History of Randolph-Macon College, Virginia Part 36

Pictures are individually captioned, as follows: "PRESIDENT SMITH.", "PROF. SHARP.", "DR. MARTIN.", "PROF. ARMSTRONG.", "MISS PARRISH.". At the bottom of the page, the quincunx is captioned, "FACULTY RANDOLPH-MACON WOMAN'S COLLEGE, 1893-1898.]]

[Ill.u.s.tration: [A third set of five small pictures, displayed in a quincunx. Pictures are individually captioned, as follows: "PROF LANDON", "MRS. SAUNDERS.", "PROF. RIDd.i.c.k.", "PROF. PAGE.", "DR.

TERRELL." At the bottom of the page, the quincunx is captioned, "FACULTY RANDOLPH-MACON WOMAN'S COLLEGE, 1893-1898.]]

On motion of John P. Branch (subst.i.tute for one offered by A. G. Brown), it was

"_Resolved_, That Richard Irby be appointed Secretary and Treasurer, the same to give half of his time to the business of the College."

His duties were defined as follows: To have charge of the financial and business concerns of the College, and also of the library, grounds, buildings, etc. This office was accepted, and he entered upon his duties the first day of July following.

At the same session the Board proceeded to fill the chair of Moral and Mental Science and Biblical Literature. Rev. John A. Kern, of the Baltimore Conference, was elected to the chair, and he accepted the same.

Prof. Kern was a graduate of the University of Virginia. In 1866 he entered the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He had filled many of the most important appointments of that Conference, and was then, as now, esteemed a man of talent, and growing year by-year in ability and acceptability. The estimate placed on him by his friends was not too high, as his subsequent career has proven.

The Board accepted the libraries which had been offered to it by the Literary Societies, consisting of about four thousand volumes, and the Librarian was directed to consolidate them with the College Library.

This was a much-needed and timely improvement, and became a nucleus for a library which, in course of time, will be, it is hoped, a credit to the College.

[Ill.u.s.tration: REV. JOHN A. KERN, D. D. _Elected President of Randolph-Macon College in 1897._]

The new President was requested to continue his efforts in raising funds for the endowment, which had so far been attended with laudable success.

This he was not slow in heeding.

On account of failure to record the financial statement of 1886, the exact amount of net a.s.sets of the College cannot here be given.

The retiring President served nine years, almost identically the same period served by his predecessor, Dr. Duncan. His administration was also, like Dr. Duncan's, marked by great financial embarra.s.sment, which had a depressing influence on a sensitive temperament like his was. That his days were shortened by the constant burden of care, like his predecessor's, can hardly be doubted. Both of them were, in a sense, martyrs to the cause of Christian education.

Dr. Bennett never regained his health. He moved to his farm, in Louisa county, and took work on the contiguous appointment at the Conference of 1886. While engaged in the work of his charge he gradually declined in health, and died June 7, 1887.

REV. W. W. BENNETT, D. D.

"WILLIAM WALLACE BENNETT, son of Eli and Mary C. Bennett, was born in the city of Richmond, February 24, 1821. He was reared under the fostering care and social surroundings of Methodism, and was the subject of religious impressions from an early period.

"In 1839, under the ministry of Rev. Gervas M. Keesee, he made a profession of religion, and united with the Methodist Episcopal Church in Portsmouth. Here, with the help of cla.s.s-meetings and other social, as well as the public means of grace, his religious experience had a healthful beginning, that developed the elevated character and useful life that our beloved brother has bequeathed to the church. Soon after his conversion, he, and several others who were exercised about a call to the ministry, met and conversed upon the subject, and prayed for divine guidance, giving evidence that when he entered the itinerancy it was no rash adventure. In the fall of 1841, he removed to Mecklenburg county, where his brother, Rev. John R. Bennett, was in charge of the circuit. There he pursued his studies, obtained license to preach, and began his ministry, pa.s.sing through what he conceived to be the crucial test of his call to preach. Discouraged, as he informed the writer, by what he conceived to be a failure in the pulpit before a large congregation, he was tempted to give up the ministry; but falling in the hands of an experienced and G.o.dly cla.s.s-leader, who encouraged him by his counsel and his prayers, he returned to his work with renewed consecration, and a conviction too strong to be jostled again.

"From the best information obtained (the records of four years of this Conference being lost) he was admitted on trial into the Virginia Conference in 1842, and travelled as junior preacher on Louisa and Bedford Circuits. In 1845-'46 he was in charge of Powhatan Circuit, and in 1847 was stationed in Charlottesville, where he availed himself of the educational advantages of the University of Virginia, and graduated in several of the schools in 1850. At the Conference of this year he was stationed in Washington city, organizing the first society of the M. E.

Church, South, at our national capital. In 1851 he was elected Chaplain of the University of Virginia, but on account of sickness resigned the position. He soon, however, regained his accustomed health, and in 1852-'53 travelled Loudoun Circuit with W. W. Berry and John C.

Granbery, respectively, as junior preachers. In 1854-'55-'56-'57 he was Presiding Elder of the Washington District. While on this appointment he was married, December 20, 1855, to Virginia Lee, daughter of Edward and Mary Kendall Lee Sangster, of Alexandria. A wise and happy union. In 1858-'59 he was appointed to Union Station, Richmond, and in 1860-'61 was stationed at Centenary, in the same city.

"In 1862 he was appointed Chaplain in the Confederate Army, and a.s.signed to the superintendency of the Tract a.s.sociation. Seeing the necessity of a more generous distribution of Bibles and religious literature among the troops, he arranged to go abroad for a supply, and during the last winter of the war successfully 'ran the blockade.' He had scarcely, however, entered upon the work in London when the war ended, and he returned to Virginia.

"In 1865-'66 he travelled Nottoway circuit, and in November, 1866, was appointed editor of the _Richmond Christian Advocate_. By judicious management and editorial ability, this necessary and popular journal was established on a promising basis. In 1874 Rev. J. J. Lafferty became his a.s.sociate, who, in 1877, by satisfactory negotiations, a.s.sumed control, and was appointed editor of the paper. The motives influencing Dr.

Bennett in this change were characteristic of the man and the result of thoughtful conversation. His successor well understood him, and tells us, in his affecting notice of his death, that 'he made known to him his uneasiness in conscience as to his position--that he was too stout in health to be out of the regular ranks. With much emphasis, he declared his wish to be found in the pastorate when G.o.d called him.' Before the Conference met in Lynchburg Dr. Bennett had arranged to change his position. It was then made to appear his duty to go to the college, and he yielded. But there must have been a peculiar joy when the summons came that he was in his loved employ--the shepherd of a flock.

"In 1877 he was elected President of Randolph-Macon College. This position he held for nine years, during, perhaps, its most critical history; but by able, kind, and impartial administration, with the confidence of his brethren in the ministry, the active co-operation of his professorial a.s.sociates, and the affection of the students, the College accomplished a n.o.ble work. By his activity in visiting throughout the Baltimore and Virginia Conferences and elsewhere, and under his stirring appeals, the number of students compared favorably with other inst.i.tutions, and a large amount of money was raised in the interest of the College. The sentiments of a writer from the Pacific coast, we are sure, find echo here, that 'Virginia Methodism owes Dr.

Bennett a great debt for the work done by him at Randolph-Macon at the crucial period of its history.' He left the College an enduring monument of his heroic devotion, but, as many think, at the cost of his life. At the close of the session in 1886 his health was so impaired that he resigned the presidency of the College, and secured a retired home near Trevilian's, in Louisa county, hoping that relief from the burdens and cares of college work and the quiet of the country might nurse him back to health again. But, alas! his disease baffled the best medical skill and the loving attentions of his family and friends. He was prevailed upon during the summer to visit the mountains, and, with some slight improvement, he was in his place at the last Conference, believing that he could even then attend to the work on some fields that would be open, but naming none. The change disease had wrought in his robust frame was a subject of mournful remark by all that knew him, and grave apprehensions were felt that he would never recuperate. From that Conference he was sent to Gordonsville and Orange, where he gave for a time pastoral care and pulpit work that was surprising to his friends.

But as the summer advanced, he was compelled to yield, and after a short confinement to his bed, his earthly labors ended.

"Dr. Bennett, in health, will always be remembered by his acquaintances as an incomparable specimen of physical manhood, with a face bearing the lines of strong character. Indeed, he seemed moulded for any work or position in Methodism. His mental endowments were of a high order. His early advantages were such as to secure a good English education, with some knowledge of Latin; and from our knowledge of the man, we may safely conclude that his opportunities were well improved. A schoolmate says of him: 'He was studious, with great grasp of intellect and steadiness of purpose.' The writer, and others, perhaps, will remember his modest reference to his fondness for reading while a boy, in using 'the first money he could command to subscribe for the _Richmond Advocate_,' which he subsequently edited with so much ability. By judicious reading and study, and by such collegiate helps as his appointments favored, he became the peer of any. Ten years before he was elected President of Randolph-Macon College he received from that inst.i.tution the degree of D. D., was a member of every General Conference since 1858, and was a representative of our church at the Ec.u.menical Conference in London in 1881. The opinion of the editor of the _Richmond Christian Advocate_, no doubt, is the judgment of his brethren, that 'he was the best-rooted man in the Conference in theology, and saturated with church history, dogma, and doctrine.'

"As a preacher, he occupied the front rank in pulpit power, and his discourses were such as lived in the memory and hearts of his hearers.

'His sermons,' says Bishop Granbery, 'were stately, elaborate, and ma.s.sive, mighty discussions of great truths, with wide range of thought, lucid and forcible argument, earnest, solemn, and often impa.s.sioned application.' Bishop Doggett says of him: 'Bennett, at times, is the greatest preacher I ever heard. His sermon at the late camp-meeting, on Matthew xxiii. 37, 38, surpa.s.sed anything I ever listened to from the pulpit. His description of the desolate house I can never forget. I remember,' says he, 'to have heard him at Charlottesville, on the flood, when for more than an hour the congregation seemed dazed by the power of his eloquence.'

"His character was differently a.n.a.lyzed by some of his friends, though all accorded him unexceptionable integrity, a high order of piety, and a n.o.ble, generous heart. His occasional serious expression and brusque manner awakened the suspicion with some that he was wanting in sympathy, but those who knew him best indulged no such estimate of him. With all his firmness of conviction and stern independence, where was to be found greater gentleness and consideration of the feelings of others? He was emphatically the friend of the friendless, the persecuted and neglected, and was unchanging in his friendships. He was slow to find fault, and indulged in no depreciation of others. At any time it required a great provocation, and something more than mere personal affront or injury, to evoke rebuke; but when it did come, it was felt, but was more the utterance of conscientious impulse than the ebullition of personal resentment.

"He was the head of a Christian household, where piety was fostered and practised, and where Methodism was honored. He, with his devoted wife, sought to make home attractive, and succeeded. While the proprieties of religious training and filial respect were never relaxed, there was no constraint on the freedom of social and religious intercourse, and no lack of sympathy for such enjoyments as were proper, entertaining and improving in a Christian home. He was looked up to by his family as a practical and safe counsellor, and beyond whom there was rarely even the desire to appeal. His brethren, I am sure, will endorse the sentiments of his distinguished eulogist: 'His virtues were many, steadfast and bright. The whole church will feel his loss. The Virginia Conference, as one man, will cherish his memory with deep admiration and love.'

"After his confinement to bed the ravages of his rare disease were very rapid and severe. He early sank into a comatose condition, yet responding when spoken to. It will be gratifying to his brethren, nevertheless, to know that his end was a great spiritual triumph. On Monday, June 6th, at an early hour, with the family and a few friends about him, fearful that he might pa.s.s away Without again rousing from his lethargy, his wife, under her stress of grief, urged all to united prayer. They knelt, and his eldest son led in prayer, expressing a.s.surance of the blessed result to the dying husband and father, yet craving a lucid interval and some words of affectionate counsel. In a few moments he asked to be turned on his back, and, opening his eyes, he exclaimed, 'I am quickened up into a higher life!' When his wife exulted in such an answer to prayer, he said: 'My dear, I have known for more than forty years that G.o.d answers prayer.' Then, feeling his pulse, and turning to Dr. Wills, his physician, he said: 'I suppose this thing is steadily progressing to the end, is it not?' 'Yes,' said the doctor, 'but you have the Everlasting Arms around you.' 'Oh, yes,' he replied, 'and have had for more than forty years, and they have never failed me.

But I have much to say, and must speak slowly, so I wanted to know how much time--a half hour?' 'Yes,' the doctor replied, 'perhaps several hours.' He then called his family--but we must drop the curtain on a scene in many respects too sacred and impossible to describe. With affectionate counsel to each, he commended them to G.o.d. When one of the family spoke of meeting him in heaven, he replied, 'And what a happy meeting that will be!' He then asked his physician if he had shown any signs of nervousness. When told he had not, with a tender consideration for his loved ones, he said: 'I did not want to excite the family unnecessarily, but I want you all to know that there is not a cloud, not the semblance of a shadow, dark or small, between my Lord and me. All is bright and clear.' He joined in singing that hymn of Christian triumph commencing, 'How happy are they,' and when the family, by reason of their emotions, were unable to sing, he carried the tune. He then sent messages of love to his friends and brethren. 'Give my love,' said he, 'to the professors and students of Randolph-Macon College, and may the blessing of G.o.d be upon them and their work forever.'

Then, with his heart going out to his brethren in the ministry, with whom he had labored so long and so successfully, he said: 'Give my love to the preachers--all of them. I am so weak my feelings would overcome me. I can only give them my general blessing.' At intervals till he died the expressions caught from his failing voice were, 'Hallelujah,' 'Glory to G.o.d,' 'The portals on high,' 'Always the blood--saved by it,' and almost with his expiring breath, and as if descriptive of his triumphant pa.s.sage from earth to heaven, he exclaimed, 'I am rising higher and higher!' and at 1:15 o'clock P. M., June 7th, he pa.s.sed away from his family, a wife and six children, all one in Christ, who, though desolated by their loss, are comforted in the blessed hope of meeting in heaven.

"His remains were carried to Randolph-Macon College, where solemn and touching services were held. The next day they were conveyed to Centenary Church, Richmond, one of his old charges, where, by request of his family, Rev. S. S. Lambeth, a.s.sisted by Bishop Granbery and some of the ministers of the city and vicinity, in the presence of a large number of friends and acquaintances, held appropriate and affecting services. His body was then carried to Hollywood cemetery and laid to rest 'till Christ shall bid it rise.'"

[Ill.u.s.tration: REV. W. G. STARR, A. M., D. D., _Member Board of Trustees._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: MAJOR C. V. WINFREE, _Member Board of Trustees._]

This writer had intended to bring the History down to June, 1898. For reasons satisfactory to himself, but not necessary to be given here, he has concluded to discontinue the historical narration of events which occurred during the twelve years from June, 1886, to 1898. The Appendix will give some of the most important data, which may be interesting to many, and may be used by the future historian.

He cannot close this narration of events without again expressing his regret at the imperfections of this book, written and printed under many interruptions and difficulties; but he trusts that the intrinsic interest of the narrative will cause readers to overlook or forgive its imperfections and defects.

Hoping that some more competent writer may in due time take the crude materials given, along with others of like interest, and do full justice to the oldest of Methodist Colleges in America, he lays down his pen.

[Ill.u.s.tration: VIEW OF CAMPUS OF RANDOLPH-MACON COLLEGE, 1896.]

APPENDIX.

DEGREES CONFERRED.

SESSION 1886-1887.

DEGREE GRADUATES.

A. M.

Eugene H. Rawlings, Virginia.

Arthur K. Davis, Virginia.

A. B.

George C. Bidgood, Virginia.

Edwin W. Bowen, Maryland.

John L. Bruce, Virginia.

Thomas E. Hunt, Virginia.