adopted.
"The Conference then proceeded to nominate the following Trustees, viz.:
Col. Thomas Williams, Major Alexander Speed, Rev. Dr. William Capers,
Rev. Wm. M. Kennedy, Rev. William M. Wightman, and Rev. William Holmes
Ellison.
"Teste: WILLIAM M. WIGHTMAN,
"_Secretary_.
"DARLINGTON, S. C., _January 30, 1832_."
The above nominees of the South Carolina Conference were elected members
of the Board.
George W. Jeffries, of North Carolina, was elected a trustee in place of
John Nuttall, deceased.
The Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church was invited
to unite and co-operate with the Board on the same terms and conditions
offered the Georgia Conference. An agent was appointed to visit these
Conferences in order to secure their co-operation. John Early was
appointed to visit them.
The Holston Conference was likewise invited to cooperate with the Board,
and Rev. William Hammett was appointed to visit that Conference.
The Finance Committee reported the receipts and expenditures to date, as
follows:
Receipts, . . . . . . $11,350 02
Expenditures,. . . . . 10,516 26
Balance on hand, . . . . $833 76
Appropriations for the first year (including salaries of agents of the
College, $300), $4,500.
A steward for the Boarding Hall was elected. The price of board of
students was fixed at six dollars per month at the Steward's Hall.
On motion of Rev. William Hammett, Rev. Stephen Olin, of Franklin
College, Georgia, was unanimously elected President of the College.
It was ordered that the College be opened for students on October 9,
1832.
Prof. Edward Dromgoole Sims, A. M., of LaGrange College, Alabama, was
elected Professor of Languages.
Dr. Olin and Prof. Sims subsequently accepted the positions to which
they were elected. Their letters of acceptance were as follows:
"_Rev. John Early_,
"DEAR SIR: I hereby announce to you, and through you to the Trustees of
Randolph-Macon College, that I accept the presidency of that
institution, as conferred upon me in July, 1832. I design to resign my
professorship in Franklin College as early as I can, consistently with
duty and propriety, and hope to be at Randolph-Macon at least as early
as the next commencement.
"Yours very respectfully,
"S. OLIN.
"ATHENS, GA., _January 9, 1833_."
"LAGRANGE, ALA., _August 7, 1832_.
"DEAR SIR: Your letter communicating the result of the late election of
officers for Randolph-Macon College was received eight or ten days ago.
"In relation to the Professorship of Languages, to which the Trustees
have done me the honor to invite me, I have to say: In a previous letter
to you on this subject entire freedom to accept or decline was reserved
by me until I could procure more satisfactory information from Brother
Paine concerning the prospects of the institution. At this time there
exists no objection in my mind, and accordingly I now make known to you,
with pleasure, my acceptance of the appointment, and desire you to
communicate the same to the Board of Trustees.
"Please accept for yourself and them my sincere regard and best wishes.
"With brotherly love, ED. D. SIMS.
"REV. JOHN EARLY"
The acceptance of Dr. Olin completed the Faculty, when it came, several
months after the College was opened. Rev. M. P. Parks, professor-elect,
acted as president until Dr. Olin entered on his duties. The first Board
of Instruction was as follows:
Rev. Stephen Olin, A. M., D. D. (Middlebury College, Vermont), President
and Professor of Moral Science.
Rev. Martin P. Parks, graduate West Point Academy, Professor of
Mathematics.
Landon C. Garland, A. M., Hampden-Sidney College, Virginia, Professor of
Natural Science.
Rev. Edward D. Sims, A. M., Chapel Hill (N. C. University), Professor
of Languages.
Rev. Lorenzo Lea, A. B., Chapel Hill (N. C. University), Principal of
Preparatory School.
It will be appropriate and interesting to give sketches at this point of
the men composing this first Faculty of the oldest Methodist College now
in existence in America by date of incorporation; not simply on that
account, but because they were mostly men of great ability, and made
their mark on the times in which they lived in a way and to an extent
that few others, if any, have ever done in the South.
Dr. Stephen Olin was a native of Vermont, as was Dr. Wilbur Fisk, who,
contemporaneously with him, was moving on a parallel line at the
Wesleyan University, in Connecticut. These names, Olin and Fisk, the
Church, and the alumni of the colleges they presided over will never let
die. Wherever the initials "S. O." and "W. F." are seen in any
catalogue, it will be readily understood that they respectively stand
for these names, and they are common now, over a half-century after the
principals ceased to live.
President Olin was a graduate of Middlebury College, Vermont. He took
the first honor in his class. From too much confinement and over-study
his health gave way. On this account he went to South Carolina, and took
charge of an academy at Cokesbury.
He was fortunate in casting his lot in a very religious community, whose
leading men, patrons of the academy, were pious Methodists. He had had
no acquaintance with Methodists. He was not only not a Christian, but he
had been much troubled in his religious belief, and was inclined to he
skeptical. His views were changed by reading Butler's _Analogy_ and
Paley's _Evidences_.
It was the rule and custom at the Cokesbury Academy to open the school
with the reading of the Scriptures and prayer. This requirement he had
to carry out. One day while engaged in prayer he was powerfully
convicted, and immediately sought pardon, and found peace in believing.
Very soon afterwards he felt called to preach, and entered the ministry,
and after a few years he joined the Conference, and was appointed to a
church in Charleston, S. C. His health, however, allowed him to remain
but a short time in the itinerancy. He accepted a professorship in
Franklin College, Athens, Ga., at which institution he remained till he
left to become President of Randolph-Macon College.
[Illustration: REV. STEPHEN OLIN, D. D., _First President of
Randolph-Macon College._]
Rev. Solomon Lea, who was associated with Dr. Olin during his presidency
at Randolph-Macon, gives the following points in regard to him:
"In his physique he had large frame and limbs, but was well
proportioned. He had dreamy eyes and sallow complexion, indicating deep
affliction. He never saw a well day, and yet he faithfully attended to
all his duties. I have heard it said that he thanked God for his
affliction. Like Paul he could glory in his affliction. He preached but
seldom on account of his health. I shall never forget his sermons. The
impression made by them seemed to follow me day and night for weeks and
months. His style and manner were peculiar, differing from any other man
I ever heard. His language was simple, pure English, free from
technicalities and pompous words. His manner rather labored, not from
loudness of voice, nor from gesticulation, but his profound thoughts
elaborated in his giant mind seemed to struggle for utterance. There was
no attempt at what is called eloquence. I have heard most of the great
preachers of the day, some of them yery great, but I never heard the
equal of Olin."
Rev. Leroy M. Lee, D. D., long a member of the Virginia Conference, and
editor of the Conference paper, said of Dr. Olin: "He was the only truly
great man I have ever seen of whom I do not feel constrained to say, on
analyzing his character,
"'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view.'"
Rev. W. M. Lewis, D. D., of Missouri, who spent several years of college
life under him, said of him: "He was of large and majestic form, a
physical and intellectual giant, a paragon of moral and religious
excellence, a perfect model of a Christian gentleman and scholar and
pulpit orator. In my opinion the church has never had a better or
greater man."
Rev. W. B. Rowzie, long connected with the College as Financial Agent
and also as Chaplain, said: "He was a genial companion. No one could he
in his society without feeling that he was in the company of one of the
first men of the age, and yet he was modest and unassuming, as if
unconscious of his greatness."
Dr. John E. Edwards, who visited the College frequently in its early
history, wrote: "Dr. Olin's personal appearance impressed me as no other
man ever impressed me. The Greeks would have deified him as a god."
W. F. Samford, LL. D., of Alabama, who graduated at Randolph-Macon
College in June, 1837, wrote: "Physically, intellectually and morally,
Stephen Olin was a giant--as veritable a one as Og, king of Bashan. He
might well rank with the 'mighty men who were of old, men of renown'
_facile princeps_ among all the great men I have ever known. The
etymology of this word, by which I have designated him, _gigas_, suggests
its appropriateness--a man of violence and terror. Without the
restraints of divine grace his passions were volcanic, his ambition
boundless. He once told me that before his conversion to Christianity he
'would have bartered a crown in heaven for a seat in Congress.' How
humble, how patient, how loving he became as a disciple of Christ!
'Great, humble man!' exclaimed Dr. Leroy Lee, of Virginia, when he met
him at the Conference in Lynchburg in 1835. Olin had disclosed his whole
heart to Lee in a rebuke which he administered to him for a display of
untempered zeal in a debate on the Conference floor--'What business have
you with any feelings in the matter? A man of God should be gentle and
easy to be entreated.'"
It may be thought that the estimates of Dr. Olin above given were
partial, and hence not fully reliable. It is proper, therefore, to give
the opinion of Rev. Theo. L. Cuyler, D. D., one of the most
distinguished ministers of the Presbyterian Church, and one of the best
writers of the present century. He speaks of him as President of
Wesleyan University, Connecticut, about ten years after he left
Randolph-Macon:
"In physical, mental, and spiritual stature combined, no Methodist in
the last generation towered above Dr. Stephen Olin. He was a great
writer, a great educator, and preeminently a great preacher of the
glorious gospel. During the summer of 1845, While I was a student for
the ministry, I spent some time at Middletown, Conn. Dr. Olin was then
the President of the Wesleyan University, and was at the height of his
fame and usefulness. Like all great men, he was very simple and
unassuming in his manners; with his grand, logical head was coupled a
warm, loving heart. When his emotional nature was once kindled it was
like a Pennsylvania anthracite coal-mine on fire. These qualities of
argumentative power and intense spiritual zeal combined made him a
tremendous preacher. No one doubted that Stephen Olin had the baptism of
the Holy Spirit.
"In physical stature he was a king of men; above six feet in height, he
had a broad, gigantic frame and a lofty brow that resembled the brow of
Daniel Webster. The congregation of the principal Methodist Church in
Middletown always knew when Dr. Olin was going to preach; for the astral
lamps were moved off the pulpit to prevent their being smashed by the
sweep of his long arms. He was a vehement speaker, and threw his whole
man, from head to foot, into the tide of his impassioned oratory. In the
blending of logical power with heat of spiritual feeling and vigor of
declamation, he was unsurpassed by any American preacher of his time.
His printed discourses read well, but they lack the electricity of the
moment and the man. Thunder and lightning must be heard and seen: they
cannot be transferred to paper. As I recall Olin now (after the lapse of
five and forty years); as I see him again in the full flow of his
majestic eloquence, or when surrounded by his students in the
class-room, I do not wonder that the Middletown boys were ready to pit
him against any president or any preacher on the American soil. There
are old graduates of the University yet living who delight to think of
him and to speak of him, and to assert that
"'Whoso had beheld him then.
Had felt an awe and admiration without dread;
And might have said,
That sure he seemed to be the king of men.
Less than the greatest that he could not be
Who carried in his port such might and majesty.'
"In August, 1851, I paid a visit to Professor Smith, whose wife was my
kinswoman, and on my arrival I learned that the President of the
University was dangerously ill. The next morning my host startled me
with the announcement, 'Dr. Olin is dead!' He had fallen at the age of
fifty-four, when he was just in his splendid prime. There was great
mourning for him throughout the whole Methodist realm, for he was a
prince in their Israel, who held an imperial rank above any of his
contemporaries. He took a large life with him when he went home to
heaven; and valuable as were his writings, yet his imposing personality
was greater than any of his published productions."
Rev. Martin P. Parks, Professor of Mathematics, acted as President of
the College from its opening session, in October, 1832, until Dr. Olin
took the place, March, 1834. He was a minister in North Carolina when
elected professor. He had been educated at the United States Military
Academy at West Point, New York, where mathematics was taught more
thoroughly than at other schools of that day. He was a brilliant
preacher, and on that account he was put forward frequently, like his
contemporaries, Hammett and Maffitt, to advance the enterprises of the
church. Of his administration of the College not much can be said. His
military education had much to do with making the laws exacting and
minute. Rev. Solomon Lea (quoted above) said of Professor Parks:
"Professor Parks was a great and good man, a fine preacher, was of a
sad, morose temperament, arising, no doubt, mainly from his physical
condition, as he was a great dyspeptic, and the most nervous person I
ever met. He could not bear the crowing of a rooster or the bleating of
a calf; this, together with other considerations, had the tendency to
make him suspicious, cold, and envious, so much so that Dr. Olin
remarked to me that he had to go often once a month to Parks' house,
read a portion of the Bible, and then pray together, and part with
expressions of mutual love and kind feelings. This was often done by Dr.
Olin. Poor Brother Parks, great and good man as he was (for I never
doubted his piety), finally yielded so much to his temperament and
jealous feelings as to resign his position, withdrew from the Methodist
Church, and joined the Episcopalians."
Professor Landon Cabell Garland, first professor of Natural Philosophy,
Chemistry and Geology, was a native of Nelson county, Va., of which his
father was the clerk. He was born March 24, 1810. At the age of nineteen
he took his degree of A. B. at Hampden-Sidney College, Virginia.
Immediately afterward he was elected to the chair of Chemistry at
Washington College, Lexington, Va., where he continued till October,
1832, when he took charge of the same chair at Randolph-Macon. Bishop
Fitzgerald, in _Eminent Methodists_, says of him: "His change from
Washington College to Randolph-Macon was characteristic of Dr. Garland.
There was more money in the one place, but more usefulness in the other.
He was a Methodist, and he felt that Methodism had a paramount claim to
his services." This was indicated clearly in his letter of acceptance of
the place. Few men ever filled chairs at two colleges at an age just
past twenty-one. This will indicate what estimate was placed on him at
so early an age, and what was proven in this case to have been fully
correct, by his long service of sixty-five years as an educator. Nothing
but a most natural and remarkable modesty prevented him from becoming as
conspicuous as he was well entitled to be, unless it was that he spent
his long life in the South, the Nazareth of the nation, out of which few
"prophets can come," if we judge by _The Cyclopedia of Biography_, which
side-tracks such men as Garland and Duncan, whose names will shine
"forever and ever" when thousands of those given in full, with
portraits, shall have been forgotten, as if they never had lived.
If a man could be too modest and retiring Dr. Garland was such a man.
Notwithstanding this, he lived to become President of Randolph-Macon
College from 1836, after Dr. Olin left, till 1847, then Professor and
President of the University of Alabama, Professor in the University of
Mississippi, and finally Chancellor of the Vanderbilt University at
Nashville, Tenn. In all these high places he influenced for good
hundreds of young men whose praise is in all the churches and homes of
the land. When he died, in 1895, these multiplied hundreds rose up and
"called him blessed." If Virginia ever gave birth to a man who did more
real service to the manhood of the South, his name and place would be
hard to find.
Prof. Edward Dromgoole Sims was born in Brunswick county, Va., March 24,
1805. He was the grandson of Rev. Edward Dromgoole, one of the pioneer
Methodist preachers in the State of Virginia, and one of the trustees
appointed by Bishop Asbury for Ebenezer Academy, before referred to as
the first Methodist school of its kind in the State.* He was a man of
talents and great influence, and a member of the original Virginia
Conference. One of his sons, George C. Dromgoole, was a member of
Congress for many years, and was probably the most talented and
influential member of the Virginia delegation in his day.
* This school was established in 1796, instead of 1786, as the
Records of Brunswick County, recently found, show.
Prof. Sims took his A. B. degree at the University of North Carolina in
1824, and his A. M. degree in 1827, and was a tutor at that University
for three years. He was a Professor at LaGrange College, Alabama, at the
time he was elected Professor at Randolph-Macon. Like Dr. Olin his
personal appearance was very marked. He was a man of great dignity and
gentlemanly manner, and a most devoted Christian. Though not endowed by
nature with the mental power of others of his associates, he
nevertheless, by industrious application, became a fine scholar and a
model professor. He was the originator of the "English Course" in
colleges, of which more will be said further on. His department embraced
the "Ancient Languages."
The Preparatory Department was under the control of Rev. Lorenzo Lea, an
A. M. of the University of North Carolina, and a native of North
Carolina. His contemporaries spoke well of him as a man of fine
accomplishments and skill as a teacher. He also had been a tutor at his
_Alma Mater_.
Thus equipped, Randolph-Macon College entered on its career--a career
full of unforeseen trials and difficulties. It was to a great extent a
new experiment, and the great need of the College, without which few, if
any, have ever lived beyond a sickly existence, that is, a proper
endowment, was a _desideratum_ unprovided for at this time. The funds
on hand and subscriptions did not suffice to supply the buildings
necessary and other outfit. Other colleges of the Methodist Church in
distant States had entered on the same course. They had gone down or
were soon to go down. This one now to be launched, under the good
providence and blessing of God, was to survive the chill of poverty and
the disasters of war--cast down often, but not destroyed. After over a
half-century of struggle it was to anchor in a safe haven. Hope kindly
blinded the eyes of those who launched the ship and prophesied a
prosperous voyage. Faith sowed in tears ofttimes, and after many days
gathered in the precious harvest. It was to be indeed _Alma Mater_ to
many sons, and daughters, too, and a mother of many other Methodist
colleges, blessing every State in the South, some of them surpassing in
outfit and endowment the mother. As a loving mother rejoices with and in
her daughters, so does Randolph-Macon rejoice in the colleges of the
church she has lived to see grow and flourish.
Before proceeding further, let us look at the location and outfit of the
College at the opening day.
The first College building erected stood on gently rising ground, one
mile west of the village of Boydton, in the centre of what had been a
race-track. On the north was an "old field," once cultivated, but now
partially covered with pine and broom-sedge, a part seamed with gulleys.
One splendid sweet-gum tree fronted the west wing. On the south there
were small oaks of second growth, just large enough to furnish partial
shade. Outside of the campus further on were thickets on both sides of
the avenue leading to the Clarksville road. The campus contained about
four acres, and was enclosed by a heavy wooden fence. The style of the
building is shown on the opposite page.
[Illustration: RANDOLPH-MACON COLLEGE. _Main Building, 1832._]
The centre building contained the chapel on the north side--a room about
fifty-two feet by thirty-two, with galleries on all sides but one. The
other parts of this building were arranged for lecture-rooms, laboratory
and halls for the literary societies. The wings of the centre building
contained each twenty-four dormitories, each large enough for two
occupants. Until the Professors' houses were built there was not a
dwelling-house nearer than Boydton. Soon after the College was built, an
avenue was opened from it to Boydton, bringing the College building and
the village in sight of each other. Clarksville, a town of some
importance in the tobacco trade, was twelve miles distant. Here was a
bank and mercantile and tobacco houses.
The country around was such as was usual in the uplands of South-side
Virginia, fairly productive of tobacco and grain. Petersburg was the
nearest town of much size. To this town, about seventy miles away, much
of the products of the country was wagoned over a dirt road,
indifferently good in some seasons and almost impassible in others. The
people around the College were kind and hospitable, representative of
old Virginia in those days, not Methodist particularly in their
persuasion; the more wealthy inclined to the Episcopal Church. There
was an old Methodist Church in Boydton, but after the College was built
the chapel became the worshipping place for the Methodists of the
community.
The Preparatory School, a building containing two school-rooms, stood
about a mile away from the College. The "Steward's Hall," a two-story
brick building, fronted the College building on the north, intended to
afford board for the students. In "old Virginia" style, this was several
hundred yards distant from the College building.
The President's house stood about the same distance away. It was a plain
brick building of one story. To the south and southwest other
professors' houses were located, all with a sufficiency of land for
gardens and lawns.
"The Hotel" was built soon after the College was opened, about a quarter
of a mile to the south, on the Clarksville road. This had about a dozen
rooms in it, and was intended mainly for the boys at the Preparatory
School and to accommodate visitors.
It will be seen that the Building Committee had much to do before
suitable accommodations could be provided for the professors and
students. That many mistakes were made in this work, and in the location
of the buildings and other matters, was not to be wondered at. They were
the result of inexperience in the men in charge, not of any want of good
intention and effort on their part. When it is considered that all the
lumber for the buildings had to be sawed by the old-fashioned "pit-saw,"
and much of the other material had to be wagoned for seventy miles, we
must not wonder that two years were consumed in bringing the buildings
to partial completion.
As the buildings stood when completed, they were as good as those of any
other college in the State had, and possibly better. The University of
Virginia, opened in 1825, had better and more extensive ones.
The regular exercises of the College proper commenced on the day
appointed, October 9th, 1832, Prof. M. P. Parks acting as President, in
the absence of President Olin.