Hampden Sydney College - Kaleidoscope Yearbook (Hampden Sydney, VA)

Page 16 text:

Edward, and Charlotte. The stream of Scotch-Irish settlers in the Valley of Virginia-mainly Presbyterian, who projected Liberty Hall, afterwards Washington College and now Washington and Lee University, greatly strengthened these efforts. The county of Prince Edward, centrally located and not too far from the neighboring State of North Carolina, was felt to be a peculiarly fitting place for the new Southside seat of learning. The influ- ential citizens came readily to the support of the College. Ninety acres of land were given for the site, about a mile west of the Court House, by Peter Johnston, a vestryman of the parish, father of Judge Peter Johnston, who was one of the first students a11d the grandfather of General joseph Johnston. A young Presbyterian minister, laboring in the fields of Davies, who had graduated at Princeton, and was distinguished for his zeal for education, was chosen first Principal or President. Tl1is was the dis- guished Samuel Stanhope Smith. He not only presided over the College but as all the early Presidents until Dr. Hoge's day also filled the pulpits for the Cumberland and Briery congregations lying about ten miles distant on either side of the college in the adjacent counties. After four years spent in organization, Stanhope Smith resigned in 1779 in order to accept a Professorship in Princeton and afterwards to become its President, leaving Hampden'Sidney in charge of l1is brother, john Blair Smith: and it fell to this successor to conduct the College safely through the trying period of the last years of the Revolutionary War. VVith peace came better days, and in May, 1783, a most liberal charter was obtained from the legislature. The College, born thus amid struggles, seemed destined to struggle throughout l1er whole career. But this very fact has served to produce the higher type of man in both teacher and pupil, and it is all the more to her praise that, founded with a distinct mission, alone and unaided from without, she has accomplished so much for the cause of civil and religious liberty, of education and religion and science and letters and culture, and has trained men for the whole country irrespective of state and sectional ties. It was about this period that Samuel Doak, one of her earliest teachers, carried education into the territory west of the Alleghanies where is now the state of Tennessee. Two of l1er early trustees, David Rice and john Todd, together with James Blythe, one of the first graduates, founded the tirst school and collegein Kentucky. Another founder, Caleb XVallace, became IO

Page 15 text:

'gjistnrirul Zjlaetrlt ni the Qlinllcge. Hampden-Sidney College, in its name and origin, stands for two vital movements in American History. First, the College was opened in the winter of 1775-6 amid the momentous beginnings of the Revolutionary XVar, and to this memorable conflict she contributed at different times her full quota of soldiers. Second, the names occurring among her founders and first trustees are those most prominent in the efforts which secured religious liberty for Virginia and set the example to other states. Patrick Henry, James Madison, VVil1iam Cabell of Union Hill, the Revs. john Blair Smith, David Rice, John Todd, and Caleb 'XVallace, are some names among the many thus active-names belonging to the Established Episcopal Church, as well as prominent in Presbyterian annals. Thus, the name IIAIXIPDEN-SIDNEY, given in 1775 by a happy inspiration from the two great patriots of English liberty. John Hampden and Algernon Sidney, has become fully justified in the history of the College itself, both as a principle of action, and in purpose of spirit. Hampden-Sidney College, besides, possesses an historic and educational importance as the second oldest college established in Virginia and in the South. The College of VVilliam and Mary, existing from the early colonial days at the old capital of 'Williamsburg became, from its geogfaphical location, peculiarly the institution for the Eastern and Tidewater sections of Virginia. Hampden-Sidney Was founded by friends of education in the Southside and Piedmont sections, and in its prospectus, dated September 1, T775 and published in the I'1'1gz'1z1'a Gmvflf, Hdelity in every respect was pledged to patrons of all denominations. Samuel Davies, the evangelist and apostle of religious liberty, who afterwards became the President of Princeton College, in establishing dis- senting congregations in different parts of Virginia, had been especially successful in the three neighboring Southside counties of Cumberland, Prince 9

Page 17 text:

a noted judge in Kentucky's pioneer days, and another graduate, George M. Bibb, a Prince Edward youth, became Kentucky's Governor and Supreme Judge, and the nation's Secretary of the Treasury under Tyler. A class- mate of Bibb's, Moses Wacldel, numbered among his pupils in South Caro- lina and Georgia, Calhoun, Legare, MCDl1l:l:16, Pettigru, A. P. Butler and A. B. Longstreet. Another student, William Henry Harrison, became governor in the Northwest territory and the first Whig President of the United States. The great revival of 1787-S, which swept throughout south- ern and western Virginia, began at Hampden-Sidney, as the work of her President, John Blair Smith, and two pupils, Drury Lacy and Nash Legrand. It was a former student, Joseph C. Cabell, who lent such splendid aid to Thomas jefferson in founding the State University in Virginia. John Blair Smith resigned in 1789 to accept a pastorate in Philadel- phia, and later became the first President of Union College in New York. He was succeeded by Drury Lacy as Vice-President: but he likewise pre- ferring pastoral relations to the professors duties, withdrew in 1797. The next President was Archibald Alexander, and it was at Hampden-Sidney that this remarkable man laid the foundations of his later usefulness. John Holt Rice and Conrad Speece were associated with him as teachers, and from the sympathetic labors and fruits of this intercourse grew the two ancient seminaries of American Presbyterianism. Archibald Alexander left Hampden-Sidney to be instrumental in founding the Princeton Theological Seminary, of which he was Senior Professor for nearly forty years. To the energy and courage of john Holt Rice was due the origin and endowment of the Union Theological Seminary at Hampden-Sidney. A worthy successor, as President, was found in Dr. Moses Hoge, the grandfather of the present distinguished divine, both an alumnus and a trustee of the College, in Richmond. john Randolph of Roanoke, who was in frequent attendance on Dr. Hoge's worship, has left the highest testimony of his excellence. A former President of the College, john Blair Smith, had already instructed theological students, in lack of better opportunities for ministerial training. In pursuance of a resolution of the Virginia Synod favoring a synodical Theological Seminary, Dr. Hoge began in ISIZ to form a special class of students into a Theological School as a special department of the College. This was the beginning of the present Union Theological Seminary at Hampden-Sidney, endowed a11d organized a year later. II