Mississippi College - Tribesman Yearbook (Clinton, MS)

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History of Mississippi College A MILL or a factory may be made set in operation, at once perfect in all its appointments, but a college is a product of years growth, for it must not only prove its right to existence but the test of time, but it must gather around it a certain coterie and sentiment sufficient for its life and development. As “in com- mon life we observe that the circumstance of utility is always appealed to,” so it should be with any sort of institution making an appeal to the public for life and patronage. The fulfillment of its purpos es and promises in service rendered to man- kind and to society should be the test of its right and eulogy, and unless it can make some record of usefulness to the public, it has no claim to live. In 1826, at Mt. Salus (now Clinton), there was founded a school under cor- porate name of Hemstead academy. In the following January, President F. G. Hopkins, with an attendance of abou thirty students, formally opened the first ses- sion. In February the name of the institution was changed to Mississippi Academy. In 1829, Daniel Comfort was chosen president, whose excellent character and su- perior ability as a teacher is admirably illustrated by the following extract taken from the biography of Albert Gallatin Hrown, thirteenth governor of Mississippi “In February, 1829, having made tolerable proficiency in the rudiments of an Eng- lish education and given evidence of sprightliness, his father consented with as much readiness as was consistent with his limited means to send him to Mississippi Acad- emy, then a respectable school under the management of that excellent man and pure Christian, the Rev. D. Comfort. Here he remained three years.” In 1830, the academy had gained sufficient reputation to guarantee the dignity of being called a college, so the name was changed to Mississippi College, the name it has so honorably borne through all the vicissitudes of its strenuous and eventful existence. The purposes of the founders of the institution and its policy until 1850, were co-educational, so at the June commencement in 1835, two young ladies, Misses Lu- cinda F. Bagley, of Covington, La., and Carolina H. Coulner, of Vicksburg, Miss., were the first graduates. It is thought that these bear the distinction of being the first degrees ever conferred by an institution in Mississippi. The next session, ten young ladies were graduated, among the number being Miss Harriet N. Battle, who afterward became the mother of the Honorable Frank Johnston, at one time Attor- ney General of Mississippi. In 1837, the college became financially embarrassed, and all the faculty re- signed. Another faculty was organized with Professor H. Dwight, as the president, assisted by his wife, and Miss Potter. In 1841, the Mississippi conference of the Methodist church was planning to establish Centenary College. The Mississippi College board of trustees offered to donate to the conference the college “with all its improvements and apparatus and a bonus of $20,000. The offer was declined by the locating committee by a vote of one majority.” During all these years the college was the property of the town of Clinton, under the management of a self-perpetuating board of trustees. 11

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iTLf¥is rm ((°5)= il President John William Provine, M. A., Ph. D., L.L. D. B. S., University of Mississippi, 1888; M. A., ibid., 1890; Ph. D., Goettingen, 1892 ; Fellow in Chemistry, University of Mississippi, 1888-89; Chair of Chemistry, Mississippi College, 1893; President Mississippi College, 1911. — 10

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£] In 1842, the college passed into the hands of the Clinton Presbytery of the Presbyterian church with Alexander Campbell as president, assisted by a strong faculty. In 1845, M. A. Foute was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, the first male graduate of the institution. Again meeting financial disasters in July, 1850, the board of trustees asked the Presbytery to release all claims, which was promptly done. In the fall of 1850 the college was transferred to the Mississippi Baptist State Convention, and under the presidency of I. N. Urner, began its first session with an attendance of fourteen students, but closed with two additional teachers and eighty-four students. At this juncture the charter was so changed as to prohibit the attendance of girls and women. This feature of the charter has never been changed, but by the courtesy of the faculty and board of trustees the privilege of the institution was granted to Miss Anna Ward Aven, who was graduated in 1905, with Bachelor of Arts degree. During the fifty’s under the leadership of Rev. E. C. Eager, an endowment fund of $100,000 was raised, but the war swept all this away. The year 1891 closed another endowment movement, resulting in the raising of $39,000. In 1902 another endowment movement closed, which added $60,000 to the endowment fund. The endowment then stood at about $130,000. June, 1854, George C. Cranberry was graduated, the first graduate under the Baptist management. The catalogue containing this bit of history is the second issue of the catalogue file. From the report of the Board of Trustees, May 25, 1860, the following is taken : “The endowment still remains as reported last year, that is a little over a hundred thousand dollars.” The exact amount in subscriptions and funds collected was $102,000. There were only three hundred and fifty names on the list of sub- scribers of this amount.” The following interesting clipping is taken from the re- port of the Board of Trustees made at the convention at Macon, May 23, 1861: “Within the last month the perfidy and madness of the Washington government having forced war upon us, many of our students and three of our teachers, Messrs. J. H. York, E. G. Banks, and M. J. Thigpen formed themselves into a company called the Mississippi College rifles. This company is commanded by Captain J. W. Welborne, a trustee of the college.” Captain Welborne, at the end of one year, was succeeded by William H. Lewis, who led this brave company through the Virginia campaign and brought back the silken flag torn and tattered, which is now th? treasured possession of the Mississippi College Rifles chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy at Clinton. Captain Lewis, now seventy-four years of age, still leads an active life, and is one of Clinton’s most highly respected and useful citizens. This company entered the battle of Manassas with one hundred and four men, but four years later at Appoir.atox only eight answered the roll call. Here is the origin of the Mississippi College Rifles, which was organized in the college after the war, and which remained a permanent feature of the institution until 1905, when by permission of the authorities it was formally discontinued. In this year the col- lege reached an enrollment of two hundred and twenty-eight, and a faculty of eight teachers. Prof. Urner, who had for ten years been acting president, was in 1860 12