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 2
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A man of great energy, fearless, honest and pure, he gave all his abilities to the upbuilding of the college. In person he was tall and spare, with blue eyes and flor- id complexion, blessed with perfect health which was uninterrupted until his last and fatal illness. In man-
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HISTORICAL SKETCH.
ner he was affable and kind, but quickly aroused and es- pecially excitable on the subject of politics. In fact, he suffered for his political views at Athens as he had at Yale, for it was the free expression of his opinions that brought about the immediate causes of his removal from the presidency and the loss of his professorship.
Mr. Meigs remained in Athens until 1812, when Mr. Jefferson, to whom he was well known, secured for him the appointment of surveyor-general, with his office at Cincinnati.
1811-1816.
Upon the resignation of the presidency by Mr. Meigs, the Rev. Dr. Henry Kollock, of Savannah, was elected to the office, but declined.
Rev. Hope Hull, as chairman of the prudential com- mittee, was appointed to act as president until the va- cancy should be filled.
In 1811, Rev. John Brown, of Columbia, S. C., was elected and accepted the appointment.
During President Brown's administration the for- tunes of the college steadily declined. Much was no doubt due to the stringency of the times, the period of the war of 1812 being included in his incumbency. But the lack of discipline and the general laxity of the faculty in the discharge of their duties, brought upon them the censure of the board.
Complaints were made of neglect by both faculty and students of the religious exercises of the college ; of un- cleanly rooms and slovenly habits ; and even of offensive immorality. A student, fearless of the consequences, had the temerity to publish a libelous paper about the faculty, and the laws of the institution were held in contempt.
The attendance of students fell off, the income of the college diminished, and as a necessary result, salaries were cut down-that of the president to $1,000, of pro- fessors to $700 and $600. To meet pressing demands, a loan of $5,000 was negotiated, and an effort was made to raise funds by the sale of lands. Lots in Athens, west of what is now Lumpkin street were laid off in four-acre
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sections and offered for sale at a minimum price of $15 per acre on two years' time.
In this desperate state of affairs it was thought best to suspend for a time the exercises of the college, and President Brown resigned.
The fortunes of the college were at the lowest ebb in its history, and its best friends almost despaired of any revival of prosperity.
John Brown was born in County Antrim, Ireland, June 15, 1763, and came with his father to America, settling in Chester District, South Carolina. His educa- tional advantages were very limited, eighteen months covering the period of his schooling, part of which time he was the schoolmate of General Andrew Jackson.
At sixteen years of age, he volunteered under Gen- eral Sumter and fought gallantly until the close of the war of the Revolution in the campaigns against Tarleton and Cornwallis.
Feeling called to preach the gospel, Mr. Brown studied theology under Dr. McCorkle and was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Concord in 1788.
In 1809, he was called to the chair of logic and moral philosophy in South Carolina College, and two years later was elected president of the University of Georgia, which office he held until 1816.
Dr. Brown was distinguished for his great excellence of character, his humility and generosity. He was essen- tially a good man. Rev. Dr. Talmadge used to call him " Our Apostle John." He had a vigorous mind and a fine command of language, but though a man of great firmness of character, he was defective in some of the essential qualities of a teacher, especially failing both to excite the interest and to hold the attention of his stu- dents. Added to this, his want of the executive talent needful in the head of an institution of learning, made his administration a signal failure. Conscions himself of this, Dr. Brown resigned the presidency in 1$16, and ro- tired to his home near Athens, where he lived for several years, doing good, and honored of all men.
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HISTORICAL SKETCH.
1817-1818.
During the first thirty years of its corporate exis- tence, the University had sold its lands except in Clarke county and had in hand $150,000 of notes, secured by mortgage, as the proceeds.
Upon the interest collected upon these notes with oc- casional encroachments on the principal as it was paid, the institution had erected its buildings and paid its cur- rent expenses. There being no regular income, how- ever, upon which it could rely, the Legislature passed the act of December 15, 1815, authorizing the Governor to advance to the board of trustees, two-thirds the face value of those notes upon their being deposited in the State treasury. No money was to be paid for them. but upon the organization of the Bank of the State of Georgia, the Governor subscribed for one thousand shares for the University of Georgia and upon the surrender of the notes and mortgages, transferred the stock to the trustees.
The trustees were prohibited by law from selling or otherwise disposing of this stock, but the dividends could be used for the various requirements of the University.
The income from the investment was guaranteed by the State to amount to $8,000 per annum. For several years, during its most successful period, the bank stock paid annually ten thousand dollars, but with all other concerns of like character it was lost in the wreck of the Civil War. Despite this, however, the State never ro- pudiated its obligation, but regularly and promptly paid the interest from the treasury. The constitution of 1877 recognized the debt of one hundred thousand dollars and the annual interest has become a fixed charge upon the State.
With the prospect of a stated income, a reorganiza- tion of the college was effected.
Dr. Robert Finley, of New Jersey, was elected pres- ident and took the oath of office in May, 1817.
The Legislature advanced the board ten thousand dollars on the pledge of its surplus bonds. Thus assisted, the trustees appropriated one thousand dollars for the
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library, and made a contract for a home for the presi- dent to be built for eight thousand dollars. This is the brick dwelling east of Old College, which replaced the old frame dwelling.
President Finley entered upon his office with zeal" and ability. Presiding at the commencement in June, he impressed the audience with his case and dignity. It was, however, a commencement only in name-there were in all but twenty-eight students in the college. After the closing exercises, Dr. Finley set out to make a tour of the State in order to become better acquainted with the people and to secure their patronage and their aid in restoring and rebuilding the institution. In this tour he was remarkably successful, but his usefulness was suddenly cut short by his untimely death. Return- ing home in September, he was prostrated with a bilious attack, common at that season, and lingering until Octo- ber 3d, he sank in death.
1819-1822.
Upon the death of President Finley, Rev. Nathan S. S. Beman was elected to the vacant office. That gen- tleman at first accepted, but in deference to the wishes of an invalid wife, afterwards declined the appointment.
Rev. Moses Waddell was next elected president. Mr. Waddell was born in Rowan county, N. C., July 29, 1770. He attended a neighboring school, studying with such diligence, that when he was but fourteen years of age, he was invited to take a school at a little distance from his home, with the stipulated remuneration of seventy dollars a year and his board. In 1786, he came to Greene county, Georgia with his parents and opened another school. In 1789, he professed conversion and joined the Presbyterian church. Subsequently, in view of prepar- ing himself to preach the gospel, he went to Hampden Sidney College, entering the Senior class in 1791. For some years after he was licensed, he preached and taught. at different places, finally locating at Willington, S. C. In the meantime, he had among his pupils, William II. Crawford and John C. Calhoun, men who in after life became the peers of any this country has ever produced ...
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HISTORICAL SKETCH.
Mr. Waddell was married first to a sister of John C. Calhoun, who survived her marriage but little more than a year. In 1800, he was married a second time to Miss Eliza Pleasants, of Virginia.
When the University of Georgia was lying pros- trate under the misfortune of President Finley's death, superadded to the distressing condition in which he found it, it was felt that Dr. Waddell was the only man who could undertake its resuscitation with any hope of suc- cess.
The trustees sent him an urgent invitation to assume the presidency. Though very reluctant to face the re- sponsibility of such a task, he yielded to the arguments of the committee who visited him, and removed to Ath- ons in 1819.
The reputation of Dr. Waddell, which had preceded him, added to his energy and high character, soon raised the enrollment of students from seven to more than one hundred.
His discipline was firm without severity and only those who trifled with him felt how severe he could be.
The problem of the disposition of the students had long exercised the faculty and trustees. At first they boarded anywhere in the neighborhood of the college ; then they were required to room in the Old College. Later, by an act of the Legislature, they were permitted to "board at any place within the town or vicinity of Athens, Provided, they board with moral, respectable families, of which the president of the college shall judge." Then Commons were provided, a steward's hall established and maintained for a dozen or more years. By resolution of the trustees in 1820, the quality of board required was : " For breakfast, a sufficiency of whole- some cold meat with wheaten flour biscuit or loaf bread, butter, tea or coffee. For dinner, a course of bacon or salted beef, with a suitable proportion of corn bread and at least two kinds of vegetables, and on Wednesday, to have an after course of pies, puddings or pancakes. For each supper, a plentiful supply of tea or milk, with a suf- ficiency of wheaten flour biscuit and butter." Truly a sub-
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stantial bill of fare and not open to the charge of extrav- agance.
The board also declared that "students on Sabbath afternoons must confine their walks to one mile, provided, . this healthful and innocent indulgence is executed free from any violation of the laws of the college."
In 1822, a contract was let for the building of " New College " at $24,980. The Philosophical Hall had been completed a year before and was used for the college chapel. In the second story, the library was arranged, and there the trustees held their meetings. After the completion of New College in 1823, the library and ap- paratus were transferred to that building.
The campus, which seems to have been open at the time, was ordered to be closed " with posts and plank in front, and common rails with stakes and riders on the other sides."
Dr. Waddell's entire administration was one of strength and success. The college grew in influence and in public favor. The trustees gave their cordial support to the president, who on his part, seemed to have no other desire than to raise the institution which had been con- fided to his care, to the highest standard of morality and scholarship. In this he succeeded beyond the expecta- tions of the most sanguine. From the plane to which Dr. Waddell raised it, the University has never receded, and when the times and the circumstances of the people are considered, it was hardly possible for any man to have done more. His discipline was never relaxed. To the students he was kind, but always firm. He commanded their respect and demanded their obedience.
During Dr. Waddell's tenure of office, the minimum age of admission of students was fixed at thirteen for the freshman, fourteen for the sophomore, fifteen for the junior and sixteen for the senior class.
It was said that the president advocated adminis- tering discipline by flogging to the freshmen and sopho- mores, but the board thought that mode of punishment incompatible with the dignity of a great university. In deference to his opinions, however, the faculty were au-
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HISTORICAL SKETCH.
thorized to remand refractory students to the grammar school, where the principal, Mr. Moses W. Dobbins, a nephew and namesake of the president, wielded the birch with skill and liberality. A student would submit to anything short of expulsion rather than be sentenced to the grammar school.
A law was passed at one time that "no student of the grammar school should engage in any dramatic per- formance in the town of Athens, either in term time or vacation."
Under the laws of that day, students were subject to militia duty. They organized a company among them- selves and made a great frolic of the whole affair. " Muster day " proved at last so disastrous to study and good order, that the governor was appealed to to with- draw the arms which had been furnished them.
In 1829, Dr. Waddell sent in his resignation to the trustees. Efforts were made to induce him to withdraw it, but his determination was taken. Arrangements were made for suitable ceremonies of a public and final leave-taking at the close of the commencement exercises, and on the day of his departure from home, the faculty and students marched to his house in a body to bid him farewell.
1829-1830.
Alonzo Church, then professor of mathematics, was elected to succeed President Waddell.
Dr. Church was a native of Vermont and a graduate of Middlebury College. Soon after his graduation he went to Eatonton, Georgia, to take charge of the acad- emy at that place. He there met and married Miss Sarah Trippe, a lady of superior accomplishments and rare beauty. Coming to Athens in 1819, as professor of mathematics, Dr. Church conducted his department with eminent success and so impressed the board by his force of character, that upon the retirement of President Waddell, he was at once unanimously chosen in his place.
In person, Dr. Church was tall and well-propor- tioned, of dark complexion, with lustrous black eyes
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and hair, graceful in carriage and dignified in bearing. He was of a quick temper and absolutely fearless, but had great self-control. Well behaved students had re- spect and affection for him, but the disorderly feared . and avoided him more than any other member of the faculty. He was a rigid disciplinarian, prompt to cor- rect and rebuke the slightest indication of disorder or inattention in his class-room.
In 1830, the University sustained a serious loss in the destruction by fire of the New College, with the li- brary, now a most valuable one, and all the scientific apparatus. It was supposed to have caught in one of the dormitory rooms, and there being no means whatever in the town for extinguishing fires, it was a total loss ex- cepting the walls. There was nothing to be done but to appeal to the State for help.
The Senatus Academicus sent up a memorial to the Legislature setting forth the fact that the forty thousand dollars of surplus bonds and mortgages deposited in the treasury in 1816 against the issue of one thousand shares of bank stock, had been collected and covered into the treasury to the credit of the State. In behalf of the University the Senatus asked that this sum be turned over to the trustees to be used in rebuilding the college, in purchasing new apparatus and instruments, in refur- nishing a library and for other wants of the institution. In response to this request the General Assembly appro- priated six thousand dollars annually from 1830 to 1841, and in addition thereto for immediate use, advanced to the University ten thousand dollars, which was after- wards repaid in annual payments of one thousand dol- lars. With these funds the burned building was rebuilt at the cost of $12,349. The present chapel was erected on the site of the old wooden one of 1808; the "Ivy Build- ing" was built for a new library and cabinet of miner- als ; two new chairs were established-natural philoso- phy and modern languages-and a botanical garden was planned and planted.
1830-1840.
During the intense political excitement between the
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HISTORICAL SKETCH.
Clarke and Troup parties, which perhaps was not sur- passed by the antagonism of the Democrats to the Re- publicans in the hottest days of reconstruction, serious complaints were made by the Clarke party of the vicious influence of the University. It was charged that the trustees were all Troup men and that only Troup men were put in the faculty, and worse than all, that their boys went to college and came home imbued with the damnable heresies of the Troup party, and forsaking the principles of their fathers, deserted to the ranks of the enemy.
This was too grave a charge to be ignored. Conse- quently, in 1830, the Legislature enacted a law increas- ing the number of trustees to twenty-eight, giving an equal representation on the board to the two political factions.
At the request of the trustees in 1830, the Senatus Academicus appointed annually fifteen persons as a Board of Visitors to attend the examinations of the students preceeding commencement and report to that body. The appointment of this board after the abolition of the Sen- atus Academicus was delegated to the Governor, and and their powers were enlarged.
1842-1856.
In 1842, the income of the University was seriously impaired by the loss of the annual appropriation by the State of six thousand dollars, leaving the total availa- ble income less than twelve thousand dollars. This re- duction in its funds made necessary a reduction in the expenses of the College. A reorganization of the fac- ulty ensued, accompanied by a reduction of salaries.
The increasing demand for city lots, added to the financial straits of the College, seemed to justify the sale of the remainder of the Milledge donation. Accordingly, by direction of the board, Dr. Hull surveyed and platted the lands, which were advertised to be sold, excepting the thirty-seven acres comprising the campus, they be- ing by statute, inalienable. The lots sold at that time. including those immediately around the campus and westward across the Tanyard branch, yielded eighty-five
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UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA.
hundred dollars. It was thought best to reserve the lots in what was known as Cobbham until another time, and indeed, they were not offered for sale until 1857, when twelve thousand dollars more was realized.
The funds arising from the first sale enabled the Board to erect two dwellings on the campus-Professor Waddell's and that one opposite occupied by Dr. Brantly and afterwards by Professor Rutherford.
Dr. Church, with his masterful character, had long dominated both faculty and trustees. He had views on the proper conduct of a college, which amounted to con- victions. The officer who could not or would not come up to his standard, or who could not accept his views, was in his opinion not the officer the college needed. Complaints were made, without mincing matters, of in- competency or of neglect of duty.
The first gun was fired by the President in his annual report to the board in 1855. Said he, " Mere science will not qualify a man for a professor. He may be eminent in his attainments and even felicitous in his ability to teach, and yet be a curse to the institution. There must be moral and social qualifications as well as literary and scientific. No man who has not been long and inti- mately connected with an institution of this kind as an instructor can estimate the influence for good or for ill which a professor exerts, apart from his mere daily in- structions in science. Every professor unless willing to devote his time and labor and ease, if necessary to pro- mote the highest prosperity of the institution, cannot suc- cessfully accomplish the purpose for which he has been placed in office. But above all, I am constrained to say that an indispensable qualification to make the perfect teacher is picty. I do not mean that he should be a mere professor of religion, a member of some Christian church. The man whose life is inconsistent with his Christian profession leads students to despise him and to regard true religion with distrust and treat it with disrespect." Wise old man !
On whom the President was expending his ammu- nition when he described the ideal professor we do not know. Certain it is that description cannot be surpassed.
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HISTORICAL SKETCH.
The history of the University of Georgia, her experience with her professors, the success of her students, and the testimony of the alumni, have proved the correctness of Dr. Church's estimate. The conscientious, painstaking professor with strong religious convictions, is the one who has won the confidence of the student and impressed him with lessons of truth.
A few months later, the President again addressed the board in no uncertain tone. In the meantime he had tendered his resignation and this meeting was called to consider the nomination of his successor. Said he, "The number of students present at this time is seventy- nine, and I am constrained to say that even with this small number, the discipline of the institution is far worse than I have ever known it during the thirty-seven years of my connection with it."
Then he proceeds to state what he considers the cause of the decline. The effect of this communication was an immediate resolution that all the members of the faculty be requested to furnish the board with their re- spective resignations forthwith, with a view to the re- organization of said faculty. The request was complied with, with apparent cheerfulness. All the resignations were accepted and an election of a reorganized faculty held December 10th, 1856.
Dr. Church did not much longer remain in office. His final resignation took effect January 1, 1859, when he retired with a widowed daughter, the only one of his family left in Athens, to a residence a little out of town. There in peace and in quietude, but with failing health, he lived until, during the following year, the summons to the presence of the Master came.
1859-1860.
In 1859, a new scheme of organization of the Uni- versity was adopted by the board, which was essentially as follows :
1. To establish an institute combining all the in- struction given in a well regulated village academy and in the Freshman and Sophomore classes in college, and
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UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA.
having sufficient capacity to board all its pupils from a distance.
2. To establish a college proper with only Junior and Senior classes, under five professors.
3. To establish University schools, independent of the college and of each other, viz. : a law school, a school of agriculture, of medicine, of civil engineering and a commercial school.
4. The establishment of scholarships by donations or devises.
5. The conferring of honors and degrees.
6. All departments to be under a Chancellor, who shall be the head of the institution.
The law school was at once established under the supervision of Joseph H. Lumpkin, Thos. R. R. Cobb and William Hope Hull, and steps were taken which re- sulted in the existing connection between the Medical College in Augusta and the University.
This scheme was reported to the Senatus Academi- cus, at what proved to be its last meeting in November, 1859, and was adopted by that body.
The act of December 4, 1859, declares that, "Whereas, experience has shown that the body known as the Senatus Academicus on account of the hurried man- ner in which its sessions are generally held, has a ten- dency to defeat rather than promote the objects for which it is designed, therefore be it enacted that the body Sen- atus Academicus shall be abolished and all its rights. powers, duties and privileges shall be given to the Board of Trustees of the University of Georgia, in whom alone shall be vested the government of the said University, subject to the General Assembly of this State."
The appointment of fifteen persons annually as a board of visitors to attend the examination of the classes of the University hitherto made by the Senatus Academ- icus was by the same act vested in the governor.
By virtue of this act, the Senatus Academicus, that " ancient ægis of the University," was abolished after an existence of more than seventy years.
From the sale of the remaining lots in " Cobbham," the available assets of the University in bonds and notes
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HISTORICAL SKETCH.
amounted to $33, 600. It was determined that this should be appropriated to erect new buildings. Accordingly, contracts were given out for the erection of the present library building at $11,600 ; the " Mess Hall " on Lump- kin street at $4,000, and the University High School, now called " Rock College," at $23,000.
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