KALAMAZOO COLLEGE, KALAMAZOO, MICH.

Sketch prepared in December, 1889, by Rev. SAMUEL HASKELL, D. D., one of board of trustees of Kalamazoo College.

This institution is the denominational one of the Baptists of Michigan. Kalamazoo, its seat, is a rapidly growing city of about 20,000 inhabitants, midway between Detroit and Chicago, on the Michigan Central Railroad. The natural beauty of the place has received rare adornment from the refined taste and wealth of the citizens. The college site is an elevated, undulating grove of some 20 acres, centrally situated inside of the west line of the corporation and commanding a fine prospect of the city and the valley of the Kalamazoo River.

The college has three commodious and substantial brick buildings, one of which in addition to its public rooms affords dormitory privileges for male students, and another is a boarding home for girls under the superintendence of the lady principal. To the table of the latter students of the other sex are also received.

The departments of the institution are both preparatory and colle giate, open in all their courses alike to students of either sex.

The history of this educational interest dates from the coming of Rev. Thomas W. Merrill into the Territory of Michigan in 1829. On the 23d of November in that year he commenced in Ann Arbor a preparatory school, both in English and the ancient languages, hoping as he wrote, "that God would open the way for the enlargement of his effort until it should become a literary and theological institution, under the influence of the Baptists of Michigan," the Baptists of Michigan being then, of course, chiefly objects of perception to faith.

Mr. Merrill was a native of Maine, just graduated from the college at Waterville and the Newton Theological Institution. His school at Ann Arbor, being as is supposed the only one of the kind in the Territory, was patronized from Detroit and the other early settlements, and enjoyed an interesting prosperity.

In July, 1830, Mr. Merrill prepared and circulated a petition asking the Territorial legislature to change his school by charter into such an institution as he had conceived, under the name of the Michigan and Huron Institute, securing its control to the Baptists by prescribing

that three-fifths of its trustees should be of that faith. The object of the petition was favorably considered by the legislature, but as there were members who objected to its denominational features the bill failed to pass, being laid over to the next session.

Meanwhile, under the influence of those who opposed this bill, an academy at Ann Arbor was incorporated, of which Mr. Merrill was urged to take charge, but feeling that his Christian aims and hopes would thus be compromised, he declined.

The same season, resolving to transfer his cherished enterprise to the western part of the Territory, he made his way to where Kalamazoo now stands, then the beautiful burr-oak openings in which the smoke of but a single log cabin arose, and passed south to the older settlement of Prairie Ronde. Here he assisted in building a log house for school and meeting purposes, and occupied it as designed during the winter of 1830-231.

The plan of manual-labor schools was then coming into experiment, and Mr. Merrill was fitted to accept the theory. The questions before him, therefore, were how to purchase lands for the school, and how to reappear before the legislature and secure its incorporation.

Fortunately the practical wisdom, the generous liberality, and the intelligent Christian citizenship of Judge Caleb Eldred, of Climax, stood now waiting to ally themselves with the high aims and the unconquerable tenacity of Thomas W. Merrill. Mr. Eldred was then dragging his surveyor's chain through the untrodden grasses of the lovely prairies and openings of Southwestern Michigan, and encamping with enthusiastic admiration in its majestic forests and beside its rivers and lakes. And among the way-marks which he was setting up were those which in his pious thought designated the places where his children and fellow settlers should have their worship and ordinances, and his denomination their Hamilton of Christian learning; for he had come from where the long shadow of the sacred school of Hascall and Kendrick had swept over him.

In the autumn of 1831 the traces appear of these two pioneers planning together the methods by which to raise money for the projected school. An appeal to the Baptists of the Eastern States was agreed upon, and with Judge Eldred's commendation Mr. Merrill visited the Michigan Baptist Association at Pontiac in September and secured their approval of his agency. A month later he was at the Baptist Convention of the State of New York, and received a hearty commendation of his object, signed by Elon Galusha, John Peck, William Colgate, and others. Except what Mr. Merrill paid in bearing his own expenses, the first subscriptions for the institution appear to have been seven ten-dollar ones from these ever-to-be-remembered Baptists of New York City: Jonathan Going, Nathan Caswell, James Wilson, John H. Harris, Bynan Green, William Colgate and E. Withington. Dr. Going was an originator and the first secretary of the American Baptist Home

Mission Society, and the deep imprint of his hand is on the foundations of our colleges in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois.

Returning from this agency in 1832, Mr. Merrill with Judge Eldred and others renewed their petition for incorporation. No provision for denominational control was now asked except by suggesting as trustees the early Baptists, ministers and others, then resident in the Territory. The bill again had to work its way through objections, but was helped over them by Judge Manning and Mr. F. P. Browning, of Detroit, and the date of its approval by Governor Porter was April 22, 1833. As Mr. Merrill paused here to take breath he wrote:

The Michigan and Huron Institute is the school upon which I have had my eye since I came into this Territory; the one for which I drew a petition, gave it circulation and presented it to the legislative council 2 years ago; for which I have petitioned thrice (once to Congress for a grant of land); for which I took up a subscription in the city of New York in May, 1832. This institution I trust will exert a most salutary influence upon the Baptist cause, and shed an enlightening, reforming, and sanctifying influence upon the citizens of this Territory. May our anticipations be more than realized.

Judge Eldred was elected president of the board of trustees, and for 25 years was annually reëlected, filling the office with loving devotion and eminent ability.

The charter did not locate the institute, and for more than 2 years the weary fledgling was kept upon its wings between rival proffers for furnishing it a place to alight. In the autumn of 1835 citizens of Kalamazoo gave the sum of $2,500, and a tract of land which is now the south part of the city was purchased, a building secured, and the school opened. An exchange of property afterwards gave the present most eligible site for permanent occupancy. An addition to the lands, extending farther into the city, with its building for chapel and recitation rooms, gives still easier access to the residents of the place. For this the college was made specially indebted to Mrs. Huldah E. Thompson, of Connecticut, Hon. C. Van Husan, of Detroit, and citizens of Kalamazoo.

The school was adopted for a short period as a branch of the University of Michigan.

Amendments were secured to the charter changing the name and enlarging the privileges of the institution, but for the last 35 years it has borne its present college title and exercised full college powers. A charter provision has also recently been obtained providing that the pres ident and a majority of the trustees shall always be members in Baptist churches.

The names most permanently identified with the faculties have been William Dutton, A. B., as principal from 1840 to 1843, when death cut short his most promising career; James A. B. Stone, D. D., principal from 1843 to 1855, and, upon the entrance into college powers, president from 1855 to 1864, William L. Eaton being his associate in the earlier period. The leading associate professors and teachers up to 1864 were

Mrs. L. H. Stone, principal of the female department; Rev. Samuel Graves, D. D., Edward Olney, LL. D., Daniel Putnam, A. M., Edward Anderson, D. D., M. A. Page, A. M., Allen J. Curtiss, A. B., and Mrs. Martha L. Osborn

From 1864 to 1867 John M. Gregory, LL. D., was president, and Heman Lincoln Wayland, D. D., and Silas Bailey, D. D., were additions to the faculty.

From 1868 to 1886, Kendall Brooks, D. D., was president, Samuel Brooks, D. D., and Professors Stuart, Hadlock, Haskell, and Montgomery, were assistants, with Misses King, Chase, and other lady principals and teachers.

Rev. Monson A. Willcox, D. D. was elected president in 1887, and with him have served as new professors G. W. Botsford, A. M., C. J. Galpin, A. M., and as lady principal Miss Mary A. Sawtelle.

The number of students last year was 181, of whom 39 were in college studies. Something over 150 students for the Christian ministry have been connected with the institution; and large numbers of both sexes have there become Christians and devoted their lives to consecrated service in this and in other lands.

The original policy of the Baptists of the State was to have a theological seminary at Kalamazoo, associated with the college. A large por tion of the property, including the first building, was given with this design and had its title in the Baptist Convention of the State. Theological courses of study and classes therein were maintained for successive years. More recently this policy has been relinquished and the property is transferred in trust to the college on condition that certain advantages shall be extended to students for the ministry; and biblical instruction in some form is provided for in connection with the courses of literature and science. Theological courses proper are expected to be pursued in seminaries elsewhere, and assistance to students therein is given by the convention.

The financial condition of the college is one of entire freedom from indebtedness, with a temporary provision that keeps it thus free. In view of the time when this temporary provision against deficiencies will be exhausted, and to improve facilities, movements are going forward to increase the endowments to at least a quarter of a million of dollars. The president of the board of trustees, Mr. C. C. Bowen, of Detroit, is generously leading these movements.

The college has a field that is full of promise, a location and property for its seat almost unexampled in the West, and a homogeneous and united Christian body of supporters committed to its maintenance.

NEW BUILDINGS.

The college is now receiving the benefits of the Ladies' Hall, a new building recently added to the college, this being but the second year of its occupancy. It is not simply a dormitory for young women, but,

under the supervision of Miss Mary A. Sawtelle, the principal lady teacher in the college, it affords all the advantages of a cultured, Christian home. Young men may also avail themselves of the privilege of boarding at the hall, and thus come within the circle of its refining influences. But here, again, while we congratulate ourselves on the successes of the past, we ought not to be satisfied with what we have already achieved. The college grounds are spacious and beautiful, susceptible of being made unexceptionally fine. May it be a part of our larger plan to hasten the day when they shall be adorned with new buildings, suitable for class room and chapel, library, laboratory, and other purposes; in a word, with all the buildings which a great and thoroughly equipped college demands.

INCREASED ATTENDANCE.

One of the brightest features in the present condition of the college is the increase in the number of students. Between 80 and 90 new students have come to us the present term, against about 50 during the whole of last year, while the increase in the whole number of students this term over the number for the first term of last year is about 30 per cent., against a corresponding increase of 10 per cent. last year. This is all the more cheering because so closely connected with the very object for which the college exists. It is intended to train and educate these young minds and hearts soon to share so largely in shaping, directing and controlling the social, moral, and religious life of the world. Therefore a college with unlimited resources but with only a handful of students would be a miserable failure. Hence we are especially rejoiced over this increased attendance.1

1 Dr. Willcox resigned the presidency April 30, 1891. Rev. Theodore Nelson, at one time superintendent of public instruction of the State, was appointed to succeed him. Several changes have been made in the faculty. Samuel Haskell, D. D., has been appointed instructor in the English Bible.