Harrison Edwin Webster, Class of 1868
Eighth president of Union College, mid-1888 - January 1894
Harrison Webster was born on September 8, 1841 in Angelica, New York. The family moved to Clayville, NY when Webster was seven. He was primarily self-educated with the exception of a year spent at Sauquoit Academy.
Webster entered Union College in 1859 as a sophomore and member of the Class of 1862. He withdrew after one year and in 1861 enlisted as a private in Company G, 117th New York Volunteers. Although his company saw some fighting, he survived unscathed and mustered out in the spring of 1865 as a sergeant. He spent the next year teaching then re-entered Union in 1866, graduating in 1868. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Zeta Psi.
It was agreed that upon his graduation he would instruct a senior class in Natural Sciences. Webster thoroughly prepared himself for the task by studying with Professor Addison Verrill of Yale, a well known specialist in marine invertebrates, and then took a full course at Sheffield Scientific School. In the fall he studied at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City working with the collections at the Smithsonian Institution. Webster was promoted from Tutor to Adjunct Professor in 1871 and to Professor in 1873. He was the first Union College faculty member to conduct and publish substantial scientific research.
Webster, always forthright, was openly critical of the Potter administration. His frank and outspoken opposition to the Potter administration led to the trustees’ decision to terminate him in 1883. Later that year he accepted a position at the University of Rochester as professor of geology and natural sciences.
Shortly after arriving at Rochester, Eliphalet Nott Potter resigned from Union. The College suffered from low enrollment and morale during the ad interim presidency of Judson Landon. The trustees were beginning to feel pressure to select a president. Several candidates were considered, but only one seriously, Harrison Webster. The trustees visited him at the University of Rochester and persuaded him to accept the presidency, which he did on May 23, 1888.
TThe rationale for selecting Webster as president is unclear. He had no prior administrative experience and there were several trustees still on the board who were involved with his earlier termination; for these same reasons, it is equally curious that Webster accepted the offer. He was the first president of Union College to not have been a minister.
Webster was popular with the students but the College saw very little development during his presidency. Notable contributions include modifying the curriculum by introducing, as an alternative to the regular scientific course, the so-called Latin scientific leading to a PhB. The only building erected during his presidency was the Psi Upsilon house. Perhaps Webster’s most significant contribution during his tenure was boosting campus morale following seventeen years of unfortunate unrest and stagnation.
On December 8, 1892 Webster’s twenty-year-old daughter, Jessie, died. Her death deeply affected Harrison and the trustees’ granted him a leave for the remainder of the academic year. Upon his return, he felt unable to continue and resigned in January 1894. He returned to Rochester where he lived a very quiet life, dying on June 16, 1906.
Condensed from Wayne Somers, compiler and editor, Encyclopedia of Union College History (Schenectady: Union College Press, 2003), page 654.
Image courtesy of Union College, Schaffer Library Special Collections and Archives, Photograph Collection