Month: November 2018

Death By Obsolescence

Literary Societies

The Beginning

The West Virginia Conference Seminary opened on September 3, 1890.

The very next week, on September 11, 1890,  the Literary Societies were formed.

Thomas W. Haught tells us that President Hutchinson and the faculty, “took the roster of students and divided it into two lists, equal in number, assigning all students to one or the other. There were practically no requests made by students for permission to change from one group to the other, and both groups at once set about organizing by adopting names, consitutions, and electing officers.”

LIterary Societies Chrestomathean and Excelsior
Read more about these early days in Thomas Haught’s book, pages 168-169

Society A and Society B became Chrestomathean and Excelsior.

  • Chrestomathean (from the Greek) A useful selection of literary passages for those with the desire for learning
  • Excelsior (from the Latin) Higher, Always Upward

Literary Societies Halls for Each

In the Seminary Building, each of these societies had a Hall, which they decorated elegantly, and which included a raised platform and a piano. In the same manner as societies at Oxford and Cambridge, the societies at the West Virginia Conference Seminary were places where intellectual issues of the day would be discussed and debated and where cultural activities would thrive.

LIterary Societies Programs

Chrestos in Session 1912
Photo from 1912 Murmurmontis

You may be wondering what kinds of intellectual issues were discussed. Here are some examples from 1891:

March 27, 1891  That the right of suffrage shall be extended to women.

April 10, 1891     That the Railroads and Telegraph lines should be owned by the government.

April 17, 1891     That the Steam Engine is more beneficial to mankind than the Printing Press.

May 1, 1891        That the Pulpit wields a greater influence for good than the Printing Press.  (It would appear that the negative argument prevailed here.)

May 7, 1891        That the Negroes have a greater right to complain of ill treatment at the hands of the U.S. than the Indians. (It would also appear that the negative argument prevailed in this one.)

1890-1910

For the first 20 years or so the school maintained a very strict environment for the students. Strict religious and social rules prevailed:

  • No Dancing, No Smoking, No Plays, No Dating

Therefore, these meetings were the only forms of co-educational social contact beyond the classroom and the chapel services.

Boys and girls took great pride in displaying their intellectual and oratorical skills to impress each other.

Excesior Society 1908
Murmurmontis 1908

They spent a lot of time together- at meetings, and preparing programs and debates. In many cases romances flourished. Here are a couple of examples of couples who met in the Chrestomathean Literary Society, and who were later married for many years.

Literary Society Romances

Edward Boetticher became a Methodist pastor after his graduation in 1926, and served as a Trustee of the College from 1949-1965. Here is a related story about Edward and Gazelle:  In the Footsteps of Giants.

Charles Aubrey Jones, Seminary Class of 1904, is well known to modern-day Wesleyan as the person who donated our large and valuable collection of materials on Abraham Lincoln. He was also the editor of the very first Murmurmontis (yearbook) and stayed in close contact with the school throughout his life. I had the honor to meet with Charles and Ireta’s daughter, Betty, when she was in her 90s. She told wonderful stories of Mama and Daddy and the love they had for Wesleyan and for each other.

Leadership Opportunities

The officers of these groups wielded a lot of power,and had many opportunities to grow in their leadership skills. They planned and presided over the weekly programs and the meetings. Officers changed each term:

Literary Society Officers

For this particular year these were the dates:

  • Fall Officers (September 3, 1902 through November 11, 1902)
  • Winter Officers (November 12, 1902 through March 1, 1903)
  • Spring Officers (March 6, 1903 through June 4, 1903)

Many of these leaders became leaders of the school in later years by serving on the Board of Trustees or on the Faculty. Or even President of the College! Here are a few names that may be familiar.

Literary Society Names You May Know

After 1910

There were an increasing number of students at the school, making the groups much more difficult to maintain. The first year the school was open, there were a total of 201 students. By 1910, there were 408 on the roster.

There were also increased opportunities for socializing, more speciaized groups for students to join, and greater social freedom.

Athletics were on the rise following the building of the Gymnasium, and students would often have to miss meetings for practices or games. There was the Athletic Association, and teams: Football, Baseball, Track, Basketball, Girls Basketball.

Christian youth organizations, such as the Y.M.C.A and the Y.W.C.A. were gaining in popularity both here and in the region, and the school also had a Homiletic Club.

Choirs and eventually bands began to appear.

There was even a Co-Ed German Conversation Club by 1912!

Debating Societies were formed, and Intercollegiate Debating was gaining popularity throughout the country. On the Wesleyan campus were two: The Wesleyan Debating Club and The Webster Debating Club.

Sororities and Fraternities started forming at Wesleyan in the early 1920s.

And the Pharos and Murmurmontis staffs were both Co-Ed.

In other words, Student Organizations were specializing. Debate, oration, music, drama, and social interaction were being done in new ways. Many of these things became part of the curriculum of the school as well.

Literary Societies Death by Obsolescence

In a two part series of articles for the Sundial in 1961, William C. Seifrit (Assistant Professor of Speech 1959-1964) described the history of the Literary Societies from their beginnings up through the 1920s. Please click here to read these wonderful articles:

The Meaning of ——- “Chrestomathean and Excelsior” (Part 1) pages 4-8

The Meaning of ——- “Chrestomathean and Excelsior” (Part 2) pages 4-7

Organizations
From 1915 Murmurmontis

Voices From the Past: Thanksgiving Thoughts

Chrisman, Lewis Herbert 1947
Lewis H. Chrisman 1947 Murmurmontis

Thanksgiving Thoughts, by Lewis H. Chrisman (November 1947)

The request to write a few words of Thanksgiving greetings for the West Virginia Wesleyan College Bulletin causes memory to throw the light of other days around me. In these times of comparatively easy transportation, the Wesleyan campus on Thanksgiving is a rather lonely place. Students can get home easily, and practically all of them take advantage of their opportunity.

This was not so back in the administrations of Dr. Fleming and Dr. Cutshall. Then the whole college community remained in Buckhannon. In the morning most of us went to church. The rest of the day was spent in lazy comfort. Then came the climax, which was a traditional dinner in the Agnes Howard Hall. My only painful memory of the occasion was of a nefarious and unsuccessful attempt being made to compel me to carve the turkey at the speakers’ table. Those of later generations are warned not to picture this company assembled in the present dining room. In those days the girls of the Agnes Howard Hall dined in the large room on the first floor on the side next to the Administration Building. I often think of that crowded room on Thanksgiving evening with the heavily laden tables and the happy company. And I am sure that these memories are shared by many others of that college generation.

Since those days much water has passed down the Buckhannon. Wesleyan has gone through some hard storms and successfully weathered them. Other generations of students have come and gone. Wesleyan men, and some women, have journeyed to the ends of the earth at the call of war’s rude tumult. Yet the life of the college at Buckhannon has moved steadily on. Some of us for almost thirty years have faced students in the same classrooms. It may be hard for Wesleyanites of other days to imagine the chapel packed with students to the top seats of the balcony, as is now the case. We must though, remember that the Wesleyan of yesterday is the Wesleyan of today. The past, the present, and the future march hand in hand.

Although we no longer gather in the Agnes Howard Hall on Thanksgiving Day, there is still no better time for us to relive the experiences of the past, to remember those who made college life richer and brighter, and to renew our allegiance to the great moral and spiritual verities which undergird the universe.

Chrisman, L. H. (1947). Thanksgiving Thoughts. The West Virginia Wesleyan College Bulletin, 40(8), p.2.

Chrisman, L.H. (1949). Our Thanksgiving Heritage. The West Virginia Wesleyan College Bulletin, 42(9), p.3.

Lewis H. Chrisman

Related Post: Curating the Stories

Orange and Black Are the Colors of Leadership

Leadership and Frank Meredith ThompsonFrank Meredith Thompson was a leader from the very beginning of his life until the end. Born in 1880 as the oldest of six children in a poor rural area of Pennsylvania he sold papers, ran errands, trapped muskrats, and pumped the organ at the Presbyterian Church to earn a few pennies.

There was no high school anywhere in the vicinity of his home, but he realized the value of a good education. He saved up $75 and came to the West Virginia Conference Seminary where he graduated in 1902. At the time, the preparatory program of the school was not yet college accredited, although the Classical program which he completed was very rigorous. Click here to see the full curriculum! The description of the Classical Course in the 1902 Catalog states:

In this course, Latin, Greek, and English are the principal studies. Due attention is given to Mathematics, History, and Natural Science. This has been considered the strongest course in our best schools and colleges from time immemorial. It is especially popular at the Seminary. No other course so thoroughly prepares the student for the various professions and callings in life as this one.

While a student, Thompson organized the very first football team at the school, and they challenged a corps of civil engineers who were in the area working on the B. and O. Railroad to the school’s first football game on Thanksgiving Day 1899. The Methodists practiced one week prior to the game and “appeared for the battle uniformed in odds and ends made up mostly of baseball suits.”

Frank Meredith Thompson, however, appeared in an orange and black striped sweater which he purchased and wore because of his great admiration for the Poe Brothers of Princeton. His teammates, in turn, admired the sweater so Frank declared that Orange and Black would be our school colors as well. He told all about this when he came back to campus in October 1949. He stated:

At that time the Poe brothers were football stars at Princeton University. Princeton’s colors were orange and black. I wanted a sweater just like the ones worn by the Poes, whom I idealized for their gridiron prowess. So Princeton’s ivy league colors are ours. I guess I can tell the story now – after fifty years.”

Poe Brothers of Princeton

Frank Thompson chose great role models! You can read more about them here.

On Tuesday, September 11, 1900 Thompson was an organizing member of the Athletic Association at the school.

When the school fielded the first official football team in 1902, Thompson was the captain of that squad.

Frank Meredith Thompson’s Life Beyond Buckhannon

  • Enlisted in the Pennsylvania National Guard regiment for the Spanish-American War
  • Went to Allegheny College, where he received his A.B. in 1906
  • Went to Boston University, where he received his S.T.B. in 1908
  • Served Methodist Episcopal Churches in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore
  • Enlisted in the Army in 1917, where he served for 27 years in the Chaplain Corps in many places including France in World War I, the Mexican border, Panama, Hawaii, and as the chief of chaplains at Fort Benning, Georgia during World War II.
  • Retired to Pinehurst, N.C. where he continued to serve churches on an interim basis, was active in civic groups, played contract bridge and golf, and was well-known for his warmth and his generosity.
Frank Meredith Thompson with Scarborough and Cebe Ross
President William John Scarborough, Thompson, Cebe Ross

In October of 1949, Col. Frank Meredith Thompson returned to campus, out of gratitude for his experiences in his student days, to establish an annual $50 award to be given to the “Wesleyan athlete who has the most outstanding record as athletic achievement for the year.”

Frank Meredith Thompson did inspire others. He also lived a life where he dreamed more, did more, learned more, and became more.

And, thanks to him, we are all wearing Orange and Black to this day!

 

Sources:

(1900, September).  Athletics. Seminary Collegiate, pages 22 and 23.

(1949, November) Thompson Tells How Our College Colors Originated. West Virginia Wesleyan College Bulletin.

(1960, August 19).Thompson, 80, Chaplain for 27 Years, Dies. The Pinehurst Outlook. [Transcribed by Paula McGrew, 11/18/2018]

(1960, August 25). Col. Thompson, Army Chaplain, Wrote Reminiscences of Busy, Active Life. The Pilot. [Transcribed by Paula McGrew, 11/18/2018]

(1960, August). Man Who Gave Weesleyan Football and Its Colors Dies at Age of 80. Record Delta? [Transcribed by Paula McGrew, 11/18/2018]

 

 

Over Here and Over There – 100 Years Ago

Fall semester of 1918 was like none other — before or in the 100 years since.

The U.S. had entered World War I, students had left to serve, the War Department organized Student Army Training Corps to train soldiers – one of the 500 was on the campus of Wesleyan – and the Spanish Influenza epidemic caused quarantines.

Students who were “Over Here” were thinking about their friends “Over There,” and soldiers “Over There” were writing letters home to friends, faculty members, and to President Wallace B. Fleming.

Student Army Training Corps (S.A.T.C.)

Student Army Training Corp 1918
World War I
Student Army Training Corp., 1918

The War Department organized Student Army Training Corps units in about 500 schools around the country, including Wesleyan. The purpose was to allow students to continue their education while finding and preparing those who would become officers. Click here to read the 15 pages of Rules and Regulations for these units.

On September 30, 1918 there was an Inaguration Ceremony for the 200 troops who would study and train at Wesleyan. It was held in front of the Administration Building, and simultaneous to other such ceremonies across the country. President Fleming and Dean Thomas W. Haught spoke.

Three Lieutenants were present: Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Fred Horton, Jr., Adjutant Cecil G. Gaston, and Personnel Officer Neal Y. Pharr. Adjutant Gaston read words of greeting to the men from the President of the United States, the Secretary of War, and the Chief of Staff.

 

The October 7, 1918 issue of The Pharos gave some great details and descriptions of the program and of the ceremony. Click here to read the stories in their entirety.

Pharos Headlines October 7 1918

The soldiers were housed in the Gymnasium, then only six years old, which was converted into sleeping quarters and a mess hall for the men. The basketball court was fitted with army cots, and the mess hall was located in the basement.

Their days were regulated with four hours of class work, two hours of supervised study, two hours of drill, and a required 8 1/2 hours of sleep from 9:30 pm to 6:00 am. The girls on campus were quite interested in meeting some of these soldiers, but there were fairly strict policies that limited those interactions.

The Music Hall (now known as the English Annex) was put into service as an infirmary when the Spanish Influenza epidemic made an appearance on campus. Quarantines were put into place for both S.A.T.C. soldiers and Wesleyan students.

Armistice Day (November 11, 1918)

The glad news came that the war was over at the 11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month!

The War Department then disbanded the S.A.T.C. programs at the close of the term. The soldiers were able to be home by Christmas. Some chose to come back as regular students to the college during the next term.

Over There in the Fall of 1918

While all of this was happening here on campus, there were Wesleyan students abroad. They were on the battlefields and behind the lines. Several of them wrote letters to President Fleming, Professor Deck, and others at the school to let them know how they were doing. They were thinking of their days in Buckhannon as well. This issue of The Pharos was published just one week before the war ended.

Pharos Headlines November 4 1918

Here are a few excerpts, and a link to the full letters:

W.H. Snedegar to President Fleming: “Just  a few lines from one who, though far away, still carries with him pleasant thoughts of the past year spent at Wesleyan, and who still has the Wesleyan spirit running thru his veins. I was called for service June 24th, and on July 18 I was on my way to France.”

From Harvey Swisher: “I did not realize being an officer was so much superior to being a private until I began to travel, but we sure do get the best of service and treatment. Over here the officers are billited with French families, in good beds and with the finest of food. They are all very interesting and courteous to us. I am learning to speak French very well, and I think after a few months here will be able to carry on a fluent conversation.”

Also from Harvey Swisher: “We get our gas masks and steel helmets soon. The helmets are rather heavy, but one soon gets used to them. I am well clothed, have good shoes and boots to keep me warm and dry. I do not want you to worry, as I am getting along fine and am very able to take care of myself.”

From Grant Swisher: “I am glad to hear that old Wesleyan is going to have a military course this fall. I know that it will bring many new students to school. I wish you all the success in the world for the coming school year. I am well and getting along fine. We hope to be up where we can get a few Germans soon. Do not expect to stay away from the old U.S.A. so very much longer.”

From Edwin Krick: “We are in the trenches from 8 p.m. until 6 a.m. It is a long and weary night, but the shells keep us busy moving around. I get a little sleep now and then, but have to be on the lookout for gas, as it is the thing we fear most………”No doubt you read a good deal of what is going on over here, but you do not get the facts. I have not gone over the top yet, but our time is at hand.”

The War Issue of the Murmurmontis (1920)

The 1920 edition of the Murmurmontis was designated as the War Issue to pay tribute to all of the things that had occurred, the lives changed, and is a record of things that somehow went on as usual during this remarkable time. It is certainly worth the time to look through it!

Some of the men did not return from the Great War, and are honored in this publication.

Murmurmontis 1920 In Memorium

One of these was Lieutenant Roy Earl Parish, who was the subject of an earlier post to this blog. You can read it here.

Remembering All Who Were Involved

The world had never seen anything quite like it before. Celebrating 100 years since the end of World War I, and the chance for those involved to return to the lives that were interrupted.

 

Trend of Times Sounds Familiar

William Edwin Stephens wrote a series of articles in the Pharos in the spring of 1940. It was called Trend of Times, and included such topics as The Mass Mind (February 21, 1940) and Defending Democracy (April 10, 1940).

Stephens, William Edwin 1940Trend of the Times 1940

Stephens was a senior that spring, and World War II was looming. He was from Moundsville, WV and was a member of several organizations on campus in addition to being a writer for the Pharos. Those organizations included:

  • Pi Kappa Delta: Pi Kappa Delta represents the most able debaters of Wesleyan’s campus. This organization is to promote forensic endeavor. It was establised in 1928. It is nationally affiliated. (Murmurmontis 1940)
  • Play Shop: “The play must go on” is the motto of this group of actors and actresses on Wesleyan’s stage. Those students who complete four internships are eligible for membership in this club. (Murmurmontis 1940)
  • Sigma Alpha Sigma: Honor students of the college, those with the highest scholastic averages, make up this organization’s distinction. It was organized in May 1933. (Murmurmontis 1940)
  • International Relations Club: Foreign policies near and far are the interests of this group of young history students and those interested in the affairs of the world today. (Murmurmontis 1940)
  • Debate

(I include his credentials here as a way of saying that he was very well qualified, was thinking things through, and was an expert in the art of debate rather than in the emotion filled tone of the recent election ads on all sides.)

Following his graduation in 1940 (Cum Laude, with a Double Major in Social Studies and Education) William served in the 8th US Army Air Force in Europe during World War II and retired as a Lt. Col. from the US Air Force Reserve. He was a Personnel Manager for Dupont for 27 years. See his obituary for details.

On the eve of Election Day 2018, I would like to let William’s articles speak to us across the sands of time. They certainly have a ring of familiarity and relevance about them.  And, he includes the voices of well-known and well-loved faculty members as well. Click on the titles of the articles to see them in their entirety and in the context of the other things that were happening at the time.

February 21, 1940 The Mass Mind

March 3, 1cdm16111.contentdm.oclc.org/…ll13/id/2722940  Propaganda Analysis (Which includes the voices of Professor Harold Ahlgren, Professor Lewis Chrisman, Professor Arthur Allen Schoolcraft, Professor Harold Steele, and Professor George Glauner.

March 30, 1940 Yellow Journalism

April 10, 1940 Defending Democracy

April 17, 1940 The Real Issue