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Martha Elizabeth (Murdock) McMillan said a prayer on
the graduation day of her son, Homer, that many Christian
moms would still “Amen” today: “May all that is good and
best and highest and grandest and noblest and holiest
in life crown my boys.” She wrote those words in her
journal, pictured here, on Cedarville University’s first
commencement day, held at theCedarvilleOperaHouse.
Homer was one of five students in the first
graduating class of 1897. His brother, Fred, had
graduated the year before from Monmouth College.
“This was a grand gathering in the Opera House today,”
McMillan recalled. “It will always stand out above
and over days bright and beautiful.”
McMillan and husband James raised 10 children
on their homestead near Cedarville. Her journals,
comprising 8,000 to 10,000 handwritten pages,
were given to the Cedarville University archives
in the late 1980s.
After graduation, Homer attended Union
Seminary in New York City and Reformed
Seminary in New Jersey. He pastored churches
in New Jersey, Los Angeles, and Georgia, before
serving asCoordinate Secretarywith theExecutive
Committee of Missions with the Presbyterian
Church in the United States. His biography from
The Cedrus
(1916) is also pictured.
AMother’s Prayer on
Graduation Day - 1897
Cedarville Magazine
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