<\/p>\n
In these days when the cost of operating Colby College exceeds $10 million a year, it is hard to comprehend on what a shoestring the college operated in 1850 when already 32 years had passed since classes first opened at the Waterville college. Total receipts of the fiscal year that ended July 31, 1851 were only $14,400, and of that amount $1,460 was from sale of college land in Waterville to the Androscoggin and Kennebec RR, and $140 for sale of land in Argyle from the tract granted by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1815. Also $1,900 were receipts from a campaign put on for funds for the college library.<\/p>\n
The enrollment at the college that year was 72 students, and term bills were issued to them in the amount of $2,733. Unlike conditions today, that does not mean that the college collected the amount in cash. It was then the custom to take notes, endorsed by a student’s parents or some responsible adult friend, and during the year there had come in $638 paid for notes issued before 1850. Furthermore, against the stated bills were credited $255 in student work and scholarships. Compare that $255 with Colby’s present student aid of more than a million dollars a year.<\/p>\n
In 1857 faculty salaries totaled $5,077. What a contrast with 1977 when several professors get more than $25,000 a year. The total operating expenses in 1850 were only $7,824. The treasurer grimly lists debts due the college as $34,675. He listed them thus: Due on student notes probably collectible, $4,000; from pledges to fund drives , $10,500; from A & K RR for land, $675; for notes on Argyle lands, $19,550.<\/p>\n
Real estate belonging to the college was valued as follows: Land in Waterville exclusive of the college buildings $2,509; the three college buildings $28,000, unsold land in Argyle Township $8,000. Total $38,500.<\/p>\n
For prospective operating receipts and expenses for the following year, 1851-52, the Treasurer told the Trustees they could expect to take in $4,700 and payout $4,600, clearly a little better than a balanced budget. He said certain curtailments decided on by the Board would reduce faculty salaries to a total of $4,100 instead of the present year’s $5,077, and that he felt they could get by with $500 for all other expenses. His estimate of income listed only three items: from term bills $3,200, from notes due $1,380, and for rent of the steward’s home $120. That reveals the fact that in 1851 Colby College had no endowment whatever. Quite a contrast with its present thirty million.<\/p>\n
The Treasurer at that time was James Stackpole III, grandson of Waterville’s first prosperous trader, who had settled here in 1780. This grandson, the third generation of Waterville James Stackpoles, had been born in 1804 and was a graduate
\nof Bowdoin College.<\/p>\n
As I have said, there were at that time only 72 students in the college. They were, of course, all men, for no women were admitted until 1871. That interest in the college was sagging is shown by the unusual fact that freshmen made up the smallest class, only 13. There were 17 seniors, 15 juniors, and 27 sophomores. Seventy-two was the total enrollment when the college year began. During the year two had died and three had been dismissed, so that the total at the end of the year was only 67.<\/p>\n
The President of the college, David N. Sheldon, reported to the trustees as follows: “The cases requiring severe discipline have been few, and none require specific mention here. The general deportment has been highly satisfactory, and there has been a good spirit of study in all classes. Attention at the literary and religious exercises has been commendable.”<\/p>\n
Sheldon’s report continued: “The Trustees at their last meeting failed to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Professor Anderson.” (That refers to Martin Anderson a graduate of the college, who left his faculty post here to become the distinguished first president of the University of Rochester). Sheldon went on: “Having authorized the faculty, as the standing Committee on Instruction, to supply instruction in the Department of Rhetoric until the professorship should be filled, they invited Mr. Samuel K. Smith, a graduate of the Class of 1845, to perform the duties of Professor of Rhetoric during the year at a salary of $600. Mr. Smith has performed those duties with entire faithfulness and to the satisfaction of the students. The Board at their present meeting should consider whether the best interests of the college do not require that a permanent Professor of Rhetoric be now appointed.”<\/p>\n
The Board reacted favorably and named Smith the permanent professor of Rhetoric, a post in which he was active until 1892, and was professor emeritus for 12 years more, until his death in 1904. Samuel K. Smith was father of a man well known and highly respected in Waterville, Rev. William Abbott Smith, long pastor of the Waterville Congregational Church. The Professor’s grandson is Abbott E. Smith, Colby graduate and Rhodes Scholar, who served with distinction as a high ranking officer of our nation’s Central Intelligence Agency.<\/p>\n
Sheldon’s report continued: “The Trustees authorized the Committee on Instruction to expend a sum not exceeding $3,000 on the purchase of books for the Library and for apparatus for the Department of Natural Philosophy and Natural History. The faculty allotted $1500 for apparatus for Prof. Keely’s department of Natural Philosophy, $200 for Prof. Loomis’ department of Natural History, and $1,300 for library books. They further voted to appropriate $140 of that $1,300 to each college department for the purchase of books especially designated for the department, making in all $700 for the five college departments, thus leaving $600 for purchase of books of more general interest. We adhere to the policy of purchasing no work not recommended by a department or by unanimous vote of the whole Committee on Instruction.”<\/p>\n
Among the 14 names presented for award of degree of Bachelor of Arts was a man who would become a prominent business and civic leader in Waterville, Aaron Plaisted.<\/p>\n
In the mid-nineteenth century the most powerful committee of the College Trustees was the Prudential Committee, virtually in control of college finances, for its recommendations to the entire Board were seldom overturned. That Committee report for 1851 has been carefully preserved. It pointed first to the work of the college agent. That was an ad hoc office created to raise funds. Although the members of the faculty usually spent the long winter vacation on the road as solicitors, the ambitious plan adopted in the late 1840s to raise special funds for buildings and endowment necessitated the work of a year-round solicitor with no other college job. That is why the Prudential Committee said: “Rev. Mr. Hawes has been continued as agent to collect subscriptions on the $10,000 fund voted last year to be immediately raised. He has collected $1,938. We now have on that fund a total of $5,945. On the larger $50,000 fund the agent has collected nothing during the year, nor has the account of George Fairfield, his predecessor, who collected in the eastern part of the state, yet been settled, though an arbitrator had been arranged, who is expected soon to take action.<\/p>\n
“No new sales of Argyle land have been made during the year and no permits to cut timber have been granted. Mr. Drummond, who occupies adjoining land, has been employed to protect the property from trespass. He has detected a few slight trespasses for which he has identified the perpetrators and has secured proper compensation.<\/p>\n
“The Commons House, having been abandoned as a boarding house for students, has been rented the greater part of the year. The Committee asks direction from the Trustees concerning altering the property to make it into two rents to let, and seek accommodation for the annual Commencement Dinner elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Then the Committee referred to several financial matters that gave them concern. One was that the Treasurer had furnished no bond. But they were even more disturbed by unpaid term bills. Their report said: “A large amount is due from students. It would be well for the Trustees to pass a law requiring the Treasurer, at the opening of each term, to report to the President the names of all students who have two previous term bills unpaid, and authorizing the faculty to suspend all such students until they present a receipt for those bills. Also pass a similar law regarding all students who do not furnish satisfactory bond by the opening of their second term in college.”<\/p>\n
Attached to the Prudential Committee’s report was a statement of money due the college on various accounts. The paper was headed: “Interest-paying property of the College after deducting debts owed by the College and sums paid on the $10,000 fund. Due on term bills previous to the present term; Due on mortgage notes; Interest on mortgage notes; Due on notes for land; Due on Subscriptions to $50,000 fund; Term bills for term just closed; Due from A & K RR – $4,000, 10,500, 1,000, 6,500, 2,500, 1,100, 625, 26,225.<\/p>\n
The college’s condition of cash flow was bad. When College closed in July 1851, not all current debts had been paid. The College was in arrears to the faculty to the extent of $422, of which $172 was owed to President Sheldon and $107 to Prof. James Chaplin, who would soon succeed Sheldon as President. There were only three other members of the faculty – the venerable George Washington Keely, J. R. Loomis, and Samuel K. Smith, to each of whom was owed from $26 to $75. Other debts brought the total deficit to $1,712.<\/p>\n
On the Argyle land sold, the College held notes of 44 persons for $9,870. And it held notes of $1,750 for Waterville property sold to individuals. One was Prof. Keely who had built his house on the street now called College Avenue. Just south of the campus, it later became known as the Boutelle House and was torn down only a few years ago. Another was for property sold to Benjamin Shepherd, who would soon be the college steward, providing meals for students. Another was to Henry Paine, then a college trustee, and a distinguished Massachusetts lawyer who later rejected an appointment to the Maine Supreme Court. Another mortgage was for property owned by Ezekiel Holmes, who would soon be known as the “Father of Maine Agriculture,” and who was the first person ever to give lectures in Chemistry at Colby College.<\/p>\n
Well, I am sure this account is enough to show you how drastically different was the Colby of 1850 from the College we now know on Mayflower Hill.<\/p>\n
Year: 1977<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #1125, Broadcast on May 8, 1977<\/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":[27136,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9706"}],"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=9706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9706\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}