CHAPTER EIGHT 



THE academic year of 1878-79 proved to be my last 

 at Butler. My experiences there were pleasant on 

 the whole, my relations with my colleagues were 

 always agreeable, and small though the institution 

 was, I had an unusual number of excellent students, 

 several of whom had followed me from the Indian- 

 apolis High School. But soon the institution was 

 torn into two factions. One wished to make the s * ona f 

 college purely a feeder to the Christian Church, 

 the other to forward its growing relations with 

 modern scholarship and also to meet the local de- 

 mands of the city of Indianapolis. 



The first group took up the complaint of many 

 of the rural clergy, who felt hurt by the selection 

 of professors not of their faith, whose salaries, 

 moreover, were generally greater than their own, 

 although both the founder, Ovid Butler, who con- 

 trolled the majority of the corporation stock, and 

 Dr. A. C. Jameson, the broad-minded president of 

 the board of trustees, were strongly opposed to the 

 sectarian movement. Butler and Jameson refused 

 to interfere, however, and the majority of the trustees 

 voted to vacate the three chairs held by individuals 

 not belonging to the Christian Church. Unfortu- 

 nately the president, Dr. Otis A. Burgess, a man of 

 considerable ability, finally joined their forces to 

 the great injur^ of his standing in the city. 



The trustees' decision created a storm, for the 

 teachers concerned were much beloved, especially in 



C 183 3 



