Civil War: Hillary A. Gobin

Wabash Valley profiles : a series of tributes to hometown heroes who have made a difference

Description:	One typed page including photograph; biography of Hillary Gobin, esteemed educator and theologian. WABASHP R OFIA hometown h heroes who h difference. A seriies of ttributes tto h f ib t t h have made a diff dVALLEYL E SHillary A. Gobinn esteemed educator and theologian, Terre Haute native Hillary Asbury Gobin became a revered college president. The oldest of Calvin and Eliza Jane (Gray) Gobins nine children, Hillary was born March 25, 1842, in the family residence at Third and Tippecanoe streets. A plasterer by trade, Calvin Gobin engaged in successive business partnerships with James Peters and Daniel Joslin. The Gobins were active in the Sibleytown Methodist Church and later associated with the Asbury Chapel. The family moved to 1626 Franklin Ave. in 1856. Largely self-educated, Hillary worked with his father in 1860 to earn money to enroll at Indiana Asbury University of Greencastle in 1861. The Civil War intervened so Gobin joined the 71st Indiana Regiment, which mustered in Terre Haute. Captured at Richmond, Ky., and released during a prisoner exchange, he later served as clerk for John S. Bobbs, M.D., medical director of the State of Indiana. Known as the father of the cholecystotomy (gall bladder surgery), Major Bobbs was dean of Indiana Asbury Medical College before the war. Corporal Gobin enrolled at Asbury in 1865. He spent the summer of 1866 in Terre Haute, aiding the Reverend William Graham, pastor of Asbury Chapel. Hillary preached, assisted at church meetings, made pastoral visits and helped Graham raised funds to establish Centenary Methodist Church. Gobin earned a bachelor of arts degree from Asbury in 1870. For nearly ten years, he was a Methodist minister in Putnam County but, in 1879, joined the faculty of his college alma mater as the Robert Stockwell Professor of Greek Language and Literature. In early 1884 the name of the college was changed to DePauw University to recognize substantial gifts from New Albany industrialist Washington C. DePauw. Gobins exceptional leadership was recognized in 1886 when he was hired as the 13th president of Baker University in Baldwin, Kan., later the alma mater of Terre Haute mayor Vern McMillan. During the four years Hillary resided in Kansas, his parents died in Terre Haute and were interred at Woodlawn Cemetery, joining two of his siblings. Gobin returned to Greencastle in 1890 as dean of DePauws School of Theology and became university vice president in 1894. When president John Price Durbin John resigned May 15, 1895, during a national financial panic, Gobin was appointed acting president. The assignment became permanent the following year. He served eight years, voluntarily stepping down in 1903 while agreeing to serve as vice president and professor of Biblical Science. He held those posts until retiring in 1922. Baker University presented Gobin with a honorary L.L.D. in 1903 while DePauw honored him with a doctor of divinity degree and an L.L.D. He died March 18, 1923, a week shy of his 81st birthday, survived by Clara Beals Gobin, his second wife; daughter Jessie Swintz; and two stepdaughters. Gobin Memorial United Methodist Church in Greencastle was dedicated in 1929. During Gobins administrative years at DePauw, Deloss W. Minshall of Terre Haute endowed the Minshall Laboratory for the chemistry, physics and mathematics departments while J. Smith Talley and George W. Faris of Terre Haute made ample financial gifts to the college to assure construction of a Carnegie library.AAlways Close to Homewww.first-online.com MEMBER FDICYoull find First Financial Bank in these and other cities and towns near you: Terre Haute 238-6000 Brazil 443-4481 Rockville 765-569-3171 Clinton 832-3504 Sullivan 268-3331 Marshall, Illinois 217-826-6311 Robinson, Illinois 618-544-8666
Origin:	2006-07-26
Created By:	McCormick, Mike
Publisher:	Terre Haute Tribune-Star
Source:	http://indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/vchs/id/1465
Collection:	Vigo County Historical Society
Rights:	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/
Copyright:	Copyright Undetermined
Subjects:	Gobin, Hillary Asbury, 1842-1923 College presidents Clergy People Education Religion Civil War -- Document

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