Editing Lane Seminary (section)

==Inauguration==

"The founding of Lane Seminary was accomplished after years of sometimes disparate efforts on the part of a large number of people."<ref name=Lesick/>{{rp|25–26}} The Presbyterian tradition was to have educated clergy, and there was no seminary serving the vast and increasingly populated lands west of the [[Allegheny Mountains]]. As early as 1825, the denomination was on record as saying such a seminary was needed. In 1829 there were only 8,000 ministers to serve a population of 12,000,000, two thousand more churches than ministers, and only 200 ministers per year being trained.<ref name=Lesick/>{{rp|27}} While there were local efforts to have the new seminary in Cincinnati, the Presbyterian General Assembly decided in 1827 to locate it in [[Allegheny, Pennsylvania]], near Pittsburgh. The western synods refused to accept this, finding it too far away.<ref name=Lesick/>{{rp|28}}

In the summer of 1828 Ebenezer Lane, a New Orleans businessman, "made known his interest in setting up a theological seminary near Cincinnati based on the [[manual labor college|manual labor system]]."<ref name=Lesick/>{{rp|28}}  He and his brother Lane pledged $4,000 for the new school, on condition that it be in Cincinnati and follow the manual labor model. After this, their connection with the Seminary was minimal; Ebenezer was not even happy that it carried his name.<ref name=Lesick/>{{rp|29–30}} The land was donated by Kemper Seminary.<ref name=Pamphlet>{{cite book|chapter=Reminiscences of Lane Seminary|first=J. C.|last=White|title=Pamphlet souvenir of the sixtieth anniversary in the history of Lane Theological Seminary, containing papers read before the Lane Club|location=Cincinnati|publisher=Lane Theological Seminary|year=1890|chapter-url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hn5926;view=2up;seq=4|pages=5–15|access-date=October 1, 2019|archive-date=April 14, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414225602/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hn5926;view=2up;seq=4|url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|5}} "Walnut Hill was a pretty little village, quite distant from Cincinnati, the first stopping-place for the stage on the Madisonville or some other northern Ohio route."<ref>{{cite book|chapter=Historical Sketch of Lane Seminary from 1853 to 1856|first=S. E.|last=Wishard|title=Pamphlet souvenir of the sixtieth anniversary in the history of Lane Theological Seminary, containing papers read before the Lane Club|location=Cincinnati|publisher=Lane Theological Seminary|year=1890|chapter-url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hn5926;view=2up;seq=4|pages=30–40|access-date=October 1, 2019|archive-date=April 14, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414225602/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hn5926;view=2up;seq=4|url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|36}} "The location of Lane Seminary is in the midst of a most beautiful landscape. There is just enough, and just the right admixture of hills and dale, forest and field, to give it the effect we love in gazing upon a calm and quiet scene of beauty," wrote a visiting minister in 1842.<ref>{{cite journal
|title=Cincinnati in the 1830s: A Cognitive Map of Traveler's Landscape Impressions
|first=John A.
|last=Jakle
|journal=Environmental Review
|volume=3
|number=3
|date=Spring 1979
|pages=2–10
|doi=10.2307/3984039
|jstor=3984039|s2cid=147100229
}}</ref>{{rp|5}}

A board was set up in October 1828, and the Ohio General Assembly issued a charter on February 11, 1829, specifying that the manual labor system would be "the fundamental principle" of the Seminary.<ref name=Lesick/>{{rp|30–31}} The Rev. George C. Beckwith was appointed to a professorship in April, accepted in August, and he arrived in Cincinnati in the following November. He "had 3 or 4 students during the winter."<ref name=Fletcher>{{cite book|title=A history of Oberlin College from its foundation through the civil war|last=Fletcher|first=Robert Samuel|date=1943|publisher=[[Oberlin College]]|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofoberlin01flet|oclc=189886}}</ref>{{rp|50}} In July, 1830, Beckwith visited the [[Oneida Institute]] and wrote back to Cincinnati that manual labor worked well and that the farmers and mechanics of the neighborhood approved of it. He resigned in August 1830.<ref name=Fletcher/>{{rp|50}} "At that time [1830], the seminary consisted of some woods and one foundation for a building."<ref name=Barnes/>{{rp|41}}

In January, 1831, [[George Washington Gale]], president of the Oneida Institute, recommended a steward to supervise the Seminary farm; in February the trustees made the appointment. But in the winter of 1830–31, "Lane Seminary was in a state of suspended animation. There were no teachers and apparently only two students, [[Amos Dresser]] and [[Horace Bushnell]], who had come out from the Oneida Institute and had been given special permission by the trustees to occupy rooms in the lonesome Seminary building."<ref name=Fletcher/>{{rp|51}} Bushnell, who on his arrival in 1830 "found [at the embryonic Lane] no theology", slept "on a study-table, with his books for a pillow".<ref name=Pamphlet/>{{rp|7}}

In 1834, the manual labor department contained six printing presses, operated by 20 students, and had printed 150,000 copies of "Webster's spelling books", for a bookstore. 30 students were employed in cabinet making, and total enrollment before the mass walkout was about 100.<ref>{{cite news
|title=Lane Seminary
|newspaper=Vermont Chronicle ([[Bellows Falls, Vermont]])
|date=March 7, 1834
|page=3
|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/38750261/lane_seminarys_manual_labor_department/
|access-date=November 10, 2019
|archive-date=November 10, 2019
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191110114658/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/38750261/lane_seminarys_manual_labor_department/
|url-status=live
}}</ref>