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

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8 dlbe Lrtaleinosrnpe 1925 Massachusetts, who, like so many young women of that time, came to the South as a school-marm, but remained to manage and adorn a southern home. This good lady was of Puritan stock-on one side running back to the Colony of Massachusetts Bay and on the other claiming descent from the Whites of Plymouth, Pilgrims of Mayflower days. Those who remember her as teacher in the home of the Rev. Mr. Dance and as mistress of the plantation on Bush River bear testimony to the fact that in theory and in practice she ran true to form -in conscience and in character exemplifying the line traits of her New England ancestry. But enough of ancestors and the process: let us turn to the descendant and the product. though be it understood that pride of ancestry is not vanity, blood will tell. Asa Dupuy Watkins, the son of Richard H. Watkins and Mary P. Dupuy, was boin at College Farm, in Prince Edward County, Virginia, March l4, I873. That old Bush River neighborhood was a charming one then. The old families were still occupying their ancestral homesteads. The Redds, the Dupuys, the Mortons, the Lyles, the Bookers, the Watkinses, the Spencers, the Lacys, and others of the old issue gave a social flavor and a rare charm to the eastern and southern end of the county which one who did not know it can scarcely understand in this day of changed conditions. It was a day of plain living and high thinking, when men preferred io be rather than lo seem, when educational privileges were valued, and when religion somehow seemed to count for more than in these degenerate days. Amid such surroundings the boy grew into a youth, trained by parental hands and moulded by the sweet influences of a Christian home. When the time came for him to go off to school, the youth was sent to an uncle near Oxford, N. C., for one year and then spent another year as a pupil in the Danville Male Academy. This preparatory course ended, young Watkins entered Hampden-Sidney College in l890 and in due course graduated in June, IS94. The Class of IS94, first and last, had fifty-live members, four of whom have at one time or another been members of the Faculty of this College, and many more of them have served their day and generation with marked ability, faithfulness and success. Some years succeeding his graduation were spent by Mr. Watkins in teaching in Virginia. The session l894-95 he was tutor to the Wilcox boys at Flower de Hundredg in IS95-96 he was instructor in Hoge Academy at Blackstone, a school established by East Hanover Presbytery and named in honor of Dr. Moses D. Hoge, which later passed under the control of the Trustees of Hampden-Sidney College and under their management failed, the plant being subsequently bought by Col. Ligon and by him reorganized as the Blackstone Military Academy. For three years, 1896-99, Mr. Watkins was

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1925 Ghz iltaleinnsrnpe 7 The ancestors of this family arriving in the Colony at its first settlement and moving westward from the sea in successive generations, surveyed the un- trodden soil, felled the forests, built the school-houses, reared the churches. and laid the foundations of the social polity of the new region-a race which stood at the cradle of Hampden-Sidney, was present at her baptism, wiped the tears from her infant face, supplied her with wholesome food, filled her halls with their offspring, guided her counsels through the dangers of the first century, and are ready to achieve for their patrimonial institution a still more glorious distinction for the century to come. Mingled with the blood of the Watkinses is that of the Mortons, descend- ants of Little joe Morton of Roanoke Bridge, friend of Samuel Davies, first elder of Old Briery Church, and chief promoter of organized Presbyter- ianism in Charlotte and Prince Edward. ln this connection it will be necessary to give a brief outline of one branch of the Dupuy family, also, for through his mother Dr. Watkins is a Huguenot. john Esten Cooke but states a fact of common knowledge when he says: The Huguenots were of the best blood of France-the flower of the nobility, the middle class, and the commons. The infusion of this element into the Anglo- Saxon stock has enriched and strengthened it, fertilizing as it were by a foreign substance the originally vigorous soil. The first of the Dupuys in Virginia was Bartholomew Dupuy, born in l652, who married the Countess Susanne Lavillon, escaped from France after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in I685, settled at Manakintown on the James River about I 700, and died there in l 743. His son was Peter Dupuy, Peter's son was John Bartholomew Dupuy, john Bartholomew's son was blames Dupuy, and james Dupuy's son was Col. Asa Dupuy, treasurer of Hampden-Sidney and Trustee 1831-I848, and grandfather of Asa Dupuy Watkins, the subject of this sketch. On the Watkins side of the house, the line of descent is as follows: Dr. Watkins' great-grandfather was Thomas Watkins, a soldier of the Revolu- tion and, possibly, a Trustee of Hampden-Sidney. His grandfather was Henry N. Watkins fb. l787, d. 18505 of Oldham, Prince Edward County, Virginia, first honor man of the Class of ISO7, Trustee l82l-l839. The wife of Henry N. Watkins was a Miss Morton-a descendant of Little Joe Morton and of his son Col. William Morton, the gallant officer under General Greene. One of the sons of Henry N. Watkins was Richard Henry Watkins, first-honor graduate of Washington College fWashington and Lee Universityj, Captain of Co. K, Third Virginia Cavalry, and long a well known lawyer of the Prince Edward Bar. Captain Richard Watkins' wife was Mary Purnell Dupuy, daughter of Col. Asa Dupuy, of Linden, and his wife, Emily Howe. Miss Howe was a New England lady from Princeton,

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i925 The iiialeinusropc 9 principal of the South Boston, Va., High School where his work was valued and sincerely appreciated. The session l899-l9O0 found him at Harvard University making a specialty of English, then, as now, his favorite study. ln the fall of l900, the young teacher entered the Union Theological Seminary at Richmond, Va., and from that school of the prophets he graduated in May, 1903, with the degree of Bachelor of Divinity. The Doctor's degree has later fl924D been conferred upon him by Hampden-Sidney College. He was licensed to preach in September, 1903, and ordained by Greenbrier Presbytery in May, l904, and at once assumed the arduous duties of Sky Pilot in lumber camps at Cass, W. Va., where he lived and labored for two years, l903-l905. ln the latter year, he received and accepted a call to the Windsor Avenue Presbyterian Church in Bristol, Tennessee. ln connection with his duties as overseer of the flock of this church, the young pastor was induced by a realization of the pressing needs of King College at that time to assume the position of general utility man in the Faculty, teach- ing Creek and Mathematics and lending a helping hand wherever help was needed. He was Professor of Bible, also, in the College l907-l9l I. ln I9I l, Dr. Watkins went to Spartanburg, S. C., where he served for six years, being at the same time Assistant Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church and Pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church-a difficult and arduous task to which he gave his best efforts and in which he achieved gratifying success. In l9I 7 his health failed. A throat, always inclined to be weak, gave out under the strain of work and words. The preacher was forbidden to preach by the physicians and was laid on the shelf for eighteen months or more, residing during that period at Asheville, N. C., and at Saranac Lake, N. Y. While pastor at Spartanburg, Dr. Watkins was married, his wife being Miss Dorothea Day, eldest daughter of Orrin Day, Esq., of Catskill, N. Y., at which place the wedding took place Qctober 6, l9I 5. His charming wife, a son and a daughter compose his immediate family. His health having been re-established, Professor Watkins was elected to the chair of English in his Alma Mater and he entered upon his duties in September, l9l8, an unfavorable time at which to begin teaching here, for it was during that fall that the institutions of higher education in the United States were trying to cope with the problems of that nightmare of college officials knovxm as the Students' Army Training Corps. The Department of English at Hampden-Sidney College was organized in l88l by Dr. W. S. Currell, a gifted scholar and an inspirational teacher. In l886-l889, this chair was occupied by Dr. Henry C. Brock-later trans- ferred to the Department of Greek and now Professor Emeritus after thirty- three years of useful and efficient service. He was succeeded as Professor of English by Dr. john B. Henneman who remained here until l893, full of