M N Gazette of the College of William & Mary in Virginia Volume Iii Williamsburg, Virginia, Saturday, Feb
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M N GAZETTE OF THE COLLEGE OF WILLIAM & MARY IN VIRGINIA VOLUME III WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA, SATURDAY, FEB. 29, 1936 NUMBER 7 W.&M/s Influence on Kentucky and Tenn. MEMBERSHIP CAMPAIGN FIRST BISHOP OF NORTH CAROLINA The campaign for new members ARTICLE BY F. H. ALFRIEND, ALUMNUS OF 1860 for the Association is still going The first Kentuckian entered as a student at William and Mary appar- on in some sections and therefore, WAS ALUMNUS OF WILLIAM AND MARY ently was Wm. T. Barry, a member of the class of 1803, and in later life the total results cannot be given Postmaster General of the United States. Another member of the same at this time. Entered Here in 1789 at 17 class was A. W. C. Logan, of Kentucky. Richard C. Anderson, of Kentucky, Norfolk, under Dr. G. Bentley H. L BRIDGES, '93, WRITES Years of Age to Study Law first minister to Colombia, South America (so the catalogue tells us) was Byrd, '10, president of the Club INTERESTING ACCOUNT OF Under the Celebrated Wythe. of the 1804 class, and he had as a classmate Winfield Scott, of Dinwiddie there, and W. G. Thompson, Jr., County, Virginia, in which the battle-scarred city of Petersburg is located. '27, chairman of a committee of STUDENT LIFE IN THE 90's NATIVE OF PRINCE GEORGE Dinwiddie County gets its name from a royal governor who presided over twenty-five alumni and alumnae that canvassed the Norfolk alumni, the destinies of Virginia from 1752 to 1758, and it was during his admin- Students Came in Buggies, Wag- Describes His Experiences at istration that Braddock's defeat occurred and Washington's fame as a soldier did a splendid job. About fifty William and Mary and Recom- memberships were secured by the gons, Canoes, Some Wearing dawned. This same Winfield Scott was destined to command Kentuckians Leather Boots, Knee High. mends Prison for Merchants on many stricken fields of Canada and Mexico in later years. committee. The campaign in Nor- Crediting Students. folk wound up on the 25th with The Crittendens were at Williamsburg in 1805-06, and for a term or two At the request of the editor of the a dance at the Norfolk Division William and Mary has her Roll of later. John J. Crittenden lived in the traditions of Williamsburg for fifty Alumni Gazette, Mr. H. L. Bridges, building, with more than one hun- Fame of alumni who have illumined years after he left college in 1807. He was of Welsh blood on his father's '93, Registrar of William and Mary dred in attendance. the pages of American history but side and of Huguenot maternal ancestry. The son of a revolutionary officer, from 1906 until 1934 when ill health she is also the mother of hundreds what more natural than that the Woodford County youth should seek mental forced him to abandon his duties, has of others whose fame in their chosen nurture at the fountain where revolutionary sages and patriots had grown written the following delightful ac- field was notable but is still unsung. in wisdom, and should take with him all the Kentucky boys he could induce FOURTEEN W.&M. ALUMNI count of life at William and Mary in It is the intention of the Alumni Ga- to accompany him to the classic shades of Williamsburg? The late Presi- the late '80's and early '90's. We zette, therefore, to carry short biog- dent Tyler, who had little reason to like General Scott, who joined the Whig IN THE VIRGINIA ASSEMBLY feel sure that it will be greatly en- raphies from time to time of these leaders in their assaults upon his administration, used to tell of the admira- joyed by the older alumni and that William and Mary furnished more alumni who made great impressions tion felt in Williamsburg for the high-spirited and talented Kentucky youths many of the younger generation will than her share of statesmen and law- in their day but whose names now who were his classmates, and whom Scott cultivated with poor success. The find it an interesting comparison with makers in the old days but her sons, lie among the forgotten. student life of today. acrid and haughty demeanor of the future General-in-chief of the armies of as in the days of yore, may be found The alumnus chosen for this first the Union had little genuine sympathy from the bonhomie of the rollicking today in the councils of the states sketch is John Starke Ravenscroft, youth of Eastern Virginia and their Kentucky cousins, who had come from and of the nation. When the General Assembly in 1888 D.D. their distant homes to be educated in the political faith and the humanities In the General Assembly of Vir- decided to establish a Normal Train- He was born near Blanford in which were conspicuous features of the training at William and Mary. ginia, now in session at Richmond, ing School at the College of William Prince George County in 1772. His; Jefferson and Monroe and the elder Tyler, the Harrisons for generations, are fourteen William and Mary alum- and Mary, friends of the college that father was Dr. John Ravenscroft and the Tylers and John Marshall, had gone through that wholesome curriculum ni. Leading the list is Ashton Dovell, had been in a state of suspended ani- his mother a Miss Miller, both de- to become the apostles of the Revolution. What better school for the youth '08, who has represented Williams- mation for seven years rejoiced that scended maternally from the prom- of succeeding generations? In the class of 1807 was J. Hawkins, of Ken- burg and vicinity in the House of the famous old institution would again inent Boilings family. His father was tucky, whom the catalogue mentions as successor to Henry Clay in Congress. Delegates for the past ten years. His enter upon a career of usefulness to a man of considerable wealth for that The catalogue is more specific as to Robert Wash, of Kentucky, who, in ability and popularity won for him the State and the Nation. The re- day and a practitioner of medicine. the class of 1808, graduated as bachelor of law, and became a judge in at this session the much coveted of- opening was set for the first Thurs- For some unaccountable reason, prob- Missouri. Did Kentucky fill up so rapidly with immigrants that young fice of Speaker of the House. day in October of the same year in ably the impending trouble between Wash had to imitate Daniel Boone and seek room in the western wilds? In the Senate we find the veteran, which assistance was voted. the Colonies and England, the father' A. E. Shumate, '99, representing Nathaniel Smith matriculated as a student in 1808 from Kentucky, and When the opening date arrived, one returned to England with his family ■ Wythe, Bland, Giles and Pulaski. He in 1809 John Croghan, of Kentucky, graduated as bachelor of arts, while hundred and two young men of Vir- when his son was only two months old is chairman of the house and senate ginia, distributed from the Eastern and took up his residence in the a fellow student and Kentuckian was Charles Todd, who, the catalogue says, committee on insurance and banking. was afterwards minister to Russia. Of special interest to Louisville and Shore to the counties beyond the South of Scotland. The father died' With him in the senate are Wm. M. mountains, responded to the first call. its neighborhood is the career of George Groghan, who, in 1810, took his when the son was eight years old and Tuck, '17, representing Halifax coun- Only Virginians attended this first diploma as bachelor of arts, and returned to his home near Louisville, crowned the mother saw to it in the years ' ty, and Major M. Hillard, represent- session. Two, one from Maryland and with college honors. The next year he was with Harrison at Tippecanoe that followed that the son received' ing Norfolk County and the cities of one from Ohio, helped to raise the and earned a captain's commission. At Fort Meigs, May 5, 1813, he was "a complete and thorough classical' South Norfolk and Portsmouth. student roll to 187 for the session be- aide-de-camp to Harrison, and there is little wonder that "Old Tippecanoe" education." In the House of Delegates, facing ginning in October 1889. should have chosen him for the desperate enterprise of holding Fort San- At tne age of 17, John Starke was' daily their fellow alumnus, Speaker dusky, so essential to the integrity of Harrison's communication. That de- Let us see these boys in 1888-90 sent back to Virginia to settle his ' Dovell, are John M. Britt, '19, South- fence of Fort Sandusky, located on the present site of the town of Freemont, in contrast with the students of to- father's estate. He landed in Virginia ' ampton; William H. Irvine, '24, Camp- in Ohio, is a thrilling story of valor and patriotism. A Kentucky youth, day. They came from the various dis- alone and unknown on January 1,' bell; Douglass S. Mitchell, '27, King born in 1791, graduating with high honor in 1810 at the alma mater of the tricts of the State, travelling in bug- 1789. The estate yielded consider-'' and Queen, Essex and Middlesex; statesmen of the pre-revolutionary period, is found in 1814, when just 23, gies, on horseback, in wagons, in ca- ably more than was expected and ' Frank P. Moncure, '07, Stafford and holding a position of vital consequence with 160 riflemen against a British noes on the nearby creeks and on the through a guardian this young man' Prince William; M.