Earlham Recollected

EARLHAM RECOLLECTED53 time is confronted by a wilderness of the mind and spirit. The chief question is no longer how to live with nature and with one another in a comparatively small area, but how to live with one's fellows on the other side of the earth. This most urgent problem of our generation and those to come—the development of a world society—presents an opportunity that is unparalleled. By every means at its command Earlham College, with renewed energy, is addressing itself to this opportunity and this responsibility. EARLHAM RECOLLECTED I. My Earlham Days By Thomas Raeburn White, Class of 1896 MY RECOLLECTION of Earlham goes back to a time when as a very small child I was taken there to see my aunts and uncles graduate. At that time the exercises were held in the grove to the west of the College. I have little recollection of it except seeing the white dresses of the young women as they gave their orations in a setting of unusual sylvan beauty. When I was a little older my father became principal of the preparatory department of the College and we lived just off the edge of the campus on the National Road and later upon what was then called Central Avenue, now College Avenue. The College buildings at that time were only two: Earlham Hall and the observatory. Earlham Hall then had a cupola on top which some of the old prints show. It was partially destroyed by fire while we lived on the National Road just across from the campus, and instead of repairing it, the College decided to remove it, which decidedly improved the general appearance of Earlham Hall. It was commonly rumored that the fire had been caused by the careless act of a student who had gone to the cupola to smoke, in violation of the college rules ; whether or not this was true, I do not know, but I understood one of the students about that time was invited to seek other fields of usefulness. Joseph Moore was then President of the College and Eli and Mahalah Jay were prominent in its activities. All of the classes Vol. 36, Autumn 1947 54 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION were, of course, held in Earlham Hall and there was one quite large room in which general meetings of the College took place, including religious meetings. As substantially all my aunts and uncles graduated from Earlham , I visited it from time to time, but had no more intimate knowledge of it until I entered as a student in the fall of 1892. By then Lindley Hall had been built and also Parry Hall, which still stands. Joseph John Mills was President, former President Joseph Moore having resigned and confined himself to his scientific work and his teaching. The museum had been greatly enlarged since I had known it as a child; I remember hearing when we lived in Michigan (where my father was then principal of Raisin Valley Seminary) about the discovery of the fossil beaver Castoroides ohioensis. This was considered a great triumph for Professor Moore as indeed it was, and brought the Earlham museum into notice even more than the possession and mounting of the skeleton of the mastodon, which occupied the place of honor. Professor William N. Trueblood was then head of the English Department ; Professor Cyrus W. Hodgin of the History Department and Professor David W. Dennis of the Science Department. AU of these men were very inspiring teachers and it was a great privilege to be in their classes. Dr. Adolph Gerber was the teacher of German and French; although he was rather eccentric and caused a great deal of amusement by some of his misunderstandings of American customs, he was a thorough taskmaster and in some respects I considered his training the most valuable that I had at Earlham. He exacted perfect work from his students. Professor William B. Morgan was the head of the Mathematics Department, but Professor Robert L. Sackett had recently been appointed to be his assistant. Professor Mariana Brown was the head of the Latin Department, ably assisted by Miss Mary Lyon Coggeshall, who afterwards became...