USA > Kentucky > Fayette County > Lexington > History of Lexington, Kentucky : its early annals and recent progress, including biographical sketches and personal reminiscences of the pioneer settlers, notices of prominent citizens, etc., etc. > Part 4
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*McCabe, 9. tCity Records.
#Old Gazette.
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[1780.
tuition four pounds, payable in cash or produce, and board- ing on as reasonable terms as any in the district." The fol- lowing spring "John Davenport" opened in what was then known as Captain Young's house, which stood on part of the ground now occupied by Jordan's Row,* the first dancing school Lexington ever had, and from that day to this the saltatory art has had a host of admirers in this city. In 1788, Transylvania Seminary was opened in Lexington, and from this day forward schools accumulated, and the love of literature grew, gaining for the city an enviable fame throughout the country.
Transylvania University was the first regular institution of learning founded in the mighty West. The influence it has exerted, both morally and intellectually, has been im- mense, and its name is not only venerated and respected in all civilized America, but is well known in Europe. Its history begins with the history of Lexington, and its estab- lishment has been attributed to the enlightened exertions of Colonel John Todd, then a delegate from the county of Kentucky in the Virginia General Assembly-the same Colonel Todd who soon afterward fell at the disastrous battle of Blue Licks. In 1780, nearly twelve years before Kentucky became a member of the Union, the legislature of Virginia passed a law to vest eight thousand acres of escheated lands, formerly belonging to British subjects, in the county of Kentucky, in trustees for a public school; in order, says the preamble of the bill, " to promote the diffu- sion of useful knowledge even among its remote citizens, whose situation in a barbarous neighborhood and savage intercourse might otherwise render unfriendly to science."t
In 1783, the school was incorporated, and styled Tran- sylvania Seminary; the name "Transylvania "-a classical rendering of "the backwoods "-being the same that Co'. onel Richard Henderson & Co. applied to the proprietary government they attempted to establish in Kentucky, in 1775, regardless of the authority of Virginia. The teach- ers and pupils were exempt from military service. At the
*McCabe, 8.
tActs Virginia Assembly.
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time of its incorporation, the seminary was endowed with twelve thousand additional acres of land.
After Kentucky was erected into a state, laws were passed exempting lands from escheat, the effect of which was to deprive Transylvania Seminary of all the escheated lands with which she had been endowed by the State of - Virginia, except eight thousand acres, from the sale of which she received thirty thousand dollars. This sum of money was afterward invested in the stock of the Bank of Kentucky. The legislature repealed the charter of that bank, by which a loss is alleged to have been subsequently sustained by the " university " of twenty thousand dollars.
The trustees of the seminary met at Crow's station, in Lincoln county, November 10, 1783, when the Rev. David Rice was elected chairman, and the enterprise was en- couraged by the donation of a library (the nucleus of the present one), from the Rev. John Todd, the first Professor of Sacred Literature in the seminary, and uncle of the above-named Colonel Todd.
In February, 1785, the seminary was opened, in the house of Mr. Rice, near Danville, and that gentleman be- came its first teacher, the endowment being too unproduct- ive to afford more than a scanty salary for one professor. " Old Father Rice," who was one of the very first pioneer Presbyterian ministers who emigrated to Kentucky, was born in Hanover county, Virginia, December 20, 1733, and was educated at "Nassau Hall," now Princeton College. He was ordained in 1763, and came to Kentucky in 1783. He was largely instrumental in raising up both Transyl- vania Seminary and its subsequent rival, Kentucky Acad- emy. After a long life of ministerial usefulness, he died, June 18, 1816, in Green county, Kentucky .*
In 1787, Virginia further endowed the seminary with one-sixth of the surveyor's fees in the District of Kentucky, formerly given to William and Mary College. This law was repealed by the legislature of Kentucky in 1802.
In 1788, the school was located in Lexington. " Tuition,
*Davidson.
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five pounds a year, one-half cash, the other in property. Boarding, nine pounds a year, in property, pork, corn, to- bacco, etc." John Filson, to whom Daniel Boone dictated a memoir of his life, was a zealous friend and advocate of the school. Being a northern man, he favored the em- ployment of teachers from that section, which caused a correspondent of the old Kentucky Gazette to ask him the very sensible question : "What peculiar charm have northern teachers to inspire virtue and suppress vice that southern teachers do not possess ?"*
The first building used by Transylvania Seminary, in Lexington, was a plain two-story brick one. It stood on the north end of the " college lawn," facing Second street, and with the present Third street in its rear. The lot on which it was erected, was donated; by a number of citizens of Lexington, who were anxious to have the school in their midst. Isaac Wilson, of Philadelphia, was a teacher in the seminary at this time.
Another teacher was added t> the seminary upon its removal to Lexington, its course was extended, and nothing occurred to mar its prosperity until 1794, when the trustees, with John Bradford as chairman, elected as principal Harry Toulnim, a talented Baptist minister, with strong inclinations to the priestly school of theology, and who subsequently became secretary of state under Governor Garrard. Sectarian jealousy was at once developed. The Baptists claimed equal rights in the seminary, as a state institution. The Presbyterians claimed control, on the ground that its endowment was due to their exertions, and they finally withdrew their patronage from the school, and, in 1796, established and supported "Kentucky Academy," at Pisgah, near Lexington.
Fortunately, the troubles between the rival institutions were adjusted, and, in 1798, both schools were merged in one, under the name of "Transylvania University," with Lexington as its seat. But one department of the univer- sity, the academical, was in existence in 1798. The first
*Old Gazette.
+President's Report.
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TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY.
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president of the united institutions was the Rev. James Moore,* noticed at length in the chapter, in this volume, on Christ Church. His colleagues were the Rev. Robert Stuart and the Rev. James Blythe.
In 1799, the institution was given the appearance of a regular university, by the addition of law and medical de- partments.
Colonel George Nicholas,t who became the first profes- sor in the law department, was an eminent lawyer of Vir- ginia, who had served as colonel in the Revolutionary war, and came to Kentucky at an early day. He was an influ- ential member of the Virginia Convention which adopted the Federal constitution, and was one of the most promi- nent spirits in the convention which framed the first con- stitution of Kentucky. This able man, whose statesman- ship was long prominent in this commonwealth, was for many years a citizen of Lexington. His residence was on the site of the present Sayre Institute. He died at about the age of fifty-five, shortly after he accepted the law pro- fessorship in Transylvania University.
Colonel Nicholas was succeeded in the chair of law by Henry Clay, James Brown, John Pope, and William T. Barry (of whom see biographical sketches in this volume). In 1819, when Dr. Holley became president of the univer- sity, the law college was regularly organized with three professors, and it soon attained a reputation co-extensive with the country, and no similar college in the United States was considered its superior in reputation, the ability of its teachers, and the number of its students. Its law society was noted. Its library, donated by the city of Lex- ington, was, at that time, the best one of the kind in the West. The following professors have adorned the law department since the incumbency of those already named, viz: Jesse Bledsoe, John Boyle, Daniel Mayer, Charles Humphreys, George Robertson, Thomas A. Marshall, and A. K. Woolley. (See biograpical sketches in this book.)
The earliest professor of medicine in Transylvania and
*Davidson.
Collins.
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HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
[1780.
in the West was the distinguished Dr. Samuel Brown,* who was born, January 30, 1769, and was a son of the Rev. John Brown, and Margaret, his wife, residents of Rock- bridge county, Virginia. After graduating at Carlisle Col- lege (Pa.), he spent two years studying medicine in Edin- burg, after which he removed to Lexington. He was pro- fessor of medicine in the university until 1806, when he resigned, but was again appointed in 1819. He died in Huntsville, Alabama, January 12, 1830. Dr. Brown was a man of unusual learning and scientific attainments.
His name appears among those of the contributors to the American Philosophical Transactions, and to the med- ical and scientific periodicals of the day, in this country and in Europe. He is specially noted as the first introducer of vaccination into the United States.t
The first place where medical instruction is believed to have been given to students, in Lexington, was in the orig- inal old University building.
Dr. Frederick Ridgely, who was appointed a medical professor very shortly after Dr. Brown, was the first who taught medicine by lectures in the West. He was appointed surgeon to a Virginia rifle corps in the Revolutionary army, when nineteen years old, removed to Kentucky in 1780, was one of the founders of the medical college, and was one of the early preceptors of the distinguished surgeon, Dr. Ben. W. Dudley. Dr. Ridgely lectured his class at one time in a room in "Trotter's warehouse," which stood on the site of the present china store, on the corner of Mill and Main.
The first president of Transylvania University, Rev. James Moore, was succeeded, in 1804, by Dr. James Blythe. Rev. James Blythe, M. D., was born in North Carolina, in 1765, and was educated for the Presbyterian pulpit at Hampden-Sidney College. He came to Kentucky in 1791, and two years after was ordained pastor of Pisgah and Clear Creek churches. He continued to preach up to the time of his death. For six years before his accession to the
*Annals of Transylvania University.
tMichaux, 1802.
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TRANSYLVANIA ยท UNIVERSITY.
[1780.
presidency of the university, he was professor of mathe- matics and natural philosophy, and often supplied the pulpit of the First Presbyterian church. He was president for nearly fifteen years, and after his resignation, filled the chair of chemistry in the medical college until 1831, when he accepted the presidency of Hanover College (Indi- ana), which prospered greatly under his charge. He was a faithful and animated preacher and fine debater. He died in 1842.
The first academical degree was conferred in 1802.
In the spring of 1804, a party of Shawanese Indians placed their children at Transylvania University to be in- structed.
In 1805, Rev. James Fishback, M. D., was appointed to the chair of the Theory and Practice of Medicine. It was in the office of Dr. F., that Dr. Ben. Dudley studied the rudiments of physic. At this early period, the medical department met with but small success, and in 1806,* the professors resigned.
An effort was made to organize a full faculty and estab- lish a medical school in our university, in the year 1809. Dr. B. W. Dudley was appointed to the chair of Anatomy and Surgery ; Dr. Elisha Warfield, to that of Surgery and Obstetrics; the noted Joseph Buchanan, referred to in an- other chapter, to that of the Institutes of Medicine, and Dr. James Overton, to that of the Theory and Practice of Medicine.
It does not appear, however, that any lectures were de- livered at this time. In 1815, Dr. William H. Richardson was added to the medical faculty, and his connection with the school continued until his death in 1835. Dr. Daniel Drake was appointed to the chair of Materia Medica in 1817. Dr. Drake resigned in a short time, and afterward became a professor in the Cincinnati Medical College. He died in 1852. The class of 1817 numbered twenty pupils.
The degree of M. D. was conferred, at the end of this course, in 1818, for the first time in the West, perhaps, on a
*Dr. Peters' Lecture.
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citizen of Lexington, one of this class, John Lawson Mccullough, brother of our worthy fellow-citizen, Samuel D. Mccullough .*
In 1817, a large and handsome college building was erected in the college lawn and in front of the old edifice. The house and lot known as the Blythe property was bought and donated to the university by a number of liberal gen- tlemen, Mr. Clay being among the number. The grounds of the institution were beautified with trees, flowers, and shrubbery, and a determined effort was made to greatly in- crease the usefulness of the university. The trustees of the institution and the citizens of Lexington labored to- gether in the work of its up-building, and Dr. Horace Hol- ley, then of Boston, was invited to the presidency, which he accepted, and was inducted into office, December 19, 1818, and voted a salary of three thousand dollars.
Dr. Holley, the third president of Transylvania Univer- sity, was born in Salisbury, Connecticut, February 13, 1781 .; He assisted in the store of his father (who was a self- taught and self-made man) until he was sixteen, when he was sent to Yale College, where he graduated, in 1803, with a high reputation for talents and learning. Soon after, he studied theology with Dr. Dwight, and, in 1809, accepted the pastorate of the Hollis-street church, in Boston, and such was his popularity that a larger and more elegant edifice was soon rendered necessary. In this charge he re- mained nine years, greatly admired and beloved. To a re- markably fine person was added fascinating manners and brilliant oratory. His eloquence may be inferred from the fact that, during one of his sermons delivered before the ancient artillery company of Boston, he extorted a noisy demonstration of applause, the only instance known of a staid New England audience being betrayed into forgetful- ness of their wonted propriety.#
Dr. Holley was welcomed to Lexington with the most flattering attentions, and immediately set to work to make the university a success. The institution was at once thor-
*Peters' Lecture.
1Caldwell's Memoir.
#Pierpont.
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TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY.
1780.]
oughly reorganized, and the medical school in particular dates its astonishing progress from this time, when the eminent surgeon, Dr. B. W. Dudley, the apostle of phre- nology in the West, Dr. Charles Caldwell, and the learned antiquarian, Dr. C. S. Rafinesque, were called to its chairs. These gentlemen are specially mentioned in other chapters - of this book. At this time, lectures were delivered to the medical class in a large room in the upper story of a then tavern building, on Short street, between Upper and Market, now occupied by banks.
The events which took place during Dr. Holley's presi- dency are full of interest.
In the year 1819, the legislature of Kentucky appropri- ated the bonus of the Farmers and Mechanics' Bank at Lexington, for two years, to the use and benefit of Tran- sylvania University, which amounted to the sum of $3,000. In 1820 the sum of $5,000 was appropriated to the medical department.
In the year 1821, an act was passed appropriating one- half of the clear profits of the Branch Bank of the Com- monwealth of Kentucky at Lexington to the university, from which it is stated the sum of $20,000, in the paper of the said bank, was received-equal to $10,000 in specie -and there was a grant of twenty thousand dollars from the state treasury in 1824. All of which sums of money were expended in the purchase of books, philosophical ap- paratus, and in the payment of the debts of the institution.
There was probably no college library in the United States superior to that of Transylvania University in 1825. In addition to the books purchased through the liberality of Lexington and the State, the library had been enriched by a handsome donation from the British government, and by contributions from many private individuals, among whom may be named Edward Everett, who presented a collection of fine classical works which he had personally selected in Europe. The medical library selected by Pro- fessor Caldwell, in France and England, was the best in the country at that time. The university was visited by Pres-
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HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
[1780.
ident Monroe, General Jackson, Governor Shelby, and others, in 1819. In 1825 it was visited by Marquis de La- fayette, at which time it was the center of attraction in the entire West to all scholars and eminent characters, both native and foreign. About this time, also, Lord Stanley, afterward Earl of Derby, made a personal examination of the institution. At the time of his visit, Judge Barry, one of the law professors, was absent. Dr. Holley, in addition to his regular duties, temporarily filled the judge's chair, and lectured the class before the distinguished visitor, on the subject of the similarity of the governments of the United States and England as regards the responsibility of public agents to the people .*
The rise and prosperity of the medical college of the university was remarkable. In 1818, the class numbered twenty, with one graduate, and in 1826, it numbered two hundred and eighty-one, with fifty-three graduates .; In 1827, the medical college had attained such a position and celebrity as to be regarded as second only to the University of Pennsylvania. It was complete in its corps of eminent professors, and in its magnificent library and chemical and anatomical apparatus. In addition to the distinguished men already mentioned, the following professors had been connected with the medical college up to 1827, and some of them remained in it for years after, viz: Dr. John Estin Cooke, of Virginia, author of the celebrated congestive theory of fevers; Dr. Lunsford P. Yandell, editor of the Transylvania Journal of Medicine, founded in 1827; Dr. H. H. Eaton, of New York, who greatly improved the chemical department, and Dr. Charles W. Short, who re- signed in 1838.
In 1823, the "Morrison Professorship," in the academical department, was endowed and established by a bequest of twenty thousand dollars from Colonel James Morrison, of whom mention will again be made in this chapter.
The grand design of Dr. Holley was to make Transyl- vania a genuine university, complete in every college, and
*Observer and Reporter.
tCollege Records.
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liberally sustained by a great endowment. Under great disadvantages he accomplished much of his work, but his own imprudent conduct and Unitarian sentiments, together with prejudice and sectarian animosity, prevented its com- pletion. His religious opinions and his love of amuse- ments were unceasingly discussed and denounced by secta- . rians, who were disappointed in obtaining control of the institution. Finally, a storm of opposition was raised, which was continued with great bitterness by ministers of all denominations,* until Dr. Holley was forced to resign the presidency, which he did in 1827, to the great regret of a majority of the citizens of Lexington, and the sorrow of his pupils, a large number of whom immediately left the university. Two facts speak volumes for Dr. Holley's administration. When he came to the university, it was comparatively little known-when he left it, it was cele- brated all over this country and Europe. During the six- teen years before he came, twenty-two students had grad- uated in it-in the nine years of his presidency, the insti- tution turned out six hundred and sixty-six graduates.t
Immediately after his resignation, Dr. Holley was en- gaged as president of the College of New Orleans, and was meeting with the most flattering success when he was prostrated by fever. Upon his recovery he embarked for the North, in hopes that the sea air would benefit him. On the voyage he was seized with yellow fever, and, after suffering intensely for five days, he died, and on the 31st of July, 1827, the body of this distinguished man was com- mitted to the deep. The scholar's cloak was his winding sheet, the ocean is his grave, and the towering rocks of the Tortugas are his monument.
The academical department, or college of arts, of Tran- sylvania University was crowded with students during Dr. Holley's administration. Its corps of instructors, near the close of his term, were: President Holley, Professor of Philology, Belles-lettres, and Mental Philosophy; John Roche, Professor of Greek and Latin Languages; Rev.
*Flint's Mississippi Valley 1826.
tCaldwell's Memoir.
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[1780.
George T. Chapman, Professor of History and Antiquity; Thomas J. Matthews, Morrison Professor of Mathematics; Rev. Benjamin O. Peers, Professor of Moral Philosophy.
The resignation of Dr. Holley was a heavy blow to the university; but the trustees were not idle. On the 16th of April, 1827, the corner-stone of a new medical hall was laid by the Masonic fraternity, on the site of the present City Library, on the corner of Market and Church streets. The eloquent William T. Barry delivered an appropriate oration before the immense crowd assembled. The trustees of the university, at that time, were John Bradford, Thomas Bodley, Charles Humphreys, Benjamin Gratz, Elisha War- field, James Fishback, John W. Hunt, James Trotter, Elisha I. Winter, George T. Chapman, William Leavy, Charles Wilkins, and George C. Light.
In June, 1828, the trustees called to the presidency of the university the Rev. Alva Woods, D. D.,* who was then at the head of Brown Univiversity. Dr. Woods was a Baptist clergyman, and the oldest child of Rev. Abel Woods, of Massachusetts, and had a high reputation for learning and liberality. He was president of Transylvania for but two years, when he resigned, and accepted the presidency of the University of Alabama. A few years ago he was still alive and residing at Providence, Rhode Island.
On the night of May 9, 1829, during Dr. Woods' admin- istration, the principal building of the university, together with the law and societies' libraries, was destroyed by fire. The exercises of the institution were not interrupted a single day, nor did a solitary student leave in consequence of the disaster.
The Transylvania Literary Journal, Professor T. J. Mat- thews, Editor, was established in 1829.
In 1832, Dr. Robert Peter, the present able and noted Professor of Chemistry, became connected with the univer- sity, and has continued to reflect honor upon it for forty years. Dr. Peter was born in England, in 1805. He is a graduate of the Transylvania Medical College.
*Observer and Reporter.
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TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY.
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The fifth president of Transylvania was the Rev. Benja- min O. Peers, an Episcopal minister, who was born in Loudon county, Virginia, in 1800, and brought to Kentucky in 1803. After graduating at Transylvania, he studied theology at Princeton, after which he joined the Episcopal Church, and located in Lexington, where he established the Eclectic Institute, which soon became one of the most val- uable educational establishments in the West. He did much to bring about the present common school system of Kentucky, for which, together with his sound learning and ardent piety, he will long be remembered. Mr. Peers was president of Transylvania about two years. He died in Louisville, in 1842. The assistants of President Peers, in the academical department of the university, were Profes- sor S. Hebard, of Amherst College, and Professor John Lutz, of the University of Gottingen.
During the Peers term, the present Morrison College building was completed, and on the 14th of November, 1833, it was thrown open, with appropriate inauguration ceremonies, at which time the oath of office was adminis- tered to Mr. Peers by the chairman of the university board of trustees. While Mr. Peers was president, a theological department, under the auspices of the Episcopal Church, was opened in the university.
Morrison College was founded through the liberality of Colonel James Morrison, who was born in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, in 1775, and was the son of an humble Irish immigrant. After serving in the war of the Revolution, he came to Kentucky, and settled in Lexington, in 1792. Possessed of strong sense, energy, and decision of character, he rapidly elevated himself. He became, in succession, state representative from Fayette, quartermas- ter-general, president of the branch of the United States Bank, and chairman of the board of trustees of Transyl- vania University. He acquired immense wealth, much of which he used in the promotion of letters. He died, in Washington, D. C., April 23, 1823. Whether he was a Unitarian or a Presbyterian is undecided. He bequeathed twenty thousand dollars to establish a professorship in
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