HISTORY
OF MARSHALL COUNTY
LXVI.
Henry Harrison Culver
Henry
Harrison Culver, the youngest child of John Milton Culver and Lydia E. Howard,
was born near London, Madison County, Ohio, August 9, 1840. The other children
of the family were Lutellus, killed in the civil war; Wallace W., Lucius L.,
Ruth, and Lucetta.
The
father was evidently a Whig in politics; and what was more natural than that he
should name his son after the Whig candidate for the presidency, William Henry
Harrison, then in the heat of the wonderful "Log Cabin and Hard
Cider" campaign, which swept the country like wild-fire, and at the
November elections lauded, by an overwhelming majority, the famous old Indian
fighter in the White House at Washington?
John
Milton Culver was of Scotch descent and a native of Ohio. He was a farmer and
later became a railroad contractor in the rapidly developing new country in
which he lived. But in the early '50s he met with financial reverses, then so
common in the west, and with his large family to support he doubtless
encouraged his sons to strike out early for them-selves and begin their lives
on their own responsibility. It is not surprising therefore, that we find
Henry, at the age of fifteen, with only a meager common school education of
less than twelve months, accompanied by his older brother Wallace, in St.
Louis, Missouri.
After
varied experiences of a few months in St. Louis and western Illinois, working
at anything that came to hand, they met in Springfield, Illinois, John
McCreary, who, with his brother Joseph, was engaged in a general hardware
business. The two Culvers were at once engaged by the McCreary brothers, and
were put to work at selling cast-iron stoves to the farmers throughout the
country.
In
the course of his travels in northern Indiana Henry met at the home of her
father Miss Emily Jane, the daughter of William J. Hand, a well-known and
unusually intelligent farmer of Marshall county, and Sabrina Chapman, his wife,
and in September of 1864 they were married at her home near Wolf creek, a
hamlet some eight miles east of Lake Maxinkuckee.
346
HISTORY
OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
This
was a most important event in the life of H. H. Culver, for by the marriage he
gained a wife of remarkable judgment and sound sense, to whom he always turned
for counsel in every important step he took in life, and one who was ever ready
to cooperate with him in all plans of philanthropy and benevolence; and it was
naturally through this connection with Marshall county that the idea first
originated of doing something to help the county in which his wife had been
reared and where her people were still living. Of the children born to this
marriage there are now living five sons --- Walter L., Henry Harrison, Jr.,
Edwin R., Bertram B., Knight K., and one daughter, Ida Lucille, now Mrs. Dr.
George P. Wintermute, of San Francisco.
Soon
after his marriage Mr. H. H. Culver joined his two brothers, W. W. and L. L.,
in business, and from Shawneetown, Illinois, as their base, they engaged
extensively in the business of selling direct to the farmers at their homes a
line of cast-iron stoves, which they purchased from Ball & Co., of
Cincinnati. This plan made it necessary to move frequently from place to place,
and during the five years in which they were thus engaged their operations
covered quite thoroughly some ten or twelve of the central and southern states.
But finding a large expense accruing, and much dissatisfaction from their
customers on account of the frequent breakage of the cast-iron stoves, the
three brothers decided to give up their stove business and get into another
line. They therefore, in 1869, shipped all their property to Kansas City,
Missouri, then in the beginning of a great boom, and disposing of their stock,
they invested their total working capital of about $100,000, and opened a
general house-furnishing store. This venture, however, did not prove a success,
and by it their capital was considerably depleted.
Disposing
of their goods in Kansas City, the brothers went south in 1870 and began
arrangements to engage again in the stove business. But the old question of the
breakage of the cast-iron stoves and the consequent dissatisfaction among their
customers, together with the unsettled financial condition of the country,
culminating in the panic of 1873, compelled them temporarily to drop business
again. They returned to Kansas City, where H. H. Culver owned a farm, and began
as they had done in their early days in Ohio, expecting doubtless simply to
make a living at farming until business should begin to improve. But a severe
drought during the summer and an invasion of grasshoppers from Kansas following
it practically ruined the prospects of a crop in that section of the country,
so that in complete disgust at the condition they disposed of their property
there and shipped their household goods to St. Louis, January 1874.
They
had hardly reached St. Louis before they were approached by many of their old
stove employees, asking for employment with them in some sort of business.
Finding
a field for a new line of business, they organized with head- quarters at St.
Louis, in. 1875, "The Southern Calendar Clock Company." The country
was recovering, and the business prospered. During the year
HISTORY
OF MARSHALL COUNTY. 347
1875
each of the brothers built homes in St. Louis and became permanently located
there.
But
the longing for their old business was strong, and their men were all insistent
in urging them to handle stoves again. Their past experience had demonstrated
to them the disadvantage of trying to sell the old style cast-iron stoves. So
in 1881 they organized a company for the manufacture of a family range, to be
built of wrought, not of cast iron; the first of its kind ever
made, and named the new organization the "Wrought Iron Range
Company."
The
range became at once very popular, and the business was on a paying basis from
the start. But the new range was not yet entirely satisfactory, and there came
in numerous letters from customers still complaining of breakage in the
cast-iron parts. After many tedious and costly experiments the company adopted
in 1883 malleable iron for the parts exposed to rough usage.
*The
range thus perfected found a ready sale, and the business increased to such
proportions that greater manufacturing space was required, The capital was
increased, and a new factory, four stories high and covering an entire block,
was erected.
Mr.
H. H. Culver had been for many years an active officer and a tire- less worker.
But he had worked too hard, and in 1881 there were indications of heart
trouble, followed by a slight stroke of paralysis., He retired from active
business, and with Mrs. Culver he traveled for two years, visiting California
and Mexico. His health, however, had not materially improved, and in 1883,
induced doubtless by the advice of his wife, his steps were led to her old home
near the shores of Maxinkuckee. "I spent the whole summer," to use
Mr. Culver's own language in an interview held ten years later, "by the
side of the lake. I fished nearly all the day, and lived in a tent. When fall
came I was a different man, It had such a glorious effect on my health that I
determined to acquire property here. I bought ninety-eight acres on the
northeast corner of the lake. The following year I bought 208 acres at the
north end of the lake. A good deal of this land was low and damp. I employed a
number of men to ditch and drain it, and before X was done I had put twenty-two
miles of drainpipe in the 300 acres. It reclaimed the land and I started to
have it farmed. On a part I raised corn, and part of it I devoted to meadow for
hay. In 1889 I built a tabernacle, a hotel, and some cottages, and arranged for
a big series of religious meetings. I secured T. DeWitt Talmage, of New York;
Rev. Sam Jones, of Georgia, and Dr. John Matthews, of St. Louis, and had great
crowds to hear them. I had revival meetings and lectures for
*
Malleable iron is intermediate between cast and wrought iron in those qualities
and properties most generally useful. It is soft, elastic and ductile; is most
difficult to melt, and, compared with cast iron, is very slow to enter into
chemical combinations. Its tenacity is enormous.
Cast
iron is hard, brittle, melts with comparative ease, and combines with oxygen,
sulphur, etc., with much more ease than does malleable iron.
MARSHALL
COUNTY HISTORY 348
the
whole of that summer, but since that time there have been no public meetings of
any consequence."
In
the fall of 1896, after he had entered upon the work of building up the
military academy, he added this reminiscence, as indicating a single incident
which had attached him to the lake:
"While
fishing one .day near the Indiana boathouse. I caught a fine seven-pound bass,
and, sir, that bass has cost me $250,000!”
Soon
after he acquired this property, Mr. Culver offered to the citizens of Marshall
county, now become his neighbors and many of them his personal friends, an
indefinite leasehold on thirty or forty acres of land to be used for the
purpose of holding an annual fair. He graded and laid off a half-mile track,
planted trees, and largely assisted in erecting a grand stand and necessary
buildings, and for several years a fair was successfully held on the grounds;
but, doubtless because of the location so far from the center of the county,
this enterprise was gradually abandoned, and finally the land reverted to the
estate, after the failure to hold a meeting for three years. In October 1895,
the citizens of Marmont, by a unanimous vote, approved the proposition to
change the name of the town to Culver City, in recognition of what had been
accomplished for them by Mr. Culver, and to signify thereby their appreciation
of that fact. After some difficulties and delays, on April I, 1897, the
postmaster general at Washington changed the name of the post office to Culver,
dropping the "City," as the double name had been forbidden by the
department. And later still the Vandalia railroad changed the name of its
station to Culver on all its official maps and publications, and thus it will
doubtless remain for all time, a tribute to Mr. Culver's memory.
In
1886 Mr. Culver built upon a beautiful location on the east side of the lake,
what was at that time by far the handsomest and most finished summer home in
this part of the state. Indeed, it is still the largest and most beautiful of
the many fine cottages that have since been built upon the shores of
Maxinkuckee, and with its extensive and tastefully laid off grounds, shaded by
handsome trees, it is an ideal summer home for Mrs. Culver, and there she
spends the time from early spring till late in the autumn. It commands a
beautiful view of the academy buildings and grounds, and it was of this view
across the sunlit waters of the lake that Mr. Culver said further :
"In
all these thirty years since I have known the lake a hobby of mine has been to
start a school. It has been one of my 'castles in the air.' The hobby first
took definite shape in 1888. I saw in my mind's eye where the school would have
to be, and I began to prepare ground for its location. For a number of years I
was in correspondence with teachers everywhere, trying to get a suitable person
to take charge of the school. I could find no one who saw promise in my plan. I
then went to California, and upon my return, in March 1894, I found a letter
awaiting me from an Indianapolis friend, who suggested that a summer school be
located on my grounds, and that Dr. J. R. McKenzie, of the Ohio military
academy, near Cincinnati,
MARSHALL
COUNTY HISTORY 349
be
selected as the head of the school. I agreed to this, and in April 1894, set
aside the forty acres on the north shore of the lake for school purposes, and
put up some additional buildings, The success of the summer school I consider
assured, and I propose now to have the academy a permanent institution. The
buildings are of a temporary character. I propose to have buildings of brick
and stone, that will be as fine as the buildings belonging to any educational
institution in the state."
And
thus was opened, with sixteen boys under Dr. McKenzie, in July, 1894-, the
first summer session of the Culver academy, Mr. Culver's prophetic eye seeing
at that early date the advantages afforded by Maxinkuckee for a successful
summer school eventually to exceed in numbers and popularity the great winter
school which it had taken ten years -to build up:
The
regular nine months' session opened on September 25th, under Dr. McKenzie and
two assistants, with thirty-two boys, Mr. Culver and Dr. McKenzie acting as the
regents or governing body.
AII
went quietly until February 24, 1895, when at noon the frame hotel which had
been used as temporary barracks, suddenly took fire and was burned to the
ground.
Mr.
Culver was a man of dauntless courage, and often said that he had never failed
in anything he had undertaken, and even before the embers from this building
had ceased to glow; he was on the spot with architects, measuring the ground
and planning for an elaborate fireproof barracks. The material to be used was
to be brick, steel, stone, and iron, with no wood work except the floors,
window frames and doors, and the floors were to be laid on a bed of concrete nine
inches thick, so that it would be impossible for the building to be
injured by fire.
The
cornerstone of the new building was laid on the sixteenth of May 1895, and it
was completed and ready for the fa11 term. Dr. McKenzie had resigned during the
summer and was succeeded by Maj. C. H. Tebbetts, who opened the Academy
September 2'4, 1895, with thirty-two cadets, and continued till June 11, 1896,
without special note.
The
school re-opened September 16, 1896, with twenty-nine boys, under Maj. Tebbetts
and three assistants, and was progressing quietly when an event occurred which
at once changed the current of affairs at the academy, and caused them to flow
in a channel quite different from the course of the two previous years.
The
Missouri military academy at Mexico, Missouri, had been founded in 1890 by Col.
A. F. Fleet, who had resigned from the chair of Greek, which he had held in the
University of Missouri for eleven years, and it at once sprung to the front as
the leading secondary school in the state. For six years it had moved forward
with unparaIIeled success, when on the night of September 24, 1896, the
splendid building which had held over 100 boys was burned to the ground. It was
Mrs. Culver who first heard of the calamity and suggested to her husband to
telegraph the superintendent to visit him in St. Louis and discuss the plan of
uniting the two schools at Culver.
350 HISTORY
OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
Mr.
Culver's proposition was generous and was promptly accepted, and on October 5,
1896, seventy-two Missouri military academy boys, with their teachers, were
collected from Denver to Pittsburgh, and were brought to Culver, where they
were warmly welcomed, and in a short time the two schools, with their
respective faculties, were perfectly united. Maj. Tebbetts resigned, and Col.
Fleet was put in command, at the head of 100 cadets.
And
now Mr. Culver began to realize the dream of thirty years before, and really
saw the beginning of a great school, the fame of which was to extend from ocean
to ocean, and from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico.
The
new cadets filled the fireproof barracks and overflowed into a frame building
nearby, and Mr. Culver without delay began an additional barracks to hold forty
more cadets.
The
catalogue of 1896-97, published in June 1897, the first catalogue with roster
of cadets theretofore published, showed 122 cadets, and a graduating class of
seven.
But
we must go back again for a few years before continuing our history of the
school.
In
1888 Mr. Culver again took up the reins in the Wrought Iron Range Company, and
upon the retirement of his brother, L. L., there were thrust upon him greater
responsibilities and duties. His reappearance at the office with health much
improved and full of energy, gave a great impetus to the business, and a few
years later, in 1894, the capital invested in the manufacture of ranges was
over $1,000,000.
It
was about this period of prosperity that the republican party of his district
offered to Mr. Culver the nomination to congress, and for a short time he
considered the matter rather favorably, but later concluded that he could not
accept the nomination without seriously neglecting his engrossing business
engagements, and he declined the honor. It was in keeping with Mr. Culver's
character that he made no mention of this incident except to his closest
friends.
His
sons were now engaged with him in business, and, entrusting many of the details
to them, it was possible for Mr. Culver to spend much of his time at Maxinkuckee
in the years 1895 and 1896.
But
in the latter part of 1896 his health began again to fail, and with some
fluctuations it soon became apparent that it was steadily growing worse, until
during the summer of r897 his condition caused his friends the gravest anxiety.
Mr.
Culver had lived at such a high pressure and with such extraordinary calls on
his mental and physical activity that he seemed at the age of fifty-seven to
have drained the powers of an exceptionally vigorous constitution, and, despite
the efforts of physicians, to have possessed no capacity for recuperation. But
his life, though by comparison not a long one, had in virtue of its
achievements, a rounded completeness such as the lives of few men present.
Most
of this cottage on the lake, and when-
HISTORY
OF MARSHALL COUNTY
351
ever
he was well enough, he would pass many hours each day on the porch,
looking
across at the beautiful buildings and grounds of the academy, and was always
delighted to hear reports of the progress of the work in filling the now
enlarged barracks with new and enthusiastic cadets. He lived to see the school
opened in September with every room filled and with ample promise of the rapid
and substantial growth, which has since been attained. ‘
About
the middle of September he was removed to his home in St. Louis, where he died
Sunday, September 26, 1897.
It
is difficult to give an adequate picture of so many-sided a man as H. H.
Culver. It has been said of him that with his wide range of mental powers it
would be hard to name a sphere of action in which he could not have attained
success. He was first of all a wonderfully acute and successful man of affairs.
He left property which placed him high in the millionaire class of his city,
and all accumulated by his own efforts; but he was much more than a mere
business man; he was an idealist and a philanthropist. This is illustrated most
strikingly in his relations with his employees. At the time of Mr. Culver's
death the Wrought Iron Range Company had in its employment about 400 salesmen,
and the same number of workmen in its factories, and at the malleable and grey
iron foundries, engaged in preparing material for their ranges, about 300 more,
or 1,100 men employed in their various industries in St. Louis, Denver and
Toronto, Canada. Mr. Culver was not content with merely winning success for
him- self; he aimed at encouraging and assisting others to do the same. Few
heads of large business enterprises have done as much for their employees in
the way of pushing them forward and urging them to win success for themselves
by strenuous effort. His relation with his employees was marked by the greatest
kindliness on his part, and by hearty respect and genuine affection on theirs,
and when he gave his confidence he gave it without reserve. One instance of his
dealings with his men will suffice to show the spirit, which always animated
him:
During
the panic of 1893 the employees of the Wrought Iron Range Company agreed to a
Reduction of wages in order to enable the company to run continuously through
this period of depression without laying off any of their men. After the crisis
was passed, oil the payday before Christmas, there was placed in the envelope
of each employee a note of friendly greeting and an amount of gold equal to the
entire reduction of their pay during the panic through which they had passed.
It was such generous acts as these that bound to Mr. Culver as by hooks of
steel the loyal employees of the company.
Mr.
Culver's benevolences were varied and extensive. It was his pleasure to forward
every worthy object; but to help young men struggling to rise under
difficulties and to gain an education, always appealed to him most strongly,
and it will never be known how many of these received assistance from him. It
may easily be imagined that his first conception of a school for the education
of boys came to him when he realized how great was the demand for such help by
worthy young men.
HISTORY
OF MARSHALL COUNTY 352
Mr.
Culver was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church of St. Louis, and was
always a liberal and generous contributor to its support He was also a Knight
Templar and a Thirty-second Degree Scottish Rite Mason. *
In
coming in contact with Mr. Culver personally, one realized most clearly what is
meant by the often-used phrase "personal magnetism”; nor in his case was
it hard to discover the sources of that power of attracting and holding the
attention. There was in him a natural flow of eloquent speech, a vivid
imagination, and a generous heartiness of manner of which everyone felt the
fascination. No one who met him could forget the sincerity and noble simplicity
that characterized all his words and actions, the quick response to every
emotion, the spontaneous humor and ready wit. Striking as were his powers of
intellect, it was above all his large-hearted- ness and sympathetic kindliness
that one most admired and was attracted by.
He
was a most impressive talker; brimful of eloquence, by turns fiery and
impassioned, again humorous or pathetic. He seemed unconsciously to follow the
poet's advice: "If you would move me, first be moved your- self." His
words came straight from his heart, and he talked to convince and persuade.
Nothing could be more picturesque and vivid than the language he employed,
entirely free from conventional or artificial phrases, simple, direct,
original.
Mr.
Culver had at his command an inexhaustible stock of reminiscences, which he
would apply with admirable skill to the subject in hand. Nor less admirable
were those pithy sentences, full of practical wisdom, with which he would
"point a moral or adorn a tale." Among his favorite thoughts, to
which he would return again and again, were two which were most characteristic
of the man, and furnished the keynote of his success. These were: growth as the
test of health in business; and character, and the heart as being a more
important factor of success in life than the intellect. "Keep on growing,
expanding," he would say, with that emphatic sweep of the arms, "growth,
no matter how little, that's the main thing." And again, "I believe
that though a man were as eloquent as Webster, and as great a general as Grant,
he will come to nothing if his heart is not right."
The
Wrought Iron Range Company, after the retirement of Mr. W. W. Culver passed
entirely into the hands of Mr. H. H. Culver's family. It has continued to grow
and prosper under their management, as they have continued to build wisely upon
the foundation laid for them in the past. The five sons, W. L. Culver, H. H.
Culver, Jr., E. R. Culver, B. B. Culver, and K. K. Culver, with their mother,
are also the trustees of the Culver Military Academy, and most liberally and
loyally have they followed their mother's inspiration to build in the school
which he loved, the greatest and most enduring monument to his memory.
In
twelve years, from a corps of thirty cadets, quartered in a frame
*
Mr. Culver was also a charter member of the Masonic lodge at Culver, whose name
was changed to the Henry H. Culver Lodge after his death, in compliment to him.
HISTORY
OF MARSHALL COUNTY 353
building,
and scarcely known within its own state, to an enrollment within the year
1907-08 (winter and summer) of 677 cadets, over double the number receiving
military instruction in any other private school in the United States, with
four splendid fireproof barracks, a superb riding hall, gymnasium, and
hospital, all built and equipped at a cost of half a million, and officially
designated by the war department as one of the six distinguished institutions
of the country, and recognized the world over as the highest type of private
military school-such in brief is the truly remarkable history of the growth of
the Culver Military Academy. In all the annals of school history there is no
other record such as this.
This
great phalanx of turret red buildings that has sprung up as if by magic along
the shores of Lake Maxinkuckee is but the housing for executive and educational
experience gained through half a century under great divergence of place and
circumstances, and brought together by Providence for concrete expression in
the erection of a great school. The philanthropic plan of the founder was not
the impulse of a moment, but was the outgrowth of a desire that had been born
of his own youthful struggles against adversity, and the yearning of his
magnanimous heart to assist others in the pursuit of knowledge. The wisdom that
chose so advantageous a site was gained through many years of successful
business experience. This wisdom saw the gushing fountains of pure artesian
water, and realized their relation to the health of the student body; it took
into account the exquisite lake and its resources for healthful recreation; it
considered the purity of the atmosphere, the absence of temptation, and the
beautiful surroundings with their unconscious influence upon impressionable
youth.
The
knowledge of men that selected the educator under whose guidance the internal
machinery of the school was put in motion and perfected was gained through half
a century's experience with many men in many walks of life. The prudent
business sagacity that guided the great material growth, building for utility
only, but building for all time the best and the fittest buildings counted a
model of their kind, was an inheritance to young, enthusiastic, capable
business men, building a great monument to their father, its founder,
stimulated by filial loyalty and affection, and proceeding with judgment and
foresight.
Behind
the success of every school must lie the same simple causes, the excellence of
its training, and the adequacy of its equipment.
The
original main barracks was built complete in itself, with quarters, class
rooms, and mess hall, to accommodate about the number to which a school in the
ordinary rtm of things would grow in the first ten years of its existence. With
the absorption of Col. Fleet's school from Missouri, this building at once
became inadequate, and Mr. Culver, without even waiting for the snow and ice of
winter to pass, at once constructed the west barracks to accommodate forty-four
cadets and two officers, and containing six section rooms, one physical
laboratory and one chemical laboratory. This was in 1897. This enlarged plant
did not meet the entire demand for admittance for even one year, and two years
later, in 1899, another building
354 HISTORY
OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
was
added, the east barracks, to accommodate sixty cadets and two officers, with
hospital of four rooms, two laboratories, and library. The latter room made an
important addition to the academic equipment of the school. This has since been
increased by adding the adjoining laboratory, which was converted into a stack
room, the original library being now furnished as a comfortable and attractive
reading room. The library contains over 4,000 volumes.
In
the year intervening between the construction of the west and the east
barracks, a building was erected which marked an epoch in the school's development,
and was an unmistakable indication of the unusually broad and comprehensive
lines" along which it was the intention of the trustees to develop the
school. Many people wondered at the time, and doubtless questioned the policy
that erected as subsidiary equipment to a comparatively small school, a riding
hall which was finer than those built by the national government for its
cavalry posts or at West Point, and probably without a superior in the world.
This remarkable building, one hundred and four by two hundred and twelve feet,
of brick and stone, with great steel trussed roof, of ornate architecture and
incorporating every essential of the complete riding arena, was erected at a
cost of $50,000. Indeed it was a wonderful building for a private school of 122
cadets; but time ha~ justified the policy that built it. N o school investment
ever paid bigger dividends of benefit to its students. There are strong-bodied,
virile young men effectively fighting the battle of life today who went into
this laboratory of muscle and energy as spindling youngsters and who came out
of it strong and vigorous, with abounding energy stored in their fibres that
never could have been acquired throughout an ordinary school course.
So
even in the infancy of the school the trustees gave it this wonderful source of
physical development, a splendidly equipped cavalry department, at once an
assurance of a broad policy, and an emphatic evidence of their confidence in
the future, of the school.
The
additional barracks necessitated greater capacity for the heating and lighting
plant, and between January and May of 1899 the boiler room was enlarged, two
additional tubular boilers installed, and six rooms for employees were built
over the engine room, a brick stack one hundred feet high being also
constructed. A powder magazine, covered gallery for formations, and new walks
in the grounds were other improvements of that year.
Notwithstanding
the addition of the east barracks to the school's capacity in 1899, the fall of
1900 found the school again full to overflowing, and so large a waiting list of
disappointed applicants that it was decided to build immediately a third story
to the north wing of the main barracks. This was pushed as rapidly as possible,
and rooms to accommodate twenty- two cadets and two officers were added to the
school's capacity and at once filled.
Between
the years of 1900 and 1904, despite a waiting list each fall, no additional
barracks were built, but an important addition was made to the
HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY
355
.
academic
facilities of the school. In 1903 a fourth story was added to the large main
barracks, this being solely for academic purposes, and containing a drafting
room, physical laboratory, chemical laboratory, biological laboratory, Y. M. C.
A. room, chemical and physical lecture rooms, dentist's office, barber shop,
and dark room for amateur photographers.
This
addition to the school's academic facilities made it possible to instruct
effectively an increased number of cadets, and opened the way for the
construction of new barracks. Consequently in 1904 the south barracks was
built, with capacity for ninety cadets and three officers.
During
1903-04 a splendid gymnasium was constructed. In its relation to the physical
training of the cadets this was as important and complete an addition to the
school's equipment as was the riding hall, erected some years previous, and was
again a demonstration of the school's policy to build only the best and
fittest, and to afford its cadets unequalled facilities in every department.
This building was destroyed by fire June I, 1906, but was immediately rebuilt.
This is the largest and most complete private school gymnasium in existence. It
is constructed in the Tudor Gothic style of architecture. The main gymnasium
hall is seventy-five by one hundred and forty feet. It has walls of white,
enamel brick, capped by a heavy oak rail, to which are fastened pulley weights
and other wall apparatus. The floor is of polished hard maple. A suspended
running track-seventeen laps to the mile-and gallery, skirt the four walls. The
roof is supported by steel trusses, and no pillar or post mars the ample floor
space. Opening into the main hall are apparatus room, measuring room, filled
with the best anthropometric apparatus, director's room, locker room, drying
room, and baths. In connection with the latter is a system of showers designed,
or it might be said, invented, especially for this building. The class, after
exercising, marches around the shower room, and on completion of the circuit
has received a scientifically regulated shower bath, warm on entrance and
gradually, by an ingenious arrangement, decreasing in temperature so that the
water at the end is of an invigorating coolness.
In
1907 a separate hospital building was erected, of strictly fireproof
construction, and equipped with the latest sanitary appliances. It is two
stories high, has a diet kitchen, independent heating and lighting systems, and
accommodations for twenty-five patients. The style of architecture is the Tudor
Gothic, which admits of highly ornate trimmings and is peculiarly adapted to
buildings for this purpose. The architectural treatment combines the restful
and quiet effect essential to hospitals, with the massive and dignified appearance
appropriate to military buildings. A reception hall divides the first story
longitudinally; this hall also serves as a waiting room. On the left of the
reception hall are located the surgeon's office and chambers also the
operating, sterilizing, and emergency rooms. On the right of the reception hall
is the contagion ward, with separate baths, nurse's quarters, kitchen, etc.
This portion of the building is absolutely isolated from the other rooms for
the purpose of safe quarantine in case of contagion.
And
so from year to year the remarkable growth of the school has
356
HISTORY
OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
steadily
continued, until today an imposing group of eight large buildings " and
numerous smaller structures, with beautiful grounds and athletic fields, has
stands as a monument to Mr. Culver, perpetuating his name in connection has
with the highest type of complete mental, moral, and physical training
that can be afforded to youth.
The
following table shows the attendance of the school from year to year:
Year.
Cadets. Year Cadets
1896-97
122 1902-03 279
1897-98 158 1903-04
327
1898-99 171 1904-05 386
1899-00
242 1905-06 529
1900-01
260 1906-07 514
1901-022 49 1907-08
677
The
school has been from the first distinctly a: military school. Its uniform has
been no mere idle sham to tickle the fancy, but has stood for the highest
standard of honor and discipline. The fact that this twelve year-old school,
out of the hundreds of military schools in this country, is today designated by
the war department as one of the six distinguished institutions of the United
States indicates at once the superiority of its methods.
The
school has appreciated from the start that the best results could be obtained
from a military system that was as real and as thorough as if the making of
soldiers were its chief and only aim. Such a system enlists at once the boy's
pride and interest, and impresses him with its force and reality. It strips him
of every artificial garnishment of parental wealth or social or political
prominence, puts him absolutely on his own merits; garbs him in the same
uniform, locates him in the same sort of room, and affords him exactly the same
opportunities as his fellows; places him in an atmosphere where he learns to
know and respect true merit for its own - sake, and where he will make the best
of himself.
The
school has realized also that interest and variety must furnisl1 the incentive
in a military course in a private school, and has provided facilities for a
range of military instruction, which approximates in the scope and extent of
its practical features the course at West Point, and is equaled by that of no
other private school. Infantry, cavalry, artillery, signaling, first aid, and
military engineering, all contribute their quota to the training of the Culver
cadet.
The
cavalry school was added in 1898, and was at once provided with the splendid
riding hall, already described. The first mounts for the cavalry department were
purchased from the famous Troop A, of Cleveland, and were the handsome blacks
on which the troop rode when they acted as President McKinley's escort at his
first inauguration. This is a department that makes a powerful appeal to a
boy's interest, and every facility has been provided to contribute to his full
enjoyment and benefit. The result
HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY 357
has
been that the cadets have acquired a proficiency in their riding that has given
the Culver cavalry department a world-wide reputation. They have distinguished
themselves as the official escort of Gov. Mount and a Gov. Durbin, of Indiana,
as Admiral Dewey's escort in the Dewey parade in St. Louis; in the jubilee
parade in Chicago; and on various other public occasions. At the World's Fair
in St. Louis they attracted especial attention, and many foreign correspondents
gave them prominence through the periodicals of their various countries. The
stimulus to the esprit de corps of such widespread praise is easily
imagined, and has furnished an incentive to continued and even greater
excellence.
The
infantry battalion also has gained an enviable reputation for the precision of
its drill, and for the splendid set up and military bearing of its cadets.
Various officers from the war department who have inspected the battalion have
accorded it the highest praise. Maj. John S. Mallory,
in
his report of May 13 and 14, 1906, states: "It is in fact a splendidly
equipped up-to-date military school, and shows what can be accomplished at a
private military institution when supplied with abundant capital." And
Capt. J. A. Penn, in a report dated May 9 and 10, 19°7, says that, the cadets
at the Culver Military Academy "would compare most favorably with the
cadets at the United States Military Academy."
Returning
to Mr. Culver's original idea and in order to afford an opportunity for an
organized vacation, and to avoid the undesirable effects of a summer aimlessly
spent, the school in 1902 started its summer naval school. Through the efforts
of the Indiana delegation in congress, a law was passed authorizing the loan to
the academy of man-of-war cutters for the practical instruction of cadets, in a
course of boat drills similar to those given to the fourth class at Annapolis.
The
naval course, with its wholesome, open-air exercises, its picturesque ness, and
its touch of romance, has proved an ideal solution of the summer problem,
giving boys a change of thought and action, a coat of an tan and the hardened
muscles that every boy considers a necessary part of a successful vacation. At
the same time, the school has retained during the summer its experienced staff
of teachers, and has afforded to those cadets who desire it an opportunity for
careful tutoring in their studies. The summer school has grown rapidly, and in
five years has increased from an attendance of twenty-two cadets to 345.
In
1907, the summer cavalry school was also started, in order to afford every, boy
who were fond of riding an opportunity of taking the cavalry course during the
summer months. This bids faIr to be as successful as the naval feature.
During
the summer session of 1907, the cadets of both the naval and the cavalry
schools made an extended excursion to the east, visiting the James- town
Exposition, Washington, and Annapolis. Their work was highly, complimented by
distinguished officers of both the army and the navy.
It
has been thought proper, in connection with the sketch of Mr. Culver's life, to
insert this much of the history of the Culver Military Academy, which was his
gift primarily to Marshall county and the state of Indiana, and because its
success has been largely due to his wisdom in its location and to the plans
laid by him for its future development.