History of Randolph-Macon College, Virginia Part 9

He represented the Montgomery (Alabama) District in the United States Congress prior to the war, and the same district in the Confederate States Congress. Afterwards he served for many years as a.s.sociate Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama. He was also very prominent in the church.

James F. Dowdell, of Georgia, was a member of the United States Congress from Alabama prior to the war, and was a local preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

Tennent Lomax, of South Carolina, also moved to Alabama. He was editor, soldier in the Mexican war, and was prominent in politics. He was killed while leading his regiment into battle at Seven Pines, Virginia, May, 1862, just after having received a commission as brigadier-general.

James L. Pierce was an eloquent speaker, a Doctor of Divinity, and President of Lagrange (Georgia) Female College.

In this connection it might be interesting to mention that Clopton's roommate was Robert Lanier, of Macon, Ga., a member of the Soph.o.m.ore Cla.s.s. He and Burwell Harrison, also of Georgia, married Virginia ladies, whose acquaintance they formed while they were at College.

Lanier's son, Sidney, has been called the "poet laureate of the South."

Coming to the next cla.s.s (1841), George B. Jones, first-honor man, was a fine scholar, but turned from teaching to business life. He was killed at Petersburg in 1864, while defending his city in Kautz's attack on it.

Thomas H. Campbell was a distinguished lawyer, served in both houses of the General a.s.sembly of Virginia, and was president of the Southside Railroad Company.

Edward Wadsworth was a prominent minister in Virginia and Alabama, a Doctor of Divinity, and President of the Southern University, Greensboro, Ala.

In the cla.s.s of 1842, Thomas C. Johnson, of Virginia, first-honor man, became a prominent lawyer in St. Louis, Mo., and a member of the Legislature of that State. After the war he served two years as President of Randolph-Macon College (1866-'67, 1867-'68).

William G. Connor, D. D., of South Carolina, was for many years a prominent minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in Texas.

Ira I. Crenshaw, of Virginia, was tutor in Randolph-Macon College several years, and professor at the Female Inst.i.tute, Buckingham, Va., and a minister of the Virginia Conference.

Dr. Samuel D. Saunders was professor at the Southwestern University.

Georgetown, Texas, for a number of years.

Of the cla.s.s of 1843, George W. Benagh, of Virginia, first-honor man, was a professor at the University of Alabama, succeeding Dr. Landon C.

Garland, his old preceptor. He died young by accidental drowning.

Edward S. Brown, of Virginia, an eminent lawyer and member of the Virginia Legislature, is still an active, vigorous man (1897).

William H. Lawton was a faithful itinerant in the South Carolina Conference for nearly fifty years.

Richard H. Powell was a prominent man in church and state for many years in his State (Alabama).

A number of the members of this cla.s.s died in early manhood.

Coming down to my own cla.s.s (1844). This cla.s.s in the Freshman year numbered thirty-three. Of these only nine took degrees. Four others came in after the opening year, making total graduates thirteen.

John Lyon, of Petersburg, was the first-honor man of this cla.s.s. He entered the cla.s.s in the junior year, when he was in his sixteenth year.

Before his entrance there were several candidates for the first honor.

It was not long before their hopes began to fail. He was precocious, but his precocity was not short-lived, as it so frequently is. Mathematics, the great rock on which so many aspiring men were wrecked, was apparently a pastime with him. President Garland, a natural-born mathematician, had no mercy on men not like gifted with himself. His course was beyond the power of nine out of ten. John Lyon was the one of ten, and was head and shoulders above all the others in the cla.s.s in this course, while not equal to others in other courses, but high in all. His brilliancy made him in after life a successful lawyer. He died in Washington, November, 1897, aged seventy.

The second-honor man was William C. Doub, of North Carolina. He was an untiring student, gifted especially in the acquisition of language. He was a teacher all his life, having spent the most of it as professor in Trinity College, North Carolina, and Greensboro Female College. He was very prominent in the Methodist Church. He died in the high noon of life.

The third-honor man, William M. Cabell, of Virginia, was a man of clear-cut intellect, and he had the power of concentration in a high degree. This power was shown in his early life, and afterwards made him distinguished and feared at the bar and in the Virginia Legislature. He is still living (1897).

The fourth-honor man was Holland Nimmons McTyeire. Brought by his old preceptor, James R. Thomas, to Randolph-Macon, when otherwise he might have gone to a state school, he entered the Soph.o.m.ore Cla.s.s in 1841.

College life was no pastime for him. His ambition would make it a stepping-stone to high position--as at first desired and designed--in the State. Like Dr. Olin, no place lower than the highest would satisfy his ambition. To attain to this, all the power of an iron will moving the enginery of a somewhat slow but giant mind was bent and made subject. Had not a change come to divert him from his original intention, he would doubtless have become as notable in the councils and courts of the State as he became in the church. When he first came to College he appeared indifferent in church matters, though it was known he was a member. Whether this was the result of a lapsed religious life, or was the result of a struggle to still the promptings of conscience, is not known. But the call to a higher life, heard, doubtless, before, but a while unheeded, was emphasized in one of those sweeping revivals which Dr. Olin valued more than laws of discipline, and which he p.r.o.nounced as indispensable in college work. Worldly ambition ceased to be the mainspring of his action, and he began to seek to "have the mind which was in Christ." But it was no easy work to bend such a will in a new direction. It was like turning the mighty steamship on a different course. The pa.s.sion to rule men around him, the gift of so doing (and it is the greatest gift with which man is endowed), was constantly a.s.serting itself. It probably was "strong in death," but it was tempered and sanctified to other than selfish ends by that good Spirit which subdued a Luther, a St. Paul, and a John Knox. What Randolph-Macon did for McTyeire in strengthening his mental powers for what he was to become as editor and bishop and builder of a great university, in sobering and elevating his ambition and aspirations, and fitting him for the work he was called to do in and for the church, cannot be computed.

He has made his mark as high as any son of his alma mater, possibly higher than any other.

s.p.a.ce will not allow me to dwell upon the names of Thomas H. Rogers, of Virginia, for a while a tutor in the College, afterwards M. D.; of Richard S. Parham, of Virginia, a clever student and lawyer, who died in the prime of life, in his adopted State, Tennessee; of "Judge" Fanning, of Georgia, the frequent b.u.t.t of Prof. Duncan's wit, who was said (poor fellow) to have chewed his brains out along with his teeth; of B. F.

Simmons, a prominent young lawyer, who died prematurely, and of Willie M. Person, a M. D., who also died young.

John Howard has been since early youth a prominent lawyer in Richmond, ranking very high in his profession. He was noted when at College for his love for, and proficiency in, English literature and composition.

He is still living (1897).

Of my most intimate friend in the cla.s.s, Archibald Clark, I quote what Bishop McTyeire wrote of him: "The most useful local preacher in Southern Georgia, is what his presiding elder said of him."

Among those who were students with me at the College, but left without taking degrees, the following were the most notable: William T. Howard, of Virginia, who became a distinguished physician and professor in the University of Maryland; Lucius I. Gartrell, of Georgia, who became one of the foremost lawyers of his State, and a general in the Confederate army; Chas. E. Hooker, of South Carolina, Attorney-General of the State of Mississippi, colonel in the Confederate army, and for many years a member of Congress; Colonel Joel B. Leftwich, of Virginia, for a number of years a member of the General a.s.sembly of Virginia; Smith W. Moore, of North Carolina, a Doctor of Divinity in the Memphis Conference, author of several books, and poet. He was a.s.sociated with Bishop McTyeire on the Board of Trust during the early years of the Vanderbilt University. James N. Ramsey, of Georgia, colonel in the Confederate army; Robert Ridgway, of Virginia, the brilliant editor of the _Richmond Whig_, and member of Congress from Virginia; Walter L. Steele, of North Carolina, a member of Congress, and prominent in business and state, matters; W. L. Blanton, a minister of the Virginia Conference, eloquent and zealous, who died in early manhood; James D. Crawley, a most estimable man, and a local minister for many years; W. K. Blake, of North Carolina, a prominent merchant in Spartanburg, S. C., and trustee of Wofford College; John Wesley Williams, a member of the Virginia Conference, whose useful life was early cut short by consumption.

Nearly all of my college-mates sleep in the dust of the earth. Many of them were "wise, and shall shine as the brightness of the firmament,"

and some "turned many to righteousness," and shall "shine as the stars, forever and ever."

[Ill.u.s.tration: GEN. TENNENT LOMAX, CLa.s.s 1840. _Killed at Seven Pines, Va., 1862._]

We go back now and take up the record regularly. At the close of the session of 1839-'40 the report of the Faculty notes the year as successful, and makes mention of the introduction of Anglo-Saxon into the course as the basis of the proper study of English. The Bible was also recommended as a part of the course of study. At this meeting the first legacy to the College, made by Rev. Robert C. Jones, of $3,000, was reported.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DAVID CLOPTON, LL. D.]

The following degrees were conferred June, 1840:

A. B.

DAVID CLOPTON, of Georgia.

JAMES F. DOWDELL, of Georgia.

BURWELL K. HARRISON, of Ga.

JAMES L. PIERCE, of Georgia.

TENNENT LOMAX, of S. C.

WOODSON L. LIGON, of S. C.

A. M.

JOHN C. BLACKWELL, of Va.

R. E. G. ADAMS, of Virginia.

J. W. HARDY, of Georgia.

F. N. MULLEN, of N. C.

JOHN TILLET, of North Carolina.

JUNIUS L. CLEMONS, of N. C.

WARREN DU PRE, of S. C.

[Ill.u.s.tration: D'ARCY PAUL]

The "Centennial of Methodism" occurred in 1839, and was celebrated by the church. Considerable collections were taken up during the year to increase the endowment of the College. This year a name, _clarum et n.o.bile_, appeared for the first time on the records of the Board, D'Arcy Paul, of Petersburg. In the good providence of G.o.d, he was permitted to act as trustee for many years, and to exert a great influence in saving the College from financial wreck. At the time of his election he was a leading Methodist in his city, and probably the most prominent layman in the State. As a merchant, he had been very successful, and enjoyed the unbounded confidence of the business world. His liberality towards all church and benevolent enterprises was such as probably had never before been witnessed in Virginia. He was by birth a native of Ireland, but his whole life, except his early boyhood, had been spent in Virginia, and no son "to the manner born" was more enthusiastic in pushing forward all interests that enured to its welfare. When he accepted the place of trustee his heart and hand and credit were put at the service of the College. Taking the helm of the ship as Financial and Investing Agent, he held it for nearly thirty years, and it is not going too far to say that to him, more than to any other man, the College owes its continuation to the day when age and feebleness forced him to turn over to other hands the trust he had so long and faithfully borne on his shoulders. If it had the means, it should erect a monument to perpetuate his memory. Happy am I here to pay this feeble tribute to his worth, and to give the portrait, faint representation, though it be, of one who is worthy of all the honors that could be bestowed on him. His form was so erect that age could not bend it. His character, which beamed forth in a face of more than usual manly beauty, was still more true to the line of truth and righteousness.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EDWARD WADSWORTH, D. D., _President of the Southern University, Ala._]

The report of the Faculty for the year ending June, 1840-'41, makes favorable mention of the work of the session and of the conduct and scholarship of the students. The financial condition of the College was found to be such as to call for an address asking of the patronizing Conferences needed relief.