Wofford College - Bohemian Yearbook (Spartanburg, SC)

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these funds, though valuable at the time, vanished with the Confederacy on whose existence they depended. With enthusiastic pa- triotism, the $70,000 substantial endowment in existence at the outbreak of the war was converted into confederate bonds with the result of its total loss. Besides the loss of the endowment was the arrest of the growing prosperity of the college, which had been increasing finely in the patronage an d in the affections of the people. The necessities of many who would have become students forced them into self-supporting pursuits. Not until 1869 did the enrollment reach that of 1861, and so late as 1871-2 it was only ninety-four. There were no graduates in 1866 and but eighteen students ; two received diplomas in 1867. The earnestness of the students of those trying days is attested by the unusually large proportion of the graduates to the total enrollment. The number of students in the college classes in 1866 was 18; in 1870, 94; in 1875, 92; in 1880, 84; in 1885, 72; in 1891, 138; in 1S95. 144; in 1900, 143; in 1904, 196. Counting the 137 Fitting School students, there were 333 students on the campus in 1904. But there was one feature of the years from 1865 to about 1880 that made for fine, manly tone in college life and excel- lence in certain departments of college work, namely, the unusually high average age of the students. Many men who sat in these class rooms in the late sixties and early seventies had marched across the bloody fields of Virginia and Tennessee or had fought back the invaders along the Carolina coast. In some respects the college life of those days is not likely ever again to be equaled. A new point of departure in the history of the college may be fixed at (say) 1875. Three years before the movement which was eventually to create the present endowment had been set on foot, and the spirit manifested in the movers and the response among the people showed that a brighter day was about to dawn. In June. 1875, Dr. James H. Carlisle was made Presi- dent, Dr. Shipp having accepted a professorship in the theological department of the newlv organized Vanderbilt University, Rev. W W. Duncan, of Virginia, was given the work in Mental and Mora l Philosophy formerly taught by the President and was shortly charged with the work of financial agent, Charles Forster Smith was made Assistant Professor of Greek and Ger- man, the latter subject being then introduced, and D. A. DuPre was elected Assistant Professor, though without assignment of work until his return from the University of Edinburgh in the spring of 1877. What might be called the young faculty was further increased ni 1876 by the election of W. M. Baskervill as Professor of Latin and English. Professor Baskervill, just re- turned from his first residence in Germany, introduced the study of English Language and Anglo-Saxon in addition to the old course in literature, in which latter he also introduced the new methods of teaching more by use of the authors ' works instead of depending so largely on compends. In 1878 Jas. H. Kirkland became Tutor in Languages, thus presenting the simultane- ous employment at Wofford, of which we shall always be proud, of three of the most distinguished men who later simultaneously served Vanderbilt LIniversity. The addition of these five younger men to the splendid body of conservative and cultured gentle- men identified with the college since its foundation meant that Wofford, while losing nothing of the ideals of the past, was to keep in touch with the expanding needs and progressive thought of modern education. Happy is that people whose history is brief, expresses a truth applicable to the mutual relations of trustees, faculty and students. The remarkable harmony which has always characterized the workings of these three constituent members of the col- lege body politic is due to the wisdom, moderation and liberality of no one of them above another, except in so far as an excep- 24

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Prof. Carlisle, tall, imposing, modest, in the vigor of thirty years of youth, followed, as a hearer expressed it, in one of his own happy efforts, at once profound, simple, delightful. The subject matter was moral and philosophical, at times thrill- ing, we can easily believe. A distinct contrast, a contrast which he felt without throwing into prominence — was presented in his close with a portion of the address of President Wightman. He extended a fraternal hand to all similar institutions, and paid a tribute to the South Carolina College — in some sort the mother of us all said the orator, and hoped that when Wofford College should be celebrating its fiftieth anniversary, as the State college is doing this year, that institution, still flourishing and vigorous, might be celebrating it ' s one hundredth. This noble spirit of liberality, joined with the deepest piety in its author, has been of immense value in the after educational history of South Carolina. Prof. Warren DuPre delivered his inaugural at the second commencement. It was an address on Science, and was noted at the time as of marked ability. The original curriculum was composed of a good deal of mathematics, a large quantity of Greek and Latin, what would now be considered an infinitesimal amount of English and that based on the study of Karnes ' Elements of Criticism, two years of Science, and some general history. For the first year there was no Professor of English, that work being done by the Presi- dent. Dr. Whitefoord Smith came at the beginning of the second year as Professor of English Literature. Though collateral reading was not required in those days, an examination of the older portions of our library, as well as personal inquiries, proves that there was a great deal of good reading done, in the best existing fiction and a very excellent quality of history, especially in the works of the great historians who made the period famous by their writings. When the War of Secession opened the college classes contained seventy-nine students. The struggle had not continued many months when the bulk of the maturer men were drawn by their enthusiasm into the army. In 1863-4 only eighteen were enrolled and two graduated. In 1864-5 only boys remained and Professors Duncan and Carlisle taught a high school in the col- lege building. Prof. DuPre was engaged in supervising the public salt works at Mt. Pleasant, S. C, Prof Smith served the church in the town, and President Shipp took a year of rest which his state of health made very acceptable. One spring day in 1865 a message came that the Federal soldiers were coming. As Prof. Carlisle dismissed his boys, he told them to go straight home, as there might be confusion on the streets. Waddy Thompson was the last to leave the room, and as he departed he said, I hope the Yankees will be good to you if they catch you, Prof. Carlisle. Waddy knew, perhaps, of the apprehension on the part of Prof. Carlisle ' s friends that his part in the Secession Convention would endanger his safety or liberty if he should fall into the hands of the Federals. He was unmolested, however. The endowment of the college, after the erection and equipment of the buildings, amounted to $50,000. To this the Conference added the Centenary Educational Fund, $11,000, various friends gave $4,000, and Geo. W. Williams gave $S,ooo, the income from which last was to be used in aiding young men looking to the ministry. Almost immediately after its opening, there- fore, the college lacked only two thousand dollars of having the same endowment which it had in 1903. In the six months begin- ning with November, 1863, President Shipp raised the endowment to over $200,000. Simpson Bobo started the subscription with a gift of $30,000 in Confederate bonds, and Rev. A. H. Lester (afterwards Professor in the college) and his brothers, William and George, owners all three of the Buena Vista cotton factory, where Pelham now is, gave jointly about the same sum. AH 23

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tion must be made by emphasizing the tone and spirit inaugurated and constantly exemplified by the old faculty and made per- manent by Dr. James H. Carlisle during his long presidency. It is due to say that probably no student body in this country has ever conducted itself for fifty years in a more uniformly, gentlemanly and enlightened manner than that of Wofford College. There are no bad traditions in their history to live down. If the time ever comes when this can no longer be said they will have lost their chief glory. Not only has there never been a clash between any two of the three bodies of the college solar system, but the relations between all of them and the town have been equally as satisfactory. A college for women in the same town as one for men is a severe test upon the occupants of both institutions. Unpleasantness arising from this circumstance has never gone beyond triv- ial irritation due to a few individuals, and that years ago in the newness of associations in process of adjustment. For a few years two members of the faculty and presumably the students looking to the ministry were known as the divinity school, and the $5,000 donation of Mr. Geo. W. Williams in 1855 was thought to look perhaps in this direction. The divinity school, however, never had any real existence, and it is the only instance, even in name, in which Wofford has ever de- parted from pursuing singly the ideal of a college. This singleness and sincerity of aim accounts in no small degree for the ad- mirably rounded and liberal type of mind and character marking Wofford men. College life has increased greatly in complexity and variety of duties, opportunities and interests during (say) the past fifteen or eighteen years. The issue of the first number of the Wofford College Journal in January, 1889, may be taken as the first decided break into the simpler routine of the older days, when class room work began at 10 a. m. and ceased at 12, to be completed by one hour ' s work from 4 to 5- The Y. M. C. A. had been organized in 1879; the gymnasium was opened in 1896. The first Wofford base ball team the Pioneers, was in 1869, but intercollegiate games made no appearance until about 1886, and they did not become a customary or important part of the college life until 1896, since which date they have increased in number and intensity of interest. Though fraternities have existed m the college since 1867, they did not become an absorbing subject of collective college thought until about 1900. The Glee Club is another, though somewhat intermittent, recent ex- pression of student activity. College politics began to give rise to more heated contests in about 1890, at important elections dur- ing the next few years feeling frequently rising to a painful height. It is much harder to be an ideal all round student now than ever before. The student of manners observes that life at Wofford has within the past twenty years become more frankly democratic. Ideas of social caste, the heritage of an ante-bellum aristocratic society, have grown much weaker within the past two decades and the Wofford campus is nearer than ever before the place where every man has an equal chance, socially, intellectually and politi- cally. The history of the present endowment is as follows. At the meeting of the Alumni Association, June 25, 1872, Robert W. Boyd, who as a young man was the first teacher in the preparatory department, made an earnest speech proposing to raise $50,000 endowment by January i, 1874, by securing personal bonds to this amount. The plan was adopted and the amount was pledged, the preachers of the South Carolina Conference, those ever ready friends to whom Wofford College is more deeply indebted than to any other body of men, subscribing $10,000 — many times above their proportional ability. Only a small portion of the 25