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

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QUIP AND R A K K, S r M [;TJ .tP y f LL • several other professors, when they ar- rived at the Hormitories, found all the hoys in their rooms, studyinR attentively for the next day ' s lessons, or sleepinK innocently in their hcds. Xo individual culprit could he found until one hoy from Arkansas refused the professor ad- mittance to his room, rndaunted. the investiKating professor prrxrured an axe and heat down the door; inside they found a student fully dressed with his hoots still on and he was later susjiended from college on circumstantial evidence. This action so angered the remainder of the student hody. that all quietly left school and returned to their homes, leav- ing two hoys to c institute the Davidson student hody on the campus. It should l)c added that most of the students were reinstated several weeks later. And thereafter college discipline grew steadily hetter. PROGRESS A member of the class of 1859 has ma Ie the following interesting comment: Student life was primitive, as viewed from the comforts nf a later time. We chopped most of the wood we used. We drew water from a well and brought it to our rooms. These exercises took the i.iact- ..i atiucii. . I ru- iiiMrnuii; h. il r.u.u sunrise. Then five minutes before sunrise it rang again, sounding its last stroke at When it ceased to ring every student was exl)ected to be in his place in the chapel. The $200,000 legacy of Mr. Maxwell Chambers, of Salisbury, started the first real progress at Davidson. The Chambers building was erected and Davidsoni soon came into state-wide prominence as an institution of learning. It was the Chambers building, erected at a cost of $81,000, that built the Davidson tradition which we know to lay. It was the focus of college life for sixty years until it burned in 1921. During the Civil War | eriod, most of the students withdrew from school and patriotically supported the South. .Many sons of Davidson were lost in the conflict and for a while it was doubtful whether the Presbyterian institution could successfully sustain all its losses. At the close of the Civil War, a period of slow reconstruction set in at Davidson as well as over the entire South, EXPANSION At the turn of the century came a turn in the development of Davidson. Under the aggressive Presi- dent Henry I. Smith, the student body was enlarged, the faculty increased, the grounds and buildings improved, and the curriculum made more adequate. The undergraduate hotly came consistently over the two hundred mark after 1900. Several years later, the increasing importance and influence of the coUese necessitated the building of the Martin Chemical Laboratory, Shearer Hall, Rumple an l Watts dormitories, and the heating plant. The Student Council was inaugurated in 1910 and still exists as the most powerful undergraduate group on the campus. Davidson is among the oldest schools in the country to adopt a system of self- government for its scholars. The Y. M. C. A. probably came into being as a religious organization on the campus in 1878 an l is today a great Christian influence at the college. The Davidson Monihiy was the first publication relascd by the students of the college and it proved to be a short-lived magazine, its last issue being in 1S72, just two years after its initial edition. The Pavidsonian was founded by the class of 1915 and has exerted an increasingly strong eHect on student life since its fir.st issue in April, 1914. Since the decline of the Eumenean and Philanthropic Literary Societies, social and honorary fraternities have taken an increasingly important part in campus life. There have been fraternities at Davidson since 1869, in one form or another. The full story of the origin, growth, and development of Davidson College is indeed a recor I of high achievement and hard-won success, in many ways typical of the devote l idealism and undaunted ising of the purpi ..f th,- f.. Kdi. h! tlu-i NINETEEN THIRTY FIVE

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QUIP AND R A K IC S Da idson Chronicles GENESIS The foundation of Davidson College uas effected only after a bitter strug- , ' Ie against great difficulties. To es- talilish an institution of learning many ci ' istacles had to be overcome: finances. liication, building program, faculty, and administrative leaders. But the people (if Concord Presbytery displayed defi- nite qualities of courage, wisdom and ' letermination in disposing of the ob- stacles which stood in their way. After many meetings and discussions, it as decided to purchase a tract of land about equi-distant from Charlotte, Salisbury, Concord, and Statesville. Sub- scriptions amounting to $30,000 were collected and the foundation of David- son College was in view. The land was bought cheaply from William Lee David- son early in the year 1836. Building and other committees were appointed, ;ind the actual work of construction was III tiitiute to the memory of that dis- 1 1 11! ui shed and excellent man, General Wiliiam Davidson, who in the ardor of patriotism, fearlessly contending for the was given the name of Davidson College. sident and his Christian influence in its is successors have all carried with noble Icman and scholar. irolled and a total paid tuition of $820. iliat early period by the undergraduates. -.sion. One was expelled for striking onduct of the early student groups liberty of his country, fell in the battle of Cowan ' s Ford. ' Rev. Robert Hall Morrison served the school as formative years has produced an unending effect on tliL pride the banner that was first held in the hand of si - Classes began on March 12, 1837, with sixty-H Elm Row and Oak Row are two of the surviving durniit. In 1838 seven students were suspended for im- ■ i; i : one of his fellows across the head, nearly killii.: i . . was commendable, and the fruition of early eilm For about four years during the earlv iii-i ; i required all students to perform certain tfuties reyula on March 11. 1839, contained this section: Each student who enters this institution shall perform manual labor and to the extent determined by the Board of Trustees. There shall be a steward whose duty it shall be to manage the farm and boarding house and direct the students during labor hours. . . . The proceeds of the labor of the students shall belong to the institution and shall be disposed of by the Board of Trustees. ndoned in 1841; it had been in existence since the beginning of nplished. .1 manual labor pla college Constitution, used which as adopted The manual lal liege but had inuvet plan 1 I entirely by wilful desertion. Early in 1855. the me stmlent threw a stoi nsatisfactory due largely to the irresponsibility of a fev EXODUS the administration and the stii inished in numbers, either thr Davi students. dent tjotly r ough expuls NINETEEK THIRTY FIVE

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QUIPS AND C 3R. A K K- S Dr. Walter L. Lingle President Page Twenty-tiVo NINETEEN THIRTY FIVE