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

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DAVIDSON COLLEGE ; HISTORICAL TiiK Presrytekian C ' liiKni lias always been a leading promoter of education. The Scotch and the Irish laid the fomidation before the Rcvoliitionar - war, and afterwards fol- lowed up their early beginnings so vigorously and successfully that all the education of the State of North Carolina down to the middle of the present century was largely their work. The United States (io ernment has issued a llistoiy of Education in North Carolina, prepared by Charles Lee Smith, a member of the l aptist Church. It is a book which every Presb ' tcrian ma - reaii with interest, because it reads like a histor - of Presbyterianism, so inti- mate was the connection of that Church with edu- cation. The State University was largely founded and fostered by them and largelj- controlled by them down to the recent war. It would be interesting to trace the progress of education in Western North Carolina from the founding of Queen ' s College near Charlotte by I -esbyterians in 1767, for two-thirds of a centun,-. There are numerous grammar .schools and acade- mies in North and South Carolina, which furnished many ilistinguished men for the church and for the state, some going through college, and some not, but all of exceptional classical training by masters in their day. In 1S35 the Presb tcries of Concord and Mor- ganton in North Carolina, and Bethel in South Carolina, undertook to found a college jointly. l)rs. Morrison and Sparrow raised $30,000 in five months and the school w£is put in operation in 1837, under the presidency of Rev. Robert Hall Morrison, D. D. Davidson College was named in honor of Cicn. William Davidson, a Revolutionary patriot, who fell fighting bravely at the battle of Cowan ' s Ford, and whose memory is still fragrant in Western North Carolina. It was quite the fashion in those days to engraft m.uiual labor on the schools. The system was tried here a few )-ears. It soon became apparent ho e er, that learned college professors did not exxel in farming, and the ambitious future govern- ors, senators and preachers among the pu[)ils were not easily harnessed between the plow handles be- hind a bobtail mule. Indeed, tradition says that many of the pu])ils so imbibed the spirit of the aforesaid comrade in toil, that they became chronic kickers

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against the system. The College opened March the 1st, 1837, with sixty-six students; Dr. Morri- son President and Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy ; Rev. P. J. Sparrow, D. D., Professor of Ancient Languages ; and M. D. Johnson, Tutor of Mathematics. The first buildings were four rows of cottages, of which two remain, Oak Row and Elm Row ; the Old Chapel, the Stewart ' s Hall, the President ' s House and Tammany for the Professor of Ancient Languages. The manual labor feature soon succumbed to the inevitable. In 1840 Dr. Morrison retired on account of ill health. Dr. Sparrow soon after became President of Hampden-Sidney, Virginia. Dr. Samuel Williamson was President from 1 84 1 to 1854, assisted by two professors. A severe crisis came in the financial condition of the college in the closing years of his administratinn which was relieved for a season by the sale of scholarships on a scale of liberality, which proved ruinous to the College, though neither buyers nor sellers ever intended them to work that wa ' . The most of these scholarships have been surrendered or compromised and cancelled. A few of them, however, still survive and spring up with a buoy- ancy and activity which would entitle them to be quoted on ' change. The 40,000 raised from this source gave only temporary relief Maxwell Chambers, Esq., w ' as a native of this region of country, and after conducting a pros- perous mercantile business in Charleston, S. C, he removed to Salisbury. N. C, where he died in February, 1855. He gave one-half of his estate of a half million of dollars to his kindred and friends and the other half to the Trustees of Davidson College to advance the cause of Christian educa- tion. This legacy enabled them to provide a mag- nificent building, cabinets, apparatus, and also to employ a large corps of professors. Rev. Drury Lac ' , D. D., served as President for five -ears, and he was succeeded by Rev. J. L. Kirkpatrick, D. D., in i860, and he in 1 866 by Rev. (;. V. McPhail, D. D., who died in office in 1871. The College was not entirely closed during the war, but much of her endow ' ments was lost and her funds reduced to $70,000, from which they ha e slowl) ' increased to $130,000 at the present time. Pnif J. R. Blake served as chairman of the P ' aculty from 1871 to 1877, when Rev. A. D. Hep- burn, D. D., LL. D., was made President, which office he filled till his resignation in 1885. He was succeeded b ' Rev. Luther McKinnon who re- signed in 1 888 on account of long-continued ill health, by which he is still debarred from active serxice. He was succeeded by the present incum- bent, Re -. J. H. Shearer, D. D., LL. D. In 1875-76 the several Presbyteries of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida elected Trustees into the Board, as the other Presbyteries of North Carolina had already done, thus greatly enlarging