History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 65

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1013

USA > Tennessee > Davidson County > History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 65

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

1863 .- Francis B. Fogg, J. W. Hoyte, M. M. Brien, M. G. L. Claiborne, J. S. Fowler, H. H. Harrison, M. H. Howard, J. B. Knowles, M. M. Monahan. 1864 .- No election.

1865 .- P. S. Fall, J. W. Hoyte, T. A. Atchison, D. D. Dickey, E. H. East, H. H. Harrison, J. B. Lindsley, L. G. Tarbox.

1866 .- P. S. Fall, J. W. Hoyte, T. A. Atchison, M. C.

Cotton, R. B. Cheatham, J. H. Callendar, I. P. Jones, J. P. Knowles, J. L. Weakley.

1867 .- P. S. Fall, J. W. Hoyte, T. A. Atchison, M. C. Cotton, R. B. Cheatham, J. H. Callendar, I. P. Jones, J. B. Knowles, J. L. Weakley.

1868 .- Eugene Cary, R. G. Jamison, H. S. Bennett, J. Jungerman, D. Rutledge, D. W. Peabody, John Ruhm, L. G. Tarbox.

1869 .- Dr. C. K. Winston, J. L. Weakley, Isaac Paul, George S. Kinney, A. G. Adams, J. O. Griffith, Charles Rich, John J. McCann, James Whit- worth.

1870 .- J. O. Griffith, John J. McCann, Charles Rich (one year), Thomas H. Hamilton, C. K. Win- ston, Joseph L. Wcakley (two years), George S. Kinney, L. G. Tarbox, A. D. Wharton (three years).

1871 .- J. B. Craighead, James T. Dunlap, Charles Rich, Rev. A. J. Baird.t

1872 .- Morton B. Howell, Joseph L. Weakley, Rev. Dr. R. A. Young.t

1873 .- George S. Kinney, L. G. Tarbox, Prof. A. D. Wharton, Col. R. C. McNairy.t

1874 .- G. M. Fogg, Jr., A. B. Hoge, Samuel Watkins. 1875 .- M. C. Cotton, G. Schiff, J. L. Weakley. 1876 .- J. M. Dickerson, T. W. Halley, George S. Kinney. 1877 .- Theodore Cooley, G. M. Fogg, M. B. Howell. 1878 .- George R. Knox, John Rhum, J. L. Weakley. 1879 .- R. B. Lea, T. W. Wrenne, George S. Kinney.

OFFICERS OF THE SCHOOL BOARD.

1854-58.

President. Francis B. Fogg.

Secretary.

1859-60

John A. McEwen. M. H. Howard.

1861-62

J. W. Hoyte. :

1865 ... P. S. Fall.

1866-67

1868-69 Eugene Cary.

R. G. Jamison. J. L. Weakley.

1871.

Prof. A. D. Wharton.

1872

Gen. James T. Dunlap.

S. Y. Caldwell.

1873

Prof. A. D. Wharton.

1874. Samuel Watkins.

L. G. Tarbox.

1875-76

A. B. Hoge.

1877

J. L. Weakley.

T. W. Haley.

1878

G. M. Fogg.

1879

T. W. Wrenne.

SUPERINTENDENTS OF SCHOOLS.

1854-61. Joshua F. Pearl.

1865.3 J. F. Pearl.

1861-62. James L. Meigs. 1866-69. Prof. C. D. Lawrence. 1869-80. Prof. S. Y. Caldwell.

UNIVERSITY OF NASHVILLE.

The history of this institution dates back to the pioncer days of Nashville, when Gen. James Robertson was repre- senting the new county of Davidson in the Legislature of North Carolina. Ever desirous of promoting the welfare of the settlement which he had planted on the Cumberland, and with a high appreciation of learning and religion, Gen.

t This board was organized under the new law, and after some legal contest with the former board entered upon its duties as such June 24, 1868, was re-elected and held ever until Nov. 3, 1869, when it

was relieved by the board of nine under the present law. # Vacancy.

¿ Dr. J. B. Lindsley to fill vacancy December 31st.

· Same, 1859.

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1863-64

1870 Dr. C. K. Winston.

1862-65. Vacant.

CITY OF NASHVILLE.

longing.

254

HISTORY OF DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE.

Robertson sought not only to forward the interests of churches, but of schools. He had formed the idea of es- tablishing an academy at Nashville, and while attending the Legislature made the acquaintance of Rev. Thomas B. Craighead, a Presbyterian clergyman and teacher of excel- lent qualifications, whom he interested in his scheme. These two gentlemen matured their plan together, and in Decem- ber, 1785, procured the passage of a bill by the Legislature of North Carolina, entitled " An Act for the Promotion of Learning in Davidson County." This was the original act which laid the foundation for an institution of learning at Nashville, known first as Davidson Academy, then as Cum- berland College, and lastly as the University of Nashville.

The act incorporating the academy appropriated two hundred and forty acres of land as an endowment. This land was situated south of Broad Street, immediately ad- joining the plat of two hundred acres which, during the pre- vious year, had been laid out for the town, and is included within the present corporate limits of the city of Nashville. The charter appointed Rev. Thomas B. Craighead, Hugh Williamson, Daniel Smith, William Polk, Anthony Bledsoe, Lardner Clarke, Ephraim McLean, Robert Hays, and James Robertson trustees, and constituted them a body corporate and politic under the name and style of " the president and trustees of Davidson Academy." At the first meeting, held Aug. 19, 1785, the board was organized by the election of Rev. Thomas B. Craighead president, Daniel Smith secretary, and Ephraim McLean treasurer.

The board, being thus organized, proceeded to appoint a committee on behalf of the trustees, consisting of William Polk and Ephraim McLean, to unite with the trustees of the town in making the proper division-line between the respective lands, and to make a survey and plat of those donated to the academy. This work was proceeded with in October. Subscriptions were also opened for donations of land, produce, or money, and provision made for bequests for the support of the school. The lands were in some in- stances sold, but were generally placed under rental, and the proceeds applied to the use of the academy. Among the various schemes for its benefit, and to increase the value and desirability of its lands, an " academy ferry" was estab- lished just above what is now the foot of Broad Street, which was under the management of the board or its agent for many years, and while it was a source of some income to the school it was also a cause of much trouble and per- plexity to the trustees.

Rev. Mr. Craighead came to the settlement to preach as well as to teach. He had a small church building, six miles east of Nashville, in the suburbs of what was once Haysborough, known as "Spring Hill Meeting-House." Here the academy school was opened in 1786, and con- tinued to be kept about fifteen years, or until a building was erected for it on the hill subsequently known as " Col- lege Hill." The original site contained a burying-ground for some of the pioneers of Middle Tennessee, and there rest the remains of the founder and first president of this institution of learning. The construction of the turnpike in later years obliterated the foundation of that primitive academy.

The price of tuition was at first four pounds per annum,

hard money, or other money of that value. Soon after, it was "ordered that five pounds hard money, or the value thereof in other money, be paid for each scholar per annum."

By act of the Legislature in 1796, it was provided " that the buildings of the said academy shall be erected on the most convenient situation on the hill immediately above Nash- ville, and near the road leading to Buchanan's Mill." Ten acres were here reserved from the sale of lots for the use of the academy, July 15, 1802, and Gen. Jackson and Gen. Robertson appointed to superintend the erection of the building. Gen. Jackson was a member of the board of trustees from 1791 to Nov. 26, 1805, at which date he resigned, and Judge Robert Whyte was appointed in his stead. At this date it is announced that the contract for the academy building had been let to Charles Cabaniss; contract price, ten thousand eight hundred and ninety dol- lars. Whether the building was completed for this sum or not we are not informed, nor is the date given of its first occupation by the school.

A library was established in connection with the acad- emy quite early. In 1798 we find this entry in the record : " Ordered, that Thomas B. Craighead and Daniel Smith be continued a committee to receive books from Mr. Dead- crick for the trustees, and settle for the same as soon as convenience will admit, after the general's return from Con- gress."

On the 31st of May, 1805, Gen. Robertson, Gen. Smith, and Col. Hay resigned as trustees. They had served nearly twenty years, and had seldom been absent from the meet- ings of the board. Robert C. Foster, David McGavock, and Joseph Coleman were chosen to fill the vacancies.

The academy as such continued in operation about twenty-one years. It was supported by the best people of the settlement, and did much towards laying the founda- tion for that emulation in education which has distinguished Nashville at a later day. In this education Rev. Mr. Craig- head was the pioneer.

Davidson Academy was the second and only other school chartered for this Territory by North Carolina. Martin Academy, afterwards Washington College, was the first school established west of the Alleghanies. Dr. Samuel Doak, the founder and first president, was a native of Vir- ginia, a graduate of the College of New Jersey, under Dr. Witherspoon, in 1775,-a man of great ability and force of character, of great learning, especially in the classics. He was a member of the Franklin Convention, and the re- puted author of a clause concerning education in the re- jected Constitution. In the pulpit and in the school-room, in social and in public life, he exerted a wide and beneficent influence.

The inception of the conversion of the academy into a college was brought about by a petition to the Legislature on the 19th of July, 1806. By an act of Congress, passed in April, the State of Tennessee was authorized to issue and perfect titles to certain lands therein mentioned; and the General Assembly of the State, by an act to establish a college in West Tennessee, incorporated a body of nine- teen trustees, placing Rev. Thomas B. Craighead as the first named in the list, " by the name of the trustees of Davidson College." The preamble of the act states that

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CITY OF NASHVILLE.

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CITY OF NASHVILLE.

this was done upon the petition of the trustees of Davidson Academy. This act vested all the property, real and per- sonal, of the academy in the trustees of the college.

The first meeting of the trustees of the college was held at Talbot's Hotel, in Nashville, on the 11th of September, 1806, when Joseph Coleman, first mayor of the city, was chosen to preside until a president should be duly elected. Mr. Craighead was not present at the meeting,-perhaps the only absence in twenty-one years. At the next meeting, July 21st, he was unanimously elected president. Books and apparatus to the amount of one thousand dollars were purchased, and the college was opened for the reception of students on the first day of September, 1807.

From the " Rules and Regulations" adopted by the board we copy the following :

" It will be improper to suffer the students to attend assemblies, balls, theatrical exhibitions, parties of pleasure and amusement, and, more, to frequent gambling-tables, taverns, and places of dissipation.

" They should seldom indulge themselves in going to town, except on necessary business, which should be dis- patched hastily, that they may return to college without delay.

" Your committee further recommend that the tutors, in all their official duties, wear a college habit, or loose upper garment, made of some light black stuff or fille model, after the manner of the surplice or gown worn by gentle- men of the literary profession, distinguished by black tassels on the shoulders or sleeves as badges of office; and that the students also wear black gowns of similar material, but without the tassels, when they attend on recitations, prayers, public speaking, public worship, and when they walk into town."

In 1809 the Legislature passed an act providing that " No ordinance, rule, or by-law should ever be entered into 80 as to give a preference to any one denomination of Christians."

Rev. Mr. Craighead served as president of the college two years and three months, or until Oct. 24, 1809, when Dr. James Priestly was unanimously elected, and took his seat as president of the board of trustees Jan. 30, 1810. Rev. Mr. Craighead continued one of the trustees till the autumn or winter of 1813, when his connection with the college ceased finally.

Rev. Thomas B. Craighead was the son of Rev. Alexan- der Craighead, the man who first in 1749 gave voice in Penn- sylvania to the growing desire for independence, incurred the hostility of His Majesty's magistrates and the censures of the Synod, and, emigrating to North Carolina, instilled the principles which bore fruit in the Mecklenburg Declara- tion of Independence. Rev. Thomas B. Craighead, a gradu- ate of Princeton in 1775, contemporary with Dr. Doak, la- bored here for almost a quarter of a century in the cause of education. He was a powerful preacher, but, like his father and grandfather, a man of progressive ideas, and for eighteen years, in Presbytery, Synod, and General As- sembly, engaged in a conflict under the charge of heresy, coming out triumphant a year before his death. Through- out he had the support of Andrew Jackson. "Old Hickory," perhaps, did not know the difference between

Pelagianism and Augustinianism ; but applying a simple formula as a test, " By their fruits ye shall know them," he knew an honest and a trustworthy man of value to the community in which he lived.

The progress of Davidson Academy is a matter of espe- cial interest to Nashville. As the unpretending academy and as Davidson College under Craighead, as the more ambitious Cumberland College under the wise management of Dr. Priestly, it grew with the progress of society and gave form, tone, cohesion, lustre, and the means of nobler growth to the society around it.

In 1824, Dr. Philip Lindsley-who, though not a pioneer, yet stood at the beginning of an era-declined the presidency of the College of New Jersey to attempt the establishment of a centre of influence here for the Southwest. A charlatan in education might have built a temporarily more splendid structure on the sand. Assisted by an able corps of teachers, with foresight only now be- ginning to be justified in the fulfillment of all his prophe- cies, he applied himself for twenty-five years to the work of laying broad and deep the foundations, encountering difficulties of the most stupendous character, sustained by a few live and far seeing citizens. Was all this labor of twenty-five years and the succeeding twenty-two years of the University of Nashville thrown away and barren of results ? Under its influence grew up a cultivated, liberal community ; through its influence, and by the efforts of the young men sent forth to engage in and to encourage education, sprang up twenty colleges within fifty miles of Nashville to divide, distract, and compete with the uni- versity, and at the same time to accomplish much good. It was the inevitable conflict of localities, which had to demonstrate that every village cannot be a seat of learning. It prepared the soil in which great institutions take deep root and flourish,-the soil which has developed the public-school system and attracted hither Vanderbilt Uni- versity, the normal school, and brought here the Fisk, Tennessee Central, and Baptist Normal and Theological Colleges to engage in the great work of the elevation of the African race of America.

At the close of his twenty-third year at Nashville, in a public address, Dr. Lindsley says, " When this college was revived and reorganized at the close of 1824, there were no similar institutions in actual operation within two hundred miles of Nashville. There were none in Alabama, Missis- sippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Middle or West Tennessee. There are now some thirty or more within that distance, and nine within fifty miles of our city. These all claim to be our superiors and to be equal at least to Old Harvard or Yale. Of course we cannot expect much 'custom,' or to command a large range of what is miscalled patronage. I have a list now before me of twenty colleges or universities in Tennessee alone. Several of those belong exclusively to individuals, and are bought and sold in open market like any other species of private property. They are invested with the usual corporate powers, and may confer all uni- versity degrees at pleasure. This is probably a new thing under the sun; but Solomon's geography did not extend to America."

In 1850, after having passed through a career of brilliant

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HISTORY OF DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE.

prosperity, the university was compelled to suspend its work for the want of funds. At this period a few distinguished gentlemen of the medical profession organized the Medi- cal Department of the University of Nashville, and since then the buildings have been used for that purpose .* The buildings for the Literary Department, as they now exist, were erected in 1853-54, a short distance from the old college. The Literary Department was again opened in 1855, and Gen. Bushrod R. Johnson made superin- tendent. It was conducted on the military plan until the breaking out of the civil war, when the buildings were used as a hospital.

MONTGOMERY BELL ACADEMY.

After the war the trustees of the university located the Montgomery Bell Academy in the buildings of the Literary Department of the university. The fund for this academy was derived from a bequest of twenty thousand dollars by the late Montgomery Bell, a man whose name is inseparably connected with the development of the iron interests of the State, and who had the honor of furnishing to Gen. Jackson, at the battle of New Orleans, all the cannon-balls used in that famous conflict. A Pennsylvanian by birth, he began the manufacture of iron as early as 1810, and became thoroughly wedded to his adopted State. He was one of those pioneers in industrial enterprises that give direction to capital and energy. It was through his influence, and by reason of his financial success, that more than thirty furnaces shed their ruddy light over the western iron belt previous to the war. A man of in- domitable energy, of commanding influence, of genuine philanthropy, and of extended views, he made such an in- delible impression upon his age that it will be seen and felt for many generations to come. The bequest made by this public-spirited citizen was for the free education of twenty- five students from the counties of Davidson, Montgomery, Dickson, and Williamson. By judicious investment it has increased one hundred and fifty per cent., and the whole now amounts to fifty thousand dollars.

The academy occupies, in conjunction with the State Normal College, the elegant stone building known as the college proper of the University of Nashville. In its in- struction, and in the manner of conducting it, the Mont- gomery Bell Academy is one of the most thorough and excellent of all the educational institutions that cluster around Nashville. The faculty at present is Joseph W. Yeatman, Principal and Professor of Natural Science ; S. M. D. Clark, Professor of Ancient Languages ; William R. Garrett, Professor of Mathematics.

PROFESSORS AND TUTORS OF THE UNIVERSITY.

On the 2d of October, 1850, Rev. Philip Lindsley, D.D., delivered a memorial discourse on the life and character of Professor Gerard Troost, M.D. Seven professors and three tutors of the university had been called away by death. The professors named were Bowen, Hamilton, and Troost. The first died after two and a half years in connection with the college, having given ample evidence of his superior

* See history of the medical college.

qualifications for the chair of chemistry. He had been a favorite pupil of Professors Silliman and Hare at New Ha- ven and Philadelphia.

Professor George T. Bowen was born March 19, 1803, at Providence, R. I., and graduated at Yale College in 1822. He was elected professor of chemistry at Nashville in the autumn of 1825, and died Oct. 25, 1828, in the twenty-sixth year of his age.

Professor James Hamilton was for sixteen years con- nected with the university as professor of mathematics and natural philosophy. He was a native of Princeton, N. J., a graduate at the college there, and was highly distin- guished as a classical and mathematical teacher in Trenton and Burlington, N. J. He died of cholera, June 21, 1849.

Dr. Gerard Troost was born at Bois-le-Duc, in Holland, March 15, 1776. He died Aug. 14, 1850, aged seventy- four years and five months. He was educated in the schools and universities of his native country, chiefly at Leyden and Amsterdam. He was for several years a pupil and com- panion of the celebrated Abbe Rene Just Hauy, the founder of the present or modern school of mineralogy, for whom he ever cherished an affectionate and grateful respect. He here translated into the Dutch language Humboldt's " As- pects of Nature." In 1809 he was appointed by the King of Holland one of a scientific corps to accompany a naval expedition to Java. After coming to this country he set- tled first in Philadelphia, where he assisted in forming the American Academy of Natural Sciences in 1812, of which he was for several years president. He removed with his family and a large collection of mineral treasures to Nash- ville in 1827. The year following he was appointed pro- fessor of chemistry, geology, and mineralogy in the Univer- sity of Nashville, and was State geologist in 1831. He continued thereafter to be elected at cach biennial ses- sion of the Legislature till that body abolished the office, in 1849. His indefatigable services in this department laid the foundation of geology in the State of Tennessee. Asa college professor he held a distinguished rank, and was a regular and honorary member of the scientific and philo- sophical societies of Europe and America. His private life was a model of the domestic virtues. He gathered the finest geological and prehistoric collection ever in the State. It was sold to Louisville for about twenty thousand dollars, about one-third of its intrinsic value.

TRUSTEES.

The * denotes deceased, the t resigned, at the date last mentioned.

*Rev. Thomas B. Craighead, 1806-24. +Duncan Stewart, 1806-8.

*James Winchester, 1806-26. +Thomas Johnson, 1806-20.

+Samuel P. Black, 1806-20. +John K. Wynne, 1806-11.

tMoses Fisk, 1806-18. +Nicholas T. Perkins, 1806-25.

tRandal MeGavock, 1808-9. tJohn E. Beck, 1808-20.

+John McNairy, 1808-27. +Willie Blount, 1809-15. +John Haywood, 1809-12. *Felix Grundy, 1809-40.

tParry W. Humphreys, 1809-15.

Felix Robertson, M.D.

+Robert Weakley, 1809-15.

*John Childress, 1809-20.

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*Rev. William Hume, 1806-8. +John Dickinson, 1806-10.

*Joel Lewis, 1806-16.

tAbram Maury, 1806-7.

+William P. Anderson, 1806-13.

*Robert C. Foster, 1806-44. tDavid McGavock, 1806-25. +Robert Whyte, 1806-18. +Joseph Coleman, 1806-18 +Robert Searcy, 1806-13.

*William Dickson, 1806-16.

257

CITY OF NASHVILLE. .

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History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 65

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford) Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1013

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1013