Purdue News
Purdue News
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January 2000 A solitary life winds down in exultation"Done the biggest day's work of my life. Turned over to the President of Perdue University for the benefit of Perdue University $20,000 in notes & all my town real estate ..." Those were Amos Heavilon's own words - and spelling - by his own hand, the day he permanently attached his name to Purdue University.
A diary that Amos kept in the last months of his life recently was donated to the Purdue University Libraries. It provides a record of the back-and-forth that went on between University and potential donor, fascinating glimpses into the economic and social structure of the time, and intriguing revelations about the character and motivations of Amos Heavilon. In October 1892, Clinton County businessman Amos Heavilon made a gift to Purdue to fund a new engineering building. The structure he helped pay for was named for him, but it was destroyed in an epic fire in January 1894, just days after it was dedicated. Amos didn't live to see the horrendous blaze. He had died two months earlier at age 64. The journal covers exactly one year, ending in mid-August 1893, just three months before Amos died. It is a book that Amos probably wouldn't have wanted people nosing through. His own descriptions of his solitary life indicate that the thoughts he put down in inky flourishes were shared only with his modest Wells' Double Indexed Diary. He refers more than once to his tired body and dwindling number of days of life. The journal traces the overlapping story lines of an aging wealthy bachelor farmer and banker, his general disdain for most of his relatives, and his growing affection and respect for the "Industrial School at Lafayette." A farmer all his life, Amos writes about the weather every day. He tells of his short trips to see family in Paris, Ill. He tells of real estate deals, problems he faces as vice president of Clinton County Bank, and of a man of resources who loans from his own purse - and chases delinquent debtors. "I spent all day trying to collect some money, but did not collect one cent," he writes for Oct. 22, 1892. That entry followed by 10 days this one related to his gift to Purdue: "Mr. James Smart and Adams Earl came from Lafayette to see me. ... They are working in the interest of Perdue University." Earlier entries indicate that the visit by Smart, Purdue president from 1883 to 1900, and Adams Earl, a leading Lafayette businessman and big thinker, was paid in hopes of securing the gift Heavilon was contemplating. On Sept. 22, 1892, Amos returned from Purdue to tell his diary: "... went to Lafayette and Perdue University & found the university a big thing. Nearly 700 students & with the appliances & their mode of teaching certainly learns the young men and women very rapidly to be useful men & women. I think the institution will do much good to a class of young people that are worthy & most need help, as the patrons are mostly poor young people, & think I could not do better with some of my means than to help them some." Some days Amos is sullen and bitter, others exultant - as when he gets a letter from President Smart. On Oct. 28, a few days before he is set to tender outstanding loans and the deed for a block of real estate in downtown Frankfort to the University, he writes of his decision: "Feel sorely depressed, that my natural heirs treated me so badly, that & other considerations, I have concluded to give my savings not to them, but to strangers, but hope to be able to help my three old sisters ..." Again and again, Amos confesses his shyness, his uneasiness, his discomfort in his own skin. But he tells of a kind of redeeming exhilaration at the adulation heaped upon him after his donation is announced. Amos was honored during daily chapel Oct. 31, an event the Exponent at the time described as rollicking. Three "Purdue Yells," a reporter notes, were offered up. Here is how the yells were received: ... went to Lafayette & closed up the donation to Perdue. I was introduced to six or 7 hundred students, & the cheers I got was deafening. The only time in my life that I could do anything that appeared to be appreciated. It was a surprise for me, my natural timidity prevented me from enjoying it to its full extent yet it was the happiest day of my life, I think." Amos enjoyed events surrounding his donation, as his Nov. 3 entry shows: "Got many flattering notices in papers of what I had done for Purdue University. I had no thought that what I had done would be so highly appreciated. I hoped to do good, and I am happy to think that both the press and the people write in saying that what I have done will be the means of doing much good." After the gift is made, Amos has before him only the personal affairs of an old man getting ready to die - save for his newly adopted cause, Purdue. By March 1893, he has sold off his farm, writing in his journal March 3: "Feel very sad. … Did want to keep it my life time, and only concluded to sell it recently. Saw it would go to rack and felt I could not stand that. Selling the farm I concluded it was the least of two evils. … Don't know if I can stand to live in idleness, but as I don't know how to do anything but farm, I will try and be content in idleness the balance of my few days." On March 23, he laments: "Feel like I should do something beside sit around the house. But perhaps that is all that is left for me the balance of my life. But it is not pleasant for me to contemplate." The very next day, he hails the arrival of a letter from President Smart: "Got several letters today, one from president of Purdue University, J.H. Smart. It always does me good to hear from them." Truth was, Smart was keeping in touch with the most important benefactor the University had enjoyed since John Purdue. "I thank you for your kind letter of the 17th with its expressions of interest in our work," begins Smart's letter, preserved in duplicate form in the Special Collections library at Purdue. Smart continues: "The affairs of the institution are progressing smoothly and hopefully the contractor will break ground for the Heavilon building within a few days. ... He goes on to issue an informal invitation to the building dedication, as well as an open invitation to walk the grounds, concluding with the kind of lavish praise that must have done Amos a world of good: "You have established yourself for all time in the affections of all the students, professors and trustees of the University as well as a host of appreciative citizens." The diary entries apart from those concerning the University grind on: The,weather, disposing of property, ill health. His adoption of the "Industrial School," however, made his declining days uplifting. "Got invitation to attend commencement exercise at Perdue, commencing Saturday next," he writes in June 1893. The speaker was to be Benjamin Harrison, former U.S. president and later a Purdue trustee. For Amos, the excitement of the day, June 7, 1893, is overshadowed by self-doubt: "… Had a nice day & large crowd. General Harrison spoke to the students. My own natural timidity & from that reason, my persistence in always shunning society, make me feel like a fool at such a place and sometimes wonder whether or not I am a fool & if not, whether, it would be possible for me to overcome the embarrassment that destroys my life." Similar anguish marks the last two months of entries in the journal, including one on his birthday, Aug. 15: "I am 64 years old today and am feeling very unwell. Strength has been failing fast for several years, and fear that I have not many birthdays left." But Amos had left his mark, in ways he best described months earlier, under the heading, "End of AD 1892." He summed up the year this way: "The year 1892, probably the most important year of my life. First, I gave almost half of my whole life's accumulations, savings to an Industrial School at Lafayette, Ind., not because I thought less of my relatives, (but must, in truth, say have been losing confidence in most of them) but am thoroughly convinced that we can only help others permanently by helping them in a way that prepares them to help themselves & for those & other reasons gave $35,000 to Perdue University hoping many may avail themselves of the benefits it offers & thereby have a chance to make their lives useful to others & happy to themselves." Story by Jay Cooperider, Perspective Managing Editor PHOTO CAPTION:
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