Chapter 15

Liber College

"While these three men were sitting by the spring which many scores now daily resort, the covenant of his boyhood came vividly to the mind of the Missionary, then in his twenty-fifth year, and an impression sudden and overwhelming as from the whisper or impress of a ministering angel was settled on his heart, that on this spot he should dwell and execute his covenant with god and a sainted brother."

Nothing, however, was done toward the enterprise, then so dimly painted in the visions of the future, for ten years, except that Mr. Taylor negotiated for the land. When he moved upon the ground he called the place Salem.

The first public meeting ever held to consider the subject of building a school there, assembled in the "old pealed-log meeting house," near by what was then known as the Salem Cemetery, February 5th, 1853. The persons present were Rev. I. N. Taylor, Jonathan Lowe, Jacob Bosworth, J. H. Topping, Obadiah Winters, Wilson Milligan, David Hays, George W. Templer, William McCormick, Joseph C. Hawkins, John G. Spade, Augustus Bosworth and R. S. Taylor. Mr. Winters was chosen Chairman and Mr. Taylor Secretary.

"The day was bitterly cold; the wind blew a heavy gale, and the snow drifted through the crevices of the cabin, so that not a spot could be found in the room where the Clerk could keep the paper dry. So unusually bitter was the cold storm that a large red-hot stove did not warm the 'peeled-log house'"

I. N. Taylor proposed an institution to be called Salem Academy, and argued that "such an enterprise would be more in harmony with the undeveloped state of the country and the conceptions of the people, as well as within their means." Mr. Bosworth proposed a college, arguing that "no school of high grade could be made without foreign aid, and that such assistance could be more readily obtained for a college." This proposition prevailed, and the school was named "Liber College," by suggestion of Mr. Taylor. After this the village took the same name. April 20th 1853, a notice appeared in the Portland "Journal" giving notice of the first election of officers, and on the 3rd of May the cooperators met and organized themselves into the "Liber College Joint Stock Company." Shares were placed at $20 each, and the payment of $100 entitled the holder to a perpetual scholarship. At this meeting the following officers were elected, being the first officers of the corporation: Trustees, Jacob Bosworth, Wilson Milligan, Obadiah Winters, Wilbur Morehous, Ebenezer Woodbridge and Robert Huey; Treasurer, G. W. Templer. On the same day the Board of Trustees held their first meeting and elected I. N. Taylor President for four years. Afterward, A. Bosworth was elected Clerk. During that summer the Board put forth a manifesto, from which the following are extracts:

"Liber is a Latin word of four meanings, which the school-boy sometimes expresses in the rhyme:

'Liber is a child

And Liber is free;

Liber is a book.

And a bark of a tree.'

"The significance of the title may be expressed in a sentence. We established, on liberal principles, in a new woodland, an institution for the education of our children, in books of practical Science, Religion and Liberty. Rarely was a College, or even a first rate High School, founded, furnished and finished in the time of one mortal generation. This we know, and are not crazed or gloomed. The growth of a good Institution is usually like that of an oak. As men in middle life and old age do not plant acorns expecting themselves to sit under the expanded and towering boughs of the embryo oak, so we are not oppressed with swollen fancies of speedy and easy maturity. We plant the acorn. It will germinate this very year. Henceforth our children will defend the sapling, root, bark and blossom. But the broad, deep shade of the great tee we willingly consecrate to those generations who will live and learn over our graves."

I. N. Taylor and Jonathan Lowe donated a college campus of six acres to the company.

Early in this year, (1853), the Board contracted with I. N. Taylor to build a house, suitable for the preparatory classes, for one thousand two hundred dollars. The result was that in November of that year the house was ready to be occupied.

In August the site itself was cleared of its native beach trees and old logs.

On the 5th of November 1853, the school was opened; I. N. Taylor, President and Mrs. Julia A. Weber, Principal of the Primary Department.

During the first term Deacon Jonathan Lowe proposed to place in school a Negro boy, living with him, called George Lowe, but whose real name was George Hunter. This displeased a number of the stockholders, and they became divided on the question of admitting colored persons to the privileges of the school. At once the previous harmony among the original founders was broken. The language of the Constitution of the College being that "the purpose of this Institution is to furnish to any person whomsoever the facilities of a common and collegiate education," those stockholders opposed to the admission of colored persons ceased to cooperate in the management of the College. Afterward (March 22, 1855), the stockholders voted to reimburse those who had paid stock, not understanding that Negroes could be admitted to the school. The result of the withdrawal of these persons was the founding of the Farmers' Academy, of which more will be said hereafter.

The first year the school opened with twenty scholars, forty-three being in attendance during the course of the year. The entire cost of teaching and agency during the first two years was only about one thousand one hundred and fifty dollars, during which time, for teaching the Primary Department four months, Mrs. Weber received but twenty-seven dollars. Those were indeed times of "small things."

At the opening of the third year of the school Miss Sarah Jane Miller was the Primary teacher, which position she held for three years. The number of trustees was increased to twelve. During the year I. N. Taylor resigned his office as President of the Board and J. C. Hawkins was appointed to the office. Two rows of rooms were built for self-boarding students, and several new residents came into the village and built houses. Nothing of especial interest occurred then until the fifth year, during which the teachers were as follows: President, I. N. Taylor, Principal Primary Department, Miss S. J. Miller, Assistants, R. S. Taylor, Pulaski Mills, Mattie Tyson, Edmund Lockett, W. G. Montgomery and Hattie A. Weber. The whole number of students during the year was one hundred and seventy-four.

The commencement exercises at the close of that year were distinguished by the graduation of the first class, consisting of M. W. Diggs, Pulaski Mills and R. S. Taylor. Immediately after the latter received his diploma, he stepped forward with Miss Fanny W. Wright, and the newly crowned Bachelor of Arts lost the first part of his degree.

The following is an extract from the peculiarly appropriate Baccalaureate Address of President Taylor"

"MISSION OF THE PIONEER COLLEGE

" In new countries there is as much native mind, of good order, in proportion to the number of inhabitants, as in old countries; and, considering the degenerating influences of sumptuous and fashionable life in many places, there is even more. Uncouth men and women may become new settlers, but weak and cowardly men and women are not likely to brave the toils and dangers of pioneer life. Moreover, these toils and dangers invigorate the brain, and effectuate a strength of character, which ease and luxury only hinder and prevent. Hence, the children of pioneers are more likely to exhibit that amount of healthy brain and active nervous organization, which we call natural talent, than any other class whatever. It is my belief, after the observation of twenty years, that among the first and second purchasers of new territory, there is a higher order of vigorous mind than in any other condition of society. In old England there is a class - the real aristocracy of the kingdom - whose very aristocracy consists in superior physical and mental development. To this they are devoted. But in America there is no aristocracy but that of wealth and fashion, whose votaries, generation after generation, diminish in physical and mental power. It is left to the perils, privations and gigantic civilization conflicts of the wilderness, to preserve a type of muscle and brain, undiminished in compass and vitality. But in such new regions as ours, this natural talent is covered up under the rubbish of mere neglect. The trees, and brush, and grass, and mud, are but emblems of a more concealing intellectual and moral wilderness, in which the very gems of genius are buried from the world.

"Nothing but the broad and bright glare of High School and College light, will ever reveal these specimens of mental riches, even to the consciousness of the gifted sons and daughters of the forest. For, the drudgeries of pioneer life, the paucity of books, the inefficiency of common schools, the limitation of travel and conversation, the everlasting staying at home, the absence of all sight of great men and great things, the weakness of most professional efforts in the sick room, at the bar and in the sacred desk, the raillery of the political platform, - all these conspire to show us not only the want of adequate causes, but the existence of hindering causes, respecting the elicitation of true talent and genius. Nothing short of an actual experiment, of advancing scientific and literary learning, will draw from their retreats the best specimens of mind. But this will; it will do it in any new country, and do it effectually. Many a brain of fine compass and vigorous pulse, throbbing under the compressure of miserable common school facilities, aches for a large surrounding, and turns to the young College, like steel to the magnet, the very day the opportunity is given to gratify the high impulsion.

"Generally, the circumstances of new settlers, for many years, do not suffer them to send their sons and daughters abroad, to the god Institutions of other places. And besides, there is a natural, and not much unreasonable reluctance, on the part of our youth, to go suddenly from the rude paths of new-land life to the gorgeous highways of refinement.

"In view of all this, it is simply certain that hundreds of the finest minds of the section, scattered about in all our new regions, must forever remain lost to the world and to themselves, without the revealing presence and vivifying power of the Home College.

"But plant the College: open out to view the hitherto unknown beauties of Literature and grandeurs of Science: furnish the facilities to home-born intellect, to unfold itself to kindred and to country; and while you thus quicken the general pulse of society, you set on fire the best types of youthful mind, and dissolving the bonds that would otherwise have forever bound them to mammon and stupid worldliness, you redeem them to the glorious freedom and power of knowledge. With joy they hasten to the founts of truth, and drinking a little at first, then more and more, they rise to higher views of life and duty, and doom; and vow, at the altar of truth, to spend their whole lives in helping through the earth the triumphs of wisdom. What redemption! No tongue can tell what an amount of personal joys and public influence are thus secured to society by the Home College.

"By the redemption of buried intellect, then, O heart of our country, cherish thy own Home College.

Rev. M. W. digs is now pastor of the Congregational Church at Pisgah, Mercer County, Ohio. Pulaski Mills has given his time chiefly to teaching, since his graduation, and in June 1864, was appointed by the County Commissioners, School Examiner of Jay County for three years.

R. S. Taylor studied law with L. M. Ninde, at Fort Wayne, and is now partner in the law firm of Ninde & Taylor. He has always given much attention to music, and has acquired considerable well-deserved note as a musical composer. For several years before he graduated, the words and music for the College exhibitions were, most of them, of his composition. Many of his pieces have found their way into the later musical publications, while others have been issued in sheet form. That touchingly patriotic piece, "Oh, Wrap the Flag around me, boys," which has a national reputation, is of his composing. His law-partner is also a Jay Countian. L. M. Ninde, Esq., was raised on his father's farm near Camden, graduated at Farmers' College, near Cincinnati, and has since been a successful lawyer at Fort Wayne.

In 1855 The Liber Glee Club was formed, of which R. S. Taylor was chorister. In the summer of 1856 it gave concerts at different places, which were the first ever given in the county.

During the summer session of 1857, Pulaski Mills was Principal of Liber College. For the year 18580'59, Miss Jane A. Montgomery was Principal of the Primary Department.

In March 1857, Vynul Arnett was chosen President of the Board, in the room of J. C. Hawkins, resigned, which position he held for two years.

With the close of the sixth year of the institution, President Taylor closed his official connection with it, and, in September 1859, moved to Illinois. For a paragraph, that he may not be misunderstood, the author must speak plainly.

Thus ended Mr. Taylor's fourteen years in Jay County. During all this time he devoted his great energies and talents to the intellectual and moral interest of her people. Unambitious of wealth or fame, he gave his time and means unreservedly to push forward the enterprises in which he was engaged. Especially is this true of his labors in converting the wilderness, on the Little Salimonie, into the village of Liber, and building there a school, at which hundreds of Jay County youths, otherwise ignorant and uninfluential, have tasted the higher branches of knowledge.

Many of these youths are now the teachers of the county, many others teach elsewhere, and still others are filling various important positions in society. With small means, great obstacles and many other discouragements, he, nevertheless, accomplished a great work. But his usefulness was but beginning, had his course not been such, before his departure and since, as to deeply grieve and mortify his many former friends, and cripple his usefulness.

He was a graduate of Athens College, Ohio, possessed a clear, strong mind, and profound knowledge of human nature. This attracted to him many warm friends, and gave him, for many years, great influence. His sermons were characterized by profoundness of thought and beauty of expression, but were long, and rather quietly delivered. He now resides in Nebraska, and is a surveyor on the Pacific Railroad.

Accompanying some statements of his early life in Jay, which have been substantially embodied in this work, President Taylor sent the following note. Though intended to be private, no harm can result, or wrong be done, in giving it here, as a farewell glimpse of the workings of that mind which planned and hoped so much for the future welfare of Jay County. It cannot fail to awaken mingled emotions in the minds of his former numerous friends in this region.

Nashville, Illinois, New Year's, 1862.

Mr. M. W. Montgomery:

Dear Sir: I have spent my New Year's in preparing the rough sketch contained on these leaves. With much difficulty I compose my shattered nerves to write anything that brings up the events that so interested me in Jay - that dear scene of all my effective existence, and where my heart yet lingers in imperishable longings, but from which I am sundered forever …

Yours, very truly,

I. N. Taylor

In 1859 the Board of Trustees invited Rev. Ebenezer Tucker, of Jo Daviess County, Illinois, to become President of the College. He accepted, and moved to Liber that year. He has since been constantly engaged in the college, preparing scores of young men and women to be teachers of common and graded schools. He was educated at Whitesboro, New York and Oberlin College. Prior to his residence in Illinois, he was, for eight years, Principal of the Union School, at Spartansburg, Indiana.

Suring the first term of the college year of 1859-'60, Elihu H. Votaw, now a student at Wheaton College, Illinois, was the Principal Since that time the Principals of the Primary Department have been Miss Edith S. Bailiff, of Fulton, Ohio, Miss Bell A. Johnston, now Mrs. G. W. Loofbourrow, and Miss Helen M. Johnston, of Bell Centre, Ohio.

The Presbyterian Church in Portland divided in 1854, and the seceding members organized a Congregational Church at Liber.

The first Musical Institute held in the county was at Liber, in December 1863, by W. S. Montgomery, and M. Z. Tinker, of Terre Haute, Indiana.

Concerning the Liber Spring, now owned by D. C. Baker Esq., the following letter embraces all that need be said. It was written without the faintest idea of its appearing here, and is, consequently, as fresh and lively as the limpid waters that still rise from that dearly loved fountain under the hill. It is inserted without the knowledge of the writer, for who is so well prepared to speak of that Spring as he who, for more than ten years, made it daily visits?

FORT WAYNE, Indiana, July 18th, 1864

Dear Friend M.: After as much reflection as I can readily give to any one subject, with the mercury at 95°, I can think of nothing that I would particularly wish to have remembered in your history, that you would be at all likely to omit, except the old spring, at Liber. I would give the price of two copies of your history for one good swig of its clear, cold water, now. I speak of it, fearing that since the town has been built up, with a score of wells in its immediate neighborhood, and since some of the old settlers have passed away, some to other scenes of earthly toil, and some to fields where yet purer water flows, and since the war has opened its ghastly fountains, to the flowing of which all our hearts contribute in some degree, the old spring may have lost some of its ancient prestige. But it ought not to be forgotten; it was once famous I its way, and the very object of your book is to perpetuate the memory of those humble things that made up the life of the pioneers of Jay County. When I first knew it, that Spring was noted for miles around. The country was thinly settled, and good wells were rare, and good springs still more so.

The numerous veins that oozed through the banks of the Salimonie, and painted their way to the water's edge with a slimy green and yellow glazing, seemed almost uniformly, judging from taste and odor, to have come from some locality where sulphur much abounded. A pure, clear, cold spring as this was, was rarely found, and was highly prized. There was no house very near it; -- there had been one years before on the hill just above, but it was then a mere heap of rotten logs. It may have been a dwelling house, or only a hunter's lodge. I remember picking up some broken china near it. The painted flowers on them were as bright and fresh as new. The cheeks of the girl who washed them must have long since lost their roses. The old spring was then a mere hole in the ground; it had not even the usual protection of a sycamore gum. There was a well-worn path leading to it, into which several others converged, and which was much traveled by those who lived up the Salimonie, on their way to and from the county seat. There was at one time a gourd supplied to it by some public-spirited person, and kept hanging on a gush that overhung the spring, for the accommodation of thirsty passers-by; but usually there were no such luxurious superfluities to be had: those who sought refreshment there had to get upon their hands and knees, like the cattle and deer, which were also equally welcome to its water.

But the circumstance most interesting to my mind of any connected with the old spring, and one which shows what little things determine the course of human affairs, it that its existence there determined the location of "Liber College" where it is. I well remember the day when my father and mother first went out to examine the land on which the College now stands, and with what glowing enthusiasm they spoke, when they came back, of the "pure, cold spring" that was there. There were a good many difficulties in the way of getting the land: the price asked was considered high, and the title was in the hands of several persons, so that it took many conveyances and considerable trouble and outlay to secure it; and in the long and persevering efforts that resulted in its purchase, I know that the spring was a leading motive. If you will examine the original "manifesto" of the College you will find the spring prominently and honorably referred to.

I do request that if you have not already done so, and your book is not now in type, you will make some mention of the "old spring."

Yours truly,

R. S. Taylor