The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1892-02-12
B. L. ARNOLD, A. M.

!, |
followed from the college to the cemetery
in the brilliant sunshine of Monday, the
, first of February, 1892, to pay the last
Offices of respect and affection to the mem
ory of President B. L. Arnold, Of the State
Agricultural College. There was something
to mere outside observer very pathetic
in that long Uncover two hundred in
number-marching with measured steps
and fearful, saddened faces, from the college
on the hill to the city of the dead. Real
honest mournin! showed itself in every
movement and was written on every face;
these mournersh had not begun to hit for them
selves the burdens of life, nor was there
aught of self-pity in ther grief. as when
the mainstay of family has been with
drawn and the underthought of the weep.
ing relatives is, What shall we now do for
ourselves, that he is gone whose
t tIouH and work sustained us and guarded
rs from all avoidable ills? No, these
mourners in military rank and cadenced
step, had lost, not their relative, but their
friend and teacher. The family, needless
|
| hearts felt, in all the bitterness of sudden,
terrible bereavement; receiving on all hands
the earnest sympat y extended to the
widow and the fatherless. The associates,
the friends of him who had gone before,
and so suddenly, to cross the dark river, were
also there, testifying their respect to faithful
colleague, an honored president, a cult
waited Christian gentleman. But it WAS the
long line of mourning students, which
marked the funeral of b. L. Arnold and
gave it the distinctive and long to- be-re
membered tone.
1t is because his memory will not soon
pass from among them, and because their
interest is so real in what he was and how
he grew to be such fine scholar, so full
minded and patient teacher, that this
sketch is written.
President B. L. Arnold was only SO
years old when he passed away, but his
character was the product of many and
wide experiences of men and things, and
not least, of the best thoughts gathered
from the very widest and most earnest
|
North View, Mecklenburg county, Virginia,
and his boyhood was spent on his fathers
farm and under the influence of quiet
Christian home of the old school. In the
district school and with such aid as a mind
greedy of knowledge from infancy could
there obtain, he prepared himself for col
leee. He was a studious lad, quiet,
thoughtful and retiring Well prepared,
then, with thorough knowledge of the
few things he had found it possible to
study, and with that love of learning which
he carried with him through every year of
life, he entered Randolph Macon college,
Virginia, and graduated therefrom in 1861,
with the highest honors that institution
| could confer. His favorite studies even
| then were mathematics and mental philos-
ophy; to the latter he was more than faith
full to the very end. No wonder that it
was impossible to take up his last psychol
| ogy class where he left it when fast growing
| weakness drove him from his class room,
for his mind was stored with the treasures
| of thirty years. He needed no text book
the hard, deep problems of the hardest and
deepest of all sciences his last class can best
bear witness.
One of his college friends at Randolph
/ Macon tells how he was honored by his fell
low-studenrs FOR his unfailing industry, un-
swerving morality and deep-toned piety,
and for that economy, which, at first
| necessity, became to him habit, and Glove
! to him as he studied-the more deeply S
the years rolled blythe essentials rather
| than the mere out,ides and luxuries OF
life. Although at college, as said,
mathematics and mental science attracted
/ him most, yet he was patient and success
| full student both in languages and physical
science. He was gifted with good
memory and so diligently did he use and
improve it, that he became the best all
round teacher, and the best judge of the
knowledge of other men, thai ever came
within the circle of the writer of this
sketch. At college he had fully prepared
himself for the teachers life, and in 1861
he passed out into the world intending
nothing less than to be inv lived in the
turmoil, hardships, dangers and excitement
of bitter civil war. But he was a Virginian
and obeyed what he believed was his coun-
try's call. Duty, he thought, Puts on
sometimes strange disguises; but in what
ever dress she may appear, the voice has to
be listened to- the word of command |
obeyed. SO the teacher became the SOL |
dier, and with an interval of invalid life at |
home. he served throughout the war. The |
inner qualities of the mind are what make |
the man, and the earnest, duty-loving, obe' |
dent, disciplined teacher bore the same rec |
ord In his army life. The war over, gladly |
was the teachers halit assumed. 1t is sell
dom that in this country one is found to
follow his own line of life-sacredly, hon.
estly, perseveringly and persistently for
nearly thirty years. Such was the case
with B. L. Arnold. He trained himself for
teaching; he made himself a teacher; he
kept on teaching to the; end, and with ever.
growing, never-staying zeal, each year he
made progress in his chosen work. de
taught in North Carolina, Virginia and
Tennessee, filling the chair of mathematics
in West Tennessee college, and called to
the presidents chair in Trenton, Tennessee.
He taught also at Emroy & Henry college,
Virginia. About 1872 he was nominated
h