HAMILTON COLLEGE, 1812.

Hamilton College, at Clinton, had its origin in the Hamilton-Oneida Academy, chartered by the regents January 31, 1793, upon petition of Samuel Kirkland, Jonas Platt, Eli Bristol, Erastus Clark, Joel Bristol, Sewell Hopkins, James Dean, and Michael Myers. The founder of the enterprise was the Rev. Samuel Kirkland, whose name leads in the list of petitioners. He had spent the best portion of his life as a missionary to the Oneida Indians, and in the treaty held with this tribe in 1788 he received with his two eldest sons valuable lands amounting to 4,750 acres. Of this he gave several hundred acres for the endowment of an institution of learning, and in the preamble of this conveyance he set forth his motives as follows:

A serious consideration of the importance of education and an early improvement and cultivation of the human mind, together with the situation of the frontier settlement of this part of the State, though extensive and flourishing, yet destitute of any well-regulated seminary of learning, has induced and determined me to contribute of the ability wherewith my Heavenly Benefactor hath blessed me, toward laying the foundation and support of a school or academy in the town of Whitestown, county of Herkimer, contiguous to the Oneida Nation of Indians, for the mutual benefit of the young and flourishing settlements in said county and the various tribes of confederated Indians, earnestly wishing the institution may grow and flourish; that the advantages of it may be extensive and lasting, and that under the smiles of the God of Wisdom and Goodness it may prove an eminent means of diffusing useful knowledge, enlarging the bounds of human happiness, aiding the reign of virtue, and the Kingdom of the Blessed Redeemer.

The deed conveyed several parcels of land, one lot being declared inalienable, which has since been held as the site of Hamilton College, the remainder being left to be disposed of as the trustees might deem proper. Mr. Kirkland died February 28, 1808, having witnessed the first stage of fulfillment of his hopes in an academy and the first efforts toward its enlargement as a college.

The academic charter was granted January 31, 1793, under the name and with the trustees that had been proposed in the petition.

Operations were commenced as soon as the means could be provided and before enough had been raised to complete the academic building first erected. The resources of the country were feeble, the settlements new, and many of the settlers were poor. In 1795 the place was visited by a committee of the regents, consisting of Andrew King and John McDonald, and on the 3d of November, 1795, they reported the academy as in the following condition. They said that—

There is a frame of an edifice designed for an academy erected about a year ago, and it is partly inclosed. It is situated a mile and a half from the flourishing village of Clinton, on the Oriskany Mountain. It appears difficult of access and too distant from families where students might be accommodated with lodging and board. The frame is eighty-eight feet long, forty-two feet wide, and three stories high; has cost the trustees £1,000, and by the estimation will require for its completion upwards of £2,000 more. The trustees have been compelled to interrupt the work for want of money.

That there is a small schoolroom at the foot of the mountain, half a mile from

the academy, in which scholars have been formerly taught, but no teachers have been employed nor schools kept by the trustees since September, 1794.

That the trustees have not yet framed a system for the education and government of the institution nor established rates of tuition. Board may be obtained in the village of Clinton at eight shillings per week.

That the funds of the institution consist of 425 acres of land in the neighborhood of the academy, chiefly uncultivated, and of $400 on a subscription not collected. An incumbrance of $1,000 has been laid on the lands by the trustees for the purpose of enabling them to raise the frame of the academy.

That your committee, from the present state of the institution, judged it inexpedient to employ any part of the donation appropriated to it by the board in the purchase of books or apparatus, mathematical or philosophical, during the present year.

Your committee further beg leave to remark the necessity of strict attention to the accommodations which applicants possess before they receive an act of incorporation. The impoverished and languishing state of the academies in general which they visit compel them to make this observation.

November 3, 1795.

ANDREW KING.
J. MCDONALD.

The trustees, after encountering many difficulties, were able to report, on the 31st of December, 1799, that they had completed so much of their building as was sufficient for the accommodation of a large school, and that they had procured the services of Mr. John Niles, from Greenfield Academy, Massachusetts, as an instructor. He had brought with him a letter of ample recommendation from President Dwight, of Yale College, and had opened a school on the 26th of that month. There were nearly twenty scholars already admitted, and the number was increasing daily.

On the 27th of February, 1800, the trustees described their house as covered and painted, and that five rooms were finished. It had cost about $5,000, for $2,000 of which they were indebted. It would require $3,000 to complete the unfinished rooms and erect the chimneys, which were not yet built. Their property consisted of two tracts of uncultivated land, worth about $600, but still unproductive. This did not include the academy and 17 acres of land adjoining, which was improved and fertile.

The following letter from Thomas R. Gold to James Cochran, dated January 29, 1800, has interest in this connection:

SIR: In answer to the inquiry relative to the present state and condition of Hamilton-Oneida Academy, I have to communicate: That however unfavorable the condition of the academy was on the last visit of the committee of the regents, yet at this time the friends of literature witness with pleasure the most flattering change in the prospects of this academy. This change commenced about fifteen months ago.

This institution is mostly finished, several rooms being completed and occupied. About fifty students are taught the Greek, Latin, and English languages, under the direction of Messrs. Niles and Murdock, two able instructors, who came highly recommended by President Dwight. As one of the trustees of this academy permit me to solicit. on behalf of this institution, a visit from the regents.'

'Historical and Statistical Record of the University of the State of New York, etc. Franklin B. Hough, M. D., Ph. D., 1885.

THE REV. SAMUEL KIRKLAND, FOUNDER OF THE ACADEMY.

The following extracts from an interesting article in the University Magazine for April 1890, give a vivid account of the character of the founder and of his efforts for the better education of the Indians and the white inhabitants of New York's western frontier:

Interwoven with Hamilton's early history are many interesting legends connected with the life of the founder of the college, Samuel Kirkland; but of all the stories of those early days there is one, told for the first time not long ago, which has more than ordinary interest and beauty.

Samuel Kirkland was a missionary to the Six Nations, and he had not labored long among the Oneidas before he had not only won their confidence, but also their love. Throughout all the Oneida nation, the “gentle paleface" had not a single enemy. He was the bearer of the Gospel's story, the wise counsellor, the sympathetic friend. And so it was natural, both in times of joy or of sorrow, that he should share in the merry-making or the mourning.

There came a day in the Oneida nation when to mourn was the lot of all; for Thranatiska, gentlest and most beloved maiden of all in the nation, was dying. It was a day in early spring, and as the warm afternoon wore on to its close the "White Father," as Dr. Kirkland was sometimes called, came to talk with the maiden of the Great Spirit, and the happy hunting-grounds of her fathers; and as he talked, very gentle and very simply, the great dark eyes grew more lustrous and the face seemed to gather more of beauty. Finally the maiden faintly spoke: "Master, Thranatiska does not fear the great Spirit; you have taught her to love Him. But the people I love are not so. Oh! Master, be kind to my people, make them all as great and as good as yourself; and Thranatiska, in her happy home, will always bless you." The "White Father" promised to care for her people, and, together they began to say “Our Father," but the maiden's voice grew fainter and fainter, and the missionary said the "Amen" alone in the presence of the dead.

And this is the legend of the founding of Hamilton, for Dr. Kirkland never forgot to do what he could for Thranatiska's people. They must be educated, and so the Hamilton-Oneida Academy was founded. This grew into the noble college, and old Hamilton's sons revere the memory of Samuel Kirkland and dwell lingeringly sometimes upon the story of Thranatiska.

It is the truth of history that the devoted missionary was a faithful friend of the Indians. He gave his whole life for them. It is probable that his interest in them was increased by his association with the Indian youths at Dr. Wheelock's Indian School, Lebanon, Conn. Dartmouth College grew out of that school. Doubtless the cordial relations which have always existed between Dartmouth and Hamilton have their origin in the fact that both colleges are the outgrowth of schools established to educate Indians. Indeed, the Dartmouth College "yell" of to-day seems to echo the Indian whoop, with which the campus of that institution once resounded. Dartmouth and Hamilton were born in the same wigwam; therefore they smoke the pipe of peace and set a good example to Harvard and Princeton.

Miles Standish, the Indian fighter, was one of the progenitors of Samuel Kirkland; but Kirkland was a man of peace. After his boyhood studies at Lebanon were completed, he entered Princeton College. While yet a student there his heart burned within him as he thought of the untutored children of the woods. "It was in January, 1765, when he was a student not yet twenty-four years old. that he left Johnstown and plunged into the wilderness. On that cold winter morning one hundred and twenty-five years ago, he had a weary journey before him. With his two Indian guides he was to travel 200 miles, his feet shod with snowshoes and on his back a pack of 40 pounds; his path. the trail in the snow