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

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JMX: .A ' I Y fx u J like 1 g ICQECZOSCOPG, be a Presbytery under the name of the Presbytery of Hanover. ln july, l759, Mr. Davies was inaugurated President of Princeton College and thus his connection with Hanover Presbytery was severed. But the Presbytery which he organized and the group of men of whom he had been the leader carried on. On February lst, 1775, the Presbytery-then consisting of the Reverend Messrs. Sankey, Rice, Leake, lrwin and Wallace-met at the house of Captain Nathaniel Venable, in Prince Edward County, to arrange for the organization of a school. On the next day, those gentlemen decided to build an academy at the head of Hudson's Branch, on February 3d, they chose Samuel Stanhope Smith, Rector, and on January lst, I776, the academy opened its doors for work, with a board of trustees of influential men, Presbyterians and Episcopalians, with Rev. S. S. Smith as president and with John Blair Smith, Samuel Doak and David Witherspoon as assistants. One hundred and ten students enrolled during the first summer, a number too large for the accommodations. So Hanover Presbytery set the school going, but this is not the whole story. While technically and historically Hampden-Sidney was the creature of Samuel Davies and his associates of Hanover Presbytery, it is evident- as has already been stated-that this was a community enterprise enjoying the support of the Episcopalians of this section of Virginia. The Academy Trustees were Reverend Messrs. Sankey, Todd, Leake, Wallace, Rice and McRoberts-the clericals. The laymen were Mr. Peter Johnston, the donor of the land on which the College stands, Paul Carrington, of Charlotte, member of the House of Burgesses and judge of the Court of Appeals, John Nash, of Prince Edward, almost feudal lord of Templeton , john Morton, of Charlotte, patriot and soldier, Nathaniel Venable, of Prince Edward, who, with John Morton and james Allen, fed the students in time of need, Thomas Read, long clerk of Charlotte and a fine type of colonial civilization, james Venable, brother of Nathaniel., Prince Edward planter, Francis Watkins, of Prince Edward, another of the old clerks and trustee for forty years, Patrick Henry, the matchless orator, the man of overshadowing fame, john Tabb, of Amelia, burgess and soldier, William Cabell, of Union Hill, a man of broad outlook and earnest purpose, ancestor of the Cabells and their kin , James Madison, fourth President of the United States, Joseph Parke, Charles Allen and James Allen, all of Prince Edward. and trustees of both the Academy and College, William Morton, of Charlotte, beneath whose unerring aim, on the field of Guilford, the gallant Colonel Webster, the eye of the army of Cornwallis, fell to rise no more , William Booker, who, with William Watts, represented Prince Edward in the Virginia Convention of I776g Samuel Woodson Venable, ensign in the Hampden- l7l

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JMX: ' The I 9 La-44,93 Kaleidoscope' ' fz H Q The Founding and the Founders of Hampden-Sidney College i LONG the Atlantic Seaboard from New York to South Carolina educational facilities in the eighteenth century were provided mainly by. Presbyterians-The College of William and Mary being the chief exception. Many of the Scotch, Scotch-Irish, and Huguenot inhabitants of this section were educated men who desired educational advantages for their children because they knew that an educated ministry and educated laymen were necessary for the best interests of Church and State. So, wherever they settled they arranged for the establishment of schools. This effort resulted in the organization of the so-called Log Colleges, private academies under the control of tried and trusted teachers. Some of these were deservedly famous in their day and gave to the new country many young men of mental force and moral power. ln Pennsylvania, the Tennents were at Neshaminy, Samuel Blair was at New Londonderryg Samuel Finley was at Nottingham in Marylandg while in New jersey Messrs. Dickerson and Burr fostered the incipient college now known as the College of New jersey. Later it became evident that the educational system must rest on concerted effort and corporate support. To this latter method of solving the educational problem Hampden-Sidney owes its existence. It has been said that an institution is but the elongated shadow of a man. This is often trueg for instance, the University of Virginia is the academic incarnation of Thomas Jefferson. ln the effort to apply this doctrine to Hampden-Sidney, Mr. Hugh Blair Grigsby in a spirit of enthusiastic generalization says: nl might be justified in saying that the founder of your Ci. e. Hampden-Sidney, College was John Knox. It would, perhaps, be nearer the truth to say that Hampden-Sidney is the daughter of the Log Colleges of l720-l750. If the credit of founding Hampden- Sidney College could be given to one man, that man would clearly be Samuel Davies C1723-17615, though he had no official connection with itg for this remarkable man was the apostle of Presbyterianism in Virginia, was the organizer of this church in the colony, and was the upholder and able defender of religious toleration in the Old Dominion. The Synod of New York in I755 appointed the Reverend Messrs. Samuel Davies, John Todd, Alexander Craighead, Robert Henry, john Wright and John Brown to l6I

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QXMX-1 F S'-Uhe I 9 '21 6 va-44 YQ1Ie-jdoscopel Sidney company of volunteers and colonel in the Continental Armyg and Thomas Scott, of Charlotte, burgess and father of fighting sons. A careful reading of this list of trustees will show that the College came into being not only because of Presbyterian influence and initiative but also because of social and economic conditions prevailing in the valleys of the Staunton and of the Appomattox. The rich planters on the James and in the Tidewater could send their sons to England, or, if they could do no better, to William and Mary. The residents in Southside Virginia, pioneers in a comparatively new country, not wealthy but comfortable, knowing the value of an education, but unable to obtain it at a heavy expense, felt impelled to provide suitable scholastic advantages for their sons in their own territory. Thus the Scotch-Irish from Pennsylvania, from the Valley and from Eastern Virginia, the English, who, in successive stages, moved up from the low countryg the l-luguenots, who had settled on the james: all, Presbyterians and Episcopalians, were willing and eager to join hands cordially in a united effort to initiate and to press to accomplishment all plans for the common good. The courtly manners of Williamsburg, the cheerfulness and ease of the Huguenots, the honest frankness and stern independence of the English country gentleman, the activity and shrewdness of the merchant, the simplicity of republican life-all have been combined. These causes, these commingling elements, had produced a good seed-bed for an educational enterprise. The seed sprouted and grew. ln l783, the Academy, planted and watered by Samuel Stanhope Smith and his faithful coadjutors, bloomed out into a chartered college under the same trustees in the main. but with John Blair Smith in his brother's place. With bright prospects it started on its new development-but that is another story. -W. H. WHITING, JR. ISI