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The
men were the circuit riders. It isn't pejorative to call them macho.
They had to be macho, or something very close, to spend the greater
part of a lifetime wending along trails where no roads existed,
subject to attack by Indians and desperadoes, crossing mountains,
fording rivers, enduring sleet, heat, downpours, blizzards, poverty
and saddle sores without complaint; without letup; and with joy
("Live or die, I must ride!" exclaimed John Wesley's American
right hand, Bishop Asbury, who calculated that he itinerated at
least 275,000 miles in his career, crossing the Allegheny Mountains
62 times.)
These ardent and hardy men visited the faithful at stops along a
regular route-the circuit. They customarily visited and preached
to small groups. If there was an established church, it was called
a station; the riders bypassed it. Usually stations were found only
in larger towns. The faithful awaited the circuit riders in settings
more remote, and less grand-"friendly farmhouses, commodious
barns, carpenter shops, courthouses, taverns, warehouses."
Consider
these circuit riders, then. They were, one, highly dedicated. It
isn't hard to say the same thing about those called to the secular
faculty at DePauw. If they don't have a dedication to teaching-as
opposed to a wish to sequester themselves with scholarly research,
leaving the teaching to graduate degree candidates-they are well
advised to look elsewhere for employment. This is a teaching institution.
Two, the circuit riders dealt with very small groups. DePauw necessarily
began on a small scale-22 enrolled that first year. All males, I
regret to say. In 1837 the conventional wisdom not only denied an
education to women, it proclaimed that they couldn't absorb it if
they got it. They said it, I didn't.
In any case, I see a resemblance between the circuit rider's tiny
wilderness congregation and the traditionally small teacher-student
groups at DePauw. Over the years, while the school has certainly
gotten bigger, it hasn't gotten that much bigger. Neither have classes.
(In my freshman year, spent at Northwestern, one of the the main
English survey courses played to a hall that held over 1,200 bodies;
I say played because class size made it more like a performance
than an educational experience.)
Third, and lastly, because they dealt with small groups of people
whom they saw regularly, the circuit riders were naturally involved
and familiar with almost every aspect of the lives of their charges.
The preacher not only taught, he broke bread with his listeners.
He advised, he sympathized, he came to share a good part of the
life of each person to whom he ministered. A similar sort of
relationship exists today between many a teacher and pupil at
DePauw, because DePauw is small enough for it to happen.
I can
testify that it does happen; it happened to me. I had just that sort
of fine, close, interactive experience with any number of professors
... Virginia Harlow, Fred Bergmann, Ermina Mills, Oliver Robinson,
Edna Taylor, and the beloved bulldog, Raymond Pence. (I regret
I was never fortunate enough to have a course with the other giant
of that era, Jerome. Hixson.)
That faculty knew me
well enough to help me survive á bumpy first year on the
campus, discover and exploit my few strengths and minimize my many
weaknesses (which included a wretched inability to memorize German
vocabulary; I did it, but just barely).
So there are the two traditions: the liberal arts ... and an almost
perfect environment for teaching them. Shorthand
the whole process as "large ideas, served small." For
me, the traditions are the heart of DePauw, and the reason for her,
excellence.
Having said that, let me commend to you the pages that follow ...
a remarkable visual journey through DePauw's first century and a
half.
As with any institution which lasts that long, there were good times
and not so good times. Washington C. DePauw had to be brought in
with a bunch of bail-out money he earned in the Civil War and
was willing to use to save the struggling little Indiana Asbury.
The deal cannily worked out was the exchange of Washington's cash
for the attachment of his name to the college.
More recently,the school seemed to draw in upon itself for a while.
Good students still came here, but from a steadily shrinking geographic
area. I count as one of the outstanding accomplishments of Dick
Rosser's administration the recognition of this threat to DePauw's
status as a national university, and the steps taken to nullify
that threat.
Such ups and downs are to be expected. What's lucky, and remarkable,
is that our two most important traditions have not been eroded or
blown away by the winds of time. I trust they will remain strong,
the underpinning of the university, for the next 150 years, too.
But now, instead of forward, look backward with Professors Phillips
and Baughman and your other highly expert guides.
I promise that you're going to love the trip.
John
Jakes
Hilton Head IslandApril
6, 1987
Copyright © John Jakes 1987
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