushed solemnity for the 
 occasion. All those who had had instruction under John LaDue 
 were invited to sit together upon the large, beautifully equipped 
 platform. After a song service conducted by A. W. Secord, '16, 
 the Rev. Harry F. Johnson, '17, offered prayer, and Dean B. L. 
 Olmstead of the school of religion read from the Scripture. An 
 original poem by Mae A. Tenney, '14, followed, which impression- 
 istically portrayed the response of a student to the beloved chap- 
 lain's Sunday afternoon services. 
 
 The a cappella chorus then sang from the balcony "Built on a 
 Rock, the Church Shall Stand." W. W. Loomis, '98, very ap- 
 propriately had been chosen as the chief speaker. Thirty-three 
 
GREENVILLE COMES OF AGE 267 
 
 years before, he and Professor LaDue had received the first bacca- 
 laureates given by Greenville College. Following this tribute 
 to the master teacher and preacher, prayer was offered by the Rev. 
 W. D. Cochran, an old friend of Professor LaDue and the pres- 
 ident of the board of trustees. The Commencement praise serv- 
 ice which followed, led by A. E. Harford, '16, made up the last 
 phase of the dedication program and proved to be a memorable 
 occasion. 
 
 The year which followed, 1931-32, the fortieth year of Green- 
 ville College, and the seventy-fifth year since Almira was chartered, 
 brought three more events which placed emphasis upon the history 
 of the institution. In the fall of 1931, a bronze tablet was placed 
 on the east wall of the lobby of Old Main in honor of President 
 John B. White. 
 
 The sponsor of this project was Mrs. Nellie Bliss White, daugh- 
 ter-in-law of President White, graduate of Almira in 1871, and for 
 a few years following a member of the faculty. Upon the occa- 
 sion of the dedicatory exercises seven of the grandchildren of 
 President White and seven of the great grandchildren, as well, 
 
 THREE YEARS SOCCER CHAMPS, 1934 
 Sayre, Keil, Rice, Leigh, Kline, File, Holcomb, 
 Dietzman, Wesley, Hoiles, Fink, Hinebaugh, Thomp- 
 son, Ahern. 
 
 were present. With them came a scattered few of the surviving 
 Almira "girls" and many interested friends. Together they filled 
 the lobby of Old Main at the foot of the stairs. 
 
 Memories of "happy voices and merry laughter" echoing through 
 
268 "SPEED IT ONWARD" 
 
 those halls filled the minds of the little handful of snowy haired 
 women as they sat and listened to the dedicatory address of Mrs. 
 White. Most of their generation, they knew, had "been called 
 to look after their interests in another country." But they all felt 
 with Nellie Bliss White that "one of the greatest pleasures as 
 well as privileges" of their old age was to have placed here a tablet 
 in honor of one of whom they held in the highest esteem. In fit- 
 ting words his character was delineated as follows: 
 
 I think all who knew Professor White would agree that the out- 
 standing trait of his character was kindness. I never knew him 
 to speak a harsh, unkind word, and many a homesick, unhappy girl 
 found in him a sympathetic friend, and a wise counselor, being 
 ever fair in all his decisions. 
 
 As an educator he was eminently successful, smoothing the rug- 
 ged paths to knowledge; illuminating them with his words of wis- 
 dom and quaint humor. By his strict integrity and stern sense of 
 honor, duty and morality, he planted in the minds of hundreds of 
 young women in this and other states, the highest ideals of Chris- 
 tian living, and they in turn have passed them on to generations 
 which followed. 
 
 It has been said that the influence of a good man never dies, but 
 lives on through the ages. So we, his pupils, will always hold the 
 name of Professor White in affectionate remembrance. 
 
 The following June another tablet was placed in Old Main, on 
 the right hand of the archway that forms the entrance, and this 
 building, which for seventy-five years had been nameless, was ded- 
 icated to President Hogue, and officially designated as Hogue 
 Hall. 
 
 This plan, initiated by the alumni association in observance of 
 the fortieth anniversary, was carried out in the late afternoon 
 just before the alumni banquet. A hymn composed by Dr. Hogue 
 opened the program; the Rev. R. W. Sanderson, the only surviv- 
 ing trustee of forty years before, read the Scripture; and Walter 
 Joy, '00, paid tribute to the great man whom he had known as 
 "pastor, editor, bishop and college president." The tablet was 
 unveiled by two daughters of President Hogue, Mrs. W. A. Orr, 
 and Mrs. Grace Middleton, '99. 
 
 Upon class night the Senior program took the form of an his- 
 torical review, entitled "Annals of Greenville's Progress," and 
 
GREENVILLE COMES OF AGE 269 
 
 portrayed various scenes from the seventy -five year period, among 
 them the procession of Almira girls on their way to hear Lincoln 
 speak, the transportation of wood to the third and fourth floor 
 wood-boxes in the 90's, and the agitation by students for erection 
 
 SENIOR PAGEANT GROUP, 1931 
 
 of a gymnasium in '14, the departure of G. C. men for war serv- 
 ice, the endowment parade of '26. 
 
 The report of this review in the Quarterly comments upon the 
 "impressive combination of music, factual representation and po- 
 etic expression", and states that "the opinion was repeatedly ex- 
 pressed that this historical program marked the climax of senior 
 programs in recent years." In the ten years since this occasion, 
 the class-night offerings have been unique in their adaptation 
 of pageantry material. For the customary class play seniors have 
 substituted original compositions centered in themes which have 
 been developed by selections from all the fine arts. The presenta- 
 tion of this theme through song, choral speaking, literary inter- 
 pretation, and pantomime engages every member of a class of forty- 
 five or fifty. 
 
 With the developing sense of historicity certain campus organ- 
 izations and customs have taken deep root in student sentiment. 
 Perhaps the most notable instance of this is the secure place which 
 the debating clubs have made for themselves. Agora and Elpinice, 
 after their adoption of objective measurements for membership 
 admission, have enjoyed increasing popularity. They have become 
 the sponsors of the one intercollegiate activity at Greenville; they 
 have encouraged many projects in public speaking; they have given 
 support to many movements which have had cultural value. Their 
 
270 
 
 'SPEED IT ONWARD" 
 
 backing has brought improvement in chapel programs, in dining 
 room decorum, in social development in general. 
 
 Debate came into a new era under the direction of Professor 
 
 Mumaw 
 
 Nystrom, coach 
 Harper 
 
 Joy 
 Berg- 
 Williams 
 Sides 
 
 J. Andrews 
 Nystrom, coach 
 L. Kellie 
 
 Graff 
 Guffey 
 Winters 
 Monzingo 
 
 INTERCOLLEGIATE DEBATE TEAMS, 1929-30 
 
 Clarence L. Nystrom, who joined the staff in 1925. In 1927 the 
 first traveling team was sent out, to engage in three large university 
 debates in addition to the Southern Illinois League engagements, 
 which had been annually recurring ever since 1923. Twelve inter- 
 collegiate debates, in which nine decisions were given brought 
 seven victories to the Greenville teams. Nine men and six women 
 participated. More than that, other speech interests, such as ora- 
 
GREENVILLE COMES OF AGE 
 
 271 
 
 tory, declamation and extempore speaking, were promoted by con- 
 tests both intra-mural and off campus. 
 
 This program inaugurated by Dr. Nystrom continued its effect- 
 iveness under Mrs. Woods and Professor Harford, with the backing 
 of Elpinice and Agora. In 1934-35 twenty-two intercollegiate dc- 
 
 JUNIOR-SENIOR BANQUET ROOM, 1934 
 
 bates were scheduled, and Greenville came off with flying colors 
 in the series put on by the Illinois Debate League. The men's 
 team went close to the top, and the women's team tied for first 
 place with DeKalb. The trophy cup may be seen in the library 
 exhibit today, bearing the names of Edith White, Frances Schlosser, 
 Frances McKay and Harriet Warner. The following year the 
 men's team, composed of the Cunningham twins, Homer and 
 Henry, Burton Martin and Simon Kline, lost the state champion- 
 ship by only one debate. 
 
 A very interesting result of the increasing vigor of the two 
 debate clubs was the disappearance along in the early thirties of 
 the old literary societies, Aretanian and Phoenix. The first step 
 came in the application of the point system principle in a faculty 
 ruling against membership in both debate club and literary so- 
 ciety. The situation then resolved itself into a conflict between 
 the two, from which the debate clubs emerged the victors. 
 
272 
 
 SPEED IT ONWARD' 
 
 The literary societies little by little languished into nothingness. 
 Other societies have sprung up from time to time which have 
 proposed to provide expression for other specialized interests be- 
 sides public speaking, for example: music, science, current history 
 
 PRE-MEDIC CLUB, 1931 
 Top: Prof. Moreland, Smith, Tanner, lulg Scherb, Hill Mulford. 
 Third: V. Krantz, C. Young, Melton, F. VanValin, 0. VanValin, Mouser, 
 Keil. Second: Andrews, Dietzman, A. Smith, Heyde, Dillow, Wheeler, 
 Dawdy. First: Maxwell, Mullet, Watkins, Boice, A. Keil, Kinne, Damon. 
 
 and creative writing. Two such clubs have had more than a 
 sporadic existence. 
 
 The Natural History Club, which flourished shortly after the 
 war period, has changed names many times, but existed during 
 the Marston administration in a more specialized form as the Pre- 
 Medic Club. With the emphasis in the science department under 
 Dr. Moreland upon pre-professional training, students in bio- 
 chemistry, parasitology, embryology, etc., found the need of such 
 an organization to give them a unified outlook upon the whole 
 field of applied science. The Florence Nightingale Club, which 
 had existed for a short time for nurses, prospective and graduate, 
 
GREENVILLE COMES OF AGE 
 
 273 
 
 merged, therefore, with other groups interested in some sort of 
 specialization in science, and in 1931 the Pre-Medic Club organ- 
 ized for discussion of problems of mutual interest, occasional ad- 
 
 Mrs. Andrews 
 Mrs. Murm 
 Pres. Marston 
 Mrs. Woods 
 Miss Tenney 
 
 Crane 
 
 Gregory 
 
 Oehser 
 
 Schlosser 
 
 Gebauer 
 
 Whiteman 
 Olmstead 
 
 Short 
 Watterson 
 
 Krantz 
 Schlosser 
 Hubbell 
 D. Kline 
 G. Kline 
 
 dresses by scientific authorities, and observational trips to in- 
 stitutions. The first president was Richard Maxwell, now con- 
 sulting physician for the Greenville College infirmary. The mem- 
 bership remained large and enthusiastic. 
 
 Another specialized interest found outlet in the organization 
 of Scriblerus in the fall of 1934. An account in the Papyrus 
 gives the details of the founding: 
 
 Scriblerus is not a revival of the old, but something brand new, 
 something which we have long needed, but have never brought to 
 pass. It is a writing club, the purpose of which is to stimulate and 
 
274 "SPEED IT ONWARD" 
 
 encourage creative writing. The old literary societies made some 
 provision for this kind of activity, but, since these have been dis- 
 continued, there has been no outlet for literary expression outside 
 the classroom. Consequently, the advanced writing class of last 
 year originated the idea of the club, and have spent much time and 
 effort to put it across . . . There are six charter members, Ruth Niles, 
 Grayce Bonham, Winifred Schlosser, Harriette Warner, Helen 
 Thomas and David Baker. They, together with their instructor, 
 Miss Tenney, and Mrs. Woods and President Marston, constitute 
 the present membership. The officers elected for this semester 
 are D. Baker, president; H. Warner, vice-president; H. Thomas, 
 secretary-treasurer. 
 
 The most ambitious literary project ever undertaken by this 
 organization was the publication in 1934 of Tower Voices, a thirty- 
 four page magazine of original stories, essays and verse. The 
 high quality of contributions to be found therein is repre- 
 sentative of the type of work accomplished each year by Scriblerus. 
 The only reason for the failure to continue a yearly magazine 
 is the lack of financial resources. Until a sure basis of support 
 can be found, the club members will have to seek publication, 
 as they frequently have very successfully done, in the columns of 
 the school paper, various church papers, and occasionally in per- 
 iodicals of wider circulation. 
 
 An organization which has developed a sense of history mak- 
 ing and hence has been ready to defend its traditions as well as 
 to demand the privilege of forming new prerogatives has been 
 the student association. The practice, for example, of electing 
 the members of the staffs of the Papyrus and the Vista has be- 
 come a firmly founded tradition, and has contributed much to 
 the building of a sense of civic responsibility in both the electorate 
 and the elected. It is unlikely that Greenville will ever have a news- 
 paper controlled by a journalism department; on the other hand, 
 co-operation between the staff and the journalism sponsors has 
 always been harmonious. 
 
 Several projects undertaken during the Marston administra- 
 tion indicate unusual initiative on the part of the Papyrus staffs. 
 In 1927-28 the business managers, Banks, Smith and Miller, must 
 have been particularly public-spirited as well as financially efficient 
 to have built the sidewalk which extends from the men's quarters 
 
GREENVILLE COMES OF AGE 
 
 275 
 
 to the woman's building. During the next year the alumni sur- 
 veys undertaken by the editorial staffs headed by Andrews, Mil- 
 ler and Barkas are a symptom of a broader outlook than has 
 sometimes characterized college journalists. In 1934 another sur- 
 
 PAPYRUS STAFF, 1935 
 Back row: Whiteman, Hessler, Crill, Hessler, Gaddis. Second: Brenne- 
 man, Harden, Snode, Miller, TY.iomas, McKay, Gregory, Niles. 
 First: Miller, Cunningham, Damon, Oehser. 
 
 vey, which brought information for a second generation roll call, 
 indicated the enterprising spirit of Editor Ahern and his staff. 
 
 The reduction of the paper to a four page issue, necessitated by 
 the financial changes accompanying the depression, has undoubt- 
 edly been a deterrent to journalistic ambition, but some editors 
 have accepted it as a challenge to better news selection and ac- 
 curacy in repoiting and writing. The work of the women editors, 
 Lucile Damon, '35, and Tressa Oehser, '36, was noteworthy in 
 these respects. 
 
 Responsibility for the conduct of school publications is only 
 
276 
 
 "SPEED IT ONWARD" 
 
 one of many examples that might be cited of the balance that 
 has existed for some time at Greenville between faculty direction, 
 on the one hand, and student initiative, on the other hand, based, 
 as it is, upon gradually evolving traditions. Other areas which 
 
 GOSPEL LEAGUE, 1933 
 Back row: Roushey, Olmstead, Turner, Birdsall, Kline, Reichert, Bart- 
 lette, Ahern, Reber. Third: Roth, Watkins, Anderson, Hazlitt, Mack, 
 Thompson, Krantz, Barker, Ahern, Jett. Second: Hudson, Smith, 
 Hunter, Perkins, Winslow, Reid, Boling, Moore, Williams. First: Rog- 
 genbaum, Wyman, Banning, Hood, Bassett. 
 
 have been covered by the application of the same principle are 
 athletics, religious life and social life. The history of these 
 changes, extending as it does to the present time, will be outlined 
 in the next chapter. 
 
 A new religious organization, the Gospel League, formed in 
 1932-33 under the direction of Professor Winslow, was a very sig- 
 nificant manifestation of the influence of two new principles at 
 work at Greenville, namely, the desire to conserve the best of the 
 old while adopting the new, and the desire to remove the barrier 
 between the secular and the religious. For years two organiza- 
 tions, the Ministerial Association, and the Student Volunteers had 
 represented the professional interest in religion, and the promot- 
 ers of a new club had no desire to disturb the existence of these 
 very necessary bodies, but it was felt that many more students 
 
GREENVTLLE COMES OF AGE 277 
 
 than included in them should be engaged in active Christian 
 work preparatory to life service of many types. The formation 
 of the Gospel League, therefore, with its provision for a federation 
 of the two traditional clubs with the new Life Service League, pro- 
 posed a spiritualizing of all life and discouraged mere professional- 
 ism in religious activities. 
 
 The report of work accomplished during the year which followed 
 the organization of the League is suggestive of the reach of influence 
 which it enjoyed at the beginning and which has been further ex- 
 tended since: sermons preached, 213; Sunday school classes taught, 
 129; sick calls made, 180; aggregate number of people ministered 
 to by Christian service of some sort, 20,000. 
 
 Another organization which has held this same emphasis of 
 spiritualizing all of life, and which came into being during the 
 Marston administration, is the a cappella chorus. The function 
 performed by this group of integrating the aims of religion with 
 those of culture has been one of the most noteworthy recent de- 
 velopments at Greenville. To give a truly spiritual message 
 through the great music of the ages has been held steadily before 
 the Greenville a cappella chorus as its one reason for being, and, 
 the result has been definite achievement both in deepened spiritu- 
 ality and broadened cultural horizons. Their credo is expres- 
 sive of this ideal: 
 
 / BELIEVE in the art of music and, with Ruskin, that the art- 
 ist is "one who has submitted to a law which it was painful to 
 obey, in order that he may bestow a delight which it is gracious 
 to bestow"; 
 
 / BELIEVE in the art of sacred song to minister to the needs 
 of men, and join the fellowship of these singers as a steward of 
 the mysteries of God, with a desire to deepen this sense of 
 spiritual vocation by living in daily, vital contact with Him; 
 I BELIEVE in the ideals of Greenville College and earnestly de- 
 termine to exemplify them in every relationship, with a special 
 sense of responsibility and honor as my Alma Mater's ambassa- 
 dor in song; 
 
 / BELIEVE that my daily life and work have eternal import, 
 that as "the temple vast and dim 
 
278 
 
 'SPEED IT ONWARD" 
 
 A CAPPELLA, 1930 
 Back row: Krantz, Moore, Robinson, Mouser, D. Miller, Kellie, Mullet, 
 Iulg, Boice, M. Miller, Kline. Third: Watson, Monzingo, Davis, Melton, 
 L. Miller, Syfert, Berg, Boggess, Keasling, Andrews, Matthewson. 
 Second: Wade, D. Miller, A. VanValin, Brown, E. Miller, Heyde, Dawdy, 
 Deardorff, Ambrose, Lincicome. Front: Head, Nystrom, Bedell, Gines, 
 Prof. Woods, Mumaw, Oakes, Boice, 0. VanValin. 
 
 Thrills to its base with anthem, psalm or hymn 
 True to the changeless laws of harmony, 
 So he who on the changing chords of life 
 With firm, sweet touch plays the Master's score 
 Of Truth and Love and Duty evermore, 
 Knows that far beyond this roar and strife, 
 Though he may never hear, in the true time 
 These notes must all accord in symphonies sublime." 
 
 In the fall of 1927 Mr. and Mrs. Woods, who had acted as deans 
 of students from 1920 to 1923, returned to the campus, Mrs. Woods 
 to teach rhetoric and speech, and Mr. Woods to take charge of 
 the voice department. For three years he had been studying in 
 the Westminster Choral School, located at that time in Dayton, 
 Ohio, and had graduated in the first class to finish. During his 
 Senior year he had been honored by an appointment as tenor 
 soloist of the choir. 
 
GREENVILLE COMES OF AGE 279 
 
 In November of 1927 Westminster Choir came to Greenville 
 as guests of the college and the community. They were enter- 
 tained at a special dinner and program in the dining-room and 
 then sang before a crowd so large that only the gymnasium could 
 contain them. This unusual musical event was possible only be- 
 cause of the intimate friendship that existed between Professor 
 J. F. Williamson, founder of the Westminster Choir, and Profes- 
 sor Woods. 
 
 This choir, so soon to achieve international fame, thus gave 
 the original impetus to the formation of Greenville's chorus, and 
 the ideals cherished by that great organization are those which 
 have been held always by Professor Woods and his singers. 
 
 Immediately after this concert, plans for a campus choir were 
 begun, but Professor Woods took time to build painstakingly, 
 and not until April did this first organized group make a public 
 appearance. The inauguration of President Marston was the 
 occasion of its debut. That year there were thirty singers; later 
 forty was to be the usual personnel. In 1929 the annual tours 
 began, extending first only through Illinois and Indiana, but soon 
 including at least four states in the itinerary. 
 
 With Professor Woods' coming, the yearly presentation of the 
 Messiah, or occasionally another oratorio, by a community chorus 
 became an outstanding occasion, drawing visitors from the sur- 
 rounding territory for a radius of forty miles. For two years the 
 leading soloists of the Westminster choir were engaged for the 
 major parts. Later the college and community furnished excel- 
 lent talent. The work of Melvin Watson, Mabel Dawdy Bettis 
 and Olive Van Valin Casberg made a great popular appeal. 
 
 The interest in music became almost as school-wide as the inter- 
 est in athletics. In 1933-34 it was reported that more than fifty 
 per cent of those registered in the liberal arts college were partici- 
 pating in some form of musical activity sponsored by the school 
 of music. Mrs. Lucy Jane King, who had been the director of 
 the school of music up until 1932, had built a very strong instru- 
 mental music department, requiring three or four assistants in 
 piano and in public school music, and for three years using, also, 
 the services of Dr. Ernest Kroeger, artist and composer, from St. 
 Louis for a day or two each week. 
 
GREENVILLE COMES OF AGE 
 
 281 
 
 When Professor Woods became director of the school in 1932-33, 
 the place of vocal music in the program became, perhaps, even 
 more prominent than before. The formation of a girls' glee club in 
 1934-35 brought added talent to light, and little by little this organi- 
 zation has gained in popularity. Dur- 
 ing these years, then, Greenville was 
 becoming what it is today a "singing" 
 college, which has not only advanced 
 to a high level of music apprecia- 
 tion, but has transformed the denom- 
 inational outlook upon the subject. 
 All through the church a cappella 
 organizations have sprung up through 
 the influence of Greenville a cappel- 
 la ns, and unaccompanied congrega- 
 tional singing of a steadily improv- 
 ing quality has been the result. 
 
 As the college faced the future the 
 iued of the indigent student became 
 one of the most pressing problems, 
 and, in consequence, a student work 
 program rapidly developed that in 
 
 time comprehended almost the entire student body. As every col- 
 lege administrator knows, the need ran parallel with the down- 
 ward curve of the depression. In 1935 came government aid, be- 
 ginning as a branch of F.E.R.A., and then developing into the 
 National Youth Administration. But prior to that, several in- 
 genious measures had already been adopted at Greenville. 
 
 The corps of dining-room and kitchen workers was increased, 
 the laundry, which had begun on a very small scale, finally be- 
 came organized as a little industrial unit, supervised first by Mrs. 
 Allen and later extended and made self-sufficient under the effi- 
 cient management of Mrs. W. O. Wade. Peter White was the 
 first officially appointed supervisor of grounds and buildings, and 
 under his direction a large group of students worked for self- 
 support. 
 
 With the installation of the Tower Press in 1932 further work 
 was provided. The original design, which anticipated a job print- 
 
 ROBERT W. WOODS 
 
282 
 
 'SPEED IT ONWARD' 
 
 ing business which would comprehend extensive catalog publica- 
 tion as well as commercial job work, was not realized, probably 
 because it lacked some one to push the publicity required. Such 
 an industrial unit would have supplied dozens of students with 
 
 C. D. Cronkhite, Mgr. 
 
 TOWER PRESS 
 
 work and, incidentally, with a trade apprenticeship, also. How- 
 ever, the enterprise has been much more than merely self-sup- 
 porting, and has furnished work each year to several. 
 
 The following year saw the institution of a second student in- 
 dustry, Tower Products. So unique was this venture that it was 
 written up, along with other schemes devised by American colleges 
 for student self-help, in the Saturday Evening Post of June 3, 1939, 
 under the caption of "Pity the Poor Collegian." The following 
 extract from this article will indicate the scope of the enterprise 
 and the success of it under its manager, Dr. H. J. Long. 
 
 Several years ago Greenville c: liege, at Greenville, Illinois, beset 
 with indigent students, and possessed of an adequate chem lab 
 worked out a few simple formulas and put a crew of undergraduates 
 to work manufacturing toilet preparations, flavors, extracts and 
 miscellaneous household commodities. The first batch peddled 
 
GREENVILLE COMES OF AGE 
 
 283 
 
 over the countryside by student salesmen, caught on. Orders 
 pcured in beyond the capacity of Greenville's lab. Colleg*ate In- 
 dustries was organized 
 
 and other colleges were 
 invited to join in the un- 
 dertaking. Twelve finally 
 did. By the end of its 
 first five years, Collegiate 
 Industries has to its sales 
 credit 210>0 jars of Euca 
 Balm, more than 6000 
 six ounce bottles of van- 
 illa, 3500 tubes of dental 
 cream, 56,000 bars of 
 soap, 21,000 bars of hard 
 water soap, 1600 boxes 
 of face powder, 2600 
 cans of talcum, S70 bot- 
 tles of cough syrup, 1000 
 bottles of camphor cream 
 liniment, and 30'00 bottles 
 of shampoo. Student com- 
 missions on these sales 
 were about forty per- 
 cent. 
 
 TOWER LAB. 
 
 LAB. WORKERS AND SALESMEN 
 
 With the coming of N.Y.A. assistance, this industry became less 
 essential as a self-help agency and was finally discontinued. But 
 the student work program with its many aspects has continued. 
 The extent of this program under Dr. Long's management (for 
 he was finally placed in charge of it all) is indicated by the fol- 
 lowing item from the Papyrus in 1934. 
 
 Approximately ninety percent of the dorm students attending 
 school this year are working part time . . . Including the home serv- 
 ice the amount reaches $15,000 a year, of which about $11,000 is 
 campus work. The laundry employs the greatest number, twenty- 
 one girls, who sort clothes, use the mangle and iron. In the 
 kitchen and dining room twenty-two students are employed. Tower 
 Products salesmen number twelve and the janitorial staff for all 
 buildings is nineteen. Seven girls are librarians and five accompany 
 the voice students. Seven girls are in the clerical department. 
 Four boys serve as lab assistants and three work in the print shop. 
 Four are employed outside washing windows and doing landscape 
 
284 
 
 SPEED IT ONWARD' 
 
 gardening, and of course there are two assistants to the deans who 
 get remuneration for checking rooms. Then there is that indispens- 
 able person, the college nurse. Larry Fink is necessary in the 
 office of bozkstore agent. The employment staff is divided into 
 
 TOWER LAB. AND WILLOW 
 
 five departments: culinary, under Mrs. Walker; Tower Products, 
 under Horace Tenney; Print shop under George Reichert; College 
 farm, under Mr. Neece; and janitor and repairs, under Billy Bart- 
 lette. Dr. H. J. Long is managing director of the employment pro- 
 gram of the college." 
 
 Greenville had become a veritable hive of industry. The fifty 
 or so Seniors who graduated each year were now developing econ- 
 omic competency as well as intellectual power and social fitness, 
 with all that that implies in the adoption of various types of dis- 
 ciplines. A definite philosophy governing student work and stu- 
 dent finance was accordingly formulated by the director of this 
 program. Its essential features were as follows: "If students are 
 to become useful citizens they must all learn to be workers. Work 
 should not be just a means of saving on college expenses. It 
 must also be useful work." Furthermore, the requirements and 
 conditions under which a student's work is done should approxi- 
 mate a life situation and thus inculcate such principles as "giving 
 full service for value received," doing work exactly as specified 
 
GREENVILLE COMES OF AGE 
 
 285 
 
 by the employer and caring properly for equipment intrusted to 
 the worker. 
 
 The basis for student finance was conceived as identical with 
 that underlying all business undertakings. Preceding the ven- 
 
 COLLEGE WORKERS, 1933 
 Back row: Birdsall, Jones, Fink, Biddulph, Craig, Kline, Keil, Crane, 
 Hood, Schoenhals, Robinson, Grothaus, Mouser. Fifth: Pickering, 
 , Leigh, Rupert, Atkinson, Thompson, Bassett, Autenreith, Mars- 
 ton, Lindley, McMullen, Kelsey, Krantz, Mack, Banning, Perkins, Martin. 
 
 Fourth: Spear, Reichert, Turner, -, A.hern, Bartlette, Hazlitt, Hine- 
 
 baugh, Klein, Freeman, Brenneman) Bepler, Franklin, Sayre, Todd, 
 Matthews, Dietzman. Third: Hughes, Bowden, Mayhew, Fairbanks, 
 Honn, Hadduck, Kline, Brenneman, Sayre, Christie, - — — . Second: 
 Fletcher, Nichols, Moyer, Murphy, Juhlin, Morrison, Bull, Beach, — — , 
 First: Hunter, Robb, Aihern, Harvey, Hilbert, Jett, Hudson, Harford, 
 'Short, Hunter. 
 
 ture of a college education, said the director, should be exercised 
 "the same cool deliberation and cost accounting" as precedes any 
 "financial project which is to succeed." The student was urged to 
 "work out as many of his financial problems" as he could by 
 himself rather than relying upon his parent. "He should be made 
 to see that paying for a college education is just as bind- 
 ing as paying for clothes, automobiles or any other personal ef- 
 fects," that getting through school is primarily a personal problem, 
 rather than an institutional one. 
 
286 "SPEED IT ONWARD" 
 
 The student work program thus became one more agency in 
 carrying out the central purpose of Greenville, the "development 
 of well-rounded personalities, equipped to function adequately 
 in their places in society." A further means toward this end, 
 which has not yet been mentioned, was the personnel program 
 set up during the 30's under the direction of the deans of stu- 
 dents. 
 
 In 1930 Miss Elva Kinney came to her office as dean of women 
 from extensive experience in the administrative and teaching 
 fields. Advanced study also had given her a scientific approach 
 to vocational and personality problems. Her Master's thesis, A 
 Study in Personnel Procedures for the Dean of Women, lead to 
 much needed reforms in the administration of both academic and 
 extracurricular affairs. These qualifications, together with her 
 natural force of character and her depth of spiritual insight, pre- 
 pared her for making an unusual contribution to the personnel 
 program. Her conception of her function as dean of women was, 
 briefly stated, "the production of desirable personality changes." 
 This was to be accomplished by helping the girls under her sup- 
 ervision "to study themselves and make desirable adjustments, 
 particularly in those qualities that affect relationships with other 
 folks." Yet the secret of Miss Kinney's success in achieving these 
 ends has lain not alone in her scientific procedure, but in her rec- 
 ognition that "the most effective force for redirecting person- 
 ality will always be spiritual regeneration." 
 
 When Dean Harford came to the campus as dean of men in 1932 
 he adopted the same principles. The point system was instituted 
 during this period to enable the deans in their domitory man- 
 agement to administer more impersonally the strict regulations 
 which have been in vogue always at Greenville. The objective 
 stated at the time of the institution of the system was "student 
 self-direction within well defined limits," which would conserve 
 "the educational objectives for which the institution is conducted"; 
 or, to be more specific, variation in the observance of rules gov- 
 erning study, church attendance, etc., was allowed each student 
 within the limits of points allowed. Hence, enforcement of rules 
 became more flexible, less personal, while at the same time the 
 
GREENVILLE COMES OF AGE 
 
 287 
 
 student continued to live in a controlled environment, where 
 mental, moral and spiritual disciplines were enforced. 
 
 The years which have seen Greenville's coming of age have 
 
 COLLEGE MISSIONARY SOCIETY, 1935 
 
 Back row: Mack, Watson, Tourtelotte, Long, Olmstead, Brewer, 
 Marston, VanValin, Worbois, Martin, Crill. Fifth: Kettinger, Woods, 
 Woods, Hazeldine, Tenney, Scott, Harford, Haywood, Harden, Maxwell, 
 
 Schwab. Fourth: Tosi, Cunningham, Mikels, , Holtwick, Collins, 
 
 Oehser, Gaddis, Young, Thomas, Klinkenberg, Rensberry, Freiburghaus, 
 Parks, Warwick, Crane, Krantz, Winslow. Third: Kline, Cunningham, 
 Hawf, Thompson, Cook, Gregory, Piper, McMahan, Warner, Bull, Van- 
 Valin. Second: Sherman, Banning, Miller, Eley, Roth, Tucker, Moore, 
 Andrews, Niles, Damon. First: Warren, Nowlin, Schlosser, Kappel- 
 man, DeMund, Reck, Shoemake, Nixon, Klein, Perkins. 
 
 been years of institutional self-analysis and self-criticism, earnest- 
 ly pursued by the group of men and women who have comprised 
 the faculty. They have brought to their task of college building 
 wealth of experience and thoroughness of training. In the so- 
 cial sciences Professor Holtwick and Mrs. Mary K. Andrews con- 
 
288 
 
 'SPEED IT ONWARD' 
 
 tinued their valuable contributions to class room instruction and 
 to faculty deliberation. Both pursued further graduate study 
 and kept abreast of current developments in their fields. In the 
 natural and physical sciences Dr. Long, Professor Timbers, Pro- 
 
 JUNIOR 
 
 PRIMARY 
 
 GROUP 
 
 1933 
 
 fessor Scott and Dr. Moreland built the ideals of thorough work 
 and sound scholarship that characterize those departments today. 
 In the departments of literature and languages there was steady 
 progress toward new goals set by modern education. Professor 
 LaDue, Miss Tourtelotte, Miss Dare and Miss Tenney continued 
 advanced study at frequent intervals between periods of teaching. 
 Business management saw constant improvement under the 
 vice-presidency of Professor Gaddis and the later work of Pro- 
 fessor Brewer. To his work as registrar Professor Harold Munn 
 gave tireless, faithful devotion. As professor of psychology and 
 education he also directed a new and much enlarged program. 
 Teaching in this department now were Dr. Marston, Professor 
 Munn, Miss Kinney and Mrs. Woods. Classes were very large, 
 for more and more Greenville graduates were turning to teach- 
 ing as a vocation. This development necessitated the establish- 
 ment of practice schools on both the elementary and secondary 
 levels. In 1933 arrangements were made with the local high 
 school for a setup which would give every prospective teacher an 
 opportunity to observe and practice teaching under the direction 
 of a critic teacher. 
 
GREENVILLE COMES OF AGE 
 
 289 
 
 Provision was made, also, for elementary 
 grade experience. This program began 
 under Miss Kinney's supervision in a local 
 grade school, but in 1932-33 was removed 
 to the campus with the establishment of 
 the college training school. In the base- 
 ment of the gymnasium in a spacious airy 
 room there was organized a model school, 
 which has ever since afforded to fifteen or 
 twenty children their first happy school 
 days and to ten or fifteen prospective teach- 
 ers their first pedagogical experiences. The 
 music, health and art departments all 
 co-operated to make this a very successful 
 venture. A feature which made this school 
 the talk of the campus for a time was the 
 rhythm band directed by Doris Jean Long. 
 In gay regalia and with all the self-import- 
 ance of an honest-to-goodness band these 
 entertainers appeared frequently before 
 college audiences, evoking loud applause. 
 
 Another department which extended its 
 services in professional training was the 
 school of religion, headed by Dean Olm- 
 stcad until 1933, and then by Dean Har- 
 old Winslow. The program of study lead- 
 ing to the degree of bachelor of divinity 
 which had been planned in 1920 drew 
 graduate students each year, but not until 
 1932 did any candidate meet the complete 
 requirements. That year two received the 
 degree, Leroy Mullet and August Schmidt. 
 Both men are rendering signal service to 
 the church today. Two years later four 
 more received the degree: Bessie C. Reid, 
 
 m 
 
 B. D. GRADUATES, 1934 
 Bessie Reid, George Turner, William Bart- 
 lette, Carson Reber. 
 
290 "SPEED IT ONWARD" 
 
 George A. Turner, William H. Bartlette and Carson E. Reb- 
 er. In 1935 the last advanced degrees were given, since a 
 school for graduate work seemed for the time inadvisable. Those 
 finishing at this time were Nahum E. Perkins and Robert J. 
 Burgess. 
 
 When President Mars ton retired from Greenville College in 1936 
 upon the cell of his church to the bishopric he left behind him 
 a unified faculty, who possessed a clear conception of the function 
 and m's i n of the institution, an abiding belief in the Puritan 
 principles and cultural standards that had hitherto governed it, and 
 a commitment to these principles and standards for the future. 
 
"HAIL TO THEE, OUR ALMA MATER" 
 
HENRY JOHNSON LONG 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 AN OLD GRAD RETURNS 
 
 The starchy white curtains rippled in the April breeze as it drifted 
 into the sun-flooded dining room. Breakfast was in process. Down 
 by the kitchen door stood a long serving table upon which were 
 placed in customary sequence the bread and sweet rolls, the jam, 
 the cereals, cooked or dry, and the fruit — this morning, orange 
 halves. From a coffee urn at one side a white-coated college Sen- 
 ior served the steaming coffee and placed cream or butter, or both, 
 on the trays of the forgetful. 
 
 A long colorful line of chattering, laughing girls stretched from 
 the double doors at the north end down past the coffee urn. Oc- 
 casionally a fellow clad in his Saturday work clothes hurried in 
 through the door to the east. But most of the workers already sat 
 about the tables eating voraciously and discussing animatedly the 
 events of the previous evening. 
 
 The old grad, who had chosen a vantage point at the far end 
 of the room beside his host, remarked upon the seeming super- 
 abundance of women. 
 
 "What's become of masculine appetite?" he asked. "Or have 
 all the men enlisted?" 
 
 "No," remarked his friend of former days, now a member of the 
 Greenville College faculty, "No, we haven't lost many men so far. 
 They're staying the year out. Many of these girls you see are out- 
 of-dorm girls. 
 
 "Last night was the annual slumber party when all the women 
 of the college sleep — or try to sleep — in the dormitory. That's 
 one of our social functions now for bringing unity to the whole col- 
 lege family. Other measures are on foot; for example, we hope 
 soon to have a student lounge in Hogue Hall, where off-campus 
 students will feel at home. It will probably be in conjunction with 
 the College Bookstore, which, under student management, has be- 
 come a popular center and a very successful enterprise. 
 
 "That's an efficient staff in charge of your cafeteria breakfast," 
 
294 
 
 'HAIL TO THEE, OUR ALMA MATER 
 
 The observer turned his attention to the group of college men and 
 girls at the service table and another group busy with the trays 
 which were being deposited by departing breakfasters. 
 
 "Yes," nodded his host, "Anyone who works under Mrs. Walker's 
 
 direction is efficient. I don't 
 know what will happen to us 
 when she retires. For twenty- 
 four years she has made our 
 culinary department run as 
 smoothly as a Big Ben. One 
 of the most valuable phases 
 of education at Greenville is 
 the discipline received under 
 her supervision. There arc 
 always around forty workers 
 in the dining-room and kitch- 
 en. The earliest ones come 
 down at five-thirty in the 
 morning, except the baker of 
 rolls; she may begin at three 
 o'clock. From then on until 
 seven o'clock at night some 
 one is busy down here, for 
 
 even in mid-afternoon, when 
 MINNIE WALKER the cooks leave for a siesta) 
 
 the boys who scrub up have to get in their daily stint." 
 
 "But that's only a small fraction of the self-help program that 
 is conducted at Greenville now," continued the prof. 
 
 "There must be almost fifty students in school this year working 
 out a hundred dollars on their bills. It's really the proper thing 
 now to work one's way. I've known of students who never had 
 thought of doing it until they got here — didn't really have to — 
 but it just seemed more self-respecting to have a job; so they went 
 in to the business office and asked for it." 
 
 "Jack Harford's the manager, you know. Does a great job at 
 directing all this student help, as well as doing about a million 
 other things." 
 
 "Come on down the hall and see the laundry. A lot of the girls, 
 
AX OLD GRAB RETURNS 
 
 295 
 
 get twenty-five hours a week in work there." The middle aged 
 prof, carrying his carefully stocked tray, marched his visitor down 
 the room past the interested eyes of fifty leisurely eaters. 
 
 MEN'S DORM ASSOCIATION, 1937-38 
 Back row: Gallup, L. Smith, Schwab, Carlton, Bates, Lupton, Cox, 
 Junker, Engle, Smith. Sixth: Rose, Sheffer, George, Crum. Fifth: 
 Denbo, Nowlin, Reese, Dufloth. Fourth: Leigh, Green, Netzler, C. John- 
 son, Jacobson, Parker. Third: Chamness, Aust, Prof. Spalding, Kline, 
 Neece, Cullison, Deardorff, Fink, Probst, Niles, Goodman, Barnard, 
 Schlosser. Second: Cross, Sanford, Anderson, Hessler, Instone, Myers, 
 Roth. First: Dean, Guyer, Mclntire, Kepner, Sanders. 
 
 "Another old grad back," some one commented. "Maybe he's 
 here for the Ministers Conference that begins next week. They're 
 observing the Fiftieth Jubilee this year and recognizing alumni 
 prominent in Christian service. Wonder who he is." 
 
 "Probably the father or uncle of somebody in school," his neigh- 
 bor conjectured. "I'd just like to know how many kids in school 
 are second generationers. Now there's Bob Fine and the three 
 
296 "HAIL TO THEE, OUR ALMA MATER" 
 
 Hoffmans and Ruth Evelyn Snyder and Secord, and Evelyn Vin- 
 cent " 
 
 "Oh, say," some one cut in, "don't take the roll this morning. 
 I'll venture a third of the student body would place some where 
 in a Greenville College genealogy." 
 
 * * * 
 
 Beside a half dozen boards stood the ironers and about them 
 were heaped shirts and shirts. The mangle revolved and the 
 washing machines whirred. 
 
 The drier was being rapidly filled with vari-colored garments. 
 Moving about among the workers was light-footed, little Mrs. 
 Kingsley, mother of one of the students, who had come early in 
 1942 to fill the place of laundry director, when Mrs. Wade had 
 had to leave the work which she had so long and so capably con- 
 ducted. 
 
 The warm spring air poured balmily in through the open win- 
 dows. In the bushes outside a brown thrasher trilled jubilantly. 
 Inside the girls hummed snatches of song as they guided the irons 
 swiftly back and forth. 
 
 "Not so bad — ironing for an education," said the old grad, as 
 he withdrew and headed upstairs to the main floor of the woman's 
 building. 
 
 "By the way," said he, "this is Carrie T. Burritt Hall now, isn't it?" 
 
 "Yes," replied the guide. "The dedication took place in 1938. 
 It was a very appropriate expression of the appreciation we all have 
 had of Mrs. Burritt's long, long service to the school." 
 
 "Here are the women's parlors." They paused at the open doors 
 and looked down the length of three pleasant rooms. At the far 
 end chairs arranged about a brick fireplace extended a cordial 
 welcome to a cosy chat. Light creamy walls, richly colored drapes 
 at the windows, rugs of harmonious tones on the floors and well 
 chosen pieces of maple furniture gave the place an atmosphere 
 of quiet comfort. 
 
 "Who was responsible for this delightful spot?" asked the visitor. 
 
 "The Woman's Dorm Association got busy about five years ago, 
 I believe, and engineered this project. It's remarkable how many 
 changes have been worked out in recent years through student 
 initiative. In our times we thought no one could ever surpass 
 
AN OLD GRAD RETURNS 
 
 297 
 
 the building of Burritt Gymnasium, and financially it was the big- 
 gest thing ever undertaken by students, but, even at that, I think 
 our Student Association today is equally ambitious." 
 
 "Have you heard anything about our infirmary?" The booster 
 for modern enterprise ushered his oid friend down past the par- 
 lors to the closed French 
 doors at the end of the 
 hall, where a lighted 
 globe marked "Hospit- 
 al" indicated the nature 
 of the section beyond. 
 A metal plaque beneath 
 the light bore the in- 
 scription — 
 
 STUDENT 
 
 ASSOCIATION 
 
 INFIRMARY 
 
 Completed by Class 
 
 of 1941 
 
 STUDENT HEALTH CENTER 
 
 It was the cast wing of Carrie T. Burritt Hall which had been 
 converted into a student health unit. Immediately in front of the 
 entrance was a room for use in case of overflow. The wards proper 
 lay on the right of the wing, the first for men, the second for women, 
 each equipped with three beds. On the left hand across from the 
 wards was a most attractive dispensary and beyond that the nurses' 
 quarters. 
 
 The visitor lingered in the dispensary, enjoying the fresh apple 
 green of its walls and the immaculate white of its woodwork, exam- 
 ining the clinical equipment and the abundant pharmaceutical 
 supplies. 
 
 "Tell me," said he, turning to his friend, "how students ac- 
 complished such an extensive project as this. It must have taken a 
 lot of far-sighted planning." 
 
 "Far-sighted is right," was the reply. "It required one of the 
 most skillful campaigns for popular support that has ever been 
 conducted at Greenville. At the beginning of the school year — 
 it was in 1939, I think — students voted down a proposed plan for 
 
298 
 
 HAIL TO THEE, OUR ALMA MATER' 
 
 health protection because of the fee which was to be attached. 
 There just wasn't interest enough to swing it. 
 
 "Howard Rose was president of the student association that year. 
 That office has become the most responsible and most honored 
 
 STUDENT COUNCIL, 1942 
 Standing: Long, Young, Spencer, Smothers, Cunningham, Markey, 
 Hoffman. Seated: Moyer, Aihern, Lindsley, Fine, Tipps, Osborne, LaDue 
 
 position on the campus. The finest kind of executive ability is 
 required for it, since the leader has to initiate new policies and 
 plans and mould public opinion to support them. The fact is 
 any appointment to the council now is regarded much more ser- 
 iously than it used to be and membership is to be recognized from 
 now on by the award of a Student Council key. 
 
 "Howard Rose was a master at shaping student opinion, and 
 before the year was over he had converted opposition into enthus- 
 iasm and swung everybody into line. A surplus of $150 lying in 
 the association treasury was voted into use, a loan of $300 was ob- 
 tained from college funds, and the Senior class gift of two classes 
 was directed into these channels. With such an assurance as 
 this gave of permanence for a health program the student body was 
 
AN OLD GRAD RETURNS 299 
 
 convinced of the justice of a fee, and four dollars a year was agreed 
 upon. 
 
 "So about a month before school closed groups of student work- 
 ers got busy under the direction of Rose and Dr. Moreland, who 
 had been the chief sponsor of the plan. They worked night and 
 day redecorating these rooms and installing equipment, and at 
 Commencement time the hospital unit was thrown open for in- 
 spection by visitors. You can imagine the pride students have taken 
 in this accomplishment." 
 
 "Yes," said the visitor, "a good example of a co-operative." 
 
 "By the way," he continued, stepping over to the window at the 
 cast, and looking off toward Burritt Gymnasium, "don't you have 
 some new tennis courts that were buijt co-operatively too? Seems 
 to me 1 gave a dollar or so on that a few years ago." 
 
 The tourists left the woman's building, pausing a moment to 
 look over Beaumont Terrace with its fine old trees and shrubs, 
 and to discuss the gullies off beyond. "Same old gullies," said 
 the host, "just as full of romance as ever. Even the new highway 
 cutting through hasn't taken away their charm. And Mrs. Hoiles' 
 sunken garden is even more beautiful than it used to be." 
 
 "Mrs. Hoiles," he added, "has been responsible for a great many 
 changes in gardening throughout the town. She has sponsored 
 a garden club that has created real civic pride in Greenville. You 
 must see Greenville Lake, too, before you leave. That was a 
 great community project." 
 
 As the two men rounded the building, laughter from the east 
 entrance drew their attention to the ping-pong players who were 
 enjoying a match around the long table within. 
 
 "The men down at the other dorm have a ping-pong room of 
 their own up on the top floor," observed the campus resident, "but 
 this newly made room seems to be more popular. Some of the 
 girls can offer pretty stiff competition, too." 
 
 A walk across lots brought them to a grassy terrace above double 
 cement courts, which lay at the rear of the gymnasium, well pro- 
 tected by a substantial retaining wall, and enclosed by unusually 
 well built back stops. 
 
 "Another gift of a Senior class," said the prof, pointing at the 
 back stops. "But the courts were given by all of us," he added. 
 
300 "HAIL TO THEE, OUR ALMA MATER" 
 
 "Every fellow in school and every member of the faculty who could 
 wield a shovel gave a half day's work out here. A good deal like 
 the building of the gym in our day, except on a smaller scale. The 
 promotion and management of it was the work of K. Kline, Paul 
 
 NEW TENNIS COURTS 
 
 McKay and John Schlosser, and called for much hard work and 
 financial resourcefulness. 
 
 "What about your athletic program now?" asked the visitor, 
 as the tour moved on past the brightly costumed tennis players to- 
 ward the gym. "Is it still intramural?" 
 
 "Yes," said his guide. "There is the same periodical demand for 
 intercollegiate sports, but the intra-mural plan is the only plan 
 which accords with the church's policy and it agrees better, too, 
 with our health program. Every student receives a physical exam 
 upon entrance now and is expected to go out for some form of 
 athletics. His athletic activities are planned then in keeping 
 with his energies and interests. 
 
 "Dean Merton Munn, chairman of the athletic committe while 
 he was here, inaugurated a plan whereby each student elects a 
 sport which he hopes to become proficient enough in to continue 
 in later life. For that reason the P. E. department now offers a 
 greater range of sports than ever before. Since Professor Quail 
 came, to devote half his time to physical ed., these activities have 
 been particularly well organized. At the end of his first year he 
 
AN OLD GRAD RETURNS 301 
 
 reported a situation very similar to that during Walter Scott's 
 regime, a round of activities varied enough to engage the en- 
 thusiastic support of almost every member of the student body." 
 
 "Basketball, though, remains the most popular sport," he added. 
 
 A visit to the basketball floor had reminded the old grad of the 
 days when his class had held the title through three years of hard 
 laitling before cheering balconies. As the two stood reminiscing, 
 a steady metallic click-clacking came from some region below, 
 forming an undertone to their conversation that gradually made 
 itself sensed. 
 
 "Yon don't have an underground telegraph service out here, do 
 you?" finally asked the visitor. "I keep hearing strange sounds 
 from below." 
 
 "Oh, that!" exclaimed his old friend, "that's our press. Tower 
 Press, you know. They're in the throes of printing the Vista just 
 now, and working night and day. Charles Cronkhite is the print- 
 er. Have you seen the recent Vistas put out by our press — mighty 
 line work! You'll be interested to know that this Jubilee issue is 
 being done by second generationers. Anabel Schlosser is editor, 
 and Jess Hoffman, son of Bill, is business man." 
 
 After a leisurely visit to the press rooms below and a glance in 
 at the junior primary practice school at the opposite corner of the 
 basement, the two old friends sauntered on down Scott Field 
 toward the auditorium, watching the three or four men already 
 out for Saturday practice at baseball. At the far side of the field 
 a power driven lawn mower smoothed out a velvety green floor for 
 the games of the next week. 
 
 "Be sure to get out for the annual classic of the Preachers-Ped- 
 agogues," said the prof. "I'll find you some baseball togs." 
 
 Turning to his left to look for the one-time tennis courts, the 
 gray haired athlete founaV games of horse shoe and badminton in 
 progress. Two grey squirrels played tag up and down the shade 
 trees at the side, while blue jays and flickers scolded noisily. 
 
 "Good old Saturdays!" he exclaimed, "How I remember them! 
 Somehow spring at Greenville was different from anywhere else 
 in the world. I'd give a lot to have just one day again like those 
 I used to spend out here at the tennis courts. Not a care in the 
 world!" 
 
302 
 
 'HAIL TO THEE, OUR ALMA MATER' 
 
 "Yes, you never know it until it's passed," replied the other gray 
 head. "Now probably that blond baseball player out there is 
 being harried in the back of his consciousness by the thought of a 
 chem lab experiment that's overdue, and thinks he is being robbed 
 
 of his inherent right 
 to be happy. And I 
 suppose those people 
 that you hear sing- 
 ing up ahead there 
 in the chapel think 
 they're being pun- 
 ished in the worst 
 sort of way to be shut 
 in there on a morn- 
 ing like this. But I 
 can think of any num- 
 ber of former a cap- 
 pellans that would be 
 mighty glad to be 
 back this morning 
 singing their hearts 
 out and watching 
 Prof. Woods get a work out in his shirt sleeves." 
 
 They slipped around to the front entrance of LaDue Chapel 
 and quietly found some seats behind the singers. The guest of the 
 campus nodded his pleased approval of the changes in the audi- 
 torium and inspected the metal tags on the backs of the seats 
 around him for some familiar names. 
 
 "It's a very fitting memorial, isn't it?" he whispered. "I wish 
 the Rabbi could see it." 
 
 A cappella practice was about over. As the singers filed out, 
 the two men went to the front to talk to Professor Woods. 
 
 "When did you acquire the organ?" asked the visitor, when 
 greetings were over. 
 
 "In 1938," replied Mr. Woods. "When Professor Mclntyre 
 came that fall we set up a more extensive course in organ than we 
 had ever had before. Professor Irey followed Mclntyre, and the 
 
 THE CHAPEL ORGAN 
 
AN OLD GRAB RETURNS 
 
 303 
 
 organ has been a valuable asset to the music department ever 
 since. We can't yet afford a very pretentious one, but it has served 
 its purpose very well. 
 
 THE MUSIC HALL 
 
 "Let's see," he reflected, "in your day the old vocalion had just 
 about reached the end of its usefulness, hadn't it?" 
 
 "By the way," he continued, "have you been up to see the new 
 Music Hall?" 
 
 "Music Hall?" questioned the guest. "Hadn't heard about that. 
 It's not on this campus, is it?" 
 
 "Not on the campus," was the reply, "but only a block away. 
 Do you remember the house once occupied by Judge Lindley? 
 Later the home of Clarence Hoiles. Just a block west on College 
 Avenue. That was taken over in 1938 and has made a very fine 
 addition to the college plant. 
 
304 
 
 'HAIL TO THEE, OUR ALMA MATER" 
 
 "The second floor has small apartments, which bring in enough 
 rental fees to aid us in paying for the building. It will soon be 
 clear of debt and we can then convert the whole floor into prac- 
 
 GIRLS GLEE CLUB, 1941 
 Back row: Eakin, Floyd, Young, Wickham, Schlosser, Herstine, Gil- 
 lingham, Sugg, Roberts, King, Roth. Third: Walworth, Reid, Killgrove, 
 Newell, Mathewson, Wooden, Morey, Paul, Day, Wilson, Marble, Lam- 
 son. iSecond: Price, McGee, Morris, Summers, Fast, Cook, Noble, 
 Smith. Front: Mayhew, E. Vincent, M. Vincent, Mrs. Irey, Lincicome, 
 Allayaud, Bates. 
 
 tice and lecture rooms. But we are not badly crowded now with a 
 few other rooms available outside." 
 
 Other inquiries about the music department followed. Pro- 
 fessor Woods told about the tenth anniversary of the founding of 
 the a cappella chorus, and of the return of fifty members in 1938 
 for that occasion. The girls' glee club was another subject of 
 interest. This, he said, had become an outstanding musical or- 
 ganization in the last few years. From a small group of inexper- 
 ienced singers under student directors it had gone on under Pro- 
 fessor Woods' supervision to beautifully finished work. Now with 
 Mrs. Irey in charge it gave some of the most perfectly executed 
 and popular programs of the year. 
 
 "Greenville is a singing college, you know," said Mr. Woods. 
 
AN OLD GRAD RETURNS 305 
 
 "This year at least one hundred people are taking sonic part in the 
 \oice program." 
 
 "Time to get on over to Hogue Hall," interrupted the g'tiL. 
 eonsulting his watch, "if we're going to sec President Long this 
 morning." 
 
 At the back of the ivy hung building the visitor paused to 
 inspect the new entrance. 
 
 "Presented by 
 Cincinnati Chapter 
 
 of 
 
 Greenville College 
 
 Alumni 
 
 Juliette Breedlove Hazel A. Peterson 
 
 Ruth Cooper Charles W. Peterson 
 
 Lillian A. Embury Ermina S. Price 
 
 Ruby I. Litherland Vilette D. Rogers 
 
 Hershel Litherland Lefa Z. Snyder 
 
 Clarence H. Snyder 
 1929" 
 he read from the dedicatory plate in the center of the supporting 
 wall. He viewed the symmetrical stone structure with satisfaction 
 and then pointed to the similarly built entrance to the grounds 
 at the west and asked about the donor of it. 
 
 "That was the gift of the class of 1929," replied his friend. 
 "This stone work matches well with the old brick, doesn't it?" 
 was his comment. "Some more special gifts from alumni would 
 do a lot for the campus." 
 
 "Yes," his guide replied eagerly, "if we had fifty alumni as 
 deeply devoted to Greenville's future as a half dozen I might 
 mention, no one would have cause to be ashamed of his Alma 
 Mater. See what Dr. Snyder has done, for example: this gift here, 
 the library memorial, which you'll be seeing, the Zahniser-Snyder 
 scholarship, and other student loan funds, as well as some gener- 
 osities that aren't on record." 
 
 "I hear the library has made great improvement under Miss 
 Dare," said the visiting alumnus. 
 
 "The most effective changes in the history of the institution, so 
 far as the humanities and social sciences are concerned," was the 
 
306 "HAIL TO THEE, OUR ALMA MATER" 
 
 enthusiastic reply. "You see, the science departments got the ad- 
 vantages ten years ago when the gifts went to laboratories and 
 equipment. But now we people who are dependent upon books 
 for building strong scholarship are going to have our chance. I 
 can see the influence of it already, and we're not nearly through. 
 
 "Under Miss Dare's supervision the library is rapidly becoming 
 adequate for our curriculum. Already in this school year over 
 $1200 have been invested in books — and invested wisely. We have 
 an unusual librarian in Miss Dare. Not every college can boast 
 of a librarian who has had years of study in the classics, almost suf- 
 ficient for a doctorate, and who will redirect that highly trained 
 intellect to the task of building a first class library. It was her 
 sense of mission to Greenville that led her to leave her chosen field, 
 where she was highly successful, and spend several years training 
 herself for this work." 
 
 The east wing of Hogue Hall, which had been occupied by a 
 library even before the student days of the old grad, showed no 
 great physical transformation. To be sure, it was now a com- 
 plete unit with a circulation desk facing the entrance and with 
 the three rooms on either side of the hall arranged for the max- 
 imum of efficient and pleasurable use. But it was hard to believe 
 at first glance that this small space could contain so many reference 
 works, periodicals, and books of every character as were described 
 by the librarian. 
 
 In the five years since Dr. and Mrs. Snyder had given the Zahniser 
 memorial gift the degree of usability of the reference library had 
 practically doubled. In the last two years, she said, the total col- 
 lection had been increased by one-sixth — from 12,000 to 14,000 
 books, every addition having been made with a view to building 
 a well rounded collection according to the best library standards. 
 The total expenditures for the library now were approximately 
 three and one half times what they were six or seven years ago. 
 
 It was interesting to hear of the many generous gifts which had 
 come from friends. The most recent and, also, the largest ever 
 given was the personal library of J. F. Doering of Evansville, 
 Indiana, an excellent collection of literature and criticism which 
 had greatly benefited the English department. 
 
 An inspection of the changes which were taking place in this 
 
AN OLD GRAD RETURNS 
 
 307 
 
 domain brought a realization that soon expansion within the pres- 
 ent narrow limits could go no further. Greenville would have 
 to have a new home for its library before long. There was some- 
 thing in the very spirit of the place that stirred the old grad and 
 
 p-SKteWd 
 
 
 COMMERCE DEPARTMENT, 1937 
 Back row: McKak, Tosi, Lockard, K. Kline, K. Mayhew, Roth, Schultz, 
 Green, R. Mayhew, L. Kline. Second: Andrews, Miller, Ambrose, 
 Rickard, Young, Biddulph, Bircher, Groves, Pierce. First: Murphy, 
 Breitenbach, Sanders, Smith, Corman, A. Wafer, J. Wafer, Bronson, 
 Frick, Brewer. 
 
 made him exclaim, "Oh, how I wish I had a fortune to leave." 
 
 "Well, even so small a gift as $10,000 would do." The guide 
 beamed ingratiatingly. "This new library, it is hoped, will be 
 built by ten such donations. We already have the promise of two, 
 and architectural plans are tentatively made for a building to be 
 erected out where the old tennis courts were." 
 
 As the two stepped back into the hall the bulletin boards on 
 either side caught their eyes. "Let's see what's going on tonight." 
 The visitor scanned the board for familiar names. "I can't seem 
 to remember what club met on Saturday night in my day." 
 
 "Here's tonight's announcement." His host pointed to the 
 notice posted by the Gospel League and explained the functions 
 of each of the three chapters. 
 
 "Life Service League is doing an especially fine piece of work 
 now," he said. It's a layman's organization, you know, that sup- 
 
w m y -p 
 
 S C * w 
 
 u 
 M^tt oc/2 
 
AN OLD GRAD RETURNS 309 
 
 plements the work of the Volunteers and Ministerial, and sponsors 
 every type of Christian service. That means, you see, that al- 
 most every student on the campus who has God's kingdom at heart 
 meets in some sort of conference on Saturday nights. It has be- 
 come a great factor in unifying spiritual forces and, too, in con- 
 serving new recruits. 
 
 "I don't believe you would find any change in the spiritual tone 
 of the campus," he continued. "If anything," he added, "spirit- 
 uality is more pervasive now than in our day. I was looking over 
 the Senior class the other day as they sat in chapel and I was im- 
 pressed by the fact that at least half of the forty-one are planning 
 definitely upon some form of Christian work. I have no fears as 
 to the contribution that this student generation will make to the 
 Kingdom. They have strong convictions and depth of consecra- 
 tion to the hard task they're facing." 
 
 "What's become of the literary societies?" the old grad searched 
 the boards in vain. "Here's some Greek words — Agora — and 
 what's this? E-1-p-i-n-i-c-e? Ah! for the good old names of Phoenix 
 and Aretanian! Remember the fine posters and programs we 
 used to put out?" 
 
 Loyally the spokesman for both old and new defended the flour- 
 ishing debate clubs. To uphold the title now in the state, he said, 
 meant a long and hard fought battle. No longer was debate a 
 matter of a forty mile jaunt across country to some evening foray. 
 True, one didn't have to fear bogging down in Illinois mud and 
 staying out all night to the consternation o'f the dean of women. 
 But debates with McKendree and Blackburn were mere beginnings 
 now in a long campaign. 
 
 The program opened before Christmas and extended up to 
 Eastertime and took the representatives of both Agora and Elpinice 
 — modern women debaters could hold their own with the men — 
 to tournament after tournament, where they debated four or five 
 teams in one day. Under Professor Quail's supervision the squads 
 had been pushing up their record until they were a match for some 
 of the best teams in the state. 
 
 "But how about the hoi polloi who don't go out for debate?" 
 The old grad continued to mourn the passing of Aretanian and 
 Phoenix. 
 
310 
 
 'HAIL TO THEE, OUR ALMA MATER' 
 
 "We have two other clubs meeting on Thursday evenings which 
 absorb a good many of that number," was the answer, "and, dur- 
 ing the same hour, band or orchestra or whatever musical organ- 
 
 DEBATE SQUAD, 1942 
 Page, Fine, Barton, Gaines, Ballew, Tipps, Covey, Willard. 
 
 izations we have practice. And then this year all the musicians 
 have formed a new club called L' Accord which meets once a 
 month." 
 
 "You see," explained the prof, "our point system has helped to 
 force out all that competitive struggle of extra-curricular activities 
 that used to vex the faculty. Now a man takes his choice. If 
 he's a debater he tries out for Agora; if he's a writer he tries for 
 Scriblerus; and if he has scientific interests he goes into Aescul- 
 apian. This science club is a descendant of the old Pre-Med and 
 it has fine programs and a very enthusiastic membership, with 
 Professor Hamann as sponsor. 
 
 "Our clubs are all of them contributing a great deal to campus 
 life. They bring excellent speakers and entertainers that are 
 beneficial to everyone, and they give students some very satisfying 
 outlets for their energies. 
 
AN OLD GRAD RETURNS 
 
 311 
 
 "I believe you would find a change, too, in student co-operation 
 with the faculty in committees that direct major campus activities. 
 This development has come with the growth of our student associa- 
 
 AElSCULAPIAN, 1941 
 Back row: Long, Wooden, Morgan, McCready, Roberts, Gilchrist, Al- 
 layaud. Second: Sanders, Fortner, Reese, Craig, Dickerson, Seneker, 
 Tosi, Shafer, Netzler, Doctor Moreland. Front: Paris, Meade, Cook, 
 Vaug.ht, Harvie, Reid, Schumaker. 
 
 tion. We have a social life committee, for instance, and a com- 
 mittee on religious life, that are doing excellent work." 
 
 The two old friends had saved their visit to the president's of- 
 fice until the last. On their way they stopped a moment at Dean 
 Ahern's office across the hall to see something of the changes there. 
 Particularly interesting to the visitor were the placement bureau 
 and the student advisory service, which he learned had been in the 
 process of developing during th£ brief administrations of Professor 
 Worbois and Dean M. Munn, and were now being perfected by 
 Dean Ahem. A system by which a student could be guided on 
 every matter relevant to his college career from the time his 
 Freshman I. Q. was discovered to the day when he held his diploma 
 in hand made a great impression upon this novice in modern 
 educational techniques. Another development which struck him 
 as significant was the large number of teachers who now held 
 doctor's degrees. 
 
 "Surely," he remarked, "there ought not to be as many misfits 
 in the world as there were in my day. With wise counselors 
 
AN OLD GRAD RETURNS 
 
 313 
 
 through a student's four years and a placement bureau to help 
 him find a position afterward, he has no excuse, has he, for being 
 a square peg in a round hole." 
 
 "It remains to be seen," smiled 
 the Dean. "We don't claim to 
 be omniscient." 
 
 President Long was occupied. 
 There was a wait of a few min- 
 utes outside his door. 
 
 "I suppose you know," said 
 the prof, "that Dr. Long was 
 the head of the chemistry de- 
 partment at the time Dr. Mars- 
 ton was called to the office of 
 bishop, and that he was also — " 
 
 "Why," broke in the visitor, 
 "did President Marston leave 
 Greenville? I have never been 
 able to understand why a man 
 with such unusual qualifications 
 for the presidency should have 
 
 left his first calling." 
 
 , <T7 ., & D ALVIN A. AHERN 
 
 For the same reason as Pres- 
 ident Hogue left Greenville," replied the informant. "He placed 
 the call of his church above the claims of his secular profession. 
 He had no question as > to the primacy of the call. No one could 
 dissuade him." 
 
 "But there was no question, either," he added, "in the minds 
 of the board members or the faculty as to who his successor should 
 be, when he refused to consider their pleas that he stay. Everyone 
 immediately turned to Dr. Long. He had served as executive 
 assistant to Dr. Marston for three years and had given evidence 
 of such versatile abilities that he was the unanimous choice. 
 
 "You should have heard Bishop Marston's presentation of him 
 at the inauguration in 1936. He summed up then all that we felt 
 about the new president. 
 
 "Wait a minute," he exclaimed, "maybe I can get a copy of the 
 Record that was printed at that time. A good many are kept on 
 
314 "HAIL TO THEE, OUR ALMA MATER" 
 
 file, and, if I can find one, you will have President Long's inaugural 
 
 address too." 
 
 He stepped to the desk and asked a clerk to run through the files 
 
 for the issue.. Successful in his request, he returned to his friend 
 
 to scan the pages for the speech of presentation. Together they read: 
 Nine years ago this young man joined the faculty of Greenville 
 College, turning aside at that time from more attractive openings, 
 professionally and financially. For these nine years ihe has been 
 weaving his big soul into the texture of Greenville College. First 
 as the head of the Department of Chemistry he promptly established 
 himself as an artist-teacher. Later, as second executive of the 
 staff he ably carried major responsibilities. Throughout he has 
 ever kept in clear focus the central value of cliis project we call 
 Greenville College, namely, the student. 
 
 Dr. Long has demonstrated his ability and won recognition else- 
 where than on this campus. As a college and university student 
 he was a leader in scholarship, as his election to Phi Beta Kappa 
 attests. In graduate study he won distinction as well as a degree, 
 as witnesses his membership in Sigma Xi, national research honor 
 society. While on this campus his intellectual interests have gone 
 beyond the immediate task, and in consequence his writings have 
 appeared in learned publications and he has contributed to scientific 
 programs. 
 
 The conversation continued to center about the unusual qualities 
 of the man who was now in the sixth year of his presidency: his 
 insistence from the beginning that a college is Christian only when 
 Christianity permeates its whole program, when the atmosphere 
 of every classroom is such that it enables the student "to face life 
 squarely and come to grips with it"; his openmindedness in rec- 
 ognizing this objective and in formulating new policies for accom- 
 plishing it; his vision for the future, which had broken down the 
 inertia of hundreds of the alumni and infused them with a new 
 loyalty to their college; his dynamic energy which had been 
 poured into unbelievably long hours of work; his spirit of devo- 
 tion and self-sacrifice which inspired all those associated with him 
 to like efforts. 
 
 There was some talk, too, of Mrs. Long, of her interest in stu- 
 dents, her enthusiastic support of campus activities, her consecra- 
 tion to a life that was hard and exacting. Both she and her hus- 
 band held their degrees from the University of Kansas. 
 
AN OLD GRAD RETURNS 
 
 315 
 
 The appointment of President Long, it seemed, had come when 
 the time was ripe for an emergence from the period of financial 
 reverses which had overtaken Greenville College along with most 
 other institutions of the thirties. 
 
 The depression had begun 
 shortly after President Burritt's 
 death. Subscription lists al- 
 ways have a way of evaporating 
 even in the best of seasons, but 
 under the financial pressure of 
 that period the shrinkage was 
 terrific. And along with that 
 went nation-wide depreciation 
 in invested endowment funds. 
 Operating expenses, too, during 
 the period were unmanageable. 
 
 The financial picture which 
 the visiting grad carried in to 
 the office of the president, as he 
 was summoned to the interview, 
 conditioned him for listening 
 with eager attentiveness to the 
 facts and figures which Dr. Long 
 gave at his request. LENA W. LONG 
 
 His first inquiry had to do with the present indebtedness of the 
 institution. In answer to this question President Long got out his 
 report given at the recent meeting with examiners of North Central 
 Association and pointed out a few tables of figures. Here was 
 to be seen the record of a steady reduction through five years of 
 the debt of almost $81,000 which encumbered the books when he 
 came to office. More than $36,000 had been applied during this 
 time, so that now the total indebtedness stood in round figures at 
 $45,000. 
 
 Much credit, he said, for this achievement should be given to 
 George Kline, the field agent in charge of the campaign for debt 
 liquidation, during the years of 1936 to 1939. Pledges for liquida- 
 tion during that period amounted to $42,000 and debt reduction 
 amounted to $18,000 and better. 
 
581,000. 
 
 1936 
 
 
 
 
 §72,000. 
 1937 
 
 §70,000 
 1938 
 
 
 
 $63,000. 
 1939 
 
 
 
 $5$ 000. 
 194-0 
 
 
 
 550,000 
 19*1 
 
 
 545.000. 
 
 Jon. 13 
 194-Z 
 
 'Retirement of Indebtedness 
 
 55S 
 
 s,» ff [55? 
 
 iM^Tiaa-l u 
 
 
 ><)£♦ iVf »«)** i«)*7 i<)l« 
 
 57370 
 
 fc£6 
 
 &££ 
 
 iMOO 
 
 1937 1OJ6 i^i") '"HO ' Q t-I 
 
 $aeao 
 
 Budget Operation 
 

 
 1729 
 
 Calendar 
 Year 1941 
 
 
 
 1377 
 I940-*41 
 
 
 1290 
 1939-40 
 
 u66 
 1937- \38 
 
 1156 
 1938-39 
 
 Number of Donors 
 
 
 
 525.015. 
 
 Calendar 
 *ar!94l 
 
 
 
 517.641. 
 1940-41 
 
 
 
 S 11.800. 
 1938-39 
 
 §12.431. 
 1939- '40 
 
 
 59.373. 
 1936- '37 
 
 59.149. 
 1937-36 
 
 37696. 
 1935-36 
 
 Total Donations 
 
@ ; 
 
 IP^ 
 
AN OLD GRAD RETURNS 319 
 
 Another five years summary which interested the visitor was the 
 report on net assets which had gone from $342,000 in 1936 to 
 $382,000 in 1941-42, an increase of nearly $40,000. Still another 
 comparative study presented the operating budget through the 
 five years' period. Each year the budget had been balanced, once 
 with a surplus of only $52, (1939-40), but each time safely out 
 of the red. 
 
 The most impressive statement had to do with the increase in 
 total income, exclusive of student fees. In 1936 the figures had 
 stood at $13,710.51. At the end of the calendar year, 1941, the 
 total receipts were $45,837.11. 
 
 "I suppose," said the visitor, "that the donations through the 
 Living Endowment League account in part for this great change." 
 
 President Long responded by showing him some of the charts 
 which he had used in presenting graphically to audiences all over 
 the country the forward movement of the endowment campaign. 
 Here the old grad viewed as in panorama an amazing story of the 
 achievement of men and women who had become fully aware of 
 their personal responsibility for supporting the Puritan pattern 
 of Christian education which had been maintained for the many 
 years at Greenville. 
 
 It was the custom of most of these men and women to consider 
 themselves stewards rather than owners of the material possessions 
 which came into their hands. In this function they had tried al- 
 ways to act scrupulously, but not always had they acted systematic- 
 ally in meeting the claim which Christian education rightfully 
 should make upon every steward of the Kingdom. Now at last they 
 recognized this claim and welcomed a plan whereby they might 
 pledge a definite portion of their income each year throughout 
 their lives to a program which they were convinced should be 
 perpetuated. 
 
 The five dollar unit gift they felt was the best scheme ever pre- 
 sented for regular and reasonable giving. From the day in late 
 January, 1940, when this plan was offered to a representative group 
 of alumni, church members, local business men and trustees, to 
 the day in mid-November, 1941, when it reached its phenomenal 
 conclusion with the goal of 5000 units reached, it had appealed 
 to the judgment and the enthusiasm of donors as nothing ever 
 
320 "HAIL TO THEE, OUR ALMA MATER" 
 
 had before. It guaranteed the regular income of $25,000 a year, 
 essential to the operation of a fully accredited and fully adequate 
 liberal arts college; but it guaranteed something even more im- 
 portant, the prayerful support of Greenville College by two 
 thousand Christian men and women. It represented a continuing 
 belief in a philosophy of education which had originated in the 
 moral earnestness and cultural breadth of Puritan pioneers and 
 which had been vital enough to evolve during the passing years 
 its own unique pattern. 
 
 "The campaign for Endowment League members is continuing," 
 said President Long, "for the establishment of a permanent annual 
 income of $25,000 requires a membership considerably beyond that 
 reached last November. Aready we have 2100 donors, that is, 
 300 beyond the November list." 
 
 "Upon this basis," said he, "we have been fully accredited by 
 the University of Illinois. Here is their statement." He pro- 
 duced the report rendered after a recent inspection and the visit- 
 or read the following classification: 
 
 Class 'A' through June, 1943, with the understanding that the 
 
 continuation of the rating beyond this date shall be conditioned 
 
 upon a satisfactory showing of continued progress in the financial 
 
 support of the college. 
 
 "I guess that puts it up to us who want Greenville College to go 
 on, doesn't it," the old grad reflected. 
 
 "Yes," said President Long. "Yes, we're not through. Not by 
 a long way. We haven't yet attained the goals set by North 
 Central Association and even after we have done so we must keep 
 moving forward. We must not fail these young men and women 
 who are going out to meet the most difficult problems, I believe, 
 that have ever confronted our graduates. They deserve the very 
 best preparation we can offer them." 
 
 The old grad left the office of the president deep in thought. 
 He was silent as he walked beside his friend. 
 
 Finally he spoke. "I've been trying to straighten out my per- 
 spective." 
 
 "I've been living in the past most of the morning," he explained, 
 
AN OLD GRAD RETURNS 321 
 
 "and it's done something for my point of view. You know, you 
 can't get the right slant on the present unless you understand what's 
 been happening in the past. And it seems as though now all at 
 once past, present and future have slid into place. 
 
 "You remember what you told me this morning, as we were 
 coming up to breakfast, about Almira Blanchard Morse and her 
 piano, the first piano that came to Bond county over a century 
 ago. We romanticize that and make it a symbol of culture break- 
 ing in upon the crudeness of pioneer life. The historians have a 
 good deal to say about that aspect of early educational move- 
 ments in the Middle West. 
 
 "Some Illinois colleges I've visited have whole rooms full of 
 lovely antiques: walnut furniture, hand-made tapestries, fine old 
 portraits. I suppose the collectors think they've saved the best 
 of pioneer civilization. 
 
 "But there's another feature of early schools like Almira that 
 is seldom mentioned, or if it is, it's too often with derision. And 
 nobody seems concerned about saving it. 
 
 "Almira evidently wanted music and art and literature and 
 every cultural value that was provided for women in her time, 
 but, from what I've heard about her, there were some things that 
 mattered more than these, for the reason that they guaranteed the 
 very continuance of culture. One of them was a well-founded 
 belief in a personal God, and another was the use of some disci- 
 plines for deepening one's consciousness of God and strengthening 
 one's moral fiber. 
 
 "That's what President Hogue wanted, too, when he accepted 
 the presidency of Greenville College — not simply to raise the cul- 
 tural level of Free Methodism arid the holiness movement in the 
 Middle West, but to develop complete Christian stature. You 
 don't get spiritual stature without discipline any more than you get 
 physical stature without obeying the rules. 
 
 "Now, from all I can learn about Greenville, spiritual values 
 still have first place in its accepted philosophy of education, and 
 some disciplines for achieving them are enforced. 
 
 "That ought to mean something for the future. You have told 
 me of the moral earnestness that characterizes this student gen- 
 eration, and I've seen for myself evidences of means toward a 
 
322 "HAIL TO THEE, OUR ALMA MATER" 
 
 broader culture than has hitherto been possible. The Free Meth- 
 odist church will undoubtedly benefit greatly by this vitally 
 Christian culture, as it has in the past, but the results ought to be 
 much farther reaching than that. 
 
 "I don't know of any period in history when there was any 
 greater need for men and women whose philosophy of life makes 
 them superior to their material environment. I can't think of 
 any place today that is too difficult for young people who have 
 learned in the educational process 'to endure hardness as good 
 soldiers'. I can't think of any situation that wouldn't be bettered 
 1 y thinkers who know what they believe and why they believe, 
 nor of any situation that won't yield eventually to the winsome- 
 ness of truly Christian culture. There is no need so imperative 
 right now as the need for Christians who through disciplined in- 
 tellects and wills have reached their full spiritual stature and arc 
 ready to lead the blind masses back to those values which they have 
 lost and which alone can give them certainty and security and 
 real freedom."