Evening star., 1907-07-06
THE EHEADSOF AMHERST
Eminent Men Who Have Been
Its Presidents.
STORY OF THE COLLEGE
Established as an 0ffshoot From
Williams.
STUDENT SELF-GOvERNMENT
How Prof. Seelye Carried on His
Hobby-Well-Kn Graduates
Of the Institution.
AMHERST Mass July l. 1907
BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS
Special Correspondence of The Star and the Chicago
Record Herald.


the three great specialties of the institution
are athletics. of which I wrote yesterday;
music. of which I hope to write tomorrow,
and the science of citizenship, which has
made an impress upon the character of the
alumni who have left the institution since
the chair was founded. Prof Edwin A.
Grosvenor, who has had rare opportunities
to make a practical study of government
upon both hemispheres conducts a course
which is intended to qualify the graduates
of this college for the exercise of their
duties and obligations to the state. He
endeavors to make good citizens out of the
raw material that comes in here every fall
from the cities and towns and farms that
feed the freshman classes He is an excel
lent specimen of an American himself, and
wherever you find Amherst graduate
you may depend upon it that he is a desira-
BILE citizen.
Amherst has had a long list of eminent
men among it's presidents, but none more
50 than the Rev George Harris. ID, who
has presided over this institution during
the last eight years. He was born In
Maine in 1874, graduated at Amherst when
twenty-five, has received the degree Of doc
tor OF divinity from Amherst. Harvard and
Yale. and that of doctor of laws from Dart
mouth He studied theology at Andover.
was ordained as pastor of the High Street
Congregat tional Church at Auburn. Me-. in
1863; went to the Central Church of Provi-
dence in 1872 married Miss Jane A. Wall
of that city in 1873, was made professor OF
Christian theology at Andover in 1888. was
appointed preacher at Dartmouth College
in 1894 and to Harvard in 1897. and was
elected president of Amherst in 1899
Founding of Amherst
President Harris has had predecessors,
and among them several remarkable men.
Amherst College came into existence be-
cause of the refusal of the trustees Of Will
liams to move that institution to North
ampton or to some other more thicky Set
tied portion of the state than Williamstown.
and Dr. Zephanah Swift Moore. who was
president of Williams, started the new in
stitution September 49, 1913. with forty
seven students, "a larger number, l believe,
than had ever been matriculated on the
first day of any college, he afterward said.
OF this number fifteen followed him from
Williams. He died at his post June 30,
1923, and his successor was Herman Hum
phrey, farmer boy from Connecticut, who
got the best part Of his education from the
books of a small parish library, which he
read by the light of pine torches while
working on farm. He taught school dur
ing the winter months and prepared himself
for college, so that he able to enter
Yale when he twenty-five years old.
When he came to Amherst as president in
1923 he found it the smallest of the New
England colleges. but increased the number
u
ward and second only to Yale His specially
was educating young men for the ministry.
and during the twenty-five years of his
presidency he graduated 430 ministers and
50 missionaries
His successor was another farmer boy,
Edward Hitchcock, son Of a halter at Deer
field, Mass, who worked on a farm by day
and studied by night until 1915. when he
was appointed principal Of the Deerfleld
Academy, then one of the most important
educa tional institutions In New England.
He showed remarkable genius in mathe-
matics and made his first reputation by
pointing out several important errors in the
Nautical Almanac, published by the Navy
Department. He decided to become min
lister instead OF mathematician, however,
and entered the theological seminary at
Yale without preliminary college training.
After his graduation in 1920 he preached
one year at Conway, Mass, and was then
called to the chair of natural history at
Amherst, where, for twenty years, he
taught all the sciences In the list. from
anatomy to zoology. He was elected presi-
dent in 1Si5 and served until 1854. During
the time of his professorship he was state
geologist Of Massachusetts, New York and
Vermont. He a voluminouS writer. the
author of $500 printed pages Including a
life of Mary Lyon. pioneer of the higher
Holyoke College.
Epoch Of Material Improvement.
William Augustus stearns, fourth pres-
dent or Amherst (lS1f-ib), came from a
family of clergymen. His father. both his
grandfathers, several uncles and cousins
and his three brothers were all ministers Of
the gospel. and he was himself pastor of the
Congregational Church at Cambridgeport,
Mass, when he elected to the presi-
dency of Amherst. His career here was
marked by a great material improvement.
He secured endownents of nearly $SOO, 900
and erected six Of the buildings.
Julius H. Seelye, his successor was
equally fortunate in securing large gifts
Of money and new buildings. and probably
had a wider national reputation than any
other of the presidents of Amherst He
was a member of Congress during that tur-
control of legisla ton for the first time after
the war and during the Hayes-Tilden presi-
DENTAL contest. His ability, his learning
and his fmpetuous oratory made him promi-
nent In the House Of Representatives and
his independent non-partisan attitude and
his force Of character gave him unusual in
f1uence He would have been reelected to
Congress but for the death of President
Stearns and call to the presidency of Am
herst, where he had been professor Of
moral and mental philosophy for eighteen
years.
Prof. Seelye's Hobby.
Prof. Seelye's hobby was character build
ing, and as soon as he was installed as
president he abolished all the rules and
regulations of the institution and estab-
lished a system of student self-government
which attracted great deal of comment
and criticism at the time and was remark
ably successful as long he was alive to
guide it. He introduced other radical
changes. He entered into student life more
Sy,fi, tply han nth har Iant