Montgomery Bell Academy - Bell Yearbook (Nashville, TN)

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Dr. James Priestly succeeded Rev. Craighead as presi- dent of Cumberland College in 1810. In 1816, the college was closed because of financial difficulties. After some years of decline, the college was revived under the lead- ership of Rev. Phillip Lindsley, who arrived in Nashville December 24, 1824. Two years later the name of the institution was changed to the University of Nashville. Historians have called Dr. Lindsley a “giant in intellect.” Before coming to Nashville he had been president of Princeton College in New Jersey. His Educational Dis- courses became the cornerstone of higher education in Tennessee. Under his leadership, Nashville became the “Athens of the West” — a. name later to become the “Ath- ens of the South.” In 1855, the literary department of the University of Nashville, which had been closed, was reopened on the military plan. This was accomplished when John Berrien Lindsley, who had succeeded his father, Phillip, as presi- dent, merged the Western Military Institute with the University. In former years, the Institute had been lo- cated in Kentucky, but by the time of the merger, it was being operated at Tyree Springs under Col. Bushrod Johnson. With the approach of the Civil War, military instruction became popular, and the school grew rapidly. John Berrien Lindsley Phillip Lindsley James Priestley 7

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N i:t si. c;iTLiN has mteras lectiuis, ill igJomiuo NOri .fl SIT, |iio(l I m‘f4€s ct Cunitorcs Niiprudicti, alamnum, morihus iiiculimtuiii, literisijiic huinanioribiis iinbntiini, titulo praduqiic ARTIFM LIBERALIUM BACCALAUREI odoruavtriiiHi-te..ii lccoruvcrunt,ctcifruciiilaiIedc. umomninjura, privUegio, dignitates, Uonorcs et insignia, qua: hie nut iigqiiaiii oiitium ad ciindiim grndum cvcctis concedi soicnt. Ii Cl ' JlIS IlEI TESTIMOIWEM, Uteris hiscc ENIVERSITATIS 8IGIELO munilis, NOS, pro nuctori- tatc nohis commissn, ClIlItOGRAI ' lIA apposui.nus— »« «», « Ubu, Aeadennci. die quarto Octobris, Anno Domini tinnoqiiu Ucipublicw AuicricancD LXll. ■1 ' ‘ ' ’ ■ ' f 4 1 WDCCCXXXVII. X - r r ' j i ) 4 I i K ai UNIVERSITATiS NASHVILLENSIS, IMI E8EN ET CTTRATORES Charter for the University of Nashville. The first principal of Davidson Academy was Thomas Craighead, a Presbyterian preacher and teacher, the first minister to arrive at the Cumberland settlement. The school was located at Spring Hill Meetinghouse on the road to Gallatin near the site of the present Spring Hill Cemetery. Craighead taught the boys during the week at the rate of four pounds a year in “hard money” and preached to them and his neighbors on Sunday. In 1806, by legislative act, Cumberland College was chartered as the successor of Davidson Academy. Prior to this, in 1805, under the supervision of trustees Andrew Jackson and James Robertson, a new building was started on “College Hill” in South Nashville on lands belonging to the college. The work was completed in 1808, and the college moved across the river to its new home. Trustees, appointed over the years, were men of note including three United States Presidents: Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk and Andrew Johnson. 6

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0 C33 S OEEsife i ' - :. V - ■ . -. ■ ' ■- ' ' o Western Military Institute, which be me the literary i department of the t iversity under the name of the Nashville Military College, thus became one of the d!s- | tinguished ancestors of MBA. The boys, who studied the manual of arms nd close order drill irf this schot , were to fight on a; ' hundred bloody battlefields of the ' Civfl War. It W|LS during this period that Sam Davis, a farrn boy from Smyrna in Rutherford..County, signed hi| naihe on the roll book of the military school. As thous ncK of other boys, Sam was soon- ught up in the’ ' holocaust of war, but ' none would Be better remembered nor more honored than he. In November, 1863, at Pulaski, Tennessee, Sam Davis was hanged by Federal troops He chose to die rather-i-than betray a friend. His home today is a public shrine, and his statue stands on the grounds of the Ten- nessee State Capitol. The roll book he signed was the same one used by the old Western Military Institute, gokag back to 1847. This book is still used as the Register for MBA students. 4 i