History of Randolph-Macon College, Virginia Part 26

"The Randolph-Macon System of Schools and Colleges is a worthy monument to the memory of our dead Duncan. May the graduates of these schools be living stones in the living shaft, ever rising higher and higher to the memory of Olin, Garland, Smith, and their successors, who spent their best days for the advancement of Christian education at our alma mater."

The number of students matriculated the first session was 67. Under all the embarra.s.sments and difficulties of the situation, this number was as great as could have been expected. The income from such a small number was insufficient to meet the expenses, and here ensued the old trouble, which had been such a clog in the past, that is, straitened finances.

The condition of the country was anything but favorable to any effort to raise funds for the College. Various plans were proposed, some of which were adopted, but none of them brought speedy relief, and the embarra.s.sment became very onerous and trying. By the efforts of the Agent, Rev. W. B. Rowzie, and the securing of a loan by D'Arcy Paul, Esq., the College was carried through the first session.

The first annual report of the President was made June 21, 1869. The following synopsis is given:

Congratulates the Board on the increase of patronage; the zeal and efficiency of the Faculty; the diligence and good order of the students; the general healthfulness and pleasant harmony of all connected with the inst.i.tution, and the increased confidence of the public in the permanency and success of Randolph-Macon College; expresses the conviction that the only condition prerequisite to complete success, under the providence of G.o.d, is a _determined_ and energetic purpose to succeed; affirms that the demand for such an inst.i.tution to secure important interests of Methodism is imperative;.... refers to his visit to the Baltimore and North Carolina Conferences and the cordial reception given by these Conferences; recommends a fiscal secretary or director, whose duty it shall be to take entire control of the financial interests of the College, except as to matters in the hands of the Proctor, and to do all he can by travelling and speaking for the College.

The following degrees were conferred, on the recommendation of the Faculty, viz.: LL. D., on Professor Francis H. Smith, of the University of Virginia; D. D., on Rev. James L. Pierce, of the Georgia Conference, Rev. William G. Connor, of the Texas Conference, and Rev. John C.

Granbery, of the Virginia Conference. The commencement in June was well attended, especially by visiting Trustees and others from the Baltimore Conference.

An excellent dwelling for the President had been erected by the liberal aid of a friend in Richmond. At an adjourned meeting of the Board, held in Richmond, Va., next November, there were several causes for encouragement. The Agent reported subscriptions amounting to over $13,000. Of this Samuel O. Moon, Esq., of Albemarle, gave $5,000 in Virginia bonds; the Society of Alumni, $1,200; Major W. T. Sutherlin, of Danville, $1,500 ($300 per annum for five years to meet current expenses). But the most important action taken was on the suggestion of Rev. W. H. Christian, an alumnus of the College (cla.s.s of 1851.) In response to this suggestion, the following resolutions were adopted:

"_Resolved_, That we request the Virginia Conference to order that the deficiency in the yearly revenues of the College (which shall be reported by the Board to each annual session of the Conference) shall be divided among all the districts of the Conference, and sub-divided among all the stations and circuits by the district stewards, as in case of the Conference collection, and shall be raised by collections in every congregation, and embraced in the annual report of the recording steward of every charge to the Financial Board of the Conference.

"_Resolved_, That when the Virginia Conference shall have adopted the plan proposed, all its ministers shall be ent.i.tled to send their sons of proper age and acquirements to College without payment of tuition fees; that the Baltimore Conference, by adopting the same plan, shall be ent.i.tled to the same privilege, and that $2,500 be fixed as the amount to be raised by each of these Conferences for the next year."

This action has been considered, and rightly so, to have been for the time and under the embarra.s.sments of the surroundings the most important and efficient ever taken by the Board. With a small a.s.sessment of about five cents on each member of the church in the two Conferences, the annual income was in a short time increased by the sum of $4,000, which was equal to the dividends on an endowment of about $70,000. The Conferences adopted the plan, and have annually raised a large percentage of the a.s.sessment, the Virginia Conference having in 1882 increased its a.s.sessment to $3,500.

[Ill.u.s.tration: REV. W. H. CHRISTIAN, D. D., _Virginia Conference._]

In looking back on the period since, nearly thirty years, it really looks as if, without this action, the College could not have continued its work. Certainly this work would have been greatly narrowed and restricted. Great honor, therefore, should be bestowed on the name of William H. Christian as the mover of this plan, and the friends of Christian education in the State should render to the Conferences grateful thanks for having, under the promptings of the good Spirit, acted so promptly on the suggestion and carried it out for so many years.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JOHN HOWARD, A. M.]

The year 1869 was otherwise a notable year. In the latter part of the year the first general election for State officers and a Legislature was held since the close of the war. With the inauguration of the Governor elected at this election and resumption of the legislative functions by the General a.s.sembly, the State resumed its normal condition, and military rule ceased to exist.

At the meeting of this first Legislature, a committee, which had been charged with that duty, appeared before the body and asked and obtained the change of the charter, and the sanction to the removal of the College from its original site to Ashland. The amended charter reads as follows:

"[Section] I. That the removal of the aforesaid College is hereby ratified and confirmed, and that there be, and is hereby, established at Ashland, in the county of Hanover, in this Commonwealth, a seminary of learning for the instruction of youth in the various branches of science and literature, the useful arts, agriculture, and the learned and foreign languages."

The suit which was inst.i.tuted to enjoin the removal of the College never came to an issue. It was ably defended on the part of the majority of the Board by John Howard, Esq., of Richmond (cla.s.s of 1844), and the argument was printed. It is worthy of reprinting here, but s.p.a.ce will not permit.

The second session of the College had a larger attendance than the first by fifty, of which number twenty-five were ministerial students.

About the close of the first term of the second session (1869-'70) one of the professors was taken from the College by death--Richard M. Smith, Professor of Natural Science. He was the oldest man of the Faculty.

The following preamble and resolutions, drafted by Professor Price and adopted by the Faculty, was endorsed and adopted by the Trustees at an adjourned meeting held in Richmond, February 23, 1870:

"Upon us as friends who loved and honored him, upon the College whose faithful officer he was, upon the cla.s.ses he taught with self-sacrificing zeal, upon the community and the church in which his virtues made him eminent, an overwhelming sorrow has, under G.o.d's will, fallen in the death of our late colleague, Professor Richard M. Smith.

Even those who had not the pleasure of knowing, from intimate a.s.sociation, the beauties of his private character, may from the knowledge of his career form some conception of the vigor of his mind and the unspotted virtue of his life. For us, who had in him the closer and tenderer interests of a common work and an undisturbed friendship, his sweet temper, his wise conversation and lofty unselfishness, will ever be a source of blended sorrow and consolation; be it, therefore,

"_Resolved_, 1. That we tender, as a body, to the widow and family of our dearly beloved colleague, our respectful sympathy in their bereavement.

"2. That we request our President to publish this expression of our heart-felt sorrow for the friend whom we have lost."

Professor Smith had been a prominent man in his native State, first as an educator, then as editor of the _Alexandria Sentinel_, afterwards of the _Richmond Enquirer_. He was the first Professor to die at his post.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PROF. WM. A. SHEPARD, A. M., _Cla.s.s 1857; Major Confederate States Army._]

The Board, after paying tribute to his memory, proceeded to supply the vacant chair.

On the first ballot Professor William Arthur Shepard, of the Southern Female College of Petersburg, was elected to the place. He was no stranger to the College, having served as Professor prior to the war, and having resigned his place to go into the service. Though a Northern man by birth, he threw his heart and energies into the Southern cause, and was so true and faithful that, after having been disabled for field service by wounds, he was promoted to be Major and a.s.sistant Commissary.

It would be safe to say that the College never had a warmer friend or a truer man in its service than he proved himself to be for over thirty years. He entered at once on the duties of his chair.

At a meeting of the Board held in Baltimore, March, 1870, at the session of the Baltimore Conference, that Conference was requested to make an a.s.sessment to aid the College, on the same plan as that adopted by the Virginia Conference. This the Conference agreed to make.

At the annual meeting, June, 1870, the President made the annual report, which gave the attendance as 110; total earnings from fees for the session, $5,040. A preparatory school was recommended to take charge of students unable to take College courses; recommended employment of a.s.sistants in the departments of Mathematics and Ancient Languages, particularly the latter, so that Prof. Price might initiate the School of English, as described in the Catalogue. Reference was made to the old trouble of financial embarra.s.sment; also, to his efforts during the last summer's vacation to arouse interest in the College, which efforts he proposed to continue the coming summer as far as practicable.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JAMES M. BARROW, A. M., _Superintendent of Public Schools, Columbus, Miss._]

The Executive Committee reported that they had appointed as instructor in the Introductory Department, as authorized, Col. Henry W. Wingfield (A. M. Randolph-Macon College), at a salary not to exceed $800.

The Finance Committee reported as follows: Liabilities, $26,475; a.s.sets (outside of College buildings and lots), $31,375. On some of the bills payable a discount of 12 per cent. had been charged.

At this meeting Rev. W. E. Munsey, D. D., was elected Financial Secretary. This position Dr. Munsey declined to accept.

Dr. William W. Bennett resigned the place of Agent, and Rev. George W.

Nolley was elected in his place.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHARLES CARROLL, A. M. 1872. _Washington Hall Builder._]

On the recommendation of the Faculty, the following degrees were conferred: Master of Arts, on James M. Barrow, of Virginia; Doctor of Divinity, on Rev. James W. Wightman, of Kentucky.

Rev. David Thomas was appointed as Agent to attend to subscriptions and collections within the bounds of the Baltimore Conference.

Richard Irby resigned the office of Treasurer, which he had held for two years, and William Willis, Jr., was elected in his stead.

[Ill.u.s.tration: H. C. PAULETT, _One of the builders of Library Hall._]

In the third session (1870-'71) the effort to build the Library building for the halls and libraries of the two literary societies was inaugurated. Up to this time the two societies had occupied the ante-rooms attached to the chapel, which were very cramped and inconvenient. Who was the first to suggest the building of the new edifice is not known to this writer, but it is well known who the parties were who did the main work in raising the funds. They were, on the part of the Washington Society, Charles Carroll, of North Carolina, and H. C. Paulett, of Virginia; and on the part of the Franklin Society, William W. Smith and Jordan W. Lambert, of Virginia.

An old alumnus offered to give to the Society which should raise the largest amount a copy of Audubon's _Birds of America_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JORDAN W. LAMBERT, _Franklin Hall Builder._]

This enterprise was prosecuted with great zeal and skill, and the building devised by the young men, let to contract by them, and paid for by them (in most part), went on to completion. It was the first brick building ever erected on the campus, and the first ever built in the town. More will be said of this in due time.

At a called meeting of the Board, held in Richmond, February, 1871, the committee appointed to make sale of the buildings and property near Boydton reported the sale of the same to Henry G. McGonegal, of New York city. The sum of the purchase money was $12,500. This included the claim on the United States government, which was transferred with the property to the purchaser.

This sale was a great sacrifice, embracing as it did the two large College buildings, the Steward's Hall, Hotel, and President's residence, all brick structures, and, in addition, the old Preparatory School building (also brick), and three other dwellings, and several hundred acres of land. But the pecuniary obligations of the College were heavy and pressing, and the rate of interest, even on bonds secured by real estate, ten per cent. Under these circ.u.mstances, the sale was ratified, and the Board parted with the old premises, built, for the most part, in 1830-'32, at a cost largely over $50,000.

At the annual meeting in June, 1871, the President, in his report, spoke in high terms of the studiousness and good deportment of the students.

The whole number in attendance was 142. The prospects for further increase were encouraging.

Prof. W. W. Valentine resigned the chair of Modern Languages, chiefly on account of delicate health. He was a faithful officer and a nice gentleman; he enjoyed the respect and regard of his colleagues and the Board.