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

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entered the Latin Department of Clio's Nursery, a grammar school established through the instrumentality of the Reverend james Hall, a Presbyterian minister. It was due to the importunity of friends that lVloses became a student here. For Mr. William Waddell for some time objected because he had money neither to purchase books nor to bear the expenses of such a course of study. Ar last he yielded, trusting Providence to provide the means. Mr. James lVlcE.wen, hrst, then lVlr. Francis Cummin, later an eminent divine, were the teachers. The British incursions into the vicinity caused the suspension of the school from May, l780, to April, l782. ln l784, after he had studied Latin and Greek, E.uclid's Elements, Geography, Moral Philosophy and Criticism, Waddell left Clio's Nursery. ln October, I784, Waddell became teacher in a country school some fifteen miles from home. ln I787 he established a school in Greene County, Georgia. lndian troubles caused the closing of his school. When quiet had been restored in Greene in I 788, his parents moved down from North Carolina and he opened a new school. That same year he received his first permanent religious impressionsg he resolved to become a minister and, in l790, he entered Hampden-Sydney College, in Prince Edward County, Virginia. Here he was a member of the Union Literary Society. He g-raduated in September, 1791. He was licensed to preach by the Hanover Presbytery the following year. After he had completed his college course, Waddell taught school in Columbia County, Georgia. His first wife, whom he married in I795, was Miss Catherine Calhoun, daughter of Patrick Calhoun and sister of John C. Calhoun. She lived about a year after the marriage. He married, in IBOO, Miss Elizabeth Woodson Pleasants, of Halifax County, Virginia. On leaving Columbia, in I8OI , he opened a school at Vienna, Abbeville District, South Carolina. Three years later he moved to Willington and there established the celebrated Willington Academy, said to be the most famous of ante-bellum schools. Among his pupils were Hugh Swinton Legare, the brilliant essayist and Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President Tylerg John Caldwell Calhoun, South Carolina's great Senator and the militant defender of the rights of the states, james Louis Pettigru, the cultured barrister and leading Unionist of South Carolina, mentioned by Hayne as a regular visitor to that rendezvous of the literali and savanls of Charleston, Lord John Russell's bookstore, Judge A. B. Longstreet, President of Emory University and author of the inimitable Ceorgia Scenes, W. H. Crawford, Democratic-Republican l20l

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.,, , , N, . , -.- ' Q' . ' X. ii DEN J -sg ,, SY l '- il ' 1' Rev. Moses Waddell, D. D. Sf , VERY AC-E. and every religion has held in the highest esteem its priest and preacher. The tribe of Levi was considered especially . '- blest because it was divinely chosen to attend the priestly duties of the nation of lsrael. ln the years of the Divided Kingdom the prophet of Jehovah was accorded veneration by all those who were true to their God. ln the Christian era the ministers of Christ have been regarded as divinely called. ln our own Southland, many a home has set aside a preacher's chamber -a modern counterpart of the prophet's chamber set aside by the great woman of Shunemn for Elisha. The preacher, especially in the rural districts, is his community leader: he is usually one of the most edu- cated men in the neighborhood, and before the present school system was adopted, was often the teacher. ln times of sickness and sorrow he is the comforter, he rejoices with the happy, he buries the loved dead and adds the consolation which can come only from God's'elect. As the minister, so the teacher is the object of veneration and esteem. The one is the instructor in matters spiritual, the other in things material. Moses Waddell combined in a rare degree the duties of minister and teacher. The annals of the Presbyterian Church boasts no more honored name than that of Waddell. The history of education in the South would be incomplete without a discussion of the contribution of this great man. John Caldwell Calhoun wrote that he might justly be considered as the father of classical education in the upper country of South Carolina and Georgia. The long list of distinguished pupils, to be named in part later, bears testimony to his abilities as teacher. A vessel bound for Georgia, but baffled by adverse winds and weather. docked at Charleston, South Carolina. On board was William Waddell and family, immigrants from the neighborhood of Belfast, lreland. The Waddells tarried in Charleston but a short time and ere long permanently settled in Rowan fnow lredellj County, North Carolina, on the banks of the South Yadkin River. Here Moses Waddell was born, July 29, l770. Regarding his name, Judge Longstreet says: 'il-le was the last of three sons born on the same spotg and so confident were his parents that he should not survive his birth a single day that, when they found themselves mistaken, they gave him the name of the patriarch who was providentially preserved in his infancy. Waddell first attended a school about three miles from his home, in l 777- l778. Here he learned to read and to write a neat hand. ln 1778 Moses ll9l

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W, .N :IIT Q 'Cm 'gi X x L iiiaigifulfigspsl.-If , J .. , sf. P, . E, 'X LHM' DE .J ii Qin, Q.. SY a 1 leader, member of lVlonroe's Cabinet, and an unsuccessful contender for the Presidency of the United States in I824g George lVlcDuHie, Governor of South Carolina, United States Senator, eloquent apologist for states rights, and Butler, Calhoun's able colleague in the Senate. What an influence Hampden-Sydney had on political, literary and educational life in the South through these pupils of Waddell's. Think how they must have imbibed that intangible, indefinable something-the traditional l-lampden-Sydney spirit- from this great teacher. Yea, verily, Hampden-Sydney may well claim these great men as her grandsons-these leaders who sat at the feet of that noble alumnus-the C-amaliel of the South. While at Willington, Waddell re- ceived the degree of Doctor of Divinity from the College of South Carolina, in ISO7. l-lis Academy at Willington was in the country, far from town, it was noted for its simple life and strict discipline. ln I8l9 Dr. Waddell entered on his duties as President of the University of Georgia. Dr. Alonzo Church wrote: The circumstances of the University were . . . peculiarly embarrassing . . . They were such as few men would be able to meet, without ultimately abandoning the object in despair. And to the wisdom and prudence and reputation of that good man is Georgia very largely indebted for the respectability and usefulness of her State College. The success which attended his efforts in raising the institution so rapidly as he did to respectability has been, to many, inexplicable. But to those who understand his character that success is by no means surprising. l-le accepted the office after repeated solicitation and only upon the fullest con- viction that God had called him to this field of labor. Perhaps few men, in all the business of life, more prayerfully inquired as to the path of duty, than Dr. Waddell. And by the path of duty I mean the glory of God in the advance- ment of the Recleemer's Kingdom. ln 1829 Dr. Waddell resigned the Presi- dency of the University. This closed his preceptional labors of two score and five years. Alexander H. Stephens paid a glowing tribute to Waddell's ability as a teacher: ln his insight into the character of boys, the constitution of their minds, their capacities and aptitudes and in drawing out and develop- ing their faculties by proper training and discipline and government, he had few, if any, superiors in the United States. After Waddell retired from active teaching he continued in the ministry for several years. While a teacher, he preached regularly. Few Sabbathsf' according to Church, ufound him out of the pulpit. l-le taught because he believed that he could in this way best support the Kingdom of Christ. Punctual he was and diligent. The most adverse weather could not deter him from 1211