Miller Memorial Number, Lest We Forget, Waynesburg College Bulletin [alumni newsletter of Waynesburg College], Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, June and July 1927 issue, page 1, column 1-2; page 2, column 1-2; page 3, column 1. Transcribed by Candice Buchanan.
Photo Caption: "Alfred Brashear Miller, President of Waynesburg College 1859-1899."
"Miller Memorial Number
Lest We Forget
In dedicating the Commencement Number of our Bulletin, we bear in mind the fact that just a quarter of a century ago, in the year 1902, passed from this life the man to whose memory it is due that he be called "THE FATHER OF WAYNESBURG COLLEGE". Of him it has rightfully been said that had he not lived, Waynesburg College would not be in existence.
For fifty years Dr. Miller was associated with Waynesburg College, and for forty of these years he led her destinies as President, by a beautiful coincidence the same number of years Moses led the children of Israel through the wilderness.
His biography can best be given in the brief sketch he himself prepared three months before his death:
'I was born in Fayette county, Pa., three miles south of Brownsville, October 16, 1829. My father was Moses Miller; my grandfather, Samuel Miller; my great grandfather, Shedrich Miller, who came from Germany about the year 1725, and sleeps on the Thornton farm, Luzerne township. After such meager education as common schools gave in those days, I spent a summer in a good school in Brownsville, there beginning the study of Latin. In my sixteenth year I entered Greene Academy at Carmichaels, Pa., there spending three summer terms. After some other fragmentary attendance at school, in November, 1851, I entered Waynesburg College on its opening day, and graduated in September, 1853, my classmates being Jas. R. Rinehart, Clark Hackney and Wm. E. Gapen. As dates tell the story, I have been associated with Waynesburg College just fifty years - two years as student and tutor, six as professor of mathematics, forty as president, two as president emeritus and professor of the philosophical sciences.'
Those who lived in Dr. Miller's time will bear out the statement that he undoubtedly exerted a greater influence for good in his College, his town, and his country than any other man of his generation. The number of men and women whose lives have been touched and transformed by his influence can never be accurately estimated. He was not only a College President; he was one of the greatest teachers of his day. Nor did his influence stop with the classroom. He was not a recluse as many college men tend to become; he was a citizen, interested in all questions affecting the public welfare. An ardent advocate of everything that makes for temperance and sobriety, his influence was greatest of all in building up an advanced public sentiment which now for almost two generations has stood as a bulwark against the drink traffic in this community.
When he took into his hands the reins of government of Waynesburg College all hope of saving the institution had been abandoned by the trustees. There was no money in the treasury and no prospects of any. In nominating him to the presidency, according to Dr. Miller's own narrative, the president of the board of trustees and the pastor of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church both made use of the statement 'we see family, and even serving one term as nothing else that can be done.' In spite of the fact that in addition to all these other troubles, the great national conflict was looming upon the horizon, this consecrated young man carried our beloved college through a decade of darkness and established it firmly as one of the foremost educational institutions of the region. Without doubt the greatest trait responsible for his remarkable achievement was his unflinching, persistent devotion to duty under circumstances that would have stopped even extraordinary men. His self-discipline was supreme. He would never acknowledge defeat. In his later years he was fond of telling how, as one crisis after another arose, and when even his most faithful friends advised him to give up the attempt, his faith won through. In these years of stress he often went without salary for long periods of time, often even paying some of his instructors from his own meager income, preaching as regular pastor in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in order to secure funds to keep his county superintendent of the schools during the Civil War. Having carried the college through the dark period of war and reconstruction, he began to see in the early seventies a vision of a new college building, and again we can say without exaggeration that it was due to his efforts that "Old Main" [now Miller Hall] was erected.
Dr. Miller, especially during the later half of his presidency, became a nationally known figure. He was moderator of the General Assembly at Lincoln, Illinois, in 1876. In 1874 he was a delegate to the Evangelical Union Church Council in Edinburgh, Scotland, and made a profound impression upon that body. He was editor of the Cumberland Presbyterian, and author of the book Doctrines and Genius of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
A record of the life of our greatest president would not be complete without mention of the faithful work of Mrs. Miller, who as Margaret K. Bell was elected the first principal of the Woman's Dept. of the College in 1850, and who after her marriage continued for many years her labors in behalf of the education of women, in those years pioneer work among colleges. In fact, it has always been the claim of this college that only one other institution, namely Oberlin, was earlier in admitting women into collegiate education on the same basis as men.
The close of Dr. Miller's life was in many respects almost ideal. He was a member of the last General Assembly and was the central figure of the great semi-centennial exercises of the college three months before his death. He taught his regular classes up to the Christmas vacation, although his friends had for sometime seen the beginnings of the fatal paralysis. With practically no pain the disease advanced, and on the morning of January 30, 1902 in the old College building [Hanna Hall], to him the best loved spot on earth, he passed peacefully away."
Photo Caption: "Alfred Brashear Miller, President of Waynesburg College 1859-1899."
"Miller Memorial Number
Lest We Forget
In dedicating the Commencement Number of our Bulletin, we bear in mind the fact that just a quarter of a century ago, in the year 1902, passed from this life the man to whose memory it is due that he be called "THE FATHER OF WAYNESBURG COLLEGE". Of him it has rightfully been said that had he not lived, Waynesburg College would not be in existence.
For fifty years Dr. Miller was associated with Waynesburg College, and for forty of these years he led her destinies as President, by a beautiful coincidence the same number of years Moses led the children of Israel through the wilderness.
His biography can best be given in the brief sketch he himself prepared three months before his death:
'I was born in Fayette county, Pa., three miles south of Brownsville, October 16, 1829. My father was Moses Miller; my grandfather, Samuel Miller; my great grandfather, Shedrich Miller, who came from Germany about the year 1725, and sleeps on the Thornton farm, Luzerne township. After such meager education as common schools gave in those days, I spent a summer in a good school in Brownsville, there beginning the study of Latin. In my sixteenth year I entered Greene Academy at Carmichaels, Pa., there spending three summer terms. After some other fragmentary attendance at school, in November, 1851, I entered Waynesburg College on its opening day, and graduated in September, 1853, my classmates being Jas. R. Rinehart, Clark Hackney and Wm. E. Gapen. As dates tell the story, I have been associated with Waynesburg College just fifty years - two years as student and tutor, six as professor of mathematics, forty as president, two as president emeritus and professor of the philosophical sciences.'
Those who lived in Dr. Miller's time will bear out the statement that he undoubtedly exerted a greater influence for good in his College, his town, and his country than any other man of his generation. The number of men and women whose lives have been touched and transformed by his influence can never be accurately estimated. He was not only a College President; he was one of the greatest teachers of his day. Nor did his influence stop with the classroom. He was not a recluse as many college men tend to become; he was a citizen, interested in all questions affecting the public welfare. An ardent advocate of everything that makes for temperance and sobriety, his influence was greatest of all in building up an advanced public sentiment which now for almost two generations has stood as a bulwark against the drink traffic in this community.
When he took into his hands the reins of government of Waynesburg College all hope of saving the institution had been abandoned by the trustees. There was no money in the treasury and no prospects of any. In nominating him to the presidency, according to Dr. Miller's own narrative, the president of the board of trustees and the pastor of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church both made use of the statement 'we see family, and even serving one term as nothing else that can be done.' In spite of the fact that in addition to all these other troubles, the great national conflict was looming upon the horizon, this consecrated young man carried our beloved college through a decade of darkness and established it firmly as one of the foremost educational institutions of the region. Without doubt the greatest trait responsible for his remarkable achievement was his unflinching, persistent devotion to duty under circumstances that would have stopped even extraordinary men. His self-discipline was supreme. He would never acknowledge defeat. In his later years he was fond of telling how, as one crisis after another arose, and when even his most faithful friends advised him to give up the attempt, his faith won through. In these years of stress he often went without salary for long periods of time, often even paying some of his instructors from his own meager income, preaching as regular pastor in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in order to secure funds to keep his county superintendent of the schools during the Civil War. Having carried the college through the dark period of war and reconstruction, he began to see in the early seventies a vision of a new college building, and again we can say without exaggeration that it was due to his efforts that "Old Main" [now Miller Hall] was erected.
Dr. Miller, especially during the later half of his presidency, became a nationally known figure. He was moderator of the General Assembly at Lincoln, Illinois, in 1876. In 1874 he was a delegate to the Evangelical Union Church Council in Edinburgh, Scotland, and made a profound impression upon that body. He was editor of the Cumberland Presbyterian, and author of the book Doctrines and Genius of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
A record of the life of our greatest president would not be complete without mention of the faithful work of Mrs. Miller, who as Margaret K. Bell was elected the first principal of the Woman's Dept. of the College in 1850, and who after her marriage continued for many years her labors in behalf of the education of women, in those years pioneer work among colleges. In fact, it has always been the claim of this college that only one other institution, namely Oberlin, was earlier in admitting women into collegiate education on the same basis as men.
The close of Dr. Miller's life was in many respects almost ideal. He was a member of the last General Assembly and was the central figure of the great semi-centennial exercises of the college three months before his death. He taught his regular classes up to the Christmas vacation, although his friends had for sometime seen the beginnings of the fatal paralysis. With practically no pain the disease advanced, and on the morning of January 30, 1902 in the old College building [Hanna Hall], to him the best loved spot on earth, he passed peacefully away."
Miller Memorial Number, Lest We Forget, Waynesburg College Bulletin [alumni newsletter of Waynesburg College], Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, June and July 1927 issue, page 1, column 1-2; page 2, column 1-2; page 3, column 1. Transcribed by Candice Buchanan.
Photo Caption: "Alfred Brashear Miller, President of Waynesburg College 1859-1899."
"Miller Memorial Number
Lest We Forget
In dedicating the Commencement Number of our Bulletin, we bear in mind the fact that just a quarter of a century ago, in the year 1902, passed from this life the man to whose memory it is due that he be called "THE FATHER OF WAYNESBURG COLLEGE". Of him it has rightfully been said that had he not lived, Waynesburg College would not be in existence.
For fifty years Dr. Miller was associated with Waynesburg College, and for forty of these years he led her destinies as President, by a beautiful coincidence the same number of years Moses led the children of Israel through the wilderness.
His biography can best be given in the brief sketch he himself prepared three months before his death:
'I was born in Fayette county, Pa., three miles south of Brownsville, October 16, 1829. My father was Moses Miller; my grandfather, Samuel Miller; my great grandfather, Shedrich Miller, who came from Germany about the year 1725, and sleeps on the Thornton farm, Luzerne township. After such meager education as common schools gave in those days, I spent a summer in a good school in Brownsville, there beginning the study of Latin. In my sixteenth year I entered Greene Academy at Carmichaels, Pa., there spending three summer terms. After some other fragmentary attendance at school, in November, 1851, I entered Waynesburg College on its opening day, and graduated in September, 1853, my classmates being Jas. R. Rinehart, Clark Hackney and Wm. E. Gapen. As dates tell the story, I have been associated with Waynesburg College just fifty years - two years as student and tutor, six as professor of mathematics, forty as president, two as president emeritus and professor of the philosophical sciences.'
Those who lived in Dr. Miller's time will bear out the statement that he undoubtedly exerted a greater influence for good in his College, his town, and his country than any other man of his generation. The number of men and women whose lives have been touched and transformed by his influence can never be accurately estimated. He was not only a College President; he was one of the greatest teachers of his day. Nor did his influence stop with the classroom. He was not a recluse as many college men tend to become; he was a citizen, interested in all questions affecting the public welfare. An ardent advocate of everything that makes for temperance and sobriety, his influence was greatest of all in building up an advanced public sentiment which now for almost two generations has stood as a bulwark against the drink traffic in this community.
When he took into his hands the reins of government of Waynesburg College all hope of saving the institution had been abandoned by the trustees. There was no money in the treasury and no prospects of any. In nominating him to the presidency, according to Dr. Miller's own narrative, the president of the board of trustees and the pastor of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church both made use of the statement 'we see family, and even serving one term as nothing else that can be done.' In spite of the fact that in addition to all these other troubles, the great national conflict was looming upon the horizon, this consecrated young man carried our beloved college through a decade of darkness and established it firmly as one of the foremost educational institutions of the region. Without doubt the greatest trait responsible for his remarkable achievement was his unflinching, persistent devotion to duty under circumstances that would have stopped even extraordinary men. His self-discipline was supreme. He would never acknowledge defeat. In his later years he was fond of telling how, as one crisis after another arose, and when even his most faithful friends advised him to give up the attempt, his faith won through. In these years of stress he often went without salary for long periods of time, often even paying some of his instructors from his own meager income, preaching as regular pastor in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in order to secure funds to keep his county superintendent of the schools during the Civil War. Having carried the college through the dark period of war and reconstruction, he began to see in the early seventies a vision of a new college building, and again we can say without exaggeration that it was due to his efforts that "Old Main" [now Miller Hall] was erected.
Dr. Miller, especially during the later half of his presidency, became a nationally known figure. He was moderator of the General Assembly at Lincoln, Illinois, in 1876. In 1874 he was a delegate to the Evangelical Union Church Council in Edinburgh, Scotland, and made a profound impression upon that body. He was editor of the Cumberland Presbyterian, and author of the book Doctrines and Genius of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
A record of the life of our greatest president would not be complete without mention of the faithful work of Mrs. Miller, who as Margaret K. Bell was elected the first principal of the Woman's Dept. of the College in 1850, and who after her marriage continued for many years her labors in behalf of the education of women, in those years pioneer work among colleges. In fact, it has always been the claim of this college that only one other institution, namely Oberlin, was earlier in admitting women into collegiate education on the same basis as men.
The close of Dr. Miller's life was in many respects almost ideal. He was a member of the last General Assembly and was the central figure of the great semi-centennial exercises of the college three months before his death. He taught his regular classes up to the Christmas vacation, although his friends had for sometime seen the beginnings of the fatal paralysis. With practically no pain the disease advanced, and on the morning of January 30, 1902 in the old College building [Hanna Hall], to him the best loved spot on earth, he passed peacefully away."
Photo Caption: "Alfred Brashear Miller, President of Waynesburg College 1859-1899."
"Miller Memorial Number
Lest We Forget
In dedicating the Commencement Number of our Bulletin, we bear in mind the fact that just a quarter of a century ago, in the year 1902, passed from this life the man to whose memory it is due that he be called "THE FATHER OF WAYNESBURG COLLEGE". Of him it has rightfully been said that had he not lived, Waynesburg College would not be in existence.
For fifty years Dr. Miller was associated with Waynesburg College, and for forty of these years he led her destinies as President, by a beautiful coincidence the same number of years Moses led the children of Israel through the wilderness.
His biography can best be given in the brief sketch he himself prepared three months before his death:
'I was born in Fayette county, Pa., three miles south of Brownsville, October 16, 1829. My father was Moses Miller; my grandfather, Samuel Miller; my great grandfather, Shedrich Miller, who came from Germany about the year 1725, and sleeps on the Thornton farm, Luzerne township. After such meager education as common schools gave in those days, I spent a summer in a good school in Brownsville, there beginning the study of Latin. In my sixteenth year I entered Greene Academy at Carmichaels, Pa., there spending three summer terms. After some other fragmentary attendance at school, in November, 1851, I entered Waynesburg College on its opening day, and graduated in September, 1853, my classmates being Jas. R. Rinehart, Clark Hackney and Wm. E. Gapen. As dates tell the story, I have been associated with Waynesburg College just fifty years - two years as student and tutor, six as professor of mathematics, forty as president, two as president emeritus and professor of the philosophical sciences.'
Those who lived in Dr. Miller's time will bear out the statement that he undoubtedly exerted a greater influence for good in his College, his town, and his country than any other man of his generation. The number of men and women whose lives have been touched and transformed by his influence can never be accurately estimated. He was not only a College President; he was one of the greatest teachers of his day. Nor did his influence stop with the classroom. He was not a recluse as many college men tend to become; he was a citizen, interested in all questions affecting the public welfare. An ardent advocate of everything that makes for temperance and sobriety, his influence was greatest of all in building up an advanced public sentiment which now for almost two generations has stood as a bulwark against the drink traffic in this community.
When he took into his hands the reins of government of Waynesburg College all hope of saving the institution had been abandoned by the trustees. There was no money in the treasury and no prospects of any. In nominating him to the presidency, according to Dr. Miller's own narrative, the president of the board of trustees and the pastor of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church both made use of the statement 'we see family, and even serving one term as nothing else that can be done.' In spite of the fact that in addition to all these other troubles, the great national conflict was looming upon the horizon, this consecrated young man carried our beloved college through a decade of darkness and established it firmly as one of the foremost educational institutions of the region. Without doubt the greatest trait responsible for his remarkable achievement was his unflinching, persistent devotion to duty under circumstances that would have stopped even extraordinary men. His self-discipline was supreme. He would never acknowledge defeat. In his later years he was fond of telling how, as one crisis after another arose, and when even his most faithful friends advised him to give up the attempt, his faith won through. In these years of stress he often went without salary for long periods of time, often even paying some of his instructors from his own meager income, preaching as regular pastor in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in order to secure funds to keep his county superintendent of the schools during the Civil War. Having carried the college through the dark period of war and reconstruction, he began to see in the early seventies a vision of a new college building, and again we can say without exaggeration that it was due to his efforts that "Old Main" [now Miller Hall] was erected.
Dr. Miller, especially during the later half of his presidency, became a nationally known figure. He was moderator of the General Assembly at Lincoln, Illinois, in 1876. In 1874 he was a delegate to the Evangelical Union Church Council in Edinburgh, Scotland, and made a profound impression upon that body. He was editor of the Cumberland Presbyterian, and author of the book Doctrines and Genius of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
A record of the life of our greatest president would not be complete without mention of the faithful work of Mrs. Miller, who as Margaret K. Bell was elected the first principal of the Woman's Dept. of the College in 1850, and who after her marriage continued for many years her labors in behalf of the education of women, in those years pioneer work among colleges. In fact, it has always been the claim of this college that only one other institution, namely Oberlin, was earlier in admitting women into collegiate education on the same basis as men.
The close of Dr. Miller's life was in many respects almost ideal. He was a member of the last General Assembly and was the central figure of the great semi-centennial exercises of the college three months before his death. He taught his regular classes up to the Christmas vacation, although his friends had for sometime seen the beginnings of the fatal paralysis. With practically no pain the disease advanced, and on the morning of January 30, 1902 in the old College building [Hanna Hall], to him the best loved spot on earth, he passed peacefully away."
Inscription
"Alfred B. Miller D.D., LL.D. / Born October 16, 1829. / Died January 30, 1902. / President of / Waynesburg College / 1859-1899 // M.K.B. Miller / Wife Of / Rev. A. B. Miller D.D. / Born October 2, 1826. / Died April 27, 1874. / First Principal of the Female / Department of Waynesburg / College. / Erected by the Alumni Association / of Waynesburg College as a memorial / of the noble woman and devoted / teacher who gave the best twenty four / years of her life to the work of building / up the institution of which she was / the pride and ornament."
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