A Wesleyan Era Comes to an End: Association Covers Sixty-Six Year Period
In the year 1889 an eighteen-year old farm lad began teaching in a Tyler County school. His desire for more education led him to take teachers’ courses at a summer school in Alma the following year.
March of 1891 found him at a new Seminary in Buckhannon, established only the previous year by the Methodist Episcopal Church. The campus was still scarred by the removal of clay to make the bricks for the Seminary Building. He completed the Classical course in 1894, then went on to Morgantown to the University. There he finished his college work for the A.B. degree and graduated in June of 1896. While there he was a member of Sigma Chi social fraternity, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
He returned to Buckhannon that fall as a teacher of science, English and mathematics. Again the quest for learning took him away, this time to Harvard University for two years, 1899-1901, for graduate study. From 1901 to 1905 he was back at the Seminary teaching.
A new teacher of art arrived on the campus in the fall of 1901, and in 1903 the young professor married Miss Helen Wetmore.
Two years later he made a reluctant decision: because of insuffieient salary, he accepted an offer to administer the State school at Keyser, now known as Potomac State College. He remained there for three years, returning in 1908 to Wesleyan, which was now known as West Virginia Wesleyan College, having graduated in 1905 the first college class. [Transcriber’s note: there is no record of this in the alumni directory. ]
The young teacher had ably demonstrated his administrative ability and in 1909 became the second dean of the College, a post he held for twenty years. He served from 1910-20 on the State Board of Education. The College enjoyed a period of intensive growth during this time.
Wesleyan conferred an honorary Master of Arts egree on him in 1916, and in 1929, the year he resigned as dean to teach geology, he received the honorary Doctor of Science degree.
As a further indication of the Dean’s position of leadership, he was asked to serve as acting presient on three separate occasions (1913, 1922, 1925).
Always known as a firm disciplinarian, he came to be known affectionately as “Tommy” by the many students who passed through his life. He had a modest bearing and a keen intellect, capable of making devastating rebukes to those who fouted College regulations.
The Dean and his wife reared four children, all of them graduating from the College: Wetmore ’25; John’ 27; Fred ’28’ and Florence ’31. He joined his wife in the life of First Methodist Church, teaching a class for twenty-five years, serving on the official board for forty-five years, serving as usher, and writing a history of the Church. A Rotarian, he served as president. A love of travel took him to forty-four of the States and to Canada.
Published in 1940 was his history of the College, “West Virginia Wesleyan College, 1890-1940, a concise and penetrating account.
The year 1941 brought him to the formal end of his teaching career. He had completed forty years of service in the school he loved. This was longer than any other has served, and is still a record today.
Retirement brought a lessening of formal responsibilities, but continued activity. He became chairman of the board of the Charles W. Gibson Library, serving from 1941-1953. In 1950 was published his “The Sixth Decade, 1940-1950“, which supplemented his earlier history of the school. He gave valuable assistance in the preparationof the 1947 Alumni Directory, and also served as president of the first Alumni Fund Board of Directors. In 1950 his “outstanding loyalty and devotion” were recognized by the Alumni Association when he was presented with an Alumni Award. He was always ready with counsel and information, and it was a rare Tuesday when he did not “take a walk up to the College” for the Chapel service.
His last year brought separation from his life partner, when she died on February 22, 1957. Lonely and ailing, he declined greatly during the following months, until hospitalization was necessary.
There, on August 28, at 4:30 in the afternoon, the farm lad from Tyler County left behind an era in the life of an institution. The life of Thomas William Haught, given to Wesleyan over sixty-six of his eighty-five years, will ever inspire the thousands who loved him, as well as those yet unborn who will know him through the Wesleyan which he helped to build.
Dr. George L. Glauner conducted services on Friday, and burial was in the Heavner Cemetery near Buckhannon. Memorial scholarship funds have been established at the College, both for Dr. Haught and for Mrs. Haught.
A Wesleyan Era Comes to an End. Sundial October 1957, James Stansbury, Editor.
Transcribed by Paula McGrew, January 2019