ACTING PRESIDENTS NOYES'S AND WHEELER'S ADMIN

ISTRATIONS

HENRY SANBORN NOYES, ACTING PRESIDENT (OR VICE PRESIDENT) 1860-1866

THE EDITOR

T

HE glory and the glamour of the origin of the University are associated with the names of President Hinman and his co-workers among the trustees, but a large share of the details of organization fell to the lot of another, who never bore the title of president-Henry Sanborn Noyes. It was this man, unwearied in faithfulness, who more than any other carried the institution over the death of Hinman, the panic of 1857, the resignation of Foster, and through the Civil War, and the days of financial and administrative experiment, an aggregate of burdens that only the sturdiest shoulders and stoutest heart could support.

Professor Noyes was rich in New Hampshire blood and grit. He came from a family who traced its English lineage back to the Norman Conquest. Its heritage of independent thought was notable. His immediate ancestors took possession of lands in New Hampshire, and he himself was born in the rugged village of Landaff, December 24, 1822, the oldest of a family of ten children. Under the influence of a home religious and intellectual in tone, his youth was shaped to the service of Christian ideals. His mind was naturally thoughtful and vigorous. Even in boyhood he was a precocious student, always happy in the company of an interesting book.

In maturer youth he entered Newbury Academy, Vermont, the best school of Northern New England, for preparation for college. It was Noyes's good fortune to attend the school when it was under the administration of Baker,

later bishop, and Hinman, soon to enter the Western country and become the first president of Northwestern. Noyes was deeply attached to both of these men, but especially to the latter. While at Newbury as a student, the thoroughness of his scholarship was recognized by an appointment there as instructor. He pursued his studies so extensively and faithfully that he entered Wesleyan University, at Middletown, Conn., with two years of advanced credit. He graduated in 1848, nine years after Hinman, having completed the work of the Junior and Senior years in a year and a half.*

After graduation he gave himself at once to teaching, first at Springfield, Vt., and, in 1850 at Newbury. Here he became instructor in Mathematics and Greek,—an unusual combination, but one that was of much advantage to Northwestern when he was later called to its service and found himself thrust into the task of instructing students in unrelated departments. In 1853 he was appointed principal at Newbury. The friendship with Hinman continued after the latter's departure for Michigan and Chicago, and it was at Hinman's urgent call that Noyes, then principal of the seminary at Newbury, resigned his position and consented to become a member of the first faculty of the new University. Additional motives for leaving Newbury were a distaste for the administrative work of a school of 300 pupils, and the opportunity for more special

*He did this on account of the financial failure of an uncle who had given him assistance.

ized work in the study and teaching of University subjects. It was a vain hope. Before he had entered upon his work in Evanston, Hinman had passed away, and the task of administration fell to Professor Noyes. Throughout his life he was denied the privilege, dear to every scholar, of the quiet and constant pursuit of his special studies. His clearness of intellect for science and talent for instruction would doubtless have secured appreciative recognition in the older and larger universities in the East, but he applied himself with patience and competence to the consuming details of administration in an embryonic institution of the West.

After the death of President Hinman the growth of the University suffered a temporary check. Dr. Hinman's rare magnetism and persuasive power had won a multitude of friends and supporters for the University. But the very ardor of the man threatened the undoing of the institution. Many who had purchased scholarships under the spell of his eloquence refused after his death to redeem their pledges, with the result that the high hopes of the institution were brought low.

Yet, with this sinister outlook, the trustees did not renounce the anticipation of a worthy successor of Hinman. Various candidates were suggested. Professor Godman nominated one friend and then a second, Philo Judson found a third candidate, while Professor Johnson, of Dickinson, in declining candidacy, suggested the name