Of the twenty-six academies, colleges and universities, all are, with two notable exceptions—Hanover and Wabash—open to women. Of these, Butler, at Irvington, formerly known as the Northwestern Christian University, was the first to admit women to a "female course," which its managers arranged to meet the needs of the female mind. In its laudable endeavor to adapt its requirements to this intermediate class of beings, the university substituted music for mathematics, and French for Greek. Few, however, availed themselves of this course, and it was utterly rejected by Demia Butler, a daughter of the founder of the institution, who entered it in 1860, and graduated from what was then known as the male course, in 1864, thus winning the right to be remembered as the first woman in Indiana to demonstrate the capacity of her sex to cope with the classics and higher mathematics. From that time the "female course" became gradually less popular, until it was discarded. One after another, private and denominational schools have fallen into line, until nearly all of them are open to women without humiliating conditions.
Up to 1867 the Indiana University exhibited the anomaly of a great institution of learning supported by the State, and regarding itself as the crown of the public-school system, free to but one-half of the children of the commonwealth. Since that date it has been open equally to both sexes in all three of its departments—the State Normal School, located at Terre Haute, the Agricultural College, located at Lafayette and commonly known as Purdue University, and the State University proper, including literary and scientific departments located at Bloomington. Of this last branch, 30 per cent. are women. That there is no longer any discrimination in these higher institutions of learning is not true. Girls must always feel that they are regarded as belonging to a subordinate class, wherever women are not found in the faculty and board of managers. The depressing influence of their absence in superior positions cannot be measured.
Very few women are found in college faculties in Indiana, and none on boards of trustees. Those most conspicuous in ability are Mrs. Sarah A. Oren,[1] who, having served two successive terms as State librarian, was called from that position to fill a chair at Purdue University, where she remained several years; Miss Catharine Merrill, professor of English literature in Butler University, who throughout her term of service from 1869 to 1883 enjoyed the deserved reputation of being one of the strongest members of the faculty;[2] and Miss Rebecca I. Thompson, who is professor of mathematics at Franklin College, the leading Baptist school in the State. The women occupying these conspicuous positions are all identified with the suffrage movement; Professor Thompson, of Franklin, is the president of the Johnson County Suffrage Association. Miss N. Cropsey has served the cause of public education in Indianapolis in some capacity for twenty years, and has for several years been superintendent of the primary schools, a place which she fills with acknowledged ability. Miss[Pg 549] Cropsey is another living denial of the common assertion, that only half-cultured and ill-paid
- ↑ See Appendix to Indiana chapter, note G.
- ↑ Miss Merrill resigned in the autumn of 1883, and was immediately succeeded by Miss Harriet Noble of Vincennes, a graduate of Vassar, and a lady of most admirable qualities, whose success is assured by the record of her first year in this responsible position.
