USA > Tennessee > Davidson County > Nashville > History of Nashville, Tenn. > Part 40
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The Anzeiger des Sudens was established in 1880 by W. B. Fischer, as a newspaper devoted to general news and politics, its politics being independent. Mr. Fischer has been proprietor and editor ever since its establishment. In 1888 he started an edition with the same name in Birmingham, Ala., with Professor Leon Landsberg, formerly professor in the Woolwine High School, in Nashville, as editor and business man- ager. Both editions are printed in Nashville.
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Will Allen's Journal was established February 1, 1890, by Will Allen Dromgoole, as a literary and society journal. In form it is a sixteen- page quarto, and in the first three months of its existence it attained to the large circulation of 5,000 copies per week. The subscription price is $1.50 per annum. It contains one select story each week, and its contributors are some of the best writers in the country, among them be- ing James Whitcomb Riley, Will Wallace Harney, and Will N. Harben.
The Nashville Union was started May 17, 1885, and its publication continued two years and six months. Colonel A. S. Colyar was the proprietor and editor of the paper, which was both a daily and a weekly. For a short time Jere Baxter was part proprietor. The capital invested was $70,000. It was established as an absolutely independent Demo- cratic paper, reserving the right to criticize the party itself or any mem- ber thereof. Its success in the way of enlarging the subscription list and in securing advertising patronage was beyond the expectation of its projector, and it was just beginning to pay expenses when it was con- solidated with the American. It was largely read by intelligent men of all parties, but did not give entire satisfaction to all Democrats, because it advocated moderate protection to American industries, whereas most Democrats in Tennessee believe in free trade.
The first number of the Evening and Sunday-Morning Herald ap- peared January 1, 1889. It was established by an incorporated company of which D. B. Cooper was President; John C. Burch, Secretary and Treasurer; and the other members R. A. Halley, A. J. Grigsby, D. C. Asa, G. H. Armistead, and H. S. Cooper. It was published by the com- pany under the same management until April 1, 1890, when most of the stock was purchased by G. H. Armistead and John C. Burch. The Di- rectors remained the same as at first, except that D. B. and H. S. Cooper retired. At first the Herald was a six-column four-page paper, but on February 17, 1889, it was enlarged to a seven-column paper, the Sunday morning edition containing twelve pages instead of four. The Herald is an independent Democratic paper, devoted to the interests of the peo- ple.
The Weekly Toiler is the official organ of the Farmers and Laborers' Union. It was established May 21, 1886, at Fulton, Ky., in the inter- est of the Wheel and Alliance of that State by J. B. Whitney. In 1887 it was removed to Union City, Tenn., and in 1888 it was purchased by John H. McDowell and removed to Nashville. It is a five-column eight page publication, and is devoted exclusively to the object named.
Before the war there was a class of editors who were at the same time political leaders, a class which since that conflict has been much reduced
Apri Barton. Phil™
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in size. In fact, at the present time there is probably not more than one such editor in the Southern States-viz., Henri Watterson, of the Louis- ville Courier-Fournal. In the olden time there were four such editors in Nashville-Jeremiah George Harris and Elbridge Gerry Eastman, Democrats, and Allen A. Hall and Felix K. Zollicoffer, Whigs. On account of their prominence and peculiar influence a brief sketch of each of three of them is introduced in this chaper on the "Press," through which their influence was mainly exerted. A full biographical sketch of E. G. Eastman appears in the last chapter.
Jeremiah George Harris was born at Croton, New London County, Conn., October 30, 1809. He is a descendant of two old English fam- ilies-the Harrises and Averys, who came to this country about 1630. The Harrises and Averys intermarried and were both connected with the Winthrops, but it would evidently be inappropriate to enter into family history in a sketch of this kind. Mr. Harris entered the field of journalism as soon as he became of age, as associate editor of the Polit- ical Observer at New London. He was afterward editor of the New Bedford Daily Gazette, and still later of the Bay State Democrat. He then became associate editor of the Boston Post. Through the influence mainly of James K. Polk he was induced to leave his native shores and a lucrative salary for Tennessee, and reached Nashville in January, 1839. In February the Nashville Union, hitherto a small weekly paper, was en- larged, furnished with new presses and type, and made a tri-weekly. The Union under the editorial control of young Harris reflected the political opinions and views of Andrew Jackson, as it had all along been the de- sign that it should, and indeed Mr. Harris came to Tennessee for the purpose of rescuing the State from the apparently otherwise permanent grasp of the Whigs. Mr. Harris at the head of the Nashville Union in connection with James K. Polk, who was a candidate for Governor, or- ganized the Democratic party more thoroughly than it had ever been or- ganized. The immediate result in Tennessee was that the majority of 19,873 received by Newton Cannon in 1837 over - - Armstrong was changed in 1839 to a majority of 2,566 for Mr. Polk for Governor over Newton Cannon. It was generally.conceded that no one had contributed more to bring about this result than Mr. Harris. The next year Mr. Harris issued the first campaign paper ever issued west of the Allegha- nies, named Advance Guard of the Democracy, and this occasioned the issue from the office of the Banner of the Spirit of ' 76, a Whig campaign paper. The spirit of '76 or some other spirit was so fierce in the cam- paign of 1840 that not all the influence of General Jackson, Mr. Harris, and all the other Democratic leaders and orators in Tennessee could pre-
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vent General William Henry Harrison from carrying the State. In 1843 Mr. Harris was sent abroad with a commission from Daniel Webster, Secretary of State, as a commercial agent of the United States, with special reference to the sale of American tobacco in Europe. On his re- turn in 1844 he resumed his editorial chair in the Union, James K. Polk having been nominated by the Democracy for the presidency. But not- withstanding all his efforts Tennessee gave her support to Henry Clay by a majority of 124 votes. In 1845 Mr. Harris accepted an appointment as a disbursing officer in the navy, and since that time has not participated in the political activities of the times. According to the laws regulating the retirement of old officers of the navy, he was placed on the retired list at the age of sixty-two and has since spent his winters in Nashville. and his summers on the sea-shore of his native New England.
Allen A. Hall came to Nashville as early as 1824 or 1825, and was a member of the firm of Hall & Fitzgerald, printers to the State. In 1826 they purchased the Nashville Republican and Tennessee Gazette of Mau- ry & Harris. In 1828 Hall & Fitzgerald began publishing a semi-week- ly paper, and Mr. Hall in December bought out Mr. Fitzgerald.
In May, 1829, he began publishing a weekly and tri-weekly, which he con- tinued until 1834, when he sold out to S. Nye. In August, 1837, Mr. Hall and Mr. Nye commenced the publication of the Republican Ban- ner, a daily paper. March 29, 1841, the firm of Hall & Nye was dis- solved, Mr. Hall having been appointed Charge d' Affaires to Venezuela, South America. Upon his return from this mission in 1845 he purchased an interest in the Nashville Whig, then recently started by C. C. Norvell and R. B. Mckenzie. Soon afterward he was called to Washington to edit the Republic, the organ of President Fillmore's administration, and became editor of the Republican Banner April 23, 1853, upon the with- drawal of Felix K. Zollicoffer. He remained in this position until 1857, when he retired. In 1859, when the Opposition was started, Mr. Hall be- came one of an executive committee to edit the paper, and did most of the editorial work. He had a special aptitude for this kind of work, and was one of the greatest newspaper editors that was known to Nashville previous to the war. In 1863 he was appointed by President Lincoln Minister to Bolivia, serving in that capacity until his death in 1868.
Felix Kirk Zollicoffer was of Swiss ancestry, but a native of Maury County, Tenn. He was born May 19, 1812; and was killed near Mill Springs, on the Cumberland River, in Kentucky, January 19, 1862. He received but a common school education ; then learned the printer's trade. He published a weekly paper at Paris, Tenn., for about a year. He sub- sequently worked in a printing-office at Knoxville, and then at Hunts-
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ville, Ala. About this time he began to write for the public journals. From Huntsville he removed to Columbia, Tenn., where he became editor of the Observer. During the Seminole War he served first as a private soldier, and later as a commissioned officer. In 1837 he returned to Co- lumbia, and again became connected with the Observer, which he edited in the campaign of 1840 in the interest of the Whig candidate for the presi- dency. On January 3, 1842, he assumed editorial control of the Repub- lican Banner, of Nashville, from which position he withdrew August II, 1843. In 1844 he was elected Comptroller of the State, resigning in 1849. In August of this year he was elected to the State Senate, and was chosen to Congress in 1853, serving three terms. In 1859 he be- came one of an executive committee chosen to edit the Opposition, a weekly campaign paper published in favor of the elevation of Colonel John Netherland in his contest with Governor Isham G. Harris for the governorship. In 1861 he was chosen to the Peace Congress, and during the same year became Brigadier-general in the service of the Confed- eracy.
CHAPTER XV.
EDUCATIONAL.
Educational History-Davidson Academy-Failure of Attempt to Remove It to Sumner Coun- ty-"Davidson College "-Cumberland College-Presidents Craighead, Priestley, and Linds- ley-Failure of the Legislature to Perform Its Duty-Adam Goodlett's Speech-Efforts to Build Up the College-Establishment of Other Colleges-Dr. Lindsley's Plan for the Uni- versity of Nashville-Newspaper Opinions as to Education-Medical Department of the University-Literary Department-Chancellors Lindsley, E. Kirby Smith, Eben S. Stearns, and William H. Payne-Normal College-Faculties-Nashville Female Academy-Dr. Berry and Wife-Boards of Trustees-Teachers-Attendance-Closing-Private Schools- Mrs. Ann Johnson-J. C. Fremont-Mr. and Mrs. Arnold-Robert Davis-A. Rogers-The Lightning Calculator-De St. Leger-Philip S. Fall-J. Thompson-Dr. Ring-South Nashville-Nashville-Edgefield-Nashville Medical College-Vanderbilt University-Fisk University-Central Tennessee College-Tennessee Industrial School-Nashville College for Young Ladies-St. Cecilia Academy -- St. Mary's Parochial School-St. Bernard's Acade- my-Ward's Seminary for Young Ladies-Goodman & Eastman's Business College-Jen- nings's Business College-Roger Williams University-Mrs. M. E. Clark's Select School- The University School-Nashville Shorthand Institute-Brennan's Select Male School- Belmont School-Public Schools.
T HE first institution of learning established by act of any legislative body for the town of Nashville was Davidson Academy. This was by the Legislature of North Carolina, in December, 1785. The act passed by the Legislature for its establishment was called "An Act for the Pro- motion of Learning in the County of Davidson," and it was passed on the last day of the session-December 29. This act appropriated two hundred and forty acres of land as an endowment for this institution, the land lying south of Broad Street, and immediately adjoining the plat of two hundred acres which during the previous year had been laid out for a town. By the charter of the institution Rev. Thomas B. Craighead, Hugh Williamson, Daniel Smith, William Polk, Anthony Bledsoe, Lard- ner Clarke, Ephraim McLean, Robert Hays, and James Robertson were appointed trustees, under the name and style of "The President and Trustees of Davidson Academy." They were authorized by this act to receive, by bequest, gift, or purchase, land, tenements, property, and money for the purposes of the academy. The act also provided that no lands, tenements, or hereditaments which might be vested in the trustees of the academy, for the sole use and behoof thereof, should be subject to any tax for ninety-nine years.
The first meeting of the Board of Trustees was held August 19, 1786. At this meeting Rev. Thomas B. Craighead was elected President; Dan- iel Smith, Secretary; and Ephraim McLean, Treasurer. The Board
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thus organized appointed a committee consisting of William Polk and Ephraim McLean, which committee, in connection with the town trust- ees, were required to run a dividing line between the two hundred and forty acres with which the academy had been endowed and the two hun- dred acres belonging to the town plat. The committee on the part of the academy were also required to make a plat of the lands belonging to the academy. This work was required to be completed by the first of the succeeding October.
Subscriptions were opened for donations of land, money, or provis- ions, for the support of the academy; and the tuition was fixed on the same day (September 25) at £4 per annum, in hard money, or other money of equivalent value. On the same day Spring Hill Meeting-house was selected as the place where the school should be taught. Spring Hill Meeting-house was Rev. Thomas B. Craighead's little church- building, situated six miles east of Nashville, in the suburbs of the town of Haysboro. The academy was kept in that little church about fifteen years-until a building was erected especially for its occupancy in Nashville, on what has since been known as " College Hill." Not long after the order mentioned above, fixing the rate of tuition at £4 per an- num, another order was adopted, raising the price to £5 per annum, in hard money or its equivalent, as in the former case. Most, if not all, of the lands belonging to the academy were rented out by Messrs. Mc- Lean and Hays, who were appointed a committee for that purpose. The cleared, arable lands were rented to Lardner Clarke for four years from December 1, 1787, at an annual rental of ten shillings per acre, one half to be paid in current money and the other half in corn. Mr. Clarke was re- quired to put all the cleared, arable land under fence, and was allowed one-half the cost of splitting the rails. Other portions of the land were rented to other parties. One of the projects for the support of the acade- my was the establishment of a ferry, for which a petition was made to the court, and was granted. This ferry-boat brought in an annual income of from $100 to $650 per year; but as it caused no small amount of trouble, it was ordered to be sold on November 8, 1791. The sale was not effect- ed, however, and on the 4th of March, 1794, the ferry was rented to Abram Boyd for five years, at $200 per annum. In 1802 Richard Boyd rented the ferry at $500 per year; but this appears to have been too high a rental, and in February, 1803, Mr. Boyd having failed to give proper security, the ferry was leased to General James Robertson for two years at $300 per annum. The ferry was at length sold in April, 1813, to- gether with the reserved land, for $7,005.25.
By an act of the Legislature, passed April 15, 1796, the Board of Trust-
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ees was enlarged by the addition of Thomas Johnson, William Fort, James Ford, Thomas Donald, Edward Douglass, Moses Fisk, Seth Lew- is, Joel Lewis, James Hoggat, and John Gordon. Thomas Hardeman, David Shelby, and Stephen Cantrell were appointed by this act a com- mittee to audit the accounts of the academy, and to make a report show- ing the state of its funds to the next General Assembly. This act also provided that the buildings of said academy should be erected on the most convenient situation on the hill immediately above Nashville, and near the road leading to Buckhannan's mill. Ten acres were reserved at this lo- cation from the sale of lots. This act also provided that if the trustees of the academy should refuse to account to the committee appointed thereby to audit its accounts, the committee should institute suits against them, and thus compel an accounting. But it does not appear that any trouble, of the kind supposed by the Legislature to be possible, occurred ; and the Board had already resolved to erect the buildings of the acade- my on the site selected therefor in the act itself. A contract was not entered into for the erection of the buildings, however, until some time later, General Jackson and General James Robertson having been ap- pointed, on the 15th of July, 1802, to superintend their erection. When the contract was let it was awarded to Charles Cabaniss for $10,890; and the dimensions of the building were to be 45x40 feet.
General Jackson became a trustee of this academy in 1791, and re- mained in that position until November 26, 1805, when he resigned, and Robert Whyte was appointed in his place. On May 31, 1805, General Robertson, General Smith, and Colonel Hays resigned their positions as trustees, having served continuously for nearly twenty years, and were succeeded by R. C. Foster, David McGavock, and Joseph Coleman. In 1804 Judge McNairy resigned, and Moses Fisk was appointed a trustee in his place.
There had been an attempt made in 1802 to remove the academy to Sumner County, but this attempt did not succeed, the matter having been left to the friends respectively of Nashville and Montpelier, the ques- tion to be decided by the size of the subscription lists in the two places. William P. Anderson solicited subscriptions in favor of Nashville, and Colonel Edward Douglass in favor of Montpelier. The result being in favor of Nashville, the academy was not moved. It was upon the favor- able termination of this contest that the trustees resolved upon the erec- tion of buildings, as related above.
It is interesting to note the prices at which the academy lands were sold in those early times. On the 28th and 29th of November, 1802, thirty- nine lots were sold at an aggregate price of $3,393. On the last of these
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two days it was ordered that lots of one acre be surveyed on Market, First, Second, and on the east side of Third Street; and all the land to the westward, into four-acre lots, leaving a street ( Broad ) between Nash- ville and the academy lands; and the sales were to commence on the second Friday (the 14th) of January, 1803.
Another step taken in 1803 with reference to a change in the academy is worthy of note. On October 25 of that year the Legislature passed an "Act to Amend an Act to Establish a College in Davidson County." This act was passed (as is stated in the preamble) upon application; but the names of the applicants are not given, either in the preamble to the act or in the proceedings of the Legislature. It may have been a portion of the Board of Trustees of the academy, but it can hardly have been a ma- jority of them; or, if it were, a portion of the petitioners changed their position the next year. It is evident, however, that the petitioners had in view the conversion of the academy into a college, for the preamble goes on to say that the application was to pass an act to appoint trustees for a college proposed to be built on the tract of land which the State of North Carolina granted to said institution, adjoining the town of Nash- ville, in the county of Davidson, and to incorporate them into a body pol- itic; " and, as it is to the interest of a free Government to encourage as much as possible the diffusion of useful learning; therefore,
" SECTION I. Be it enacted, That Rev. Thomas B. Craighead, James Robertson, Daniel Smith, Andrew Jackson, James Winchester, David Shelby, Robert Hays, Samuel P. Black, Joel Lewis, Henry Bradford, Moses Fisk, Joseph Hays, Morgan Brown, Abram Murry [Maury?], Thomas Stewart, Joseph Phillips, William Montgomery, and John Baker be and they are hereby constituted a body politic and corporate by the name of the ' Trustees of Davidson College,'."' etc.
Joseph Coleman, David McGavock, James Hennen, and Edward Douglass were appointed a committee, and were authorized to call upon the trustees, Secretary, and the Treasurer appointed by the State of North Carolina (for Davidson Academy) for the accounts they had kept, for the money they had on hand, etc., belonging to the said institution ; and if the trustees refused to furnish this information, the committee were authorized to instruct the Attorney-general to bring suit against them.
On January 19, 1804, the question came up before the trustees of Da- vidson Academy as to whether they would proceed to business under the late law of the State of Tennessee, entitled "An Act to Amend 'An Act to Establish "Davidson College," and Incorporate the Trustees there- of, in Davidson County.'" According to the minutes, which are quoted
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by Putnam (from whom this account of the action of the trustees with reference to organizing themselves as a college is mainly derived), the question " was carried unanimously, after mature deliberation, and tak- ing the opinion of counsel learned in the law, in the negative." Not long afterward Messrs. Craighead and Smith were appointed a committee to memorialize the Legislature, setting forth the ill effects of their late law, and its illegality, as the trustees were advised. The Legislature there- fore repealed the law on March 4, 1804; and " Davidson Academy " thus escaped becoming "Davidson College." *
The next legislation which it is necessary to outline is that effected by the Congress of the United States on April 18, 1806. The act passed on that day was entitled "An Act to Authorize the State of Tennessee to Is- sue Grants and Perfect Titles to Certain Lands, and to Settle the Claims to Vacant and Unappropriated Lands within the State." Section 2 of that act, so far as it related to institutions of learning, was as follows:
" Secondly, that the State of Tennessee shall appropriate one hundred thousand acres of land, which shall be located in one entire tract, within the limits of the lands reserved to the Cherokee Indians by an act of the State of North Carolina, passed in the year 1783, entitled, "An Act for Opening the Land Office, for the Redemption of Specie and Other Cer- tificates, and for Discharging the Arrears Due to the Army; " and shall be for the use of two colleges-one in East and one in West Tennessee- to be established by the Legislature thereof. And one hundred thou- sand acres in one tract within the limits last aforesaid, for the use of academies-one in each county of the State-to be established by the Legislature thereof; which said several tracts shall be located on lands to which the Indian title has been extinguished, and subject to be disposed of by the Legislature of the State, but shall not be granted or sold for less than $2 per acre; and the proceeds of the lands aforesaid shall be
* Putnam, in his " History of Middle Tennessee," on page 235, says: " His name [Rev. Thom- as B. Craighead's] is placed at the head of the list in the act to establish 'Davidson Academy.' Under him it was begun, and he served as President for two years and three months after the change of name to ' Davidson College.'" It appears, however, on close examination of the his- tory of the institution, that the change in name was not effected. There was the intention to change, but it was not carried out. Phelan falls into the same mistake. On page 234 of his " History of Tennessee " he says: "In 1803 the General Assembly appointed Rev. Thomas B. Craighead, James Robertson, Daniel Smith, Andrew Jackson, and others trustees of a college " proposed' to be built on this tract of land, to be called ' Davidson College.' Craighead was appointed President." And on page 235 he says : " In West Tennessee Davidson College was consolidated with the one [of the two for the State] about to be established; and Cumberland College was the result." But the text shows that it was Davidson Academy that was consoli- dated with (or rather succeeded by) the college for West Tennessee, not Davidson College, for there never was any Davidson College.
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vested in funds for the respective uses aforesaid forever. Moreover, the State of Tennessee shall, in issuing grants or perfecting titles, locate six hundred and forty acres to every six miles square in the territory hereby ceded (where existing claims will allow the same), which shall be appropriated for the use of schools for the instruction of children for- ever," etc.
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