Roanoke College - Rawenoch Yearbook (Salem, VA)

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MEIN BUILDING BEFORE IQIZVIOIJELIINIG

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Board of trustees. HoN. HENRY' E. BLAIR, President ...... RoRER'1' W. IQIME, A.'M., Secretary.. VVILLIAM H. RU'r11RAUE1f, Treasurer... D. B. STROUSE ............. ........ ....... XV11-1.mM MCCAU1.EY, A. M ........... REV. ALEXANDER P1u1.L1P1'I, D. D.. . A. lVl:ORIiIIEAD, A. M., D. D ........ . J HON. HENIQX' S. TROUT ........... TI-IEO1'I'IILLIS l. SIIICREI.. HoN. A. M. BOWMAN ........... REV. L. G. M. M11.1.ER, D. D.. . HoN. GEORGE XV. IQOINICR, A. M. ..... . GliOI2CiE P. CR.x1on11.1. ...... REV. Lv'rnER L. Smrn, A. M .......... REV. CARL E. GIQEXNINIEIQ, S. T. D Ax11:RosE L. HENIQIEI. .... JOSEPH D. Lomax .... ..... FRANR H. C11.u.MERs, A. M. .... l. E. COOPER, A. M ...... ..... JUDGE XV. VV. NIOI-'I-'I2'1 l'. .... .. EDGAR L. GREEYER, A. M ..... .... .. .- .. .- ..... Salem, Va. Salem Va. Salem, Va. Salem, Va. Salem, Va. NVytl1eville, Va .Salem, Va. Roanoke, Va. .Salem, Va. .Sale1n, Va. Roanoke, Va. Richmond, Va. Lynchburg, Va .StraslJurg, Va. Norfolk, Va, New Market, Va .Union, XV. Va. .Salem, Va. .XYinchester,Va .Salem, Va. fllazewell, Va.

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HISTOIQY UF IQOANO li CCLLEGE. W OST of the great and useful institutions of the world have had their humble beginnings. They have not sprung at once into full-grown being, but have developed step by step, until they have gained for themselves the place in the world's progress and life that they now hold. Some of them, perhaps, were begun by the co-opera- tion ofa numuer of men, while others have originated by the persist- ent efforts and and indomitable zeal of a single individual. Roanoke College had its beginning in a log hut in Augusta county, Virginia, near Mount Tabor in the year 1843. A young man, a native of Maryland, was laboring in Augusta county as a Lutheran Minister, and as he went in and out among his people, ministering to their spiritual wants, was deeply impressed with the need of education among his parishioners, and with the importance of increasing the facilities for securing the education of young men. To name this young man, Rev. David Frederick Bittle, is to pronounce the name of one so long and so closely identified with Roanoke College, that he was, as it were, during a great part of its history its personal embodiment. The very existence of the College today is due to the work of his hands. By his persistent efforts and self-denial, he nursed the College through her youth and started her on a career that would afterwards become as a monument erected to the memory of his own name. Douhtless, when he began to teach the few young men in the Vir- ginia Collegiate lnstitutef' as it was then called, he never dreamed of what his noble work was to accomplish. Rev. Bittle, however, had a co-laborer, Rev. Christopher C. Baughman, of Maryland, who was also interested in the education of young men. l-le became the principal of the school, while Rev. Bittle taught Mathematics two days out ofthe week. The Lutheran Synod of Virginia then took charge of the school and had it removed to Salem. A charter from the Virginia State Legislature was then M8535 secured, and it received the name, Roanoke College. No buildings were yet erected and the accomoda- tions for the students were poor. But by the renewed efforts of Rev. Bittle, money was secured for erecting a crude three story structure for a chapel, lecture rooms and dormitory. But after a few years the increasing number ofstu dents required an enlargement. Consequently a wing was added to the original building. i The College was just beginning to make some headway, when the fife and the drum of the Civil Hlar announced the fact that men were needed at the front. The students answered the call, and one of the professors acted as captain of their company. The doors of the College, however, were not closed, but it was conducted as a high school. But scarcely had the war closed before the College had grown to such an extent that an agent was sent forth to procure means for enlarging the College building, the enlarged main edifice and lVest