The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-06-05
MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE.

Tanner, contains sketch of Middle
 bury college by Professor Charles B
 Wright, of Middlebury, Vt., who says
 November l. 1900, the legislature oi
 Vermont granted a charter to Middle
 bury college, the twenty-sixth institu-
 tion of the sort incorporated in the Uni
 ted States. Since that date she has had
 most honorable record, and her ap-
 preaching centennial, for which prepa-
 rations are being actively made, render
 1t fitting that the intervening years
 should be passed briefly in review.
 To begin with, Middlebury is, in a
 certain sense, child of Yale As Ver-
 mont was settled from the older New
 England states, especially Massachu-
 setts and connecticut, 1t is natural that
 her civil, religious and educational in-
 stitutions should in many ways be du-
 plicates of theirs. The settlers retained
 in their new home a strong belief in the
 church, the the school-house and the
 college as essential clements of a
 healthy permanent growth Privations
 only strengthened this belief and stim-
 ulated their determination to establish
 among themselves as soon as possible
 the institutions whose models had been
 so important part of their previous
 experience. The political situation
 though, was for many years extremely unfavorable for educational develop ment. There were the usual obstacles
 obtaining in all new settlements, and there were besides many special hin drances. The controversies for autono- my, in which the inhabitants were so long involved and the Revolutionary war, both threatened to annihilate Yer mont as an Independent state and turned all thoughts toward preservation rather than toward culture Up to the time of her admission into the Federal Union, almost the entire energy of Yer mont had been given to what was real ly q fight for life. Under the circum- stances, therefore, it is very creditable that previous to the close of 1791 four grammar schools had been incorporated and that during the next ten years, the adverse pressure having at last been re- moved, eight similar institutions were added to the. list, the Addison County Grammar school being among the num- Der.
 In November. 1791, the legislature of Vermont passed an act establishing a home college, the University of Yer mont at Burlington. After this act of incorporation had been obtained how ever, nothing, was done at Burlington for number of years towards putting a college into operation. Meanwhile the Inhabitants of Middlebury and vicinity were moving for college there As young men desrous, of a college educa- ton had to leave the site alto get it, | great inconvenience frequently resulted. | The University of Vermont seemed un- able to furnish immediate relief. '"The | town contained but few inhabitants" says Williams History of Vermont | and it was not in their power to erect | the necessary buildings, procure a suit able library, philosophical apparatus, or the proper accommodations for profess sors and students. The trustees Were embarrassed, seldom met, and pres- dent was not appointed for the semina- ry.' k If .m.
 The Addison County Grammar school, whose charter had been secured in 1797, was exceptionally prosperous from the start More than four times the amount required for building purposes by the act of incorporation had been raised in. the vicinity, and in 1898, while the build ing was being erected. President Timo- thy. Dwight, of Yale, visited Middlebury and encouraged the plan of establishing a college. Speaking upon this hint, the founders asked the legislature to let them go on and make a college out of the school they had already formed. Two causes, however, operated to delay the granting of the desired charted; the direct efforts of those who opposed the and the political uneasiness of the time in connection with the ad- policy of President Adams The effort being repeated, though, in legislatures, the act of incor- poration was finally passed on the date above mentioned
 In subsequent years Doctor Dwight lost none of his interest in the enterprise he had fostered. In 1S11, after one of his visits, he penned a most attractive picture of the institution as it then ap- peared: "The academy began to pros- per from the time when 1t was opened although it's funds have been derived rom private donations, and chiefly, if lot wholly, from the inhabitants of the own The number of students is now ,re hundred and ten; probably as virtu- us q collection of youth as can be found n any other seminary in the world. The inhabitants of Middlebury nave ately subscribed eight thousand dollars or the purpose of erecting another col egiate building When it is remem- ,ered that twenty-five years ago this pot was wilderness. 1t must be ad- nitted that these efforts have done the .uthors of them the highest honor" The first president of the new college vas Jeremiah Atwater, who had been recommended to the academy principal hip by Doctor Dwight, with a view to N he presidency when a college charter hould be secured. The first alumnus of [ he college was Aaron Petty, who was raduated in 1892. Three graduates are scor6ed for 1903, and from that date the ut-put increased.
 The financial life of the young institu- on was precarious for many years In 2 peaking of its founders, in a. salutatory ddress at the seni-centennial of 1850, I resident Labaree declared that if there q
 any evidence of want of wisdom on T leir part it is found in the attempt of e le incorporators to establish an institu- on of high order without adequate t' There had been a confi- t