College of William and Mary - Colonial Echo Yearbook (Williamsburg, VA)

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Calendar, Si nday, June 22, 1902, n A. M., Final Sermon. Sunday, Junk 22, 1902, 8 P. M., Sermon before the Young Men ' s Christian Association. Monday, June 23, 1902, 8 P. M., Celebration of the Phcenix Society. Ti 1 5DAY, June 24, 1902, 10 A. M., Celebration of the Senior Class ; 8 P. M., Celebration of the Philomathean Society. Wednesday, June 25, 1902, 11A. M., Celebration of the Society of the Alumni ; Oration, n A. M.; Banquet, 9 P. M. Thursday, June 26, 1902, A. M.. Address before the Literary Societies; 12 A. M., Awarding Diplomas, Medals, and Scholarships ; 10 P. M., Final Ball. Next Session begins Thursday, October 2, 1902. Tlie 13th of May of each year, being the day the first English settlers landed at Jamestown, is a general holiday. The session of each year ends on Thursday before the 29th of June, the date of the adoption of the first written Constitution of Virginia.

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ILONIA I. ECHO EDITORS

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The College of William and Mary, T IS pleasing and profitable to trace minutely the evolution of institutions and of men, but to describe the stages of progress which the College of William and Mary has passed since its establishment in 1693, would be a seemingly endless task. Consequently, the writer has contented himself with mentioning a few of the most important and inteiesting facts con- nected with its origin, foundation, and subsequent career. William and Mary, the oldest College in America with the single exception of Harvard, although not formally established until 1693, has antecedents which date as far back as 1617. Before the little colony had hardly gained a firm footing at Jamestown, before the onerous task of clearing the forest had hardly begun, and while the hostile Indians were still hovering around the almost defenceless settlement, these early Virginians conceived the idea of higher education. The primary object in founding a college was the education and conversion of the Indians, whose condition seemed to weigh heavily upon the consciences of the people of that time. So, in 1619, Sir Edwin Sandys, together with some good people of England, raised a considerable sum for the establish- ment of an Indian College and the foundation of a seminary of learning for the English. Mr. George Thorpe, a gentleman of His Majesty ' s Privy Cham- ber, was sent over to superintend the so-called university. But this fust begin- ning of philanthropy to the Indian was nipped in the bud by the Great Mas- sacre of 1622, when Thorpe and three hundred and forty other settlers per- ished. Passing over the next forty years, during which the seed sown in 161 7 was still in embryo, we find that in 1660 the Virginia Assembly voted that for the advance of learning, education of youth, supply of the ministry, and promotion of 1 1