Maryville College - Chilhowean Yearbook (Maryville, TN)

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The History of the College in the Lives of Three Men MEN make institutions. The history of institutions is written in the Hves of men. This is particularly true of Maryville College. Self-sacrificing men have devoted their labors, their talents, their very lives to the estab- lishment and development of our college, now completing its first century. We are often reminded that the student body makes the college, and this is true in a measure if we take into consideration merely the spirit of the institu- tion during any given four year period. But in looking back over the century we can clearly see that the men who really made the college were those faithful and persistent toilers who devoted their lives, often amidst the most discouraging circumstances and with little pecuniary return, to the service of our Alma Mater. Many names are on this roll of honor, many men and women deserve the highest praise for their unselfish and devoted service that has made ] Iaryville what it is today. There are three names, however, that stand out in flaming letters, three lives that span the entire century of Maryville ' s existence, three men whose biographies form in themselves a history of Alaryville College — Isaac Anderson, T. J. Lamar, Samuel T. Wilson. Founded in 1819 by Rev. Isaac Anderson, the Southern and Western Theo- logical Seminary had as its first purpose the training of ministers to serve in this section of the country, then entirely neglected by the seminaries of the North. It was an humble beginning. The founder himself was at first the entire faculty, and nothing but his unselfish devotion, indomitable perseverance, and lofty faith gave reality to his dreams. The men whom he gathered around him and who con- tinued his work in those early days struggled hard and long, with but little visible means of support, to maintain the standards and ideals of the school, li was soon evident that if the seminary was to continue in existence it must have a college department to provide the necessary preliminary training and in 1821 this work was provided for. As time went on, this department increased in importance and more and more came to be not simply a preparatory department for the seminary, but an institution in itself furnishing a higher education to the youth of this section without regard to the calling they intended to pursue. But the work of the col- lege was rudely interrupted by war and bloodshed when, on April 22, 1861, students and professors separated, many of them to don the blue or the gray and to meet perchance upon the field of battle. Finally the clouds of war were dispelled and the sun arose upon a new Maryville. The old Maryville was gone. Its students and faculty were scattered. Many of them had answered the last roll call. The buildings and equipment were well-nigh ruined, but phoenix like, a new Maryville arose from the ashes of the old, for there was a man ready to devote his talents and his life to the re-founding Page Tzucnty-tzco