Oglethorpe University - Yamacraw Yearbook (Atlanta, GA)

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ilsG Pi S m Foreword HERE are those who will pity naore than blame the Staff for this imperfect production, while others will lose their patience and condemn without qualifi- cation. Such adverse criticisms are fully antic- ipated. And yet we cheerfully go about the work and as cheerfully bear any amount of ob- jection and odium that may be heaped upon it. To the Ferocious Rhetoricians ' and Unmer- ciful Critics, the Staff declares they fully realize the many imperfections of this, the second volume of The Yamacraw. The editors desire that you recall the financial conditions and the many diffi- culties under which they were forced to labor. Therefore, whatever may be your decision when you have examined the book, they ask that you con- sider it sympathetically, with at least a suspended judgment, and with as little admixture of critical repugnance as the nature of the contents will allow. The Editor-in-Chief.

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Dedication This issue of the Yamacraw is dedicated to two of the best friends that any college in the whole wide world ever had — to Mr. and Mrs. J. T. Lupton of Chat- tanooga, Tennessee. At a time when there was no great financial force back of Oglethorpe University, when no person had given an unconditional gift to this institution of more tlian $1,000.00, Mr. and Mrs. Lupton, after hearing the story of its ideals from the pulpit of the First Pres- byterian Church of Chattanooga, made an initial gift of $10,000.00 cash, to which they have added from time to time, until there is now being erected on the campus of the University a building of steel and stone, given by them in memory of Mr. Lupton ' s mother. This monument to her is, at the same time, a monu- ment to the great hearted generosity of the donors, than whom there is not and will not ever be anyone more loved by the boys and girls and faculty and members of the Board of Founders of Oglethorpe University.

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p B B i m Oglethorpe— An Historical Sketch ||GLETHORPE College was formally opened in 1835 under the direction of the Synod of Georgia. It was situated on a long, low ridge, called Midway, near Milledgeville. Old Oglethorpe j grew from a state normal training school into an historic univer- sity, whose renowned halls gave Georgia some of her greatest men, and gave the world our own Sidney Lanier. Princeton College had been growing in New Jersey, and was largely patronized by the youth of the entire nation, and especially this section of the South. Owing to the long distances, which must be traveled on horse- back, it was suggested that a college similar to Princeton be founded in the South. This suggestion materialized, and Oglethorpe College was the outcome. The same idea, characteristic of the New Oglethorpe, of getting men of the highest educational attainments to hold professorships is revealed by such names as the following, who were members of the Oglethorpe College Faculty: Joseph Le Conte, the eminent geologist; James Woodrow, uncle of Woodrow Wilson, Professor of Science; Samuel K. Talmadge, the bril- liant administrator, and many others. In the President ' s office today may be seen a crayon drawing of Sidney Lanier, an Oglethorpe alumnus of world-wide fame, showing him when he was fifteen years old, his age when he entered college. Hanging beside this picture is his diploma, bearing the name of the then president of Ogle- thorpe, Dr. Samuel K. Talmadge. We do not hesitate to say that anv col- lege would pay a fabulous sum for them, if the honor of having graduated so famous a poet could be included in the bargain. Shortly after the graduation of Lanier, the Northern and Southern States became at odds, and the deplorable Civil War followed. Lanier and all of his college comrades who could qualify, with the greatest number of the faculty, answered the call of the South. Being so thoroughly convinced that the South was in the right, and so imbued with Southern rights, Oglethorpe shut its doors; her student body marched away to meet their Northern brothers. Not satisfied with furnish- ing all of her available man power, Oglethorpe invested her funds in Con- federate bonds. Her beautiful main building was used as a hospital and barracks, and was later burned. An effort was made to revive the institution after the war, but the dark days of the reconstruction and the insolvency of the South would not permit, and after a couple of years the doors were closed for the second time, but even in so short a while she graduated some distinguished men, among them being a governor of Georgia.