"It is far better that the sexes should be educated together" thus did President Jonathan Blanchardwrite in the bulletins of Wheaton College in the eighteen sixties. Oneof the young ladies to take advantage of this opportunity at a timewhen most colleges were not as far-seeing and advanced in permittingwomen to be educated was slender, gray-eyed Adeline Eliza Collins.Known as "Addie" to her friends and associates she was later to becomePrincipal of the "female department," as the Ladies' Collegiate Coursewas called in the polite parlance of that day. Young ladies 'ererequired to pass exams in Geography, Arithmetic, Elementary Algebra,English Grammar and History of the United States before they wereadmitted for study. The course that they took is reproduced here. President Blanchardexplained that text books in this course were the same "or nearly so,as far as they go" as those used by the young gentlemen in the ordinarycollege course. While being anti-slave, anti-lodge and anti-vice thecollege was whole-heartedly pro-woman! Years before women had the vote,they had a voice in the chapel exercises, reading (along with the men)their well- researched essays. And from the very first there were womenon the faculty.
The remarkable story of Addie come to light when hergranddaughter Alice Stanfield Salter of Downers Grove, Illinois, in theprocess of moving, discovered the treasure of her grandmother's WheatonCollege diploma, signed by J. Blanchard, President and Warren L. Wheaton,Secretary. From materials in the Archives and alumni records it hasbeen established that Addie Collins was, in 1862, Wheaton's first womangraduate.
Born September 19, 1841 in a log cabin in Homer Township nearthe present Lockport, in Will County, Illinois, Adeline Eliza Collinsas the only child of Fredrick and Nancy Mason White Collins. The littlered calico dress which she wore at age seven is a 'museum piece'—hookedand lined; with cotton braid on the long fluted sleeves and at thethroat. All her life she had a great love of nature and the soil. Theland on which she was raised had been "homesteaded" by her greatgrandfather who bought it from the government. But Addie was more thana farm girl, she was developing into an ardent abolitionist in herteens as the Union was threatened in the strife between the states. Shehad a fierce hatred of slavery and a life-long interest in the blackpeople who were her friends.
Addie attended Oberlin College in 1858, and transferred toWheaton because it was nearer home, when she learned that it was openand that women might study there. She remarked often in later years howvery fortunate she was to have been able to go to college. One ofAddie's suitors when at Oberlin continued to correspond with her aftershe went to Wheaton and wrote to her from Gauley's Bridge during theCivil War.
As a student she had access to a library of 600 volumes. Boardcould be obtained in good families for about $2.25 a week, that is ifone helped with household chores, minded one's own bedroom stove andhauled in water. Addie stayed at Hadley's and was assigned to ProfessorCollier's room at the college. (George H. Collier, A.M. was professorof mathematics and natural philosophy.) The tuition was $24 a year with$1 extra for vocal music. Addle had a good singing voice and alsoenjoyed sketching. She did a large picture in pencil of a deer in awoods while at Wheaton and later oil paintings. Her carefully writtencollege papers give one a glimpse into her application as a student.Her poem "Union, God and Liberty" shows the preoccupation which youngpeople had:
"is all this bloody strife to ceaseand still be heard the clanking chainthat binds a brother man to earth—shall freedom's voice be hushed again?or shall the light of Libertythat breaks upon the bondman's sightbe left to flicker and go outforever, in Oppressions' night."
Other topics explored show serious thought: Matter theStepping-Stone to Mind; Ancient and Modern Attainment; MentalDevelopment without Moral Culture; The Huguenots; A Sketch of Islamism;Character and Reputation.
Addie must have enjoyed the college atmosphere and was pleasedto stay on as principal of the "female department" following Mrs. A.Whittier. It was her responsibility to see that the young ladies keptthe college rules which were spelled out in the early bulletins: "thedeportment of the sexes toward each other will be particularly regardedby the Faculty, and any student whose conduct shall be, in the judgmentof the Faculty, either foolish or improper, will be promptly separatedfrom the Institution, if admonition fails to correct it." In short,proclaimed the Micawber-like statement, "everything is forbidden whichwill hinder, and everything required which, we think, will helpstudents in the great object for which they assemble here, which isimprovement of mind, morals and heart." Such admonitions against"propagating infidel principles, desecration of the Sabbath andentering the marriage relation while a member of the college" weregrouped with "disorder in rooms, especially at night, care less use offire and throwing water, dirt or other things from the windows." Thegrimness of this day is somehow lightened as the granddaughterremembered hearing her grandmother say that one of her duties was toteach the young ladies how to handle their hoop skirts! (She may haverecalled with a wry smile the difficulty her hoop skirt had given herwhen she sneaked out through a window, after hours, to meet a friendwhile at Oberlin).
By that word a patina of romance brightens up the old collegehill on which cattle grazed, where smoke poured daily from chokedstoves in classrooms, where water was fetched repeatedly and thehardships of a plumbingless day were endured. If the earthy nature ofthe school shows through, there are also glimpses of the profound awewith which the students regarded the faculty. The dignity of man runsin a steady stream parallel with the firm stand against enslavement andbondage. 67 of the college men had gone away to war and Blanchard wrotein the bulletin "Hitherto hath God helped us. We live, while otherinstitutions have gone down by the war drainage and the times." Ourfounding president's amazing vision is reflected when he wrote afterthe debt of $6,000 was cleared in 1863 "the College may now beconsidered as permanently located…and we desire, if it pleases God,while we make the religion of Jesus Christ our first business here, tosee its means and advantages enlarged so that it shall be second inthese respects to no institution in this country."
When Addie left the principalship in 1865 the young women ofthe college gave her a set of Browning poems still cherished in thehome of her great-grandson. A letter of appreciation was tendered hersigned by O. F. Lumry, secretary of the faculty and by the president,in which the "fidelity and devotedness with which she had dischargedher duties" were praised. Two years later (November 24, 1867), Addie married Henry D. Hatch (born in 1816 in New Hampshire)and lived on a farm near her childhood home. They gave a portion oftheir land for the building of a Congregational church in which Addielater played the organ and taught a Sunday school class. Henry andAddie had one daughter, Emily Ellen, two grandchildren and twogreat-grandsons. Emily (born December 27,1869 in Lockport, Illinois) married Charles W. Edwards (born October 23, 1869 in London, Ontario, Canada - died May 3, 1955 in Lockport, Illinois) on May 28, 1895 in Lockport. Together Emily and Charles raised Alice and Ralph.
Still very alert, Addie returned with her young grand daughterfor a visit to Wheaton College at the time of the 50 year GoldenJubilee in June 1910. An entire week of activities celebrating theevent was begun each morning by an Old Students' Prayer Meeting. Mrs.Salter remembers the Alumni Banquet held in the lower chapel of the oldCentral Building (Blanchard Hall). Greetings at Commencementwere from Knox, Chicago University, Northwestern University, McCormickSeminary, Chicago Theological Seminary, Moody Bible Institute, Beloitand North Central.
To see, in 1910, the Tower and west wing; to view the Woman's Building (Williston) and a Gymnasium(Book store), must have seemed like great progress to this graduate of1862. She would have missed J. Blanchard who had died 18 years beforebut have been gratified that his son, handsome Charles Albert (whom she remembered as a preparatory student) was carrying on the work which his great father had begun.
How different it all was…many co-eds now in high- necked blousesand long slim skirts with ribbons in their hair. Young Elsie Dow wasnow in charge of the ladies. Addie could now chuckle in remembrancewhen she read in the Jubilee program "it has been the policy of thecollege from the beginning to receive all earnest men and womenirrespective of their financial conditions. Those who are strong,cheerful and willing can in some way get on. From every land thererises a cry for really effective men and women who can actually bringgood things to pass…"
Years ahead of her time in her thinking, Addie had met thatchallenge fifty years before! She had helped bring good things to pass.She had been the first of many outstanding women to graduate fromWheaton College.
(adapted from Ruth Cording's Wheaton Alumni article, "A Cameo of Adeline Eliza Collins: Wheaton's first alumna," May 1972) |