First page of a letter from Pres. Edward P. Hooker, written in September 1886
We are excited to share the news of the latest addition to the Archives: a letter from Rollins’ first president, Edward P. Hooker, to Prof. Charles S. Merrick, who was about to join the Rollins faculty. The letter provides a glimpse of the College in its earliest days, when “a pioneer spirit” was necessary to join such a young institution on the Florida frontier.
This letter is a gift from Gary R. Planck, J.D., and his wife, Prof. Carolyn Planck. Mr. Planck has kindly agreed to serve as a guest blogger and provide information on this historic document (below, with photos from the Archives).
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This is an original four-page, 7 ¾” x 9 ¾” manuscript letter without envelope from Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida, dated September 27, 1886, entirely handwritten in ink with pencil notation by President Edward Payson Hooker (1834-1904), signed “E. P. Hooker,” to Dr. Charles Stuart Merrick (1854-1934). Dr. Merrick, an 1875 graduate of Wilbraham Academy, 1879 college graduate of Amherst College, and 1882 Ph.D. graduate of Gottingen, was encouraged by Amherst College President Julius Hawley Seelye (1824-1895) to take a teaching position in science at the new Florida institution of higher education.
Rollins College campus, 1888
Edward P. Hooker was instrumental in the founding and became the first president of Rollins College, serving in that position until 1892. The school opened on November 4, 1885, with some fifty-three students enrolled. President Hooker had graduated from Middlebury College in 1855 and Andover Theological Seminary in 1861. He was ordained in the Congregational Church on November 13, 1861, and held pastorates in Medford, Massachusetts; Fairhaven and Middlebury, Vermont; Lawrence, Massachusetts; and eventually Winter Park, Florida, the latter from 1883 to 1898.
Edward P. Hooker, the first president of Rollins College
Charles S. Merrick was “an efficient student” in the sciences, according to Amherst President Seelye. Before coming to Rollins for but one year, 1886-1887, Dr. Merrick had taught at Wilbraham (Massachusetts) Academy and Beloit (Wisconsin) College and engaged in geological work in Massachusetts and North Carolina. Following his short time in Florida, he went on to teach at Worcester (Massachusetts) High School from 1887 to 1892 and again at Wilbraham Academy until his retirement in about 1904. He married, had four sons, and is buried in Adams Cemetery, Wilbraham, Massachusetts.
President Julius Seelye’s certification of Charles Merrick, 1882 (courtesy Brian Meacham, Amherstiana.org)
“President Julius H. Seelye writes me that you are willing to come to Winter Park,” wrote President Hooker to Dr. Merrick, to assume the position of Instructor in Natural Science at $800 for the school year; “I send you this letter that you may understand more fully what your position will be….” Dr. Merrick was to teach classes in physical geography, physics, and chemistry, and President Hooker in this letter goes into some detail about these courses as well as the student textbooks and scientific equipment available or which the newly appointed instructor may wish to select and order.
Since Rollins was a new college, “financially we are all obliged to deny ourselves in order to do the work…,” explains President Hooker. And he encourages Dr. Merrick “to come to us with a pioneer Spirit, to join a force of hearty and cultivated ladies & gentlemen in a work in which we are united & mean, under God, to make a grand Success for Florida & the South.” Dr. Merrick did come, but stayed for only that one school year. Why he left is unclear. Perhaps the compensation was too small. Perhaps the textbooks and equipment were too few. Perhaps his pioneer spirit was too little.
This Edward Payson Hooker letter purchased from Paul Olinkiewicz (Rare Books-Antiques-Paper Americana), Box 636, Shelter Island Heights, New York, New York, was acquired in April, 2012, by Gary R. and Carolyn R. Planck of Winter Park, Florida, and given by them in January, 2013, to the Rollins College Archives and Special Collections, Olin Library, Winter Park, Florida.
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As Mr. Planck related, Prof. Merrick returned to his home state of Massachusetts to continue his teaching career. He died in his hometown of Wilbraham in 1934, at the age of 79. The only image we have of him in the Archives is the one below, from his obituary.
His stay at Rollins was brief, but we have a note from his widow, Mary, saying that “he was much interested in the college and loaned money to it in addition to his salary.” (Note: The $800 salary mentioned by Pres. Hooker is roughly equivalent to $19,394 today.) Though he doesn’t appear in our earliest photo of the Rollins faculty (below), he would have recognized some former colleagues from his days in Winter Park (including, of course, Pres. Hooker).
Pres. Hooker, seated on the first step of the porch of Pinehurst, with Rollins faculty members in 1891
How pleased we are to have this letter from the earliest days of Rollins’ history! We thank Mr. and Mrs. Planck for this wonderful addition to the Archives.
~ D. Moore, Archival Specialist