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     Reprinted here is a small but potent example of his organized, meticulous nature.  It is a "brief" overview of Antioch's first era, written in 1954 for its centennial celebration.

A Brief Sketch of Antioch College
1853-1921

by Robert L. Straker

The Aims of the Founders
The First Years
The Presidency of Thomas Hill
Suspension, 1862-1865
The Unitarian Period
Suspension, 1881-1882
Christian Education Society
The Lean Period
Dr. Simeon D. Fess
Interim

THE AIMS OF THE FOUNDERS

      "Resolved, That our responsibility to the community, and the advancement of our interests as a denomination, demand of us the establishing of a College. "

      This resolution was passed unanimously by the eighty-two delegates (representing 521 ordained ministers) who attended the General Convention of the Christian Church, meeting at Marion, New York, on October 5,1850.

The Convention further...

      "Resolved, that we agree in the sum of one hundred thousand dollars as the standard by which to measure our zeal and our effort in raising the means for establishing the contemplated College."

       On the same day the Committee on the Plan for a College reported to the Convention a series of resolutions asking for the appointment of a Provisional Committee of 34 members to undertake immediately the founding and erection of the College, to locate the institution in the state contributing the most money and in the community which best met the tests of healthfulness, accessibility by travel, cheapness of living, and the amount of money offered to secure the College; to establish at once a permanent endowment of $50,000 through the sale of tuition scholarships at $100 each; to obtain subscriptions to the building fund. The Committee further specified that at all times two-thirds of the Trustees and a majority of the Faculty should belong to the Christian Connexion, and stated "that this College shall afford equal privileges to students of both sexes."

      On the same day, October 5th, 1850, the Sub-Committee of the Provisional Committee, charged with the Construction of a College for the Christians, reported the appointment of agents to canvass for sales of scholarships and for subscriptions toward the cost of erecting the buildings. The Committee concluded the meeting with a resolution stating "That our proposed College be known by the name Antioch College."

      The Christian Connexion arose in the 1790's through the union of groups splintered off from the Presbyterians in Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee; from the Baptists in New England; from the Methodists and other sects in Virginia and North Carolina; and from various denominations in New York and other states. The platform of the Christians was simple: "The Bible, our only creed: Christian character, our only test of fellowship and communion: private judgement, the right and duty of all men; our aim, the union of all Christians and the conversion of sinners." This idealistic religious platform afforded latitude for divergent doctrinal views and opinions and doubtless brought about some lack of cohesion.

      The Christians were not very numerous in 1850; only 521 ordained ministers were represented by delegates to the Marion Convention. Most of the members of the denomination lived in rural areas in Ohio, New York and New England, with fewer members in Pennsylvania, Indiana, New Jersey, Illinois, Iowa, North Carolina, Virginia and Canada West. Generally, too, the Christians were not wealthy; a large majority were in moderate circumstances at best.

      Not many ordained Christian ministers were college-bred, and only a very few had had anything like sound theological training. For the most part, the laymen were limited to education supplied by the common schools of the period. Some of the Christians were liberal, and others were narrow in their views; the latter tended to be distrustful of education even for the ministry. But in time, the American dream of general education imposed upon the Christians some "responsibility to the community," and they realized that their "interests as a denomination" would be advanced through better education of both ministers and laymen.

      The liberal platform of the Christians had brought them the sympathy and support of the Unitarians. As early as 1837, Dr. Channing urged upon the Christians "the importance of fortifying themselves with educational establishments." In 1840, Isaac N. Walter, a Christian minister from Ohio, advocated the founding of a Christian college in the Ohio Valley. The more liberal among the Christians joined with the Unitarians in organizing the Meadville Theological School in 1844, and several Christian ministers were trained there. In the same year Simon Clough, a Christian minister in New York City, urged his denomination to establish both a university and a theological school. The needs of a vast, expanding country, with a rapidly increasing population, made the Christians realize their duty lay in promoting education among themselves.

     Through the efforts of an unofficial group, the movement for the establishment of a Christian college gained in strength in 1848 and 1849 and resulted in the calling of the matter to the attention of the national convention in 1850.

      The Marion Convention considered also the establishment of a school of theology. Opinion was divided about including theological training in the new college; this was discouraged and a move was made to set up an independent theological school.  Some money was raised for the purpose, but it came to nothing. On January 26,1852, the Sub-Committee closed the Antioch curriculum to theological training.  It was not until 1869 that a theological school, the Christian Biblical Institute, was established.

      It is now clear that the founders of the College for the Christians were over-enthusiastic and that Antioch from the beginning was to be "a college without a constituency." The Christians never raised a permanent endowment, and the money they did obtain was insufficient to pay for the original costs of the buildings. Other sects, especially the Unitarians, contributed as much money and almost as many students as did the Christians. Although the members of the founding sect needed better education, they never gave the College adequate financial or student support.

      The Marion Convention spoke clearly in favor of co-education on the college level, which had begun at Oberlin twenty years before. Co-education was generally in the air and was considered more economical than separate colleges for men and women. But it seems clear that the Convention did not intend to establish a non-sectarian college. Indeed there were then no other non-sectarian colleges in the Ohio valley or anywhere else. Despite this apparent desire of the Convention, the Sub-Committee determined that the new college would be non-sectarian. The denominational tension continued.  Indeed the struggle to make Antioch denominational went on for more than forty years after the college opened, during which time it was shown repeatedly that the Christians could supply neither sufficient money nor students to warrant placing the college under their control. The Convention said nothing at all about the admission of Negroes, apparently not giving consideration to that possibility.

      The original Antioch buildings were planned for one thousand students. Between 1853 and 1859, the enrollment exceeded 500 only once (1857) and did not do so again until the early 1920's. The buildings were larger than necessary, and after a time, the cost of repairs became large and burdensome.

      On the basis that the College would be liberally endowed, co-educational and non-sectarian, the Sub-Committee obtained the appointment of Horace Mann as first president. The first faculty was not really first class in terms of experience, but the members were well trained, conscientious, young and eager. The college at once became co-educational in the best sense, and there is no doubt that in the early years the academic standards were unusually high.

     Antioch was also non-sectarian in the way that Harvard was, and Oberlin and Ohio Wesleyan were not. But on the denominational issue there was much dissatisfaction.  There was too much strife over sectarianism, and there was no endowment. Sectarianism and inadequate financing were the causes of much difficulty throughout the early years of the college.

THE FIRST YEARS

      The industrial and cultural development of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys would in the years ahead absorb more and more educated men and women trained in all phases of human enterprise. Horace Mann conceived it to be Antioch's mission to foster thorough education of young people who could contribute to the development of industry and commerce and to the elevation of the people dwelling in this vast central empire.

      The first college catalogue was issued in March 1853.  Its prologue emphasized coeducation as a practice that would lead to the more rapid elevation of the whole human race.  It stressed the importance of good health habits to the individual and the community; it supported cooperation and human brotherhood, rather than rivalry and emulation; and it called for the teaching of sound ethical and moral principles rather than indoctrination of dogmas.

      The curriculum was similar to those of the best colleges in the East. It consisted chiefly of Latin and Greek, mathematics, English, history, philosophy, and science. Since there was a need for trained teachers, courses in methods of teaching were added. Electives were permitted in some parts of the program, as in history, art, botany, theory of teaching, and modern languages - in some cases in place of advanced Greek. English Composition was required throughout, and much stress was placed on public speaking.  Faculty members lectured in their own classes (instead of devoting class periods wholly to recitation) and gave courses of lectures of a general nature. The educational foundation was intended to be broader, the cultural aim higher than in any other college in America. The general purpose was to give instruction in health, ethics and phases of social living, as well as in the usual courses for the training of the mind.

       At noon on October 5, 1853 - exactly three years after the Marion Convention had resolved to establish the college - Mann was invested as the first president and delivered his inaugural address. This document contains over 27,000 words, and its delivery must have occupied more than two hours. It was a remarkable discourse for a remarkable occasion. The prominent Unitarian clergyman, T. Starr King, said that this address contained enough inspiration to make a college flourish in the Sahara.

       The Inaugural Address is indeed an unusual discourse to come from a thoroughly educated and highly intelligent Unitarian layman in 1853. The contributions of the great scientists are recognized in comments on the wonders of astronomical space and time, on the astounding age of the earth, and on the remarkable acquisition of knowledge of physical and chemical laws. But in an address given six years before the publication of Darwin's The Origin of Species, one ought to expect incomplete knowledge of biological, especially genetic, principles. Nevertheless, it comes as a surprise that Mann seems to accept the calculations of Usher on the age of the human race as six thousand years, and he proceeds to moralize on the dwindling of longevity from the nine hundred years of Methuselah to the seventy of David, to the thirty of his own time. The new president faced a fairly orthodox audience, and one is left to conjecture whether on some subjects he spoke with complete sincerity or was tempering the wind to the shorn lamb. His views of the devastating genetic effects of licentiousness, alcohol and tobacco were more sensational than scientific. He was never one to spare the hound of advocacy when pursuing a "scientific" hare.

      In his address, Mann added to the Greek precept of a sound mind in a sound body -- the attribute of sound ethics, of moral and social goodness. In this all factions concurred, and they agreed, too, with some unanimity on the means of implementing this aim: a sound education of the mind, proper attention to the means of attaining and retaining good health, and the appreciation and practice of good ethics and morals.

       During the last three years of Mann's presidency, the college had an annual deficit of $5,000 in a total budget of some $13,000. In 1858, the corporation was declared bankrupt  In April 1859, friends of the college purchased it and put through a reorganization that forbade the contraction of debt. Nevertheless, the deficits continued.

THE PRESIDENCY OF THOMAS HILL - 1859-62

      Upon Mann's death in 1859, Dr. Bellows proposed Rev. Thomas Hill of Waltham as his successor. Hill was regarded as one of the most brilliant of Harvard's graduates. The year of his graduation he was offered the directorship of the National Observatory, and he was urged to accept a position on the Harvard faculty. He declined both offers in order to prepare himself for the Unitarian ministry. He was both a polished classicist and a first-rate mathematician. He had been pastor of the Waltham church for fourteen years and really preferred to remain there. But his friends believed him a most suitable person for the Antioch presidency. He was also reluctant to take the post because of the unsound financial condition of the college and at last accepted only on the condition that faculty salaries and running expenses be guaranteed. The guarantees did not solve the problem.  Hill's salary was not fully paid, and he had to borrow privately to meet his own expenses.  The college was kept open only through the loans of friends. Under Hill, Antioch continued to maintain unusually high academic standards. When the financial outlook was really dim, in April 1862, Hill wrote to Bellows: "I told my people at Waltham some nine years ago that the history of America began with the foundation of Antioch College, and if I had $100,000 I'd prove that the statement was not extravagant."

      Denominational opposition was centered on Hill as it had been on Mann. In November 1860, Hill wrote to Bellows that "the Christians are slow to pay, but prompt to ask privileges and demand rights." Hill and Bellows tried to raise an endowment as a means of putting an end to the chronic financial distress.   They were unable to obtain funds since prospective donors objected to the sectarian test for trustees, of whom twelve were Christians and eight Unitarians. Hill's suggestion that the Board should consist of eight Christians, eight Unitarians, and four from other denominations met with no encouragement from the Christians.

      In a printed circular addressed to the trustees dated February 1861, Dr. Hill stated that the then enrollment of 266 students came from seven denominations and from nineteen states and Canada, demonstrating wide religious and geographical distribution. He pointed to the excellent reputation of the college and its aim to maintain the highest position among the colleges of the west.  He further suggested that this reputation and this aim had stimulated other colleges of the region to higher standards. The college was justifying its existence. He said that Antioch had heretofore been maintained chiefly by the Christians and the Unitarians: that the Christians were now interested in establishing another college (Union Christian) at Merom, Indiana; that the Unitarians could support Antioch, but since they were strongly non-sectarian, they objected to the sectarian test for trustees and so would not contribute to an endowment while the test remained. Hill then suggested that the College Charter be amended to prohibit more than nine trustees from any denomination and to guarantee the college instruction continue to be non-sectarian and non-partisan. Such an amendment would require unanimous consent of the trustees, and Hill asked if unanimous consent would be given. If so, he would work to raise an endowment of $200,000; but if the proposal was to be vetoed, he would feel no obligation to continue in the presidency.

      Some of the Christian trustees were fearful that the Unitarians planned through such an amendment to gain control of Antioch, and it was apparent that the proposal would not be approved. Dr. Hill maintained that the Unitarians did not want a Unitarian college; they wanted a genuinely non-sectarian college.

      By contract between the Christian and Unitarian trustees, signed June 27 1861, it was agreed that sufficient funds to maintain the college could not be raised under the existing Charter.  This contract provided that the Christians were to be given the first opportunity to raise money to pay current debts ($5,170.95 by Sept. 1st, 1861), to maintain the college during 1861-62 ($7,000) and during 1862-64 ($14,000), by June 1862, and to obtain pledges for an endowment of $50,000 by June 1864.  If the Christians were successful in these various stages and when all the specified funds had been raised, the Unitarian trustees would resign, and the Christians were to have exclusive possession and control of the college.  Conversely, if the Christians failed in the step ($5,170.95 by Sept. 1st, 1861), the Unitarians were to have two months (by Nov. 1st, 1861) to raise this amount and so on through the same stages.   Similarly they were to have possession and control if they were successful.

      The Christians failed in the first step, and by November 1st, 1861, the Unitarians had raised both sums, $5,170.95 and $7,000 for 1861-62.  Early in 1862 the Unitarians concluded that because of war conditions they would be unable to raise the $50,000 endowment at that time.  The Christians had raised less than $10,000, but since both parties had failed of complete success, it was agreed that the Christians should have a two year extension, to June 1864, to raise the funds specified.

      Dr. Hill sought to strengthen the academic standing of the college.  He aimed to make the college superior to all western institutions, with the exception of Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Michigan.  He worked to improve relations with the public schools and to increase the training given to prospective teachers.

      On June 24, 1862, Dr. Hill indicated to the trustees the possibility of his resignation -- privately he was waiting to consult Bellows before resigning.  John Ellis, a Christian trustee who opposed what he thought of as the Unitarianization of the college, moved that the resignation be accepted, and it was so voted.  Actually, Dr. Hill had been elected president of Harvard two months previously (April 26, 1862).

SUSPENSION, 1862-65

      The trustees having accepted Dr. Hill’s resignation then voted to close the college pending the raising of an endowment by the Christians or until the college finances had improved.  Rev. Austin Craig, a Christian minister who had been a member of the faculty under Mann, was named Acting President.  Craig hoped for both adequate funds and the active support of the Christians.

      In February 1863, in the efforts to raise an endowment, the Christians issued a circular that stated  the college faculty was now wholly Christian, the Unitarian members having resigned. It also stated that, although the Unitarians had contributed $75,000 to $80,000 to the college, the Unitarian trustees would withdraw if the Christians succeeded in raising an endowment of $50,000 by June 1864.

      At the trustee meeting in June 30, 1863, Rev. John Phillips offered a resolution, “Resolved, that the Trustees of Antioch College cannot, according to the Charter, reject persons on account of color.”  This resolution was passed by a vote of nine in favor (eight Christians and one Unitarian) and four opposed (three Christians and one Unitarian).  In the mid-1850s, Mann and the faculty had admitted some mulatto girls.  Judge Harlan, President of the Board of Trustees, resigned and removed his own children from the preparatory school, but the mulatto students remained in the school.  It seems that there had never been many students of color at Antioch in its earlier years.

      In January 1864, Craig wrote that he was convinced the Christians would do nothing effectual for Antioch.  By May he was certain that the Christians would not endow the college.  He felt there were many bigots among his sect and wished fervently to retain the eight Unitarian trustees as more trustworthy than the Christians.  He thought that Antioch would survive even if the Christians did withdraw.

      At the meeting of trustees on June 28, 1864, it was reported that the Christians had failed to raise the $50,000 endowment during the period of extension.  Craig, Fay, and others among the Christians who had tried to raise the fund reported to the meeting that many persons were willing to help endow Antioch on condition that the denominational test for trustees (Article III of the Charter) be repealed.  On the following day, by unanimous vote of the trustees present (sixteen), Article III was amended to remove the sectarian provision, the absent trustees concurring.  Henceforth an Antioch trustee could be of any or no sect.  At this point, however, Ellis presented a resolution to restore the previous restriction to the Charter should the endowment be no greater by $100,000 in one year, and it was so voted.

      In June 1865, Edward Everett Hale for the Unitarians reported to the trustees that the denominational test for trustees having been removed, the Unitarians in two months had raised  $100,000, a permanent endowment for the exclusive use of Antioch.  He then presented it to the college on condition that it would revert to the American Unitarian Association should the sectarian test for trustees ever be restored or if the fund should ever be perverted from the use of Antioch College.  The trustees accepted the endowment on these terms.  Craig was elected president, and the college was opened in September 1865.  However, Craig resigned after one year partly because he felt the Unitarians should control the college.

THE UNITARIAN PERIOD

      From 1866 to 1881, Antioch was considered to be under the control of the Unitarians, though there were only eight Unitarian trustees.  The college remained non-sectarian, and the academic standards were kept at the previous high level.  In June 1866, the Trustees elected Rev. George Washington Hosmer president, a Unitarian minister of Buffalo.  He served until the end of 1872.  From January to June 1873, the president was Edward Orton, who at one time was an ordained Presbyterian minister.  Since 1865, he had been Professor of Natural Science at Antioch and more recently a member of the Ohio Geological Survey staff.  In May 1873, he was elected first President of Ohio State Agricultural College (later Ohio State University).  He was succeeded by Samuel C. Derby, previously Professor of Latin at Antioch, as Acting President (1873-77) and as President (1877-81).  Derby resigned in June 1881 as president although he continued as trustee.  He joined the faculty of Ohio State University, where he later became Dean of the College of Liberal Arts.

      The endowment of $100,000 was invested first in government bonds.  Later a good part of it was put into real estate mortgages and timberlands.  During the depression of the 1870s some of the investments returned smaller income, and some of the principal was lost through the costs of foreclosures.  The income from the endowment fluctuated around $6,000 a year, which, with fees from a small student body, was not sufficient to maintain a really first-rate college, even though faculty salaries were very low.  Also the cost of building repairs had begun to increase with the age of the buildings.

      In 1872 the trustees directed the college treasurer to invest a surplus of $6,300.  In 1875 the college received bequests of $20,000 from Mrs. Sarah King of Taunton and $36,000 from the David Joy estate.  The college in 1879 received the Austin bequest of $10,000.  These sums seem to have been used to restore the impaired endowment, to pay for repairs and to clear up outstanding debts.

      In 1876 Antioch established the Ohio Free Normal School, a department for the training of teachers.  However, the School failed to attract students in sufficient numbers to make the project worthwhile, and the training of teachers was eventually transferred to a summer session.

      It may be of interest to note that at the meeting of trustees on June 21, 1879, Edward Everett Hale proposed a change in the Charter to add five ladies to the Board -- but the Board took no action.

      In June 1881, Antioch again faced serious financial difficulties, and the trustees voted to suspend the college for a period of three years or until accrued income from the endowment would be sufficient to warrant reopening.  President Derby resigned, as did members of the faculty, including Rev. John Burns Weston, "Old Interregnum," a graduate of the Class of 1857, a member of the faculty and acting president for several brief periods.  In 1882 he succeeded Dr. Craig as President of the Christian Biblical Institute.

SUSPENSION, 1881-82

      On January 14, 1882, the Cincinnati Gazette, carried an article, "A College Gone Begging," which, in commenting on the suspension of Antioch, blamed the closing partly on Mann's prickly personality (Mann had been dead for more than twenty years) and partly on the unfavorable religious and social surroundings -- the Scotch Presbyterians of the county were "culture-proof."  The same article quoted from The Herald of Gospel Liberty, denominational magazine of the Christians, which declared that for some time Antioch had been blighted by the boldest, most aggressive radicalism, so that there was no constituency for the sort of college Antioch had been during the years since the Unitarians had taken over.  The bias of denominationalism was still alive and rampant.

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION SOCIETY 1882-98

      The Christians of Yellow Springs and vicinity (southwestern Ohio) were concerned about the suspension and held meetings in December 1881, and January, March and May 1882, to discuss possibilities of reopening the college.  By May 1882, the group, which then called itself the Christian Education Society, had developed a plan.  This plan was presented to a special meeting of the trustees on May 10th.  Recalling that the Christians, at great cost to themselves, had established the college, it pointed out that Christian students, though numerous in the region, had not attended Antioch; there were hundreds of students within reasonable distance of Antioch who would attend if the Christians controlled the college.  The proposal was that control of the college be given to the Christians, who, on their part, promised to raise $100,000 additional endowment and to bring about an appreciable increase in enrollment.  This proposal was rejected unanimously by the trustees.

     The Society then presented a second proposal -- that the Society name the president and faculty, to be confirmed by the trustees, and that the appropriation made in June 1880, for college expenses be continued in similar amount (income from the endowment).  If this were agreed to, the Society promised to reopen the college in September, 1882.  The trustees agreed to this second proposal and appointed a managing committee to represent the trustees in relations with the Society.

      Antioch was reopened in September 1882.  In November Rev. Orin J. Wait, a Christian minister of Fall River who had been something of a denominational gadfly to Mann in the 1850s, was inaugurated president.  So unfortunate was his administration that he resigned in June 1883.  The Society had made an unpropitious beginning.

      In June 1883, the trustees were asked to consider the possibility of transferring the Antioch endowment elsewhere.  They concluded that to do so would be neither legal nor equitable since the original fund had been given for sole use of Antioch and if disturbed would revert to the American Unitarian Association.

      In September 1883, the presidency was assumed by Rev. Daniel Albright Long, a Christian minister of North Carolina and a graduate of the University of North Carolina.  He was president of Antioch for sixteen years until his resignation in June 1899.  He was amiable, able and enterprising, but his scholarship was not of the caliber of Antioch's presidents from 1853 to 1881.  The faculty members who served under him were for the most part young and eager to do well, but the academic standards of Antioch under Dr. Long, when the faculty was chosen by the Christian Education Society (though confirmed by the trustees), were apparently adequate but not superior.  The ministry became the choice of a larger number of Antioch graduates of this period than had before been the case.  Teaching continued to be the choice of many graduates, and there were now more scientists and engineers and as usual many lawyers.  On one occasion Dr. Long did retort to criticism from trustees by saying that the standing of Antioch graduates doing postgraduate work at Harvard and elsewhere proved that Antioch training was still superior to that of most American colleges.

      In June 1885, the Christian Education Society reported to the trustees that prospects for higher enrollments were bright but added that there was little prospect of an increased endowment.  The Christians as a body never did succeed in increasing the endowment.  Enrollment in the college proper increased somewhat, and overall figures were swollen considerably through the enrollment of special students in summer normal and in terminal courses in art, music and elocution.  Students now tended to come from Greene and adjoining Ohio counties; geographical distribution was much restricted.  Doubtless there was much good academic work done but a greater emphasis upon prayer meetings and elocution.

      In the spring of 1893, Dr. Long published some rather severe criticism of persons who happened to have influence with the Christian Education Society, with the result that in June the society asked the trustees to oust Long as President.  This the trustees declined to do, bespeaking conciliation, and Dr. Long made suitable conciliatory statements in the public press.

      The denominational blight continued to bedevil the college.  In June 1895 the trustees considered a letter from Rev. A. H. Morrill, President of the American Christian Convention, stating that the Christians were dissatisfied with the current management of Antioch.  It seems that some prominent Christians had understood in 1882, when the Christian Education Society was admitted to some control over the faculty, that more of the trustees were to be Christians - apparently a submerged desire to restore Article III.  Morrill stated that the Christians would withhold further financial support (!) until a satisfactory agreement had been reached.  The trustees instructed their Secretary to reply that there was nothing either in their own records or in the memory of the oldest trustees to support the increase of Christians on the Board, and this would be in violation of the terms of the Unitarian endowment of 1865 - the only endowment Antioch had.

      In the spring of 1897, Francis Asbury Palmer, a former trustee who had contributed a substantial sum to Antioch in 1859 for the purchase of the college in bankruptcy proceedings, informed Dr. Long that he was now willing to make Antioch a considerable endowment on condition of the resignation of twelve trustees.  The record says simply:  "This required no action."  Apparently Palmer wished all trustees except Christians to resign.  No endowment was forthcoming from Mr. Palmer.

      In June 1897, the trustees considered a communication from the Society for Encouraging Religious Education of Boston regarding the Winn Fund of $20,000, which the Society held in trust for Antioch (as long as the college continued to be under the control and management of Unitarians).  The Society contended that Antioch had not been under control of the Unitarians since 1881 but rather under control of the Christians and therefore asked release from further payment of income from the fund.  The trustees replied that Antioch was then as much under the control of the Unitarians as it had been when the trust was set up -- which was undoubtedly true.  The matter was settled by a cash payment to the college of half of the trust fund -- $10,000 outright.  A good part of this sum was spent in repairs of the college buildings.

      Thus by agreeing in 1882 that the Christian Education Society should nominate the Antioch faculty, the trustees eventually lost the income from the Winn Fund of $20,000 though they gained $10,000 in cash.  This episode must have caused some exasperation and possibly was one of the reasons for the action of the trustees in June 1898, resolving to rescind the plan of faculty appointments by the Christian Education Society.  This seems effectually to have put an end to denominational contention for the control of Antioch by the Christians.  The matter does not come up again.  However, the financial difficulties remain.

THE LEAN PERIOD

       Dr. Long resigned as President in June 1899 and was succeeded by William Allen Bell of the Class of 1860, formerly Superintendent of Schools of Indianapolis.  Dr. Edward Everett Hale resigned as trustee, having occupied that position continuously from 1865.  The college was in such poor financial condition that it was questionable whether it could continue.  For what it was worth, the Quadrennial Convention of the Christian Church this year voted to resume its former financial contribution to the college.

       In 1900 the trustees set faculty salaries at $700 a year maximum and $500 minimum.  The president was to receive $1,500.  Trustee Rev. Jenkins Lloyd Jones protested trying to keep the college open under such conditions and at such salaries.

      In June 1902, President Bell resigned, and the trustees elected as Acting President their fellow trustee, Franklin W. Hooper, a former Antioch student and now connected with the Brooklyn Academy of Arts and Sciences.  At this meeting, the Trustees set in motion plans for adding to the college a division for industrial and technical education - a manual training school suitable for the average youth of the vicinity.  The training was meant to be advantageous to mechanics, artisans, farmers, merchants and others.  Nothing came of this scheme.  In June 1906, Hooper resigned as Acting President.  Actually, the college had been administered during his entire period by Dr. Stephen F. Weston, Dean of the Faculty.  In September 1906, it was announced that the presidency would be accepted by Dr. Simeon Davidson Fess, formerly Vice-President of Ohio Northern University and currently Lecturer in History at the University of Chicago.

DR. SIMEON D. FESS, 1907-17

       Dr. Fess took up his duties as President in January 1907, though he was not formally elected until the following June.  He was a popular lecturer, ready in speech and debate, and considered an authority in American History,  especially of American political parties.  He was most energetic and enterprising.  One of his first interests was promotion of the local Chautauqua, at first held in Neff Park in the Glen and later on the college campus.  He supported a movement to raise funds for the construction of a college gymnasium - to be called the Horace Mann Gymnasium - which made little progress and became unnecessary when   trustee E. S. Kelly, supplied most of the funds for converting the large chapel into a gymnasium (Kelly Hall, 1910).  Dr. Fess also sponsored the Horace Mann Endowment, intended to be a memorial fund contributed by Ohio schoolteachers.  Fess spoke in support of this in every county in the state.  Antioch alumni contributed $1,200, but the fund was never completed. 

     Dr. Fess's chief contribution was to keep Antioch alive, and he even promoted its growth.  Although he did not have much success in a financial way, enrollments did increase, mostly in art and music, and the Summer Normal School.  What an inducement to spend a summer term at Antioch, in beautiful surroundings, at practically no expense and Chautauqua thrown in for good measure!  Academic standards assuredly were nearer those of Ohio Northern than those of the University of Chicago -- with much enthusiastic elocution.

      It seems inevitable that Dr. Fess should have been called to public office.  In May 1912, he was nominated to represent the Sixth Ohio District in Congress, as a Republican.  He was elected and continued in the House until elected Senator for Ohio.  The trustees elected Rev. George D. Black, a Christian minister, to be Vice-President of the college, with power to act as president during the absence of Fess in Washington.  When Fess resigned in June 1917, Dr. Black was named Acting President, which post he filled until he resigned in June 1919.

INTERIM

      Antioch's official part in the First World War was fairly modest.  In June 1918, the trustees voted to place the South Dormitory at the disposal of the government to be used as a rehabilitation center for wounded soldiers.  Apparently this came to nothing.  In September a unit of the Students Army Training Corps was established on the campus, South Dorm serving as barracks and the college kitchen as chow line.  There was some military drill and also influenza (but no deaths).

      In 1919, two major episodes fateful for the future of Antioch occurred in rather close sequence.  On February 7th, the trustees met with representatives of the national Young Men's Christian Association to consider the proposal for making Antioch the National College of the YMCA.  The project was to be financed and controlled by the YMCA, and the college was to remain co-educational and non-sectarian.  The curriculum was generally to remain the same as before, with an additional division for special training for YMCA and YWCA workers.  It was estimated that an additional endowment of $500,000 would be needed, and this the YMCA volunteered to raise.  The YMCA representatives specified that there should be twelve vacancies in the Board of Trustees to be filled with representatives for the YMCA.  All local trustees offered to resign.  This alluring project must have bowled over the whole Board of Trustees, for they agreed unanimously to accept the proposal.  The only dissenting voice came from Prof. William M. Dawson (attending the meeting by invitation) who counseled delay and investigation.  But the trustees elected Dr. Grant Perkins, the chief YMCA representative, president of Antioch to serve without salary ad interim and to take office in June.

      At a special meeting of the trustees on May 20th, Dr. Perkins reported that he was not prepared to undertake the $500,000 endowment and resigned -- and the whole project came to an end.

      In the spring of 1919, Dr. Samuel C. Derby, trustee and former president, asked Samuel A. Eliot, President of the American Unitarian Association, to suggest suitable candidates for vacancies in the Antioch Board of Trustees.  Among others Dr. Eliot suggested Arthur E. Morgan, Chairman of the Miami Valley Conservancy District.  On June 17th, the trustees elected Morgan a member, apparently without prior notification or consent.

      At a special meeting of the trustees on August 3rd, Prof. William M. Dawson was named Acting President to take the place of Dr. Black who had resigned.  Morgan presented a plan of practical industrial education to add to the efficiency of graduates while maintaining high standards.  The trustees endorsed his ideas and authorized him to proceed to develop his plan.

       At a meeting of the Executive committee of the trustees on April 20th, 1920, Morgan reported on progress of the plans for industrial education.  The college was to remain co-educational and would maintain high standards.  It would be reorganized to accommodate about 500 students on the co-operative plan of alternate work and study.  It would aim to develop all-round competence and ability rather than highly specialized technique.  The first task was to secure funds for a re-organization and remodeling budget of from $250,000 to $500,000.

      At the regular meeting of the trustees in June , Prof. Dawson was continued as Acting President.  The prospects of the reorganization plan were reported as encouraging.

     At a special meeting of the trustees on July 6, 1920, Arthur E. Morgan was elected President of Antioch by unanimous vote of the trustees, and he was authorized to raise $900,000 to prepare the college for the new program.

       The re-organization was successfully brought about, and Antioch opened in September 1921 under the co-operative plan.