USA > Georgia > Clarke County > Athens > Catalogue of the trustees, officers, alumni and matriculates of the University of Georgia from 1785 to 1901 : with A historical sketch > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02401 5098
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
Gc 975.8 UN42c
7071425
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016
https://archive.org/details/catalogueoftrust00univ 1
CATALOGUE
OF THE
TRUSTEES, OFFICERS, ALUMNI AND
MATRICULATES
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA,
FROM 1785 TO 1901.
WITH
A HISTORICAL SKETCH,
BY A. L. HULL.
ATHENS, GA .: PRESS OF E. D. STONE. 1901.
r
Allen County Public Library Ft. Wayne, Indiana
7071425
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
BY A. L HULL.
1784-1797.
The University of Georgia had its legal conception in an act of the Legislature, approved February 25, 1784, the intention of which primarily was to lay out amid the virgin forests of the State two counties, Washington and Franklin ; the one extending from the line of Rich- mond and Wilkes to the Oconee river, and the other from Wilkes to the Cherokee Nation, between the Oconee and the Keowee Rivers.
A section of that act provides : "And whereas the encouragement of religion and learning is an object of great importance to any community, and must tend to the prosperity, happiness and advantage of the same, Be it therefore enacted, etc., that the County Surveyors imme- diately after the passing of this act shall proceed to lay out in each county twenty thousand acres of land of the first quality in separate tracts of five thousand acres each for the endowment of a College or seminary of learning, and which said lands shall be vested in and granted in trust to his honor the Governor, for the time being, and John Houston, James Habersham, William Few, Jo- soph Clay, Abraham Baldwin, William Houston, Nathan Brownson, and their successors in office, who are hereby nominated and appointed Trustees for the said College or seminary of learning and empowered to do all such things as to them shall appear requisite and necessary to forward the establishment and progress of the same ; and all vacancies shall be filled up by the said Trustees. And the said County Surveyors shall in six months after the passing of this Act make return to the Trustees herein- before mentioned of regular plats of all such tracts as shall be laid out and surveyed by virtue of this Act."
In pursuance whereof the eight tracts were laid out which are now included in the counties of Hancock, Ogle- thorpe, Greene, Clarke, Jackson and Franklin and still
:
1
!
4
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA.
another across the Savannah river in the State of South Carolina, which will be treated of hereafter. These tracts were known as the Fishing and the Falling Creek tracts in Oglethorpe, the Richland Creek tract in Greene, the Sandy Creek tract in Clarke, the Shoal Creek tract in Franklin, the Shoulder-bone tract in Hancock and the Keowee tract in South Carolina.
The following year, 1785, a bill was introduced to complete the establishment of a "public seat of learning," which was approved January 27, 1785, and constitutes the Charter of the University of Georgia.
On February 3, 1786, an act was passed requiring the trustees to meet and proceed to the transaction of the business for which they had been appointed.
In pursuance of this act, the first meeting of the trus- tees was held in Augusta, Georgia, February 13, 1786. There were present Abram Baldwin, William Few, Wil- liam Glascock, John Habersham, Nathan Brownson, Hugh Lawson and Benjamin Taliaferro.
Abram Baldwin was chosen president of the Univer- sity and as such continued until the institution went into active operation in 1801.
The work of the trustees for the next fourteen years consisted of the management of their lands with a view to accumulating a fund which could be used in erecting buildings and paying teachers. The scheme contem- plated a long rent-roll, according to the English ideas that prevailed at the time, which it was hoped would sustain the institution. But experience proved that rents of lands in this new country could not be depended on for a certain income.
1798-1803.
On one of the tracts in Greene county in July, 1798, the town of Greenesborough was laid off by the trustees, and one thousand acres of land were offered for sale or lease in the immediate neighborhood of the new town.
It was the desire of some of the trustees to erect a building in Greenesborough and locate the college there ; but there seemed to have been great difficulty in getting a quorum of the board together to act upon the sugges-
5
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
tion. A meeting was appointed at the "Coffee House" in Louisville, then the capital of the State, in January, 1799. After three successive adjournments a quorum was had and then only seven were present. After the meeting of the board, the Senatus Academicus was form- ed and proceeded to business. This august body was composed of the Governor, the Senate, the Judges of the Superior Courts, the President and Trustees of the Uni- versity. They sat in solemn state and confirmed or re- jected the acts of the trustees.
On November, 28, 1800, the Senatus Academicus or- ganized the college by the election of a President at a fixed salary of $1,200 per annum and prescribed a cur- riculum of studies for six classes of students. The course of stady began with arithmetic, geography, composition and "speaking," and ended with moral philosophy, trig- onometry, Latin and Greek, with the option of substi- tuting the French language for either of the others, "pro- vided the tutor might be able to teach it."
In addition to this, the trustees were directed to name a location for the college. That body held a meeting and after repeated balloting decided upon Jackson county as the favored place. A committee was appointed, consist- ing of John Milledge, Abram Baldwin, George Walton, John Twiggs and Hugh Lawson, who should visit that section and select a site for the buildings.
The committee, in June, 1801, met at Billups' Tavern on the Lexington road and thence made tours of inspec- tion to various localities,
The Augusta Chronicle of July 25, 1801, tells us that "the committee repaired to the county of Jackson and proceeded with attention and deliberation to examine a number of situations as well upon the tracts belonging to the University as upon others of private individuals. Having completed their views, they proceeded by ballot to make the choice, when the vote was unanimous in favor of a place belonging to Mr. Daniel Easley at the Cedar Shoals upon the north fork of the Oconee river and the same was resolved to be selected and chosen for the seat of the University of Georgia. For this purpose the tract, containing 633 acres, was purchased of Mr. Easley
6
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA.
by Mr. Milledge, one of the committee, and made a dona- tion of to the trustees ; and it was called Athens."
When the grants by the State were made, there being very much land and very few people in Georgia the 40,000 acres could not have been worth very much. Governor Wilson Lumpkin, in a letter published in 1859, said that his father was the grantee of a large tract of land in the middle part of the State ; and in 1783, sold 400 acres for a rifle and another tract of 400 acres for a saddle horse. If this be taken as a criterion, the munificent gift of the State when the grant was made, was worth about fifty rifles and as many saddle horses, from which, however, twelve horses should be deducted for the 5,000 acres lost in the adjustment of the South Carolina line.
But coming out of the war of the Revolution, her people impoverished, her commerce destroyed, her ro- sources limited, the State had nothing else but land, and such as she had she freely gave, And though valueless, it may be, then, the lands afterwards yielded the Uni- versity a permanent fund of one hundred thousand dol- lars, while the generosity of Governor Milledge brought her, first and last, thirty thousand dollars, and sustained her at sundry times when in dire distress. In recogni- tion of her obligation to him, the University has called the chair of ancient languages " The Milledge Chair of Ancient Languages ; " and in other resolutions, from time to time, have the trustees testified their appreciation of the gift.
Reference has been made to the loss of 5,000 acres in the State of South Carolina. The line between Georgia and South Carolina was determined to be the northern bank of the Savannah river at high water; and where it forked, the larger of the two streams should be con- sidered a continuation of the Savannah. The Tugalo and the Keowee or Seneca, formed the first fork from its mouth and it became a question which was the larger. It was generally conceded that the Seneca was the prin- cipal stream and was therefore considered the boundary line between the States.
The lands between the rivers belonged then to Goor- gia, a part of which was the tract granted to the Uni-
ยท
-
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
versity, containing 5,000 acres, both fertile and valuable. Subsequent surveys, pretending to be more carefully made, determined that the Tugalo was the larger stream and that became the boundary line, thereby taking from the University her valuable lands. A committee of the trustees was appointed to ascertain and report the facts in connection with the loss of this tract. They reported that the tract was conceded to the State of South Caro- lina under the treaty of Beaufort, dated April 28, 1787; one of the clauses of which declared void all grants under the State of Georgia which were not registered in the State of South Carolina within twelve months from the date of the treaty. This treaty was ratified by the State of South Carolina on the 29th day of February, 1788, but such ratification was not communicated to the Governor of Georgia until May 26, 1788. The grant for the tract of land in question was sent to the proper office in South Carolina to be registered immediately after the reception of such communication, but it was not re- corded.
The committee held that the treaty did not begin to operate until after the exchange of ratifications between the two States, and that the grant was presented for enrollment in ample time.
They also held that the tract was the property of the University prior to the treaty of Beaufort, and no power was vested in the commissioners of Georgia to transfer its property to any person whatsoever. The tract was at the time, (1799) reported to be settled by claimants under the State of South Carolina.
The trustees made every effort to retain their pos- session, employing lawyers to prosecute their claims before the Legislature of South Carolina and in the Uni- ted Stated States Circuit Court, and appointing Thomas Peter Carnes, one of their number, a commissioner, it is supposed, to lobby. Having spent about about seven hundred dollars in this case, every effort to establish their title or effect a compromise having failed, after eight or ten years, the board abandoned the whole matter.
The year prior to the selection of a site for the college, to-wit, in November, 1800, Abram Baldwin, who
8
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA.
had been a tutor at Yale College before his removal to Georgia, recommended for Professor of mathematics, Josiah Meigs, of Connecticut, whom he had favorably known as a scholar and a successful teacher.
Mr. Meigs was accordingly appointed " upon exami- nation " (we suppose on probation ) at a salary of fifteen hundred dollars and four hundred dollars to pay the ex- penses of removal to Athens. The following year, upon his arrival and introduction to the trustees, Mr. Baldwin resigned the presidency and Mr. Meigs was elected in his stead. The trustees directed Mr. Meigs to erect one or more log buildings for the college, and requested him to teach until enough students should attend to authorize the employment of a tutor.
The surroundings were unpromising, but nothing daunted, President Meigs set to work with zeal and vigor to organize a school in the woods.
He had a clearing made for the campus, a street was laid out, lots were staked off and a town projected. Several citizens from other parts of the State, came with their families and settled in the village.
The Augusta Chronicle thus describes the place in 1802 :
" The river at Athens is about 150 feet broad ; its waters rapid in their descent and has no low grounds. The site of the University is on the south (?) side and half a mile from the river. About 200 yards from the site and 300 feet above the river, in the midst of an ex- tensive bed of rock, issues a copious spring of excellent water, and in its meanderings to the river several others are discovered. On the place is a new, well-built frame dwelling house, entirely equal to the accommodation of the president and his family. There is also another new house equal to a temporary school-room. The square of the University, containing 364 acres, is laid off so as to comprehend the site, the houses and the spring. A street is laid off on the northern line of the square adjoining a village of lots in that direction. Besides the spring in the square, which is convenient to the village, there is one in the street and another back of the lots.
9
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
" Near Athens, Mr. Easley has an excellent flour mill, a saw and common grist mill with intention to add a cotton machine. To drive these, the rapids opposite Athens are slightly dammed, so as the ordinary supply of the river neither increases or diminishes the size of the pond. Besides the lesser fish of fresh waters, the shad, in their season, ascend the river as high as Athens in great perfection."
In order to begin these improvements a loan of five thousand dollars was asked of the Legislature, secured by mortgages on the Hancock county lands.
Mr. James Gunn, of Louisville, at this juncture, generously gave the University one thousand dollars, which, with a balance in hand, made about seven thous- and dollars with which to begin operations.
Thus re-enforced, the trustees ordered the erection of the brick building which still stands, the earliest mon- ument of their efforts, and known to every student as " Old College."
In spite of all difficulties, the institution grew. In November, 1803, President Meigs reported to the board that " three dwelling houses, three stores and a number of other valuable buildings have been erected on Front street. The students, citizens and inhabitants of Athens have been remarkably healthy during the year, and the spring has not failed as to quantity of water, but rather increased. The number of students has been between thirty and thirty-five. Twelve young gentlemen com- pose the Senior class. They are pursuing with laudable ambition and singular industry, a course of reading, study and academic exercises, and it is believed by the first of May next they will merit the first degree usually conierred in all regular collegiate establishments. The philosophical apparatus and a small selection of books are now on their way from London to Savannah, and I am confident it will be at least equal in real utility to any one belonging to any literary institution in the United States.
You have, in less than two years, done much if you compare the effects of your labors with those of the direct- ors of the ancient similar institutions of William and
10
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA.
Mary in Virginia, Cambridge in Massachusetts and Yale in Connecticut. None of those colleges have more than . two hundred students, though they have been in exist- ence from 100 to 170 years."
1803-1808.
In 1803, Hope Hull, Thomas P. Carnes and John Clarke were appointed a " Prudential Committee " of the trustees, a standing committee which has continued to the present day. Upon this committee devolved the duty of acting for the board in cases of emergency and of advising with the President at all times in the interests of the college.
A Grammar School was established too, with Rev. John Hodge as master, who was afterwards for a long time the Secretary of the trustees. The grammar school was for many years a valuable adjunct to the college in preparing boys for the higher classes. It was the out- come of President Meigs' complaint that there were so few academies in the State which gave their pupils the preparation necessary for admission to college-a com- plaint which may with justice be made at the present day. In later years the grammar school became unpopular from a custom of the faculty sentencing idle and refract- ory students to " three months in the grammar school," and in 1829 it was discontinued altogether.
The first commencement of the college occurred May 31, 1804. The president issued a " diploma " to Addin Lewis and others authorizing them to examine the senior class for degrees. Their report was presented to the trus- tees, who thereupon directed the president to confer "the degree of Bachelor of Arts upon Gibson Clarke, Augustin S. Clayton, Thomas Erwin, Jeptha V. Harris, William H. Jackson, James D. Jackson, James Wayne, Robert Rutherford, Williams Rutherford and William William- son, alumni of this University ; and that Ebenezer H. Cumming, Bachelor of Arts of Hampden Sidney College, be admitted ad eundem ; and that Elijah Clarke, William Prince, John Forsyth and Henry Meigs be respectively admitted to the degree of Master of Arts."
The board then accompanied the students in proces-
11
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
sion to attend the commencement when the following ex- ercises were performed :
PROGRAMME.
Sacred music (presumably congregational singing) .
A prayer by the Rev. Mr. Marshall.
A salutatory oration by William H. Jackson.
An oration in favor of liberty and the superior ad- vantages possessed by the United States over the govern- ments of Europe, by Jeptha V. Harris.
An oration in praise of virtue and the necessity of enforcing it by example, Thomas Erwin.
A poem, descriptive of the means by which the lands of the Oconee were obtained-the former possessors de- scribed and contrasted with the present, and a prediction of its future greatness, by Augustin S. Clayton.
A dialogue (?) between Messrs. William William- son, W. Jackson and J. Harris.
An oration exciting to gratitude to France for her assistance during the Revolutionary War and the cession of Louisiana, by James D. Jackson.
An oration on the dignity of man, and exhorting to agriculture and a knowledge of the arts and sciences, by Robert Rutherford.
An oration in praise of a representative government and the sciences, by William Williamson.
A dialogue ( ?) between Messrs. Jared Irwin, James D. Jackson, R. Rutherford and A. S. Clayton.
A disquisition on taste, by Ebenezer H. Cumming. A valedictory oration, by Gibson Clarke.
The conferring of degrees.
A concluding prayer, by Rev. Hope Hull.
The board then returned to the college, where they declared that they " have with pleasure and satisfaction beheld the great and rapid improvement in science of the students of the University and felicitate themselves on the prospect of the institution becoming conspicuosly and eminently useful to the community."
These commencement exercises, and so for several years afterwards, were held sub arboribus, in the open air.
Dr. Henry Hull has left the following account writ- ten in 1870 :
12
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA.
" I have been present at every commencement of the college since 1804, though my memory only reaches back to that of 1806. On this occasion a large crowd of of people of all sorts, from the country and from towns,. male and female, old and young, in every variety of cos- tume, were assembled under a large bush arbor in front of the Old College, supplied with seats made of plank and slabs borrowed for the occasion from Easley's saw mill, resting on blocks or billets of wood which raised them from the ground. The stage for the faculty, trustees and speakers was erected at the side of the college building and the speakers when called came out of the door at the east end. The whole was built mainly by the students. The poles and brush for the arbor were growing in less than two hundred yards from the place where they were wanted ; the cutting and dragging them was a mere frolic, and as 'many hands make light work,' the affair once begun was soon completed. The intelligent portion of the audience were of course interested in the orations ; but the greater part looked on in stupid wonder as if on a pageant, understanding about as much of the English as of the Greek and Latin speeches, but all wrapt in pro- found attention."
A plat of the town and campus, made by direction of the board, shows at this time but few houses on the college grounds, the Old College ; east of the president's house, a story and a half frame dwelling which was afterward removed to make room for the brick house now standing ; the grammar school near the spot now occupied by Pro- fessor Strahan's house, and another wooden building on the present site of the Phi Kappa hall, the one spoken of in the Chronicle as " equal to a temporary school-room "- a single room twenty feet square, with a chimney at one end, an unglazed window at the other and a door in each side-these comprised the improvements of the campus. No fence enclosed the area, but all was open, while Front street, now known as Broad, was a lane cleared through the woods and doubtless full of stump's.
So encouraging were the prospects of the college that the trustees elected Mr. Addin Lewis to be tutor and Monsieur Petit de Clairville, professor of French. Mr.
13
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
Lewis was paid $800, and Monsieur Petit $400 per annum, which suggests the belief in the board that a Frenchman could exist on one-half of what it took to feed the Yankee.
The board further unanimously " resolved that the present collegiate buildings at Athens be hereafter de- nominated and known by the name of FRANKLIN Con- LEGE."
The record shows that on Sunday, July 6, 1806, the board met at S o'clock and transacted business.
Application was made to the Legislature for authority to establish a lottery to raise three thousand dollars for the purchase of books. The request it seems, was refused -possibly because of the Sunday meeting-for lotteries were not condemned in that day, but on several occasions were legalized by the Legislature as late as 1865. Various donations, however, were made from time to time to the library, both in valuable books and in money.
It was the constant effort of the authorities to add to the library of the University, and the wisdom of their action is proved by the number of valuable works now on its shelves, many of which cannot be duplicated.
The necessity for a chapel was growing more and more pressing, but no funds were available for the pur- pose. In 1808, Rev. Hope Hull offered that if the board would give one hundred dollars for a belfry, he would cause to be erected a chapel 40 by 60 and 18 feet high. The offer was accepted ; several trustees at once contrib- uted and the chapel was built on the spot where the present chapel stands and served its purpose for twelve years.
1808-1811.
In 1808, the Legislature declared that " whereas the Board of Trustees of the University consists of thirteen members, which is deemed too unwieldly and expensive, vacancies which may occur shall not be filled until the number is reduced to seven."
But apparently the trustees did not die or resign rap- idly enough, for by the act of December 16, 1811, the number was reduced to five and the following persons
14
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA.
were appointed : Peter Early, Edward Paine, Stephen Upson, John Griffin, William H. Crawford.
In 1816 the number was increased under another act by the appointment of David B. Mitchell, Thomas W. P. Charlton, Nicholas Ware, Henry Kollock, Augustin S. Clayton, James Meriwether, James M. Wayne, John Elliott, John A. Cuthbert and George M. Troup. After- wards Duncan G. Campbell and Edward Harden were added and the board was authorized to fill its own va- cancies.
In 1808, the board " learned with sincere regret that the number of students in the college are reduced from thirty to thirteen, and in the grammar school from forty to twenty-five." A committee was appointed " to enquire into the reports which affect the reputation of the presi- dent of the college as well as the moral character and discipline of the institution." What the result of this in- quiry was, is not known, but two years later Mr. Meigs resigned the presidency, retaining the professorship of mathematics and natural philosophy. For the perfor- mance of these duties " with attention and dilligence " he was to receive the sum of $1, 200 per annum.
Josiah Meigs, the first active president of the Uni- versity of Georgia, was a native of Connecticut, the thir- teenth child of his parents, born in 1757. His eldest. brother, Colonel Return J. Meigs, was a distinguished officer of the Revolution and the father of the postmaster- general under President Monroe.
Josiah Meigs graduated at Yale College at the age of twenty-one. In 1781, he was appointed tutor of math- ematics and natural philosophy and in 1794, professor in the same chair in that institution. His tenure of office at Yale was brief. The Dwights made a bitter fight on him on account of his "Jeffersonian Democracy" as we call it now-"Republicanism" it was known then-and the trustees relieved him of his chair in 1798.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.