Marshall University - Chief Justice Yearbook (Huntington, WV)

Page 7 text:

7 'SeyOK m a TjJittdiUvefet 'Kttoit (halted 7Ht. '%e fi ut I've seen and done a lot of growing myself and I know that one of the chief concerns of the westward moving pioneers was the establishment of schools. Indeed, that concern established me nearly one hundred and thirty years ago—one hundred and thirty years! That takes one back. In fact, I don't know exactly when my life did begin. An early family record attests that a girl born in 1821 became one of my pupils, so I must have come into being around that time too. As to where I had my beginning, history relates that in 1772 Governor Dinwiddic of Virginia gave to a certain John Savage and sixty other revolutionary soldiers a tract of land up and down the Ohio. Thereafter the land was known as the Savage Grant. Savage was an apt name. It was Indian territory and even as late as 1796 Indians murdered and scalped the early settlers and burned their homes. At any rate, in the midst of this wilderness 1 came, humbly enough, into being—a one-room log cabin on a beech-forested windswept knoll by the broad Ohio, Mt. Hebron in the Savage Grant, and across the river was the site of an Indian village. I was both church and school — my first pupils, settlers' children. Ijic Lincoln, Marsh,til bad its beginning m . rustic log structure—nIJ II . Hebron Church .it HolJcrby’s Landing. This was my beginning and my tale might well have ended here but for an act of the Virginia Assembly of 1838 which chose me as an academy to train teachers for western Virginia. I was very proud—but a one-room log cabin an academy? The good founding fathers appointed by the assembly took care of that. They built four rooms for me, one of which was set aside for the Methodists’ and Presbyterians’ use on alternate Sundays; they added an assistant to my faculty of one, and they approved the name chosen for me by John Laidlcy, leader among my founders. I was to be called Marshall Academy in honor of Virginia’s great chief justice of the Supreme Court. Last, but in my opinion not least because it gave me a feeling of permanence, they dug a well. Yes, I was very proud. 5 KV

Page 6 text:

John Marshall ...for whom was named John Laidley, Cabell County’s delegate to the Virginia Legislature, was a personal friend of the great Chief Justice. As a living memorial to this leader, the name Marshall Academy was given to me. Titty 'pMteUnA in a 'D vi6e% £% Saw z VitUutt tfte'iin . John Marshall was this Justice. He died in 1 83 5, founding fathers met in dotte to establish 4 John Ladle) . .. a leading founder

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hi 1867, three years tifler being auctioned, the new ita e added Marshall was now the State Sonnal Si bool in a new state a three story budding and tower to the original structures. created out of the issues of the U ar. 7tt t%43 7 747driven 7 tcf TZciiCcUtty . , , The next eighteen years were a quiet time of steady pace for me. I didn’t know that my work was being watched. Consequently, 1 was completely surprised when my guardians presented me with a large, fine, three-story brick wing. True, because money was scarce, only the first floor was furnished and that as a chapel and church—nevertheless. I was growing again. I had come lar and knew that 1 was rather an imposing sight in the midst of the surrounding farmlands. Yes, 1 had come far but 1 little dreamed of the great honor which in two short years befell me. In 18 58, the General Assembly of Virginia made me a COLLEGE! Imagine, from a log cabin to a college in twenty years. Honor beyond belief and yet 1 regret to say I was not completely satisfied—not quite. I wanted a city around me as other colleges had. That year I had a faculty of four, and twenty students. One can see, looking back, that I had attained dignity and authority, hut these, alas, could not save me from the hard times that followed. 6