Florida Southern College - Interlachen Yearbook (Lakeland, FL)

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The story of Southern College Page Eighteen increasingly famous throughout the South as edi- tor of Bozart and Contemporary Verse and a bi- monthly poetry magazine known as Versecraft. He delivered a commencement address at Southern a few years ago. Discussing his three years as president of The Florida Conference College, Dr. Melton said re- cently: I spent a good part of my three years in Leesburg trying to look old. I have spent many years since, trying to look young again. Despite the fact that he was extremely young to be at the head of a college, he performed his task with great credit, strengthening the curriculum, engaging qualified teachers for his faculty and doing numerous other things to advance the aca- demic interests of the institution. He stressed the importance of true scholarship and insisted that his students make intellectual application a habit. ELEVEN NAMED ON FACULTY Besides President Melton, who taught mental and moral philosophy and Biblical literature, the faculty for 1892-1893 included Rev. F. A. Taylor, Latin, Greek, and mathematics; Rev. Thomas Griffith, natural science, modern languages and commercial courses; Miss M. Bess Woods, English literature and mathematics; Miss Lillian O. Ridenhour, geography, history and physical cul- ture; Mrs. S. E. Vaughan, primary department; Miss F. E. Harrington, piano; Miss Lucy Moore, voice; Miss Annie Vaughan, art; Dr. W.J. Walker, manager of the young ladies ' boarding hall; Mrs. Walker, matron, T. B. Lawler, manager of the voung men ' s dormitory; and Mrs. Lawler, matron. President Melton ' s courses included ethics, psy- chology, political economy and logic. The cata- logue stated that in ethics we deal with true philosophy, and abhor everything at variance with the Bible. Latin students were offered grammar, Caesar and Virgil during the freshman year; Cicero and Horace during the sophomore year; and Livy and Tacitus during the junior year. The freshman course in Greek included grammar and first lessons in Greek and the history of Greece. The sophomore course included Xenophon ' s Anabasis and selections from the New Testament. The juniors studied Homer ' s Illiad and Grecian history and literature. Mathematics courses were offered as follows: First year, higher arithmetic a nd higher algebra; second year, plane and solid geometry and plane and spherical trigonometry; third year, analytical geometry and calculus; fourth year, mechanics and astronomy. The academic organization included a prepara- paratory department, a sub-freshman department and a collegiate department. Elocution, penman- ship and class singing were among the extra courses taught. Students manifested great interest in their liter- ary societies from the early days of the school until the fall of 1925, when sororities and fraternities were organized. They were punctual in attending the weekly meetings of these societies, and most of the members made a conscientious effort to do good work whenever they were placed on the pro- grams, which usually included orations, declama- tions, debates, readings, and, frequently, music or other special entertainment. NEW LITERARY SOCIETIES Until 1891, there was the Phi Alpha Society for men students and the Calliopean Society for women students. Membership in Phi Alpha increased so rapidly that a decision was reached to divide it into two societies. The new organizations were formed October 30, 1891. One was known as the Philomathean Society, the other as the Phi Sigma Society. Charter members of the Philomathean Society were H. W. Pennev, J. P. Durrance, J. R. Walker, T. J. Mitchell, J. H. Owens, J. M. Mitchell, Joe Pendleton, G. P. Penney, J. E. Peper, A. C. Cobb and J. H. Curry. The following were charter members of Phi Sigma: E. W. J. Hardee, W. C. Norton, J. N. Piatt, P. Z. Fretwell, C. W. White, Charles Al- bright, J. W. Payne, L. K. Smith, J. S. Hopson, R. L. Sumner and R. E. Lee. These two societies continued as separate organi- zations until February 5, 1892, when they merged under the name of Phi Sigma. The Philomathean group was organized again later , however. Three dollars a week was charged for board in 1892-1893. A tuition fee of $11.25 for nine weeks was charged in the collegiate department, $8 in the sub-freshman department and $4.25 in the pre- paratory department. Children of traveling preach- ers and men students preparing for the ministry were not required to pay a tuition fee in the literary department. Regarding physical culture, the catalogue said: The president is a graduate of the Ewing Gym- nasium, in connection with the Peabody College, Nashville, Tennessee, and will give the young men such class and special exercises as will afford health and development. One of the lady teachers will assist the president in giving the young ladies such calisthenic drills as will be most advantageous. When the weather is inclement, the pupils will be drilled in one of the large rooms of the college building until a gymnasium ca n be furnished. Borrowing or lending of jewelry, clothing and other similar articles was forbidden. The catalogue sets forth interestingly the require- ments in regard to dress: For the young ladies — To promote economy in dress as well as to prevent unseemly rivalry and extravagance, the young lady pupils, both boarders and day pupils, will be required to wear a uniform when they go without the limits of the college on public occasions. For fall and winter, the dress

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-♦■♦■♦ ' ♦-♦ 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

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Ooldcn Anniversary — t8SS • ? . £•» will be plain black Henrietta or Cashmere cloth, with no trimmings, wrappings and hat the same shade of the dress. For spring and summer, white lawn waist and black skirt. To secure uniformity in shape and color, the hats should be purchased in Leesburg. Gingham, calico, or anything worn at home, is suitable for every-day wear. The gradu- ating class may wear plain white dresses during commencement. For the young men — When they go without the limits of the college on public occasions, they shall wear a uniform of navy blue coat and vest, and gray pants with black stripe. Cap to match. These suits can be secured in Leesburg at a reason- able cost. Until November 1, pupils may wear such Sunday suits as they already have. Ministers will not be required to wear uniforms. SPECIAL RULES STATED Special rules for boarding students were stated as follows: Each student must bring a Bible, with good, clear print. Each student must attend chapel each morning, Sabbath school every Sabbath, and church at least once each Sabbath. Each student must promptly obey rising, prayer, study, retiring and school bells. Students are expected to observe neatness in personal appearance and in the care of their rooms, in the school room, in their boarding house, and on the street. Students must be prompt in the discharge of duty; respectful to those who have authority over them; and polite to everyone. Students are expected to be present at all college duties, and to be prepared to recite when called upon. Students, must not contract debts, and the president suggests that the teachers set the example of doing a strictly cash business. In addi- tion to the foregoing, there will be such other re- strictions as may be found necessary. We do not like to make straw men for the children to throw at. Special rules for teachers were stated as follows: The teachers of The Florida Conference College are expected to be prompt, faithful and zealous in the discharge of all their duties. To be punctual and present at all exercises, whether business, school room or religious. To teach all the pupils good morals and gentle manners. To report to the president all damage done to the college prop- erty. To make their recitation rooms attractive and to see that good order is observed in them. To hear complaints in a good spirit. To preserve harmony among themselves. Not to attend the- atres; not to attend shows of any kind, unless ap- proved by the president. It was pointed out that neither the president nor any of his eight professors used tobacco in any form and students were requested to abstain from using it at the college or on the college grounds. The schedule of demerits included such offenses as absence from college duty, tardiness, failure in a recitation, disorder, absence from room during study hour, neglect of room or untidiness, being on streets after dark without proper attendants, com- municating by writing or otherwise with students of opposite sex during college hours, leaving town without permission of the president, using tobacco during college hours, marking or defacing walls, card-playing or visiting pool room or any place of amusement forbidden by faculty and grossly im- moral conduct. Telegraphy was one of the courses offered in the commercial department. Other courses were book- keeping, business practice, commercial law, busi- ness correspondence, commercial arithmetic, steno- graphy and typewriting and penmanship. There was a charge of $8 a quarter for bookkeeping, $5 for stenography and typewriting, and $4 for telegraphy. Parents were urged to write encouraging letters to their children. They were further requested to refrain from sending edibles, except at Christmas. It was pointed out that boxes of food caused stu- dents to eat too much and become ill. If you cannot come with your children or wards, parents were told, put them on the cars, notify the presi- dent of the college, and they will be met at the depot. FIRST CAMPUS PAPER APPEARS The diary of James H. Owen, a student at Lees- burg four years, shows that the first issue of College Thought, campus paper, was published November 10, 1893, with J. N. Piatt as editor and T. J. Mitch- ell as associate editor. Mr. Owen was graduated from the Leesburg institution in 1894, and is now living at Daytona Beach. Bv referring to numer- ous interesting details in his diary, he has contrib- uted valuable information for use in this history of those early days. Meeting at Ocala on January 4, 1893, members of the college board of trustees voted to request an assessment of $2,000 on the Methodist Conference then in annual session in that city. The request, included in a report from the board of education, was presented bv T. W. Moore, chairman, who said: The Florida Conference College is solely the property of the Florida Conference, and dependent upon our patronage and liberality for support. Young as it is, its enrollment, during the scholastic year of 1891-92, reached half that of the best patronized of either of our other institutions. During the past two years, two important and much needed buildings, for dormitory and reci- tation rooms, have been added. These have neces- sitated a debt of $5,000 to be provided for. There is about that amount due from pledges, bonds and enough to liquidate all indebtedness if collected. Thirtv-three pupils, ten young men studying for the ministry and twenty-three children of preachers are beneficiaries, and are getting free tuition. It is nothing but just that the Florida Conference should assist in the support of a faculty, who are so generously contributing to the betterment of our families and our Conference. Page Nineteen t $ • f