Cumberland University - Phoenix Yearbook (Lebanon, TN)

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both of whom occupied high positions on the bench of the State. Within ten years I could truly boast of the largest and most successful law school North or South. Another addition was made to me in 1851 — the En- gineering Department — which was in charge of Pro- fessor (afterwards General) A. P. Stewart. Though never large, its standard has always .been high, its re- quirements rigid. In 1855 I launched another department — the Theo- logical School. The work was placed in charge of the Rev. Richard Beard, D.D., who gave the rest of his life to it, dying, in 1880, full of honors. This department was discontinued in 1910 — not because of any lack of success, but as an indirect result of the trouble be- tween the Cumberland and the United Presbyteiians. The first publication issued in my name was a book of rules, published in 1843. It consisted of twenty-one pages of rules for Faculty, students, admissions, dis- missions, and sundry other matters. You would prob- ably be amused by the quaintness of some of them, so let me quote a few : Chapter VII., Section 7. The President, a Pro- fessor, or a Tutor, shall have the authority to break open and enter any college- chamber or study at all times, at his discretion. Section 10. If any student shall ring the college bell, except by order of the President, a Professor, or a Tutor, he shall be punished at the discretion of the Faculty. Chapter XIV., Section 8. Every student boarding within the town corporation, or within three-quarters of a mile of the college building, shall attend morning prayers in the College Chapel at sunrising. You smile, dear scholar, and no doubt with reason; but those were great and glorious days. When the Civil War came, all my buildings and my endowment were swept away. But I was not dead. My soul still lived in the minds and hearts of my stu- dents, my professors, and my people of Lebanon; and it was not six months after the close of the war that I was again in operation. But I see that you are growing wearied with these reminiscences of a long life. Have I a mission ? Truly, the approval of the public throughout my lifetime points to a mission, and to a mission in some way ful- filled, though not yet fully accomplished. Again you ask, What is that mission ? and I answer : Go forth from my halls, dear scholar, and in the achievements of your own life, whose guiding principles have been instilled into your hearts under my roof, realize that mission within yourself.

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A Reminiscence ?ID you ask me whence I came and what is my ll%91) mission here? Not so fast, dear scholar, and I shall try to answer you ; but you must let me do so in my own fashion. I first came into being in the year 1826. Folks say that I was born sixteen years later, but that is not true ; for what they call a birth was merely a change of residence on my part. I was, as I have said, born eighty-five years ago at Princeton, Ky. I was brought into being by the Cumberland Presbj ' terian denomina- tion, at that time a youthful institution, and given the name of Cumberland College. A few facts about my outward appearance at that time may interest you. My campus was a farm of five hundred acres ; my recitation hall, a big, two-story, log house, with wide, old-fashioned fireplaces, and a roof of clapboards; my dormitories, single rooms, most of them built of logs. Every student who lodged under my maternal roof must perforce work two days a week on my farm. I had been founded upon the faith of sundry prom- ises, and the Trustees had borrowed the money to make the first payment for the land and buildings which con- stituted my corporal self, and had given mortgages for the remainder. In my infancy I was never strong, and I soon in- volved the Trustees in financial troubles; so that in 1842 the General Assembly resolved to move me from Princeton, and, accordingly, invited subscriptions from towns desiring to have me take up my abode in their midst. Lebanon made the largest bid, and so I was moved to this place — a change that benefited me greatly, for my buildings at Princeton were in poor condition and my health during my last years there was not of the best. The change revived me imme- diately. I started the first year in my new location with forty-five students and four professors ; and, un- der the solicitous care of the good people of Lebanon, my condition steadily improved. They soon built for me a fine new building, and in 1844 changed my name to Cumberland University. The number of students who flocked to my halls rapidly grew, until in 1885 it totaled four hundred and seventy. Everything that I needed came to me — students, endowment, prestige, sti ' ong men as professors, and, above all, the love of the people of Lebanon. In 1847 the Law School was established, at first with only one professor — the Hon. Abraham Caruthers. The following year two more were added to the Fac- ulty — Hon. Nathan Green and Hon. B. L. Ridley —

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Cumberland University A. B. MARTIN, LL.D., President Pkofessor in Law School Lebanon, Tenn. EDWARD EWING BEARD, Treasurer Instkuctoe IX Law School Peesident American National Bank Lebanon, Tenn. AMZI W. HOOKER, Secretary Peesident Lebanon National Bank Lebanon, Tenn. HON. RUPUS PORTER McCLAIN Lawyer Lebanon, Tenn. I Ff B iC - wt IP KL H i MM k Fk. ■ ■ ' I Bi w S ' flVv .i-.wE IT Board of Trustees JAMBS L. WEIR Vice President Lebanon National Bank Lebanon, Tenn. SELDEN R. WILLIAMS Capitalist Lebanon, Tenn. W. M. COSBY Merchant Birmingham, Ala. WARNER E. SETTLE Judge Kentucky Couet or Appeals Frankfort, Ky.