University of Georgia - Pandora Yearbook (Athens, GA)

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The Trim is Courts arc Crowded on the First Warm Spring Afternoons. frolic, mid. as ‘many hands make 1 ijrlit work.’ tin affair once begun was soon completed. “Like all small boys, the writer was more interested in looking at the people than in listening to the speakers, and as the seats provided did little more than accommodate tlie ladies, the men and boys stood around the outside. One of the audience was particularly conspicuous. lie was a full bead and shoulders above all others near him and seemed to be standing on a chair or bench, lie attracted the larger notice of all the small boys who were amazed to find him standing on bis own proper feet. This was Benjamin Harrison, a very amiable young man, standing seven feet three inches in liis shoes. Of course the intelligent portion of the audience were interested in the orations, but the greater part looked on in stupid wonder as if on a pageant, understanding about as much of the English as they did of the Greek and Latin speeches which were delivered,—all, however, wrapt in profound attention.” The act of the Legislature which marks the legal inception of the State University was approved the 25th of February, 17.S4. One section provided that the county surveyors “lay out in each county twenty thousand acres of land of the first quality in separate tracts of five thousand acres each for the endowment of a college or seminary of learning, and which said lands shall be vested in and granted in trust to bis honor, the Governor, for the time being.” John Houston. James dents for Forty Years.

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The Exercise Afforded by Drill Three Hours a Week in I he Afternoons Helps lo Develop the Bodies of the Undergraduates. Habersham, William Few. Joseph Clay. Abraham Baldwin, William Houston, and Nathan Brownson were appointed trustees. Another bill, introduced and passed tin following year, established fully the “public seat of learning.” This constitutes the charter of the institution. The motto on the seal has evoked much favorable comment. Whence it is derived we are unable to ascertain. As it may be scanned as a part of a verse in dactylic hexameter, it is evidently a quotation from one of the poets. Et docere et reruin esquirere causas, translated “both to teach and to find out the causes of things,” eminently expresses the spirit of a true university. For further clue to its origin, it may be remarked that the infinitive of purpose twice employed is essentially a poetical construction. The first president of the school was Josiah Meigs. lie was directed to erect one or more log buildings for the college, and the trustees requested him to teach until the number of students would justify an assistant. Sufficient money was borrowed in due time to build Old College. The school room, a frame structure, cost less than two thousand dollars. A grammar school, established also, was presided over by Rev. John 1 lodge. Dr. John Brown was elected president in 1811. and two professors were elected. Two years later a third professor was added to the faculty. Dr. Brown’s ttPass in lie view”— A Well-drilled Company in I he Sprint Uniforms of the Het imcnt.