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The pride of the village and the source of
much of its fame and prosperity, is the college located in its midst
The town of Westfield, the name of which the college bears,
had little except its topography to mark it as desirable for a seat
of learning. Small, its inhabitants manifesting no special
enthusiasm in the cause of higher education, without railroad
connection, one can but wonder that it drew or cared to thaw a
college to its midst. But in and about the village there were some
spirits whose enterprise and energy made them superior to the
adverse elements in a country hardly freed from the social
hindrances of pioneer days, and the institution was founded. Wise or
unwise as the location may have seemed at first, it now appears
probable that all objectors will be constrained to yield approval as
its merits become more and more manifest. As the heads and hands and
means of a cultivated people bring out the possibilities of the
surroundings and turn the whole suburbs for miles around into a very
garden of fruits and flowers, men will cease to criticise. And these
things are coming to pass by rapid increments. As is usual, the
college, by its attractions and repulsions, and its instruction, has
made a great improvement in the intellectual and aesthetic tone of
the community, and this reacting in favor of the college has given
it the strong moral support of its home constituency.
The forerunner of The college was the “Westfield
Seminary,” out of which the college grew so directly that the
two appear as one, all the property and assets of every kind
belonging to the former having been made to more to the latter.
Three years of successful service had been done by the seminary,
when the college was founded. The charter was granted by a special
act of the Legislature, passed February 15, 1865,in which were named
as incorporators and first board of trustees, Walton C. Smith,
Alexander Helton, David Ross, Samuel Mills,
Hiram Elweli. Edmund R. Connolly, Daniel Evinger,
and J. H. Coons. Section 9, authorizes the trustees “to
establish departments for the study of any and all of the liberal
professions; to confer such degrees as are usually conferred in
similar colleges in the United States in the learned arts and
sciences;” and further pro vides for the establishment of
departments for the education of disabled Union soldiers, for ladies
for preparatory instruct and for pupils of the district school, of
which privileges the last named and that relative to the soldiers
have never been used.
Originally this work was undertaken by the
Lower Wabash Conference of the United Brethren in Christ. Afterward,
in the year 1865, the Central Illinois Conference, of the same
denomination, united in the undertaking in 1866, the Upper Wabash
Conference allied it to the enterprise, but after three years
withdrew for the purpose of building up an institution within its
own territory. In 1866, the Illinois Conference, and in 1867, the
Southern Illinois Mission Conference assumed a share of the
responsibility of sustaining this cause. In the aggregate these
conferences occupy perhaps four fifths of the territory of the State
of Illinois, together with a considerable area of middle-western
Indiana. Throughout this extended area of country members of the
Church of the United Brethren in Christ are found in pretty large
numbers, and this is the people who own the college and stand first
under obligation to sustain it. Yet, it must be said that in its
brief career it has been favored with an encouraging amount of
patronage from undenominational quarters, as well as from sister
denominations. Nor this only; but generous donations and bequests have been granted it by
persons not denominationally interested, but approving of its
principles, plans and effects.
Its benefactions have mostly been of
moderate amounts from hearts that followed them with their prayers,
and have been gathered by the solicitations of laborious itinerant
agents, a little here and a little there. One class of its funds has
gone to provide buildings, furnish apparatus, libraries and
cabinets. Another is set aside as an endowment, the principal to be
kept forever sacred, the interest to be currently employed to
support teachers. The former has not been adequate to its wants,
though its managers have prudently concluded to endure the lack of
things desired rather than carry a heavy debt far outreaching their
assets, Of its endowment fund, which amounts to $85,000, only a part
is yet available. A system of money-raising by the sale of
scholarships was early introduced, and has not been discontinued.
For $300, perpetual tuition for one pupil is guaranteed. For $200,
tuition for a family of children, with no limitation as to number in
attendance at any time, is guaranteed. For $100, tuition for one
pupil at a time for two years is provided, and for $50, paid in
advance, one pupil is provided tuition for two years and a half. Of
these proceeds all, except those from the sale of perpetual
scholarships, are used for current purposes, while those from the
sale of perpetual scholarships are held as a part of the endowment
fund. These scholarships are all negotiable except those for family
tuition.
The work of instruction began in the old
United Brethren Church edifice, situated in the village of
Westfield. In 1863, the first seminary building was erected; a
substantial brick, two stories high, sixty feet east and west by
forty feet north and south, with a belfry. Its upper story was
devoted to chapel purposes, the lower to recitation rooms and the
janitor. In 1867, this building was enlarged by an addition on the
west, which is seventy-five feet north and south by forty east and
west. It also, is a two story brick and contains a lecture room,
society ball, and library room on the lower floor, and two society
halls, an art gallery, and a recitation room above. The structure as
thus improved may be described as being 100 feet long east and west,
forty feet wide, with extensions forty feet by seventeen and a half,
placed on both the north and south sides of the west end. This
building is now the principal center of operations, and, although
devoid of architectural elegance it has well served its purpose, and
is only now beginning to be felt to be too limited in capacity. In
1872, adjacent property was purchased as a site for a ladies’
boarding hall. The two story dwelling al ready upon it was enlarged,
and comfortable rooms were provided for the accommodation of a
number of ladies. This is a wooden structure, designed to answer the
present need, but will be superseded by a much larger and more
finished edifice upon the same ground. Here the lady attendants of
the school board, under the protection of a steward’s family,
selected with care, and also under the direct supervision of a lady
connected with the faculty. Gentlemen find homes among the families
of the community. The college campus consists of a wooded plat
containing five acres, handsomely elevated on the east, where the
main building stands. The grounds attached to the ladies’ hall,
somewhat adorned with shrubbery, contain two acres. The cost of the
college buildings is estimated in round numbers at $40,000.
As stated elsewhere, the original of
Westfield College was Westfield Seminary. At first no
design of founding a college was entertained; stimulated by demand,
it grew into the latter. Prior to the formal organization of a
faculty, prior even to the charter, instruction had been carried
forward over college ground, and the first graduate received his
degree before a faculty was regularly formed or a president elected.
The professors in the faculty do not now confine themselves
exclusively to college classes, but take charge of any requiring to
be taught. Though this is not the cost desirable mode, necessity
pointed it out, and experience shows it more tolerable than a
theoretical view would anticipate.
The following is a tabular view of past
and present instructors beginning with the seminary:
TABLE OF COLLEGE INSTRUCTORS.
No change in the presidency of the college
has occurred for fourteen years, the first incumbent, Samuel B.
Allen still occupying that position.
Two courses of study have been honored
with degrees, which are designated as classical and scientific. The
latter formerly occupied about two years less than the former, but
within the last three years it has been extended so as to embrace
two years more work than previously. That there are two courses
instead of one is not from the unbiased choice of those who provided
it, so much as from the stern dictates of the situation. A large
number of students, by having the shorter course and inferior degree
placed before them, are induced to struggle for this, while in its
absence, deeming it hopeless to strive for the superior degrees,
they would abandon their studies much earlier. How ever, though this
gain from the shorter course may be secured by few, it is probable
that there are many who, lazily selecting this course, are thus
seduced from the more extended one, There is no special course for
ladies, both sexes having equal privileges and being decorated with
the same degree. For the encouragement of persons who are hindered
from completing either graduating course, a brief list of studies
deemed most essential to prepare for the work of teaching in the
district schools has been marked out, the mastering of which
entitles to a certificate from the faculty. Beside this, since 1870,
a normal class has been conducted, where all who are willing are
trained by such exercises as are adapted to aid them in con ducting
and teaching public schools.
Up to this time the preparatory work has
not been conducted under a separate management from the college. All
students have been under the same laws, executed by a single
authority, and to a great extent under the same instructors. No
literary societies belong to this department, the preparatory
students uniting with the same societies as those of the college.
The age of twelve is required for admission to this department.
Co-education of the sexes has been
practiced herb from the first. in point of numbers the attendance of
ladies has always fallen short of that of gentleman.
On the completion of the classical course
of study the degree of Bachelor of Arts is conferred regardless of
sex. Master of Arts follows in course after three years of
uprightness and labor in a scholarly way. Bachelor of Science and
Master of Science are granted in the same way -with reference to the
scientific course. The privilege of conferring honorary degrees has
been but sparingly exercised— to two gentlemen, has been accorded
the title Doctor of Divinity, and to three the honorary one of
Master of Arts.
From certain societies that had previously
existed, in 1869 two literary societies were organized, under the
names of Zetagathean and Colomentian. With an eligible
hall as signed to each, they both sprang into active life, each of
them proving an aid to the other by “provoking to good works.” The
Fhilalethean society is composed of lady members, the others
of gentlemen. The Choral society of Westfield college has existed
for a number of years. None of these societies are in any sense
secret societies, nor are any allowed in connection with the
college. Each of the societies have small libraries, and the college
one of about a thousand volumes.*
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