by Rory Morgan
In the autumn of 1871, Easton changed the names of a number of College Hill streets. As part of this initiative, Fifth Street became Cattell Street, honoring William Cassady (or Cassiday) Cattell, D.D., LL.D. He was the seventh President of Lafayette College. His 20-year tenure - from 1863 to 1883 - is still considered one of the most important in the College’s history.
The Cattell family had a rich Jersey heritage, dating back to the pre-Revolutionary era. William, born in 1827, was one of the seven children of Thomas and Keziah Cattell; five sons and two daughters. In addition to William becoming a college president, the sons grew to become a college professor, a doctor, a lawyer, and a businessman - who also served a term as a U.S. Senator from New Jersey.
When William was born, the Cattells were located in the West Jersey town of Salem, although at least one source places their more-distant orgins in the Shrewsbury area of East Jersey. (For about thirty years, what eventually became New Jersey was divided into East Jersey, with its capital at Perth Amboy, and West Jersey, with its capital of Burlington. They combined in 1702.)
The family was originally Quaker (members of the Religious Society of Friends). As the movement toward American independence grew, Elijah Cattell (Williams's grandfather) became a strong supporter, even if that meant armed revolution. His views clearly clashed with the Quaker Peace Testimony: "We utterly deny all outward wars and strife and fighting with outward weapons for any end whatever; this is our testimony to the whole world." To resolve this conflict of faith, Elijah chose to leave the Quakers, becoming a Presbyterian. His decision reverberated down through the generations; Cattell became a significant name in Presbyterian history.
William attended local schools in the Salem area, then studied for two years under the private tutelage of his older brother, Thomas (who later became a professor at one of the earliest HBCUs, Lincoln University. It was chartered in 1854, under the name of the Ashmun Institute, and is still operating, in 2026, near Chester, PA.)
Following the studies with his brother, William entered the Presbyterian-affiliated College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), graduating in 1848 with high honors. His ambition was to become a minister of the Gospel; toward this goal, he moved on to the Princeton Theological Seminary, also Presbyterian-affiliated. He graduated in 1852, then spent a year pursuing "special Oriental studies" under J. Addison Alexander, a prominent theologian. He then joined the faculty at the Edgehill School in Princeton, a private preparatory school with a reputation as a “feeder school”for the University.
In 1855, he was called to join the Lafayette College faculty as a professor of Greek and Latin. (Like Princeton, Lafayette was also affiliated with the Presbyterian Church.) He built relationships with his fellow professors and among the people of Easton, including the relationship that led to marriage with Elizabeth “Lizzie” McKeen, daughter of the wealthy and prominent Easton citizen James McKeen, a Lafayette trustee.
Several years later, he received a call to trade his academic life for that of an active pastor at the new Pine Street Presbyterian Church in Harrisburg, PA. During the Civil War era, Harrisburg was a center of operations and organization for the many Pennsylvania units in the Union Army. It was described as “... one vast camp of soldiers.” The city’s clergy were extremely busy; “. . . preaching by their campfires and ministering in the great hospitals . . .”, in addition to the normal duties of any pastor tending to their local congregation.
He accepted the call and the Cattell family - William, his wife, son James and son Henry (aka Harry) - moved from Easton to Harrisburg. Although this was his first pastoral position, his personality and intelligence enabled him to quickly build a circle of accomplished and influential friends.
While he was serving the Pine Street Church, back in Easton the college’s Trustees were wrestling with existential threats to its survival. One of the side effects of the Civil War was to drastically deplete the supply of the younger men who typically became college students. The student body’s size - generally about 80 in the years before the war- shrank significantly as existing students and potential students left for military service. Of course, that triggered a major decline in the institution’s income. The College had few students and little money. There wasn’t even a Commencement ceremony in 1863. In July of that year, there were only 19 students in total. The Trustees were seriously discussing whether to cease operations. The President of the College, Dr. McPhail, resigned; there was no immediate replacement visible.
In desperation, the Trustees asked their old friend, Dr. Cattell, to return from Harrisburg to Easton, to try and save the institution by accepting the job of President. He was reluctant to leave his church in Harrisburg (he later described his time in Harrisburg as “the happiest years of my life”), but he accepted the offer. His salary would be $1,400 annually; he was - at least initially - not expected to teach, but to concentrate on fundraising.
He began his work in 1863, months before his actual inauguration. He proved to be a gifted leader and formidable fundraiser. By the summer of 1864, the College’s affairs had improved enough to hold a Commencement.
One of his most significant successes came when he convinced Ariovistus (Ario) Pardee of Hazleton, a wealthy coal baron, to pledge $20,000 to Lafayette. It was the first major donation received by Lafayette and was just the first of Mr. Pardee’s many generous contributions to the College. (Mr. Pardee’s business continues even today, operating in the natural resources industry under the name of Pardee Resources Company.)
Just as importantly, his relationship with Pardee provided him with access to the circles of wealthy businessmen who interacted with the Hazelton entrepreneur. The initial Pardee gift allowed the College to introduce a new course of study, focused on science, and to eventually construct a building devoted to the subject. (Not surprisingly, it was named Pardee Hall. Completed and dedicated in 1873, it burned to the ground in 1879 as the result of a laboratory accident. It was completely rebuilt, but then burned a second time in 1897, the result of arson by a professor who had been dismissed. Once again, it was rebuilt.)
As time passed - and as William’s fund raising became increasingly productive - the difficult times of the Civil War era became increasingly-distant memories. The student body and the faculty grew, in both quantity and quality. The campus grew. The finances improved. By 1869, the College’s situation had stabilized to the point that the Trustees granted Dr. Cattell a one-year sabbatical to travel in Europe, studying the methods of the universities there.
Of course, the job of President called for more than simply soliciting donations. It required leadership and administrative skills, which Dr. Cattell possessed in abundance. He oversaw matters large and small - from standardizing the spelling of “Lafayette” in the College’s name (sometimes it had been spelled La Fayette) to developing a new curriculum that provided for Bible study by all students during the first class hour each Monday. The Science curriculum expanded over time to include Engineering; the first degrees in this field were awarded in 1871. At some point he took on the work of teaching the College’s course on Mental and Moral Philosophy.
As the years went by, the many hats worn by a college president inevitably drained his health and energy. Dr. Cattell notified the College that he intended to retire in 1883, after exactly 20 years of service, and move with his wife to Philadelphia. The Trustees desperately tried to change his mind, but Dr. Cattell refused, saying that he "no longer can do the work", and went through with his plans.
His retirement was not entirely one of quiet relaxation; he was very active in the affairs of the Presbyterian Historical Society and the Board of Ministerial Relief until his full retirement in 1896. He continued his position as a member of the College’s Board of Trustees.
Heart disease eventually stopped him; Dr. Cattell died on February 11, 1898, in Philadelphia, at 71 years of age. After funeral services there, his body was brought to Easton by train on February 14. (There was speculation that the shock of learning, in 1897, that Pardee Hall had burned down a second time contributed to his death.)
A service was held in the Chapel of the College; his body was then removed to Easton Cemetery for interment in Section N. He rests there today, surrounded by markers for his family: for Lizzie, (who died in 1917); for their son James (a prominent psychologist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University who died in 1944) and his wife Josephine; and for their son Henry (a forensic pathologist in Philadelphia).
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