When William Ward Parsons, president of Indiana State Normal School, hired John J. Schlicher to head the Latin Department in July 1896, he told confidantes he had substantially enhanced the academic stature of the young school.

Parsons' assessment was correct. Within a decade, Schlicher was among the nation's top scholars in his discipline and universally recognized as a "superior teacher."

Moreover, Schlicher liked the college and the city, rejecting offers to locate elsewhere and writing an academic booklet titled "Terre Haute in 1850."

Yet in January 1918 - 85 years ago - Indiana State Normal's board of trustees asked Schlicher to resign, a victim of war hysteria. It was among the most controversial dismissals in the college's annals.

A native of Merton, Wis., Schlicher graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1892 and taught at Mt. Morris College in Illinois for two years. From 1894 to June 1896, he worked on his doctorate at the University of Chicago.

After teaching at Normal for three years, Schlicher obtained a leave of absence to study in Germany to complete his thesis on rhythmic verse in Latin. The University of Chicago awarded him a doctorate in 1900 and he resumed his teaching career.

While residing in Berlin and Gottingen, Schlicher became keenly interested in European political affairs and developed a healthy respect for academic freedom. During the ensuing 17 years, he quietly earned the growing respect of his colleagues for integrity, scholarship and his teaching and writing abilities

Schlicher's quiet and uncontroversial status altered significantly in June 1917.

Two months earlier, President Woodrow Wilson declared war on Germany and the nation enthusiastically closed ranks behind the government. Indiana Gov. James P. Goodrich declared there were only two types of Americans: "Patriots," those who supported the war, and "traitors," those who did not.

One test of loyalty was whether a person was willing to subordinate "everything" to prosecute the war effort. Watchdog groups, including the Indiana Patriotic League and the Liberty Guards, sought out those who deviated from a patriotic course. Those with a hint of German ancestry were among the targets, causing many with German names to change them. In some locales, German books were burned.

In Collinsville, Ill., a German immigrant was lynched. In Decker, Ind., a high school teacher was fired for opposing the U.S. entry into war.

Each morning during school sessions, it was common for faculty members to address students and staff during a 20-minute period at the college chapel. In the first week of June 1917, professor Schlicher made an appearance and, while praising President Wilson and the war effort, warned listeners not to condemn those who may have a varying point of view, including Eugene V. Debs and U.S. Sen. Robert M. LaFollette.

Some students and faculty interpreted Schlicher's remarks as being "distinctly pro-German." The Terre Haute Saturday Spectator extended the debate into the community.

At daily chapel on June 11, President Parsons was compelled to affirm his support for the war. Two days later, Dr. Schlicher issued a formal statement, asserting he had been misunderstood. He avowed his allegiance to the U.S. and described his parents' migration to America to escape an oppressive German government.

Schlicher's words defused most critics; however, a few members of the board of trustees still were not satisfied. A questionnaire was prepared, probing into issues regarding his allegiance. He passed with flying colors and his teaching contract was renewed for an additional year.

Though the board retained Schlicher, it did not approve his statements. Academic freedom was not mentioned. Even President Parsons intimated that, in time of war, "no sane theory of government" permitted citizens to "hold and utter any opinion."

The incident no longer was a topic of debate by August, largely because the professor was attending special sessions at the University of Wisconsin.

Ironically, Schlicher's termination evolved from an effort to show support for the war by joining the Indiana Patriotic League. He "erred" by altering language describing the methodology used to accomplish the league's goals.

Disenchanted with the assertion that the Patriotic League should "provide methods for striking at open and masked disloyalty," Schlicher changed the phrase to read: "provide methods for putting down disloyalty."

The Vigo County chapter refused Schlicher's admission to the league, sent a copy of his application to the board of trustees and asked for his dismissal. Meanwhile, concern surfaced about Schlicher's wife Ella, a member of the pacifist Church of the Brethren. According to one rumor, Ella Schlicher asked her son Rudolph, a soldier in the U.S. Army, "to remember he was a German."

Without offering a hearing, the board officially dismissed Schlicher at its meeting Jan. 18, 1918. Parsons was directed to notify him at his discretion. The message was not delivered until March 7, 1918. He was asked to leave "no later than June 30, 1918." To add to the irony, Schlicher became a "Four Minute Man," a speaker who went to theaters and public gatherings to explain the war and urge support. And, in February 1918, the U.S. War Department appointed Schlicher to a committee to set up servicemen's training camp activities.

Schlicher's dismissal was not made public until June 24. No charge of disloyalty was made. The request for his resignation was based upon a claim that his "value to State Normal School had been impaired" by his actions and "unwise" utterances.

In November 1918, Schlicher was hired by the Committee for Public Information of the U.S. War Department to write propaganda for the government to which some thought him unfaithful.

From 1919 until his retirement in 1939, he was an esteemed professor of Latin at the University of Wisconsin.

Mike McCormick is the Vigo County historian. His column appears each Sunday.