Elon University - Phi Psi Cli Yearbook (Elon, NC)

Page 16 text:

Njneteen Ttvent tration a challenge was received from the Hon. Francis Asbury Palmer of New York City to donate $30,000.00 to the college provided $12,000.00 could be raised from the Church. This challenge was accepted and with great difficulty the amount was raised, which was known as the Twentieth Century Fund. This circumstance placed the college out of debt in 1902 and gave it a plant complete so far as it went, and an endowment of $30,000.00. The attendance began to mcrease under these signs of progress and sta- bility, and the need for an enlarged plant began to gain ground. Upon Dr. Staleys resignation from the chair of the presidency in 1906, Dr. E. L. Moffitl was chosen his successor. Then followed a period of expansion in the college plant. The West Dormitory was erected, electric lights, steam heat and running watei were installed thoughout the buildings, bemg furnished by a central power plant. These improvements necessitated the raising of $50,000.00 to take care of the indebtedness incurred. Dr. Moffitt immediately set to work to raise the Special Fund of Fifty Thousand Dollars, but before the campaign was completed illness so seriously depleted his health that he retired from the presidency in June, 1911. At this point Dr. W. A. Harper, our present president, who was elected at the age of twenty-eight, then the youngest college president of the South, took up the work where Dr. Moffitt had left off and completed the raising of the Special Fund. During the early years of his administration the plant enjoyed further expaniion, the Alumni Building being constructed in 1914 and paid for by the raising of the Alumni Fund. Following in the wake of this addition the oung Ladies ' Hall and the Young Men ' s Club House were erected, with the further additions later of the Laboratory Building, the College Farm, and the West End Hall property. In 1915, after an investigation conducted by the United States Bureau of Education and the North Carolina State Department of Public Instruction, Elon was rated as a standard college. The high water mark of the present administration, however, was reached when the $125,000.00 Standardization Fund as permanent endowment for the college was under- taken in 1919. The president took the field in the spring of this year, and instead of $125,000.00 being raised, more than $380,000.00 was subscribed. It is also expected that the recent Men and Millions Forward Movement of the Church in 1920 will net the college $250,000.00. The Southern Christian Convention, which fosters Elon, has in mind an ideal small college as evidenced in their determination set forth in the 1920 convention at Raleigh to add to the plant the following buildings: a Science Hall, a Fine Arts Building, a Library and College Activities Building. It was also suggested that a Law Department might profitably be added. Already plans are being laid for the erection of the Science Hall in the near future. Page tXDchc

Page 15 text:

PJii sicli, Nineteen Twenty-One Historical Sketch LON COLLEGE, situated at Elon College in the Piedmont section o North Carolina, is an evolution of the desire for a college on the part of the Christian Church in the South. In reality its beginning should be dated back to the year 1826 rather than 1889, as it now appears on the records of the State Department. The pioneer in the field of religious education among the people of the Christian Church, who later founded Elon, was Elder Daniel Wilson Kerr. In 1826 the Wake Forest Pleasant Grove Academy was incorporated with Elder Kerr as principal, and from that time until his death in 1850, he incorporated two similar institutions of learnmg, of which he was also principal. It is true that the schools he headed up were begun on his own initiative, but they were endorsed by the conferences of the Christian Church and were regarded by him as denominat:onal schools. . ... ,,., Two years after his death the seed of h:s sowing bore a finer fruit in the estabhshment of Graham Institute m Graham, Alamance County, with Rev. John R. Holt as principal In 1857 it was chartered as Graham College, with Prof. W. H. Doherty as president, under whose administration it flourished until the Civil War, during which it suffered such depletion that its doors were closed. A few years later Rev. W. S. Long came into possession of the Graham College property and operated the school as Graham Normal College. It was endorsed by the conferences of the Church and ceased to exist upon the opening of Elon College. In 1887 the Southern Christian Convention decided to take over this school and operate it as its own church college, but finding the equipment inade- quate for the needs, they chose as the site of their college Mill Point, the present location of Elon College, and immediately set about to build and equip the school. A charter was granted the institution March 1 1, 1889, with Dr. W. S. Long as president, and on May 20th of that year the corner stone of the first building was laid. Elon College opened its doors for the reception of students September 2, 1890, enrolling seventy-six students during the fall term of the first year. The original plant consisted of the Administration Building and the East Dormitory, though neither of these buildings was completed at the opening. Scaffolding was still up on the Administration Building, and the East Dormitory was not covered. During the first year these buildings were made available for service, though they were not completed until Dr. Staley ' s administration. In the early history of the college young men lived in the third floor of the Administration Building, while the young ladies were domiciled in the East Dormitory. Later the young men received the right to live in the East Dor- mitory, and the young ladies boarded in the village. In the fall of 1897 the young ladies again became invested with dormitory rights and held the East Dormitory until the West Dormitory was opened. In its history Elon has not been different from other denominational colleges, its strug- gle for existence being pronounced. During Dr. Long ' s administration the financial prob- lem was in a measure solved by a financial agent. Dr. W. T. Herndon, the first financial agent, instituted a drive for funds in the early ' 90 ' s. This undertaking was to raise $10,000.00 from ten men of the Church. Such a proposition at that time was a gigantic undertaking, especially since the Church in this section was relatively weak. Success crowned his efforts and the goal was reached. Rev. W. W. Staley, D.D., succeeded Dr. Long as president of the institution in 1895, and served as non-residen t president for eleven years, with Dr. J. U. Newman as his dean for nine years and Dr. J. O Atkinson for the other two. During his adminis- Pafe eleven

Page 17 text:

Phj sich, Nineteen Twenty-One 3 ' j.w i: ' .iWhX. ¥ a ' CAMPUS Page thirteen