Berea College: An Illustrated History

4. The Telescope and the Spade

The Telescope and the Spade William Goodell Frost, 1892–1920 It is the old story of the New England college as a civilizer, and a church and state builder, only it is in a more interesting, and in many respects a more important, region. It is nothing less than the hand of the Lord which has made this opening. Think of the son of the owner of two hundred slaves sitting in the same class with a colored student! Think of a young man speaking at a temperance meeting when his brother is in the penitentiary for “moonshining.” The Western frontier has fled away, and this is our last great piece of educational pioneering. william goodell frost, 1895 These same characteristics also proved to be extremely durable in the turbulent times that were still to come. Any examination of William G. Frost’s administration at Berea must include two remarkable events that cast long shadows over the smaller tumults of faculty governance , curriculum revisions, student life, and even fund-raising. The first is Frost’s “discovery” of Appalachia, a topic that dominated college publicity literature after 1895 and significantly informed the college’s response to the racist backlash in Kentucky against interracial education. Under Frost’s leadership, Berea developed separate academic departments to meet a vast array of student educational needs. The college took its educational mission to mountain people through extension programs, though Frost’s reforms did little to expand the College Department . The second event is the segregationist Day Law, passed in 1904, which forced A NEW world opened for Berea College with the second, unanimous election of William Goodell Frost to the presidency. Frost’s opportunity came out of the controversies that had shredded William B. Stewart’s unhappy administration , yet many believed that brighter prospects were in store for the college under Frost’s leadership. Fully committed to Berea’s interracial mission, Frost found that financial support for interracial education was in decline. Still, he affirmed that serving the “cause of Christ” in this uncommon way was the supreme aim of the school. Berea College, Frost forcefully argued , was a demonstration that what was right was also practical. During his twentyeight -year presidency, Frost influenced every aspect of campus life from building design to curricular reforms to student rules and regulations. His charismatic and forceful personality were important assets in Frost’s exhaustive fund-raising efforts. 75 Berea to separate the races and to make painful choices in salvaging the college’s fundamental mission. Frost’s response to the Day Law and his perceived lack of commitment to Berea’s interracial work led to severe criticism from Fee and others. The Day Law and northern philanthropy’s interest in supporting education for southern mountaineers were symptomatic of larger forces in American life: the rising tide of racism and Jim Crow legislation in the South on the one hand, and the distrust of “foreign” immigration to the United States on the other. In concentrating Berea’s educational efforts on Appalachia, President Frost chose to present and remember the college’s mission and history in ways that were significantly different from those of Fee and Fairchild. The Crusader William G. Frost was born to the Reverend Lewis P. Frost and his wife, Maria Goodell Frost, on July 2, 1854, in Leroy, New York. William Frost’s parents were abolitionists, and their home served as a way station on the Underground Railroad. Frost’s grandfather was William Goodell, the notable New York abolitionist and journalist. His parents had both been influenced as students by Finney at Oberlin. Lewis Frost pastored a strong antislavery church, and both he and Maria were temperance advocates. Maria Frost wrote a tract, “Ten Reasons Why Women Should Vote,” and her sister, Lavinia Goodell, was the first woman to practice law before the Wisconsin Supreme Court. This reformist lineage and the exciting days of his youth profoundly influenced William Frost, who in later years regarded himself as a crusader and discoverer.1 Frost was educated at Oberlin, where he graduated in 1876. At Oberlin he was influenced by literary society meetings, the lectures and addresses of prominent speakers , and the young people’s prayer meeting. In 1877, after his entrance into Oberlin’s School of Theology, Frost was invited to teach Greek. Daunted at the prospect, Frost studied at Harvard under the guidance of President Charles William Eliot, Professor Charles Eliot Norton, and others. He spent some time...