Just a little this and that still from Pioneering Days at Antioch by Lucy Griscom Morgan Antioch Press 1947

When we first settled in Yellow Springs there was much excitement over the land along the Little Miami river that Mr. Bryan, a Cincinnati soap manufacturer, had bequethed to the state. At the demand of some ministerial asociation, the governor had refused to accept it because Bryan was an “atheist” having made the confition that public religious services could not be held there. He also specified that there should be no discrimination on account of race or color. I never heard just what brnad of “atheism” he professed, but a good many people felt that it had not injured the hills and the trees, so a mass meeting was called to remonstrate and we were fortunately numerous and vocal enough to get the legislature to accept the land–over the Governor’s veto. It is now John Bryan State Par. There was considerable feeling about it and Arthur’s part in it was criticised in some quarters……..

….The Little Miami gorge on Bryan farm was the traditional destination of the May walk, originated by Horace Mann “on the first pleasant Friday in May.” In our early days the food was always sent as near to the resting place as possible by truck, but as the present paths had not been made, all such supplies had to be lowerd down the cliff by ropes to the picnic site, which was close to the river and further upstream than the presnet “shelter”.

Those “May Walks” remain delightful memmories in spite of the time all the faculty children got lost and to be hunted in the dark !

…….among the early students we had a variety of background. One girl confided to me thast she had never been on train until she started to Antioch. Another girl from the hills had heard of doorbells but never heard one…..

..admirers of Emerson may be interested to know that when he visited the Horace Manns he liked to sit their house at the window overlooking the campus, which corresponded to the one in the library to the east of the front door, the library having been built on the foundation of the Horace Mann House after it burned. (btw Most recently this window was Risa Grimes’ office before IA was eliminated) ……

Probably the most picturesque experience in my life was finding Hugh Taylor Birch. In February 1929, my friend Sara Chambers and I decided we were too deep in “ruts”. I bought a little two door sedan, Harris Peckham, an Antioch student made it over so we could sleep in it, and off we went. The college badly needed money, and Arthur was in California hunting finances. Just before I left for Florida, Frssa Inman called me in and told me of a wealthy man who had all the graduated in 1869 and could help, but the college had never been able to get the slioghtest response from him, and would I try? The adddress she gave me was Bonnet House, Fort Lauderdale. When we arrived there I inquired for such a hotel all in vain until almost ready to give up. Thern I found that he was an almost fabulous figure there, and the Bonnet House was his difficult to reach home. When we fund it a few miles from Fort Lauderdale, a sign at the entrance warned all intruders to stay out, but we dared all and drove in along a half mile of sandy, rutty road to a lonesome gate with a little bell, but nothing happened. Just before my courage gave out an auto drove up behind me with a very edlderly man in the back seat. Said I, “Could this be Mr. Birch/” Said he “Could this be Mrs. Morgan? I’ve been looking for you for days.”. We were made completely at home. As luck would have it, Sara Chambers and I are both truly interested in trees and plants, and neither of us is afraid of walking in wild places. That litt;le fact probably won Mr. Birch for Antioch. He told us that he knew no other women who would so wander about with him. We hgad a really delighful time seeing all his rare plants, and he asked us to come again, but solmemnly warned me….”NEVER ASK ME TO GO TO YELLOW SPRINGS> I was badly treated there and nothing can induce me to go back.” So I could not give the college a verty hopeful report……

end this transcription stayed tuned

non stop Arthur and the rest…

from bright blue and green YS……commencement is ten daze away.

with a good stretch of warmth…..the violets shoud soon have the company of pink smelly crabapples..and May Apples should be rising in the Glen…

Maybe some of us should take a May walk on that first pleasant Friday..

again non stop Arthur

Duffy ‘77

Since last time Arthur and Lucy got their home…. partial transcription from Pioneering Days at Antioch yes, 1947 Antioch Press and by Lucy G. Morgan…

and a little fast forwarding….

One of Arthur’s original ideas is now so generally accepted that few people realize what an innovation it was in 1921. He felt that neither the old-time college entrance examination nor high-school certification would provide the student body he wanted. He therefore initiated what was then an entirely new method of appraising and selecting students. He gathered information concerning them from a wide variety of sources which included medical examinations, high school and other references, letters from parents, a photograph, and a form of application which required the student to write almost an autobiography. We remember how one applicant ended his paper with the remark, “This leaves me feeling my soul is naked.”

………….fast forwarding a little……

ah some co-op tidbit to come…and other tidbits…

The jobs, too, were pioneering. The Tea Room had its very small beginning that first year. Two girls were given a dingey room on the northwest corner of North Hall. They cleaened and repainted it themselves and served sandwiches, hamburgers, etc..under the supervision of Julia Turner. She told me that a skeptic about the Antioch plan was scoffing at their being any educational value in such work. Julia sent for one of the girls and had the visitor question her. It was Buffy Dennison, Henry Dennison”s daughter, and she rather dramatically said, “If all these alls were lined with shelves and every shelf were full of books and I had read them all, I wouold not have learned as much as I have on this job.”

The next year two boys had the Tea Room in the Horace Mann House, and when that burned they moved to the old house, which in its enlarged form is the Tea Room.

fast forward some…During the first few years there were many co-op jobs in Dayton and the group of boys and girls working there organized a ahouse to live in. We had sewing parties in our living room to hem curtains, etc., for them……

In 1929 Arthur was about to start for New York and as usual, he knew he would have to face questions about the educational value of jobs in accrediting Antioch. In those days I knew a number of the students quite well, and I went over to the Dining Room at breakfast time and asked about a dozen students to write in a few minutes what they learned on their jobs. Their replies were so intelligent that the college reproduced them in a very effective leaflet, “Dick Whittington finds Antioch.” I remember another time when we referred a skeptic to the students. A man from the General Education Board could see no value in the Glen, so Arthur said, “Go ask the students.” He came saying he felt from their response that he had almost risked his life when he had raised the question with them. Julia Turner, who had charge of fedding students did a great deal in popularizing the Glen. Sometimes on good days she would announce a picnic, telling everyone to take alunch fromthe dining room and go. She began serving meals in North Hall when the kitchen floor was only clay..

.end this installment.

I would wish that things might work out so some of this year’s freshmen might be able to have that co-op job experience. It is really only been a partial Antioch Adventure for you.

Duffy

For those of you out there….this is the last fortnight of the current College..maybe ..I hope the next “pioneers” will do as well as Arthur and Lucy. No running water and no paved streets.? Now people go ballistic when a server goes down and the inernet is unavailable for twenty minutes… or stressed that the photopcopier doesn’t staple their copies automatically…

It is like a one liner from Elayne Boosler, comedienne..who tawks about the modern age and herself…saying..yeah..put it in the microwave and hurry up. whadya think I got all minute?

Don’t know if I signed out appropriately last time

….Non stop Arthur!

or because

From Pioneering Days at Antioch by Lucy G. Morgan 1947 Antioch Press

Back to the early and roaring 20’s…..

The village had no water supply. Luckily, Arthur knew the Ohio Conservancy Act which he helped write for the flood protection work at Dayton, and knew that al almost identical law had been re-enacted for water supply districts. Under this the Yellow Spring (along with the Glen) could be appropriated as a source of water for a sewer system. Those of us who lived there will never forget the deposits of iron and lime left daily by Yellow Springs water in all ou sinks and basins, but it was wonderful to have running water. Primarily it was even more important in preventing the Glen being sold as an amusement park, as we found had been planned.

The scarcity of houses then was, as always acute. The Nashes camped out temporarily in North Hall. As soon as we knew we were to live in Yellow Springs, I began to agitate to get a house on what as then cllaed the “Means Lawn.” It had been the home of Judge Mills, who gave the original land for the college, but l;ong ago he has sold it to Mr. Means, who by 1921 was a 90 year old invalid. The property was then taken in the name of his son-in-law, W.A. Julian, of Cincinnati. We were told b y everyone that many people had tried in vain to buy it. One day in the summer of 1921, while we were living at the Englewood Dam, Arthur had a phone call from Cincinnati, saying that we could have the sixteen acres if we would pay cash. Arthur called me from Dayton to ask about our finances. Luckliy by using all our bank account and getting a mortgage for the rest, we were able to close the bargain. Next day, Julian said he preferred to keep it himsrlf, but we had it and could start planning the faculty houses. Louis Grandgent, who had recently graduated in architecture from Harvard, and had specialized in colonial houses, was added to thefaculty, and our building program was started, using college endowment funds for the college faculty homes, while we financed our own. As jobs had already become scarce, some college boys worked on the houses. For some years afterward I would frequently hear some boy at a party reamark “I helped carry the bathtub up in this house,” etc. etc.

The old Horace Mann house, (btw now Weston) on the foundation of which the college library was later built, was still standing, but Mrs. Weston, who had tried living in it, warned me, “It is a woman-killer” At any rate, it was needed as a college dormitory, so we started to build the Morgan House on the Lawn and were fortunate enough in being able to buy a brand-new house on Davis Street as a temporary home. Until after Christmas that first year, we amomg newcomers had the only house, and it became a center of social life. We had been so anxious for a home that we bought it over the telephone “sight-unseen”, and moved in without any idea of its internal arrangement. Knowing George Drake, of whom we bought it, we felt entirely safe.

By autumn Mr.eans had died, and the college was legally entitled to that big house, but “Miss Pearl” his daughter, always had some excuse for not moving out……..stay tuned for Part 3

Duffy

Thanks to Andrew White for the lead to…. Pioneering days at Antioch. This continues a previous post from alumni-chat. Just some pieces of 156 years of us…

Maybe y’all can get this in installments…like the “Perils of Pauline?”

Installment number one:

by Lucy G. Morgan copyrigt 1947 Antioch Press Price sez fifty cents…but as the commercial sez…somethings…priceless..

In 1915 a Dayton friend took me on a long drive to Spring Valley and Springfield. On the way she pointed down what I later knew as Center College Street to “an old college named Antioch”. In 1919 Arthur came home one day saying, “Arthur Hauck said today that I had been made a trustee of Antioch College. I never heard of it, did thee?” remembering that drive, I could tell him where it was. The following Sunday we drove over to look at it and his remark that we both remember was, “It looks dead enough to do anything I want with”. It was hinted to him later that he was put on the board at the request of the American Unitarian Association, which had a residual interest in the small endowment, to protect their interests in the final liquidation which then seemed imminent.

Arthur and I had been dreaming for years of an educational institution which would combine practical work and cultural studies. In 1919 jobs were plentiful and the discouraged old board of trustees had no hopeful plan at all, so it was comparatively easy to get them willing to let try his own.

Arthur’s first idea had been to find some suitable person to be the new president (his own college training had lasted only a few weeks), and for a year he hunted for such a person, but in 1920 the trustees, partly the old board and partly new members, asked him to take the position. He agreed to do so, using the year of 1920-21 to prepare for the new regime. He needed younger trustees, largely a new faculty, new faculty houses, renovated college buildings, a new student body —and funds.

The old college buildings were sturdy but of th 1850 vintage. North and South Halls had sixteen chimneys each. two by three feet in cross-section, from the ground up–one chimney for every two rooms. Old time students told of how “trustworthy boys” supplied the girls’ rooms with firewood. The old oak floors and oak lath and timbers in the partitions were seared by many fires that had got started from the stoves. Only the fire resistance of oak timber had preserved the buildings.

Toilet facilities were very primitive. There was an outbuilding for South Hall, but for the girls’ hall the original builders had provided an original plan. On the middle south side there still can be seen one door on every floor, which now seem to open out into space. When we took over, they opened onto narrow passageways which led to a five sided building–four besides the entrance, one side for each floor of the dormitory–a tremendous privy. The bricks from it were used as fill to make North College and President Streets passable. Before that, Xenia Avenue and Dayton Street were the only ones in town safe for an auto in wet weather.

The village had no water supply. Luckily Arthur knew ……. (ah stay tuned….for the next exciting installment of Pioneering Days.

Duff y ‘77

A voice from the past (one with prefect pitch)

—– Original Message —–

Sunday, April 06, 2008 4:44:56 PM
Message From: ktj
Subject: Fight Song

Dear Lesley —

How good to hear from you. Duffy forwarded your alum-chat post — the one where you asked about the Antioch Fight Song. I had no idea Judy G. had caught me on video. But no, not really a Fight Song at all…

Can you recall July 1985, when the BOT (super-pro-College, having just gotten rid of Birenbaum) hired AU Prez Guskin to “Rebuild The College”? That’s THE reason they hired him — he called it his “highest priority” and AC alums swallowed it hook, line & sinker. Remember, the so-called “university” was a shrinking and unknown 7-yr-old shambles at that point; to the rest of the world, “Antioch” was a famous LibArts College, poised for a come-back after some years of mess-ups. So he recruited me to be Alumni Director, & I was supposed to greet the Class of ‘86 at their commencement. A few folks, mostly Faculty, had begun to see through the Guskin Doctrine (a permanently dependent college-unit, owned & operated by adult units). But most of us thought that the 1st of several 5-Year-Plans would, as AEG promised, produce a thriving and healthy Antioch College with over 800 students by 1990. No fighting in those happy days…

AC Provost Ned Conway knew that I was a folk-musician, so he suggested that I sing my greeting to the graduates and their families — and that’s what I did.

The tune is from an ancient British “Calling-On Song,” so here are the original words (as revived/ recorded by Steele-Eye Span) and then my Antioch version. I suspect the 1989 commencement was the last one I sang for — by then I was doing Institutional Research and the wild optimism of 1985-86 was sagging. So here are the words; I like it a-capella (i.e., w/ no instruments), and with a big clap (*) on each 4th beat.

Steel-Eye Span’s Calling-On Song:

Good people pray heed our petition (*) Your at-
-tention we beg and we crave [(*) And] if
you are inclined for to listen (*) An a-
-bundance of pastime we’ll have! (*) We are
come to relate many stories (*) Con-
cerning our fore-fathers’ time [(*) And] we
trust they will drive out your worries (*) Of
that we are all in one mind. [(*) Ma-] -ny

tales of the poor and the gentry — (*) Of
labor and love will arise — [(*) There] are
no finer songs in this country — (*) In
Scotland and Ireland likewise. (*) There is
one thing more needing mention — (*) the
dances we”ve danced all in fun. [(*) And]
now that you’ve heard our intention, (*)
we’ll play on to the beat of the drum (*…*…*…
——————————————–
Antioch Calling-On Song (add your own claps etc):

Good graduates pray heed MY petition
Your addresses I beg and I crave — For
You’re making a subtle transition
From their files to my files today!
We are come here to praise your achievements
In learning and earning and such — And
We trust that, although you must leave us,
As alumni, you’ll still keep in touch. Many

Tales of the Glen and the Foundry –
Of labor and love will arise; There are
No finer grads in this country –
In Harvard and Berkeley likewise!
There is one thing more needing mention:
Reunions can be lots of fun, so –
Now that you’ve heard my intention,
You’ll march on to the beat of YOUR drum!

Katy Cobb Jako ‘54

PS - Feel free to put this on alum-chat or whatever — I just can’t handle another mail-list!