"Through Golden Years" by Leila Roberta Custard
Title: Through Golden Years [Excerpt p.21-23] CHAPTER III "And Her Children Sing Her Praises": Alma Mater Gathers in Herr Children: 1874-1875
Date: 1947
Publisher: Lewis Historical Publishing Company
Author: Leila Roberta Custard
When in August of 1869 George H. Whitney accepted the presidency of Centenary Collegiate Institute he probably had no idea that fully five years were to pass before he should stand before the school as its head Several times during those years he had had the opportunity to step into the leadership of a flourishing organization. Cazenovia invited him more than once. Pennington sought him. Then, too, the Board of Bishops elected ^him to found the mission that the church had decided to establish in Japan. "All of these and other similar offers," says Whitney, "I declined, desiring to finish and organize the Institute which I flattered myself should be the finest and most successful Seminary the Methodist Church had yet produced."
Now September of 1874 was rapidly bringing a Day, which was to stand forever as the dividing hue between the time when Centenary Collegiate Institute had never been and all the years of her history Opening
What multiform preparations had been going for-ward all over the campus! What interest they had aroused' It is said that on pleasant Sundays during the whole five years "very many, even multitudes came many miles from all the surrounding country to gaze upon the big building." Among the plain, country folk it was a common remark: "What great fools these Methodists are to build so mighty a house as this—they'll never in the world have it half full."
In the last feverish days of completion, President and Mrs. Whitney were greatly aided by the Reverend A. L. Brice. Says the President:
To get the furniture into the house and properly placed in so great a house was an extraordinary work of labor—chiefly because the furniture did not reach the town in time. and we found it difficult to get enough men to help in the work.
At last the building was in readiness, "a noble structure within and without. The interior was fresh, clean, spotless, handsomely, tho' not elegantly furnished."
The Day, September 9, was bright, clear, beautiful indeed. Its dawning light shone upon President Whitnev busily writing his Inaugural Address. "So overwhelming had been the demands upon my time for many weeks," he explains in his Life, "that I had not yet finished writing my "inaugural address" the night before. Thus on the morning of "opening day" I rose at 4 o'clock, went to a 4th story room. No. 46 on Ladies' side over our own rooms, and there for three hours wrote until I finished—what had been planned and thought out for months over and over again."
The event had been heralded far and wide. The President of the Morris and Essex Railroad furnished a great number of passes from the cities. Special excursion tickets and coaches were provided, Fully five thousand persons came.
The Trustees had secured a great circus tent for the front campus in which thousands could be seated. Here at ten o'clock the service for the dedication of the building was led by the Rev. Charles N. Sims, D.D., substituting for Bishop Janes, who was too ill to be there. The star speaker invited for the occasion was the Governor of New Jersey, the Honorable Joel Parker, a staunch Presbyterian who told that Methodist crowd much about their own history. Many notable personages were present. The Hackettstown Herald commented: "This is altogether probably the most distinguished body of people ever met in Warren County."
At twelve o'clock a big dinner was served in the dining hall by the ladies of Hackettstown. Nine hundred were seated. At either end of the President's table was a huge, handsome cake, gift of the two rival bakers of the town, each cake supposed to be presented with a neat speech. "But," writes the President, "as we never sat at the table that day, we did not see the cakes or taste them, or hear any speech. So busy were we that dinner came not to us or we to dinner."
In the afternoon, the chapel, packed with an audience of seven hundred, was the scene of the Inaugural Exercises. The Honorable George J. Ferry presented the keys of the Institute to the President, who then delivered his Inaugural Address.
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