This week in… Hillsdale History

Home City News This week in… Hillsdale History

1861 — Immediately following the fall of Fort Sumter, Hillsdale College students answer the Union’s call-to-arms, providing the most enlistees by percentage of any non-military American institution. Despite four years of a tiny and virtually all-female campus, Hillsdale’s resilience would ultimately earn its seat among the mere 20 percent of pre-Civil War colleges to survive to the present.

1871 — Henry Whipple (not to be confused with the famous First Bishop of Minnesota of the same era) resigns from his place at Hillsdale College following his revealed indiscretions with a young woman who was not his wife. The professor of sacred theology confessed “a violation of the Seventh Commandment,” and exiled himself to California. He would long ask the college community’s forgiveness thereafter. Author Roger Rapoport described the series of events as a sort of precedent to the 1999 George Roche scandal.

1895 — Hillsdale College turns down an offer to affiliate with the University of Chicago, by reason of its desire to remain independent.

 

  -Compiled by Dane Skorup