Centre College Special Collections - Board of Trustees Minutes (1877)

Centre College Board of Trustees Minutes (Vol. 4 - 1877)

Danville, Ky., June 19, 1877

Pursuant to adjournment, the Board of Trustees met in Basement of 2nd Presbyterian Church and was opened with prayer by the Rev. John S. Hays, D.D. Members present: Rev. Edward P. Humphrey, D.D. (Chairman), Levi L. Warren, Rev. Stephen Yerkes, D.D., Robert Rodes, Rev. John S. Hays, D.D., George W. Welsh, William Ernst, John B. Temple

The minutes of the last annual meeting, as well as those of the called meetings held in Danville on August 8, 1876, and in Louisville on the 20 & 21st days of October last were read and approved.

The Financial Report was read & referred to a Committee - Messers Warren & Temple.

Messers Ernst & Rodes were appointed a Committee to examine the investments & to report to the Board.

Mr. Beatty, from the Committee on the Fry property, reported that the Committee had effected

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the purchase of the dwelling house and out houses of Gen. Speed S. Fry, including 8A, 1R, 31P of ground for the sum of $5,912.50 all of which had been paid except $90; and exhibited to the Board the deed for the same, signed and acknowledged by Speed S. Fry and wife, with clerk's certificate of record in Boyle County office. In part payment of this lot the Committee had sold to Gen. Fry 1A, 3R, 23 1/2P of the Chenault lot at the rate of $750 per acre, amounting to $1,420.31. The difference, viz. $4,492.19 has, with the exception of $90, been paid.

The Board approved and ratified the acts of their committee both with respect to the purchase of the Fry lot and the sale of the Chenault lot, and hereby authorize and empower their Chairman, Dr. Edward P. Humphrey, to sign, acknowledge and deliver to Speed S. Fry a title deed to the property which he has purchased as described above.

Dr. Humphrey was also authorized and directed to sign, acknowledge, & deliver to Messers Snow and Toombs a title deed to about 134 acres of land - a part of the Williams tract in Lincoln County, Ky., the sale of which by its committee, Messers Beatty & Welsh, had heretofore been reported to the Board and ratified by it.

The annual report of Dr. John L. McKee as Agent and Evangelist was read and accepted, and is as follows:

Danville, Ky., June 17, 1877

Annual report of Dr. John L. McKee to Board of Trustees of Centre College extending from July 1st 1876 to July 1st 1877.

I reported to Dr. Beatty, January 5, 1877 as follows:

The income & expenditures incident to my agency, not otherwise reported, extending from July 1st 1876 to January 1st 1877.

Free will offerings from the churches for preaching.
Harrodsburg, for preaching service rendered June 1876 but not paid until after the last report was rendered.	$25.00

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Paris Church	$10.00
Edmonton Church	$74.00
Munfordsville	$29.30
Lebanon	$35.00
Covington	$50.00
Oxford, Ohio	$70.15
Danville	$100.00
Cash of George Denny, Sr., paid on his subscription to Centre College	$150.00
Total	$543.45
By travelling expenses including horse hire	$89.50
Check to Beatty	$453.95
	$543.45

Since January 5, 1877, I have received the following free will offerings from the churches for preaching:

Lexington Presbyterian Churches	$200.00
Cumberland Methodist and our own church in Owensboro	$316.25
	$516.25
Travelling expenses	$57.10
Check to Beatty	$459.25
	$516.25

I make semiannual applications for settlement to all persons owing the College, in person or by mail, unless payments are made unsolicited. The financial report will show the amount of the collections for the year. It has not been deemed wise to solicit additional subscriptions this year on account of the general depression in business throughout the country.

I have preached during the year over three hundred times, as follows:

Paris, 16 sermons; Edmonton, 35; Munfordsville, 26; Lebanon, 23; Covington, 26; Oxford, Ohio, 30; Danville, 21; New Albany, Ind., 4; Lexington, 58; Owensboro, 63. Total 302.

Respectfully submitted (Signed) John L. McKee

The Faculty report was read, received and considered item by item.

Faculty report

The Faculty of Centre College would

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beg leave respectfully to submit to the Board of Trustees, and through them to the Synod of Ky., the following report of the internal condition of the College for the year ending June 21st 1877.

(1) Professors - Dr. Alfred B. Nelson, elected to the Chair of mathematics by the Board at its last regular meeting in June 1876, and Rev. Robert S. Hitchcock, elected to the Chair of Latin & English Literature at a called meeting in August last, have both accepted the positions tendered to them. They entered upon their duties at the beginning of the present academical year on the 11th of September last. Mr. Samuel R. Cheek was appointed instructor of the Sub-Freshman class. Every member of the Faculty has been at his post during the year, and the ordinary routine of instruction and business has been conducted without obstruction.

(2) Students - The annual catalog herewith submitted will show the number of students present during the year to have been in College proper 108 and in Preparatory 61 - total 169. As a general thing we have good order maintained, and good work in the way of study, done by the students. During the year considerable religious interest was awakened among the students, eight or nine of whom united with the churches of this place.

(3) We submit, herewith, a paper adopted by the Faculty in regard to the Societies, to which we would respectfully invite your attention.

(4) Museum & Library etc. - Reports of Profs. Fales & Nelson, herewith submitted, & made part of this report will furnish information in regard to Library, Museum, etc.

(5) Preparatory - It will be remembered by the Board that Prof. Ralston resigned his position as Principal of the Preparatory, and that his resignation was accepted by the Board at its last annual meeting in June. The Faculty were authorized to make arrangements for the year. Under the authority of the Board, they employed Mr. Ralston to continue

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his charge of the Preparatory, but under conditions somewhat altered. He agreed to receive as his compensation the proceeds of the school, and out of these to pay his assistant and one hundred dollars rent for the use of the building. In making this change it became necessary to adjust his claims for services previously rendered. The Faculty have not been able to make a satisfactory adjustment of these claims, and suggest the appointment of a committee of the Board to attend to this business.

The Faculty are not able to say whether the services of Mr. Ralston can be had for another year or not. Your consideration of this department is solicited. The President will be able to furnish such additional information as you may need.

(6) Degrees - The Faculty would recommend for the degree of A.B. the following young gentlemen, regular members of the senior class viz. Samuel Ayres, James Rollins Burnam, Thomas Elijah Cleland, Thomas Lewis Edelen, Walter Laurie Hays, John Marshall, Edward Hickman Owings, Emmet Everett Phillips.

The Faculty also recommends for the same degree, Charles F. Beach, Jr., who completed two years since his Junior year in College. Since this time he has been pursuing his senior studies, upon which he was examined by the Faculty. They recommended for the same degree Robert D. and Josiah P. Chenault, who completed their Junior studies three years since. They have been engaged in teaching since they left College, until last year which they spent in John's Hopkins University.

(7) The President is requested to furnish such information as may be required in relation to the College Home.

Respectfully submitted by the Faculty

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Museum

This report of the increase of the Museum is respectfully submitted.

Number of entries at beginning of year June 1, 1876			2,011
Added during the year
	Fossils	90
	Zoological Specimens	152
	Minerals	7
	Total added		249
Making present number			2,260

This number includes some land shells of California and Oregon obtained free of expense to the College, and others donated by various individuals.

In addition to these, however, it may be stated that an opportunity being offered to procure a small collection of marine articulates and radiates at private sale, in consultation with the President, it was deemed advisable not to let the chance pass, and accordingly $25 of the sum in my hands belonging to the Scientific Fund was appropriated for that purpose.

Respectfully (signed) J. C. Fales

Library

The following statement shows the condition of the Library during the year ending June 1, 1877.

Number of books in Library at commencement of year	4,160
Added during the year & catalogues	41
Present number	4,201

In addition to this number there has also been received a box of publications of the government, which have not been catalogued for want of time, but will be arranged at an early day.

Respectfully (Signed) John C. Fales, Librarian

Scientific Fund

June 1, 1876, Cash on hand	$225.04
Received from Scott Trust Fund	$142.50
Regular appropriation	$50.00
Total	$417.54

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Brought forward

Expenditures - summary

Spectroscope & Freight	$256.45
Chemicals	$19.62
Gas fitting	$17.30
Stouts account - chemicals, etc.	$17.42
Zoological collection	$25.00
Miscellaneous	$11.57	$356.36
Cash on hand		$61.18

To the Faculty of the College

Gentlemen, I have the honor to report the purchase for the College in February last of a surveyor's transit, with solar compass attachment, at a cost of $271, the voucher for which is hereby presented.

The College now possesses a splendid instrument, the want of which has long been felt, and which will greatly enhance the facilities for giving instruction in my department.

Very respectfully (Signed) Alfred B. Nelson, Professor Mathematics

Literary Societies

The Faculty would beg leave respectfully to submit to the Board of Trustees the following statement & suggestions, in regard to the Literary Societies of the College.

These Societies have always been a source of anxiety and sometimes of trouble to the Faculty. But the advantages to the students derived from them are so great, that we are not willing to recommend their discontinuance. On the other hand, the evils are so many as to demand, on the part of the Faculty and of the Board, a careful consideration of a suitable remedy for them. These evils generally become more conspicuous about the time of their annual election of speakers to represent them in their public exhibitions. These public exercises are held

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each year on 22nd of February and at the close of the term in June. Speakers are chosen for both of these occasions, in each Society, at the first meeting after the 22nd of February Many of the evils to which we refer have grown out of the candidacy of students for the honor of representing the Societies upon these occasions. Parties are formed, and partisan feeling sometimes seems high, especially when there happens to be a close race. Ill feeling is engendered, personal difficulties arise, and sometimes fights occur. Improper means are resorted to in order to secure votes, and whilst the excitement continues, as it sometimes does for weeks, studies are to a greater or lesser degree interfered with, and disorders of various kinds are perpetrated.

During the past year we have passed through such a season of excitement. The elections in both Societies were very close and very warmly contested. During the continuance of the excitement the Faculty were under constant apprehension of trouble, and though we are glad to be able to report that our apprehensions were not realized, and that every thing passed off without serious difficulty, still we think the matter of sufficient importance to claim the patient consideration of the Board.

The difficulty in the way of the application by the Faculty of a suitable remedy for these troubles arises from a feeling, on the part of the students, that the control of their Societies belongs to themselves, and that it is officious intermeddling with what does not properly belong to them for the Faculty to interfere in Society elections or business of any kind, so long as the Societies themselves and their members do no violence, by overt act, to the laws of the College. In order, therefore, to correct existing evils and to prevent future trouble, we think that it requires the intervention of the Board, not only to sustain the Faculty in any measures they might adopt, but to suggest an appropriate remedy for the evils and to require its application.

The main source of trouble, as we have al-

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ready intimated, arises, in our opinion, from the practice of electioneering, which has grown up and which is conducted in many objectionable ways. This, we think, could be corrected by diminishing the direct power of the Societies in choosing their representatives. It may be difficult to determine how this result may be accomplished in the most effective and least objectionable manner. In our opinion, it can be best done by requiring the Societies to share, in some way, the power of election with the Faculty. In this way, greater weight might be given in the selection of speakers to class standing, and particularly to proficiency in elocution, than has heretofore been done; and personal popularity, and the unworthy means employed to secure it, would be of less avail.

The plan that appears most feasible to the Faculty is the following viz.: Either to allow each Society to nominate twice the number of persons requisite to fill the offices, and from the persons thus nominated to allow the Faculty to choose the representatives, or else to give the Faculty the power to make the nominations and require the Societies to choose by ballot their speakers from these names on the evening (previously designated), on which they are sent in by the Faculty. The liberty of adopting either alternative should be granted to each of the Societies.

We also think that it would be well to reduce the number of speakers upon commencement occasion limiting the Societies to number each, and to require the Faculty to see that the order of the Board be executed. The remedy suggested would, we think, be effective; but there is some reason to fear that it will not be cordially accepted by the students.

These papers from the Faculty were all read and received.

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The paper relating to the Societies was referred to a committee consisting of Messers Hays and Welsh.

The Faculty report was taken up to be considered item by item, when upon motion the Board adjourned to meet at 9 o'clock tomorrow morning.

Danville, Ky., June 20, 1877
June 20 - 9 o'clock a.m. Board reassembled

Mr. Barbee appeared and took his seat as a member.

Dr. Hays reported that he had taken the oath of office required of members.

Messers Welsh, Wiseman & Barbee were appointed to settle all accounts with Prof. Ralston.

Mr. Welsh was appointed a committee to confer with Mr. Ralston in regard to his continuance as Principal of the Preparatory for another year.

A letter was received from Dr. John W. Scott giving his reasons for absence, and stating his confidence in the security of the Scott Trust Fund.

An application was made on behalf of Mrs. Lowry asking to be released from the payment of a note - $300 principal and interest - subscription of her deceased husband, Dr. James Lowry of Shelbyville, to the Endowment Fund of the College. In reply it was resolved, That in the case of Mrs. Lowry, this Board will act in concert with the other creditors & consent to such arrangements as they may agree to.

The Committee to which was referred the subject of investments made the following report which was received and adopted viz.

Your Committee respectfully report that there are among the corporation bonds the following now in

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default viz.

Bonds of the Owensboro & Russelville Rail Road put down in the account at $1,500. This road became insolvent and has been sold under order of the court. There may be some dividend coming to the bond holders out of the proceeds of the sale. Your committee recommend that the Financial Committee be instructed to ascertain the facts in reference to these bonds and report to the Board at its next meeting.
Bond of Lewis County, Missouri, $500. The committee recommend that this Bond be sold for whatever it will bring.
Bonds of Logan County $8,800, Davies County $4,100, Muhlenburg $1,100. The prices at which the bonds could now be sold are so low that in the judgment of your committee it is not advisable to sell them at present, especially as there is some prospect of an arrangement in reference to the Logan & Davies County bonds under which their market value may be advanced.

There also appears in the report of investments, stock in the Lexington, Paris & Maysville Turnpike Road to the amount of $5,700. Your committee do not know the market value of this stock, but recommend that it be sold if a fair price can be obtained.

The other investments are believed to be good and safe and the committee make no recommendation in reference to them.

(Signed) William Ernst, Robert Rodes

Mr. Beatty reported that he had investigated the subject of any possible interest the College might have arising from Mrs. Pike's will, and was satisfied that the claim was wholly worthless. Her executor had wasted the estate and died without property.

The Chairman of the committee on professors houses reported that he had no plans or estimates.

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The report was accepted and the committee discharged. Adjourned till 3 o'clock p.m.

3 o'clock p.m. Board reassembled.

On motion the suggestions of the Faculty in regard to the Societies were approved, and they were directed, if in their judgment they thought it best, to have the suggestions carried out.

Mr. Ralston presented his account against the College which, with other papers relating to his accounts, was given to Mr. Welsh, Chairman of the Committee.

The degree of A.B. was conferred upon the eleven young men recommended by the Faculty.

A.M. in course upon John J. Hogsett of the Class of 1872

A.M. Honorary upon John A. Jacobs of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum.

D.D. upon J. A. Henry of West Philadelphia.

Mr. Welsh reported that he had seen Mr. Ralston and that he was not able to say whether he would be willing to continue his connection with the Preparatory for another year or not.

The report of the Committee on the Financial Report was received and adopted and is as follows viz.

The undersigned, a committee appointed to examine the Financial Report of Centre College, would respectfully submit that they have examined said report and find it an intelligible and detailed statement of the assets, receipts, and expenditures of the institution so classified, as to enable the Trustees to see the amount under each head - so arranged that any statement here would not facilitate the consideration of the financial affairs of the institution.

They have examined the checks upon the bank & the vouchers upon which checks are based and find them correct. Under the existing ar-

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rangement the bank is made, in effect, the treasury of the institution, so far as money actually passes into or out of the treasury. But in the numerous transactions growing out of such a business, there are necessarily items both of receipt and expenditure in which no money actually passes through the treasury, as in cases where deductions are made, on the one hand, for charges or expenditures of money in the hands of agents who receive money & only the balance is paid over, or on the other hand, where claims against the institution are credited by counter claims in its favour. In addition, therefore, to the accounts, as collected through the bank, your committee suggest that there should be an additional statement of receipts and expenditures as far as they have been settled out of bank, in order to show more fully the income and expenditures of the institution. It would be attended with trouble, but it would have its advantages to have separate accounts with each subscriber to the College funds, that a credit might be entered for any payment, total or partial, & the balance brought down showing the balance due the College with exactness; and that bad notes or subscriptions be charged to profit and loss. The book of such accounts should accompany any financial reports, that receipts from that source could be compared with the entries; and the notes pass in review year by year until collected, which your committee would recommend to be done as speedily as possible as delay will increase the losses without increasing the willingness of any debtor to pay, and the best interests of the College demand the collection and investment of the funds.

(Signed) Levi L. Warren, John B. Temple

On motion of William Ernst, seconded by Levi L. Warren, it was ordered, That the account of the Theological Fund belonging to the College be re-opened

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in the books of the College and regularly reported upon, and that hereafter the proceeds of said Fund be paid into the Treasury of the College and by the Treasurer paid over to Danville Theological Seminary as heretofore ordered.

Dr. Thomas H. Cleland appeared and took his seat as a member.

The subject of the Preparatory was referred to the Faculty with authority to make such arrangements for the ensuing year as their judgment may approve.

The following paper in regard to Dr. McKee's work was adopted viz.

Resolved, That the arrangement heretofore entered into with Dr. John L. McKee to act as Evangelist and Financial Agent of the College be continued until July 1, 1878, and that his salary as Vice President be paid out of the proceeds of the fund for the endowment of the Vice President's Chair, so far as it will provide for it, and the balance out of the general funds of the College and that his salary as Evangelist and Financial Agent be paid out of the funds specially contributed for that purpose.

It is the purpose of the Board of Trustees to divide the time of the Vice President as equally as the circumstances will permit between teaching in the College and Evangelistic & Agency work. Under Evangelistic & Agency work is to be included, as heretofore, preaching the gospel, the collection of monies due the College, the solicitation of additional subscriptions to the endowment funds, and the use of all proper means to extend the usefulness of the College by securing new students.

The Board continues to express its high appreciation of the work which has been done by Dr. McKee, both for the College and many of the Churches.

The Board appoints the Rev. Edward P. Humphrey, D.D.

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Ormond Beatty, and George W. Welsh, Sr., a Committee to prepare and circulate a paper setting forth the claims of the College upon the benefactions of our churches & friends.

The College Home was again committed to the Faculty management as last year.

Resolved, That the laws of the College be so amended as to require a vote of two thirds of the entire Faculty for the suspension of a pupil.

Standing Committees:

On Investments - Levi L. Warren, Edward P. Humphrey, and John B. Temple.

On Finances - Ormond Beatty, George W. Welsh, & Guy E. Wiseman.

On Repairs - Welsh, Wiseman, Barbee & Beatty.

The Board then adjourned to meet at 8 o'clock p.m. in the basement of the 2nd Presbyterian Church in Danville on Tuesday before the 3rd Thursday of June 1878.

Closed with prayer.

Ormond Beatty, Secretary