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CATALOGUE OF ALUMNI
WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY
1749-1888
Ref433.15 Educ 47970.415
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CATALOGUE
OF THE
OFFICERS AND ALUMNI
Washington and Lee University, OF
LEXINGTON, VIRGINIA, -det.
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1749-1888.
Published by Order of the Board of Trustees.
€ BALTIMORE: JOHN MURPHY & CO. 1888.
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PREFACE.
This Catalogue has been prepared and is now published under the authority of the Board of Trustees.
From 1834 to the present time the list of names given is believed to be complete, the matriculation books of the College and University for that period having been preserved. For the time previous to 1834 the records and register of students are defective. Parts have been muti- lated, some books have been lost, and at times the records were imper- fectly kept. The names of the alumni antecedent to 1834 have been obtained from the fragmentary record books; from the recollection of surviving alumni ; from contemporaneous history and biography, and from family records and well established tradition. Catalogues of the Alumni were published in 1849 and 1869 which have of course fur- nished much valuable information.
The list is necessarily incomplete, however, and the alumni and other friends of the University are earnestly requested to aid in the work of restoring lost names, and in otherwise perfecting as far as pos- sible this Record, with reference to a revision at an early day. The plan is to give the name of every man that has been a student at the Institution-his different places of residence-his occupation or pro- fession-the public positions held by him-and, if not living, the date of his death. Communications conveying such information may be addressed to JOHN L. CAMPBELL, Esq., Treasurer of Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia.
The compilation of this Catalogue has entailed a very large amount of labor and research, and a very extensive correspondence. Much of this work has been done by John L. Campbell, Esq., Treasurer, and Jacob Fuller, Esq., Librarian of the University. Other friends have assisted materially in the work. But the whole has been under the supervision and direction of the HON. WILLIAM MCLAUGHLIN of the Board of Trustees, and it is but just to say that to the unsparing and enthusiastic labors and the untiring energy of this gentleman is due this very full, accurate and valuable record of the sons of our Alma Mater.
April, 1888.
COMMITTEE.
·
3
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
PREFACE
3
HISTORICAL SKETCH. 7
INVESTED FUNDS
29
Unproductive Endowment
32
Comparative Statement, 1865-88
33
AUGUSTA ACADEMY AND LIBERTY HALL
34
WASHINGTON COLLEGE AND WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY
36
Corporation
36
Faculty
40
REGISTER OF ALUMNI. 47
LAW SCHOOL
203
ALUMNI OF LAW SCHOOL. 203
ROLL OF HONORARY DEGREES CONFERRED 212 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION. 215
LOCAL ALUMNI ASSOCIATIONS
215
INDEX OF NAMES.
220
5
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
The germ of Washington and Lee University was a Mathematical and Classical School, called THE AUGUSTA ACADEMY, established in 1749, by ROBERT ALEXANDER, and first located two miles southwest of the site of Greenville, in Augusta, and near the interlacings of the head springs of the Shenandoah on the east- ward, and of the James River on the westward. "It was the first Classical School in the Valley of Virginia," and was continued by an uninterrupted succession of principals and assistant instructors, on successive sites, increasing in usefulness and influence, until it gradually developed into WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY.
. ROBERT ALEXANDER was a Master of Arts of Trinity Col- lege, Dublin University. He was of the "Scotch-Irish " immi- gration which settled in the Valley of Virginia; he located in Augusta County, about 1743. Of his brothers, who came with him, Archibald Alexander was the grandfather of the venerated and lamented Archibald Alexander, D. D., President of Princeton Theological Seminary. In 1746, Robert Alexander was elected by the freeholders one of the "twelve most able and discreet men to act as the Vestry for Augusta Parish," and at the first meeting of the Vestry he was by it elected one of the two church wardens for the Parish, and was continued in the office by annual re- elections until 17th March, 1760, when he resigned, " because of a lingering sickness." His will, dated in 1783, was admitted to record by the Augusta Court, Nov. 18th, 1787.
As Principal of Augusta Academy, Mr. Alexander was suc- ceeded by REV. JOHN BROWN, D. D., his pastor, who was called to Providence and Timber-Ridge Churches, in 1753. During the administration of Mr. Brown, the Academy was successively re- moved a few miles westward, first to Old Providence, then to
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CATALOGUE OF ALUMNI.
New Providence Church, and "shortly before the Revolution " to Mt. Pleasant, near Fairfield, in (now) Rockbridge County, where in 1774 Mr. Wm. Graham became his assistant, and in 1776 succeeded him as Principal. Mr. Brown married in early life a daughter of John Preston, of Staunton, ancestor of the dis- tinguished families of that name. He died in Kentucky, in 1803, leaving there descendants who perpetuated his virtues and by their learning and talents promoted the interests of the country in State and National councils, on the judicial bench, and at foreign courts.
Under the auspices of WILLIAM GRAHAM,-whose history is already well known and cherished sacredly by every friend of Washington College,-the Academy continued with advancing fortunes. Incited by the patriotic spirit of the day, and on the first meeting after the battle of Lexington, the Trustees direct the record for the 6th of May, 1776, to be entitled "LIBERTY HALL-as this Academy is hereafter to be called instead of the Augusta Academy." At that meeting provision was made for the purchase of a library and scientific apparatus; for new and enlarged buildings ;- and a "new site " was selected and the dona- tion of 80 acres of land therefor accepted, near Old Timber-Ridge Church. It was removed to this location in 1777, but was again removed, in 1785, to near Lexington,-to where yet stand the picturesque stone ruins of Old Liberty Hall, burned in 1802,- and was removed finally, in 1803, to its present site within the limits of Lexington.
In October, 1771, the Presbytery of Hanover expressed upon its records their sense of "the great expediency of erecting a Seminary of learning somewhere within the bounds " of the Val- ley of Virginia; and having at subsequent sessions determined to carry out the proposition, in October, 1773, formally "agreed to fix the Publick Seminary for the liberal education of youth at Staunton, in Augusta." But before the session of October, 1774, having ascertained that "there is no person to take the manage- ment of it in the place first agreed upon-and it is very uncertain whether there ever will be," the Presbytery thereupon "judging it to be of great and immediate importance, agree to establish and to patronize the public school for the present, managed by Mr. '
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William Graham, under the inspection of the Rev. John Brown, and reserve to themselves the liberty at a future session, more particularly, to appoint the person by whom it shall be conducted and the place where it shall be fixed." And a committee of the body was appointed to "collect subscriptions in the several con- gregations for the purpose of obtaining a library and proper apparatus."
In April, 1775, the Presbytery resolved that " as guardians and . directors they take this opportunity to declare their resolution to do their best endeavor to establish (the Seminary,) on the most catholic plan that circumstances will permit of; and further, "finding that they cannot of themselves forward subscriptions in a particular manner, do, for the encouragement of the Academy, recommend it to the following gentlemen to take in subscriptions in their behalf : viz.
"The Rev. Mr. Cummings, Col. Wm. Preston and Col. Wm. Christian, in Fincastle (County ;) Col. Lewis, Col. Fleming and Mr. Lockart, in Botetourt ; on South side of James River, Capt. John Bowyer, Capt. Wm. McKee, Capt. Audley Paul, Capt. John Maxwell and Mr. James Trimble; in the forks of James River, Mr. Saml. Lyle and Capt. Saml. McDowell ; in Timber-Ridge, the Rev. Mr. John Brown, Mr. James Wilson and Mr. Charles Camp- bell, of Providence ; Mr. William McPheeters, Mr. Wm. Ledger- wood and Mr. John Trimble, in the North Mountain and Brown's Settlement; Mr. Thomas Stuart, and Mr. Walter Davis, at the Tinkling Spring; Mr. Sampson Matthews, of Staunton ; Capt. George Matthews, Capt. George Moffett and Mr. James Allen, in Augusta Congregation ; (Revs.) Mr. Brown, Mr. Irvin and Mr. Wallace, are to give the above named gentlemen notice of their appointment and to solicit their favour."
At the session in May, 1776, Mr. Graham reported his purchases of books and philosophical apparatus, out of a sum of about £300, which had been paid in for this purpose on the subscriptions here- tofore made. Also that for erecting new buildings on the "new site" at Timber-Ridge, Mr. Samuel Houston and Capt. Alexander Stuart had donated each forty acres of land; and the neighbors had agreed to build a hewed log-house, twenty-eight by twenty- four feet, one story and a half high, " besides their subscriptions, 2
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and assuring of the probability that firewood and timber for build- ing will be furnished gratis for at least twenty years." The Pres- bytery approved the report, and appointed a Board of Trustees for the Academy ..
At the close of the war, in 1782, some other appointments were made to supply vacancies. From the records this appears to have been the last official act of the Presbytery, in connection with the Institution. From that time forth the Trustees conducted its management, and at the first meeting of the Legislature, in 1782, they were incorporated as its sole legal guardians.
The charter granted in 1782, incorporated, substantially, the same Board of twenty persons who had acted as the Board of Trustees before and during the Revolutionary war; it conferred the legal right to manage the property and to bestow literary degrees ; it exempted professors and students from military duty, and accorded, in short, all the usual attributes of a College. After its endowment by General Washington, special acts were passed, bestowing upon the Institution his immortal name; but the original charter remained otherwise unaltered.
As an incident in the history of the College it appears, that shortly after the donation was made by Washington, and which this Board had been so zealous to secure, the Legislature, from what suggestion is unknown, but of its own motion, and without the assent of the Board of Trustees, in 1796, passed an act mak- ing changes in the personnel of the Board, and giving to the in- stitution the name of " The College of Washington in Virginia." "The Trustees appointed by this Act were: The Governor of the Commonwealth for the time being, Andrew Moore, James McDowell, Andrew Reid, John Caruthers, of Rockbridge ; Archi- bald Stuart, Alexander St. Clair, John Coalter, of Augusta ; John White, of Bath ; John Stuart, William H. Cavendish, of Green- brier ; James Breckinridge, Robert Harvie, Henry Bowyer, Thos. Madison, William Willson, James Risque, of Botetourt ; Christo- pher Clark, of Bedford ; Nicholas Cabell and William Cabell, Jr., of Amherst."
In the jealous sense of principle prevailing at that day, this action of the Legislature was indignantly repudiated and resented
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CATALOGUE OF ALUMNI.
by the Board, who adopted a resolution, January 31st, 1797, " unanimously declaring it as their opinion that the same is an unjustifiable infringement of the rights of this corporation and an instance of tyrannical imposition in the Legislature; and as it does not repeal the charter of 1782, therefore it is resolved to persevere as they have hitherto done. Because the law is not only unjust in its nature, but dangerous in its tendency ;. the same principle if admitted in one case may be extended to every such corporation throughout the State; their charter may be violated, and their estates, in whatever way acquired, may be wantonly sported with, just as caprice or folly may dictate. The property of Liberty Hall having been committed to us in trust, we consider ourselves responsible for the use of the same and culpable if we suffer it tamely to be taken from us."
The obnoxious act was, accordingly, at the next session repealed.
The course of study was the same as that pursued at Princeton, while Mr. Graham was there as a student. The manuscript lec- .tures of the President of Princeton were copied and used for a text book in the same branches by the students at the Academy. Degrees were conferred from time to time as a student completed his course. The first formal " commencement " of which the curt records of the Academy make mention, was held on the 14th Sep- tember, 1785, when a class of twelve graduates took the degree of Bachelor of Arts.
The Synod of Virginia, at its session in 1791, proposed to establish a "Theological Seminary, to be located in Rockbridge, with Mr. William Graham as its President." The Trustees of the Academy thereupon proposed in lieu thereof "a coalition between the Academy and the proposed Seminary," and after negotiations and discussions by the Board, at its sessions August, 1792, and June, 1793, an arrangement was effected by which " Divinity as a branch of Science, taken in connection with the Science of Human Nature-should to be taught in Liberty Hall," and that a committee of the Presbytery should attend the exami- nations ; and, in return, the synod of Virginia should " patronize and cherish the Academy."
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CATALOGUE OF ALUMNI.
Mr. Graham, on the 25th September, 1796, resigned his posi- tion, finally, in Liberty Hall : and no farther notice appears on the records of the " coalition " or of the chair of Divinity. It proba- bly ceased with his resignation. It was not long afterwards that the lamented death of Mr. Graham occurred : the institution to which he so self-sacrificingly devoted the best years of a life time, survives with an ever-renewing strength, and remains an enduring monument to his blessed memory.
It is not an insignificant coincidence in the mutations of human affairs, that William Graham, the pillar and stay of Washington College in its early days, had for his classmate and most special friend at Princeton, in 1773, Harry Lee, the protegé of Washing- ton,-its munificent benefactor,-the father of Robert E. Lee, its late President, under whom was so auspiciously advanced the work so wisely inaugurated by Graham and Washington, and the patriots of the past.
In 1803, the Board proceeded to create a Professorship of Law, and elected to the chair Hon. Paul Carrington, Judge of the Supreme Court of Virginia. The records of the Board about this period are very imperfect ;- it being the date of the destruction of the stone buildings by fire. The letter of Judge Carrington, accepting the appointment as Law Professor, appears on the records of May 1st, 1804. But, subsequently, until 1809, the records are mostly missing, and no positive information is afforded farther concerning the proposed Professorship of Law.
The Augusta Academy was long sustained without any perma- nent endowment, by tuition fees alone and casual assistance in building and temporary supplies. After 1774, and during the " patronage " of Hanover Presbytery, it received annual contribu- tions from the people, beyond its current support, until it accumu- lated a library and philosophical apparatus,-costing in cash some £300-together with buildings and furniture estimated by the Trustees, in 1795, at not less than £2,000 in value, and ample lands for its purposes. .
The liberality which accumulated this seemingly small sum, may be better appreciated when it is considered that it was con-
13
CATALOGUE OF ALUMNI.
tributed out of the scanty funds of a people who had in their own generation fled from a relentless persecution which impoverished them to the last degree before they left their homes beyond the ocean ;- that they were settlers in an uncultivated wilderness, with- out facilities for labor or commerce ;- that they and their children had for twenty years been engaged in an unceasing warfare around their rude homes with ruthless savages; and had just emerged from the desolating eight years' war of the revolution-leaving them with no money currency of any value, and destitute of the comforts of daily life.
Shortly after the close of the Revolution, the Legislature of Virginia, in token of esteem and admiration for the virtues and services of Gen. Washington, donated him one hundred shares of stock in the old James River Company. But in pursuance of his purpose to accept no pecuniary compensation for his public services in the war, Gen. Washington consented to receive the donation only on condition of being permitted to appropriate it to some public purpose "in the upper part of the State," such as "the , education of the children of the poor, particularly of such as have fallen in defence of the country."
On the 5th of January, 1796, " The Rector informed the Board (of Trustees,) that he called them together to consider information he had received of the Legislature having resolved there shall be a public Seminary in the upper part of this State, and that the President of the United States was about to bestow his hundred shares in the James River Company to aid in endowing this same."
The Board thereupon "agreed to address the President in such a manner as might give him a true view of the state of this Academy, and of the propriety of the donation being conferred upon it." The address, prepared by Mr. Graham, was adopted by the Board (Vol. I. of Records, p. 144), and includes the following facts in the history of the school :
"From a conviction of the necessity and utility of a public Seminary to complete the education of the youth in this upper part of the State; as early as the year 1776, a Seminary-before conducted in these parts under the form of a Grammar school- received the nominal title of an Academy, and money was collected to purchase the beginnings of a library and some of the most essential parts of a philosophical and mathematical apparatus.
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CATALOGUE OF ALUMNI.
"The question then was,-where should the Seminary be fixed ? Staunton was proposed by some to be the proper place, as the most ancient and populous town, and nearest the centre of population in the upper part of the State as it then stood. But considering that a Public Seminary, which was to be of permanent duration and general utility, ought not to be affected by local circumstances arising from temporary causes; and viewing the extensive lands upon the drains of Holston to the southwest, and of the Kanawha to the west, we were of opinion that the time was not very far distant when the population upon these lands must equal, if not exceed, the population upon the drains of the Potomac to the north- east, upon one of which drains Staunton stands. We therefore con- sidered the waters of the James River, as forming a kind of natural and common centre. We also felt a conviction that the extensive and fertile lands upon James River would, at a period not far remote, point out the necessity and practicability of rendering its streams navigable above the mountains, and we have been happy in seeing our expectations realizing every day.
" We therefore concluded, that some spot in the tract of country now known as Rockbridge County would be the proper place. We organized the Seminary and set it in motion, hoping that the public would one day aid our exertions, and enable us to perfect what had been honestly begun.
" Through the calamities of a long and dangerous war, and the deceptions of a paper currency, together with other misfortunes, great obstructions were experienced, but being happy in able and diligent teachers, we were enabled to preserve the Academy in a state of considerable reputation and usefulness until the year 1782, when we were aided by an act of incorporation from the Legislature of Virginia, which was the first granted after the Revolution.
* * *
" If our information of the state of the dispute respecting the place, as it existed before the Legislature, be accurate, it went a great way to determine the propriety of our original opinion. It is said that Fincastle on the one side, and Staunton on the other, were the extremes which made any vigorous claims. Fincastle is situated thirty-seven miles southwest from Liberty Hall, and Staunton thirty-five miles to the northeast. Therefore, Liberty Hall is as near the centre as local situation would admit.
*
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CATALOGUE OF ALUMNI.
"In 1793, by voluntary contributions and some sacrifices of private property, we were enabled to erect and finish plain but neat buildings sufficiently capacious to accommodate between forty and fifty students, and the business of education is now in full train and the Seminary in as high reputation as could be expected without funds. Many young gentlemen have finished their edu- cation here, who are now serving their country with reputation and usefulness in different professional departments, and a num- ber are now collected from different parts of the country for the same end."
In September, following, Gen. Washington in a communication on the subject to Governor Brooke, says : " After careful inquiries to ascertain that place. (in the upper country), I have upon the fullest consideration of all circumstances destined the hundred shares in the James River Company to the use of Liberty Hall Academy, in Rockbridge County."
To the Board of Trustees in response to their letter of thanks, he writes : "To promote literature in this rising empire, and to · encourage the arts, have ever been amongst the warmest wishes of my heart; and if the donation which the generosity of the Legislature of the Commonwealth has enabled me to bestow upon Liberty Hall-now by your politeness called Washington Academy-is likely to prove a means to accomplish these ends, it . will contribute to the gratification of my desires."
By solemn compact on the part of the Legislature of Virginia, in consideration of "retiring" this stock of the "old" James River Company, the Treasury of the Commonwealth is to pay to Washington College six per cent. interest on the sum of fifty thousand dollars, annually forever.
The "Cincinnati Society," composed of the surviving officers of the Revolutionary war,-organized to perpetuate kindly acquaint- ance among themselves, and to accumulate a fund for the relief of the indigent families of their soldiers,-decided in 1803 to dis- solve the association and distribute their funds to some benevolent purpose. The Trustees of this Institution thereupon appointed a committee to confer with the Society, and the result was that the Cincinnati Society, influenced, as they declared, by the example of Washington and by a desire to promote his patriotic purpose, ap- propriated the residue of their fund to Washington Academy.
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In honour of this endowment, amounting to near $25,000, the "CINCINNATI PROFESSORSHIP " was created, and an annual address by the first scholar of the graduating class is delivered in commemoration of the objects of the Cincinnati Society.
JOHN ROBINSON, a native of Ireland, a Trustee of the College, and a soldier under Washington, filled with love and veneration for his virtues and a laudable zeal to further promote the noble purpose of the Father of his Country, in 1826 bequeathed to Wash- ington College his whole estate. The College has made it available as an endowment, for $46,500. In honor of this bequest, the " Robinson Professorship of Chemistry and Geology " was founded. Recently the chair has been divided, and "Geology and Biology " has been placed on this foundation.
At the outbreak of the Civil War most of the students were organized into a military company, called "The Liberty Hall Volunteers," and entered the Confederate service in June, 1861, under the command of Captain James J. White, one of the Pro- fessors of the College. The Company was assigned to the 4th Virginia Regiment in the Stonewall Brigade and was successively commanded by Captains Henry Ruffner Morrison, Hugh A. White and Givens B. Strickler. It participated in all the battles of the Army of Northern Virginia, winning distinction on every field and sharing in all the glories of that splendid army.
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