felt as that of a brother.* The University showed respect for his memory in February 1856 by deeding two lots to Dr. Hinman's heirs-at-law. They later proposed to erect a monument on the campus in his honor. For two years the University was without a president and a third elapsed before a president was resident at the University. Many who had purchased scholarships of Hinman refused or neg lected to redeem their pledges, which thus became a total loss to the University. The college opened in November, 1855, with a faculty of two and a handful of students. The death of Hinman, with the approach and then the actual presence of the panic of 1857, made the outlook for the new institution in the fullest degree depressing. Personally Dr. Hinman was engaging. Youthful, lithe, sinewy, active in form and movement, of ruddy countenance and symmetrical features, with black hair standing straight up, with pale face and keen dark eyes, he was dignified, courteous, kindly, and genial, with little reserve. He was ever ready to speak his thoughts, not always supported by clearness of judgment. Once he commented in a Greek class on a passage in which a character expresses regret for frequently speaking and never remaining silent; he said that he had more often regretted that he had not spoken. As an orator he was inspiring. His thought was vigorous and philosophic, the movement of his mental *An Iowa minister writes, "I have wept the loss of many friends. -fondly cherished friends-but never with feelings so profoundly and irreconcilably afflicted as the Noble, Generous souled Hinman." Letter of Rev. J. Brooks to Philo Judson, Nov. 23, 1854. †Wells, History of Newbury. operations magnetic, his diction elegant and sometimes gorgeous. His utterance was direct, instructive and persuasive, eliciting the intense interest of his audience. "Hinman combines the fire of the West with the refinement of the East-the impulses of the South with the look-out-forthe-main-chance calculations of the North."* The man's nervous and spiritual energy was remarkable, but this coexisted with a lack of good judgment in some of the practical affairs of life. As he was regardless of difficulties, he was oblivious of his health. Some of his friends felt that he was not possessed of that sense of reality and of the present that would command the respect of practical people. It appears also that some highly eulogistic resolutions proposed by his friends of the Michigan Conference were tabled by the trustees. But it is probable that the University was all the more fortunate in a president who was endowed with prophetic fervor. His abilities were excellently supplemented by those of Goodrich, Lunt, Evans, Davis, Judson and others. Northwestern knows nothing by experience of Hinman's skill as a teacher. A friend terms him an apt instructor, uniting in a happy degree the pulpit and the professor's chair. Conversions always occurred among his pupils. He was called to no task in which he did not surpass expectations.† N. W. Chris. Adv. June 29, 1853, p. 102. †Jas. V. Watson, in editorial in Northwestern Christian Advocate, Oct. 17, 1855. On the whole, friends of Northwestern can but coincide with the estimate placed upon the character of President Hinman by Dr. L. R. Fiske, ex-president of Albion College: "Few men dying at so early an age, or indeed filling out three score years and ten have made so profound an impression on the public as Dr. Hinman." |