Rhodes College - Lynx Yearbook (Memphis, TN)

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HOU the Grand Lodge of Tennessee and the Masonic Fraternity of Montgomery County founded Montgomery Masonic College . After seven difficult years and the acquisition of Castle Building and a debt of S9,000, President W. M. Stewart interested the Synod of Nashville in assuming control of the institution. In his honor, the one building, faculty and few students were given the collective name Stewart College. In 1858, on its tenth birthday, the Reverend Robert Burns McMullen became president. Two years later, in 1860, the dormitory, Robb Hall, was built and named for Colonel Albert Robb, a director and donor of land to the college. Even at this early date the honor system, one of Southwestern's most outstanding features, seems to have been in practice. President McMullen spoke of it when he said: Our motto is this: we act toward every student as Christian gentlemen, and we require If you can'f iclenfify six of these you clorff go 'ro school at Southwestern. SOUTHWESTERN FACULTY - I923 ix v

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Q IICODU Leader T 0 The Larger Lzlglvt At this commemoration of its first hundred years, Southwestern looks back with pride on a long history of unselfish service and looks forward with courageous anticipaf tion to a future full of promise. In 1848 the United States and the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church were both fiftyfnine years old. The Revolution had freed the coloniesg the War of 1812 had gained the young nation international recognition, and the entire country was in the throes of expansion. Yankee clipper ships touched ports all over the world, the gold rush was almost ready to lay open the far west to immense development, and in the South, the invention of the cotton gin had brought with it an era of prosperity and elegance seldom known elsewhere. In was in this charming period of quietly gracious living that the Freemasons of p H--. . mm' SOUTHERN PRESBYTERIAN UNIVERSITY- I875 Page I

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1 H00 them to treat us in like manner. And we are happy to say that thus far they have nobly complied with our requirements. A system similar to today's tutorial work was in use back in old Stewart College, also. Dr. Wardlaw, graduate of King's College, Belfast, would invite students into his home after class hours, and together they would read the classics, with a zest un' known to students in any other work. Gunfire echoed up and down the Cumberland River for the next few years, and federal troops occupied the college grounds. But before long, the library and all the wood buildings became fuel for federal campfires. President McMullen, evicted from his home, appointed himself chaplain to the invaders, but smallfpox struck the camp and Dr. McMullen succumbed to it on january 15, 1865. With peace, Stewart again assumed the presidency, but reconstruction days made supporters, money, faculty, and students difficult to find. In 1870, the Synods of Nashville, Memphis, g Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas, all weakened by war, decided to pool their educational inf terests in a single university. The merger was completed in 1874, and Clarksville, Tennessee, was selected for the location. Thus Stewart Col' lege became Southwestern Presbyf I terian University, with two build' ings, five acres of land, and nearly 569,000 in productive endowment. In 1879, the Reverend John Waddell, former Chancellor of Ole Miss, became the first chancellor of the new university. ATHLETICS IN THE OLD DAYS Page S 4