Baynard Rush Hall

Baynard Rush Hall (1793-1863) was an American academic and Christian minister. A native of Pennsylvania, he served churches and academic institutions in the East for most of his life. However, he was a resident of Indiana for several years, during which time he served as the first faculty member of what today is Indiana University.

Born in Philadelphia in 1793, Hall was educated at Union College and Princeton Theological Seminary; after completing his studies at the seminary, he was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry. While working as a printer before entering Union, Hall had learned of opportunities in what was then the Western United States, and in 1823 he moved his family to southern Indiana. After spending a year living with relatives near Gosport and preaching occasionally, he was chosen to become the first teacher at the Indiana State Seminary in Bloomington, which was founded in 1820 but had not yet begun to operate. For two years beginning in 1825, Hall taught all of the classes, which consisted largely of Greek and Latin classes. In the first year, he taught twelve scholars and was paid a salary of $250, along with goods worth an additional $150 as compensation for occasional preaching in Presbyterian churches. Hall was firmly a classicist, teaching that the study of classical philosophy and languages formed the basis of the best education.

Between 1827 and 1829, the institution changed substantially, starting with the hiring of Kentucky resident John Hopkins Harney to teach the natural sciences and mathematics. The state legislature changed the name from "Indiana State Seminary" to "Indiana College" in 1828, and one year later it hired Andrew Wylie of Washington College in Pennsylvania to be the first president. The ecclesiastical affiliations of the three men produced controversy among Bloomington residents: like Hall, Wylie was a Presbyterian minister, and Harney was a member of a Presbyterian church. Many locals complained that a single professor was sufficient for the institution, and when they learned of Harney's religious affiliation, a large number of non-Presbyterians angrily protested the trustees' choice. The choice of yet another Presbyterian as president sparked renewed charges of religious favoritism against the board of trustees, even though it was composed of members of six different denominations. Personal conflicts among the three faculty members soon led to Harney's dismissal and Hall's resignation; Hall moved back to the East, where he remained active as an educator and as a religious leader until his death.

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