Augusta College - White Columns Yearbook (Augusta, GA)

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The (!o i c Oirl csfra The next president was Colonel Charles Withrow. It was Withrow ' s misfortune, after replacing Rains in 1886, to preside over the decline of the Academy. The rich range of courses and programs of which Rains was so proud was cut back drastically. The problem was likely due to the general economic slump which gripped the Southeast in the 1890 ' s. The Academy came under the control of the Richmond County Board of Education on July 1, 1909. During the first year, the Academy was re- organized into five academic depart- ments by Lawton B. Evans; Ancient and Modern Languages, Mathematics and Science, English, History, and Bus- iness. Three of the new programs extended over five years instead of the usual four, enabling graduates to enter the sophomore year at the University of Georgia without examination. New economic prosperity brought about a fresh look at the Academy. At the end of the 1 9 1 school year. Colonel Charles Withrow retired as principal and took the Chairmanship of Ancient Languages. George Phineas Butler succeeded him and began a dis- tinguished administration. He put to- gether a fine faculty which believed in itself and in the students, a faculty which stayed together until the Junior College moved from Russell Street to the Arsenal. Butler revived the military department, which had ceased to exist in 1 888. The military department became the beast of the Academy. Mathematics and military drill were George Butler ' s forte, and they are an index to his personality. He was a forthright, ef- ficient, conscientious teacher, regular in his habits, unsparing of himself, and demanding of others.

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