[Note: the "Asylum" or "Institution" for the Deaf and Dumb would later become the Kentucky School for the Deaf. Centre's Trustees administered the school until 1870. In 1826 the federal government granted the Trustees one township of land in Florida. In 1836 the trustees received a second land grant in Arkansas. It was the Trustees responsibility to survey and sell the land to provide funds to help support the institution.]
[Note: John A. Jacobs functioned as superintendent of the Kentucky School for the Deaf and treasurer of the Board.]
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March 31, 1847
The Board met in Mr. Young's study. Present Joseph McDowell, William Craig, James Hopkins, Charles Caldwell, Alexander Sneed, Charles Henderson, Robert Grundy, John Ford, Waller Bullock, Daniel B. Price, John Berryman, John Brown, Edward Humphrey, John Montgomery. Messrs. Barclay and Johnson, having appeared and been duly qualified, took their seats.
The committee appointed to find persons suited to fill the vacant professorships having not had a meeting, the Chairman and several other members of the committee presented to the Board a variety of letters conveying information on recommendations in regard to several gentlemen regarded as qualified for the professorships.
After some conversation, the Board proceeded to vote for a professor of mathematics. On counting the votes Mr. Ormond Beatty was declared to be elected by thirteen votes.
The Board resolved to proceed to the appointment of a professor of natural philosophy and chemistry in the room of Mr. Beatty, transferred to the chair of mathematics. In the absence of any knowledge of any other candidate for the professorship, and of any satisfactory testimonials of the qualifications of Mr. Brown for the office, the Board elected Mr. Joseph Brown pro tem to hold the professorship from the 1st of October 1847 to the 31st of August 1848.
After various ballotings for professor of languages, Rev. L. J. Halsey
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of Jackson, Mississippi was elected. The Board proceeded to discuss the propriety of filling the vacant professorship of belles lettres and political economy. On motion it was resolved to reconsider the appointment of Mr. Halsey to the professorship of languages; the motion was carried. Mr. Halsey was then elected to the professorship of belles lettres and political economy with a salary of $1,200 per annum.
A subscription being started in the Board to raise the salary for the professor of belles lettres and political economy for four years, until the time can be given for securing its permanent endowment, $450 was subscribed, and Messrs. Barclay, Ford, Henderson, and Jacobs were appointed a committee to endeavor to complete the requisite sum.
Resolved that if Bridges and Pawling will fulfill the terms proposed by them for the settlement of their debt, the Financial Agent is directed to grant them indulgence; if they fail he is to bring suit at the next term of the court.
The Board directed the Financial Agent to grant the Turnpike Company leave and retain, for the present, the balance of principal due on their note on their regular semi-annual payment of the interest.
Resolved that it is inexpedient to employ a physician in the Asylum by the year, and that henceforth the Board will not procure any medical services by annual contract.
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Resolved that Mr. John A. Jacobs be authorized to raise another story on the family house of the Asylum, and to make the new fences and pavements necessary about the Asylum to the amount of $1,600, he paying one half of these expenses.
Mr. Henderson was placed on the Asylum committee in the room of Dr. Todd.
Thanks were voted to Messrs. Hardin and Mitchell for their services rendered to the Asylum in the Legislature of Kentucky; also to J. F. Bell for his services to the Asylum in Congress.
Hopkins and Henderson were appointed a committee to advise with Mr. Ormond Beatty in reference to repairs and improvements about the grounds and buildings.
The Board directed Mr. William Dod's joint scholarship note to be credited with the amount of principal and interest due by him. The Faculty were empowered to procure from Mr. Dod, if they should deem it advisable, certain articles of apparatus owned by him, such as a compass, a lath, etc., at such price as
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they may judge them to be worth.
The Financial Agent was directed to pay off the professors who have resigned by borrowing from the permanent funds of the Board, and to charge it to the annual income.
The Board proceeded to ballot for a professor of languages, and on the second ballot Mr. William M. Scott [professor of Greek and Latin] was ascertained to have a majority of the votes, and was declared duly elected.
The Board conferred the degree of A.M. on Mr. Burwell B. Sayre, teacher, of Frankfort, Kentucky.
Resolved that as it appears from the report of the Treasurer of the College, through the Financial Agent, that Mr. Price's collections in bearing notes for the College have amounted to such a sum as entitles him to a percentage equal to the amount now due on Miles' and Price's bond within $61, and that Mr. Price has placed in the hands of the Treasurer notes to the amount of $1,750 to be paid at the death of the donors, in addition to the above collections, and that Mr. Price also promises to render his future services to the College gratuitously, the Financial Agent be directed to deliver up to Mr. Price the aforesaid bond.
Resolved that the Financial Agent be recommended to examine into the expediency of vesting such funds as he may collect in the securities of the government of the United States.
John C. Young, Secretary
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June 17, 1847
The Board met. Present Messrs. Joseph McDowell, William Craig, John Montgomery, Charles Caldwell, John Berryman, Daniel Price, Kphn Ford, Charles Henderson, John Barclay, James Hopkins, Joshua Bell.
The Secretary then stated that in consequence of its having been ascertained to the satisfaction of many of the members of the Board on the day after their last adjournment that Mr. William M. Scott's supposed majority had been the result of a mistake in counting the votes given in, he had not furnished to Mr. Scott any official notice of his appointment, with a view to leaving the Board to act at its next meeting according to what they should deem most advisable. The Board thereupon took up the business of filling the chair of languages, and after having heard a number of testimonials showing the high qualifications of Mr. Scott, and all previous candidates having been withdrawn from nomination, Mr. Scott was unanimously elected.
The Secretary having read a letter from Mr. Joseph Brown declining his pro tem appointment, and proposing to present himself as a candidate for a permanent appointment, provided he could have time to procure suitable testimonials, the Board thereupon accepted the declination of Mr. Brown, and resolved to leave the chair vacant till the regular meeting in July. Messrs. Schaeffer and
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Brown were then put in nomination as candidates for the vacant professorships at the election to take place in July.
The Secretary read a letter from M. Halsey declining the appointment to the professorship of belles lettres. The Board, thereupon, resolved to postpone for the present filling the chair of belles lettres.
The Board resolved to appoint annually a committee to examine the Asylum and make a report. The committee appointed for the present year were Young, Ford, and Henderson.
Messrs. Young and Montgomery were appointed a committee to ascertain when the Board can procure a suitable person to fill the chair of belles lettres and political economy.
John C. Young, Secretary
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July 28, 1847
The Board met. Present Joseph McDowell, Robert Johnston, John Barclay, Charles Henderson, John Ford, Charles Caldwell, John Brown, John Montgomery, James Hopkins.
The degree of A.B. was conferred upon the following young gentlemen, members of the present Senior class, viz. Sidney R. G. Clay, William H. Cunningham, Robert E. Grundy, James I. Hall, William M. Hall, Hugh S. McElroy, James S. Montgomery, Francis R. Morton, Charles J. Morton, Henry Clay Read, Isaac Shelby, John H. Todd, Richard Valentine, James Frederick Youce, James Shelby Young.
The degree of A.M. was conferred on the following members of the class that graduated in 1844, viz., William Attwood, Edward Worthington, Lewis Lowry, Charles Forman, William Fleece, Jemes Harbison, Joseph Ray, John Butler, Gavin Cochran, Edward Elliot, David Tandy.
The Honorary degree of A.M. on Mr. David Arnell of Tennessee and on E. B. Walker of Lebanon, Kentucky, also the honorary degree of A.M. conferred on Rev. B. Crawford and William D. Kerr [teacher, Kentucky School for the Deaf]. The degree of D.D. was conferred on James Holmes of Tennessee.
Resolved that the Secretary inform Synod that in consequence of an oversight from pressure of business at their meeting in the spring, the Board had neglected to appoint a committee of their body to attend the examinations and unite with the committee of Synod in their report to the Synod and the Board.
Mr. Jacobs was authorized to send to Mr. Edingcon, the agent of the
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Asylum in Arkansas $120 to effect the extinguishment of the claim of Norndorff to section 24 of the Asylum lands in Arkansas.
Inasmuch as the Asylum has recently procured funds sufficient to make the necessary alterations in the buildings which the increased prosperity of the institution demands, resolved that the order of the Board passed March 31, 1847, authorizing Mr. Jacobs to expend $1,600 in enlarging the Asylum be so altered as to allow him to expend said amount, on condition of his paying one fourth of the sum expended instead of one half.
Resolved that Mr. Jacobs be authorized to subscribe and pay in behalf of the Asylum $25 toward turnpiking the street before the Asylum.
Resolved that Messrs. Young and Jacobs be appointed a committee to explain to Rev. Robert J. Breckinridge the circumstances under which the Board surrendered to Mr. Price, in payment of his salary as agent, the bond on Miles and Price given by him.
The following minute was adopted in reference to the death of Rev. Jacob F. Price.
The Board have been called to mourn the sudden death of the Rev. Jacob F. Price, one of its most active and efficient members; and while we would ever cherish a spirit of resignation to the will of our heavenly Father, yet we deeply feel and deplore his loss, and earnestly pray that the same Providence which has so deeply affected us, may raise up someone to fill his place, who will feel a similar
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interest and expend similar energy for the prosperity of the institution, the supervision of which is committed to our hands.
Resolved that the Secretary transmit a copy of this minute to the family of the deceased and to the congregation of which he was the pastor.
The Board, having received a letter from Prof. Ormond Beatty asking for more definite instructions in regard to repairs to be made in the College, authorized Professor Beatty to expend $200 in repairs at present, and directed him to make such arrangements in reference to the care of grounds and buildings as he shall deem expedient; they further authorized him to hire a servant to attend the College.
The Board proceeded to elect a professor of natural philosophy and chemistry, and on counting the votes, Mr. George C. Schaeffer [professor of physics and chemistry] was found to be unanimously elected.
A committee, consisting of Ford, Hopkins, and Barclay, were appointed to examine the accounts of the Treasurer and report at the next regular meeting.
Professor Beatty, having given his half-scholarship to the College absolutely and unconditionally with the request that the Board should appropriate that amount to increase the apparatus, therefore resolved that the Financial Agent be directed to pay over to the Treasurer this amount from the permanent funds in his hands, subject to the order of the Secretary to be transmitted to
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Mr. Schaeffer, professor elect, for procuring additional apparatus.
After some conversation in the Board on the cultivation of the manners of the students, the President, being appointed to draft some resolutions on the subject, submitted the following, which were adopted:
- Resolved that the Board urge upon the Faculty as a matter affecting the reputation of the College, as well as the present character and future interests of the students themselves, the importance of steady and diligent efforts to secure, in all the students, the habitual observance of all those laws of propriety and decorum in the recitation room as well as at public examinations, which should ever regulate the public deportment of gentlemen.
- Resolved that the Board expect the Faculty to secure from the students not only quietness and attention to their recitations and lectures, but also a strict regard to the neat condition of the rooms in which they recite, and to the decorum of the postures which they assume while in attendance upon their instructions.
- Resolved that the President be directed to read these resolutions accordingly before the students in chapel.
The Board adjourned to meet at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning.
July 29, 1847
The Board met. Present Joseph McDowell, John Brown, John Montgomery, Robert Grundy, John Barclay, Robert Johnstone, Charles Caldwell, John Ford, William Craig, Charles Henderson.
Professor Ormond Beatty was directed to have the recitation rooms [in Old Centre]
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furnished with comfortable seats, and report the cost to the Board.
A committee consisting of Young, Barclay, and Craig were appointed to publish an advertisement of the College in such papers as they may select to the amount of $50.
The Board proceeded to elect a person to discharge the duties of professor of belles lettres and political economy, and of agent for completing the College endowment, at a salary of $1,200 per annum; on counting the votes the Rev. John Brown was declared to be unanimously elected. Resolved that the Board pledge themselves to raise the salary of Mr. Brown for one year by special contributions independent of the contributions to the permanent funds. Messrs. Barclay and Jacobs were appointed the committee to secure the $1,200 in case Mr. Brown shall accept.
Messrs. Henderson and Craig were appointed a committee to settle with the retiring professors the arrearages of their salaries.
John C. Young, Secretary
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August 16, 1847
The Board met at Mr. Henderson's. Present Joseph McDowell, William Craig, Charles Caldwell, James Hopkins, John Barclay, Charles Henderson, John Ford, Alexander Sneed.
Resolved that the Commencement be hereafter fixed on the last Thursday of June, and that the session after the present year shall open on the first Monday in September.
Resolved that Messrs. John C. Young [president, Centre College] and Ford be a committee to publish, if they shall deem it advisable, an advertisement of the College to be suspended in steam-baths and hotels.
Resolved that the Board hereafter appoint regularly at each spring meeting a committee to make arrangements for celebrating the Commencement.
John C. Young, Secretary
October 4, 1847
The Board met at Mr. Henderson's. Present Joseph McDowell, James Hopkins, John Barclay, RobertJohnstone, Charles Henderson, John Berryman, John Ford, Joshua Bell.
A letter having been received from Rev. Joseph Brown declining his appointment as professor and agent, Mr. John S. Berryman was unanimously appointed agent for raising the endowment of Centre College by subscriptions, donations, and scholarships, and his remuneration was fixed at the same rate with that of the past two agents, viz. at 10 percent on the amount collected, payable in the description of funds collected, according as they may be in notes or moneys.
John C. Young, Secretary