By Megan Melone, Writer
Photos by McKendree University @McKendreeu and Getty Images
Over 540 new freshman and transfer students joined the McKendree family this fall as a part of the historic class of 2028. McKendree’s faculty and students formally welcomed the new students at the convocation ceremony on August 27th and led them onto the grounds with the soulful bagpipe. The ceremony concluded with students partaking in one of McKendree’s oldest traditions, the signing of the matricula. The students’ names joined the countless other alumni and current students that are forever remembered on the pages of the matricula in the university’s archives.
President Daniel Dobbins greeted the new students by saying, “You have become part of a family here at McKendree, and that family is here for you. We will do our very best every day to educate, to support, to nurture, and to serve you in a manner that treats you as a member of the family you’ve become part of – the One McKendree family.”
The class of 2028 is McKendree’s bicentennial class with the university quickly approaching its 200th birthday. Founded in 1828, McKendree has survived some of the most influential moments in history: the Civil War, World War I, the Great Depression, World War II, and even the disco craze in the 1970s! McKendree has both experienced a lot in its 200 years, and history begs to be recorded if only someone were up to the challenge of recording it all. That someone is Dr. Frederking. Dr. Brian Frederking is a McKendree alumnus and professor of political science and has taught here for 27 years. Frederking is writing a detailed record of McKendree University’s 200-year lifespan.
I interviewed Dr. Frederking about the bicentennial project:
When did the project begin?
FREDERKING: It started over a year ago. I have already done quite a bit, I’ve gone through all of the student Reviews (McKendree newspapers). I am going through board minutes right now. There is just a lot of archival research. [The university archives are located in the basement of Holman Library.]
So, we’ll come back to the project, but [let’s talk] about you. You’ve been here for 27 years; where did you go to school?
FREDERKING: Syracuse (University). Master’s degree and PhD at Syracuse, and I’m an alum; I graduated from McKendree in 1990. So I’m a lifer. [laughs]
Wow yeah, you’ve been here a long time. So, when you first came to teach here what was your first class?
FREDERKING: [laughs] The first class … oh my goodness. I remember being nervous. I don’t remember what class it was. [laughs] I have a better story: When I was in grad school at Syracuse, the first class I taught was an adult education course. I was the youngest person in the room. [laughs] It was a U.S. foreign policy class, and there were Vietnam vets in the room as students. And I am teaching U.S. foreign policy, and they were Vietnam vets. So, that was …
Intimidating?
FREDERKING: Yes. I started wearing ties just to fake authority.
So, the project, how do you begin to start going through everything in the archives?
FREDERKING: [laughs] Well, it’s why I started five years before. It is a big project. I am asking for help. I have had students through the honors program do some research for me. I’ve had students through just work-study do research for me, as well as an honors course for credit, so about three different funnels. It’s a big project. [laughs] I’ve already got a couple hundred pages.
Is this a thesis you are writing?
FREDERKING: No, it’s just a historical document. There are some themes that have come up; I think one is just the way that U.S. history at large has influenced the college. The school was doing ok, and then the Civil War hit and enrollment went down by half. Then we’re doing ok when World War I hits and the Great Depression hits. So, [McKendree’s history] overlaps with U.S. history in interesting ways, as well as how close we came to closing in the 1840s and 1880s. It was touch-and-go for a while. There are a lot of small colleges that don’t make it, so just the fact that we made it 200 years is something.
Would you ever consider writing a novel on McKendree’s history?
FREDERKING: Uh … this is hard enough as it is.
I have heard that McKendree started through the Methodist Church. Have you learned a lot on its beginning?
FREDERKING: We usually talk about the Methodist Church as founding the school, but it was actually begun by the citizens of Lebanon in 1828, and the Methodist Church didn’t endorse it until two years later. The citizens started hoping for support and not knowing that it would come. There are really interesting stories about other options for endorsement, and there was competition. In 1829 there were three different options they were choosing from, so it was possible that [the college] was not going to get Methodist support. In its infancy, it was sort of touch-and-go whether this school would work or not. But the Methodist Church became essential to the school’s survival. The churches would literally collect money; the congregations would send their kids. So, it started off in that way, which is also one of the more interesting themes all the way through: Is McKendree a liberal arts school or is McKendree a religious school? There have been tensions all the way through. There are some interesting stories.
I always heard it was William McKendree that founded the school.
FREDERKING: Well, the school is named after him. He was the most important bishop in the country at the time. But the citizens of Lebanon started [the school] in 1828. It was just local people. Then there was the process of multiple options and will the Methodist church support this? So, the bishop showed interest in the Lebanon campus, and the folks running the school at the beginning decided to take advantage of that and named the school after this really important bishop. That then helped convince the Methodist Church in Illinois to support the school.
One last thing: We’re the Bearcats. Do you know where that came from?
FREDERKING: [laughs] Yes! Nobody really knows. There are two theories: It is the 1920s – I went through the McKendree Reviews – in the early ‘20s the newspaper called the sports team “The Purple.” Then, about 1925, it’s “Bearcats,” but it’s two words, capital “B” and capital “C” [Bear Cats]. So, the two theories are that, one, “Bear Cat” was the name of an automobile at the time. And two, “It’s a Bear and it’s a Cat” was an expression in those days for something that was excellent, above average. So, nobody really knows. There was an attempt in the 1950s to change it. One of the options was “the Circuit Riders,” which refers to Methodist preachers at the time. If you were a Methodist preacher, you didn’t have one congregation in one town; you were on a circuit, and you were riding horseback from town to town. So that was one of the possible options, but that would be odd. But there was this big contest. Everyone brought in suggestions, and they voted and decided to keep the bearcat.
Is there anything else you want to add?
FREDERKING: I think the coolest thing I have found so far is how often we have interacted with Abraham Lincoln.
Really? Ok tell me about it. I got to hear about that.
FREDERKING: [laughs] Oh, there’s like six or seven times. So, Peter Akers was the first president of McKendree College, and Abraham Lincoln called him “the best preacher he’s ever heard.” Peter Cartwright was the head of the Illinois Methodists who endorsed the church, and Peter Cartwright was Lincoln’s political rival. The only time Lincoln ever lost an election was to Peter Cartwright. Then when Abe Lincoln was first elected to Congress, he defeated Cartwright. Peter Cartwright was this sort of famous preacher at the time, maybe 20 or 30 years older than Lincoln. So when the young Lincoln beat the famous preacher, it was this big deal.
Edward Ames, like Ames Hall, was the first principal of the Lebanon Seminary. It wasn’t McKendree College until 1830. So, Ames was the first principal, and he became a bishop. He was good friends with Lincoln; Lincoln kept asking him to join his cabinet, but he wouldn’t do it. Instead, Ames was on the commission that exchanged prisoners between the North and the South during the Civil War. The most interesting story relating to the Civil War was a 15-year-old kid, he was too young but signed up to fight anyway. Eventually, he became a McKendree grad, and he was captured during the war and held in a southern prison. He meets another prisoner, and with the help of slaves, escapes to the North. The other prisoner was named Boston Corbett, and he is the guy that kills John Wilkes-Booth after Booth killed Lincoln.
A lot of the trees on the front lawn were planted in honor of the McKendree students that served in the Civil War.
FREDERKING: A lot of them were, yes. They started in 1860. We have “Civil War ghosts.” [laughs] The Methodist Church, at least the northern, was very abolitionist. We were the good guys all the way through. So that’s a nice story to tell. There’s a lot of colleges that have buildings named after slave owners, but we’re not one of them.
We were Union all the way.
FREDERKING: That’s right.
Dr. Frederking is looking for help on this project. He is also looking for students to write about the history of the Student Government Association and other registered student organizations. You can reach out to him bfrederk@mckendree.edu if interested.
