History of the Eclectic Medical Institute, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1845-1902 / by Harvey Wickes Felter.

  • Harvey Wickes Felter
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: History of the Eclectic Medical Institute, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1845-1902 / by Harvey Wickes Felter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Board of Trustees, so as to expel Newton and Freeman from the Faculty. An effort was made to have Dr. F. E. Jones transfer his stock, which amounted to about one-third of all the stock issued, and votes to the friends of the Cleaveland party. These he refused to part with, especially to his bitter antagonist, Professor Buchanan. As a last resort, the majority of the Faculty held a meeting in the office of Dr. Sherwood, April 5, 1856, and voted to remove Dr. Newton as Treasurer of the Faculty, and to issue $7,000 of new stock, which stock was at once trans- ferred to purchasers for five year promissory notes. This, it was thought, would give the majority of the Professors a majority of the stock. In taking this step, it is generally believed that those concerned were under the impression that they were acting within the law, taking as their precedent a transaction between the Trus- tees and Drs. Jones and Baldridge when the original stock was issued, for they held that the action of a former Board of Trustees, in empowering them to receive sub- scriptions, donations, and “transact other important business, was sufficient to warrant the issue of additional shares of stock.’’* The laws, however, “did not confer powers of cumulative voting, without restrictions, upon stockholders,”! the object sought in the issuance of the new stock. Therefore, in direct violation of the State laws and the charter of the College, they proceeded “to issue or cause to be issued stock to the amount of $7,000, and held an election [April 5th], at which such stock was voted, and a Board of Trustees elected [April 7, 1856, in the ante-room of the College] by the holders of a minority of the legal stock, together with said illegal stock, aud through said illegal Board claimed the manage- ment and control of this Institute, all of which proceedings were contrary to law. and in violation of their duties as Professors.” J On the same day, the Newton party, representing the majority of the legal stock, held a meeting at the office of Dr. Newton, voted the legal stock, § and elected the following Board of Trustees: W. B. Pierce, J. P. Mayer, A. Death, J. C. C. Holenshade, W. F. Hurlbut, H. Leonard, J. P. Cunningham, C. S. G. Wright, H. M. Ritter, J. G. Henshall, Dr. R. S. Newton, Dr. L. E. Jones, Dr. A. H. Baldridge, and Dr. O. F- Newton. At a subsequent meeting, W. B. Pierce, Fsq., was elected President; W. F. Hurlbut, Esq., Vice-President; Dr. R. S. Newton, Treasurer; and J. G. Henshall, Secretary, of the Board of Trustees. Dr. Newton prayed the Superior Court “for a bill of injunction, restraining said [seceding] Faculty, and other persons assuming to act as Trustees, from the performance of all and every act but that of lecturing, which injunction was granted, and a writ issued to bring the illegal stock into Court to be canceled.” This injunction was afterward dissolved by Judge Storer. The *See also account in Wilder’s “History of Medicine,” pp. 628-9. f Wilder. X Eclectic Medical Journal, 1856, p. 231. gin voting, both parties violated the law by allowing of votes by proxy.