Oglethorpe University - Yamacraw Yearbook (Atlanta, GA)

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g zamacBaM ' fP Our cyllma cTWater A search is the thing He hath taught you For Height and for Depth and for Wideness. WITHIN the thought of these two striking- lines, inscribed over the entrance of our first building, may be discerned the key to the resurrection of Old Oglethorpe College which, with its Doric col- umns, stood on Midway Hill in Milledgeville, then the capital of Georgia, in the early nineteenth century as a tribute to education in the South. And, too, the thought of these lines may be described as the palpitating note in the heart of that modern philanthropist. Dr. Thornwell Jacobs, our founder and president, as he went about indefatigably in his effort to bring the old institution to life. These almost living structures of blue granite which surround us today are not new in the sense of appliance to the University. The dig- nity, honesty, reliability, reverence and beauty expressed in them reflect over a span of more than a century when a gi ' oup of men organized the Georgia Educational Society with the avowed purpose of giving an educa- tion to every youth in the Southland. From their earnest endeavors grew Old Oglethorpe. And from Old Oglethorpe comes the ideas and ideals of our University today! Let us take a retrospective view of the historical genesis of our Alma Mater. We find that the educational society spok- en of in the above paragraph as early as 1809 began a movement which culminat- ed in the astablishment of a Theological Seminary for the southeast. Before they had finished, three great institutions sprang up, blazing the trail for similar ones throughout the South afterwards. The first of these, an institution of power which was graduating the manhood of the southeast into careers of useful- ness, was Old Oglethorpe. In the decade of the fifties we learn that the school had prospered and become the one great in- Lupton Hall Tower stitution of the South, ■0 ■.

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tumimGisjim m S Chapel Exit Among its foremost professors and graduates we find the name of the im- mortal Sidney Lanier, who finished his work in three years and then became a tutor within the walls of the college un- til its sons marched to battle. We read of James Woodrow, uncle of the twenty- eighth president of the United States, who was admired for his scientific at- tainments. There was Joseph LeGonte who ranks as one of the greatest geol- ogists America has ever produced. Among her alumni we read the names of governors, statesmen, discoverers, moderators, all true Christian gentlemen of integrity. But, as President Jacobs so ably ex- pressed it in his owm story of Oglethorpe, the college died at Gettysburg. At the outbreak of the Civil War, the sons of the Old College marched to the ranks, the trustees invested the en- dowment in Confederate bonds, the buildings were converted into hospitals and later destroyed. Thus, Old Oglethorpe died. From the smoldering ashes came the ideas and ideals and a few good souls, despite the evils of Reconstruction days, made an attempt to res- urrect the Old College in 1870 with Atlanta as the site. The financial disaster at the time made the task utterly impossible and so the doors were closed for a second time after a little less than three years of exis- tence. A little more than a half century later we find New Oglethorpe located in the capital of the state which was founded by that great English phil- anthropist for whom the school was named. And it is championing the ideas and ideals so deeply rooted in the Old College. It was Dr. Thornwell Jacobs, who, sixteen years ago, accepted the almost impossible task of resurrecting Old Oglethorpe. The story is a romance within itself. It began in the youth of the president when he listened to the tales of his grandfather who was a professor at the insti- tution in Milledgeville. It was then that a love for the old school began to kindle in the heart of Dr. Jacobs.