Sullins College - Sampler Yearbook (Bristol, VA)

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The Dr. David Sullins tells us, in his Recol- lections of an Old Man, that when he came to Bristol in 1868 he found here Mrs. Lou Chanceaulme, the widow of a former Hol- ston Conference M. E. preacher, conducting a school for boys and girls. Dr. Sullins, who had been teacher as well as preacher, assisted her in her work from time to time. Some of the thoughtful business men of the town, seeing the need of a good academy, suggested that Mrs. Sullins College Chanceaulme and Dr. Sullins open a school together under the name of the Mountain View High School. Mrs. Chanceaulme was to be lady prin- cipal, and Dr. Sullins was to be headmaster, managing the business department and do- ing what teaching he could in connection with his pastorate. In making preparations for the school, they rented what was then known as the James King property, which stood on the hill just above the location chosen a little later for the old Sullins. The property consisted of a large, old- fashioned family residence and two other good-sized brick houses in the yard near by, and four acres of land for a truck-patch. With three assistants. Dr. Sullins and Mrs. Chanceaulme conducted an academic department, with music and art. The en- rollment included twenty boarding pupils from a distance. A little later friends of the school bought three acres of land for school purposes and built a modest, good house of brick, two stories high, with chapel and recitation The original college building, which was erected in 1869. It was divided into a chapel, music rooms, dormitory rooms, and parlor. After the addition of other buildings, it was used as the college chapel until the old Sullins burned. Page 8

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COLLEGE SULLINS A few years later the coming of the Virginia and Tennessee railroad helped to determine the loca- tion of the town of Bristol. It is said that the shortest and best route would have passed through Paper- ville, two or three miles east of Bristol. Mr. King entertains the surveyors. But the story goes that Mr. King had plenty of ham and eggs and Colonel Goodson, who owned the land on the Virginia side, had some fine brandy in his cellar. Both gentlemen were very hospitable, and, it is further said, the engineers who were locat- ing the road had a liking for these good things and often lodged where they were. The railroad comes to Bristol. That good ham and eggs and old rye were a deciding factor in locating the railroad— and the city — is not a known truth; but, where there had been only a little hamlet, a city began to grow. People came from far and near to grow with the city. Among them was Dr. David Sullins, a Methodist minister who came to preach at a little church on Lee Street. Dr. Sullins passes through Sapling Grove on his way to Emory and Henry. Page 7

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was established in 1870 by DR. DAVID SULLINS who was its president from 1870 to 1880. rooms below and rooms for boarding pupils above. Dr. Sullins himself bought two acres just between the school property and Cumberland Street, and built a plain wooden house of eight or nine rooms, with dining room and kitchen in the basement. With this house and the upper story of the new school building they were able to accommodate fifty boarders. In 1870, the school opened in its own buildings with an enrollment of about forty boarding pupils and over a hundred day pupils, many of whom were from a distance boarding in town. And the trustees called the school Sullins College. As the years passed, the enrollment increased and new buildings were added — a north wing and a south wing to the old building and in 1899, a splen- did new four-story building. And then, near the end of the Christmas holidays in 1915, the Old Sul- lins burned to the ground. Above: The Old Sullins burns. At Left: The Main building of the old Sul- lins College, erected in 1899. Before the erection of this building, two wings had been added to the original building. Page 9