Maryville College - Chilhowean Yearbook (Maryville, TN)

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of Maryville College. His name is the second outstanding name on our roll of honor. Rev. T. J. Lamar, a student of Dr. Anderson ' s, and a member of the ante- bellum faculty, reopened the college in 1866 with thirteen students in a dilapidated building, with little ecjuipment and almost no funds. It was a sorry outlook, but the same qualities that had crowned Dr. Anderson ' s efforts with success were present in its second founder, and a new era dawned. No attempt was made to revive the seminary, but all efiforts were concentrated upon the broader work of the college. A faculty was secured, men of means were interested in the institu- tion, the present campus of 235 acres was purchased, and Anderson, Memorial, and Baldwin Halls were erected — three rectangular buildings that formed the nucleus of the present plant. The number of students increased rapidly and it became increasingly evident that no real advancement was possible unless the college could cease its hand-to-mouth existence and secure a permanent endowment. In 1880 Prof. Lamar set out to secure a permanent endowment fund of $100,000, an enormous sum for a weak institution to set as its goal in those days. Then followed three years of unceasing toil and terrific strain, but the fund was finally completed, and for the first time Maryville College was placed upon a sub- stantial financial foundation. Prof. Lamar was obliged to relinquish his active duties in 1886 on account of his failing health, and passed away the next year, but another was at hand to carry on his work. Rev. S. T. Wilson, of the class of 1878, was elected Professor of English Literature in 1884, and his is the third name in Maryville ' s first century. For seventeen years as Professor and for eighteen years as President he has labored incessantly with the same spirit and devotion that characterized Dr. Anderson and Prof. Lamar. The results are known to all : the large increase in faculty, studentbody, and equipment, the erection of Voorhees Chapel, Pearsons Hall, Carnegie Hall (old and new), the Lamar Memorial Hospital, the third story of Science Hall, the completion of the Forward Fund of $227,000 in 1910, the present campaign for the Centennial Forward Fund — and the end is not yet. Two pages for a history of Maryville College I A hundred years in a thou- sand words ! Flow much must be omitted. We have said nothing of the work of Presidents Bartlett and Boardman, and of members of the faculty of other days, of the generous donors whose gifts have made possible the wonderful advance- ment of the institution, of Kin Takahashi and Bartlett Hall, of Miss Margaret Henry and the Scholarship Funds. We have simply traced Maryville ' s first century in the story of three men whose lives span that century, and whose devoted service has in great measure made Maryville what it is today. Page Twenty-three

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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

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1 1819 Swimming Pool Unseen Buildings Bartlett Hall (Y. M. C. A.) Fayerweather Science TIall Lamar Memorial (a) Memorial Hall (b) Power House L brary (c) Ca Page Tivciify-four