Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1905-03-10
Town and COLLEGE.

Nophase of the early life of Middebury
is more interesting reading than that of
the relation of the growing village to the
institution of learning which the fathers
of the town took pains to establish SO
soon after coming into their own civic
existence. OF course the earlier part
of the chapter is memory no longer, but
history. Yet the older readers of the
Register still remember and speak of the
spirit of the former days extending
down even to the post-bellum years,
when there began to steal over all of
our American life, perhaps necessarily,
the commercialism of the century to
which we have now come. Will not
the briefest hint of the former relation
between town and college, as we'll as
of that which should now exist, be of in
terest to those who perhaps have not
had opportunity to give the subject any
special consideration?
When, one hundred and five years
ago, the legislature, meeting in the old
Middlebury Court House, granted the
twice deferred petition for a college
charter, it is doubtful whether the per-
sistent men who became the founders
of the institution were thinking over
much of the dollars and cents which
might accrue from their investment.
They seem to have been moved by mo-
tives far other than this. There were
no promises to subscribers of a money
return. Yet within five days after the sign
ing of the bill the college had a de facto
existence. 1t needed a building The
doors of the Addison County Grammar
School were at once opened for its ac-
commodation. Books were bought, APP
paratus provided. Then rose up prom
inent citizen who gave thirty acres of
land for a campus site. There was no
endowment or other fund to pay the
expenses. The citizens of the village
guaranteed salaries and other costs, and,
what is better paid them. A citizen
gave building and, dying, left his
estate to the college; then more land
from another citizen; more dollars;
president, faculty, citizens all working
together in entire harmony on the prob
lens that concerned, not only the col
lege, but the village life. The records
of the passing years show that the citi-
zens We'd with each other in their con-
tinued benefactions, and, on the other
hand, that there was recognized helpful
Al nj ;,,A of
upon the town life. political and social.
n 1t was as late as the SOS that a sub
scription list, still extant, of the towns
: people to an endowment fund of $50, 900
shows the prominent names of the vii
lage, yet we'll known in son and grand
son, opposite sums ranging from $50 tC
81 ,0OO One is sure that the record
, means sacrifice and self-denial The
gratitude that an institution has to it;
:, founders-akin to that of a child towards
its parent-should surely be felt by the
college towards the town of its birth anC
n growth.
No term passed without the m anifes
tation of mutual regard between tow
. and institution. The chapel floor ant
t gallery were often filled with those VIII,
b. came from their homes on both side
of the river to listen to debate or ami
= versary exercise; farmers, for mile
+ around, hurried through haying, or els
!. took recess in their work, that the,
"a might attend the Commencement exeI
VI OiapG and 10 60 ba
one strong objection to the change @
date of the Commencement in August
. to that in June, as at present, was tina
it would interfere with the attendant
of the farmers. Those too were the day
when the town was so filled with il
-, visitors to the campus and church. d
the time of this August festival, thu
V the parks had their booths where tn
crowds might lunch on ginger cake
is and lemonade. SO did village and nea
by towns rejoice that another academ
d year had been completed. Many sti
remember how closely identified wei
the college and the town in the dar
days of the civil war when some of Il
first troops to go from Addison count
40 marched out from under the trees of tt
campus, some in the ranks exchangir
i'm the classroom and scholastic trainir
for the sterner drill of the camp al
IN the battle field
In return for unfagging interest al
Gu continual AID what was the college DOH
for the town? OF course If would
easier, and vastly more appropriate,
to speak of returns not estimable in co
of of the realm, but, forgetting for Il
moment that unmeasured revenue
influence which, from this center, h
.ee been streaming out for hundred yea
tie over state and country, shall we CO
II slider the material revanna which Ii