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and Oil September r atb , 1868, the college was enabled to open its second session and begin its long struggle with debt and financial distress." The real history of Western Maryland College begins with its second session, for it had, by that time, ceased to be the undertaking of Mr. Buell; it had taken on a corporate existence and had come under the special patronage of a strong and intelli- gent religions organization. Its charter however, while providing, ::IS was only just and proper, that one-third of the trustees should .' always be chosen from among the members of the Maryland Auuual Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church" is entirely free from sectarianism. The first section provides that" youth of every religious denominntion" are to "be Ireely admitted to equal' privileges and advantages of education and to all the literary honors of the college, without requiring or enforc- ing any reiigitns or civil test. or urgi11g their attendance 1I110n any particular place of religious worship or service other than that in which they have been educated, or which they hnve the approbation and consent of their or guardians to attend, nor shall any preference be given to the choice a Principal, Master, Tutor or Teacher, 011 account of his or her particular religious profession." Uncler this charter and with Dr. Ward as Principal, the second session opened ancl the first catalogue was issued, the catalogue for 1868-'69. Including the Princi- pal, the faculty then consisted of six instructors; the number of students enrolled was seventy, one- half from Westminster and most of the remniuder from Carroll county. By the time, however, the first class was graduated, the class of '71. the teaching force had been enlarged, and the school was attracting patronage from all parts of Maryland and even from adjoining states. 1\1r. Buell's original building was no longer able to accommodate the steadily increasing number of pupils, aud in 1871 additional space was provided by the erection of another edifice at a cost of about seven thousand dollars. But ill less than ten years it was felt that the college was again becoming cramped for room, and to meet the emergency Dr. Ward, by circular, appealed to his friends for small contributions towards a building fund. The response was prompt and gratifying, and, in sums ranging from fifty cents to ten dollars. the money came pouring steadily in tin til two thousand dollars had been raised. With this amount, largely ill creased from his OWl1 pocket, a building for male boarding students was erected in 1882, and most appropriately named by the trustees "Ward Hall." One striking indication of the hold the young institution had already taken on the public confide nee, under Dr. Ward's administration, was an Act of the Mary- land Legislature, passed in ISiS, directing that twenty-six of the state-scholars, students. that is to say, whom the state was educating for public school teachers by free scholarships, should receive their training in Western Maryland College. 1'0 Dr. Ward belongs the honor of being, ill a very real sense, the founder of the college. His name, his character, his influence, his abilities, carried it safely through the first years of doubt and, at times, almost of despair, and secured for it the repu- tation which it bears to-day among the schools of Maryland, and if it ever rises to a great and glorious height, it will be because the foundation laid by Dr. Ward was so solid and so strong. During the nineteen years of the \Vard administration the school received, as to its general features. the impress which it still retains. From the beginning. pupils of '7