CALEB MILLS AND INDIANA COMMON SCHOOLS.

BY PRESIDENT TUTTLE OF WABASH COLLEGE

*

MEMOIR.

CALEB MILLS, for forty-five years an active member of the Faculty of Wabash College at Crawfordsville, Indiana, was born at Dunbarton, New Hampshire, July 29, 1806, graduated at Dartmouth College in the class of 1828, at Andover Theological Seminary 1833, was married to Miss Sarah Marshall, September 13, 1833, removed to Crawfordsville, Indiana, in November, 1833, and on the 3d of December, 1833, threw open the portals of Wabash College to twelve young men, the forerunners of several thousand who have enjoyed its privileges since that memorable morning. He died October 17, 1879.

The class with which he was graduated at Dartmouth was remarkable for the part its members bore in educational work. Ten of them became college officers, and several of them distinguished themselves as such. Among these were Labaree, President of Middlebury College, Long, of Auburn Theological Seminary, and Young, of Dartmouth.

Of the forty graduates in that class, the three who are most likely to be remembered for permanent educational work, assisted in founding two colleges. Milo P. Jewett, a scholarly and able man, was for several years at the head of a large institution for young ladies in Alabama. After great success there he came North, and was the means of inducing Matthew Vassar to abandon the plan of building a hospital at Poughkeepsie, and in its stead to found and endow Vassar College. Not only did he do this, but he was influential in shaping its successful career.

Edmund O. Hovey was one of the original founders and trustees of Wabash College. In 1835 he became a member of its faculty. He continued a member of the board of trustees and faculty until his death March 10, 1877. At his suggestion, in 1833, his classmate, Caleb Mills was appointed the first Principal of the institution which became Wabash College, in which for nearly forty-six years he exerted a great and wide influence. It is seldom that any institution of learning can name as the offspring of one of its classes two such granddaughters as Vassar College and Wabash College.

The official life of Professor Mills divides itself into two parts-his work in Wabash College, and his work in connection with the public schools in Indiana. The lack of time warns me to leave the first part. untouched, except to say in a general way that he nobly and faithfully performed the duties connected with his position as college officer. He was honored by his associates in the college, and he won the hearts

* A paper read to the Indiana Teachers' Association, December 31, 1879.