SD PortalXtra


August 2012


FOUNDERS … and Mr. Hill wasted no time in planning a new school and a hospital building, both of which were dedicated by 1903. Mr. Charles Glunz later took charge of the practical imple-


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knowledge of the vernacular was put into good use when the American Bible Society enlisted her help in the translation of the Old Testament into Cebuano. In 1921, the College of Emporia bestowed an LL.D. degree on Mrs. Hibbard. Son Hall Livingston was born while the Hibbards were on


furlough and returned with them to Dumaguete on July 17, 1904. A second son, Donald Lawrence soon joined the family. As early as 1904, Dr. Hibbard elaborated on the relationship


between the academic and industrial department so close to the heart of Dr. Silliman and stated that: “A demand exists in these islands for professional men and clerks on the one hand and mechanics on the other. We must not produce men for whom there is no call. I would make these two lines of equal value… Silliman Institute… should turn out teachers, preachers, clerks, mechanics, civil engineers and farmers…All these pursuits should preserve a unity of discipline, policy and design.” Under Dr. Hibbard’s guidance, Silliman Institute expanded rap-


Bible School: (front row, faculty) Paul Doltz, Frances Rodgers, David Hibbard, Irving Channon, Mary Channon and William Smith; (second row, graduates) Florencio Tubungbanua, Faustino Gicain, Alfonso Quinones, Sil- vestre Buntuyan, Adriano Santiago, Simeon Emelia and Isidoro Antivo; (back row, first year) Blas Gesulga, Ni- comedes Quinones, Honorio Pascua, Donato Caponong, Marcus Lagahit and Fernando Quinones.


mentation of the campus development and by 1905, Silliman Institute was well on its way to becoming a self-contained unit with missionary residences, a windmill, water tower, acetylene lighting system, ice-making machine, a printing press and an industrial building. Electricity was installed by 1917.


The devastation resulting from pestilence, plagues, and


severe drought marked the first four years of the new centu- ry. This was further compounded by epidemics of small pox, typhoid fever, tuberculosis, malaria and cholera in the hot tropical climate. Overwork from his teaching and admin- istrative duties made Mr. Hibbard severely ill and in No- vember 1902, he was forced to take a 2-month leave in Ja- pan. Laura Hibbard was left to keep the school operating and she carried out her teaching duties with the help of other


Early Silliman Institute facul- ty included Dr. and Mrs. Hib- bard shown (back row cen- ter and front seated 2nd from left)


missionaries and their wives who were borrowed or reas- signed from other Stations. Mrs. Hibbard, also a graduate of the College of Emporia


(1896), handled the geography, arithmetic and English clas- ses. She had learned to speak the dialect and while drilling the students in the English grammar, used the dialect to ex- plain matters to those whose English was deficient. Her


idly in student enrollment, student activities, faculty, and course offerings. In 1912, the Trustees voted to accept women to the upper classes. By 1915, A.B. degree programs were added and Calculus, Surveying and Physical Botany were among several added as new courses and in 1919, the Trustees approved the Pre- Theological curriculum. While athletics, plays, and societies started to flourish, no ac-


tivity is more fondly recalled than the “Bingcong squad”. Boys who had missed calisthenics or broken any school regulation were put to work in this squad, cutting grass or cleaning up the campus grounds. The death of Dr. Horace B. Silliman in 1910 necessitated new


thrusts at fund-raising and from 1915 through 1930, campaigns were initiated throughout the islands by faculty members and in the United States by the Mission Board. Among the new build- ings constructed during Dr. Hibbard’s term were Oriental Hall, a new Science building, Guy Hall, the Library, the Nurses’ Home, a


Early days at the Silliman Library with Dr. Hibbard and stu- dents, 1914.


new hospital, missionary residences, the campus amphitheater and one-story buildings that served as the Home Economics Cen- ter and the Elementary school . The year 1924 marked the adoption of the inscription “Via, Ver-


itas, Vita” in the Silliman Institute seal and its appearance in the School catalogue. Dr. Hibbard borrowed this inscription from his own alma mater and this motto states the tenets that every mem- ber of the Silliman family has aspired to live up to. The contribution and commitment of the Hibbards to Philippine


education were recognized in a myriad ways. His service as a spokesman for the Philippines was recorded in a Presbyterian Mission study book, “Making a Nation” in 1925. In 1926, the Provincial Board of Negros Oriental passed a resolution declaring him as an "Adopted Son of the Province".


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