Transylvania University - Crimson Yearbook (Lexington, KY)

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This college has the distinction of having been at one time the only Metho- distwcollege in the world. Other members of the faculty were the Rev. B. H. McCowau, a celebrated teacher, and the more noted Henry Bascom. .And now history takes a curious turn. In 1842 the trustees of Transyl- vania turned over the academic department to the Methodist Church and these two men came to Transylvania to play their parts in the work during the brilliant period of Bascom's administration, While Augusta College rapid- ly declined. Some years afterwards Kentucky Wesleyan College was founded as the successor of Augusta. In 1829 the Kentucky Baptist Education Society procured a charter from the Legislature for a college which was located at Georgetown. It is a curious fact that this institution, founded as a rival, in a sense, of Transylvania, and to oppose its teachings, should have had first-named on the first Board of Trustees the Rev. Alva Woods, who at that very time was the President of Transylvania. The University of Louisville is also a child of Transylvania. Mann Butler, a Transylvanian, the historian of Kentucky and first principal of the public school in Louisville, where he introduced the Lancastrian or Monitorial plan of instruction, was also the first principal of the old Jefferson Seminary,-later Louisville College, and the predecessor of the present College of Lib- eral Arts of the University of Louisville. The present medical department owes its origin to Dr. Caldwell and three other professors who left the Medi- cal College of Transylvania University to found a rival institution at Louis- ville. William F. Cook, of whom mention has already been made in connec- tion with the development of the public school system, was one of the pro- moters of the law school of the University of Louisville and was a professor in it for twenty-two years. Finally, in 1886, was founded Bacon College at Georgetown by the re- ligious bodies known as the Disciples of Christ. It was the first College of that denomination. After about twelve years of work, this College went out of existence. In 1849 South Kentucky College was founded at I-Iopkinsville under the auspices of the same religious body. The real successor, however, of Bacon College, was Kentucky University, founded by an alumnus in 1857 and conducted at Harrodsburg until 1865, when it was consolidated with Transylvania University, in which union Transylvania lost her very name for more than forty years, till 1908. Professor Robert H. Bishop, an alumnus and for a long time an honored professor at Transylvania, finally left the institution to become the first Presi- dent of Miami University, taking with him to the Ohio college a little band of students. After the removal of Dr. Bishop from the presidency of Miami, he remained as Professor of Political Science, a chair created for him.

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d B 'amin Franklin Its first President, the Rev. James 'in CD1 ' john Adams . f C of the books of James Lane Allen, an alumnus Moore. was the hero o oglay was a professor in, and later a trustee Of, the Ui 'hc,wHcge'f iienrypavis was a student here before he entered West institution. lctfegsolg Masque who was the First object teacher in the West l'-lint. lhc gifts? la Botanikal Garden in Lexington, Once taught in Tran- 'l'i me founder O me th first doctor in the West to employ .w,1i..mi.i, as did Dr. Samuel Brown, C U . ,. b I, H 15, jnqeph Buchanan, a genius almost as erratic as Rafinesque, i, , 'rut 10 - ' - -C niet! -1 horseless carriage which astonished the citizens of Louis- e.u.y iuvc - Q was first exhibited. He and Professor Benjamin Peers both mile nhcrc it . ascii the l'cstalouian System of teaching. . Nniiicnnit graduates of Transylvania have been elected to the Unlted g, .,. Sr-nite -ind 'ts many as eight were members at the same time. . .ls 5 - ' ' K' lan-r .iininni have occupied positions as Judges of the Supreme Court of the liautrtl Stan-Q, .ine has served as Vice-President, and one was the President .ti tm- xnnthr-rn Confederacy. Transylvanians were active in the founding .iff fl1.tll.lL:l'llil'lliUi- the Institute for the Blind in Louisvilleg of the Hos- gmi 1--z the Insane at Lexington, of the Orphan School established in lfxztxrgt-txt .nu-r the ravage of the cholera in 1883, and, later, of the Orphan s tw-12 .rt Xlidway. Scores of men now filling the highest positions of trust in i txt-not r--nnt it their greatest honor that they are alumni of Transylvania l1:w.r'iwi:t-. lr- tvtntu to 'l'ransylvania's peculiar relations to other educational in- -tzazrs llt-r first rival, Kentucky Academy, was established in 1794, 1-fi lt.insx'lx'.iuia Seminary had been in active operation less than ten years. iifsl' tn-1 -t-minaries were later united in Transylvania University. This .1 n .tori-lnot ln- permanent, however, because of the religious differences ...Q-:fig its --ttiuials, and the Presbyterians soon withdrew. ' lx: iNl ll1t'lll'Sl charter of Centre College was granted and in 1820 the l irnv- XlttChord, an alumnus of Transylvania,was chosen as its President. Nm tht' lletlilluing Centre College drew students from Transylvania ' f f, f l Um ll the 5UDDort of many of its most influential friends. The X TC' ' TEX'-'Q ' ' ' ' - , - - . N ' 1511 lt -Wil Df0hD6fCd wonderfully, so that it is not exaggeration to fx' ::1.s:1.iy -Q, -K -x - . , f 5' .i T' in M2116 UCHVCCW a college in America has a larger number -- a---itngtzistzetl alumni. lzt lNjl - ' , . , cl--L U W ' tfll iXUllUChS Conference of the Methodist Church decided to 't-it .TSR .1 fgvju 1 1 t . U31 0 SUCCCed Bethel Academy, which had been conducted l 1804. In 1822 a charter was obtained for .XZIQU-it Lirrllfvs - '- . -' -- ' 2 . v ' . . . 3.cCh.1mC A member of th O6 Q3 1U5t graduated from Transylvania University, .a::.i as President W- h C ht College faCUlfY and was connected as Professor ' 't Allgusta College for th z::1..:r: Xlctht-dist control unti C greater part of its history.

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o had been connected with A sin in 1831, the Rev. James Blvfhel Wh T ansyglx mia almost from the beginning as Master in Transylvania Seminary, r fe f , nd later professor in the University, resigned, and in 1832 was elected t , , . . . . ihL:HeritaPresidentof Hanover College, Indiana. Under his administration, from 1836 to 1839, the college attained a high degree of prosperity. It was also in 1831 that the Rev. Alva Woods, who succeeded Dr. Holley as Presi- dent left Transylvania to become the Erst President of the University of Alabama. U , . In 1865 Transylvania was consolidated with Kentucky University, an in- stitution then at Harrodsburg, which in 1857 had been founded as the successor of Bacon College. Under the name Kentucky University, the institution be- gan work again in Lexington in October, 1865. Two of the departments of the University were the College of the Bible and the A. and M. College, the former a theological school of the Disciples of Christ, the latter the property ofthe Commonwealth of Kentucky. Such a union of Church and State was foredoomed to failure. In 1878 both these departments were separated from the University. The A. and IVI. College has since grown into the State Uni- versity. The College of the Bible, though affiliated with Transylvania, oper- sites under its own charter and is in administration and control entirely inde- pendent. Finally, in 1908, the charter of Kentucky University was so amend- ed as to remove the requirementof any particular religious afhliations as pre- qnisite to membership on the board of trustees, the name Kentucky University was dropped and the old name Transylvania re-assumed. Transylvania has had the blesseddestiny to live to a vigorous old age and to. see her progeny become strong and independent. Although many of hteligcliilitllreii have often seemed to develop with their powers a matricidal in- ' , , sie has been willing to forgive and forget, and is thankful that even in periods of storm and stress, she has been able to fulfill her destiny in pass- ing on the light.