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

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HAMPDElVf-SYDIVEY COLLEGF. University of Virginia ' s Rotunda Thomas Jefferson once stated that without the help of Joseph C. Cabell, Class of 1799, he would have been unable to found the University. The writer remembers the office — a three-story build- ing with one room on each floor and a winding stair on the inside — an elongated box. There were skeletons in it, and the skin of a rattlesnake that looked to the little boy as if it were large enough to encase him. In the medical school building, which may have been the infirmary also, there was a skeleton in one of the rooms on the first floor. Negroes and small boys trod softly as they went along the road between Kingsville and old Prince Edward Court House; after dark was not a time for traveling. Several hundred yards to the east, across the main highway and near the banks of Mettauer ' s Branch (also known as Shelton ' s Branch) are evidences of a graveyard. Coon and possum hunters, even of today (or rather of the night), tell of rackamous things that occur when they hunt on this branch. Dr. Mettauer married four times, and had children by each of his wives. He drove in a small box-like carriage, with a Negro driver on the driver ' s seat outside, behind two handsome bay horses, and he went like the wind. U he was stopped on the road, he would not permit the conversation to drag. He tapped on the front window, and that signal meant ffo. He never appeared without his tall beaver hat, and it is said that he was buried with it, and that some of his instruments were buried with him. As to these, when he could not find on the market the kind of instrument he wished, he made it. The best known picture of him was taken when he was an old man, wearing his beaver hat. But in recent years a picture taken in middle life shows him to have been a man of hand- some face and piercing eyes. This was taken from a daguerreotvpe given to the writer by his father, who knew Dr. Mettauer well. The Virginia Medical So- ciety honored him and itself by placing a handsome monument over his grave in the College Cemetery. EDWARD BAPTIST Edward Baptist (May 12, 1790-March 31, ' 1863), a native of Mecklenburg County, Virginia, entered Hampden-Sydney in 1810 and graduated in 1813. In 1820 he was given the Master of Arts degree. His father was an Episcopalian, his mother a Presbyterian. Young Baptist joined the Baptist Church while at Col- lege and studied theology under President Moses Hoge. This presents a very interesting picture of that day, for denominational lines were — or were supposed to be — deep and sharp. A college student, converted to Christianity, with an Episcopal father, a Presbyterian mother, and a Presb terian teacher, making up his own mind to join the Baptist denomination, and studying theology under this teacher, the President of a Presby- terian college. Evidently he was a young man of decided convic- tions, and his subsequent career proved that he had unusual ability, and unusual initiative, all of which he had decided to devote to the service of God. He went to Powhatan County, opened a classical school, and taught and preached. He is said to have written the plan of organization of the Baptist General Asso- ciation and to have been one of its founders. He was one of the founders of the Virginia Baptist Education Society in 1830. His school soon had a fine reputation and was well patronized. The Education Society placed in his school nine young men who were to be- come ministers; and to the school came also those who were already in the ministry, but who wished to be- come better prepared for their work. Mr. Baptist is said to have had cottages for the accommodation of many of the students. One is re- minded of a similar plan used by Moses Waddel, class of 1791, and of John Makemie Wilson, class of 1791, famed for his classical academy at Rocky River, North Carolina. It was found necessary to have larger headquarters and was deemed wise to be nearer the city of Rich- mond; so in 1832, under the auspices of the Education Society, a farm was purchased in Henrico County and the Virginia Baptist Seminary was opened. This was the beginning of Richmond College, now the Univer- sity of Richmond. Edward Baptist was offered the Presidency of the college, but declined on account of ill health, and in 1835, seeking a milder climate, he moved with his family to Alabama. In conjunction with his wife ' s aunt, Mrs. William Hickman, who ac- companied the family, a large plantation was pur- chased, and he became a planter on a large scale, and preached to country congregations. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama. On January 3, 1841, he wrote in his diary, I have recently attended a meeting of the board of trustees of the University of Alabama, agreeable session of about a fortniglil and I hope a profitable one to the rising Taylor ' s ' irginia Baptist Ministers 1912) quotes his daughter as saying: We had an (italics mine generation. (Third Series, When Howard College was founded, he delivered the opening address and was called to the Presidency of the institution. He declined this honor, however, as he did calls to churches in Mobile, Montgomery, Tus- caloosa, and other cities, always preferring the country pastorates. He married in 1817 Eliza Judith Cary Eggleston, who died at Marion, Perry County, Alabama, in 1876. The University of Richmond has a portrait of this eminent minister and educator. (More skelchei will be found on p ge, 82. 90. U7 . 17S. 179. 1801 [161

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