Each biographer of Rutherford B. Hayes (and there have been quite a few) makes choices that alter the emphasis of components within Hayes’s past. His two most substantial biographies, of somewhat recent vintage, are great examples. Harry Barnard’s Rutherford B. Hayes and His America explores Hayes’ relationship with his sister Fanny in a much deeper way, for example, than Ari Hoogenboom does in his Rutherford B. Hayes: Warrior and President. These different emphases can change the tone and conclusions of the book, such as Barnard often coming to conclusions based on familial ties while muting the larger societal developments that Hoogenboom brings forth.
For this entry, however, I want to focus on Barnard’s assertion that the Kenyon College faculty was mostly Southern at the time when Hayes attended. He states, “At Kenyon, when Rud was a student there, an extraordinary large number of the faculty members, including President Sparrow, were Southerners committed to defending slavery” (114). This is an important point. Hayes, who was already anti-abolitionist, would only be swayed further down that path mentored by faculty “committed to defending slavery.”
Yet, I noticed that subsequent biographers were not interested in Kenyon’s “Southern faculty.” Hayes’ most thorough biographer, Hoogenboom, says nothing about Southern faculty at Kenyon. And the much more concise biography by Hans Trefousse leaves that out as well.
An investigation into the lives of the most preeminent members of the early Kenyon faculty, in fact, unveils a number of Northeasterners. The founder, Philander Chase, was from New Hampshire. Heman Dyer, was Vermont born. Chauncey Fitch was from New York. John Kendrick was from New Hampshire. M.T.C. Wing grew up in Vermont. Joseph Muenscher hailed from Rhode Island. Chauncey Colton came from Massachusetts. John Ufford from Connecticut. Even William Sparrow, whom Barnard specifically identifies as Southern, was born in Massachusetts.
Two individuals provide some cracks in this overly Northern faculty, however. Philander Chase, although from New Hampshire, spent time in Louisiana and even briefly owned a slave. But, he freed the slave after coming to the conviction that slavery was immoral. The Irish-born John Sandels, later spent time in Tennessee, Louisiana, and Arkansas, and served as a chaplain in the Confederate Army.
Despite the overwhelming evidence against Barnard’s assertion, Kenyon must have had some reputation for being a bastion of Southern influence, at least enough to make Rutherford’s mom believe so. In an 1839 letter to Sardis, she comments, “I hope [Rutherford] will do well there but I am afraid there are too many Southern scholars…” Yet, she comes around to favor the faculty as Rutherford’s schooling progressed. She mentions a group of “new professors” who were “spoken very highly of.” She singles in on Catharinus Buckingham, who was a professor of mathematics, as “a first rate teacher.” Perhaps this was because he was Ohio born, was previously in the military, and worked at West Point. Later, he joined the Union in the Civil War.
I believe Hayes biographer, and former director of this site, Tom Culbertson is the closest to the truth. In his biography, Rutherford B. Hayes: A Life of Service, he states, “Historically Kenyon attracted many wealthy southern Episcopalians, most of whose families owned slaves” (9). This is partly corroborated by a history of Kenyon College, which points out that Southern enrollment had declined from 27 students in 1832 to eight by 1840 (when Hayes was entering his third year). This is a drastic reduction since there were only 51 students at that time.
Building on this information, it is likely that Hayes’s years at Kenyon College would not have created a unique environment to reify his established anti-abolitionist views. The faculty at Kenyon were overwhelmingly northern, and largely from the Northeast where abolitionist sentiment was strongest.
Yet, there is no evidence that Kenyon would have provided an environment to counter his anti-abolitionist views either. Hayes even pays special attention to one of his classmates for being an “Abolitionist.” To take note of such a thing, must have meant that it was quite a novelty. In fact, one of the closest friends he gained from his time at Kenyon was Guy Bryan, a Texan from a slave-owning family. If we want to learn about Rutherford B. Hayes and his developing views on the increasing sectional divide in the United States over the topic of slavery, studying this relationship bears more fruit. In the next entry, I delve into another common biographical topic regarding Bryan, Hayes, and two rival literary societies at Kenyon.
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Thanks goes to Thomas Stamp at Kenyon College for providing information on the origins of the Kenyon faculty.