Florida Southern College - Interlachen Yearbook (Lakeland, FL)

Page 18 text:

• $ • • t 4 ' ■ ' ■ •♦■ » ' •■ . ■ II HENRY EDWARD PARTRIDGE President 1891-92 • ••♦♦

Page 17 text:

Golden Anniversary — 1HH5 - IW.t. ' i Mention was made of the fact that $450 was the maximum salary that had been paid to professors, and Chairman Pike urged that salaries be increased as soon as additional funds were available. Again the trustees turned to pastors for an offering in their churches. Clerical members of the board of trustees in January, 1891, were T. W. Moore, R. H. Barnett, H. E. Partridge, W. F. Norton, J. Anderson, R. L. Honiker, W. M. Poage, J. B. ' Anderson, W. H. Steinmeyer, T. J. Nixon and J. F. Marshall. Lay members were G. M. Lee, T. J. Lovelace, L. B. Lee, J. F. White, C. W. White, C. T. Arnold, W. Himes, J. Wofford Tucker, J. J. Combs, J. C. Cooper, W. B. Henderson and R. McConathy. Poor health forced Professor Chandler to give up his Latin and Greek classes in March, 1891, and, in recognition of his faithful service, the trustees elected him emeritus professor. Professor Chand- ler ' s work was taken over by a member of the board of trustees, Rev. H. E. Partridge, then pastor at Leesburg, who was to be the next president of the college. PRESIDENT PARTRIDGE TAKES CHARGE Professor Partridge became President Partridge by action of the trustees May 23, 1891. He took active charge of the college the following month. The choice was not a surprise to those who had watched his progress through his years as a student and later as a member of the Florida Conference. A studious, affable man of impressive dignity, he was known as one of the most capable pastors in the conference. He was forty-one years old when he was elected to the presidency of the college, and his endowments were such as to make him a dis- tinguished leader both intellectually and spirit- ually. President Partridge was born near Lake Mico- suki, in Jefferson County, Florida, April 5, 1850, a son of Rev. John L. and Eliza L. Partridge. Circumstances which made it possible for him to enroll as a student at Wofford College, Spartanburg, South Carolina, have been mentioned earlier in this history. He was graduated in June, 1871, with the degree of bachelor of arts, and returned a few years later for the degree of master of arts. He was granted a license to preach October 6, 1870, by the Spartanburg Quarterly Conference. He was recommended for admission on trial in the Florida Conference by the Monticello Quarterly Conference, and admitted on trial at Madison on January 3, 1872. His first appointment after that event was the Quincy station. He was ordained a deacon by Bishop E. M. Marvin, at Fernandina, January 12, 1873, and Bishop G. F. Pierce ordained him an elder at Jacksonville in January, 1874. His ordination as a deacon came at the end of the first year and the ordination as an elder after the second year, upon passing approved examinations on the four-year course of study then specified bv the Methodist Discipline. President Partridge ' s conference appointments follow: Quincy Station, 1872; St. Johns River Mission, 1873; Quincy Circuit, 1874; Lake City Station, 1875-76; Sparks Chapel, Key West, 1877, Micanopy Circuit, 1878, Ocala Circuit, 1879, Ocala Station, 1880-81; Gainesville District, 1882- 83-84, St. Paul ' s, Jacksonville, 1885; Tampa Dis- trict, 1886; Tallahassee Station, 1887-90; Leesburg Station, 1891 (six months); President of Florida Conference College, 1891-92; Supply, Natchez Station, three months; transferred to Mississippi Conference, 1892; Seashore District, 1893-94; Mor- ton Circuit, 1895; Waynesboro Station and Circuit 1896-97; transferred to Florida Conference, 1898 Bartow Station, 1898-1900; Jasper Circuit, 1901 Orlando Station, 1902; Monticello Station, 1903-05 Fernandina Station, 1906; Bradenton Station, 1907-08; Brooksville Station, 1909; South Jackson- ville, 1910; Hastings Circuit, 1911-12; Kingston and Port Orange, 1913-14; Citra, 1915-16-17 Elfers Circuit, 1918-19; Coleman Station, 1920-21 Bunnell Station, 1922-23-24; Sutherland, 1925-26 superannuated, June, 1926; two and one-half years of supply work. Miss Sarah A. Neilson, of Barnwell, South Caro- lina, was married to President Partridge on October 29, 1873- She died on September 8, 1925. Their children are Mrs. Ethel B. Hudson, Frances H. Partridge, Henry Edward Partridge, Jr., Mrs. Grace Richmond Hartridge, Mrs. Mortimer John- son, Mrs. Mary Louise Starbuck, Paul W. Partridge and John N. Partridge. FACULTY CHOSEN After electing President Partridge on the morning of May 23, 1891, members of the board of trustees held an afternoon session, at which they voted to pay him a salary of $1,200 a year, in addition to traveling expenses. They chose a faculty which included Rev. F. A. Taylor, Rev. T. Griffith, Miss Fannie E. Harrington, Miss Mary Ivey and Miss Lizzie Caruthers. In appreciation of the good work done by Dr. Moore, retiring president, the trustees adopted a resolution which said that This board parts with deep regret with Dr. T. W. Moore, who has served us with such signal fidelity, devotion and sacrifice, and we desire to put upon record our sincere re- gards and gratitude. Taking official notice of the recent death of Rev. C. E. Pelot, they resolved as follows: Whereas, God in His Providence has removed from our midst Rev. C. E. Pelot, late president of the board of trustees; therefore, be it resolved by this board that in the death of Brother Pelot, we have lost a very valuable member of the board of trustees of The Florida Conference College. The honorary degree of doctor of divinity was voted to Rev. C. E. Dowman, of the South Georgia Conference, who had been invited to deliver the commencement sermon. J. C. Sale delivered the graduating address. Page Fiftc

Page 19 text:

-♦■♦■♦ ' ♦-♦ Golden Ami i versa ry — 188S ■ 1935 Action in the interest of a building program was taken by the trustees on June 16, 1891, when they voted to sell the institution ' s brick building and a 150-foot lot to the local school trustees for $4,000, in order to erect a larger and more convenient building on the other land owned bv the college. APPEAL TO CONFERENCE President Partridge, in his report to the confer- ence held in Tampa in January, 1892, said: The present advanced position of the institu- tion and the bright promise of the future are causes of gratitude. But let the church and the confer- ence remember that our work has just fairly begun, and the necessities of the school are greater than ever before. The old school building has been sold with a view to the erection of a larger and better building. We are using the large rooms of our boarding house for recitation rooms. We have no room for calisthenics, very inadequate and un- suitable room for assembly purposes, and arc crowded in our class rooms. We cannot do the work we are qualified to do, nor exercise the dis- cipline needed, situated in cramped quarters as we are. We are trying to do good work on inade- quate supplies — making brick without straw. Wc need apparatus and additional appliances for our work. We must have during this year a new col- lege building. Inquiries come from all sides, ' When will you build? ' To be unable to answer this question is hurting us. Efforts are made to take away our students and superior facilities of other institutions urged. We have lost some stu- dents by lack of proper opportunities. With a faculty duly prepared to teach, with moral in- fluences unsurpassed, with health record excellent, with the eyes of the people turned to us, with children coming to us and ready to be sent, what shall we say the 125 Methodist preachers and 20,000 Methodist people are going to do. Shall we send our boys and girls to other states to be educated? Or shall we turn them over to our brethren of other denominations? Or shall we turn them over to the tender mercies of secular schools, where God is not known and where too often Methodism is despised? Or shall we rise up and build? Breth- ren, now is the time to act. Minutes of the meeting held by the trustees June 3, 1892, mention, The bequest of the late Mrs. Griffin, of Orange County, which was made on condition that instruction should be provided for the female students in the practical work of the home and its culinary department. It was at this meeting also that the trustees found it necessary to employ the teaching staff with the understanding that salaries would be paid from cash actually received from students. If such revenue were insufficient to pav salaries in full, the college would not be responsible for the deficit, the resolution provided. The trustees were forced to take this action because an unex- pected financial depression has come upon our people. Salaries were to be paid on the basis of $1,000 a year for the president and $700 a year for each teacher in the literary department. On June 6, 1892, after President Partridge ' s ad- ministration had come to a close, the trustees adopted a resolution which provided that in the close of this collegiate year the members of the board of trustees of The Florida Conference College officially record and express appreciation of the services of Rev. H. E. Partridge, late president of the institution, under the difficulties and disad- vantages which have beset his way, and cordially tender him their kind regards and best wishes for success in the future as a competent teacher of the department taught by him. DR. MELTON BEGINS TERM Dr. Wightman Fletcher Melton, at the age of twenty-four, succeeded President Partridge. He was elected on June 4, 1892, and served three years, until the freeze of 1895- A son of Isaac Quimby Melton and Fannie Lou Ellis Melton, he was born at Ripley, Tennessee, September 26, 1867. He married Miss Oliver Keller, of Lake Providence, Louisiana, September 19, 1889. Their children are Oliver Quimby Melton, Mrs. Emily McNelly and Keller Fletcher Melton. Besides being distinguished as an educator, Dr. Melton is widely known as a literary scholar, edi- torial writer and author of books and poems. After graduation from Peabody College for Teach- ers, Nashville, Tennessee, in 1889, he attended Blount College, Blountsville, Alabama, to receive the degree of bachelor of arts in 1890. He has two doctor of philosophy degrees, the first received from State Normal College, Troy, Alabama, in 1894, the second from Johns Hopkins University in 1906. Upon completing his three-year term as president of The Florida Conference College, he was made vice-president of the Nashville (Tenn.) College for Young Ladies, serving until 1897, when he began a six-year term as president of Tuscaloosa (Ala.) Female College. He was head of the de- partment of English at Baltimore City College from 1906 to 1908, and professor of English lan- guage and literature at Emory University from 1908 to 1924. Since then, he has served as an edi- torial writer for The Atlanta Georgian and The Griffin News. He inaugurated the teaching of lournalism in Georgia. He was mayor of Oxford, Georgia, from 1912 to 1918, and served six months as associate field direc- tor of the American Red Cross at Fort McPherson and Camp Jesup. He is a member of the Atlanta Writers ' Club, the Burns Club of Atlanta, and Kappa Alpha Fraternity. He is the author of The Preacher ' s Son (1894), The Rhetoric of John Donne ' s Verse (1903), and a book of poems, Chimes of Oglethorpe (1933). He edited Rus- kin ' s Crown of Wild Olive and Queen of the Air in 1908. During recent years he has become Paye Seventeen -♦• •♦ ♦ i