College of William and Mary - Colonial Echo Yearbook (Williamsburg, VA)

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seventy Bve students who came to drink at this spring of philosophy, literature, ami science, under the guidance of such men as Judge Beverley Tucker, the Right Rev. John Johns, Thomas R. Dew, and their associates and successors. The largest number attending at any one time was in 1840, under President Thomas R. D ew, when the matriculation book showed an attendance of one hundred and forty. ( hi the night of February 8th, 1859, at a time when the Alumni were pre- paring to celebrate the one hundred and sixty-sixth anniversary at the coming commencement, fire broke out in the main building of the College. All attempts to stay the flames were futile, and nothing was saved except the records and the College stamp. But the authorities did not despair ; and within one year from the date of the burning, the College had been completely rebuilt, and was again in full operation with ample means to sustain the Faculty. When the war between the States broke out, ninety per cent, of her stu- dents joined the Confederate army, and in May, 1861, the existence of hostilities at her very threshold rendered it necessary to suspend exercises. In September, 1 sfij, some drunken Federal soldiers fired and once more destroyed the College building, together with the library, apparatus, and other property belonging to the College. Afterwards other houses and property were destroyed by Union soldiers. To many at that time it must have seemed that the institution had fallen never to rise again. Its buildings were in ruins, and the country around, after the departure of the Federal army, seemed utterly desolate. But those walls in which the calm voice of philosophy had echoed for so many years were not des- tined to stand as a mouldering monument of the wickedness of war. Loyal friends and alumni rallied around the College ; 1869 saw the buildings entirely restored, and the College in the enjoyment of a new Faculty, organized with the departments of Latin, Greek, Mathematics, Modern Languages, Natural Science, Philosophy, and Belles-Lettres. It is a peculiar fact in the history of institutions of learning that compara- tively few of them are self-sustaining. William and Mary was not an exception to the general rule. Old endowments had been lost, new ones proved inadequate, and the annual expenses exceeded the annual income. The venerable President, Benjamin S. Ewell, thrice appeared before Congress, asking for reimburse- ment for buildings destroyed by the wanton acts of Federal troops. This bill was ably supported by Senator Hoar, of Massachusetts, and others, but with no avail ; and an institution which was once the beacon of learning and political intelligence, not alone for Virginia, but for the whole South and for the country at large, was suffered to decline by a nation which owed it an actual though paltry debt of $70,000. Noble efforts were made to sustain the College, but at last all the professors were dismissed because their salaries could not be paid ; 1 88 1 found it without a single student, and exercises were suspended until 1888. 16

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that no scholar do presume to appear playing ye billiards, or other gaming tables, or be in any way concerned in keeping fighting-cocks, under ye like severe animadversion and punishment. Nothing could be more amusing than the record of the action taken by the Visitors on a certain occasion in 1769, when the Rev. Mr. John Camm and the Rev. Mr. Josiah Johnson were arraigned for the terrible crime of having lately married and taken up their residence in the City of Williamsburg, by which great inconvenience has arisen to the College, and the necessary attention which those professors ought to pay to the conduct and behavior of the students has been almost totally interrupted. Whereupon they solemnly declare that those profes- sors, by engaging in marriage and the concerns of a private family, and shifting their residence to any place without the College had acted contrary to the principles upon which the College was founded, and their duty as professors. Then follows the broad resolve that all Professors and Masters hereafter to be appointed, be constantly residents of ye College, and upon marriage of such pro- fessor, or master, that his professorship be immediately vacated. However arbitrary and anti-matrimonial these Visitors may seem, they gov- erned the affairs of the College in a wise and judicious manner, as is shown by the unusual degree of prosperity that it enjoyed during their administration. Before 1781 the yearly income of the College, from duties and advantages granted by the charter and from the many handsome endowments that it received from the colonists, was about ,£4,000. By the Revolution it lost all of its endow- ment except $2,500 and the extensive grants of land originally conferred by the favor of King William and Queen Mary. The sale of these lauds and some others in the neighborhood of Williamsburg, voted to the College by the Legisla- ture, enabled the College to realize a sufficient fund to prosecute its work as of old. The organization and courses, however, were entirely changed by Jefferson. At this College, as in other places, this eminent philosopher showed himself to be at least one hundred years ahead of his time. Many changes which he made in the courses at William and Mary, are only just being adopted by other colleges. Being elected in 1779 one of the Board of Visitors, he had the two professorships of Divinity and Oriental Languages abolished and substituted a professorship of Law and Police, one of Anatomy, and one of Modern Languages ; and as the charter confined the Faculty to six professors, he added the ' ' Law of Nature and Nations and the Fine Arts to the duties of the Moral Professor, and Natu- ral History to the duties of the Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. As the English courts refused to permit the rents from the ' ' Brafferton ' ' estate to come to America after the Revolution, the Indian school was abandoned. In 1789 Washington was elected Chancellor, and under the wise guidance of Bishop Madison and his successors, the College continued its career of usefulness. From 1835 to the Civil War the catalogues show an average yearly attendance of 15

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The President alone remained at his post, and at the beginning of each collegiate year caused the College bell to be rung as a reminder to the people that although forgotten, and neglected, William and Mary could not die. During the suspension of seven years, the debts was reduced to $7,000, and this was the state of affairs when, in 1SS8, the proposition by which the institution was revived, was first presented to the State Legislature. The Constitution of the State made it mandatory upon the Legislature to establish normal schools. It was shown that the use of the College buildings would save the State a large outlay of money. Moved by this consideration and by the generous motive of making some reparation for revolutionary losses and of rescuing from destruction an object of such historic interest and connections, the Legislature appropriated the sum of $10,000 annually to the College on condition that said College shall establish in connection with the collegiate course, a system of normal instruction and training for the purpose of educating white male teachers for the public schools of the State. It was enacted that hereafter the affairs of the College should be administered by a board consisting of ten of the old Board of Visitors, and ten members appointed by the Governor, and every county and city of the .State was declared entitled to have one or more of its young men educated free at the College. These terms were duly accepted by the College, and at the first meeting of the joint board, held May 10th, 1888, six different departments were determined upon, and Professors Hall, Stubbs, Wharton, and Garrett were elected to hold office from the first of Octobe ensuing. At a subsequent meeting held in August, 1888, Lyon G. Tyler was elected President, to hold office from the first of Sep- tember ensuing, and the organization was completed at the same meeting by the election of Hugh S. Bird, Professor of Pedagogy. Since 1888 the College has been in full operation, and during this time has had an average attendance greater than at any period in its history. In 1890 the annual appropriation was increased to $15,000, and in 1893 Congress voted $64,000 as a reimbursement for the buildings destroyed during the Civil War, thus happily in a great measure removing the stigma which had attached so long to the good fame of the government. Of the part which William and Mary will play in the future, under the new regime, it is too early yet to peak. With a faculty of ten, with an average attendance of nearly two hundred students, and with a course of study second to none in the State, it bids fair to rival its former history. In closing this account, it might be well to mention some of the most promi- nent alumni of William and Mary. Rightly has she been called the mother of statesmen. In the list of students preserved since 17 10, will be found an impo- sing array of names holding the highest stand in the legislature, at the bar, and in the pulpit, not only in Virginia and the South, but throughout the entire country. The valor of her sons has added to the renown of Virginia from the