USA > Georgia > The story of Georgia and the Georgia people, 1732 to 1860 > Part 39
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FEMALE COLLEGES.
The subject of female education engaged the attention of the Georgia people to a very limited extent in its early history, and when the Legislature gave a small bonus to academies for a number of years it refused to charter any exclusively female academies; but in 1827 it broke its record and chartered the first female academy under State patronage at Harmony Grove in Jackson county. There was not a female college which conferred degrees then in the world. A young lawyer named Chandler startled the public by declaring in a public speech at Athens that in his opinion women should have exactly the same advan- tages granted to men and should have the same degrees conferred on them. This view was heartily endorsed by many of the best people, and when the young city of Macon resolved to build a female academy of high grade, Rev. Elijah Sinclair suggested it should build a female college. The idea took readily, and the Ocmulgee Bank said if the Legislature would grant the bank a charter and charter the college it would subscribe $25,000. The conditions were met and the subscription was made and promptly paid. The people made large subscriptions also, and the Georgia Fe- male College was enterprized. There was no intention to build a Methodist college but it was to be for all denomina-
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tions. The buildings were planned on a large scale, and as soon as the main building was habitable Bishop Pierce, then plain Mr. Pierce, a young man, was made president and an able faculty selected to assist him. The college had large patronage from the beginning, but the great crash of 1837 came on just as the college began, and before the build- ings were completed many of the largest subscribers were bankrupt. The builder closed his lien, the college was sold and bought by Bishop Pierce, and it seemed for some time that the first female college in the world was doomed to failure. Rev. Samuel Anthony was appointed agent by the conference, and through his influence Mr. Everett, a wealthy Houston planter, bought some scholar- ships under certain conditions, and one was that the college was to change its name and become a Methodist college. This was agreed to and it became the Wesleyan Female College. The trustees had provided a very imposing build- ing and one very finely located, but there was no endow- ment and the college was dependent upon patronage for its support. Bishop Pierce resigned and was made agent, and Dr. W. H. Ellison leased the college and conducted it successfully. Dr. Edward H. Myers was then made president, and Dr. O. L. Smith, Dr. J. M. Bonnell and for over twenty-five years Dr. Bass were presidents. While Dr. Bass was president Mr. Seney decided to make a large donation to the female college equal to that he had made to Emory. He required, as a condition of his gift, that the house should be modernized and provided with all proper conveniences, and the old building was transformed and made more commodious and elegant.
The Lagrange Female College, also under patronage of the Methodists, is one of the old female colleges in the State. Beginning as a female school it developed into the Lagrange Female College conducted by the Montgomery brothers. It was afterwards sold to the Georgia Confer-
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ence in 1855 and made a denominational college. It was unfortunately burned, but it sprang from its ashes and has never suspended, and is now better equipped and more largely patronized than it has ever been. It is now under charge of a veteran educator, President Rufus W. Smith, and is in vigorous life.
Not long after the Montgomerys established the La -. grange Female College Mr. Milton Bacon established the Southern Female College. It was under Baptist patronage and was largely attended. It too was burned, but it was rebuilt by the celebrated I. F. Cox, who for years con- ducted it in connection with his gifted family with distin- guished success. After his death it was decided by the family, who owned the property and the charter, to remove to College Park and open the college there.
The people of Lagrange were so much opposed to the removal and the loss of the historic name that satisfactory arrangements were made by which the Southern Female College was still in existence. It is now a prosperous in- stitution under the care of Dr. G. A. Nunnally.
The Southern Female College, at College Park, of which President C. C. Cox is the head, has a very elegant equip- ment and a very fine patronage.
The Agnes Scott Female College, in Decatur, which was the munificent gift of Colonel Scott, a celebrated man- ufacturer, is a fine institution.
The Andrew Female College, in Cuthbert, has a beautiful building and a good faculty. It is now under the care of Rev. Homer Bush.
There is besides these female colleges the Lucy Cobb Institute at Athens, which, while not claiming to be a col- lege proper, does the finest work. It is conducted by Misses Rutherford and Mrs. Lipscomb and is in high favor ..
The Gainesville College, which is a private undenomina -.
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tional college, conducted by Messrs. Pearce and Van Hoose, has elegant buildings and a very large patronage.
The Catholics have a number of high schools for young ladies, one in each important city in the State, generally conducted by the Sisters of Charity.
The great need for a college beyond the Blue Ridge, where tuition would be nominal and board low, and where opportunities could be afforded for those who wished to board themselves to do so, led to the founding of Young Harris College, in Towns county. It has had a very large patronage and is doing great good.
The Dahlonega Agricultural and Mechanical College, located in the old mint at Dahlonega and fostered by the State, is a very popular and largely patronized school, which has done much service for the State.
The needs of the wire-grass section led to the founding of the South Georgia College, which is located at McRae, and which aims to do for the young people of the low- country a work such as is done in the upper counties. It is a comparatively new institution but is doing good work.
The State having made ample provision for the educa- tion of its young men in agriculture, the arts and in litera- ture, decided to do something as a State in the aid of its young women, and, as we have seen in the account of Bald- win, it established in Milledgeville the Industrial School for young ladies. It is under the care of President Chap- pell, and is a school of high grade with a very large num- ber of students.
There are female colleges at Dalton and Thomasville.
TECHNOLOGICAL.
The Technological School, in Atlanta, supported by the State, is a very well-equipped institution, which aims to teach young men the mechanical arts and give them at the
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same time literary training. It has a new textile school added to its other schools of handicraft.
In addition to other facilities a normal school, where the teachers of the State are taught, has been estab- lished by the State in the city of Athens.
There is no exclusively agricultural college in the State, but a professor of agriculture holds his place in the Uni- versity, and there is some attention paid to this field of industry.
There have been established many schools for the ne- groes. The State has one near Savannah which is supported by it and which has an able faculty and is a useful school.
Atlanta University, an extensive institution for colored people, supported by the Congregationalists, has been long established, is well equipped and has an able faculty and a large patronage, and has been of great service to Georgia.
Clarke University is a very popular school, supported by Northern Methodists, and has a very large patronage. It is near Gammon Theological School, a well endowed Methodist college for training negro preachers.
The Baptists have an institution in Atlanta for training negro preachers, and the M. E. Church, South, has one in Augusta for the education of teachers and preachers, and there are beside these quite a number of high schools in the State.
Although it was not my original purpose to carry this history any further than 1850, I have found myself com- pelled, in order to give a glimpse of the present condition of education, to do so. There is now a well-organized common school system in the State. Schools are kept open for six months in the year, and in the cities and many of the towns for nine months, and all classes are now priv- ileged to secure a liberal education at the expense of the State.
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CHAPTER XIV.
THE CITIES.
SAVANNAH.
In the first chapter of this book much that concerns the early history of Savannah has been already written. To each settler was given a town lot, a garden lot and forty- five acres for a farm. These gardens were just beyond Lib- erty street and the farms where is now Gwinnett.
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Mr. Moore, storekeeper for the trustees and a great friend of Mr. Oglethorpe's, came in 1735. He found Savannah a mile and a fourth in circumference. There was a sandy beach, long since covered by wharves, a mile along the river front, and an Indian town four miles above it. There were about one hundred and fifty houses. The house Mr. Oglethorpe occupied was such as the freeholders lived in- a frame of sawed timber 24x16, floored and ceiled with rough plank and shingled. . There were a few better houses,. some even two and three stories high. Generally they were surrounded with split boards for fencing, but some of the more pretentious had palisades made of turned wood palings. Some of the people had been thrifty and a few thriftless. Rum was cheap, and though forbidden, they managed to get it and drank too much, to their great in- jury. The common laborers had two shillings a day for their work and the carpenters from four to five shillings.
There was a garden of ten acres, in which not only the ordinary vegetables were grown, but in which the effort was made to raise all kinds of tropical fruits, with only very partial success, as the frost had cut down the orange trees .. The efforts to make silk, after the first brilliant success in
of
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making enough to give a robe to the queen, were not en- couraging. The Italians quarreled, broke the coppers, stole the eggs and ran away to South Carolina. Mr. Ogle- thorpe forbade any more silk to be loomed until eggs enough could be secured for another start.
So far Mr. Moore gives us an insight into the temporal affairs of the young colony, but for a correct account of the educational and religious we must have recourse to the journals of Mr. Whitefield and Mr. Wesley.
In a previous chapter we have spoken of Mr. Wesley's stay in Savannah.
After he went back to England Mr. Whitefield came. He saw the necessity for an orphanage, and with him when he saw a thing ought to be done was to decide to do it, and he at once made his plans to raise the money and establish one. The scheme was a very wild one. Mr. Whitefield was himself only twenty-four years old. The colony was just being settled. There were few children who needed the home, and there was no money at the back of his plans ex- cept what he might be able to raise by his public appeals. He was compelled to go to England to be ordained a priest. He went and was ordained, and began at once to raise the money for his asylum. He secured from the trustees a grant of five hundred acres, and his friend Mr. James Hab- ersham, who had been teaching the parish school, selected the tract ten miles from the city where the present Be- thesda school is located. Mr. Whitefield continued for quite a year in England, preaching continuously and raising money to build, and in the spring of 1740 he laid the first brick of the new home. He had, however, already put the Orphan- age into operation, renting a house and taking the children he could find in the colony.
The first teacher of the parish school was Charles DeLa- motte, one of the Holy Club at Oxford and a warm friend of Mr. Wesley's. He was a man of some means and taught
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a free school. He returned to England with Mr. Wesley, and Mr. James Habersham came with Mr. Whitefield and took up his work. Just before Mr. Wesley left the city a new secretary of the colony came to take the place of Charles Wesley. This was the excellent and painstaking William Stephens, Esq., son of an English baronet. He kept a journal and published it in 1742. It was somewhat notable that Mr. John Wesley and Mr. Whitefield and Mr. Stephens each kept and published journals of their lives in Savannah. Mr. Stephens's three volumes, now so rare, was the first book of any size ever written in Georgia or pub- lished by a citizen of the colony. Next to Pepys's famous Diary there are few more entertaining books. He records everything at full length. He was sent out by the trustees to look after things generally, and Mr. Causton's account particularly. Savannah had grown steadily, if slowly, up to his coming in 1737. There had come in some new Eng- lish immigrants and quite a reinforcement of Scotchmen and Germans, and Mr. Stephens brought his son Thomas, who afterward gave him a world of trouble, and some in- dentured servants who were too lazy to work when they were well, and were generally sick, and with these he was trying to get his garden lot of five acres in cultivation and open his little farm. There was a public house where the justices Christie, Parker and Causton used to meet the sec- retary and take a glass with him. Mr. Causton was build- ing a handsome house in the country where there is now Causton's Bluff.
There was a St. Andrew's society in Savannah, a lodge of Masons, and now and then a ball was given at the ordinary, attended by thirty people. Mr. Causton was no longer storekeeper and had gone to England to try to settle with the trustees, and Mr. Jones, the dissenter, was in charge of the storehouse. Mr. Williams bought some goats in South Carolina, and the old ram so annoyed Mr. Fitz Wal-
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ter by breaking into his garden that the irate Welshman incontinently slew him, and then Mr. Williams went out with his gun to kill Mr. Fitz Walter's harmless geese. Mr. Abram Minis had a store, and Mr. Pat Talifer, the doctor, sold rum and talked sedition in the Coffee House, and wrote scurrilous attacks on Mr. Oglethorpe until, despairing of causing a change of affairs, he and some of his Scotch companions left the colony for Charleston-no great loss, the secretary thought.
Mr. Oglethorpe went back to England and the secretary was made governor, but the village did not grow even though the trustees removed all restrictions on land hold- ings, but when, against the protest of the German and Scotch, at the instance of Mr. Whitefield and Mr. Haber- sham, negro slaves were allowed, planters began to move in from South Carolina. Then Governor Reynolds came and Governor Ellis and found things very dilapidated in the city and the colony in a very depressed condition, but mat- ters were improving and wealth increasing. There was rice on the main and on the sea islands which were now occu- pied, indigo was planted and things might have prospered in the city but for the scheme of Governor Reynolds and Governor Ellis to move the capitol to Hardwick. This, however, was set at rest by Governor Wright, who came in 1762, and then Savannah began to build up with great rapidity. The traders now brought their goods to Savannah and sent them from thence to the nation and shipped their peltry from the port to England. Rice planting about Savannah became a large industry, the rice-fields coming to the very edge of the city, and there were soon thousands of slaves on the plantations. The upper parishes, St. George's and St. Paul's, were filling up with a thrifty pop- ulation, who drove their cattle and brought hides and deer- skins and furs to the Savannah market.
The sturdy Germans near by, in Ebenezer, had built a
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Lutheran church in the city on the lot where it now stands, and Mr. Jonathan Bryan and Lachlan McGilveray and Ed- ward Telfair secured subscriptions in 1769 and built a church for the Presbyterians, to which Mr. Zubly was to be minis- ter. There was perfect harmony between the mother coun- try and the thrifty young city. Then the stamp act passed and another chapter tells the results of this act of Parlia- ment, but the storm soon blew over and Savannah continued to improve. The Georgia Gazette was established in 1763 and made its weekly appearance. The wooden houses on the bay gave way to ranges of brick and stone, and hun- dreds of ships of small tonnage came from the West In- dies and the northern provinces and from across the Atlan- tic to unload goods and to take cargoes of rice.
Messrs. Cowper and Telfair brought cargoes of fine, healthy slaves from Sierra Leone to the wharves, and sold them at thirty pounds each to the planters. The ladies dressed in rich silk, handsomely trimmed. There were phaetons and horses and tables shining with plate in not a few of the homes. Decanters of brandy and rum and Gen- eva were on the sideboards of the gentlemen; Mahogany bedsteads and chairs were in their houses. The city had its quota of lawyers and doctors, and perhaps was not free from quacks, for Dr. Felix Pitt offered his services as a physician and proposed to wait on ladies and gentlemen and other persons, and closes his notice by saying : Si curat morbum probatum est. The country was full of new negroes and the workhouse was full of runaways. There was ad- vertised, "A negro wench who cannot tell her name. Her upper teeth were filed ; had on a wrapper of white cloth. Another with a slit in her ear and a scar on her cheek; a boy dressed in blue negro cloth with osnaburg trousers; and one with an iron on his leg," who were awaiting their owners.
There was shipped from the port live-oak timber, hides,
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hogs of all sizes, and myrtle wax, in addition to tar, pitch and turpentine, rice and indigo.
Messrs. Bard & Thompson sold puncheons of rum and ladies' hats alike. Messrs. Pinkerd & Brown, Joe Goodwin, Richard Wright and Audley Maxwell were merchants. Mr. Lewis Johnson provost marshal.
Mr. Haddon Smith preached in "The Church," as Christ Church was called, and Mr. Zubly to his wealthy Scotchmen in the "Presbyterian meeting-house," which had been built on Bryan and St. Julian streets, near the present market. There was an ugly club, which had regular meetings. The old filature was used as an assembly room, and Tondee's long room, about where the custom house is now, was a famous place for gatherings. Governor Wright lived where Telfair Academy is now and Mr. Josiah Tattnell, as it was written then, on the opposite side of the square. Nearly all the gentlemen who lived in town had plantations in the country.
The English government attempted taxation without rep- resentation, and Savannah, which had been the petted child of the crown and never taxed at all, raised the standard of rebellion, and in Tondee's long room, where the king had been so often toasted in flowing glasses of Madeira, and where the young people danced on Mr. Oglethorpe's birth- day, the meeting was held which resulted at last in the ex- pulsion of Sir James Wright and in the terrors of a wasting war.
Savannah was occupied by a feeble garrison which was driven out by the British, who established their camp at the head of Broughton street, looking west. An effort at recapturing the city failed, but in 1782 Colonel Jackson's troopers rode into the evacuated city and General Wayne took possession. Three years of war and seven of stag- nation in trade had wrought havoc, and when, in 1783, the court resumed its session after the "usurpation," as it
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was called, there was little that was cheerful in the out- look. But the stagnation was soon over and soon things brightened.
The grand jury complained that the court-house was in wretched condition, and the jail in worse, the churches without pastors and in great dilapidation, and there was no academy or school.
The State confiscated Governor Graham's magnificent place on the Savannah river and gave it to General Greene, and the home of Josiah Tattnall and gave it to Colonel Jackson, who himself bought Governor Wright's place near Savannah, on the Thunderbolt road, known as Cedar Hill, and took possession of it. Many other pieces of confiscated property were sold in the city, and the owners were exiled forever. The Legislature, after a few sessions in Savan- nah, ordered the capitol removed to Augusta, and, much to the annoyance of the people of Savannah, ordered the archives sent there also. Mr. Hunter opened a school where English branches were taught, and Mr. Bird at- tempted a classical school for young gentlemen, but, failing to get patronage, opened a mixed school where young ladies and young gentlemen were taught. There were up to 1789 no corporate powers granted to the city ; then the city had a charter, and Mr. Houston was the first mayor. There were much disorder and confusion in the city even after that. Guns were fired, bells were rung and night made hideous with noise, but before that sometimes more serious things were done, for young Josiah Tattnall, not yet of age, and Mr. Claud Thompson and Mr. Goffe were at Wilson's on the night of the 4th of July, having "a night of extraordinary gladness," as the judge said, when they heard that the girls at Platt's tavern were play- ing on the hurdy-gurdy; they went up there and were refused admittance, and, attempting to make forcible entry, they were fired on by Mr. John Brice and Mr. Goffe was
WESLEY MONUMENTAL CHURCH, SAVANNAH.
LAZARON DEL
1
LUTHERAN CHURCH, SAVANNAH, GA.
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killed. The Platt crowd were all tried for murder, and the man who fired the gun and Mary Platt, who loaded it, were both condemned to be hung. She was the first woman ever sentenced to be hung in Georgia, and she was par- doned by an act of the Legislature, as was also her com- panion in the crime.
Those were rollicking days. The hunting club was or- ganized in 1783 to meet at the White Bluff Club House. Each man was to bring a beagle. There was to be a round of beef, some beefsteaks or a ham and some bread, and there was to be a supply of rum, brandy and Geneva.
General Washington visited the city on his southern tour and was generously entertained. There was a great fire in 1796, which destroyed the Episcopal, Presbyterian and Lutheran churches, leaving no churches in the city.
The town had an exchange located on the bay probably just opposite where the present one now stands, but in 1800 the present exchange was begun, and in 1807 it was finished. The Chatham Academy was incorporated in 1788, but not built until 1812.
The growth of the city was steady if not rapid. The first streets were all named after those who had befriended the young colony-Drayton, Bryan, St. Julian, Broughton, Bull, Whittaker. Then came South Broad, East Broad and West Broad streets. The hamlets of Yamacraw and of Ewensburg were where that portion of the city known as Yamacraw now is. King and Queen streets were changed into President and Congress, and State street was named when the State was established. After the Revolution there were Liberty street, Washington Square, Jefferson street, Lincoln, Gwinnett, Hall, Montgomery, McDonough and Perry, named after noted men.
The benevolent institutions of Savannah began with the establishment by Mr. Whitefield of the Orphan House in 1739. The Union Society, organized near that time, was
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formed by a Jew, a Scotchman and an Englishman. This society still exists, and has in its charge two orphanages, one for boys at Bethesda and one for girls in the city.
There was at an early date a city hospital, which still stands, an admirably managed, well-equipped institution.
There have been for years a Home for Aged Widows, an Episcopal Orphanage, a Hibernian Society and the St. An- drew's Society, formed one hundred and fifty years ago. There are German societies and sundry benevolent societies connected with the Catholic Church. An elegant Sailors' Home is under the care of the Port Society, where hun- dreds of sailors find lodging and refreshments and have re- ligious services and amusements. The Masons were in Savannah from Oglethorpe's day. The Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias and other fraternities came in due time.
The Episcopal Church was the first established in the young city, and Christ Church the first church building in it. For many years it answered the demands of the de- nomination, but as the city went westward it was thought advisable to build another church more modern in its ap- pearance and more convenient to the residence part of the city, and St. John's Church was erected. As the city still grew other churches and chapels were necessary, and there is now in Savannah Christ Church, St. John's Church and several smaller churches.
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