<\/p>\n
When the Civil War broke out in the spring of 1861, there were 117 students enrolled at Colby College. The war had an immediate effect, since many students enlisted in Maine’s first formed regiments. In the fall of 1862 the college had only 83 students, and nearly half of them were freshmen. The next autumn, in 1863, the number was down to 69, and the following year saw it reduced to 62, about half the enrollment of four years earlier in 1860. But even then the Colby numbers did not reach bottom. The war brought hard times, and many young men who wanted to go to college found their families impoverished when the conflict ended. In 1868, three years after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, there were only 52 students at Colby, the all-time low since 1830. Even then this was slow recovery. When we consider that Colby has more than 1,500 students in 1974, it comes as a shock to realize that there were only 59 at the college exactly a hundred years ago in 1874.<\/p>\n
When President Henry Robins took the helm in that year, there was a quick upturn. Enrollment rose at once to 82, and by 1879 it had again passed the hundred mark. When George Dana Boardman Pepper became President in 1882, Colby had 124 students, and it did not exceed 130 until Pepper’s last year, 1889. Under Albion Woodbury Small, in 1890, the enrollment was 153. So you see that, in its first three quarters of a century from 1818 to 1893, Colby was not only a small college. It had such ups and downs of enrollment that for two thirds of those years the number of students did not reach one hundred. In fact, only twice between 1824 and 1858 were there as many as a hundred students, and during the entire quarter of a century from 1835 to 1870, there were never as many as 90 enrolled at anyone time.<\/p>\n
Not until the coming of Arthur Roberts to the presidential chair in 1908 did Colby really grow significantly. Roberts, during the 20 years of his leadership, increased the enrollment from slightly more than 200 to almost 600. Of course it was the move to Mayflower Hill, not completed until 1952, that caused the Colby boom in numbers as well as in quality and prestige that we know today. On the old campus enrollment was never half the size of the present 1,500.<\/p>\n
The story of college expenses allover America is well illustrated by the Colby experience. The increase since the move to Mayflower Hill, in all charges to students, has been greater than it was in the entire 135 years of Colby history that preceded 1952.<\/p>\n
In 1824, the year of the first published catalogue, tuition and room rent combined cost only $20 for the entire year. Table board, washing and mending was $1.33 a week for 39 weeks. So that tuition, room, board and laundry all together cost $71.87 for a whole year. As late as 1830, the whole expense was only $75. It was then billed $26.50 for tuition, room, use of library, repairs, and commencement dinner; $4.50 for fuel and lights; $5.00 for washing; and $39 for board (one dollar a week for 39 weeks).<\/p>\n
The catalogue gave no estimate for cost of textbooks for very good reason. At that time few students bought new books. Frequent change of texts that are so common today was unusual then. The same texts were used year after year in Latin, Greek, mathematics, natural philosophy, natural history, and religious philosophy – the subjects that accounted for most of the curriculum. Nor did the students necessarily have to buy second hand books. He could rent them from the college. In 1833 one senior wrote a friend who contemplated entrance to Colby, that in four years he had bought only two textbooks, for which he had paid $3.00. He had rented all others, for total fees of less than $20 for the four years. Probably that average of $5 a year for rented books was typical of all students at that period.<\/p>\n
From earliest days Colby had two student societies, predecessors of the Greek letter fraternities. They were the Literary Society and the Erosophian. Adelphi. Dues to each were one dollar a year. Transportation between home and college was indeed an added expense for many students, but not for all. Some living as far away as Belfast went home by team or on foot nearly every weekend. As late as 1885 Harvey Eaton walked back and forth each weekend between the college and his home in Cornville, and considered himself lucky if he could get a ride part of the way in some wagon or buggy. Before 1850 there was no railroad into Waterville. Although stage fare from Portland was only two dollars, it was a slow, exhausting journey with two overnight stops. Nevertheless in 1830 a Colby student living in Portland could meet all college expenses and pay for two round trip stage journeys, all for less than $100.<\/p>\n
What is more, in 1830 a student was not expected to pay all college fees in cash. By that time the college had set up a carpenter shop, which the catalogue ostentatiously labeled a mechanic shop. The wording was: “A mechanic shop has been erected, in which the students may obtain suitable exercise at all seasons of the year and defray part of their expenses.”<\/p>\n
Note that the place was to give exercise as well as earnings thus taking the place of a gymnasium. In 1830 the movement for organized sports had not begun, and no one had ever heard of physical education. Students could work off surplus energy in the shop.<\/p>\n
Not until 1832 was tuition and room rent raised from its original $20. It then became $30 a year. Board was $1.25 a week. The listing of expenses had changed somewhat with the following result. Tuition, room, library and commencement dinner $32, general repairs $5, board $48.75.<\/p>\n
An appended note said, “Wood is $2.00 a cord, and washing 37 cents a dozen.”<\/p>\n
The year 1838 saw another increase. Tuition and room went to $35, and the whole bill for all the year’s charges came to $84.<\/p>\n
It would be interesting to know what happened in 1845 to lower the cost of board. We cannot lay it to the then unpopular war with Mexico, because that had little effect on life in Maine. But anyhow board at the college common was then reduced to 80 cents a week. It must have been indeed simple and monotonous fare.<\/p>\n
Not until 1856, when classes had been continuously held for 38 years did the cost of attending Colby exceed $100. By that time tuition and room had gone up to $41, and board was $1.25 a week. From that time on, board continued to rise. It was $1.50 in 1857, and by the close of the Civil War in 1865 was up to $2.00. But, in 1865, other items were exactly as they had been twenty years earlier. The higher cost of board, however had raised the total annual expense to $136.<\/p>\n
As late as 1874 tuition and room cost only~2, but fuel, lights and those long-established incidental items had nearly doubled to $30. But even then, three quarter of the way through the 19th century, it cost less than $200 for all expenses at Colby. In fact, as late as 1881, all items for the year came to only $237. The catalogue of that year contained the most thoroughly itemized expense list for the whole period since 1824. For the first time tuition and room were not combined, but were put into two separate items. Tuition was $45, room rent $12, incidentals $18, books $12, fuel $15, board at $1.75 per week was $102, washing $12, average for furniture $14, and sundries $5.<\/p>\n
Now what about that furniture average? As late as 1909, when I was a Colby freshman, the only furniture in a dormitory room was a cot bed and mattress. Desk, chairs, and any other furnishings had to be provided by the room’s two occupants. In my time a second hand store on Temple Street did a thriving business when college opened in the fall. Of course there was a lot of furniture trading among the students directly. Especially when a fellow was ready to graduate, he tried to sell his room furnishings to some other student at a higher price than the second hand store would give him.<\/p>\n
By 1890, the year when President Roberts graduated and when President Franklin Johnson was a junior, board had again been reduced from $2.75 to $2.25 a week, so that all costs of a college year had fallen to $220. So we see that in the 66 years between 1824 and 1890 the total cost of attending Colby had just about tripled, rising from $75 to $220.<\/p>\n
Now let me add some surprising information about the teaching of modern languages at Colby. In all American colleges, during the first three-quarters of the 19th century, so much emphasis was placed upon Greek and Latin that it is properly assumed that no one studied French or German in those early days. Not so. The study of both of those modern languages began early at Colby. Both languages were mentioned in the college catalogue as early as 1830, but both were then taught for a single term each, and a term was then only one-third of the college year. French was required of second term freshmen, and German of all second term sophomores. Often between 1830 and 1850 at least one of the languages was required for two terms. Between 1851 and 1875 all students took two terms of each language.<\/p>\n
It was 1886 before a full year of either French or German was required, and one could have an elective year of the one not selected for requirement. By 1890 so many students were entering with French taken two or three years in high school that only German was commonly begun in college.<\/p>\n
The reason why the modern languages appeared so early at Colby was the coming to Waterville of Samuel Francis Smith as pastor of the Baptist Church. Unusual for that era, Smith was proficient in both German and French, and almost immediately President Babcock engaged him to add to his pastoral duties the teaching of those languages at the college.<\/p>\n
Not until 1866 did Colby have a full time teacher of modern languages. That man was Edward W. Hall, who remained on the Colby faculty for 45 years, not only teaching French and German, but during the last quarter of a century of his service, placing the Colby library on a truly professional basis, so that nationally Hall won greater fame as a librarian than as a teacher.<\/p>\n
Year: 1974<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #1017, Broadcast on June 9, 1974<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1203,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9469"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9469\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}