University of Kentucky - Kentuckian Yearbook (Lexington, KY)

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LIFE OF PRESIDENT PATTERSON James Kennedy Patterson was born in Glasgow. Scotland, March 26th, 1833. In 1842, the President’s father and family sailed for America, and settled in the thinly populated district of southern Indiana. There were no educational facilities nearer than Madison, distant forty miles, whose schools he attended during the term of 1849 and 1850. After a year ajient in teaching in the common schools, he resumed his studies in Hanover Academy. Attending college and teaching, alternately, he graduated from Hanover College in 1856, the leader of his class during his undergraduate course. Immediately after obtaining his degree, he became principal of Greenville Prosbytorial Academy, Muhlenbtirg County, Kv., which position he held for three vears, when lie became principal of the Preparatory Department, and afterward Professor of Katin and Greek, in Stewart College, now Southwestern University, Clarksville. Temi. At the beginning of the Civil War, lie left his southern position and became principal of the Transylvania High School. liCxingion. Kv.. and, in I8G5-69, held the Professorship of Latin and Civil History in Kentucky University. At the latter date, he began, as President of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, an administration so eventful, so stormy, and so replete with monumental results! From a condition of bankruptcy, he has created a constantly increasing income: from a rude and imperfect organization, he has educed a modem 12

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ciation of American State Universities. Its standard of admission conforms to that adopted by the Association of State Universities at its recent session in Washington, namely, fifteen units, covering a period of four years in an accredited high school. Its courses of instruction embrace a college of Science and Liberal Arts, a college of Education for the preparation of teachers for high schools and colleges, four engineering courses, namely, Mechanical, Civil, Electrical, and Alining, College of Agriculture and College of Law. It is the only institution in Kentucky which is doing University work. Last year, its matriculation roll numbered 1064. During a period of thirty years, it; has lost but few of the prominent members of its educational staff. Dr. Robert Peter in 1804, Prof. E. M. Helved the same year, Milford White in 1908, and Prof. John H. Neville in 1908—these were all eminent in their respective lines of work. Dr. Robert Peter became Professor of Chemistry in 1832, in Transylvania University, and for years was recognized as one of the foremost chemists in America. Prof. F. M. ITelvcti was a man of rare attainments in ancient and modern languages, in French and German and English literature, in history and in music. Prof. Milford White, though comparatively young, had already impressed himself strongly upon the young teachers of Kentucky as a man of marked ability. Prof. John H. Neville was recognized as facile princeps the best classical scholar within the limits of the Commonyealth. It is somewhat remarkable that in a period covering thirty years, the necrology of the institution lias been so small. It is now manned bv an educational staff which compares favorably in point of ability and attainments with that of any other institution in America. Its success may be measured by its high standing among the institutions forming the Association of American Universities, and by the further fact that of nil the alumni whom it has graduated since 1871, there is not more than one-half of one per cent of failures. Tts graduates are in demand everywhere and the demand far exceeds the ability of the institution. Alma Mater eslo perpchia. 1909

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university, strong, vigorous and symmetrical. While engaged in this arduous task, lie has been constantly trammeled by the fiercest and most determined opposition, and assailed by the bitter invective of implacable and influential foes. In 1880, he carried a measure through the Legislature appropriating a tax of one-twentieth of a mill on the dollar for the benefit of the Agricultural College, henceforward known as the State College. The denominational institutions at once attacked this measure on the ground that ii was inimical to their interests and unconstitutional as well. Since the most distinguished lawyers of the Commonwealth declined to defend the constitutionality of the Act, it devolved upon President Patterson to maintain the integrity of State College against the formidable attacks of the associated colleges. An elaborate argument was made by Judge Lindsay before the joint committee of the House and Senate, and, at its conclusion, the case of the College appeared absolutely hopeless. Though not a lawyer, the President ventured to address the committee, and presented his arguments with such facility and adroitness as to completely nonplus his opponents and to convince the committee of the cogency and soundness of his reasoning. In the courts he was matched against no common antagonists—Judge Lindsay, Alexander P. Humphrey, Bennett II. Young, and James Trabue: however, in 1S70, when Judge Holt of the Court of Appeals handed down an affirmative decision, it was based upon the lines which the President had laid down and upon the arguments which he had presented in his brief. The President is ever vigilant, endeavoring to lengthen the ropes and strengthen the stakes of that institution with whose history his life has been so closely interwoven. In 188 i, he established the Agricultural Experiment Station in connection with the College, and in 1887, was largely instrumental in procuring the passage bv Congress of the Hatch Act, endowing Experiment Stations with $15,000 a year. He was also equally efficient and successful in procuring from Congress the passage of the Morrill Act of 1890, giving $25,000 per annum to each State in the Union for the further endowment of state institutions established under the Land Grant of 1862. As the initiator of each forward step, the course of instruction and the number of buildings have, under his supervision, gradually increased, until, in 1908, •3