Radio Script #856

Little Talks on Common Things
June 7, 1970

On this Sunday, which marks the 149th Commencement of Colby College, I want to to remind our listeners of what Colby was like 72 years ago. Today let us take a look at Colby in 1898, the year of the short but spirited Spanish-American War.

The President of Colby was then Nathaniel Butler, who soon afterward was called to the new University of Chicago by President Harper to head the soon-to-be famous Chicago graduate school. The chairman of the Colby trustees in 1898 was the Waterville native and prominent Portland attorney as well as a nationally known Mason, Josiah Drummond. The treasurer was Percival Bonney of Portland, who divided his non-professional interests about equally between Colby College and Hebron Academy. The secretary of the trustees was Leslie C. Cornish, a Winslow native who became Augusta’s foremost attorney and ended his brilliant legal career as Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Court.

Still very active in the Colby Trustees in 1898 was the Bangor lumber baron, Moses Giddings, who had been a trustee since 1852. He would continue on the board 13 years after 1898, until his death in 1911. He thus served the longest term of any board member at Colby during its 157 year history to date — a total of 57 years devoted service. Two other prominent trustees in 1898 were Maine’s distinguished historian, Henry Burrage, and the internationally known engineer, Richard Cutts Shannon, donor of the unique, sound-proof, physics building on Colby’s old campus.

On the faculty at that time, besides President Butler, were the librarian and teacher of modern languages Edward Winslow Hall, the professor of chemistry William Elder, the professor of mathematics Laban Warren, and the former Colby president, George Dana Boardman Pepper, who had returned to teach Biblical Literature, and William Bayley, professor of Geology. Destined to remain on the faculty many more years and to win the affection of hundreds of graduates were the professor of Latin, Julian Taylor, and the professor of English, who later became president of the college, Arthur Roberts.

In 1898 John Nelson, later a U.S. Congressman, was editor of the Colby Echo, and on his staff were the future naval historian, William Oliver Stevens, and a man who won renown as principal of Boston schools, Ambrose Warren, whose son Elmer later became Colby Registrar, then an executive of the National Life Insurance Co., and is now an official at the Hinckley School.

Colby had five fraternities in 1898, and it is interesting to see who were their leaders. DKE, which had been at Colby since 1845, had such men of future distinction as Henry R. Spencer, son of the Waterville Baptist pastor of longest continuous service. Henry Spencer is still living in retirement at Columbus, Ohio, after a notable career as Professor of Political Science at Ohio State University. Another prominent Deke was James H. Hudson, who would become leader of the Piscataquis Bar and a judge of the Maine Supreme Court. And certainly not to be forgotten was Charles Seaverns, the Hartford civic leader and philanthropist, donor of many substantial gifts to Colby, including the Seaverns athletic field.

In Zeta Psi, besides the recognized all-student leader John Nelson, were T. Raymond Pierce, who became a leading Boston broker, and Fred Lawrence, long Maine’s Insurance Commissioner. Delta Upsilon had Charles Gurney, chairman of the Maine Public Service Commission; Everett Herrick, president of Andover-Newton Theological School and William B. Jacks, who for many years headed the public schools of Maine’s largest city. In Phi Delta Theta were Norman Fuller, who became mayor of Waterville; Arad Linscott, developer of business education in Portland schools and Charles F. Towne, a prominent educator of Rhode Island.

In 1898 ATO was Colby’s youngest fraternity, having been on the campus for only four years. But in it were men already booked for renown. Robert Bakerman became an ardent disciple of the socialist Norman Thomas and served as chief assistant to the socialist mayor of Schenectady. Percy Gilbert was for many years a beloved physician of Madison, and Edwin Allan, after arduous work with the International YMCA, before and during World War I, joined George Hinckley in the development of the Good Will Homes and School.

The women in 1898 had two sororities at Colby. Sigma Kappa had in fact been founded here, and one of its members still lives on her old home place on Winslow’s Cushman Road. In 1898 she was Colby student Ina Taylor. She is now Winslow’s well known historian, Mrs. Ina Stinneford. With her in Sigma Kappa in 1898 were Annie Pepper, daughter of the former President George D.B. Pepper, and Alice Purinton, life-long resident of Waterville, who was Colby’s Alumnae Secretary.

Sigma Kappa’s only rival in 1898 was a local sorority called Beta Phi, which a few years later would become a chapter of the national sorority Chi Omega. In Beta Phi were two Waterville girls who would have long careers as Maine teachers, Agnes Stetson and Gertrude Lord.

As usual in those days, the 1898 Oracle gave a lot of unimportant, but interesting, and in a few cases, really significant statistics. When one considers the religious composition of the Colby student body today, with a large number professing no denominational preference at all, just note the religious affiliation of the 51 members of the Class of 1898. Twenty-three of them were Baptists, nine Congregationalists, five Universalists. two Unitarians, two Quakers and one each Presbyterian and Roman Catholic. Five students expressed no religious preference, and one said he was simply Protestant.

In 1898 Colby was decidedly a Maine college. The class that graduated that year had only eight men and one woman from outside the state; all the rest of the 51 graduates came from some town in Maine. In 1898 Maine was overwhelmingly a Republican state; so we should not be surprised that 44 of those 51 graduates were Republicans. What is more surprising is that besides the five Democrats in the class, two described themselves as Mugwamps and two as neutrals.

Have you forgotten what a Mugwamp was? He was originally a member of the Republican party who refused to support the party’s presidential nominee, James G. Blaine, in 1884. The name in subsequent years came to be a label for an independent Republican.

What did Colby students of 1898 plan to do after they graduated from college? Nineteen members of that class looked forward to careers in teaching, seven would enter the ministry, four would study law and three medicine. Only two expected to enter the business field, one wanted to be a journalist, another an architect, and another an electrician.

Of the more frivolous statistics were height and weight. The tallest man was 6 feet 3 inches; the shortest was 5 feet 5 inches. The tallest woman was only 5 feet nine, and the shortest exceeded five feet by a single inch. The heaviest man tipped the scales at 230 pounds and the slimmest weighed only 130; the biggest woman was actually not very stout, weighing only 143. while the lightest in weight could muster only 95 pounds. As for age, one man was 32 when he graduated, but another was only 19. One woman was 29, but the youngest was 20.

It was the Class of 1898 that, as its gift to the college, presented the fountain that long stood in front of Recitation Hall.

In 1898 Colby athletics were under student management, though they did have faculty advisers. In fact the students didn’t trust their own ranks to handle money, so Prof. Bayley was the treasurer of the general Athletic Association. Its president was Ernest Maling of the Class of 1899 and its secretary was Charles Towne. 1900. Alumni were involved as members, along with representatives of faculty and student body, of the executive committee, and those alumni were Mr. J.F. Hill, A.F. Drummond and E.T. Wyman.

The baseball team wasn’t large in those days, every player had to last most of every game. There were on the team just nine regulars and three substitutes. The football team, under Captain Scannee beat Bowdoin 16-4 at a game in Waterville and played them to a no score tie in Brunswick. It tied Bates 6 to 6 and did not play the Maine Aggies from Orono. The track meet in 1898 had a feature that has long since disappeared, the bicycle race. It was won that year by Charles Towne. Times and distances in the state track meet 72 years ago seem decidedly low when compared with today’s records: 100 yard dash 10 4/5 seconds; half mile 2 min. 15 sec.; mile 5 min. 14 sec.; high jump 5 feet 4 inches; broad jump 18 feet 8 inches; short put 30 feet 8 inches. The college had no basketball team in 1898. but the girls did play intramural basketball with class teams. The Class of 1901 led them all that year with Jennie Cummings as its captain.

Debating was popular in 1898. Some of the topics discussed are interesting. In the intercollegiate debate between Colby and Bates the question was “Should U.S. municipalities of more than 25,000 population be required to own and operate plants to supply water, light and surface transportation?” In the Junior Class Prize Debate the subject was a proposal to shorten the college course from four years to three.

Religion held a respected place at Colby in 1898. Listen to what the Oracle of that year said about it: “During the year great gain has been made in the spiritual realm by chapel worship. The inspiring hymn, the psalm read responsively, the Gloria, the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer, the brief comments by the President — all have tended to cultivate our spiritual nature, and we go from chapel to the work of the day with real uplift.”

Mind you, that was written by a student and with it we must say goodbye until next week.

Year: 1970