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

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iatitbj00U OInlbg? 01 Paat, PrfHPtit anii Jfuturt I HE same hardy race which gave to the world the first Declaration of American • Independence, were not less energetic in their advancement of religion and learning than in their struggle for liberty. The Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, who took up their abode in the Piedmont se ction of the Carolinas twenty-five years previous to the Revolution, showed their zeal for the cause of Christ by planting in the yet untried country of their adoption numerous churches ; and their love of learning was manifested by the establishment of a number of classical academies, the influence of which extended throughout the whole of the up-country. Of these schools the most note-worthy, perhaps, were the Bingham school in Orange county; Dr. Caldwell ' s well-known school in Guilford; Queen ' s College, afterward Liberty Hall Academy, in Mecklenburg; and Zion Parnassus in Rowan. The zeal of these sturdy pioneers in establishing institutions of learning for the education of their young, has its most splendid commemoration and, as time has proved, its most enduring monument in Davidson College. The growing importance and influence of this institution furnish us a sufficient warrant for an inquiry into its earlier history. On March 12, 1835, Concord Presbytery met at Prospect Church in Rowan county, about seven miles from the present site of Davidson College, and decided to establish a manual-labor and training school. When the Presbytery next convened it was announced by the committee appointed for the purpose, consisting of Rev. Robert Hall Morrison and Rev. P. J. Sparrow, that $30,392 had been contributed by the heroic self-sacrifice and devotion of the churches under the jurisdiction of the three Presbyteries of Concord, Bethel and Morganton. In honor of Gen. William Lee Davidson, who fell at the battle of Cowan ' s Ford, the new institution was called Davidson College. Four hundred and ninety-two acres of land had been purchased between the Yadkin and Catawba rivers, and on this site the new college was opened to the youth of the South, March i, 1837, with sixty-six students in attendance. Dr. Morrison was the first President, and Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy ; Dr. Sparrow, Professor of Ancient Languages ; and Mortimer D. Johnston, of Jeflferson College, Pennsylvania, Professor of Mathematics and the

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JAMES Mcdowell douglas, m. a., ph. d. Professor of Natural Philosophy Douglas was born in Fairfield County, South Carolina, in 1867. He entered Davidson in 1890, and received the Degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1893, being one of the honor men of his class. During the following year he pursued his studies in Mathematics, and in 1894 received the Degree of Master of Arts. The three years after graduation were spent in teaching at the Davidson High School, and as Superintendent of the Gaston Institute, Gastonia, North Carolina. He entered Johns Hopkins University in 1897, graduating in 1901 with the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. In the same year he was elected to the chair of Natural Philosophy at Davidson College. ARCHIBALD CURRIE, A. B. Adjunct Professor in Mathematics, Latin and Greek Professor Currie was born at Hillsboro, North Carolina, in 1876. Entered Davidson College in 1893. In 1896 he received the Debater ' s Medal, and in the following year was graduated with the Degree of Bachelor of Arts. After leaving College he taught one year at Coleman, Texas. From 1898 to 1901 he was Principal of the Davidson High School. In 1901 he was elected to the position of Adjunct Professor of Mathematics, Latin and Greek at Davidson College. m. e. sentelle, a. b., m. a. Professor of Biblical Instruction Born in Greenville, Tennessee, in 1874. Studied at Tusculum College, preparatory school, from 1887 to 1890; at King College from 1890 to 1852. Entered Junior Class at Davidson in 1892, and graduated with the Degree of A. B. in 1894, winning the Debater ' s Medal, Bible Medal, and being the Valedictorian of his class. After graduation taught at the Davidson High School from 1894 to 1896. From 1896 to 1897 he was Professor of Mathematics in King College. From there he went to Harvard, where he studied Experimental Psychology. From 1898 to 1899 studied Philosophy, History and Sociology at Yale. Then studied at Princeton from 1899-1901. After leaving Princeton he preached in Texas, until persuaded by Dr. Shearer to relinquish his work and assist him at Davidson in 1903.

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Natural Sciences. With a student-body of sixty-six members, and with three pro- fessors in its faculty, Davidson College commenced its career sixty-seven years ago, and from that day to this has never closed its doors. Even in the troublous times of the Civil War it continued its sessions, though its few students were, for the most part, boys too young to defend the cause of the South at the front. The princely donation of a quarter of a million dollars made to its endowment fund in 1855 by Maxwell Chambers, enabled the College to employ a larger and more efficient corps of instructors and to purchase a more adequate equipment for the laboratories of the Natural Science departments. Like many another of the South ' s fortunes, the endowment of Davidson College was all but swept away by the ravages of the Civil War. Since the war the institution has had to struggle against poverty, which, for a long time, threatened its very existence ; and it has been only by the noble devotion of its constituents that it has been enabled, slowly, to raise its endowment to $100,000, to expend $50,000 for laboratories, apparatus, and other improvements, and with this new equipment to carry on its work of train- ing the young men of the South for usefulness in Church and State. After a look at Davidson ' s past history, we may be justified in our desire to know in what degree she is measuring up to the high ideals of the past ; in what way she is fulfilling her mission of usefulness to the Church and to the section whose zeal for the cause of truth and enlightenment brought her into being. Probably the growing prosperity of the College cannot be better shown than by referring to the numerous improvements which have been made on its campus within the last few years. And just here, and first of all, it is proper to call attention to the work and influence of the College Y. M. C. A., whose building, the first of its kind erected on a Southern campus, contains, in addition to the assembly hall and parlor on the second floor, a gymnasium and bath rooms, which occupy the whole of the lower story. In its gymnasium a number of the students take their exercise, and its bath rooms are used by a large majority of the men in College. As a moral agency on the campus, as one of the religious factors of life at Davidson, and as a training school for Christian workers, the value and influence of the Y. M. C. A. cannot be overrated. The Association here is now in a flourishing condition, and promises to fulfill its high mission of usefulness to the work of the College. Davidson has always boasted of her beautiful campus, unsurpassed by that of any institution in the South. Only those who have had the privilege of seeing for themselves can appreciate the inadequacy of photographs and word descriptions to set forth the beauty of its wide stretches of luxuriant lawns, shaded by magnifi- cent trees, and traversed here and there by well-kept walks leading to and from the 19