Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/51

THE PREPARING OF THE WAY 25 Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian students increased. The endow- ment was not secured, and the Board was compelled to assume the support of Professor Edgren as well as that of a new and growing department. Thus, while the Seminary was struggling for exist- ence, it took upon itself the additional burden of this new depart- ment and several thousand dollars of annual expense. In 1884 Dr. Edgren withdrew, taking the Swedish students with him, with a view of establishing an independent Swedish institution. The Danes and Norwegians remained. In 1888 the Swedes, not suc- ceeding as fully as they had hoped with their independent school, returned and resumed their connection with the Seminary, which thenceforth had three departments the American, the Danish- Norwegian, and the Swedish. There were in 1891 seven men in the American faculty, three in the Danish-Norwegian, and three in the Swedish. It goes without saying that the resources of the Seminary were utterly inadequate for meeting the large annual outlay required. Praiseworthy as was the spirit which led to the re-establishment of the Swedish department, from a business point of view it was wholly indefensible. The income of the Seminary, notwithstanding its endowment of a quarter of a million, again became, owing to these new departments, quite inadequate. The Theological Seminary always had loyal and generous friends. It always had an able, conservative, interested, and faithful Board of Trustees. The Board always conducted its work with the utmost harmony. Struggling with difficulties through many years, sometimes fighting an almost hopeless battle, these men were accustomed to make their actions unanimous, and were always found fronting their troubles shoulder to shoulder. And it was thus they won out in the end. They won and retained the confidence of the people. A united board had behind it a united denomination. John D. Rockefeller became interested in the fortunes of the Seminary in the early eighties. For nine years he served as vice-president of the Theological Union. He rivaled E. Nelson Blake in his contributions, continuing these from 1882 up to the union of the Seminary with the new University. As late as 1890 he arranged with President Northrup for a contribu- tion of fifty thousand dollars toward an additional hundred thousand