CHAPTER VIII.

M

COLLEGE CHARTER AND GROUNDS.

WINTER IN ALBANY.

OST of the winter of 1856-57 was spent in Albany securing our college charter. Hon. John M. David

son, of Wiscoy, W. W. Crandall, M. D., of Andover, and Hon. S. O. Thatcher, of Hornellsville, were Alfred students and members of the Legislature. Mr. Allen often said that these young men took off their coats, figuratively, and worked for the bill. It was introduced early in the session and passed the first and second readings, but there it stopped. Mr. Allen wonderingly stayed on for weeks and weeks, not knowing some of the ways in Albany. One day upon asking a leading member in the House why the bill was so long delayed, the gentleman laughingly replied, "It waits the bids.' "What do you mean?" "You know that here we have one hand before, and the other behind." "But how is that?" "In other words, how much money is there in the bill?" "Not a dollar," was the prompt reply. "Oh, that makes a difference!” It was but a few days after this before the third reading was called for. The regents at that time were opposed to small colleges, and worked against the bill, the State superintendent and all his under officers sharing their opposition. These departments, almost in a body, were on the floor when the hour came. for calling the roll, and to their utter astonishment the measure passed the House with an overwhelming majority.

Doctor Woolworth, that grand old man who for so many years stood at the head of our State educational interests, became from this winter an earnest friend of Mr. Allen, often consulting him on educational problems for the growth of the

work throughout the State. At one of the yearly meetings for the regents and educators of the State, the teachers were thanking him for some changes that had been made in the examination papers. Pointing to Mr. Allen's seat, he replied, "Your thanks are due entirely to him and not to me.' While detained in Albany that winter Mr. Allen attended lectures in the law school, was examined, and admitted to the bar. This was not with the idea of ever practicing law, but with the thought that the knowledge thus acquired would make him more efficient in his chosen profession.

DUTY ABOVE ALL HONORS PREFERRED.

He had little desire for public recognition, and all honors conferred upon him were entirely unsought. In 1873, when the regents of the State of New York at Albany gave him the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, he was greatly surprised. As the sacred mantle was thrown over him, Doctor Woolworth remarked, “This is well deserved, but too long deferred; let us telegraph your wife."

President Allen received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from the State University of Kansas, in 1875, and in 1886 that of Doctor of Laws, from his own beloved university. Important educational positions in different States were many times offered him, but his chosen work for Alfred far outweighed them all, so he was satisfied to continue his labor there in the same sacrificial spirit in which he had begun it. The recognition at Albany that winter of the work hitherto done at Alfred not only for the teachers of common schools, but for general educational interests, gave renewed courage and zeal to the friends and teachers of the Institution. In the language of another, "Allegany County, and all southwestern New York, owe more for the high standing in intellectual and moral reforms to William C. Kenyon and his co-workers than to all other influences combined."

In 1878 President White, of Cornell, Professor Clark, of Canandagua, and President Allen, were appointed a committee

to meet with the presidents of Harvard, Amherst, and other Massachusetts institutions, to consider in what manner the curriculum of colleges and high schools could be harmonized.

DIFFERENT WAYS OF BOARDING.

The winter of 1858 found all the buildings full of students. The price of board had been raised to one and a half dollars per week, yet the family numbered over one hundred and thirty, including teachers, students, and helpers. Besides these, many from a distance found homes in the town, some boarding in private families, others in clubs, where a number provided the material and together paid a woman for cooking it. Still others "boarded themselves," that is, they took rooms provided with cooking stoves, and often, having brought provisions from their homes, prepared their meals and did their own housework. Brothers and sisters, or those from the same locality, many times. lived in this manner while pursuing their courses of study.

It was not an uncommon thing in the early days for a young man to drive a cow-perhaps many miles-to Alfred, hire some pasture land, and pay most of his expenses by selling the extra milk that he did not require for himself. All these ways made the expenses of the school much less, and gave even the poorest an opportunity for the higher culture which they craved. Such struggling students have always stood among the first in their classes, and as they have gone out to the world's work, many of them have held leading positions of responsibility and influence.

BURNING OF SOUTH HALL.

At that time Mr. Allen and myself had charge of the ladies' building, called South Hall, while Professor Picket and wife took the gentleman's, or North Hall. The new building for chapel and recitation rooms had been completed the year before, and the old chapel in the upper South Hall had been converted into music rooms, with one room reserved for the ladies' literary society. This the young women had fitted up with carpet, chairs, library case, rostrum, and desk, for their meetings.

It

seemed to the entire corps of teachers that the term was one of uncommon promise for the winter's work.

On the morning of February 14, it being Sunday, some of the young ladies were excused from appearing at breakfast at seven o'clock. I went early from the table to care for our little daughter Eva, then but two years of age. On entering the building I heard her cries, and hastened forward to the bedroom, where I found her nearly stifled with smoke. Her father, following, said, "There is fire above us." He hastened to the room above and discovered a blaze between the clapboards and ceiling. "The building must go. Get out the girls," he said. This was done with dispatch. Baby was quickly wrapped in her father's dressing-gown and given to the care of a trusty young man; the sleepers were hastily roused, and in cloaks, some in their stocking feet, rushed through the snow, then several feet deep, to the new chapel. There was not time to save everything, though the teachers, many students and citizens, made great effort to do all that was possible. Heroic work was done to save Middle Hall, which often caught the flames, though a score of young men were on the roof working with buckets of water. They stood there firmly till the building was safe, though they afterward carried the marks of burnt faces, hands, and coats. Elder Nathan Hull and Mr. Allen, from their exposed positions, were, as it seemed, only saved by a miracle.

The houseless teachers and young ladies were all welcomed for the time into the homes of the good people of Alfred. Although there was no insurance on the burnt building, immediate preparations were made for the erection of a new one, which was to be much larger and nearer to the town. In little more than a year afterward a fine brick hall, now known as the Ladies' Boarding Hall, was ready for their use.

WORK ON THE CAMPUS.

The new buildings begun in 1845 were placed in the native woods on a hillside full of natural springs. This made the soil above the hardpan difficult to bring into shape. Stumps, logs,

the débris of the new buildings, the rough and muddy walks and roads, were the cause of many a disagreeable experience. A number of the girls asked the privilege of making flower beds during their leisure hours. From this beginning there came to be much enthusiasm, the young men often working with willing hands to help them. In this way some spots of fine annuals made bright here and there a little space in the general unsightliness of the place.

Before this, in order to keep the Institution grounds open down to Main Street, and also to have a better chance for beautifying them, Professors Kenyon and Allen bought the plot of ground north of Mr. Collins'. This was, years afterward, given to the Institution, and a fountain, supplied from a hillside spring, was placed in the center, while trees and shrubs were planted round about.

After the South Hall was burned, in 1858, Mr. Allen hired help to cover the débris and put that portion of the grounds in shape. Thus, little by little, and year after year, was this work carried on in the spare moments of those most busy in study and literary work. One spring he made it a daily task to go into the woods, uproot a young pine, bring it down on his shoulders, and plant it at the noon recess. During that summer some fifty-two trees were planted in this manner, and were all growing nicely when winter came on. A heavy snow lay on the ground all that winter; this was often covered with a hard crust, so that it would bear up the sheep, that came over the tops of the fences to browse upon these newly-planted trees, until all of them were destroyed. I myself saw from my window the last one-the finest tree we had-disappear in this way. The tears would come in spite of all effort to overcome them. Mr. Allen, however, took the disappointment philosophically, as he did everything; but after the discouragements of that winter, little was done toward beautifying the grounds for several years, till they were better protected.