USA > Kentucky > A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume I > Part 61
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Professor Duncan, a leader at the Kentucky bar, remained with the faculty but one year, being succeeded by Ephraim H. Ewing, who held a high position at the bar. Of Profes- sor Loughborough it has been said that "as a professor, he moved with familiar steps over the department of jurisprudence con- fined to his teaching, and, as a practitioner he may be said to have illustrated the law by his learning and sagacity." He remained with the school until a short time prior to his death in 1852, and was succeeded by James Pryor. In the years succeeding, the most able and efficient members of the bar of Louisville have served as members of the faculty. From the Louisville Law School have gone out more young men who were to become great judges, governors, senators and congressmen than from any other law school in the United States.
In recent years there has been established in Louisville apart from the university the
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Jefferson School of Law with a strong fac- ulty, which has been successful from the be- ginning, its sessions being held in the evening, thus giving to its students an opportunity to pursue their advocations during the day time and receive desired instruction in the evening. The fees are not excessive and this school offers excellent facilities to young men whose
circumstances do not permit them to enter the more expensive schools, but the law fees do not represent cheapness in training, as young men going out of this institution, with its diplomas, have no difficulty in passing the examinations requisite to admission to the practice of law in the highest courts of the state.
CHAPTER LVI.
THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY-TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY-BECOMES KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY-COLLEGE OF THE BIBLE-TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY AGAIN- LOUISVILLE PRESBYTERIAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY-STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS-THEIR ESTABLISHMENT-THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF 1908-GEORGETOWN COLLEGE-KENTUCKY MILITARY INSTITUTE-BETHEL COLLEGE-BEREA COLLEGE-OTHER EDUCATIONAL FORCES.
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary was founded at Greenville, South Carolina, in the year 1859. The first faculty consisted of James P. Boyce, John A. Broadus, Basil Manly, Jr., and William Williams. Southern Baptists had for a number of years prior to the organization of the seminary discussed, upon various occasions, the founding of such an institution for all the southern states. Be- hind the movement, and as a means of unify- ing the South in the establishment of the sent- inary was the Southern Baptist convention, which was organized in 1845. In the delib- erations of this body considerable time was given to the subject from time to time. At length, in May, 1857, an educational conven- tion was held in Louisville, Kentucky, at which it was definitely decided to establish the school. One of the obstacles which it was necessary to overcome in the establish- ment of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary grew out of the fact that in many of the colleges in the southern states theolog- ical departments were already in existence, It was natural, therefore, that those who were identified with these theological depart- ments looked with some disfavor upon the project of founding the new school which should undertake to do the general theological work of Southern Baptists, but as the discus- sion proceeded and the merits of the under- taking became more clearly defined these ob-
jections, one by one, melted away, and at length there was a good degree of unanimity in the undertaking. The only predecessor of the institution among southern Baptists was the Western Baptist Theological Institute which had an existence for a few years at Covington, Kentucky. Northern and south- ern Baptists united in the establishment of the institute and its patronage came from north and south, but when the southern Bap- tists separated from the north in their mis- sionary organization the professors of the Covington institution cast in their lot with the Northern Baptist missionary societies, chiefly perhaps because of their opposition to the institution of slavery. The institute therefore went out of existence through the contests which arose between the opposing factions of those who had been hitherto sup- porters of the school. Southern Baptists withdrew their support entirely and began the agitation for a new institution. R. B. C. Howell and J. R. Graves were among the leaders in the agitation. At a meeting held in Nashville, Tennesseee, in 1847, and an- other held in Charleston, South Carolina, at a later date, addresses were made in favor of the new institution by Basil Manly, Jr., and W. B. Johnson. president of the Southern Baptist convention.
In June, 1854, the Virginia Baptist General Association called a meeting on the subject
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to be convened in May, 1855, in connection with the annual meeting of the Southern Bap- tist Convention. B. Manly, Jr., and James P. Boyce were active members of this confer- ence, and Jolin A. Broadus was also present. Yet another conference was held in Augusta, Georgia, in April, 1856. The District of Col- umbia, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, South Carolina and Georgia were represented at the meeting. Action was again deferred and another convention was called to meet in Louisville, Kentucky,-the meeting already referred to. This was also prior to the an- nual meeting of the Southern Baptist Conven- tion. At a meeting held at Greenville, South Carolina, prior to the Louisville meeting, Rev. James P. Boyce submitted a report calling for a committee whose duty it should be to ascer- tain whether or not there were communities desiring the institution and what they would provide in a financial way to secure it. Dr. James P. Boyce henceforth becomes the most prominent figure in the founding of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He had been professor of theology in Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina, and during the next two years Dr. Boyce became the recognized leader of the movement. On July 30, 1856, he delivered an address which has since become famous on the general sub- ject. "Three Changes in Theological Institu- tions." These changes were summed up by Dr. John A. Broadus as follows :
"(1) A Baptist theological school ought not merely to receive college graduates, but men with less of general education-even men having only what is called a common English education-offering to every man such opportunities of theological study as he . stitution was thus made a certainty. A com- is prepared for and desires.
"(2) Besides covering, for those who are prepared, as wide a range of theological study as could be found elsewhere, such an institution ought to offer further and special
courses, so that the ablest and most aspiring students might make extraordinary attain- ments, preparing them for instruction and original authorship, and helping to make our country less dependent upon foreign scholar- ship
"(3) There should be prepared an Ab- stract of Principles, or careful statement of theological belief, which every professor in such an institution must sign when inaugur- ated so as to guard against the rise of er- roneous and injurious instruction in such a seat of sacred learning."
This address, perhaps more than any other one influence, controlled the organization of the institution. The conception of offering theological education to the man who had only an English education was a most timely one and eminently adapted to the conditions then existing in the south. At the Louisville convention in 1857 a proposition from the South Carolina Baptist Convention to give $100,000 if the institution would come to Greenville was adopted by the convention, and it was agreed that if that sum should be raised in South Carolina by May 1, 1858, the institution would go to the state named. An educational convention was called to meet at Greenville in May, 1858, to organize the desired institution. The committee on plan of organization consisted of James P. Boyce, John A. Broadus, Basil Manly, Jr., E. T. Winkler and William Williams. These five were all highly gifted men, and all were elected professors of the institution. Dr. Winkler declined to serve, and the remaining four constituted the first faculty. Dr. Boyce had secured the necessary funds in South Carolina, so that the establishment of the in- mittee on plan of organization was appointed which met in Richmond, Virginia, in August, 1857. There were present at this meeting B. Manly, Jr., John A. Broadus and James P. Boyce. Dr. Boyce had requested Dr. Manly
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to draw up the abstract of doctrinal principles to be signed by each professor, and had re- quested Dr. Broadus to prepare the outline of the courses of study, and he himself had drawn up the legal and practical arrange- ments in regard to trustees and professors. Their plan in general was adopted at a sub- sequent meeting at Greenville in May, 1858. Owing to developments, however, the opening of the seminary was delayed for one year, or to October 1, 1859. At that date, in Greenville, it began with twenty-six students. The course of study was divided into eight separate schools, with each professor in charge of two schools. The courses were all elective, and the student received credit for the work done whether he completed the full course or not. The institution was the first in the history of theological education to adopt the elective system. From the begin- ning, it has been notable for the emphasis it has put upon the English Bible, there being very extensive courses on the Old and New Testament in English, in addition to the reg- ular courses in Greek and Hebrew.
The Civil war dealt a terrible blow at the life of the institution, and the seminary was closed from 1862 to 1865. Dr. Boyce served as chaplain of a South Carolina regiment during part of this period, and also became a member of the legislature of South Caro- lina and enacted a conspicuous role in that body. Dr. Broadus was a missionary in Lee's army. The other professors in the faculty preached to country churches in South Caro- lina. At the close of the war the endowment was gone. In 1865 the question arose whether or not the seminary should be re- opened. The end seemed to have come; but the faculty resolved to die first rather than see the seminary die. This sentiment was voiced by Dr. Broadus, and all the others ac- quiesced. The institution was therefore re- opened and on a very small scale work was begun. There were but seven students during
the session of 1865-6, and there was a long period of sore struggle. The south was so impoverished that it was next to impossible to secure the necessary funds to pay the salaries of professors, and many tempting offers came to them to relinquish the work and go to other fields. But these were not men who were willing to surrender a great undertaking. Slowly it became evident that South Carolina could not endow the school. The question was much discussed whether or not the seminary should be moved. A com- mittee consisting of J. B. Jeter, T. H. Prit- chard, S. L. Helm, T. P. Smith, S. Hender- son, L. Hillsman and Jos. E. Brown was ap- pointed to report upon the question of re- moval. It was finally decided to move the institution to Louisville, Kentucky, so soon as a sufficient amount for endowment could be subscribed in that state. Dr. Boyce come to Kentucky, in 1872, in order to raise the necessary funds, but the panic of the follow- ing year interfered greatly with the under- taking. Finally, however, the necessary ar- rangements were made, and the institution was brought to Louisville in 1877. Primary attention was given to the raising of endow- ment, and not to buildings.
Hon. Jos. Emerson Brown, of Atlanta, Georgia, at a most critical time in the history of the institution, made a donation of $50,000 in cash and good securities. This was the first great gift which the institution had re- ceived, and virtually it saved its life. Mr. George W. Norton, of Louisville, who was from the beginning a generous giver to the seminary, cooperated with Dr. Boyce in his plans and made many valuable suggestions. His brother, Mr. Wm. F. Norton, also as- sisted, and the two Norton brothers made frequent and generous gifts to the institution. Norton Hall, located on Broadway between Fourth and Fifth streets, is a monument to their generosity. The members of the Nor- ton family have remained the staunch sup-
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porters and generous givers to the institution in all the succeeding years. The number of students in the institution in 1877-8, the first year of its location at Louisville, was 89. This was 21 students in excess of the largest attendance while the seminary was located at Greenville, South Carolina. After 1886 the number never fell below 100. During the last eleven years the attendance has ranged from 230 to 320. For the past three or four years the record has hovered near the 300 mark.
Dr. John A. Broadus was elected to stic- ceed Dr. Boyce as president of the seminary when Dr. Boyce died in 1888. Upon the death of Dr. Broadus in 1895, Prof. Wm. H. Whitsitt was elected to sticceed him. Prof. Whitsitt remained as president until the year 1899, when he resigned, after which Pres. Jas. P. Greene, of William Jewell Col- lege, Liberty, Missouri, was elected as presi- dent of the institution. President Greene de- clined the office, and Dr. E. Y. Mullins, (who is a native of Mississippi and whose life had been spent in the south, with the exception of three years and a half as pastor in New- ton Centre, Massachusetts, at which point he was pastor at the time of his election to the presidency ) was chosen to succeed Pres. Wm. H. Whitsitt. and has continued as president of the institution since his election in 1899. Prof. Crawford H. Toy, who was a brilliant scholar and teacher, retired from the faculty, owing to differences in doctrinal views from those held by Southern Baptists. Prof. Basil Manly, who was one of the most zealous advo- cates and energetic workers in the early days of the seminary and until his death, died in 1892, though there was an interval of three years during which he did not teach in the institution. Prof. John A. Broadus, one of the most brilliant teachers of his generation, died in 1895, having left his impression upon the institution in many ways, and having written numerous standard works on theo-
logical subjects. Prof. William Williams was, like Dr. John A. Broadus, a great preacher, and passed away in 1877. Prof. Wm. H. Whitsitt retired from the institution in 1899, after a notable career as a teacher of church history. Few men in the institution have had a deeper hold upon the affections of all the students. George W. Riggan was one of the most gifted of the younger men in the faculty, and remained a teacher but four years, having died in 1885. Prof. Sampey is at present the oldest in length of service in the faculty, having begun in 1885. He now conducts great classes in Hebrew and Old Testament English in a most effective way. F. H. Kerfoot retired from the institution in 1899, after serving twelve years. He was especially gifted as a business man and or- ganizer, and rendered admirable service to the institution as treasurer and financial agent, as well as professor of theology. Prof. A. T. Robertson began teaching in 1888, and has proven a worthy successor to Dr. John A. Broadus in the department of New Testa- ment Greek and English. IIe is still teaching in the institution. Prof. E. C. Dargan taught from 1892 to 1907. He was espe- cially fitted for his department (homiletics) and his retirement occasioned great regret to all the seminary management. Prof. Wm. J. McGlothlin has taught from 1894 to the pres- ent time, having succeeded Dr. Wm. H. Whit- sitt as teacher of church history, and has very special gifts as a teacher. Prof. H. H. Harris taught from 1895 to 1897. He was a re- markably brilliant Greek scholar, and his death was a great loss to the institution. Prof. W. O. Carver began his work as profes- sor in the institution in 1896, is still connected with it, and is a most efficient professor of comparative religion and missions and asso- ciate professor in Greek. Prof. George B. Eager began his excellent work as professor of biblical introduction and pastoral theology in 1900 and now occupies that position. Prof.
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Byron H. De Ment came into the institution in 1906 and undertook an entirely new depart- ment which was founded when he came- Sunday school pedagogy and method. The classes in this department, under Dr. DeMent's excellent guidance, are among the largest in the institution. This was a new departure in theological education' which other schools have followed since its establishment at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. In 1907 Prof. Chas. S. Gardner was chosen to succeed Prof. E. C. Dargan in the chair of homiletics and ecclesiology. He has evinced special gifts as a teacher and has a strong hold upon his work. Since the year 1884 Rev. Thompson M. Hawes has been the instructor in elocution in the seminary. His work is among the most valuable in the entire curri- culum of the school in training man toward self mastery in the delivery of sermons.
The seminary confers four degrees, Th. G., or Graduates in Theology, being given for the completion of all the English studies ex- cept Senior Church History and Biblical Theology. The degree of Th. B., or Bachelor in Theology, is conferred for a selected course of English studies and one year each in Greek and Hebrew. The degree of Th. M., Master in Theology, is given for the completion of all the courses, both English and the languages. The degree of Th. D., Doctor in Theology, is given for one year's post-graduate study under certain required conditions.
The institution has lately been greatly re- inforced by an increase in its endowment. In the year 1908 when the Southern Baptist Convention met in Hot Springs Arkansas, a movement was inaugurated to raise $600.000 additional endowment. President Mullins has devoted most of his time during the past two and a half years to the raising of this money and the general oversight of the cam- paign for funds, and at the time of this writ- ing the amount is practically raised. This.
however, does not mean that the cash has been paid into the treasury, but only that pledges have been made covering the amount, the pledges being payable in installments cov- ering five years.
The influence of the institution is world- wide. Between one and two hundred of its graduates are now on the foreign mission field. About seven foreign countries are rep- resented each year in its student body. Its graduates occupy leading pastorates, secre- taryships and editorial chairs all over the United States. Its central location at Louis- ville makes it accessible to all parts of the United States, and its friends consider its position most strategic from the point of view of growing influence and power.
The oldest permanent institution of learn- ing west of the Alleghenies, had its beginning in the Revolutionary war and is a monument of our early national endeavor. Virginia, of which Kentucky was then a part in her fervor of patriotism, had declared forfeit to the state the property of all within her borders who bore arms with the British against the col- onies. In the county of Kentucky there were three wealthy Tories, who, coming under this ban, lost the holdings they had entered upon. They were Alexander McKee, owning two thousand acres; Henry Collins with three thousand acres, and Robert Mckenzie with three thousand acres near the mouth of Kar- rads creek in what is now Jefferson county. These three Tory estates, aggregating eight thousand acres, by an act of the Virginia leg- islature in May, 1780, six years after the first permanent settlement in Kentucky, were, through the efforts of Rev. John Todd of Virginia and his nephew, Col. John Todd of Kentucky, set aside for the cause of public education, under "an act to vest certain es- cheated lands in the county of Kentucky in trustees for a public school." Under this quasi charter thirteen trustees were appointed, constituting the first governing board. The
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general turmoil from the effects of the Revo- lution, as well as from Indian hostilities, de- layed further development until 1783 when Col. Caleb Wallace, another Kentuckian in the Virginia assembly, championed a second act granting twelve thousand additional acres of land and conferring a regular charter to an enlarged board of twenty-five trustees, among whom were those grim Indian fighters, Isaac Shelby, George Rogers Clark and Thomas Marshall. These trustees, as also
seeing Col. Richard Henderson who had pur- chased from the Cherokee Indians millions of acres of land in south-central Kentucky. His plans, as appears elsewhere in this work, were later checked by the Virginia assembly, but the name Transylvania had already be- come connected with the region where the new seminary was later to arise. Because of its classic dignity and descriptive fitness- for the word Transylvania, like its Indian parallel, Kehewta-Ke, or Kentucky, signifies
TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY
the professors or teachers, were, by the char- ter, required to take the usual oath of public officials for the proper performance of their duties, while the teachers and students were to be exempt from the performance of mili- tary duties. This provision of the charter proved of small avail as, in time of strife, no Kentuckian, either teacher or student, accepts exemption from duty, but is at the point of danger with gun and equipment.
The name given the proposed institution was Transylvania Seminary, perhaps in recognition of the scheme for colonizing Transylvania territory by the shrewd and far-
an "open plain beyond the forest !"-this name was naturally transferred to the school des- tined to arise there.
The first meeting of the trustees was held November 10, 1873, near Danville, with Rev. David Rice, a graduate of Princeton, in the chair. Since the land-grant furnished only a guarantee of permanency and not, as yet, an available income, a committee was ap- pointed to solicit immediate funds, books and apparatus. Three months later, at a third meeting of the trustees, twenty-one pounds and thirteen shillings had been col- lected through individual donations ranging
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from one to nearly two pounds, besides a literary and philosophical apparatus given by the Rev. John Todd of Louisa, Virginia. This was supplemented by a legislative act granting to the support of the seminary one- sixth of all surveyor's fees collected in the Kentucky district. A school building was erected near Danville in the winter of 1784, and on Feb. 1, 1785, the first session began, with Rev. James Mitchell as master at thirty pounds per year. Tuition. it is interesting to note, was one pistole, a Spanish coin worth $4.80, for each quarter session.
Lexington, because of its size and commer- cial importance, seemed a more favorable location, and on November 13. 1788, due to the efforts of John Filson, the earliest of Ken- tucky historians, the trustees decided to move the school thither, where the first session in its new home began June 1, 1789, under the charge of John Wilson. The first "Com- mencement" is recorded in John Bradford's Kentucky Gazette for April 26. 1790, in which occur these words: "Friday, the 10th instant, was appointed for the examination of the students of Transylvania Seminary by the trustees. In the presence of a very respecta- ble audience several elegant speeches were de- livered by the boys, and in the evening a tragedy was acted and the whole concluded with a farce." The "intelligent compositor" must have been extant even at that early date, since the editor must have written "elo- quent speeches" whereas he is made to refer to them as "elegant."
In 1791 the Rev. James Moore, a minister from Virginia, was placed at the head of the school. Under his administration, in 1793. the seminary was permanently located on a campus of three acres. then on the outskirts, now almost in the center of Lexington, be- longing to and adjoining the present campus of the university. An old well, dug in June, 1794, to supply the school with water, yet remains. These improvements were largely
due to the "Transylvania Land Company." sometimes called the "Seminary Company." consisting of eight or ten public spirited citi- zens, paying ten pounds each to this end.
On February 5. 1794, James Moore was succeeded by Harry Toulmin, a personal friend of Thomas Jefferson. He was a man of great ability-an author and prominent politically. Early in his administration he en- larged the teaching force, and the curriculum so as to include Greek, Latin, French, geom- etry, astronomy, natural science, composition, elocution, history, logic and philosophy-the equal of the best colleges in America at that time. A brick building was erected on the campus in 1795 to accommodate the growing school. Toulmin resigned in April, 1796, to become secretary of state under Governor Garrard, later publishing a digest of the laws of Kentucky and subsequently serving as judge of the United States court in the ter- ritory of Alabama.
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