Cyrus W. Hodgin
Indiana State
Normal School
1872-1881

Cyrus W. Hodgin was a well
respected professor during his nine years at Indiana State
Normal School. With his passion for the past, Professor
Hodgin had the reputation of capturing and holding his students’ interest when
he was lecturing. Indeed, even during
his short time at Indiana
State Normal
School, he became one of the most beloved and
popular professors, thereby converting many a student to the study of
history.
Cyrus Hodgin was in fact the
first full-time professor of history at Indiana State
Normal School. Until the founding of an actual Department of
History in September 1872, history was taught by President Jones or another
member of the staff not already overloaded with work. As a recent graduate of Illinois State
Normal University,
Hodgin was thus hired in the fall of 1872 in order to provide Indiana Normal
students with a certified and experienced guide in the study of the past. Hodgin’s responsibilities at ISNS expanded
soon thereafter, however. Using funds
donated by a benefactor in 1873 for the purchase of books, the school’s
president acquired a good many volumes for the library, and then quickly
delegated the responsibility for managing this growing collection to
Hodgin. In addition to these duties,
Hodgin, along with Samuel Parr, launched a school newspaper in 1879 called the State Normal News. Professors Hodgin and Parr became both
promoters and editors of this small monthly newspaper, which cost subscribers
fifty cents per year.
The Indiana State
Normal School had been
headed by President William A. Jones since the school’s founding in the late
1860’s. He was the mastermind that
united the school and got it off the ground.
He had also given special attention to finding enthusiastic and tireless
workers to serve as professors. Jones
was very confident that he had organized and perfected a system that could run
without his guidance, if necessary. As a
new school year began in 1878, that system was to be put to the test. Jones had been suffering from an illness that
worsened to such an extent that he felt he had to resign; however, he was held
in such high esteem that the Board of Trustees asked him to reconsider and to
take a leave of absence instead.
Significantly, Cyrus Hodgin was one of two professors then appointed to
carry out presidential duties during Jones’ ensuing absence. Hodgin readily accepted, and served in this
regard for over a year until Jones finally resigned at the behest of his
physician, and a new president, George P. Brown, was appointed.
Unfortunately, Brown’s tenure as
president was a rocky one, as he came to be particularly disliked by many
faculty members who believed him to be taking their authority for his own. The situation came to a head at a Board of
Trustees meeting in the spring of 1881, at which none other than Cyrus Hodgin
read a statement penned by himself and four other prominent faculty members
condemning Brown’s leadership. After
investigating these charges, the Board found in Brown’s favor, and declared
that the protesting faculty members should either forget their protest or
resign. All five authors of the
petition, including Hodgin, immediately resigned.
Following his resignation, Hodgin remained in Terre Haute for a time to
rest and to work for various civic institutions. He soon accepted an offer to serve as
Superintendent for the Rushville school system, but left this position shortly
thereafter to direct a private normal school in Richmond, Indiana. This did not hold his interest for long,
however, and in 1887 he took up a post as professor of history at Earlham College, where he remained until his
death in 1908.
Cyrus Hodgin married a fellow Illinois State Normal
University graduate,
Emily Chandler, in 1867; they had one child together. Hodgin passed away on October 3, 1908. At the time of his death, he still held the
Chair of History and Political Economy at Earlham. Having begun his teaching career in 1861,
Hodgin had thus influenced students in Indiana
for almost fifty years—eight of them at Indiana State
Normal School, where he
impacted both students and future teachers alike.
Kylei Tumey
2007
References
“Cyrus W. Hodgin.” The Normal
Advance (October 1908). Terre Haute: Indiana State Teachers College,
1908.
Illinois State
Normal University Alumni Registry, 1860-1882. Accessed March 18, 2007.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilgwrefs/school/isnu1882.html.
Lynch, William O. A
History of Indiana
State Teachers
College. Terre Haute:
Indiana State Teachers College,
1946.