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

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HAMPDE]V-SYD]VEY COLLEGE McMurran Hall, old courthouse building in which Shepherd State Teachers College was founded as Shepherd College. West Virginia, in 1871 through the work of Joseph McMurran, first President of the school. until a tew month lit-fore hiv death in 1842. Hi bi)d and that of his wife are buried in the cemetery at Hanover. In a statement sent me in February, 1941, Dr. L. R. Dingus of Transylvania College says, An acting- presidency lasting over a dozen years represents a strange phenomenon but has a rational explanation ' here. The Board religiously (as also the State) was passing through a violent religious struggle between the conservatives with a Calvinistic slant and the liberals including Unitarian, deistic, anti-church ten- dencies. . . . He kept the institution going during this period. In 1812 President Bl the and Professor Robert Bishop started the publication of Tlw E-vanijetnat Rfcnrd and ll ' islern Rfvirv:. This went through two volumes. In 1822, Dr. Blythe started T ie Christian Rrt isler, which was discontinued after one year for lack of sufHcient support. Princeton in 181 5 conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity, and in 181 6 he was made Moderator of the Presbyterian (ieneral As- semblv. In the schism of 1837 between the New School and the Old School, Dr. Blythe adhered to the latter. E. Forman, in a sketch of Dr. Blythe I The Kaleido- scope, vol. 8, p. 33, 1900) savs that Hanover College rose to a high degree of prosperity under his admin- istration. Transvlvania College has an excellent portrait of Dr. Blvthe and Mrs. Blythe by the famous Kentucky artist, Matthew H. Joiiett. MOSES WADDEL William Waddel left County Down, near Belfast, Ireland, in 1766 and settled in that part of Rowan which later became Iredell County, North Carolina. Here his son, Moses Waddel, was born July 29, 1770. The boy was very precocious, and at the age of eight was placed in a classical school ct)nducted by James Hall and bearing the euphonious name of Clio ' s Nur- sery; a school celebrated in its day. After five or six } ears here, where he made rapid progress in his studies, he began teaching, though himself only a boy. Teaching first in North Carolina, he next removed to (Jeorgia, where his father had gone, and taught there. Deciding to enter the ministry, he sought the advice of Rev. John Springer of Abbeville District, S. C, who was a graduate of Princeton, had taught and studied at Hampden-Sydney in 1776-77, and had then entered the ministry. Advised to enter Hampden- Sydney, Waddel was so well prepared and a student of such diligence that he graduated in one year — a member of the famous class of 1791. Continuing his studies he was licensed to preach in May, 1792, by Hanover Presbytery. Howe ' s History of the Presby- terian Church in South Carolina says (vol. 2, p. 669) ,«i Tusculum College, Greenevljle, Tennessee, founded in 1818 as a classical academy by Dr Samuel Doak, 1776, the pioneer (Headmaster cf Tennessee. that he was received from the Presbytery of Hanover, April, 1793, as a licentiate. He was ordained as pastor of the Carmel Church, in Georgia, June 6, 1794. He preached for a while at the Calhoun Settlement in Abbeville District, S. C, where Patrick Calhoun, father of John C. Calhoun, lived. He prepared John C. Calhoun for the junior class at Vale, and in 1795 he married young Calhoun ' s sister, Catherine, who lived only a few years. In 1800 he married Elizabeth Woodson Pleasants of Halifax County, X ' irginia. Moses Waddel ' s reputation as a teacher soon became widespread, and promising boys flocked to his schools. In 1 801 he removed to Vienna, a town on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River, and in 1804 [12]

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became the first President of Hampden-Sydney at the advanced age of 26. John Blair Smith, at the ad- vanced age of 19, became first assistant to President and Professor Samuel, in 1776. While teaching, he was studying for the minis- try under his brother ' s tui- tion. On October 26, 1779, at a meeting of Presbytery at Prince Edward Court House (now Worsham), he preached what might be called a trial sermon, and Presbytery licensed him. The older brother went to Princeton as President in 1779, and the younger brother succeeded him, having reached the mature age of 23. John Blair Smith in 1777 had become Captain of the Hampden-Sydney Boys, a company vhich donned their distinctive uniforms of purple shirts and coon- skin caps, and marched to the defense of Williams- burg, then the capital of } ' irginia. While administer- ing the business of the col- lege as President, and while teaching classes, he was in constant demand in the pulpit, and evidently had great evangelistic powers. It was assumed by some of the members of the Board of Trustees that, because he gave time to preaching he was neglecting his duties as President; and friction arose. This, however, did not stop him from preach- ing the Gospel with great power and with wonderful results. In 1789 Dr. Smith resigned as President in order to give himself entirely to pastoral and evangelistic work. He was pastor of Pine Street Church, Philadelphia, ' 791-95. and w-as President of Union College, 1795-98. He returned to Pine Street Church in the spring of 1799, and died on August 22 of that year from an at- tack of yellow fever. In 1785 the College of New Jersey conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinitv. JAMES BLYTHE James Blythe (October 28, 1765-May 20, 1842) was the son of James Blythe and his wife Elizabeth, immi- grants to Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Sprague (vol. 3, pp. 591-599), quoted by A. J. Morri- son in his Dictionary of Hampden-Sydney Alumni, states that they were from Scotland; Dr. R. L. Dingus of Transylvania College, Kentucky, says they were Scotch-Irish stock. Either way, they were Presbv- terians, and wished the boy to receive a thorough edu- cation and to enter a learned profession. At first James, Jr., didn ' t take to a classical education, but after driving a wagon to and from Charleston, South Carolina, he chose the lesser evil and returned to school. Taking four years at Hampden-Sydney, he gradu- ated in 1788, in the same class with Cary Allen, the • first missionary to Kentucky. While at Hampden- New 20-floor hospital of the Medical College of Virginia. Richmond, Virginia. This flourishing medical school was estab- lished under the charter and seal of Hampden-Sydney College in 1338. Sydney he determined to enter the ministry. It seems probable that this decision was reached because of the great revival at the college in 1786-87, in which Cary Allen was a leader. Dr. A. J. Morrison (following Sprague, vol. 3, pp. 591-599) says that young Blythe studied theology under James Hall of North Carolina. Licensed by Orange Presbytery to preach, he went out to Kentucky in I79t, and in July, 1793, was ordained and installed as pastor of Pisgah Church, where he preached for more than forty years. On August i, 1793, he married Miss Margaret McElroy, a native of Rockbridge County, Virginia (March 8, 1775-January 28, 1835). In 179+ he became interested in the establishment of Kentucky Academy, and with Rev. David Rice (a former trustee of Hampden-Sydney), made a trip on horseback to Philadelphia, New York, and other East- ern cities to raise money; receiving a gift of $100 from President George M ' ashington, a similar amount from Vice-President John Adams, and $50 from Aaron Burr. Over $10,000 is said to have been secured on this trip. The Kentucky Academy and Transylvania Seminary were merged January i, 1799, becoming Transylvania University, and Mr. Blythe was elected to the chair of mathematics, natural philosophy, astron- omy and geography (E. Forman, in The Kaleidoscope, vol. 8, p. 32, says geology). In 1804, on the resigna- tion of President James Moore, Professor Blythe was appointed Acting President, and continued as such until 1816, continuing also his teaching. He then sev- ered his connection with the institution, but in 1817 was elected Professor of Chemistry. This position he held until 1831, when he left the state. In 1 832-1 836 he was President of Hanover College, Indiana, and then became pastor of New Lexington Church, ten miles from Hanover, where he preached THE 1941 KALEIDDSCDPE [UJ

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again removed about six miles into the country and established Willington Academy, a school which added to his already great reputation. It is believed that the school was named for Willington, the old home of Major James Morton, near Hampden-Sydney, where young Waddel was a visitor in 1790-92, while a stu- dent at college, and where he had first met Elizabeth Pleasants, a niece of Mrs. James (Mary Smith) Mor- ton. Forty-one years later. Dr. John Newton Waddel established in Mississippi a school modeled on the plan of Willington Academy, and called it Montrose, the name of the old home in Powhatan County, Virginia, where Mary Smith (Mrs. James) Morton was born. There was evidently sentiment in the hearts of father and son. George R. Gilmer, one of his pupils and afterwards Governor of Georgia and Congressman, gives, in his Georgians, a vivid sketch of Dr. Waddel as a teacher, with his unique methods, and as a man of brilliant mind and constructive ability. Among his pupils were John C. Calhoun, William H. Crawford, Hugh S. Legare, George McDuffie, A. B. Longstreet, James L. Pettigru, and George R. Gilmer. Franklin College, at Athens, Georgia, had declined until it had only seven students, and a small faculty whose salaries were based for the most part on hopes. Dr. Waddel was waited upon by a committee of Georgians and urged to take charge of the moribund institution. This was in 1819. The university had bestowed upon him in 1807 the degree of Doctor of Divinity. Governor Gilmer, in his Georgians, says, When he took charge of it (Franklin College), there were neither funds, professors, nor students. In a few years Franklin College, under his direction, became Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia, formally opened in 1824 ai htampden-Sydney College as a separate branch of the Theological Department. Seminary Building (1825-1898) was given to the College in 1912 and its name changed to Venabte Hall. I offered a resolution e, pressive of the high apprecia- tion ... of Dr. Waddel ' s value as President, and the desire that he would remain at the head of the college. The resolution was adopted by a nearly unanimous vote. I doubt whether any act of my after life was more cordially approved by the people of Georgia. Thus was Franklin College resurrected from the dying, if not from the dead, and became the University of Georgia. Today (1941) three Hampden-Sydney men are members of its faculty: Willis H. Bocock, who divided the first honor with William 0. Little in 1884; W. D. Hooper, who missed first honor in 1889 by a fractional point; and E. Claybrook Griffith, who took the first honor in 1936. In 1829, Dr. Waddel re- signed the Presidency and re- turned to Willington, South Carolina, where he conducted a large plantation with great success, and preached. In 1836 he returned to Athens, where he died on July 21, 1840. His brother-in-law, U. S. Senator John C. Calhoun, said of him, He may justly be considered as the father of classical edu- cation in the upper country of South Carolina and Georgia. Old Franklin College building in which was housed the Uni- versity of Georgia from 1819-1829 when Rev. Moses Waddell, Class of 1791, revived the college, made if a leading Southern educational center. ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER 6 the most flourishing literary institution in the Southern States. Some years after the college commenced pros- pering, one or two trustees . . . expressed the opinion that it w as time for him to yield his place to some one of more distinguished literary reputation. Dr. Wad- del at once sent in his resignation. Gilmer continues: Archibald Alexander, the fourth President of Hampden- Sydney College, was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, April 17, 1772, the son of William Alexander and his wife Agnes Anne Reid. Many sketches of his life, and a biography of his son, James W. Alexander, have been written, but a brief sketch of his life and work belongs In this series. In the search for old brick from the homes of Presidents, members of the Board of Trustees, and alumni, to go THE 13 41 KALEIDDSCDPE [13]