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

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I. As P.-xsrok 11858-18723. From 1858 to I86I Dr. Nlcllwaine was pastor of Amelia Church, Virginia, It was a fruitful and happy pastorate, sketches of whicl1 the readers of the Central PI't'.fl7'1'fz'l'l-llll have been enjoying within recent months. Wihen the Civil XVar began, the preacher, like so many others, volunteered, and he became lieutenant and chaplain of the 44th Virginia Volunteers, continuing in this capacity until, in I862, enfeebled health necessitated his release. This, however, meant for him only a technical, not an actual, discharge from service. He came back to Farmville only to take up and continue,until hostilities ceased, quite as needed work, as volunteer chaplain in the hospitals located there, and pastor, until 1370, of the Farmville Presbyterian Church. YVhen Hampden-Sidney made a call for his services in a special line of work, his people in Farmville revealed their attachment in a pe- tition in which was reneweduthe assurance of our unabated love and attachment: our increased confidence in your Christian zeal and untiring energy in the great work to which you have devoted your life, and in your special fitness and ability to effect still greater good in your present field of labor. WVhen the call came to him from the First Presbyterian Church of Lynchburg, resolutions, passed by unanimous and ris- ing vote, again assured him of our belief that he occupies a position of great useful- ness and that he has the cordial and very sincere confidence and affection of the whole community. His duty as he saw it lay in Lynchburg, where he labored for nearly two years fl87If2l, and drew to him, as at Farmville, the affection ofa united people. II. AS SECRETARY ll872eI883l. Dr. Mcllwaine left important work in Lynch- burg to enter on work for the whole Southern Church, becoming as he did Secretary of Home Missions and Coordinate Secretary and Treasurer of Foreign Missions, a work carried through the years from I872 until his call to Hampden-Sidney with unliagging energy and marked success. In 1882 the General Assembly of the South- ern Presbyterian Church resolved That this Assembly does hereby most cordially recognize the ability, efficiency and zeal with which Rev. Richard Mcllwaine, D. D. has discharged the duties of Co-ordinate Secretary and Treasurer of Foreign Missions for the past ten years, and that to his fidelity and patient labor are to be attributed, under God, a large measure ofthe success of this important department of church work. A year later, when the presidency of Hampden-Sidney had been accepted, the Assembly again gave evidence of its confidence when it was Resolved, That the overtures from the Presbyteries of Lexington and Paris, urging the General Assembly to use all proper means to retain Rev. Dr. Mcllwaine as Secretary of Home Missions, a position he has filled with singular ability and efliciency for many years, and for which he is better fitted, in our judgment, than any man in our church, and as the voice ofthe church expressed in her courts would probably be unanimous for his continuance in this most important work, the Committee is unanimous and hearty in endorsing the sentiments ofthe overturesg yet inasmuch as he has received and has accepted an invitation to become the President of I-Iampden-Sidney College and has requested the Assembly to release him from the duties of Home Mission Secretary, therefore it is recommended that this Assembly accede to that request. III. As PRESIDENT or HAMPDEN-SIDNEY H883-19043. To this position Dr. Mcllwaine was called by unanimous action of the Board. The Chairman ofthe Committee appointed to notify him of his election was one of the Board's most dis- tinguished members, the princely Moses Drury Hoge, of Richmond. The letter of 15

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iaresthent Btrbarh fffltllinatne. 439 Dresthznt EI. cbrap jjiflrillistzr. Hampden-Sidney opened its doors as an Academy on the first day of january, 1776, and was incorporated as a College in May, 1783. In this period of one hun- dred and thirty-one years, a period which covers five wars, fourteen presidents have been chosen to guide her work. Of this number not one has labored for her with more of loyalty and energy than her thirteenth president, the subject of this sketch. And his labors, unremitting and abundant, were richly blessed and are permanent. Dr. Mcflwaine was born in Petersburg, Va., May 20th, 1834, the son of Archi- bald Graham and Martha CDunnJ Mcllwaine. The names, did we have no other record, show that he came from staunch Scotch-Irish stock. His home was one of culture and piety: his training, sincere and thorough, the sort that develops men. The social life in which he moved was of the exquisite type that Petersburg still poss- esses, and the time in which he grew to young manhood marked the golden age of what goes down in history as Old Virginia. Great events were marshaling for later bloody conffict, and great men, Virginia furnishing her quota, were in the lead. Following the training in his home schools Dr. Mcllwaine entered Hampden- Sidney College, a boy of fifteen, in -lanuary, 1850, graduating A. B. in the Class of 1853. This class sent out more than one man whose name and work deserves much more than this passing mention: Lindsay H. Blanton, the present efficient Chan- cellor of Central University, Kentucky, Charles VV. Crawley, giving nearly the whole of his useful life to instruction in private schools, Lewis Littlepage Holladay, profes- sor of' Physical Science in Hampden-Sidney from 1855 until his death in 1891, Matthew Lyle Lacy, a finished scholar, prominent to this day in educational work in Yvest Virginia-these, beside Dr. Mcllwaine himself, are among the number. Leaving Hampden-Sidney on his graduation, Dr. Mcflwaine pursued a special course at the University of Virginia 11853-'55J and in 1855 returned to Hampden- Sidney for his course in Union TheologicalSeminary,thenlocated here. Hampden- Sidney conferred on him the degree of A. M. in 1856, and the following year, 1857, he completed at the Seminary a course that was afterwards C 1857-'58l to be enriched by a year of study in the Free Church College, Edinburgh, Scotland. His class at Union Seminary graduated three other Hampden-Sidney men, all living, whose work abides. Ephraim Henry Harding, now preaching at Milton, N. C., and a writer of ease and grace, many years after graduation became pastor of the church fat Farmvillej in which Dr. Mcllwaine labored for several years. Thomas W. Hooper, who lives in Richmond, has lived to see service in important centers and to help thousands by messages through his preaching, his books and the weekly press. John Bunyan Shearer, Professor in Davidson College, is now spending, in authorship and teaching, the evening of a life that has been lived in founding and developing educational institu- tions. On the conclusion of his course at Union Seminary Dr. Mcllwaine married fMay 14, I857il Miss Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. Clement Carrington Read, of Farm- ville, and five children are living: Messers Archibald Graham and John Stevenson Mcllwaine, lawyers in Tyler, Texas, Miss Elizabeth Read, Mrs. Nathanael Fraser, and Mrs. VVm. VV. Dunn, of Richmond. 1+

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notification, at once a tribute to Dr. Mcllwaine and a model from one of the most graceful of letter-writers, must be given in full. Postmarked Richmond and dated April 14th, 1883, it reads: K My Dear Dr. Mcllwainez- ln these days when telegraphic news is flashed all over the country you heard of your election to the Presidency of Hampden-Sidney College long before it could be communicated to you by letter. But no telegraphic dispatch, and not even a letter, Could convey to you a full impression of the unanimity, the cordialitv and the enthu- siasm of our Board of Trustees in the discussion which preceded andthe action which resulted in your election. The important work in which you have so long been engaged cannot have been entirely congenial to you, though it has been one of' eminent usefulness. VVe trust that in the new sphere to which you are summoned your duty and your inclination will meet, and that you will be as happy in your work as we believe you will be useful. It would be to you a return to old and dear friends, to a place associated with some of the INOSI hallowed memories of your life, and to an undertaking connected with the highest interests of our church. '4The Trustees believe that you would be instrumental, under God, in building up the fortunes of the College, in filling it with students and in so conducting it as to make it a blessing to the country and the church. They are prepared to give you all the cooperation in their power, and they believe that all the old friends of the college when they hear of' your election will take heart and rally round you with the deter- mination to aid you in all the plans you may propose for the upbuilding ofthe college. It will be greatly gratifying to us to be assured that we may proceed to make all the necessary arrangements for your inauguration at the Commencement in the month of June. Vie remain, Yours, most respectflilly and sincerely, Moses D. Hoes, Chairman of the Committee. As President of Hampden-Sidney, Dr. Mcllwaine was to do his greatest and most lasting work. He brought to it unusual qualifications. He was a son of' Virginia and of that part of it in which the college was located. He was connected by kin- ship with a number of its leading families. He was an honor graduate and a loyal alumnus of Hampden-Sidney. He had held important pastorates at three points in the Southside. He had won a wide acquaintance through the South in his position as Secretary of Missions. ln all positions he held the confidence of all, and, entering upon his work in entire consecration, he could not but bring it wide success. Dr. Mcllwaine was inaugurated in the centennial year of the incorporation of the college, a fact touched upon in the inaugural address, which, practical, hopeful, was like the man. In this address the history ofthe college was dwelt upon and its present needs were fairly discussed. The fidelity then pledged to the interests of the college marked all later service. Entering upon his twofold work as President ofthe College and Professor of lN'Ioral Philosophy and Bible Studies, Dr. Mcllwaine brought efficiency 16