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Fourth Miami president: MacMaster of memory

Lauren Ceronie, Campus Editor

This is part of a series The Miami Student is running about the University Archives. All information in the following article was obtained from the University Archives with the help of University Archivist Bob Schmidt.

As final exams loom in the not-so-distant future, many students are probably wishing they had some sort of extraordinary skill to absorb the copious amounts of information they'll be tested on. No doubt these students would be envious of Miami University's fourth president, Erasmus Darwin MacMaster (1845-1849), who was renowned for his sharp memory.

MacMaster was known among his peers for being able to recall details from meetings and discussions. The university president was even featured in Ripley's Believe It Or Not for his photographic memory.

"Erasmus MacMaster could replace any professor in the school (Miami University), teaching without notes or textbook because he had memorized the contents of entire on every subject taught at the university," read the blurb in Ripley's.

While MacMaster may have been qualified to teach any subject at Miami, the students attending the university no doubt would have been opposed to his teaching. MacMaster was only president at Miami for four years, but his time leading the school was quite tumultuous.

MacMaster was only 38 years old when he became president of Miami but was still described by colleagues as "an impressive figure, standing 6'3." Long, prematurely gray hair fell to his shoulders, and gentle eyes shown from his smooth, beardless, pale, almost benign face. MacMaster never married and was considered by many a "scholarly recluse."

While the idea is foreign to current students of public universities, MacMaster believed religion was an integral part of education. He wanted all the departments at Miami to be based on Christianity and even went so far as to say science classes had to portray a "distinct recognition of the relations which all the particular sciences bear to religion."

Although he might have narrowed the scope of what professors could teach, MacMaster tried to expand the university several times during his presidency. He expanded the curriculum to include more liberal arts courses as well as the classics (Greek, Latin and mathematics). In 1845, he started plans for a graduate school, a medical school, a teachers training department and a department of technology.

MacMaster thought he would need $100,000 to $500,000 to expand the university, but the Board of Trustees turned down his proposal saying the university lacked the means.

Ironically, while MacMaster was attempting to expand the university, Miami's attendance dropped from 140 students to 68 students during his presidency. This drop in attendance can be attributed to students' distaste for MacMaster as well as smallpox and cholera outbreaks on campus during his presidency.

Miami students met MacMaster's presidency with rowdy behavior and rebellious attitudes. In 1846, students demolished the university observatory and stole MacMaster's desk out of his office. MacMaster had long-standing issues with the literary societies – the early fraternities – on campus.

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The administration wanted the societies to disclose their members and the speakers they planned to bring in to address their members. The societies refused and said that their charters gave them the right to make their own laws and choose their own members and speakers.

In January 1848, the situation between the administration and students worsened when the students tried to close the doors of the academic buildings so professors could not get inside to teach. Students tore down the college bell and threw it into a well. The students who participated in these activities contacted the president of Centre College in Danville, Ky. to ensure they would be accepted there if they were expelled from Miami.

Tensions between the students and the administration reached a peak in March 1849 when students attacked the Board of Trustees. The students dressed in costumes and masks and forced their way into a Board meeting. The trustees ran away, but the students herded them up and chased them back into town where a fight ensued.

At this point, many were calling for MacMaster's resignation. This list included professors and Cincinnati newspapers. In October 1848, one Cincinnati paper said, "People are beginning to enquire why they are reaping no benefits from the rich endowments of Miami University." The Cincinnati Daily Dispatch was more blunt in their disapproval of MacMaster, calling him the "great college killer."

MacMaster left Miami in 1849 with less than half the amount of students he started with and $6,654 of debt. He went on to teach at the Presbyterian Seminary in New Albany, Ind., but his ardent anti-slavery views led to his banishment from the seminary. MacMaster was unemployed for a number of years and dabbled in farming during this time. He was eventually hired at the Northwestern Theological Seminary in Chicago.