Cumberland University - Phoenix Yearbook (Lebanon, TN)

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A History of Cumberland ! HE year 1826 is the true birth year of Cumberland, for it was then that the C J Cumberland Presbyterian Church established Cumberland College at Prince- njRR ton, Ky. The infant institution was founded upon promises, and we are told GoS that the first buildings and lands were purchased with money that the hopeful Trustees had borrowed. These first buildings were not at all like the large brick struc- tures that we know; they were log houses with clapboard roofs. The campus was a five-hundred-acre farm, containing many dormitories. In spite of the fact that every student worked two days a week on the school farm, the Trustees were soon perilously involved in financial troubles; so in 1842 the General Assembly voted to move Cumberland from Princeton, and invited oft ' ers from towns wishing the advantages of a college. Lebanon made the highest bid, and took the newly acquired institution into its care at once. A charter was obtained in 1843, and 1844 found Cumberland College well situated in a new building, with the more dig-nified name of Cumberland University. It is interesting to know that the first official publication was a twenty-one page rule book, issued in 1843. Such regulations as the following may seem strange to the mod- ern mind, but they are actually found in this first bulletin : Chapter VII, Section 7. The President, a professor, or a tutor shall have the au- thority to break open and enter any college chamber or study at all times, at his dis- cretion. Section 10. If any student shall ring the college bell, except by order of the Presi- dent, 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. Peculiar rules! But they must have been popular, for the number of students grew steadily. The first year ' s work was launched with forty-five students; sixteen years later (1858) the enrollment had reached a total of four hundred and seventy. Other signs of progress had also shown themselves — an endowment fund, a larger corps of able professors, and that prestige which is more precious to a school than any amount of endowment. This wide growth in every direction demanded more departments, and they were added from time to time. The Law School was established first, in 1847, under the direction of the Hon. Abra- ham Caruthers, with seven students. An increase of students the next year caused the addition of two more professors, the Hon. Nathan Green and the Hon. B. L. Ridley, both illustrious in the legal history of the State. The entire list of law professors is filled with names of well-known and well-beloved men whose achievements have helped to give this department its hundreds of students and its enviable reputation. In 1855 the Theological School was launched, with the Rev. Richard Beard, D.D., at its head. This department was highly successful and a most worthy unit. Its discon- tinuance came in 1910 — not because of any lack of merit, but as an indirect result of the union between the Cumberland and the United Presbyterians. We can see that there was every indication of success to crown the eventful story of Cumberland ' s life. Then the Civil War came, sweeping away endowment, buildings, all the fruits of forty years ' toil. What could be done? The indomitable spirit ex- pressed in E. Cineribus Resurgo manifested itself with vigor, and work was resumed less than six months after the end of the war. To discuss the great men who have given Cumberland glory is a task that would de- mand more space than the present edition of the Phcenix can oflrer; so that is forbid- den us; but we can at least review the Presidents, as Cumberland has been so remark- ably fortunate in her selection of them. The Rev. Franceway Ranna Cossitt, D.D., was the first President of the University. He was a graduate of Middlebury College, in Vermont, and a writer of considerably ability, being the editor of the Banner of Peace and the biographer of Finis Ewing.