Mercer University - Cauldron Yearbook (Macon, GA)

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Your first president was a teacher, and farmer To- day an agrarian quality is not a requisite for President George Connell. Reverend Sanders had to keep ac- counts. clear and cultivate land, and with the help of Old Miss, look after the boys. You began immediately to grow. Before you were one year old yon had a new building. You have con- tinued to grow through big gifts, like Jesse Mercer's and Columbus Roberts', and little gifts. Many of your buildings perpetuate the memory of your benefactors: Roberts Hall, Shorter Hail, Mary Erin Porter Hall, Willingham Chapel, and the Hardman Library. Within six years you were elevated to the position of a univer- sity. with a college, a theological seminary, and an academy. In 1841 your second president, Otis Smith, awarded your first three college diplomas. In 1844, the year the manual iabor program died, Dr. John L. Dagg became president. Through injury and disease he was afflicted so that he was practically mute, blind and lame But he was loved and respected as a great scholar. When the Southern scales were on the eve of seces- sion from the Federal LInion your loyalty to the South prompted you to announce in the 1860451 Catalog: Southern students ought not to be sent to school in a foreign nation. And when war came the Mercer Cadets' went off to battle. No other college in the state but Mercer can claim continuity through that period. Evidence that you would not forget the Southern heroes is seen in the fact that you gave General Robert II. Lee the honorar)- LL.D. degree. Honoring Lee brought an honor not shared by any other college in our land. Bad economic and social conditions of the Recon- struction period had a tremendous impact on Southern colleges, Mercer, and you were forced to move to a more populous section of the state. Atlanta, Forsyth, and Griffin made enticing invitations but Macon won, The present Administration Building symbolizes your earlv days in Macon. This four-storv red brick structure of modified Gotbse design took four vears to build Next to this old building stands the Humanities Build mg—not yet named—which is the best symbol of Mer- cer today. The newest adornment, the Student Center, symbolizes the future It is in vivid contrast to the tra ditional Gothic, classic. Romanesque mixture that has characterized the campus, being ultra-modem and thoroughly functional. In moving to Macon much of the old otdet passed Athletics were in full swing by the end of the century Remember the day when Bill (now Dr. W. G.) Lee. a freshman playing second base, hit a home run in the tenth to beat Tech, 6-5. Girls, as day students, came giggling to classes m 1873, That was during the presidency of Archibald J. Battle. Co-education did not really begin until the hey- day of the Twenties. In that decade you pioneered in the field of radio. You were the first college in the world to operate your own radio station. Vi'MAZ— Watch Mercer Attam Zenith, Through depressions and wars you continued to live. The president who for 25 years guided you through the great depression was Dr Spnght Dowell He revised the curriculum in such a way as to strengthen the entire Linivcrsity. You ve had your testing hours, too. You, like other church related colleges, have had dissension within the walls. Time takes its toll. The deep past lives only in re- corded history, Dr. Dowell, now sitting in an office of the President's suite as President-Emeritus, is writing your history, Mcrccr. As he walks across the campus to and from the office he meets new and strange faces. Of all those here in 1928 only Dr Otis Knight remains. This, then, is your life, Mercer, We know’ you as the Mcrccr of today and of tomorrow, the «Mercer of President Connell, and one hundred and twenty-five teachers and administrators, and twelve hundred stu- dents. But you appreciate your New Look more than we, because you can remember rwo log cabins in a little village in Greene County,

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THIS IS YOUR LIFE, MERCER This school year 1957-1958 marks your oner hun- dred and twenty-fifth birthday. Mercer. Though you were conceived in the minds and hearts of Georgia Baptists earlier, you were born on January' 1-1, 1833. Now that you are a century and a quarter old it is fitting that we. the CAULDRON Staff, review your years of struggle and achievement, You began modestly as Mercer Institute—a manual labor school for boys with 39 students. Today your sons and daughters number 20,000. plus twelve hun- dred now roaming over your beautiful S5 acre campus and through your numerous buildings, Do you remember the beginningJ A 450-acre planta- tion for your boys to farm, and two small log cabins on a twelve and a half acre campus in the village of Pen field. You have not forgotten how Josiah Penfield left $2,500 for the education of pious young men for the gospel ministry, provided the Baptists of the state matched it. And they did match it, with Jesse Mercer and Billington Sanders leading the way; bur they didn't limit the pious young men to ministerial education. Billington McCarty Sanders arid Old Miss,” as his wife was affectionately known to the students, taught and cared for those 39 boys. Today your faculty and staff equals the total number of years of your life. Re- member what those two log cabins cost? Three hundred dollars! Your new Student Center cost students, alumni, and friends 3750,000. I

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THE 1958 SHERRIL HAMILTON Editorm-Chief DAVID BLANKENSHIP Business Manager NAN WILLIAMS Co-Editor ALGY CARBONELL Associate Editor CAULDRON 3