By Emily Navarre
e-navarre@onu.edu
On April 1, Ohio Northern University founder Henry Solomon Lehr shared his beliefs during Faith Lift. Well, from a certain point of view.
In reality, William Robinson, executive assistant to the president; Paul Logsdon, director of Heterick Memorial Library and Reverend Vern LaSala shared their knowledge of the founder and his faith with students and faculty.
According to Robinson and Logsdon, Lehr believed in three things: the value of education, individuals and religion.
“[Lehr] always was very concerned about education as a means to both better individuals and the society as a whole,” Logsdon said. More importantly, Robinson added, “Lehr also saw education as a means to further elevate the individual. […] Lehr’s faith in the individual . . . showed in everything he did.”
Lehr’s faith in God, however, is what Logsdon defined as “the framework in the matrix in which his educational efforts took place.”
This is not to say that Lehr was a “doctrinary individual.” Logsdon reminded students that the university was founded without a denominational affiliation, and that Lehr sold ONU to the Methodist church in1899 after experiencing financial difficulties. Ironically, the founder was forced to resign as the university’s president shortly thereafter, as he was not an ordained Methodist minister.
If Lehr was not a Methodist, what was he? As a protestant, Lehr was open to many denominations. Raised a Baptist, Lehr had a conversion experience that changed his life when he was 16 years old, in the form of a sermon on the second chapter of Acts. Though the content of the sermon is unknown, the account of the Holy Spirit descending on the apostles set Lehr on fire for God.
“[Lehr] got so stimulated by that [sermon],” LaSala said, “that he immediately began reading the Bible cover to cover, which [he] hadn’t done before. What [he] discovered in reading through the Bible was that God wasn’t just the angry, vengeful God that people think about when they read the Old Testament by itself. [He] realized that God was a loving father with a salvation plan.”
Shortly afterward, Lehr decided to be rebaptized by immersion in a freezing mill pond.
“They had to chip the ice away to baptize [Lehr],” LaSala said.
After his second baptism, Lehr noted that his reception at the Methodist church he was currently attending suddenly became cold. Not to be deterred, LaSala said that the young Lehr “did the only thing that a young, sixteen-year-old, just-baptized-in-frigid-water would do: he went to another service that night [at a Disciples church], and joined that church.”
Though Lehr remained largely faithful to the Disciples church, he remained involved in many other denominations. At one point, he worked simultaneously as the Sunday school superintendent for both the Baptist and Methodist churches of Ada, in addition to teaching at the Presbyterian church.
What would Lehr think about the university today? According to Robinson and Logsdon, Lehr would be pleased to see the direction that ONU has taken, though Robinson said that the founder would probably caution the university to “be careful not to lose the Christian care and concern.”
Though ONU has changed substantially over the last 138 years, Lehr’s influence may still be seen throughout the institution. As Robinson said, “If you seek his memorial, look around.”