Duke University - Chanticleer Yearbook (Durham, NC)

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VICTORIA BEGINS THE LONGEST REIGN IN ENGLISH HISTORY 1837-1901 Craven was a great master-builder and it was he who was the real founder and builder of Trinity College. His greatest achievement, perhaps, was the estab- lishment of Normal College in 1851. This change came as a direct result of his hope for a greater field of usefulness for the institution, namely, that of training teachers for the newly-established state school system. Under this new incorporation the graduates were licensed to teach in the common schools of North Carolina. The next year the College was authorized by the legislature to confer de- grees; and on July 28, 1853, Lemuel Johnston, who later became a professor at the school, and his brother. Reverend Dougan C. Johnston, were the first men to receive degrees as authorized by the new charter. During the year 1853-54 larger building was erected by means of money lent by the State Literary Fund. LTpon its completion, this enlarged and more useful college was recognized as one of the most important institutions in North Carolina. But Craven ' s plans for stressing the education of public school teachers did not prove successful chiefly because some of the polit- ical leaders of North Carolina were adverse to subsidizing any school other than the University of North Carolina and were dubious of the practical value of the normal col- lege idea. Braxton Craven then turned to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in order to get stronger support and larger patronage for Normal College. In 1856 he ap- proached the North Carolina Conference, which had split with the Virginia Conference because of differences of policy in the direc- tion of Randolph-A ' lacon College. Within two years the Board of Trustees of Normal College had arranged, chiefly through the brilliant efforts of President Craven, to meet all the requirements stipulated by the Confer- ence. In consequence, the Conference became invested with the complete ownership and control of the College in 1859, and the name was changed in the new charter to Trinity College as suggested by Charles Force Deems. Craven was retained as President. This was the charter which declared that no person, without written permission from the Faculty, shall, within two miles of Trinity College, exhibit any theatrical, sleight-of-hand, natural or artificial curiosities, or any concert, serenade, or performance in music, singing or dancing. BOARDED HIS STUDENTS AT THE LOWEST POSSIBLE FIG- URE . . . THE FIRST GRADUATES TO RECEIVE DEGREES . .

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THE QUAKERS WERE IRRECON- CILABLE . . . BRANTLEY YORK was incorporated by the General Assembly of North Carolina. It was a high-grade common school, prosperous, and well patronized by the people of the neighborhood. But one day the Methodists made sport over the thee and thou of the Quakers, and the result was the upsetting of the harmony so long en- joyed between the two groups. The trouble was irreconcilable; and this action offers a good example of the great part which trifles sometimes play in the shaping of great undertakings. A falling-off in the number of students by reason of the Quaker secession necessitated a reorganization of some kind to insure the continued prosper- ity of Union Institute Academy; and so it was that in 1841 Braxton Craven came as assistant teacher. He was young, only nineteen, and not a finished scholar, but he was an untiring student. Perhaps York felt that his own work was finished there, but whatever the reason, he left the Institute in the hands of young Craven in 1842. Thereupon, Craven became principal of the school and developed it into a successful institution. On account of the founding of Greensboro Female College, Craven converted the Insti- tute into a male school. The Academy enjoyed ex- traordinary success and usefulness not only because the principal was untiring in his industry but also because he had the hearty cooperation of the people of the community, who boarded his students at the lowest possible figures. This condition, together with very low tuition rates, made higher education available to almost everyone who genuinely sought it. York had made a better beginning than he knew; he was a pioneer of educational enterprises. But

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BRAXTON CRAVEN CIVIL WAR. CRAVEN RESIGNS IN 1863 The Civil War brought to Trinity a fate shared by many other Southern institutions. President Craven resigned in 1863 and the Trustees elected Professor William T. Gannaway as his successor. But in October, 1865, Dr. Craven was reelected to the presidency. The work of the college hav- ing been suspended in April of that year, his new responsibility did not actually begin until January, 1866. Thence until his death in November, 1882, he remained President of Trinity College. Dur- ing this second part of his administration, the school was prosperous. Since the Republican scalawags and carpet-baggers had closed the State University, Trinity enjoyed the enrollment of the keenest students and the finest gentlemen. Many young men who were later to become prominent studied under Braxton Craven. Upon his death came a decided decrease in enrollment because the school lost much of the confidence which the public had placed in it. With affairs in a very disorganized state, Professor William Howell Pegram was elected Chairman of the Faculty; and it was he who directed the school for the academic year which ended in June, 1883. The Reverend Marquis L. Wood, D.D., was elected President in 1883. His real profession was the ministry, in which he had served for many years as preacher and as missionary to China. Never having sought after this position in any sense, only the ideals to which he was true and his loyalty to Trinity College persuaded him to under- take the duties of a college administrator. Faced with the discouraging prospects of few students, a disrupted faculty, and a declining public interest. President Wood felt that he was not fitted for this work. In December 1884, he resigned and sought permission to return to his true field, the ministry. When Doctor ' ood resigned, the Board of Trustees elected Professor John F. Heit- man as Chairman of the Faculty. He was empowered to act as President until one could be chosen. For the next two years the financial manage- ment of the college was underwritten CRAVEN ADDRESSES THE METHODIST CONFERENCE