The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-05-14

rebuked himself for his lack of faith
and started anew; this time to go two
miles farther before the same doubts
assailed. Once more he returned and
once more INDUCED In self-recrimination.
Where Is my faith? Have / lost my
faithg he asked himself. and for the
last time set out, this time selecting the
present site of Oberlin.
Mr.. Shiphard then went to New Ha-
ven, close by, and asked the owners of
the property for donation of the nee
essary acres he required for the college
Again and again he was refused. till one
morning, coming downstairs, he an
nounced to the folks with whom he was
staying, It's all right: I'm going to get
it, Sure enough, on Icalling at the bank
at 10 o'clock the cashier informed him
that the owners had changed their minds
and decided to donate the acres.
THE settlement, such as 1t was, rose
in log houses, built of long. rough-hewn
slabs and presently twenty-five students
who had been expelled from Lane Col
lege for anti-slavery convictions came to
Oberlin.s The numbers rapidly swelled;
the settlement soon had 1000 occupants,
500 Of whom were students. The latter
came indeed only too rapidly and they
were hard put to house and feed them.
In the second year P. P. Stewart, who
afterwards made a fortune with the
Stewart cooking stove. but who was then
long way from affluence, started a
boarding house in which there were two
tables, one charging fifty cents week
for it's fare and the other seventy-five
cents. The fifty-cent menu consisted of
graham bread and water for breakfast
and supper with the addition of half
bowl of milk for the midday meal The
extra quarter provided few vegetables
Mr. Stewart had somewhat rigid and
pronounced ideas, and suggested that the
graham flour might be changed to parch-
ed corn, which was cheaper and the diff
ference used for the Lords work but
the students failed to see it in the same
light.
1.-THE soil was rich, however, and after
a few years these privations became
things of the past. In the pioneer days
a theological professor once wishing a
| load of wood, applied for the same to
a farmer, telling him that he had no
money at present. The farmer protested
his willingness to supply the needed
cords. but showing his naked feet, add
ed that the professor could see that he
needed the money. Taking off his own
shoes the theological professor tossed
them to the farmer. saying that he had
another pair at home and could ride back
barefooted.
This was sixty-five years ago. Ober-
lin was the first college in the world to
admit ladies to all the privileges of the
college and also to draw no color line.
Mr.. Shiphard, who also held some
what peculiar views. made point of
never receiving more than $500 per an
mum for his ministrations, although
some of the churches were well able to
afford to make the sum a larger one. On
this stipend ne managed to successfully
provide for his wife and family of six
big boys, all of them blessed with healthy
appetites. At first manual labor was in
stituted, but this was afterwards done
away with.
Theodore Weld of Lane Seminary, by
his eloquence and suasion, fired the col
lege with anti-slavery feeling. Twenty
five years before the Civn War students
went out preaching. the crusade of anti
slavery and temperance. Their adven-
lures We're many, sometimes meeting
with a friendly reception and sometimes
being mobbed
} Hundreds OF escaped slaves came tt
Oberlin and Oberlin was regarded as a
J terrible place. inculcaung false doc
} doctrines. Church fellowship even was
denied some of the workers there.
Five men who came early to Oberlir
were mainly instrumental by their Wig
: orous mentalites In raising the tone Of
the college and making Its name respect
ed. These were President Mahan, Giles
} G.. Furney, evangelist; John Morgan an6
: the brothers Cole, eminent in theil
, classes at Yale.
THE simplicity of the conditions sur
: rounding the settlement were evidenced. ,
) concluded Mr.. Rice, "by the habit con
: tracted by the neighboring farmers Of
5 leaving their bushel baskets of hickor,
/ nuts and apples in the streets while
E they went up town on other business
: The students would take the fruit and
8 leave the equivalent money In the bas
kets, a course not always emulated b,
all students
"Oberlin during the Civil War contrib
uted far more volunteers in ratio to it
o size and in like manner brought to bea
i greater influence for the Union than an,
other city in the State.
Much applause greeted the speaker an
: DR.. Whitney was constrained, by tn
: mention of the underground railroad, t
S remember his early connection there
: with.
: Often" said the Doctor, 'in tn
[ night long wagons covered with a clot
: such as was used to cover the beef tina
t was largely shipped through our towr
y would come up to my uncle's house wit
! six or seven negroes concealed inside
e They were hidden away, while we boy
0 acted as scouts, in corn shocks and 1
: the dim attic. I was detailed to max
the grand tour with food slowed ava
Q in my pockets and surreptitiously tue
L the provender into a corn shock. The
e some stormy night-the stormier the bet
e ter-and the negroes were sent to Cleve
T land and conveyed across the border
: Mr. Haynes, a brave man, once in TAX
e ing. some slaves through a cut betwee
d the hills found a barricade of fence pole
: across the road, with men holding som
n of the poles. Sending his mare down tn
e hill at a gallop. Haynes broke throug
a the barrier scattering the men and get
S ting the fugitives through to safety
n Thanks were resolved extended to tn
y hosts and entertainers and to Mr.. Shor
e for gratuitously engrossing the messag
d to the President. The next meeting wa
announced to be held at Mrs. Weldon
: and the guests concluded the evening b,
0 adjournfng to the refreshment lanai.
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