and a school on week days. This continued to be the place for the school till 1835, when there was an interim of eighteen months. During this period Mr. BISSELL removed to Edinburgh, Portage county, and spent about eight months in teaching there.

In 1837 he returned to Twinsburgh and erected a house 20 by 35 on the spot of the present edifice, when three regular terms of forty weeks in the year began, and have continued to the present time without the loss of a single term for thirtynine years.

In a couple of years an addition of 20 feet was made to the building, and other appendages to the dwelling hard by, for the convenience of students. Boarders from abroad came in, and the numbers were so increased that in August, 1843, the house at the center, which had been used as a tavern, 30 feet by 50, two stories high, was purchased. The same year another building, 30 by 50, three stories, was added, and in two years after, still another, 30 by 40, three stories. In a short period the Old Academy, as it was called, was procured, making quite an array of buildings. From the number of scholars with which the school began in 1828, it had increased to three hundred, with at least fifty boarders. Seven teachers and assistants were now required to give instruction in the classics, mathematics, German and French, music-vocal and instrumental-penmanship and all the common academical studies. No charter was ever obtained, and no public money was appropriated. Board and tuition were so low that the most indigent found encouragement to enter the institution, and avail themselves of its privileges. A large number were received, who paid very little or nothing. So small were receipts to meet expenses that a debt of $6,000 was accumulated, so that the buildings at the center were sold, and the debts paid, leaving a balance of three hundred dollars only. With this another house was purchased and used for the school.

This embarrassing debt, the school law, and the war greatly diminished the numbers.

At this time, without means, and with a very scanty income, the foundation of another house of stone was laid, 77 feet by 33, two stories, in 1866. At the end of the second year, a very plain room in it was fitted up for the school. Almost penniless, Mr. BISSELL found no other way but to put his hands to the work and rear the edifice. Such a course, at the age of 70, was not a little disheartening. An old horse and wagon were purchased, carpenter, joiner and stone tools were procured, and the work went slowly and steadily on. The rocks were riven, and 700 perches of stone were on the ground. Engines were procured to lift the stone from the quarry and raise them to their places in the wall. Without any previous knowledge of carpenter or joiner work, a self-supporting roof was formed and put on. Doors, ceiling and casing were made and put up. Floors above and below were laid, and stairs built. Save the cutting and laying the stone, and doing the plastering, most of the work was done by the hand of Mr. BISSELL.

To defray the expense of the building a loan of $1,500 was made at a very high rate of interest, which, together with the benevolence of some former scholars, and that of a few others, amounting to about $800, the lower part of the building, and some of the upper, has been completed and paid for. It will now accommodate about 100 scholars, and when completed, many more. The present number is about 50. The cost of

the building thus far cannot be less than $8,000. The enterprise has been attended with great exertion and self-denial. The whole number of students that have been connected with the institution will not vary much from 6,000. Among these have been 183 Indian youth, from five different tribes. These have been on an average in the institution at least one year, the expense of whom, including board, tuition, room, fuel, light, washing, books and stationery, and some clothing, say at

Not much less has The whole expense,

$200 per year, will amount to $36,600. been expended on white indigent youth. in building and purchases of buildings will not fall below $10,000, making the whole amount expended during the fortyeight years, not less than $75,000. To offset this, not more than eight or ten thousand dollars have been received from all sources.

Among the scholars are many very useful and excellent men and women, scattered over a wide extent of country and found in all the departments of life. A large number are clergymen of different denominations, attorneys, judges of courts, members of legislatures, physicians, surgeons, generals in the army, professors in colleges, and a great variety of common school educators, altogether too numerous to specify

Of the Indian youth it may be truthfully stated, that some of them have surpassed in scholarship any of the white youth of the Institution. One of them, a Seneca, graduated at the head of his class of medical students in Geneva, New York, and for years was employed by his nation as their agent at the legislature in Albany, to take care of their interests. Another from the Northern part of Michigan, soon after he left the Institution, went to the Legislature of Michigan, and obtained the enactment of a law giving the right of citizenship to his people in Michigan. In short, it may be said of them, as a body of youth, that full as large a proportion of them have excelled, as is true of an equal number of white students. There is no reason in the world why the advantages of a good education should be withheld from the sons and daughters of the forest.

The Institution, from the humblest beginnings, has kept on its course through all opposing obstacles, and, as been stated, has not lost a term for nearly forty years. The beginnings were founded in prayer, and the superstructure has been reared in faith and corresponding works, and all under the fostering care and agency of God, to whom be all the honor of what has been accomplished.

WESTERN RESERVE COLLEGE,

HUDSON, OHIO.

1.-This is and has been from the first the only legal and the commonly-used name of the College. The name originated in the following historical facts: The territory of Connecticut, according to the original patents, extended from the mouth of Narraganset river forty leagues along the coast, and thence due west to the South Seas. The Northern boundary was determined to be 42 degrees and 2 minutes, north latitude. The southern boundary, fixed by the western terminus of the coast line, was the forty-first parallel. Though the rights of Connecticut were trampled upon by the patents of the Duke of York and William Penn, she still claimed the territory west of Pennsylvania. At the adoption of the "Articles of Confederation," when the States ceded their lands north-west of the Ohio river to the general government she reserved that portion of her territory lying next west of Pennsylvania, forty leagues in length. This was called the Connecticut Western Reserve. This College was established on this Reserve by its early settlers to promote learning and religion here and to be a base of operation for extending their good influences over the new country to the west and south.

2.-The Charter.

(a) The Charter bears the date of February 7, 1826.

(b) The Board of Trustees was to consist of twelve members, exclusive of the President. The names of the first Trustees or corporators were George Swift and Zalmon Fitch, of Trumbull County, Caleb Pitkin, Elizur Wright, John Seward, Jr., Benjamin Fenn, Joshua B. Sherwood and David Hudson, of Portage County, Stephen I. Bradstreet and Simeon Woodruff, of Cuyahoga County, Henry Brown and Harmon Kingsbury, of Lorain County. These twelve men were created a body politic and corporate to be styled the Board of Trustees of the Western Reserve College. They were empowered "to fill vacancies which may happen by resignation,death or otherwise," in their number. The Charter imposes no restrictions whatever in respect to mode of election, term of service, residence, religious creed, or other qualifications. The State has no control except, "That the Legislature shall have a right to alter or amend this act when they deem it necessary-Provided that no fund or property belonging to said College shall ever be by law appropriated to any other purpose." In a word, the Board of Trustees is a close corporation with full power. The original members of the Board were all either ministers or members of the Presbyterian or Congregational churches, which at that time were so cordially united on the so-called "Plan of Union." This was a necessary result of the religious and ecclesiastical condition of Northern Ohio. The Board has ever since been constituted in the same manner in this respect.

(c) The Charter enacts, "That the said College shall be located in the township of Hudson in the County of Portage" (now Summit). The question of location had been determined by the founders before the Charter was sought.