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Orello Cone
(1880-1896)
Orello Cone was born in Lincklaen, New York on November 16, 1835 and was raised on his family’s farm. He was educated at the New Woodstock Academy and Cazenovia Seminary in New York and began teaching at the age of eighteen. After a short period of study at St. Paul’s College in Missouri, he stayed on as Principal of the Preparatory Department and Assistant Professor of Latin and Greek. After the outbreak of the Civil War, Cone briefly attended an Episcopal seminary, but returned to central New York where he was attracted to Universalism and began preaching in Cazenovia.
After receiving a Universalist fellowship in 1864, Cone was ordained at the church in Little Falls, New York. The next year he became Professor of Biblical Languages and Literature at the Theological School at St. Lawrence University. In 1877 he received an honorary D.D. from Lombard College. Three years later Cone left New York to become the third President of Buchtel College.
Cone was already well known in the Universalist denomination due to his prolific writing, which continued during his sixteen-year presidency at Buchtel College. Cone’s greatest achievements as President were balancing the curriculum by adopting the elective system and greatly expanding the small student body by recruiting non-Universalist students. In spite of his accomplishments, he was forced to resign in 1896 because he emphasized scholarship over administration, fundraising, and the football team. He also caused a rift between the College and the local Universalist congregation as well as the Ohio Universalist Convention and was deemed too “reticent,” seldom standing up for the College.
Following his time in Akron, Cone spent a year studying at the University of Berlin and in Paris and London, enhancing his expertise in the field of Higher Criticism. When he returned to the United States, Cone served as minister of the Unitarian Church in Lawrence, Kansas, starting in 1897. In 1899, he returned to St. Lawrence University as Professor of Biblical Theology and Ethics where he served until his passing in Canton, New York on June 23, 1905.
“A college is not for a day, nor a generation. Its foundations are laid for the ages, and it is for the ages to build broad and high thereon. Let us in the present time do our duty, with the assurance that we shall have wrought and builded not alone for present congratulation, but for those who, in years to come, shall rise up and call us blessed.”
– Orello Cone
From The University of Akron President’s Office Records in Archival Services of University Libraries
During his inaugural address, President Cone discussed the interests and purposes of Higher Education, and warned against the indifference and opposition to education at that time. He also stressed the connection between the College and the city and higher education’s connection with the public schools. Finally, he stressed the importance of the College, which in his words was to “furnish higher education to the utmost possible extent to the sons and daughters of the people,” and reiterated Buchtel College’s pledge to “the policy of co-education” and “the education and elevation of women.”
From The University of Akron Publications Collection in Archival Services of University Libraries
During President Cone’s administration, the first Master’s degrees at Buchtel College were awarded at the commencement ceremonies held in June of 1880. They were conferred upon William D. Shipman, first Librarian of the College, and Lizzie Slade Voris, mother of Lydia Voris Kolbe, wife of Buchtel College President Parke R. Kolbe.
From The University of Akron President’s Office Records in Archival Services of University Libraries
One of President Cone’s responsibilities was to raise funds for the maintenance and upkeep of the College and to keep education affordable for its students. This letter to the Universalist Congregation appeals for their support, for as Cone stated in his inaugural address, “it appeals to the friends of education and humanity in this state . . . to come to its aid . . . its first appeal is to the denomination.” However, he reiterated that the College was “denominational only so far as it has been established,” and that on those grounds it “is thus a school for the people and especially for the people of Akron and vicinity, it appeals to them for sympathy, patronage and material aid.”
From The University of Akron President’s Office Records in Archival Services of University Libraries
In his annual report to the Board for 1885-1886, Cone states that attendance remained flat, but considered this “progress” due to “the hard times” at the College. He also praises the “fidelity, earnestness, and ability of the faculty” and states that “I have no hesitation in saying that better work is not…done in any college in the country.”
From The University of Akron Photographs Collection in Archival Services of University Libraries
Under the direction of President Cone, Buchtel College’s first gymnasium was built, in 1888. The 102 by 53 foot structure was named after George W. Crouse who provided half the funding. It was called “the finest gym west of the Alleghenies.”
From The University of Akron Photographs Collection in Archival Services of University Libraries
During President Cone’s administration an observatory was built on campus near Old Buchtel Hall, in 1877. However, the real credit goes to Charles S. Howe, Professor of Mathematics, whom Cone hired and who secured the necessary funds for constructing and equipping the observatory.
From The University of Akron Publications Collection in Archival Services of University Libraries
One of President Cone’s greatest accomplishments was balancing the curriculum by adopting the elective system allowing students to elect subjects from any courses they wished to complete their degree, as seen in this 1887-1888 Buchtel College Catalog. According to the late University Historian Emeritus Dr. George W. Knepper, “Buchtel was one of the first colleges to adopt the elective principle in a generous way.”
From The University of Akron Photographs Collection in Archival Services of University Libraries
Orello Cone’s adoption of the elective system led to the creation of Buchtel College’s first departments, in 1885. It also resulted in new course offerings, including this lighting and photography class. Although the cost of instruction increased under the new system, so did attendance, which rose 100 percent.
From The University of Akron Photographs Collection in Archival Services of University Libraries
President Cone’s adoption of the elective system required additional specialized instructors and he was especially adept at attracting and keeping top-notch faculty, including Professor of English Mary B. Jewett. Cone received criticism for hiring Jewett and other new faculty members who were not of the Universalist faith.
From The University of Akron Photographs Collection in Archival Services of University Libraries
Football came to Buchtel College in 1891 during President Cone’s administration. A permanent coach and director of athletics was sought with Cone’s approval and the College hired John W. Heisman (top left) who went on to college coaching fame and had the Heisman Trophy named in his honor. Heisman served as athletic director and coach of the baseball and football teams during the 1893-1894 academic year, amassing an impressive record. Due to a lack of players, Heisman played in a number of games, including the institution’s only victory over The Ohio State University, on September 5, 1894.
From The University of Akron Faculty Publications Collection in Archival Services of University Libraries
President Cone was a distinguished scholar, prolific writer, and one of the foremost interpreters and expositors of current European biblical scholarship. While President of Buchtel College he published Gospel-Criticism and Historical Christianity (1891) and The Gospel and Its Earliest Interpretations (1893). In 1892, Cone joined two Harvard professors in editing the quarterly Universalist publication New World.
“Orello Cone was an able, upright honourable man, a master of six or seven languages, a scholar eloquent of tongue and pen.”
– Maria Parsons