The yellowed, slightly musty pages and fading script in the more-than-a-century-old diaries conjure images of a man alone with his thoughts and worries and dreams – a man who is determined to record the college’s early history as it happens in the late 1880s and early 1890s. It is easy to imagine this evening ritual in a study dimly lit by a coal oil lamp.

And J.T. Ward, first president of McDaniel College, was indeed diligent. Some would say dedicated. He wrote every day – describing the college, his family, politics, even the weather – during his 19 year presidency and for many years more. He passed the leather-bound diaries down to his daughter and son-in-law, T.H. Lewis, to whom Ward also passed the presidential torch in 1886.

Now the diaries come home to the Hill, gifts of Edwin and Hamilton Lewis, great grandsons of Ward and grandsons of Thomas Hamilton Lewis.

On June 9, 1895, Ward details a graduation ceremony:
“The 23 members of the graduating class all wore caps and gowns. The exercises were of the most interesting character. President Lewis preached one of the best Baccalaureate sermons I ever heard, his subject being the privileges and perils of a student’s life.”

The donation of eight diaries brings the number of Ward diaries in the College archives up to 39, with the oldest dating back to 1866.

“Edwin and Hamilton Lewis’s family history is intertwined with the College’s founding,” says President Joan Develin Coley. “We appreciate their gift of President J.T. Ward’s diaries for the light they shed on the immeasurable contributions made by Ward and Lewis in the early years of the College.”

The diaries reflect the struggle to grow the college during its early years.

“The early diaries relate to how the college was born,” says Archivist Barbara O’Brien.
“Lewis describes the students, professors and classes in rich detail. He brings that entire era to life.”

On July 3, 1895, Ward describes a new invention, the telephone:
 “…One having a telephone can communicate with all others having them… Communication may be had with all parts of the country, even more satisfactorily than by telegraph.”

In addition to the diaries, the gift from the Lewis brothers includes two books of sermons written by former president T.H. Lewis, “A Tribute (1887-1917)” from 31 classes to Lewis, an 1819 “Address Before the Sons of the American Revolution,” and Lewis’s personal copy of “College Ideals” as well as his bound copy of the 1911 Commencement. A 1928 copy of “Centennial of the Methodist Protestant Church” was also included, as was a personal portrait of Lewis, painted during the last years of his life.