Wofford College - Bohemian Yearbook (Spartanburg, SC)

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HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE FIRST HALF CENTURY OF WOFFORD COLLEGE. By D. D. Wallace. ■HE foundation of Wofford College illustrates how a plain, apparently commonplace life may foster a great aspiration and move towards a great ideal. Benjamin Wofford was a successful accumulator of money, but he was more; he was a wise and consecrated user of money. Mr. Wofford ' s will was kept secret from all except one or two intimate friends, of whom his closest confidant was Rev. H. A. C. Walker, to whom credit is due for fostering the liberal ideas entertained by our founder. It is on his authority that the statement can be made that Mr. Wofford entertained the intention of founding a college before the Baptists had founded Furman and did not receive his suggestion from there, as has been surmised. Not until after Mr. Wofford ' s death, December 5, 1850, did his act become known even to his wife, to whom he also left an ample estate, not by any means equal to the college be- quest, however. A legacy of $100,000 was left to the South Carolina Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South for the pur- pose of establishing and endowing a college for literary, classical and scientific education. The location was required to be in Spartanburg district, as the counties were then called, but no particular locality was named. The town of Woodruff made an ef- fort to induce the trustees to establish the college in their community; but the liberality of the citizens of Spartanburg village, the advantages of central location, etc., led to the selectiori of the county seat. Public spirited citizens offered to pay for whatever land the trustees should select. Underestimating the needs of the institution and disregarding symmetry, they marked off a long, narrow strip of thirty-six acres running east from Church street to the present eastern extremity of the campus. The land was bought from the grandfather of Mr. John B. Cleveland, the donor of the John B. Cleveland Science Hall, at fifty dollars an acre. It formed a bow, bulging away from town and following the line of the professors ' houses and the college building. The south line started at the corner of College Place and Church street and ran east to about the middle of the road in front of Prof. DuPre ' s house. It then pursued a straight line about one hundred feet in front of the college to a point between the residences of Dr. Carlisle and Prof. Gamewell, and from thence ran before the three story house now occupied by Prof. Rembert to a point just beyond the railroad (which did not then exist). It ran down the railroad to about the road back of Prof. Rembert ' s and from there back to Church street at its juncture with Cleveland street, passing so close to the rear buildings that a nimble jumper might have leaped from the road to Dr. Carlisle ' s well. By subsequent purchases the campus has been increased to about twice its original size. ' The author is under great obligations to Dr. James H. Carlisle for information. Prof. D. A. DuPre also gave valuable aid. 21

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No Methodist in America and none, it is believed in the world, had at the time of Mr. Wofford ' s bequest given so large a sum for any philanthropic purpose. It was so large, indeed, judged by the standards of that time as to attract national atten- tion, and it has since been equalled only twice in South Carolina, namely, by the gifts of Mr. D. E. Converse to the institution bearing his name, and by the $166,000 donation of Mr. Ephraim Baynard to the College of Charleston. The Clemson bequest of $8o?ooo and 800 acres of land, ranking almost as high, can be made to equal it only by the appreciation in the value of the real estate. The thirteen trustees named in the will were Rev. W. M. Wightman, H. Bass, W. A. Gamewell, W. Barrmger, H. A. C. Walker, John Porter, David Derrick, Maj. Harvey Wofford, H. H. Thomson, Joseph W. Tucker, Clough Beard and Doct. Benj. Wofford. The duty of this board was solely to buy land and erect buildings and hand the property over to a board of thirteen trustees elected for two years by the Conference. A charter was obtained from the legislature December 16, 1851, without opposi- tion, contrary to the experience of Erskine, the first denominational , college in the State, in 1839.. and on August i, 1854, exercises began. The active faculty consisted of Rev. W. M. Wightman, D. D.. President and Professor of Mental and Moral Science, David Duncan, A. M., Professor of Ancient Languages, and James H. Carlisle, A. M., Professor of Mathematics. Though Prof. War- ren DuPre, A. M.,Professor of Natural Science, was elected with the original faculty by the Board at the Conference in New- berry in the fall of 1853, he did not teach the first year, as there were no classes needing his services, but spent this time studying in the laboratories of Yale University with Prof. Silliman, one of the most distinguished of American scientists, and in collect- ing apparatus and speciments. Rev. Albert M. Shipp, elected with the original faculty Professor of English Literature, continued to each in the University of North Carolina and at the end of a year definitively declined the election to Wofford. When Presi- dent Wightman resigned, July 12, 1859, to take the presidency of the new Methodist college in Alabama, Dr Shipp was elected to the presidency of Wofford and accepted. The teaching force consisted, therefore, of three professors the first year. Only two classes were represented, the Freshman and Sophomore, and the total enrollment reached twenty-four. About twenty besides were enrolled in the preparatory department. Commencement was held notwithstanding, June 24 and 25, 1855, and a very interesting commencement it was. On Sun- day, the 24th, the chapel was dedicated. President Wightman preached an eloquent sermon, rich in historical illustration and spiritual power, from the first verse of the 8oth Psalm. The next morning a procession was formed in front of the Palmetto Hotel, on the northeast corner of Church and Main streets, and marched to the college. There being no graduates or other stu- dent speakers, the faculty delivered inaugural addresses of about fifty minutes each. President Wightman spoke of the mission of the college and defended the denominational college idea with some warmth, alluding to the complete lack of representation of Methodists on the faculty of the State college and pointing out the peculiar advantages offered by Wofford. Prof. Duncan, a ripe scholar of sixty-four year, spoke upon the nobility and value of the classics in an address learned and scholarly and at places finely spiced with his keen native wit. This address and that of Gov. D. H. Cham- berlain along the same lines at a commencement many years later presented as excellently as ever heard at Wofford, in both ar- gument and example, the claims of the classical ideal of education. 22