Hampden Sydney College - Kaleidoscope Yearbook (Hampden Sydney, VA)

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Rev. Moses Waddel, D.D. IIY MR. H. l'. ISRUVK. 5 Hliltli are three facts in thc history of the Rev. Dr. Moses Waddel, associat- ing him directly with Hampden-Sidney College a11d Prince lidward County: his Scotch-Irish ancestors, the capstone given at this institution to his Q1 academic and theological training, and his seco11d marriage, the lady being Miss lilliza llioodson Plcasants, whom he first met during his residence on tt The Hill. The biographical sketch which is the basis of this memorial was prepared by his youngest son and serves as an introduction to the latter's own more detailed autobitmgraphy. The volume contains also brief accounts of an elder son and a grandson who, like the grandsire and the author, devoted themselves to teaching. It is therefore quite appropriately entitled Memorials of Academic Life Through Three Generations. Moses Waddel stands so early in the long list of educators sent out by this col- lege, that his birth occurred four years prior to its own start in life, an order of things in the relative ages of alumnus and foster-mother to be expected at that crude stage of our country's history, yet. for other reasons, common enough today, when many American colleges and some American Universities are but the creatures of yesterday. Hampden-Sidney's Hrst president, the Reverend Samuel Stanhope Smith, was elected in 1775, and lloctorwaddel was born in 1770. Natives of the north of Ireland, his parents emigrated to America in 17137. Georgia seems to have been the state in which they originally designed to make their homey but adverse weather drove the vessel to Charleston, and alluring accounts from North Carolina finally determined their choice. There, on the South Yadkin River, in a ncwly settled, sparsely peo- pled region, on a tract of land fertile and purchased on favorable terms but stocked by the outlay of their little capital of Hfty guineas, the worthy couple began life anew. Amid these circumstances Moses VVaddel was born. Six years later, the memorable year of the declaration of American indepen- dence, he was entered as a pupil in a. neighboring school taught by a Mr. Mcliown, and two years afterwards in a seminary called Clio's Nursery, which had just open- ed, and was conducted by another master of Scottish name, a Mr. James Mcllwen. But, promising the lad had shown himself, it required frequent appeals of friends, among them the local minister. the Reverend Doctor Hall, to win the father's consent to this step, so rigorous were the times and so uncertain the future, for Clio's Nur- sery was established among war's alarms. and after the Surrender of Charleston to Sir Henry Clinton the British made so many incursions in the neighborhood that the exercises of this school were for a while suspended. Yet the boy progressed rapidly 14-

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Ho was one- of thc- first to zulvocatc- tht- cause ol' ll'lllIl0l'2l,ll1'f' in that ser xuulu lmlmlic-aulrlresslivhilnntCvll:11'Ci'vck,i11Nottow:iv, wasannongthefirst tlf-lix um in that region upon that suhjf-vt. lloL'lo1'.lOI1ffs helongcsl to that school of public nu,-n who c-onsitlvrwl slaveix in evil, to bv gotten riil of ut. sonu- future 111132 :intl was, of Q-ourst-, on I'll'lllClPlC,lt1l Q 1 vipzitionist. He was iclentifiwl with several of the leruling colonizaition societies int lookotl to flc-portziton of the negro :is the possible solution of the great problc' still1-onfrontsthc country. llis will provides forthe nianunlission unfl tleportntion to liilwria Ul'Sllf'llUi'l1lSOWllSlilYt'S1lS shoultl Choose tliGi1'l'r0mlou llvlvft l1UKl0SC6llllLil1lS,Iillll fliml :it Mountain Hull April 25th. IS-19. His wimlow sillwivwl hini z1 tlozc-n i'0:11's. Ho was the product :intl a typo oi' Ii civilation that was overthrown at X1 ponuittox, and cannot 1'eappGa.r in history. Among thosi- of his ilay :intl pvoplc tt xx were wiser. and none nu'-rv just. Waixrlzn A, Wars- Memories In the evening by the fireside When our daily tasks are done And from chamber walls steal slowly Day streaks fading one by one, Then we sit in silence musing While we watch the embers glow, And past days in memory pictures Quickly come and quickly go. Scenes of joy, scenes of sorrow, Many an old familiar friend, Errors made in youth and manhood, All in one another blend. Embers falling soon to ashes Oft remind of loved ones gone, Lives that brightened but to perish Leaving us to wander ong But we love to sit, and musing Watch the embers ruddy glow, Living till the lamps are lighted In the days of long ago. 13 in whim h

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in his studies, and when he left the seminary in 173-l at the age uf fourteen, he was so well equipped in the classic languages, mathematics, rhetoric, and philosophy, that there was prompt demand for the young sc-holar's services. He was first engaged to teach a school in lredell, a county adjoining his own, and later at other places. among them Greene County, Georgia. Soon after this the early desire of his par- ents was fulfilled by their ow11 removal to this state. Greene County was selected. although it was on the frontier and had recently been disturbed by the lndians. who had crossed the Oconee from the west and burned the county seat. lVhen in his eighteenth year, while teaching another school not far from his father's new abode, young lVaddel had one of those religious experiences so character- istic of that age and so rarely occurring now. Bunyan's story is once more told in the remorse and despair, followed, after a season, by pardon. peace. and reconciliation with heaven. Like the great allegorist, whose bell-ringing seems to have consti- tuted the special offence that led him to style himself the chief of sinners, young Viladdel found in dancing the alluremcnt that threatened him with perdition. This spiritual conflict and his final triumph led him in due course to embrace the Preach- er's sacred calling, and it was with this high mission before him that, by the advice of the Reverend Jolm Springer, of Abbernath district, South Carolina, he began to prepare himself for entrance in Hampden-Sidney College. This institution. then under the direction of the Reverend Drury Lacy, who was vice-president and pres- ident pro icmpore from 1789 to1797, had had forits first rectors the brothers Stanhope and Blair Smith, graduates of New Jersey College. afterwards Princeton, and it was doubtless the methods introduced by them that in the instruction given at Hampden- Sidney recommended the college to young lVaddel's adviser. The long journey from Greene County, Georgia, to Prince lidward, Virginia, was made on horseback, and af- ter some preliminary study he entered the Senior class in January, 1791. It is interesting to note that among his classmates were a future Congressman, Doctor James Jones, of Dinwiddie County, Virginia, and George M. Bibb, afterwards judge and Senator from Kentucky. He was graduated O11 the 27th of September following, but remained in Virginia until the spring of 1793, during the greater part of this time undergoing the examinations required of him as a candidate for the ministry by the Presbytery of Hanover. A fellow candidate was Dr. William Calhoun, with a branch of whose family he was soon to be more intimately associated. After his return home he se1'ved as licentiate for perhaps a year in South Carolina and Georgia, but no great while subsequent to receiving his ordination in 1794, he united the callings he had hitherto followed singly, and became both preacher and teacher. The functions of the latter. however, gradually predominated in the claims made upon his time, and he was already near the close of his active career when the preacher emerged free from the routine of academic life. During the ten years following his ordination, he taught school successively in Columbia County, Georgia, a.nd Abbernath district, South Carolina. at points not far 1'emoved from each other, although in different sta.tes. This is a memorable period 15