Oglethorpe University - Yamacraw Yearbook (Atlanta, GA)

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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.

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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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Oglethorpe died at Gettysburg, where she meekly bowed to the vic- torious armies of our brothers of the North. Old Oglethorpe lives today on the pages of history a stainless character, determined to let the world know that she was true to the principles of those who had founded her. It is with bowed heads that we recall those days of adversity, when Oglethorpe answered the call of the stricken South, shut the doors of the college, and gave freely of her life on the battlefields. Her sacrifices and sorrows are our heritage, and today, standing in the full dawn of her re- newed youth, we rejoice with our Alma Mater, whose history breathes and burns in legend and in story. Under the leadership of Dr. Thornwell Jacobs, now president of Ogle- thorpe University, Old Oglethorpe was resurrected. Only eight years have elapsed since he, working with a band of indefatigable business men of At- lanta, began the monumental task of reviving an institution which had been forgotten, save to students of history. The resurrecting process was begun in the face of the greatest war in which man has ever been engaged. But in spite of financial disaster and utter turmoil, Oglethorpe has forged ahead, until today she is universally and favorably known. Her subscrip- tions have long since passed the million-dollar mark. The corner stone of Oglethorpe University was laid on January 21, 1916, with her truthful and triumphal motto engraven upon it: Manu Dei Resurrexit. As good fortune would have it, her doors opened again, this the third time, in September, 1916, after fifty years of rest beneath the charred mins of fratricidal strife. Her first magnificent building, made of granite, trimmed in limestone, and as near fire-proof as human skill of the twentieth century could make it, was ready to welcome the first class of Oglethorpians. A Faculty, every member of which held the highest degree the world can bestow in their departments, had been assembled. Following the first building, the Board of Directors have made plans for erecting fourteen more of the same type. As Dr. Jacobs has said, All of this has been done in the midst of financial distress that darkened tlie spirit of the whole nation, and against the evil influences of a colossal war, which caused the very joints of the world to gape. ' The resurrection of Oglethorpe reads like a romance. Beginning eight years ago with a subscription of $1,000, Oglethorpe soon enlisted the sj ' mpathy and friendship of a great number of liberal Southern patriots. In the President ' s office may be seen today several huge volumes of names, each pledging sums ranging from fifty cents to $50,000. They are mem-