Biography

Eliphalet Nott is Notable.

Eliphalet Nott, a Presbyterian minister, was for many years the president of Union College in Schenectady, New York.

Eliphalet was a son of Stephen and Deborah (Selden) Nott, born at Ashford, Connecticut on June 25, 1773.^[1]

He was married to Sarah Benedict, daughter of Reverend Joel Benedict and his wife Sarah.^[2] Sarah (Benedict) Nott died on 9 March 1804 at Balls Town, New York.^[2]

In 1804, Eliphalet Nott became president of Union College in Schenectady, New York. He served the college as its president until his death in 1866.

Wikipedia

Eliphalet Nott (June 25, 1773 – January 25, 1866), was a famed Presbyterian minister, inventor, educational pioneer, and long-term president of Union College, Schenectady, New York.

Early life

Nott was born at Ashford, Connecticut, on June 25, 1773. He was the second son, and youngest of nine children, born to Stephen Nott and Deborah (née Selden) Nott.

In 1795, he earned a degree from Rhode Island College (which later became known as Brown University).

Career

Cover of pamphlet created from 1804 Nott sermon, On the Death of Hamilton

Opening text of sermon Around 1802, he was called to the Presbyterian Church at Albany, where he took a prominent position as a preacher and was heard by large congregations. Among his successful pulpit efforts at Albany was a sermon on the death of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, entitled On the Death of Hamilton, condemning the practice of dueling, that had profound influence in curtailing the custom and remains recognized to this day as an exemplary period example of the orator's art.

College Presidency

In 1804, at the age of 31, Nott became president of Union College, a role he served in until his death in 1866, during which time more than 4,000 students are estimated to have graduated from Union. He also served as president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute from 1829 to 1845,[3] where he "visited the school at least every third week and was compensated with one dollar per visit plus all graduation fees."

Upon assuming the presidency of Union, he reportedly found the College financially embarrassed and successfully worked to place it on sound footings. In the early 1830s, after the founding of the Union Triad fraternities, Nott called for the dissolution of all fraternities. He was dissuaded from this by a member of Delta Phi named John Jay Hyde.

In 1805, the College of New Jersey conferred upon him the title of D.D. (Doctor of Divinity), and in 1828, he received the title of LL.D. His publications include collections of sermons, Counsels to Young Men (1810), and Lectures on Temperance (1847). In 1814, Nott was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society.[5] A number of imprints authored by Nott, or related to him in some way, reside in the society's collections.

Inventor and real estate investor

As a scientist, he studied heat and obtaining some thirty or more patents for applications of heat to steam engines, but was best known in his day as the inventor of the first stove for anthracite coal, which was named for him.

Nott was an important land speculator and developer, partnering with his nephew Henry Sheldon Anable,[7] buying several farms on the Long Island shore of the East River that became the sites of industrial enterprises.[8]

Personal life

He married Sarah Marie "Sally" Benedict (1774–1804), the daughter of Rev. Joel Benedict of Plainfield, Connecticut, under whose instruction in early life he pursued his classical and mathematical studies. Before Sally's death at the age of 29 on March 10, 1804, they were the parents of:[9]

• Sarah Marie Nott (1799–1839), who married Bishop Alonzo Potter, brother of Bishop Horatio Potter.[10]
• John Nott (1801–1878), who married Mary Ann Lawrence (1824–1911) in 1830.[1]
• Benjamin Nott (1802–1881), who married Elizabeth Cooper (1808–1867), parents of Charles C. Nott.[11]

In 1807, he married Gertrude Peebles Tibbits (1771–1841), who died in January 1841.[4]

In 1842, a year and a half after the death of his second wife, Nott married the much younger Urania Elizabeth Sheldon (1806–1886),[13] a Troy Female Seminary graduate who was a well-known superintendent of several women's schools and the leader of several local benevolent associations.[14]

Beginning in 1860, Nott suffered a series of strokes while serving as president.[14] He died on January 25, 1866, in Schenectady, New York, and was buried at the Vale Cemetery in Schenectady. His widow died on April 19, 1886, at age 80.

Legacy

The Nott Memorial, a centerpiece of the Union College's campus, was built by his grandson, and Union graduate, Edward Tuckerman Potter and named in Nott's honor.[15]

Nott Road in Rexford, New York, the location of his farm, is named for him, as are Nott Street and Nott Terrace, which border Union College in Schenectady, New York. He remains the longest serving college president in the United States to this day.^[3]

3rd President of Rensselaer Institute

" Eliphalet Nott was born on June 25, 1773 and became a famed Presbyterian minister, inventor, and educational pioneer. The third president of Rensselaer, Nott at the same time served as president of Union College in Schenectady, New York. Nott was to a great extent self-educated, having never received college training. He studied divinity and at the age of twenty-one was sent out as a domestic missionary to central New York state to offer evangelical views.

"In 1796, Nott married Sarah Maria Benedict of Plainfield, and soon after, while passing through Cherry Valley, he was asked to take charge of the Presbyterian Church. He accepted the offer to be pastor in addition to becoming a teacher in the Cherry Valley Academy. In 1798 he was invited to preach at the Presbyterian Church in Albany, N.Y. where he remained until 1804 when he became president of Union College. He served as Union’s president for 62 years.

" Nott's wife Sarah died in 1804, and in 1807 he married Gertrude Peebles Tibbits of Troy. In 1829, while president of Union College, Nott was invited to be president of the Rensselaer Institute. He visited the school at least every third week and was compensated with one dollar per visit plus all graduation fees.

"Rensselaer became the first civilian school to graduate civil engineers in 1835. Union began offering a degree in civil engineering after Nott’s resignation from Rensselaer in 1845.

"In 1841, his wife Gertrude died after a lengthy illness, and in that same year Nott married Urania E. Sheldon of Utica, N.Y. He died in Schenectady on January 25, 1866."

• Excerpt from Nason, Henry B., ed. Biographical Record of the Officers and Graduates of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1824-1886. Troy, NY: William H. Young, 1887, pp. 29-30. ^[4]

4th President of Union College

"It has been said that Eliphalet Nott was a giant in his time. Quite aside from serving as the President of Union College from 1804 to 1866, he was also an entrepreneur, teacher, minister, scholar, inventor, and a powerful influence on American higher education in the 19th century. His students and protégés graduated to become leaders and founders of both public and private colleges and universities: Bowdoin, Colgate, Franklin & Marshall, Smith, University of Illinois, University of Iowa, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, University of Rochester, University of the South, and William & Mary,to name only a few. The famous group painting, Men of Progress, executed by Christian Schuessele in 1862, featured Nott in the front center of the composition (which now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery).

"In 1804, Nott was invited to assume control of a college short on space and without adequate funding. He was quickly thrust into the tangled world of New York state politics, out of which he emerged with a successful plan to help fund Union College with a state lottery. His vision was to make the college a match for, or superior to, other well-known institutions on the Atlantic Coast: Harvard, Yale, Rhode Island College (Brown), Queens (Rutgers), and Princeton (with which Union already had close ties). And for much of his presidency, he succeeded in that goal.

"But he also needed an entirely new location on which to construct his idea of a proper, unified college campus. So in 1807, Nott purchased some 250 acres on the slope where the College now stands. Nott had already begun the foundation of North College when in 1813 he met the noted French architect, Joseph Ramée. Their collaboration resulted in a milestone in the history of American collegiate architecture. Ramée’s master plan for Union was the most ambitious and innovative design for an American school up to that time and became a model for later campuses in both the North and South.

" Nott was willing to leave the ivory tower to participate in the growing technological and economic life of the nation. From 1829 to 1845 he served as president of Rensselaer Institute in Troy. His strong and enthusiastic interest in invention led him to pursue more efficient methods of home and industrial heating. Nott designed an eponymous stove that made use of cheaper and cleaner-burning anthracite coal, acquiring between 1832 and 1839 some thirty patents to protect his investment and corporate holdings. He also designed a steam-boiler system which he claimed to be more efficient than that of Fulton’s, and built a steamboat (the S.S. Novelty) to prove it.

" Nott’s most significant and far-reaching innovation in higher education was to promote the parity of classical and ‘practical’ education. By the second quarter of the 19th century, the traditional classical curriculum was gasping its last breath. It seemed clear that a Latin and Greek education, in all of its parts, was not adequate to the rapid changes occurring in the national and regional economy. A degree in engineering or chemistry, for example, seemed more likely to promote the general welfare than an intimate acquaintance with Homer and Ovid. Most of the engineers on the Erie Canal, sad to report, were mostly self-taught.

"In 1827, the College Board of Trustees authorized a parallel curriculum to permit students to choose between ancient and modern languages, and between abstract subjects and practical technology. This parallel curriculum was introduced in 1828 to support equally both spiritual America, as well as utilitarian America. All graduates alike were to receive the same A.B. degree. Civil engineering was introduced in 1845, and by 1857, Union could claim probably the best chemistry laboratory in America. By the time Nott died in 1866, he could, and would, be ranked among the half-dozen great college presidents of the 19th century." ^[5]

Family Histories

" Eliphalet Nott was the father of Sarah Maria Nott (Potter) the first wife of Alonzo Potter.

" Eliphalet Nott was born on June 25, 1773 in Ashford, Connecticut. He was the youngest child of Stephen and Deborah (Sheldon) Nott, they had nine children. In 1759 the family home burned down with nearly all the contents. In the fire the library of books from his grandfather Rev. Abraham Nott were lost. They were able to afford a small home with help from friends. Misfortunes continued and the family moved again and again. They ended up on sixty acres of waste land, in the hilliest and roughest part of Connecticut.

"Though the family was poor they were very religious. Eliphalet was home schooled by his mother. Eliphalet was a intelligent boy. He was able to read by the end of the age of three and by the end of age four he read though the bible. At an early age he had a good memory and could repeat long passages. He was most fond of Psalms which he learned and could recite, when other children were learning their alphabet. He was eager to learn. The church of Ashford was four miles away so the family worshipped at the Baptist meeting house which was much closer. When his mother could not attend due to her health Eliphalet would attend and take notes and recite the sermans to his mother.

" Eliphalet had lived at home with his parents until he was eight. That winter he went to live with a married sister forty miles away. When he returned in the Spring his brother Samuel had been made pastor of the Congregation Church of Franklin, Connecticut. Samuel agreed to take Eliphalet and his sister Deborah and give them a home in his family to relieve his struggling parents. Eliphalet did not stay more than a year or two before he wanted to leave because his brother was a rigid disciplinarian. He wanted to go to sea but was persuaded to come back to his parents’ home. One day while working in the field he saw and ran over to Dr. Palmer a physician and asked him to make him a doctor. Dr. Palmer said if you keep up with your study in a few years he would. He continued his studies at home with his mothers help until her death October 24, 1787. At the age of fourteen he went to Dr. Palmer who began to train him. One day he was asked to assist in a surgery and fainted on the ground. He determined he did not have the nerves for strong enough for this and abandoned the profession of a physician.

"When Eliphalet was sixteen he joined his brother Samuel's church. At the age of twenty-one, he persuaded Rhode Island College (later named Brown University) to allow him to take the exit examinations required of seniors for a Baccalaureate degree. He passed without difficulty; but there was a rule that he could not be awarded a BA degree without ever having taken any formal course work at the college. The faculty circumvented this rule by awarding him a Master of Arts degree.

"On July 4, 1796 he married Sarah Maria Benedict daughter of Joel & Sarah Maria Benedict. After additional study, Nott was licensed to preach in 1796. After traveling in parts of Connecticut and New York, Nott settled in Cherry Valley, NY where he became pastor of its only Presbyterian Church and principal of its only academy. His wife Sarah Maria died after giving birth to their child on March 9, 1804.

"In 1804, Nott became president of Union College, a post he held for 62 years. He initiated an extensive building program and introduced a scientific course as an alternative to the traditional classical curriculum. He published a number of pamphlets on slavery, temperance, and education and contributed to science by his experiments with heat. Nott was granted over 30 patents and was the inventor of the first anthracite coal base-burner stove.

"He was President of Union College from August 1804 - January 29, 1866. He married Gertrude Peebles Tibbits of Troy; wealthy widow of Benjamin Tibbits. His wife Gertrude died in January 1841 after a lengthy illiness. Later that year he married Urania E. Sheldon of Utica, NY. Eliphalet Nott died January 29, 1866.

"The building is dedicated to Eliphalet Nott (1773-1866), president of Union College for sixty-two years. A Presbyterian minister and inventor, Nott was a major leader of American Education. His many innovations included a scientific curriculum and the introduction of engineering at a liberal arts college.

"The Nott Memorial was conceived by President Nott in consultation with the French architect Joseph Jacques Ramee (1764-1842). In 1813 Ramee created designs for a planned campus with a circular building as an alumni or graduates' hall. Its placement and surroundings are in accordance with the Renaissance tradition of the Ideal City, espoused by Piero della Francesca. The Nott Memorial was designed by architect Edward Tuckerman Potter, the grandson of President Nott, the son of Bishop Alonzo Potter, and a Union College graduate (1864)." ^[6]

Sources

1. ↑ Barbour Collection of Connecticut Vital Records, Ashford, page 118: NOTT, Eliph[a]let, s. Stephen & Debo[r]ah, b. June 25, 1773.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Barbour Collection of Connecticut Vital Records, Plainfield, page 89.
3. ↑ Wikipedia, Eliphalet Nott
4. ↑ https://president.rpi.edu/leadership/eliphalet-nott
5. ↑ https://www.union.edu/about/history-and-traditions/presidents/eliphalet-nott
6. ↑ http://www.potterhistory.com/eliphalet-nott.html

• Van Santvoord, C. C., with contribution and revision by Professor Tayler Lewis. Memoirs of Eliphalet Nott, for sixty-two years president of Union college. New York: Sheldon, ca. 1876.
• Wikipedia, Eliphalet Nott
• https://www.facebook.com/groups/1896925830631946/?hoisted_section_header_type=recently_seen&multi_permalinks=3423751311282716
• Ezra Ames (1768-1836), Portait of Eliphalet Nott (1773-1866), Albany Institute of History and Art, Gift of Miss Elizabeth S. Edwards, Accession Number: 1951.67.5, https://www.albanyinstitute.org/collection/details/eliphalet-nott-1773-1866
• Union College, Nott Memorial Library, Schenectady, Schenectady County, NY, Historic American Buildings Survey, creator, Potter, Edward Tuckerman, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Documentation compiled after 1933, https://www.loc.gov/item/ny0717/ , accessed 22 Nov 2022.
• National Register of Historic Places, Nott Memorial Hall. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/72000912_text ,accessed 22 Nov 2022.
• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/68905549/eliphalet-nott: accessed 23 November 2022), memorial page for Rev Eliphalet Nott (24 Jun 1773–29 Jan 1866), Find a Grave Memorial ID 68905549, citing Vale Cemetery, Schenectady, Schenectady County, New York, USA; Maintained by Twila Nejdl-Oesterle (contributor 47040486) .