1887 Conference Minutes

1887 Conference Minutes

October 5, 1887

Parkersburg, West Virginia

Introduction by the Committee on Education

The report of the Trustees of our own Conference Seminary renders unnecessary a lengthy reference. The prospect of having at no distant date a school of our own which shall stop the exodus of our young people to other states is very inspiring. May God open the hearts of laymen and their pockets too, so that the labor and patient hope of the friends of this enterprise may be triumphantly blest and rewarded.

Report of the Trustees of the Conference Seminary

To the Bishop and Members of the West Virginia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church:

The Trustees of the Conference Seminary heretofore appointed by your body with instructions to locate a Seminary for this Conference, respectfully report that after sundry meetings at different places, and receiving from various localities, liberal propositions and offers of donations as inducements to secure the location of the Institution at the said places, respectively and maturely considering such propositions, your Trustees finally, in July last, located the said Institution a tht town of Buckhannon, in the County of Upshur, and purchased for a site, for such Seminary, a beautiful plot of ground on the South East side of said town about three-fourths of a mile from the Court House, and not quite so far from the Methodist Episcopal Church. Said plot contains forty-three and one-quarter acres. This site is the most commanding and eligible of the many, by which the town is surrounded. The purchase was made at the price of five thousand five hundred and fifty-one dollars and eighty-six cents ($5,551.86) of which $300 was paid in cash, the residue to be paid in three equal annual payments of $1,750.62 each with interest for which said several payments the thirteen acting Trustees made their joint notes which are further secured by the vendor’s lien reserved in the deed conveying said property to the Trustees. An apt and proper deed of general warranty conveying said 43 ¼ acres of land to your Trustees has been duly executed by the vendor, Levi Leonard, and his wife, and admitted to record inthe Clerk’s office, of the County Court of Upshur Court. Whereupon by operation of law your Trustees became a corporation. Your Trustees have received from the citizens of Buckhannon and Upshur County good and solvent subscriptions accounting to the sum of $12,000 oti aid in the purchase of a site, and the erection of propber buildings thereon, payable, one-fourth when the work on the buildings shall be commenced, the residue in three equal payments a three, six, and nine months thereafter.

Your Trustees did not deem it advisable for the short time intervening between the time of the location of the Seminary and the meeting of the Conference to put a financial agent in the field. Your Trustees recommend that the Conference appoint as financial agent for the ensuing Conference year the Rev. A.H. Lyda, D.D., and that he be paid a salary of $1,000 and his traveling and moving expenses.

Messr.s Henry K. List, J.C. McGrew and Henry Logan, named by the Conference as Trustees of the Seminary, declined to act as Trustees, we therefore, recommend the appointment by the Conference in the room and stead of said persons, Messrs. W. A. Wilson of Wheeling, J.C. Bardall of Moundsville, and S.P. McCormick of Kingwood. We further recommend the names of Messrs. Chas. W. Lynch of Clarksburg, Chas. F. Scott of Parkersburg, J.H. Hanson of Buckhannon, and the Reverends S.R.D. Prickett, George E. Hite, and C.H. Lakin, as reserves, from which the Board of Trustees may fill any vacancy or vacancies that may occur on the Board.

The agent’s salary and traveling expenses are to be paid out of collections he and the preachers may take for that purpose.

We recommend that the Board of Trustees be authorized to proceed in the erection of suitable Seminary buildings on the site selected as aforesaid, at such time, and on such plans as the Board shall in its judgment dem best, and also to equip, empoy teachers, fix salaries for the same, sell scholarships, fix tuition fees and put said Institution in running order.

Whereas, The West Virginia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, desiring to establish within its boundaries a Conference Seminary for the education of the youth of both sexes in the higher branches of learning, and to this end appointed a Board of Sixteen Trustees of the proposed Seminary, and instructed them to proceed as soon as practicable after its last session, to select a suitable location for such Seminary, and give publicity to their action in the premises; and also to procure a charter of incorporation for said Board of Trustees; and

Whereas, The said Trustees have located said Seminary at the town of Buckhannon in Upshur County, and have purchased and procured, to be conveyed to them by good and sufficient deed, a certain parcel of land in the said county for the use of the said Seminary, which has been recorded in said County; all of which having been duly reported by said Trustees to this Annual Conference, have been by it accepted, ratified and confirmed; and

Whereas, is it desired that the Board of Trustees of said Conference (Seminary), already appointed, should become a body corporate to hold, receive, manage and control, for the use of said Seminary, the land so purchased for it as aforesaid, and all other property, real, personal or mixed, which said Trustees or any other person may now have orhold for the use of said Seminary, or which may be hereafter given, bequeathed, devised, granted, conveyed, or in any other manner acquired for its use; and

Whereas, It is deemed essential to the permanency and success of said Seminary that the general management and supervision shall at all times be under the ultimate control and direction of this Conference until otherwise ordered; therefore,

Resolved:

1st, That this Conference will, at each annual session thereof, appoint sixteen persons to act as a Board ofTrustees for said Seminary, all of whom shall be members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in good standing, eight of whom shall be traveling preachers and eight laymen, residing within the bounds of this Conference.

2nd, That the Trustees so appointed shall continue in office until their successors are appointed and have signified in writing to the Secretary of this Conference their acceptance of this trust.

3rd, That when any person appointed such Trustee shall permanently remove beyond the bounds of this Conference, or cease to be a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, his office as such Trustee shall become vacant; and such vacancies shall be filled by a majority of the remaining Trustees until the next annual session of this Conference.

4th, That the said Trustees now appointed be, and they are hereby directed to cause themselves and their successors to be incorporated under the laws of West Virginia for the purpose hereinbefore set forth, and to provide in such charter of incorporation that all vacancies which shall occur in the corporate body by death, resignation, or otherwise, shall be filled by selections from the persons then constituting the said Board of Trustees for said Seminary.

5th, That when the said Trustees shall have been incorporated, as aforesaid, and duly organized as such corporation, it shall be the duty of said Trustees, by proper deeds assignments and transfers,to convey, transfer and deliver to such corporation all property, real, personal or mixed, which they may have or hold in trust for said Seminary.

6th, That the said Trustees shall report their action in the premises to the next session of this Conference

A.J. Lyda, President

E.H.Orwen, Secretary

Resolution by The Laymen’s Electoral Conference

Resolved, That the educational interest of the West Virginia Conference deserves a more active support on the part of the Laity of the Church, and that this Electoral Conference heartily commends the action of the Annual Conference in the establishment of the Conference Seminary.

Notes:

Thomas Haught discusses this in West Virginia Wesleyan College: The first fifty years on pages 44-47.

The meeting to officially fix the location of the school was held on July 13, 1887 in Philippi. Of the 16 member of the Board of Trustees, there were 13 present:

    • J.A. Barnes
    • J.A. Fullerton
    • L.H. Jordan
    • A.J. Lyda
    • B.F. Martin
    • H.C. McWhorter
    • E.H. Orwen
    • A.M. Poundstone
    • J.W. Reger
    • A.B.Rohrbough
    • L.L. Stewart
    • W.R. White
  • Samuel Woods