Rhodes College - Lynx Yearbook (Memphis, TN)

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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

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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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H00 Stewart Building was built in 1878 in memory of the beloved professor who had died the previous year. By this time the boundary lines of the synods had changed so that Arkansas and Texas were separated, leaving Southwestern to the synods of Alaf bama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. From 1885, when the School of Divinity was added, until 1893, the chair of Theology was occupied by Joseph R. Wilson, whose son, Woodrow Wilson, absorbed the heritage of Southwestern and later carried it on into international politics. The great Presbyterian theologian, Robert Alexander Webb, an alumnus of 1877, taught theology from 1892 until 1908. In 1888 Dr. Waddell retired and was succeeded by Chancellors C. C. Hersman, J. M. Rawlings, George Summey, Neander M. Woods and William Dinwiddie. Dr. john R. Dobyns was called to become president in 1914. Dr. George Lang, then professor of hisf tory and economics, became acting president. Lang now serves on the Q , .fs faculty of the University of Alaf bama. Dr. Charles E. Diehl, pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Clarksville, assumed the presidency in August 1917. Born at Charlestown, West Virginia, graduate of ,Iohn Hopkins and Princeton Seminary, this fiery man of conviction had already served the churches of Crescent Springs, Kentucky, and Greenville, Mississippi. In 1919 he ref turned to Greenville to marry Miss Katherine Ireys. Now for thirty years the students of Southwestern have felt the power of his firm rhetoric and the wisdom of his keen mind. In 1922, an extensive campaign to move Southwestern to Memphis was climaxed by an offer of half a million dollars and a 100facre location next to Cverton Park by the Ivlemphis Chamber of Commerce and nearly a million dollars in contributions E gh!