Davidson College - Quips and Cranks Yearbook (Davidson, NC)

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1 DAVIDSON COLLECE-Main r.i

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Salutatory. WE salute you and present Quil 6 an Granfts, In this, our first issue, we have striven to produce a volume worthy of our institution, and while we realize our imperfections and shortcomings, we ask of our readers an indulgent criticism and that recognition and appreciation merited by all hon- est endeavor. The Editors. i mU(ZlMG3BW

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DAVIDSON COLLEGE. The Scotch-Irish Presbyterians who settled the Piedmont region of North and South Carolina deemed life, both individual and national, fatally incomplete if any one of its three essentials, Religion, Liberty and Education, was lacking. They built a chain of churches and classical academies from Virginia to Georgia. The most prominent of the latter in North Carolina were the Bingham School in Orange county, Dr. Caldwell ' s celebrated school in Guilford, Queen ' s College, afterward Liberty Hall Academy, in Meck- lenburg, and Zion-Parnassus in Rowan. In 1820 a general convention was held at Lincoln- ton, and the founding of Western College resolved upon. The new institution was to be a secular one, free from ecclesiastical control or oversight, but it was found impossible to harmonize such discordant ele ments and conflicting interests. After four years of zealous effort the project was abandoned, but the seed sown by its promoters bore fruit in a later and more successful enterprise. On March 12, 1835, the Presbytery of Concord met at Prospect church, Rowan county, seven miles from the present site of Davidson College. Taking into consideration the importance of a more general dif- fusion of useful knowledge, and the expediency of adopting some system of sound and thorough educa- tion, and having heard with pleasure that the manual labor system, as far as it has been tried, promises the most happy results in the training of youth, the Presbytery unanimously resolved to undertake (in humble reliance on the blessing of God) the establish- ment of a manual labor school. Committees were appointed to raise the necessary funds and to pur- chase a site. The latter committee selected and pur- chased a body of land comprising four hundred and ninety two acres, lying exactly on the crest of the water-shed between the Yadkin and Catawba rivers, which are here about fifty miles apart. At the next meeting of Presbytery on August 26th, the finance committee, consisting of Rev. R. H. Morrison and Rev. P. J. vSparrow, announced that since their appointment five months before they had raised the astonishing sum of $30,392. The report was received with prayer and thanksgiving, and the following resolution adopted : — Resolved, That the manual labor institution which we are about to build be called Davidson College, as a tribute to the memory of that distinguished and excellent man, Gen. William