Roanoke College - Rawenoch Yearbook (Salem, VA)

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I ginia, among the existing Lutheran colleges in the United States, Roanoke ranks fifth in age, or second, if 1842, the date of the founding of the Virginia Institute, be regarded as her birth-year. Professor Baughman having accepted the principalship of another school in the spring of 1853, Dr. David F. Bittle was elected to the presidency, a position filled by him with the greatest devotion and self- sacrilice until his death in 1876. To him fell the duty of leadership during the trying years of the Civil XVar, the darkest period in the history of Southern education. It was due to his tireless energy that Roan- oke, unique among the colleges in Virginia, continued her work throughout the war. l-lis enthusiasm for books, which is still a tradition among the people of the Southwest, led him, with far-sighted prevision, to begin the collection of that library which is now the pride of the College and which in the number of volumes is surpassed, among the educational institutions of Virginia, only by those at the University, and Vlfashington and Lee. lt was his genius which stamped upon Roanoke College her peculiar hegemony in the cause of Christian education in Southwest Virginia. lt is therefore eminently fitting that the Virginia Synod should endow at Roanoke a professorship in moral and intellectual philosophy in memory of the man who filled this chair in addition to performing his duties as president. After the death of Dr. Bittle, Dr. T,-NV. Dosh was elected president in 1877, but resigned the next year to accept a professorship in the Lutheran Theological Seminary, then located in Salem. Dr. Julius D. Dreher, who had been connected with the College as professor and hnancial secretary, was then called to the presidency. Witli rare ability he addressed himself to the task of putting the institu- tion on a iirmer financial basis and of elevating the standard of instruction and graduation. In conse- quence of these measures and of his wide acquaintanceship, Roanoke began to draw students not only from other states and the Indian Territory but also from foreign countries, especially Mexico, Korea, and japan. The first Korean to win the B. A. degree at any institution in the world was graduated from Roanoke in 1898.1 The cosmopolitan character of the students of Roanoke gave her pre-eminence among Southern colleges, while, with the elevation of her standard, the solid quality of the work done in her classrooms gave her prestige throughout the North. ln IQO3, after twenty-five years of efficient service, Dr. Dreher resigned the presidency and was suc- ceeded by Dr. A. Morehead who was called from the presidency of the Lutheran Theological Seminary

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A Sketch of Roanoke College EVERAL years ago the distinguished political economist, Edward Atkinson, coifiparing the economic potentiality of the different sections of our country, said, after mature reflection, that the Blue Ridge and Alleghany section extending from Pennsylvania to Georgia and Alabama was destined to produce the thriftiest and most progressive population of any part of the United States. These words, written in the spirit of prophecy, are now being fulfilled. According to a recent bulletin of the United States Department of Commerce and Labor, North Carolina, as a manufacturing state, ranks second in the Uniong and it is well known that Southwest Virginia is witnessing the greatest industrial development of any part of the Old Dominion. 1 Rev. C. C. Baughman and Dr. David F. Bittle, both natives of Maryland and graduates of Pensyl- vania College at Gettysburg, were therefore building more wisely than they knew when in 1847 they deter- mined to remove to Salem, Virginia, the Virginia Institute, which had been opened by them five years before in two log buildings near lVIt. Tabor Church, about eight miles southwest of Staunton. The location at Salem was doubly fortunate, because it was accessable to both the Lutheran Synods in Virginia which gave this Institute their support, and because, while enjoying the advantages of close contact with the outer world of scholarship and culture, it was free from those evils which beset colleges situated in large cities. Never since the removal to .Salem has Roanoke College seriously considered the question which now confronts some of her sister institutions in Virginia-that of removal to a center of population and wealth. From the beginning the Rev. C. C, Baughman was the principal of this school, which, in 1845, had been incorporated by the legislature as The Virginia Collegiate Institute. The movement to secure a col- lege charter, the initial steps toward which wereltaken by the students themselvefs in a petition to the Board of Trustees, adopted 'by the students, December 3, 1852. Professor liaughman at first considered inadvis- able, but he afterward withdrew his opposition. The wisdom of this step of such doubtful expediency at the time, has since been abundantly justified. 1-The act of incorporation was passed, March 14, 1853, the institution fortunatelyfadopting the name Roanoke College. Although one of the younger colleges in Vir-

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5.35.1 .Sum , .1 REAR VIEW OF LIBRARY BUILDING