Dr. Robert Allyn

*From an email I received*

"Hi. I am going through a copy of an 1899 yearbook from the Southern Illinois Normal University. In it there is a biography and a picture of Dr. Robert Allyn. It says he was born in Ledyard so I thought I would send it to you in case you are interested at all. If you would also like a scan of the picture please let me know and I would be happy to send it.
Thank you. Shauna Williams "

   In the arms of the protecting elms among the hills of old Connecticut, more than half a century ago, nestled a little white schoolhouse.

   Within was the droning hum of whispered study and scratch of pencils on the slate, as the little urchins worked their sums, while at the scant blackboard the classes ciphered, or, ranged around the wall, held a spelling match. There were praises for the boy who went head, but woe to the luckless chap who was turned down to the other end. The teacher of the school was a tall, spare youth of eighteen, disconcerted, possibly, at the giggles of the older girls, but very much in earnest, teaching his first school for the then magnificent sum of eleven dollars a month.

   This youth was Robert Allyn, born at Ledyard, Connecticut, January 25, 1817. His father was an intelligent farmer, but could not send his son beyond the common schools. But the young man, then only a boy, was not to be baffled by circumstances. While working on the farm, without a teacher he commenced the study of Latin and Algebra.

   As we have said, he taught his first school at the age of eighteen, and was so successful that he was in demand, and in a few years he got his pocket book in condition to attend school again. His secondary training came from the Wesleyan Academy, in Wilbraham, Mass. At the age of twenty, in 1837, he began his college course at Wesleyan University, at Middletown, Conn. It is no small praise to say that he stood at the head of his class, a class that was so full of eminent scholars, the class of '41.

   His specialty was mathematics, and immediately upon his graduation he was called to the chair of mathematics in the Wesleyan Academy. But as teachers filled more than one chair at a time then, we may see him again in the class room, no longer a youth, teaching this time Latin. And in that Virgil class are two men who will come to honor, even greater, perhaps, than their teacher. One is the late Oliver Marcy, always a teacher, and devoted for more than twenty fiver years to the interests of Northwestern University, and always a scientist, noted especially in geological circles, and known denominationally as the Methodist Agassiz. The other is Gilbert Haven, the Methodist Bishop. Prof. Allyn was honored with the presidency of the Academy at Wilbraham, and held the position several years.

   But he was induced to take charge, as chancellor and president, of the Providence Conference Seminary, a denominational school which, under his management, worked its way up from obscurity to a place in the first rank among institutions during preparatory work.

   From this institution he was elected state Commissioner of Education for the state of Rhode Island. This office he resigned to accept the Chair of Ancient Languages in Ohio University. Then the anti-slavery contest was on he did not hesitate to enter the field of politics. At the solicitation of his friends he "stumped" the state of Ohio, preaching abolition and temperance. He was twice elected to the legislature and did not fail to open his mouth against evil, as do some good men that get into legislatures. They are good--for nothing.

   During the Civil War, for four years, he was president of the Wesleyan Female College of Cincinnati.

   In '64 he made one more move west, to the presidency of McKendree College in Lebanon, Ill. During the ten years he served here many people we know graduated from that College. Prof. Brownlee and Dr. Parkinson are partly the work of this great man, as is Judge Harker of Carbondale, and countless others we do not know.

   When in 1874 the first building of the Southern Illinois State Normal University at Carbondale was finished, the board of trustees could find no man with the necessary executive ability, coupled with such a rugged intellectuality, as Dr. Robert Allyn. He was made president of the infant institution, and from that time its history is his history, for during the rest of his life his whole energy was turned to making this institution, though one of the state, a factor for Christian Education.

   In his work he was ever faithful, ever at his post. When the first building burned, he, with the assistance of the rest of faculty, set the students to work taking out the library, desks and costly apparatus. Then he disappeared from the crowd. As flames kept creeping on toward the north end of the building, Prof. Inglis became alarmed and dashed up to the president's office, on the top floor, which was the fourth in that building. Bursting into the room Prof. Inglis saw the Doctor calmly making valuable papers into bundles, sorting them out of a desk too heavy to move. The Professor shouted to the Doctor to come out of the building; his life was too precious to be lost. The Doctor looked at the upper corner of the room, from which smoke was rolling, and said, "Not Yet, Professor; I am not quite through." The Professor urged him again, and another member of the faculty came to bring him down, but the Doctor told them he would get through quicker if they did not talk so much. Under this they were silent, and about five minutes later, with all the papers, they got the Doctor out of the room, while the tiny flames were already playing and darting along the walls and ceiling.

   During the interim between the fire and the new building, Dr. Allyn kept the school running and graduated the usual classes each year. In the new building he served five years. Twice, having passed the limit of three score years and ten, he tendered his resignation; but not until 1892, having served as president eighteen years, and arrived at the age of seventy-five, could he persuade the board of trustees to accept it.

   For two years more he lived to bless, to encourage, to inspire and, on a Sunday morning, just as joyous church bells were ringing their welcome call, his sprit passed away.

   Dear is his memory to his few living classmates; dear to the students of his loved alma mater, among whose many noble sons he ranks not the lowest; dear to those institutions in which he first taught and presided; dearer to those who learned at his desk, both in school and in college; dearer to those who have worked with him to uplift, instruct and inspire the young and dearest to that institution which is his monument and his alone.

   In the parlor of this Normal there hangs a portrait of heroic size of this heroic man. His name is one more added to the long list of this country, and of New England, of men who have risen by their own efforts, and by ability to positions of honor, of opportunity. He was an educator with common sense. He was an executor of noble generosity. He was a Christian with ambition. Look at that portrait; study those features; be inspired by him and thou shalt be like him.