Let the Past Be Buried

By September all the teachers who had signed the letter supporting their fired colleagues had either resigned or been fired. In the fall of 1880, another Kentucky Wesleyan professor leveled charges against Gould, this time over money. Gould had sold him a stock share in the college to raise funds for its rebuilding, but had allegedly neglected to register the purchase. When confronted, he threatened the professor with physical violence. The dispute was aired before the Kentucky Conference of the Southern Methodist Church, but Gould again escaped censure. In the fall of 1881 Gould expelled a student on trivial grounds. Mrs. S. F. H. Tarrant, a prominent member of the faculty, objected, and he summarily fired her. She published her side of the story in a Paris newspaper, adding accusations of alcoholism and financial indebtedness. The Gould marriage was under strain at this time because of his increasing absences from Millersburg on student recruitment trips to Texas and elsewhere.