Davidson College
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|||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 32101 068568573 DRI N C ETO N UNIVERSITY LIBRARY - º, - - - - -- 5 DAVIDSON COLLEGE Intimate FActs COMPILED BY CORNELIA REBEKAH SHAw Librarian ILLUSTRATED Fleming H. Revel 1 Press NEW YORK Copyright, 1923, by WILLIAM J. MARTIN THIs volume is AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED To THE SoNs of DAVIDson : FOREWORD THE story of the origin and growth of Davidson College, told for the first time in this volume, is typically American. The consecrated idealism of its founders, the bold experimenta tion of its manual-labor infancy, its long and losing battle with poverty and indifference, its rescue by an overruling Providence through the splendid munificence of Maxwell Chambers, the ac cumulating momentum of recent years, its present stability and far-reaching usefulness, its promise for the future—these con stitute a thrilling panorama of divine Providence and human heroism. Its unselfish builders rest from their multiplied la bors, but in endless and ever-increasing beneficence their works do follow them. Our world has learned some startling lessons since the new cen tury began its course. It knows now, as never before, that mere earthly learning, human art and science and inventive genius, the harnessing of nature's giant forces, the production of illimit able wealth and undreamed of luxuries, if these are untouched by religious love and self sacrifice, cannot develop or even pre serve our hard-won civilization; that no gifts are more fatal to human welfare than wealth and leisure without moral culture, liberty without self-control, and unlimited power without jus tice or mercy; that in this age of revolution and reconstruction Christian leadership is the one and only hope of imperiled and bewildered Christendom. No wonder, therefore, that the wise and far-seeing are every where rallying to the support of Christian institutions of learn ing, and that our Southern Presbyterians now realize, as never before, the immense debt they owe Davidson College, their most important and successful nursery of consecrated leadership. That Christian liberality may flow in a golden stream to its material support, that those who direct its affairs may be granted divine wisdom for their divine task, and that every pass ing year may broaden its usefulness and increase its power is the wish and earnest prayer of every heart that loves both God and man. HENRY LOUIS SMITH Lexington, Va., June 29th, 1923 CONTENTS CHAPter PAGE I THE SEED-Sowing . 11 II THE BEGINNING - - III STRENGTHENING THE STAKES . - - - - IV THE CIVIL WAR PERIOD AND DECADE Following . V THE PERIOD OF TRANSITION 145 VI THE PERIOD OF ExPANSION - 175 VII THE CURRICULUM AND MISCELLANEA 197 VIII STUDENT LIFE AND CAMPUS ACTIVITIES 237 IX DAVIDSON MEN IN THE WoRLD's WoRK . 264 APPENDIX . I Sources - - - - - - - - - - - 277 II FIRST CHARTER of DAVIDSON College, witH 278 AMENDMENTS - - - - - - III ORATORS BEFORE THE LITERARY SocIETIES . 282 285 IV Scholarsh IPs - - - - - - V SEVENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY PROGRAM . - - 289 VI CLASSICAL Schools GROUPED BY Counties, AND OTHER CHRONOLOGIES, ARRANGED BY A. J. MoR RISON . - - - - - - - - - 294 VII RANK of DAVIDSON MEN IN THE CIVIL WAR 297 VIII RANK OF DAVIDSON MEN IN THE EUROPEAN WAR . 300 IX OLD RULES - - - X College HYMNS . 301 XI ADDITIONAL TUTORS AND AssISTING PROFESSORS 303 XII ARTICLE FROM THE Southern Citizen, FEBRU ARY 18, 1837 304 INDEx . - - - 311 ILLUSTRATIONS Facing PAGE CHAMBERs BUILDING . Title MoRRISON State MENT 12 THE OLD CHAPEL 22 ROBERT HALL MoRRIson 24 THE Rows - 28 SAMUEL WILLIAMson - - - 50 PROGRAM, CoMMENCEMENT DAY, 1842 54 FoRM of REPORT, 1847 58 SCHOLARSHIP CERTIFICATE . 62 DRURY LACY . - - - 82 AN INVITATION OF THE FIFTIES 85 John LYCAN KIRKPATRICK . 98 GEORGE WIlson McPHAIL . 122 Club PROGRAM 128 John RENNIE BLAKE 136 ANDREw DousA HEPBURN 148 LUTHER McKINNON 160 John BUNYAN SHEARER 164 HENRY LOUIS SMITH 176 WILLIAM Joseph MARTIN 184 View of CAMPUs . 234 PHILANTHROPIC AND EUMENEAN SocIETY HALLs 248 DAVIDSON COLLEGE CHAPTER I THE SEED-SOWING THE story of the growth of education in North Carolina before the coming of the Scotch-Irish and of the Scotch Pres byterians during the first half of the eighteenth century, could be compressed into a few pages. This is true also of the social, political, and industrial advancement of the period. A part of this tide of immigration entering the ports of Charles ton, Wilmington, and Philadelphia, met in the center of the State, away from the tidewater and east of the mountains, in a territory comprising less than one-third of its area. Here they were joined by a stalwart German contingent coming in from 1750 to 1770, composed of public spirited men of fair education, thrifty and prosperous. The Scotch people who formed King James’ “Irish Plantation” in Ulster possessed much more colonizing energy than those who remained in the home country. From Ireland about two hundred thousand, or one-third of the Protestant population, came to America between 1725 and 1768, the exodus being due largely to trade restrictions, religious persecution and exorbitant rents. These frontiersmen possessed industrious habits, simple virtues, and a love of freedom which urged them forth into the foreign wilderness. They prized knowledge and religion beyond all price. They were thrifty to a degree that has made them a by-word, and their joy in the ownership of land was a natural outcome of generations of tenantry. The Highland-Scotch entering America by the Cape Fear ports were of almost pure Celtic blood, there being this marked racial as well as a geographical distinction between them and their fellow countrymen—the Saxons from the Lowlands—who had reached the colonies after a hundred or more years of resi dence in Ireland. They planted their homes in the territory now 1 2 Davidson College comprising the counties of Cumberland, Harnett, Moore, Mont gomery, Anson, Richmond and Robeson, while the Scotch-Irish settled in Alamance, Guilford, Orange, Rowan, Cabarrus, Ire dell, Lincoln and Gaston counties, the flood centering in Mecklen burg. These pioneers arrived at their journeys’ end in wagons which became homes to the families until the round pole cabins and mud chimneys could be built. - Between the Yadkin and the Catawba rivers settled the Alex anders, Grahams, Morrisons, McDowells, Osbornes, Irwins, Pharrs, Griers, Ramseys, Wilsons, Johnstons, Davidsons, Har rises, Caldwells, and many others who were invaluable to the State in its formative period. As soon as a group was settled preparations were made for religious services and when the log church was erected it became also a schoolhouse, a community center, and the foundation of the nation. A classical school was begun about 1760 in the bounds of Center congregation, near Belle Mont, where Alexander Osborne had settled a few years prior to that time. It was located in what is now Iredell County, two and a half miles north of the site later chosen for Davidson College, and bore the unclassical name of Crowfield Academy. It prospered until the British in vasion. Tradition says that this community and congregation furnished five captains and fifty-three soldiers to the patriot army. In the school men were prepared for the College of New Jersey, then known as Nassau Hall, the official title of which, since 1896, is Princeton University. Students came to it from all parts of the South and from the West Indies. One of its pupils, Rev. James McRee, born May 10, 1752, where Captain Reid Morrison now lives, entered the Junior class of Nassau Hall from Crowfield and returned to North Carolina to give his life to serving Steele Creek and Center Churches. From Center he received calls to pastorates in Philadelphia and Princeton, but he elected to remain with the people of his home section. Always an advocate of education, he devoted a large part of his latter years to the furtherance of schools and colleges. Other students of this little Crowfield Academy were Profes sor William Houston, of Nassau Hall, Colonel Adlai Osborne, a trustee of the State University, Dr. Ephraim Brevard, the beloved The Seed-Sowing 3 physician who framed the Mecklenburg Declaration of Indepen dence, Rev. Josiah Lewis, Rev. James Hall, who founded Clio’s Nursery, a school in the bounds of Bethany congregation, and Rev. Samuel Eusebius McCorkle, who for a long period con ducted Zion-Parnassus Academy. A school in Sugar Creek congregation, twenty miles south of Davidson was chartered in 1770 by the Provincial Legislature as Queen's Museum, with the rank of college, but carrying no en dowment from the province. It stood on the site of the present courthouse of Mecklenburg County. The charter was imme diately annulled by George III. despite the compliment to his wife. It was amended and granted anew by the Legislature of 1771 and promptly annulled by the King and his council. This time the charter was repealed by proclamation. An explanation of the King's antagonism is found in the Act incorporating academies in New Bern and Edenton, the only two schools au thorized by the province, previous to the Queen's Museum ap plication. Here it is stated that “no person shall be permitted to be master of said school but who is of the Established Church of England * * * and who shall be duly licensed by the Gov ernor or Commander-in-chief for the time being.” Queen's Museum lived, regardless of the royal displeasure, and its hall became the meeting place of political clubs and debating societies, proving that the King's fears were well founded. In the discussions held was fostered the Mecklenburg spirit which hastened the Revolution. In 1777 it was again incorporated by the Legislature and as a tribute to new conditions the name was changed to Liberty Hall. It received no funds from the State and no further patronage than the charter.