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

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Davidson, who, in the ardor of patriotism, fearlessly contending for the liberty of his country, fell, uni- versally lamented, in the battle of Cowans Ford. On March i, 1837, the new institution opened with sixty-six students. Dr. Morrison was President and Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy, Dr. Spar- row, afterward President of Hampden Sidney, Pro- fessor of the Ancient Languages, and Mortimer D. Johnston, of Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, Pro- fessor of Mathematics and the Natural Sciences. Thus, fifty-eight years ago, the college was founded, the fruit of the prayers, sacrifices and consecrated zeal of the best educat ed men of the most highly educated section of the Carolinas. It is not our purpose to trace its long and illustrious career, nor to call the roll of its scores of distinguished alumni. Having described the founding of the college, let us examine its modern history more closely. During the last ten years numerous improvements have been made, both in the courses offered and in the facilities for their successful prosecution, till, in the extent and thoroughness of the education it offers, Davidson College has hardly its equal in the Southern States. For the information of the older alumni we will enumerate some of the more important improve- ments. A Professorship of English, with a four years ' course, and one of the English Bible, with a three- years ' course, have been established. The three libraries of the college and literary societies have been consolidated in the large library of the main building, and a permanent librarian employed. Two reading- rooms, one for religious the other for secular papers and magazines, have been fitted up and opened. A gas plant has been set up which furnishes gas to the college laboratories and lights the center hall of the main building. Three new laboratories for students ' work have been fitted up for the Departments of Electricity, Mineralogy and Quantitative Chemistry. The courses in Chemistry, Physics, Political Econ- omy, History, Astronomy, Metaphysics and Meteor- ology have been much extended and improved. Sec- ond year courses have also been added in French and German. The first Y. M. C. A. hall on a Southern campus was finished in 1890. It is named, in honor of the founder and first president of the college, Morrison Memorial Hall, is sixty-seven by forty five feet, two and a half stories high, contains gymnasium, running track, assembly hail, parlor and reading-rooms, and is handsomely furnished throughout. The associa- tion of which it is the home is the most thoroughly organized college association, according to the state- ments of the intercollegiate secretaries, in the South. Between fifty and sixty of its members are ready at any time to conduct religious services, and more than half that number are actively engaged in mission work in the surrounding country. In the facilities for physical training the advance has been equally marked. A large gymnasium, sixty- five by forty three feet, has been erected and furnished, and a regular instructor employed. A general ath- letic association has been organized, and an annual field-day, the last Saturday in April, set apart for ath- letic contests. Lake Wiley, covering ten or twelve acres, has been constructed, within fifteen minutes ' walk of the college. It is furnished with two bath- houses, six boats, a deep-water spring-board, and a water-toboggan slide over two hundred feet long. The baseball and football grounds have been leveled and

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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

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improved, and a quarter-mile running track con- structed. A bicycle club has been organized, and the large drives of the campus have been connected by curved paths. This gives a roughly circular track for bicycle racing or practice nearly a half mile in length. A roller-skating club and a gun club have also been added to the list of athletic organizations. The latter has five traps located on college land not far from the campus. There are also eleven tennis courts in active operation on the college grounds. The location of the college is midway between Charlotte and Statesville, on the A. , T. O. R. R. It has four trains a day, connecting at Charlotte with the Southern, the C. C. and the C. C. A., and at Statesville with the W. N. C. R. R. The village has about eight hundred inhabitants, a handsome church and mission chapel, a flourishing classical academy of high grade, and no barrooms.