Cedarville Magazine, Fall 2017

When descendants of America’s Scotch/Irish immigrants settled in the Ohio Valley, they organized a church congregation and formed a General Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. In the 1880s, the Synod leaders determined to establish a college to educate pastors and teachers for their denomination’s youth. A committee of five men began searching for a location in the Cedarville area. Corporation papers were drafted and the state of Ohio granted a charter on January 26, 1887. The trustees purchased property in May 1888. On May 10, they reported $9,729.35 had been pledged to the school, but the treasury had received only $549. Over the next two years, efforts to raise funds failed, and finally, in a spirit of despair, the trustees concluded that “the whole enterprise be abandoned.” 1 However, the Synod rejected the resolution, and Cedarville College survived in name only. Then, on May 24, 1892, the treasury reported that the college had received a $25,000 bequest from the estate of William Gibson. According to Cedarville’s archivist Lynn Brock ’68, the Gibson gift, a total surprise, today would be worth $650,000. An advertising campaign was immediately launched, and on September 19, 1894, the first students entered Cedarville. Through the years the college remained small, but effective, in training pastors and educators for the Presbyterian Synod. But, in the early decades of the 20th century, the college continued to be financially strapped. By the 1920s, the trustees began considering support from the much larger Presbyterian Church (USA) denomination. Cedarville would need to separate from the tiny (13 churches) Reformed Presbyterian Synod for this to happen. The Reformed Presbyterians, recognizing their inability to provide financial help, released the college, and Cedarville immediately petitioned the Presbyterian Church (USA), but was rejected! With no supporting church body, Cedarville became a private entity owned solely by its Board of Trustees. It was a Christian school without a church or constituency. The trustees became a self-perpetuating board, completely responsible for the assets and liabilities of the college. Soon America was caught in the Great Depression, which was devastating for small institutions. Then World War II took young people from the halls of colleges to the battlefields BY MURRAY MURDOCH ONLY THE HAND OF GOD CAN EXPLAIN CEDARVILLE 2 | Cedarville Magazine For the “old-timers” at Cedarville, there is a phrase oft-uttered that is undeniably true: “The only way to explain Cedarville is God.” From the countless illustrations of this truth, let me reflect on just a few. PROVIDENTIAL