Dickinson Athletic Field
Annual Meeting of the Trustees of Dickinson College at Carlisle, Pa.
June 7, 1909.
The Trustees of Dickinson College in the Borough of Carlisle, State of the Pennsylvania, met in annual session at Carlisle, Pa., on Monday June 6, 1909, at seven o’clock, p.m. President George Edward Reed, D.D., LL.D., in the chair.
Prayer was offered by Rev. William P. Davis, D.D.
[minutes regarding who was in attendance and the conferring of degrees was edited out]
President Reed presented the following statement to be made a matter of record:-
“The President desires to call to the attention of the Board a mistake in his published report with respect to the new athletic field, page 18 of the May Bulleting, 1909.
The passage as published is as follows:
Of the proceeds of the sale of the old athletic field, four thousand two hundred ($4200.) dollars will be employed to cancel a mortgage indebtedness of two thousand seven hundred and forty ($2,740.) dollars and the balance, one thousand four hundred and fifty ($1,450) dollars, will be expended upon improvements upon the new field.”
The statement should have been as follows:
“Of the proceeds of the sale of the old athletic field, five thousand two hundred ($5,200) dollars will be employed to cancel a mortgage indebtedness of two thousand seven hundred and fifty ($2,750.) dollars, and the balance, two thousand four hundred and fifty ($2,450.) dollars, will be expended upon improvements upon the new field.”
On motion of Horatio C. King and Henry M. Wilson the following resolution was unanimously adopted:-
Whereas, in pursuance of authority given at the Annual Meeting of the Trustees on January 8, 1908, the Executive Committee made sale of the old athletic field to J. Ralph Jacobs, Esq. representing the Valley Real Estate Company, for the sum of fifty two hundred ($5,200) dollars;
Resolved, that the said sale is hereby ratified and confirmed, and the President and Treasurer are authorized on behalf of this corporation to execute and deliver to the purchaser a deed of conveyance for said property, and the President is appointed attorney to acknowledge the deed.
After President Reed had made an extended statement of the large generosity and beneficence of the Honorable Edward W. Biddle of the Borough of Carlisle, Pa., in his purpose to present to the College a new Athletic Field, which is to be a memorial to his deceased son, Herman Bosler Biddle, he presented Mr. Biddle to the Trustees.
Mr. Biddle then touchingly referred to his purpose and presented the deed formally transferring the new property to the College.
On motion the deed and property were formally accepted and the conditions set forth in the said deed were duly accepted by the Trustees.
The following paper was presented and unanimously adopted by a riding vote: -
The sympathy of all the members of the Board of Trustees of Dickinson College was profoundly stirred when the announcement reached them of the sudden and tragic death of Herman Bosler Biddle, son of their beloved associate Hon. Edward W. Biddle, and himself but recently a popular student and graduate of this institution. It is therefore with sincere interest and appreciation that the Board now receives at the hands of Judge Biddle and his wife, Mrs. Gertrude Bosler Biddle, the gift of a capacious and splendidly quipped athletic field to be dedicated tomorrow to the perpetual memory of their deeply lamented son.
Resolved therefore that this Board now assembled in Annual Session tender to Judge and Mrs. Biddle it’s most sincere thanks for this testimonial which alike manifests their devotion to a noble son and their loyalty to Dickinson College. So long as the honored donors shall live, they will retain the pleasant consciousness that they have rendered a most valuable to the institution and provided lasting benefit and enjoyment for many generations.
Resolved, that this donation shall be forever hereafter styled The Herman Bosler Biddle Memorial Athletic Field.
Resolved, that this minute be entered upon the records of the College, and that a copy suitably engrossed and attested by the President and Secretary be presented to Judge and Mrs. Biddle.
Horatio C. King
W.W. Evans
The following was adopted:
Resolved: That the following rule be adopted for the government of the Herman Bosler Biddle Memorial Athletic Field;
Rule 1. Hon. Edward W. Biddle and Mrs. Gertrude B. Biddle, the donors of said Field, and their son, Edward M. Biddle, shall at all times have free access to The Herman Bosler Biddle Memorial Athletic Field.
Boyd Lee Spahr
W.W. Evans
