CHURCH: Wyoming Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church, Chapter 5, PA & NY Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Banja Copyright 2007. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ________________________________________________ Chaffee, Amasa Franklin. History of the Wyoming Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. New York: Eaton & Mains, 1904, pages 83-98. ________________________________________________ COOPERSTOWN SEMINARY 83 CHAPTER V SCHOOLS COOPERSTOWN SEMINARY ON December 20, 1853, a meeting was held in the village of Cooperstown for the purpose of organizing a movement for the erection of a seminary. The Oneida Conference held in July, 1854, appointed the following visitors to the school: Rev. Dr. Bannister, Rev. D. W. Bristol, Rev. John H. Hall, Rev. J. P. Newman, Rev. C. Blakeslee, Rev. C. G. Robinson, Rev. J. W. Steele, Rev. D. W. Thurston, Rev. J. L. Wells, Rev. A. S. Graves, Rev. H. Gee, John Emory, of Unadilla, William T. Broadfoot, of Otego, William E. Chapman, of Oxford, Randolph Randall, of Cortland. The citizens of Cooperstown subscribed $20,000, and the Methodists of the surrounding country $15,000 toward the project. The building was erected in 1854, so that the school opened on November 15 of that year, the formal dedication occurring on November 17, when addresses were made by Bishop Simpson, F. A. Lee, and Professor McKown. Mr. Elihu Phinney was the first president of the board of trustees. When the school opened Professor J. L. G. McKown was principal and there were six teachers besides him in the faculty. We can do no better than quote from the committee's report on education to the Oneida Conference of 1855: "The edifice, which was in process of erection at our last session, has been completed. It is a noble pile. The center building, projecting in front 10 feet, is 70 feet long by 46 deep, and five stories high above the basement, which is used as the boarding hall and primary school rooms. The two wings on each side of the center building are 40x36 feet, connecting with ells 36x72, making the whole front 222 feet in length - the center building being five stories high and the wings and ells four stories. "The school opened on the 15th of November, and has just closed its first academic year, with an average attendance of three hundred and fifty students, including day scholars. "The income of the year has about equaled the expenses of the institution. "The aggregate amount invested, including eighty acres of land, buildings, and furniture, is about $50,000. 84 WYOMING CONFERENCE "The privileges secured in perpetuity to the Methodist Episcopal Church comprehend the following particulars - a majority of the trustees, the principal, and a majority of the faculty must be members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the faculty have the right of nominating the steward." The educational committee in 1856 was hopeful. It stated that the institution had a fair attendance, a commanding influence in the town, and promised to contribute largely to the facilities for giving the rising generation a generous and comprehensive education, and again nominated visitors to the school. COOPERSTOWN SEMINARY [photo] P. D. Hammond was the principal in 1855, and in 1856 the building was leased for five years to Hammond and Pomeroy, the latter becoming principal in 1857. Financial embarrassment was now upon the institution, and it soon closed its doors. The Oneida Conference in 1858 appointed Caleb Clark, John Eddy, L. E. Bow, William Kirby, H. F. Rowe, John Shank, A. E. Daniels, S. Comfort, and S. Stocking a permanent committee with full power to purchase, at their discretion. It was found that the property could be bought for $12,000, a mortgage being on the property of $5,000, making a total purchase price of $17,000. This would include the building, which cost about $27,000, and ten acres of land. The committee attempted to raise UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN PENNSYLVANIA 85 $8,000 in Cooperstown and $4,000 outside, intending to carry the $5,000 mortgage for some time. Failing in their plans, the project of purchasing the property for the Conference was abandoned. In 1859 the school was opened by R. C. Flack, who continued it until 1864, about which time Mr. William Clinton purchased the property, and in 1865 Dr. G. Kerr became principal, who was succeeded in 1867 by Rev. Orin Perkins. In 1869 the property was purchased by Mr. F. Phinney, when it was abandoned as an educational institution and became a summer hotel, known as the UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN PENNSYLVANIA [photo] Cooper House. It has been destroyed by fire within a few years, and has not been rebuilt. About the same time a seminary was projected at Fort Plain, N. Y., and another at Charlotteville, N. Y., neither of which had vitality enough to live long. It seems that Methodism was stricken with a seminary fever about this time. UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN PENNSYLVANIA The county seat was removed from Bethany to Honesdale in 1841. After the removal of the courts the courthouse was used as an academy until the University of Northern Pennsylvania was chartered in 1848, when the courthouse was so changed as 86 WYOMING CONFERENCE to answer the demands of the university. The university began its work in the fall of 1850, and the next year Professor John F. Stoddard was elected principal. While this school bore the ambitious title of university, it was in fact a preparatory school, and for a time drew a goodly number of students to its halls. In 1854 the school was tendered to the Conference, the property being valued at $8,000, and said to be nearly free from debt. A board of commissioners was appointed to effect the transfer, which was duly accomplished, and Rev. N. Rounds elected principal. The report of the trustees in 1855 indicates that they had many storms to contend with, and suggested that strong efforts would be necessary to put the school upon a healthful basis. Its principal this year was Rev. S. S. Milborne, A.B. Students were increasing in number, and it was hoped that the school might have a prosperous and useful future. The following year, 1856, found all hopes of success dashed in pieces. The committee on education, in view of financial and other embarrassments, advised the closing of the school, the sale of the property, and the payment of its debts. The school went back into the hands of Professor John F. Stoddard, of whom it was secured. He ran it a short time, when it was destroyed by fire on the night of April 19, 1857, with the exception of a fireproof building, which, with the public square, he gave to the borough for the use of the common school. SUSQUEHANNA SEMINARY The Conference in 1853 passed a resolution in the educational committee's report. "That a literary institution of high character be established in the northern portion of our territory, at some point embraced within the Susquehanna Valley, to be denominated the Susquehanna Seminary." It was thought that the patronizing territory should comprise the whole of Owego District, with the exception of Rome, Orwell, and Le Raysville charges, the whole of Binghamton District, with the exception of Montrose, Brooklyn, and Gibson charges, together with Sanford charge, at that time in the Honesdale District. A commission of seven was appointed to determine upon a site, and, in connection with the presiding elders of Owego and Binghamton Districts and the preacher or preachers in charge where the school was to be located, nominate a board of trustees, and, further, to institute measures to obtain a charter. The commission was instructed to meet on September 13, at Binghamton. It is somewhat difficult to bring the above action into harmony with the fact that the same copy of the Minutes contains a list of the first board of SUSQUEHANNA SEMINARY 87 trustees. The Conference convened July 27. It is possible that the Minutes were not printed until after the meeting of the commission. The following is the first board of trustees: Rev. Z. Paddock, D.D., Binghamton, president; Hon. S. H. P. Hall, Binghamton, vice president; B. N. Loomis, Esq., Binghamton, secretary; Edward Tompkins, Esq., Binghamton, treasurer; Rev. H. R. Clarke, agent; Hon. D. S. Dickinson, Binghamton; Rev. W. H. Pearne; P. B. Brooks, M.D., Binghamton; A. Doubleday, M.D., Binghamton; J. C. Moore, Esq., Binghamton; Joseph Belcher, Esq., Richford; William McClure, Esq., Deposit; Revs. SUSQUEHANNA SEMINARY [photo] Asa Brooks, Solon Stocking, O. M. McDowell, G. P. Porter, E. Owen, and J. W. Davison. The Conference of 1854 found that the institution had been located on ground on the west side of the Chenango River, in Binghamton, N. Y., the ground having been offered by the Hon. Mr. Hall. A charter had been received from the regents of the University of New York, and a contract made for the first building. It was 168x57 feet, four stories high, built of brick, and cost $20,600. The school opened in the fall of 1855 with the following faculty: Henry Carver, A.M., principal and teacher of mathematics; teacher of languages not yet secured; R. B. Van Petten, A.M., professor of experimental philosophy; Miss Maria Shep- 88 WYOMING CONFERENCE ard, preceptress; J. Hilton Jones, professor of instrumental music and thorough bass; William Marvin, professor of vocal music; Mrs. Lucretia Johnson, teacher of drawing and painting; Miss Mary Sinker, teacher of French. E. W. Breckinridge was appointed agent this year. At this time the institution was in debt over $10,000. The trustees proposed to make a loan for the amount of indebtedness and reduce the debt during the ensuing year by the receipts of unpaid subscriptions and donations and new subscriptions. The debt apparently increased, for in 1856 the Conference subscribed $5,000 to relieve the school on condition that the citizens of Binghamton decrease the debt to $15,000. In the following year it was believed that the requirements had been met, and the preachers were called upon to meet their obligations made in 1856. Rev. P. S. Worden was principal from 1857-61, acting also as agent for the school. The pecuniary embarrassments of the school culminated in 1861, when the mortgage was foreclosed by the comptroller of the State, which held the mortgage. It was bid in by the State. The failure of this enterprise was a sore disappointment to the Conference. The building is now owned by the Catholics and used as a home for friendless children. At the time the Susquehanna Seminary was projected the people of Waverly, N. Y., made application to the Conference to establish a seminary at that place. The committee on education reported favorably, suggested that the school be called Tioga Seminary, and made as a condition upon which the school should be located there the raising of $12,000 by the citizens of Waverly. Nothing further seems to have come from the matter. The fundamental mistake made in the foregoing was in wrongly estimating the patronage which would come from the territory. It was seriously overestimated. WYOMING SEMINARY The early settlers of the Wyoming Valley were largely from Connecticut and brought with them the strong traits and tastes of the New England Yankee. Among these was a determination to make the fullest provision possible at that time for the education of their children. The foundation of the educational system of New England was an order passed by the General Court of Massachusetts in 1647, which read in part as follows: "It being one chief project WYOMING SEMINARY 89 of the old deluder, Satan, to keep men from a knowledge of the Scriptures as in former times, by keeping them in an unknown tongue; it is therefore ordered that every township in this jurisdiction, after the Lord hath prospered them to the number of fifty householders, shall then forthwith appoint one within their town to teach all children as shall resort to him to read and to write." It was a religious impulse that started the educational system of our country. The Puritan, after building a church, immediately erected a schoolhouse by its side. Harvard University was founded by John Harvard, a Puritan clergyman. Nearly every other important college of New England was started under the auspices of a religious denomination. It was natural, therefore, that the Connecticut people who came to Wyoming, strong as they were in the instinct of educational training, should have given early attention to schools. Land grants and other provisions were made for the distinctively public schools. But a number of private academies and seminaries in addition to these were started especially for preparation for college and for the further education of those who had outgrown the public schools. Wyoming Seminary was established at Kingston, Pa., in the year 1844 as an institution of Christian learning under the auspices of the Oneida Conference. At the session of this Conference held in Wilkes- Barre, August 9, 1843, the matter was fully discussed, and the necessary preliminary steps taken by the appointment of David Holmes, Jr., Lucian S. Bennett, Thomas Myers, Madison F. Myers, Lord Butler, Sharp D. Lewis, and Silas Comfort as "trustees of a contemplated seminary of learning to be located either in Wilkes-Barre or Kingston," according to the amount of subscription obtained in each place within a given time. Kingston, providing the largest subscription, was the chosen locality. At the first meeting of the board of trustees David Holmes was elected president, Silas Comfort, secretary, and Madison F. Myers, treasurer. The first building, a brick structure of three stories, 37x70, was erected and opened for students in 1844. Size of the chapel, 24x29; recitation room, 13x29, and room for primary department, 20x29, with some twenty rooms in all for students. Cost of the building, about $5,000. Such was the beginning of this educational enterprise, one building, two teachers, and fifty scholars. The trustees were doubtless providentially directed in securing as their first principal Rev. Reuben Nelson, A.M., then a young man, but whose 90 WYOMING CONFERENCE energy of character and subsequent history and efforts have demonstrated his fitness to inaugurate and carry forward such an enterprise to a successful consummation. It is not surprising that, under such leadership, seconded by the energetic cooperation of a noble-minded and self-denying board of trustees and a corps of efficient teachers, the institution should attain a popularity and influence second to none of its class in the land. In half a dozen years after the erection of the first edifice, such was the patronage obtained that an additional building was demanded. No sooner did the emergency arise than the trustees and friends of the institution prepared themselves to meet the demand. In the spirit of an unselfish liberality the late William Swetland, of Wyoming, Pa., came forward and volunteered to erect the projected additional building at his own expense. This second building was named by the trustees "Swetland Hall," in memory of the respected donor. At the same time Hon. Ziba Bennett, of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., contributed $1,000 as a foundation for a library. This was hereafter called, in honor of the giver, the Bennett Library. In the early spring of 1853, additional facilities were deemed essential, and the building of a wing, or wings, to the main building was contemplated, with a view to afford accommodation to a larger number of students. At this juncture, in the stillness of the midnight hour on the 15th of March, 1853, a furious fire broke out, and the seminary buildings were laid in ruins. Although this catastrophe was fearful, and the friends of the institution gazed in sadness on the scene, yet courageous men never despair, and while the brick and stone and ashes were yet warm the trustees, with undaunted heroism, in their meeting on the day of the fire resolved as follows: "With humble submission to our heavenly Father's will, we turn from looking upon these ruins. Relying upon Him who hath hitherto helped us, buoyant with hope (for man's extremity is God's opportunity), we enter with heart and hand upon the rebuilding, pledging to each other cooperation and mutual support; therefore, "Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed to draw plans and specifications for the rebuilding of the seminary." This showed the "stuff these men were made of." Again did the tried friend of the cause, William Swetland, come to the rescue, and nobly undertook, at his own expense, the work of rebuilding and enlarging Swetland Hall. Through the liberality of P. Pettebone, George Swetland, A. Y. Smith, and Isaac C. Shoemaker, a third building was erected about the same time, to WYOMING SEMINARY 91 which the name of "Union Hall" was given. Thus, through fire and disaster, larger and better buildings were erected, and the three blocks, "Administration Hall" in the center, with "Swetland Hall" on the left and "Union Hall" on the right, stood a noble monument of the energy and liberality of the men of Wyoming Valley. In a few years afterward the fire fiend again visited the institution, and the Ladies' Boarding Hall was destroyed. Then, in the course of events, a fierce tornado swept over the place and unroofed the building. Then, in 1865, the flood did more or less damage to the seminary property. Yet, with heroic spirit, the board of trustees measured up to every exigency, so that repeated difficulties have been overcome, financial embarrassments removed, and the whole machinery kept moving without intermission, and without jar. The civil war seemed for a brief period to interfere with the wonted success of the institution. Yet, even amid this temporary drawback, the trustees projected other plans for the success of the school. A commercial department was added in 1863, and Professor W. S. Smythe was secured to take charge of the Commercial College, and under his supervision it proved a decided success. In 1868 Professor L. L. Sprague became the head of this department and continued until 1882, when Professor W. L. Dean, A.M., became the principal. The Commercial College has developed into one of the best schools of its kind in the country. At the close of the war it was found that such was the prosperity of the seminary that scores of applicants had to be refused admission for lack of accommodation. This increasing popularity and demand again aroused the friends to effort, and the enlargement of the seminary was absolutely required. The three buildings had already been united by the addition of wings, yet this did not meet the demand for room. In the year 1866, the Centennial of American Methodism, it was determined to erect a memorial building to be named Centenary Hall. This was commenced in 1867, and completed in 1868, at a cost of about $25,000. These buildings are all under one roof, three and four stories high, with three hundred and twenty feet frontage. In 1887, by the aid of a few friends, the Nelson Memorial Hall was erected as a memorial of the late Reuben Nelson, D.D., who was the first president of the seminary. The first floor has seventeen rooms devoted to the music department. The second floor is given entirely to the chapel. This room will accommodate six hundred persons, and is provided with the best quality of seating. 92 WYOMING CONFERENCE It contains a beautiful Jardine two-manual organ, and carries with it all the dignity and attractiveness suitable to a room for public worship. The seats are numbered, and each student has a special seat. The chapel is also used for concerts and lectures given before the school. Its cost was $30,000. Nesbitt Science Hall was completed in 1894, and donated to the school by Abram Nesbitt, Esq., of Kingston, Pa., a trustee and generous benefactor of the seminary. Its construction is of brick, with red sandstone trimmings. The building is of dignified architecture, and one of the most substantial in educational use. Its dimensions are one hundred feet long, seventy feet wide, and three stories high. In the basement are the cloak rooms and lockers for day scholars. Tables are also provided for those who bring lunches. On the first floor are the art rooms, well located for light, a spacious hall, and a study room sixty-seven feet long by forty-two feet wide, with one hundred and fifty Berkeley desks and seats. These are a gift of the late Hon. W. H. Cool, of Pittston, Pa. On the second floor are the chemical and physical laboratories, a science lecture room, and a museum of natural history and Indian archaeology. On the third floor is a room seventy feet long by sixty-seven feet wide devoted to the use of the College of Business. Besides this there are rooms on this floor devoted to shorthand, typewriting, and business correspondence. Its cost was $40,000. By the munificence of friends of the seminary in 1894 a spacious Athletic Field of nearly five acres was purchased. This was graded and fenced with tight boards. It contains a handsome grand stand, a track twenty feet wide, and tennis and alley-ball courts. There is ample room here for baseball, football, handball, running, bicycle riding, hammer throwing, vaulting, lawn tennis, croquet, etc. The young ladies have full access to the field, which is within five minutes' walk of the seminary, and are encouraged to take open-air exercise. The Caroline M. Pettebone Gymnasium was erected in 1897, by her whose name it bears. Mrs. Pettebone was for many years an eminent and constant supporter of the school, and the gymnasium is a most beautiful and crowning gift of her many benefactions. The building is constructed of brick, with red sandstone trimmings, fifty-five and one half feet wide by one hundred and eight and one half feet long, and is of attractive architecture. The floor of the main exercise room contains 4,268 square feet. The 94 WYOMING CONFERENCE room is supplied with the best quality of apparatus, and a Rogers running track of the latest pattern, five feet wide and twenty-six laps to the mile in length. The building is so skillfully planned that it may be occupied cotemporaneously by the boys and girls in their respective apartments with perfect seclusion. It has two distinct and exclusive entrances. It is supplied with the best grade of modern baths and lockers, three bowling alleys (two for boys and one for girls), with skylight over the tenpins, two offices and examining rooms, respectively for the physical director and directress, football and baseball rooms, rooms for visiting teams, boxing room, trophy room, and spectators' gallery. The gymnasium is complete in every appointment, and cost $33,000. The seminary from the first has been prosperous. Its beginning was small, but its growth has been rapid. From one hall, costing an inconsiderable sum, it has grown into seven buildings, with an aggregate property value of $300,000. More than eighteen thousand students have been registered on its rolls. More than two thousand five hundred young people have carried away its diploma. Its students are found in nearly, or quite, every political division of the globe. There are few communities in the United States where the influence of an old Wyoming student is not felt in either a business, professional, or social capacity. The seminary has bred at least two State governors - Hoyt, of Pennsylvania, and Carpenter, of Iowa; at least one United States senator, and several members of the lower house of Congress, among them the present member from this district, Henry W. Palmer. Several justices of State supreme courts received their early education there, among them Judge Winthrop Ketcham, of Pennsylvania, now deceased. Judges Lynch and Ferris and ex-Judges Woodward and Rhone, of the Wilkes-Barre court, as well as a large number of others who have dignified the bench elsewhere, were students there in their early days. More than four hundred ministers of the Gospel received much of their preparation for their work at the seminary. Six graduates are now in foreign mission fields. The great civil received a full quota of Wyoming students who found lasting honor in fighting for the Union upon its battlefields. Among these are Colonel R. B. Ricketts, the late General E. S. Osborn, Captain David Schooley, and the late Judge Darte. These are only a few who went from the seminary's immediate locality. Many went from distant sections in other States who attained high official WYOMING SEMINARY 95 rank in the army and won fame and valor for our nation in that great conflict. The purpose of the seminary may be regarded as ideal in American education, namely, the preparation, under positive religious influences, of boys and girls for college and the providing of courses of study in science, literature, art, and music for young men and women who lack the time and necessary means for a complete course in college. The college of business, moreover, is regarded as of great importance in fitting students for business pursuits. It is believed that having this department in close connection with the seminary work gives it a thoroughness and completeness in business preparation that is of paramount importance. The seminary has been from the start coeducational. The history and results of the school, and of education in general, prove beyond question that the plan of educating young people together is preeminently the natural plan and that it is productive of the best results intellectually, morally, and socially. The following are expressions concerning the question from high authority: - Richter: "To insure modesty I would advise the education of the sexes together, for two boys will preserve twelve girls, or two girls twelve boys, innocent. But I will guarantee nothing in a school where girls are alone together, much less where boys are. It is a striking fact that nearly all, if not quite all, those who have given their names against coeducation are those who have never tried it." Colonel T. W. Higginson: "I believe heartily and fully in coeducation. The Creator, who placed boys and girls together in families, where the association of brothers and sisters is mutually helpful, knew what is best for humanity." In 1883 Mrs. Jane S. Nelson, "in consideration of her desire and purpose to aid and benefit the seminary to which the labors of her husband were for many years devoted," deeded to the trustees of the seminary the beautiful dwelling built by Dr. Nelson, where he and family resided for several years prior to his election as Book Agent in New York. This gift was in full accord with the noble impulse of one who did her full share in making sure the success of the institution, and all the efforts of her husband in its behalf. The seminary was fortunate in its first principal, Dr. Nelson. Elected to this position in 1844, he served until 1862, when he resigned. After a year's service as presiding elder of Wyoming District he was reelected principal, and served until 1872, when he was called to the agency of the Book Concern. As principal of the seminary Dr. Nelson's success was almost, 96 WYOMING CONFERENCE if not quite, unparalleled in the history of seminaries and other preparatory schools in the country. His ability as a teacher, his executive skill and financial wisdom, his indomitable perseverance, his great moral power, his fervid piety gave him an equipment for his work that made success assured. The second principal was Dr. Y. C. Smith, who served the school in that capacity from the spring of 1862 until the close of the school year in 1863. He was highly esteemed and affectionately remembered by thousands of students of Wyoming Seminary. He was a superior teacher, a strong thinker, and his work was characterized by sound scholarship. His life left a durable and salutary impress upon the history of the seminary. The third principal was Rev. Daniel Copeland, A.M., who became principal in 1872. He remained in the faithful and efficient discharge of his duties until prostrated by disease in February, 1882. A rest of a few months at Clifton Springs afforded physical improvement and inspired a hope that he would be able to continue his work. But the effort of opening the fall term of 1882 was too great and the vital flame began at once to flicker, and it became apparent to him that his work was ended. He resigned and moved with his family to Vermont, where the ravages of pulmonary disease closed his life, December 7, 1882. Dr. Copeland gave his life to education. As a teacher he was very successful. The teacher's chair was his throne. His work in the class room was royal. Several of the most eminent of the seminary's alumni graduated during his presidency. He made a strong impress of scholarly taste and refinement on the school, and will live long in high esteem in the memory of the thousands of students whose lives he richly endowed by precept and example. Rev. L. L. Sprague, A.M., D.D., was elected the fourth president of Wyoming Seminary upon the resignation of Dr. Copeland in 1882. The first faculty of the seminary in 1844 was as follows: Rev. Reuben Nelson, A.M., principal; Winthrop W. Ketcham, teacher of mathematics; Edwin F. Ferris, teacher of natural science and normal department; Elisha B. Harvey, A.B., teacher of ancient languages; Miss Ruth S. Ingalls, preceptress; Mrs. Jane S. Nelson, teacher of drawing and painting; Miss Sarah W. Tompkins, assistant in normal department; Miss Emily H. Schott, teacher of music. The following constitute the faculty in 1903: Rev. L. L. Sprague, M.A., D.D. (Wesleyan University), president, intellectual and moral science; Miss Charlotte L. Chubbuck, M.A. WYOMING SEMINARY 97 (Elmira College), lady principal, history and English literature; Rufus B. Howland, B.C.E. (Cornell University), mathematics; Willis L. Dean, M.A. (Dickinson College), principal College of Business, lecturer on commercial law, business correspondence, etc.; Charles O. Thurston, B.A. (Dartmouth College), physics, botany, and zoology; Charlotte L. Blackman, Mus.B. (Norwich Free Academy; Paris and Berlin), French and German; Pedro R. Gillott, M.A. (Wesleyan University; Heidelberg, Germany), Greek and Latin; Edward I. Wolfe (Public High School), pedagogy and English grammar; Junius W. Stevens, Ph.B. (Syracuse University), English language; Hugo V. Stadler (Berlin), piano, organ, and head of music department; Wesley A. Kuhn, M.E. (Millersville Normal School, and Wyoming College of Business), English and bookkeeping; Laura G. Thompson, A.B. (Woman's College of Baltimore; Oxford University, England), Latin and English; Alice B. Russell, M.E.L. (Wyoming Seminary), mathematics; George B. Lufkin, A.B. (Williams College), physiology, chemistry, and boys' gymnasium; Helen Jackson (Julian Academy, Paris; pupil of William Bouguereau and Gabriel Ferrier), drawing and painting; Leon J. Russell, M.E. (Mansfield S. N. School), English; Laura J. Sprague, M.E.L. (Wyoming Seminary), English; Saidee E. Kaiser (Royal Academy of Music, London), vocal culture; Theo. Hemberger (Berlin), violin; June Southwell (Emerson College of Oratory), oratory and girls' gymnasium; Alice Morgan (Wyoming College of Business), shorthand and typewriting; Lulu M. Morgan (Wyoming Seminary), piano. Lecturers: Rev. Leonard C. Murdock, M.A. business ethics; Charles W. Laycock, Esq. (cashier Anthracite Savings Bank), practical banking; Fred Corss, M.A., M.D., L. L. Rogers, M.D., Henry Kunkle, M.A., M.D., physiology and hygiene. Miss Isabel Clint, matron. Martha Sackett, librarian. The seminary now has an enrollment of more than four hundred students per term. Its attendance is practically from all parts of the civilized world. It is a cause of profound gratitude that the blessing of God has so constantly and signally abided upon the school. Many powerful revivals have graciously visited its students. The voice of prayer and the song of praise to God are heard in its halls as well as the sound of the instructor's voice and the laughter of the social throng. Thousands of young men and women have gone from Wyoming Seminary better because of their contact with Methodist influences, Methodist usages, and Methodist revivals. 98 WYOMING CONFERENCE There are but few homes in the bounds of Wyoming Conference that have not been touched by influences, near or remote, that have emanated from this alma mater. Her professional men - ministers of the Gospel, lawyers, physicians; her business graduates, as bankers, merchants, accountants, agents; her women who have gone forth from her spiritual and intellectual atmosphere, many to become home centers of love, refinement, and Christian precept, others to become teachers in the schools, authors in literature, or nurses in a ministry to physical suffering - these are found all through the Conference, the Middle States, and indeed in almost every community of the nation. The Wyoming Conference has ever exercised a most faithful watchcare over the interests of its seminary. It has readily indorsed every proposition to advance its interests and enlarge its usefulness. It has given in this way prestige and influence to the school in the eyes of men of financial ability who have erected its buildings and enlarged its endowment. The pulpits of the Conference have been open to the financial agents of the seminary for public collections, and the pastors have urged upon the people the importance of the seminary's work. This support of the Conference has been fundamentally the source of its strength and the cause of its growth. The seminary is owned by the Conference, and therefore may rightfully claim this support, but as a return it renders a service to Methodism that cannot be overestimated. And in this great American republic, this "Giant of the West," with its growing industries, its unlimited resources, its tremendous strides of material conquest, with every artery of activity throbbing to its fullest tension with energy, with thousands of immigrants yearly coming to our shores who are strangers to our institutions, where the will of the people is the highest law of the land, and where the very well-being of the people, therefore, depends upon an educated heart as well as educated brain, this "seminary of Christian learning" will have even a larger work to do in the future than it has done in the past.