The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-09-27
ROBERT l.. KELLY.

Tine Initial movement " IohAAN 49,
Richmond an institution OF higher
learning was made at the session OF
Indiana Yearly Meeting in 1832-efgh-
ty-one years ago. Those were pioneer
DAYS in Indiana history. 1t was hardy.
rugged, brave race of men who had
eettIed here. They were not men OF
great resources financially speaking,
but there were among them men or
big ideas and generous sentiments.
They did not wish their children to
grow I'd in ignorance Their life con-
sisted in a hard battle with the rough
elements OF an untamed nature, but
they aspired not simply to exist ply
sicalIy, but to expand intellectually,
socially and spiritually.
In the face of inertia, of discourage
rnents. of actual back-sets this band of
educational promoters, sometimes
dwindled to a very few, persevered
and fifteen years after the plan was
proposed the first session of Friends
Boarding School opened in the west
wing of what is now Earlham hall
This was on the seventh day of June,
i847.
A Distinct Atmosphere.
The school had a distinct "atmos-
phere" from the very first. 1t was a
co educational institution-there was
not the ordinary discrimination
against women. The founders were
advocates of the principle of peace, OF
civic righteousness, of moral and re-
ligious training as well as intellectual
development and while we would
smile now at some of their rules and
regulations, not only have the domi-
I'll yod n O.
the past sixty-six years, but each one
of them has gained recognition as a
necessary feature in any we'll organ
lied system of American education.
These men were more than pioneers
and promoters-they were prophets.
The school was not large but the
quality of work done was good. The
old Boarding school produced such
men as William Penn Nixon, for many
years managing editor of the Chicago
Inter Ocean; Joseph Quincy Cannon,
of Danville, Ill; Francis T. White and
Mordecai Morris White, bankers, of
New York and Cincinnati; Judge Vim
cent Carter, of Indianapolis; Achilles
Unthank, civil engineer who construct
ed important works in Asia and South
America; and Hiram Hadley, great
teacher in Indiana and elsewhere, and
the Father of Education" and State
Superintendent of Public Instruction
of New Mexico. At the recent home
coming of old students, despite the
passage of more than a half century,
some fifty or more of these old
Boarding School students were on the
campus of the college. The great per
sonality in the teaching force of the
Boarding schol was Bardabas Coffin
Hobbs, one of Indiana's distinguished
educators and state superintendent,
and the first president of the college.
.. =, =, Chartered in 1857.
The college was chartered in 1859,
and was christened Earlham. Away
back in 1887, Joseph John Quincy, an
English banker and prominent minis.
ter among the Friends gave $4,000 to
the Boarding School fund; later his
widow made a larger gift and the
name of the ancestral seat of the Cur
ney's at Norfolk, England, "Earlham
Hail. was adopted by the committee
The officers and teachers of the new
college were men and women of such
refinement, scholarship and character
that the college at once possessed an
enviable prestige among educational
/ institutions 1t would be fair to say
| think, that this prestige has been
maintained during the years.
Earlham not only was a leader In
the field of co-education, but in the
field of advanced practical instruc
ton in science. For instance the frs
| Chemical laboratory in the state fol
| college purposes was established a
Earlham as we'll as the first collec
! ton of material for a museum O
natural history and the first college
/ observatory, at which for many year:
the transit instrument taken from FIT
| Sumpter and loaned to Earlham by
the United States government has
been in use.
Has Remarkable Museum.
Earlham also was the first colleg
of liberal arts in the state to gran
credit for work toward a degree il
manual training and domestic science
| Today the college has not only a re
! markable muSeum-named in honor o
the second president, Joseph Moore
but six we'll equipped scientific labora
tories-in chemistry, biology, physics
geology, PSYCHOLOGY and domesti
science.
1t is not true of course, that Ear
ham is technically a scientific schoo
The work is organized now into n
less than seventeen departments in
Guiding physical training and music
There are four general groups of d.