University of Kentucky - Kentuckian Yearbook (Lexington, KY)

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Thus was founded the Transylvania University, an institution which afterward attained a reputation unexcelled by thai of any other American college. S m after the charter was granted to it the institution was given the appearance of a regular Uni- versity l v tii - addition i Law and Medical I lepartments. The teachers in the professional departments have never been surpassed in any ot the professional schools oi the oun Vmong I i ilty I the College of Law we find the names of [esse Bledsoe, [udge ol Kentucky Curt of Appeals, and United S i S nator ; Henry Clay, George D. Robertson, Chief Justice ot Kentucky Court ol Appeals; William ' I ' . Barry, Thomas . Marshall, and a number of other men hav- ing National reputations. In tact, --at that tim ilar college in tin ' United States was considere d its sup nor in the ability of its teachers or the number of its students. T 1 Mi dical Department were equally as prominent in their lines . and then ' was no Medicil College, excepi pprhaps the University ol P inia, that was its equal. The University was visited in i Nig by President M G neral [ackson, Governor Shelby, and many other distinguished men, and in 1825 by Lafayette, then on his visit to Ameri( t. About time Lord Stanley, afterward the Earl of Derby, made a personal examination of the institution, and expressed him -ill ' a- being much pleased with the plan ol ition. The numb r ol students attended in the best days of the institution «;h vi many as one thousand in its various departments. The number of graduates in the Medical Depart- ment alone had reached, in [865, upward, of two thousand, si I tnd 1 t 1 chool, v the Law Depa ner fui nished aim- -t the -.mi • numb Den iminationalism has always been the greatest drawback to Transylvania and h I 01 a long time it was under the control of the P - erian Church ; later under the 1 ial ( irch, and still latter the Methodist Church, while to-d ;i Kentucky University, its successor, is under the management ol the Disciples ol Christ. On acci unl ol tl is ti nd n to church influence, there had in the history of Transylvania numerous dissensions among ii supporters as to tin- m inner of its man- in :nt, a ' tim - being so violent as to lead to an entire surrender ol the school from nomination to another. During the Civil War. and just before it, Transylvania lost several ot ' her most imposing buildings by lire, and the war following jusl tu the wake of these losses had a very disastrous effect on thi Uni- versity. In fact, the institution never recovered from the effects, and in the year 1865 the trustees, de- siring to perpetuate for Lexington her character and usefulness as an educational c -ntre. conveyed the entire property to Kentucky University and consolidated it with that institution. From thai dati the historj ot Transylvania blends with that ot ' Kentucky University. The record of Transylvania is a

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ture, Transylvania Seminary, was the first institution of any prominence west of the Alleghenies. The influence which it has exerted on the southern and western portions of our country cannot be esti- mated, and to-driy there is scarcely a city of any importance in the West or Southwest which has not among its citizens alumni of this famed institution. Nor has its influence been confined to America, hut its name is respected and favorably known in many portions ot Europe — a fact testified to by the many valuable donations made to it by some of the most celebrated institutions of learning in foreign countries and some of the foremost scholars of Europe. The name Transylvania — a classical rendering of ' the backwoods — is the same name as that selected by Richard Henderson and others when they attempted in 1775, to establish in Kentucky a proprietary form of government, in utter disregard of the authority of the Legislature of Virginia. The first charter of Transylvania Seminary is a very interesting document, but the limit of this article and its purposes will not admit any detailed account of its numerous provisions. This school, although supported by the grant of the Virginia Legislature, owed its existence, for the most part, to the efforts of a f-w prominent Presbyterians, and was, therefore, very naturally opened under the auspices ot that church. It is interesting to note the tuition then paid and the currency in which it was paid. The first published terms for Transylvania Seminary were: • ' Tuition, £5 a year, one-half cash, the other halt in property. Boarding. £9 a year, in property, pork. corn, tobacco, etc. Education in those days was evidently much cheaper than now. and, I have no doubt, was just as complete and sat- isfactory, if we can judge from the character of the men which it produced. From the time of its removal to Lexington — 178S to 1793 — in spite of the war troubles and dis- couragements — the schools seem to have enjoyed unusual prosperity, not so much in the number of its students as in the number and prominence of its instructors, tor in the Kentucky Gazette of December, 1793, we find the following announcement: The Transylvania Seminary is now well supplied with teachers of natural and moral philosophy, of the mathematics and of the learned languages. But soon, as was to be expected, sectarian differences arose between the Presbyterians and the Baptists, and, as a result, the Presbyterians withdrew their support and founded a separate school, which they called the Kentucky Academy. Among the liberal contributors to the endowment of this school we find the names of George Washington, John Ouincy Adams, Aaron Burr, and Robert Morris. These sectarian dissensions, in the end. resulted in mutual benefit to all concerned, for both factions perceived the error of their ways, became reconciled, and petitioned the Kentucky Legislature to consolidate the two schools, under the name of the Transylvania University, declaring that such a union would be for the public good and is consistent with the laws.

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proud one. Among the names of her thousands of graduates and students appear the names of Jeffer- son Davis, Thomas F. Marshall. Congressman and Judge of Kentucky Court of Appeals; Dr. B. . Dudley : Richard H. Menifee : John Boyle, Governor of Illinois and Chief Justice of Kentucky for sixteen years; Richard M. [ohnson ; V. T. Barry; Jesse Bledsoe: C. A. Wickliffe ; Justice Harlan, of the United States Supreme Court, and a host of others, cabinet officers, foreign ministers, governors, generals, physicians, divines, and men of every grade and business of life. Few colleges in America can show such an array of distinguished Alumni. Many of them have now passed away to reap their re- ward, but not a few alive to-dav. [maintaining the same exalted position that their predecessors occupied before them. The history of Kentucky University is as yet a brief one but has been by no mean de- i .ill of honor. Its separate history began in 1865 and a few years later the Agricultural and Mechanical College { Kentucky was founded by Act of Congress, and it was made one of the colleges of the University. It then had a College of Law and a College of the Bible in addition to the regular Academical Depart- ment. The Law College suspended operations early in the eighties, but it was again continued in 1892, but with small success and closed again in 1894. Kentucky University has to-day three departments, a College of Liberal Arts, a College of the Bible and a Commercial College. In these three departments there are usually enrolled about seven or eight hundred students each year. The Agricultural and Mechanical College was separated from Kentucky University in 1S7S, and is now a prosperous and flourishing college siluated in Lexington. There are few schools in the South which can compete with it as a scientific and technological college. Kentucky University, during recent years, has been constantly improving. In 1894 a large and handsome gymnasium was added to the other imposing buildings, and the following year a commodious new structure was dedicated to the use of the College of the Bible. In iSSq the educational display of Kentucky University at the ■•Exposition Universelle at Paris was rewarded by one of the highest awards, and in 1893 at the World ' s Columbian Exposition at Chicago, it again received the highest recognition and award. Among the distinguished Alumni of Kentucky University are found the names of Roger (L Mills. Senator from Texas: Benton McMillin, Congressman from Tennessee; Congressmen Champe Clarke, ot Missouri; Smith, of Arizona, and Owens, of Kentucky: among others the names of James Lane Allen, the celebrated Southern novelist: Dr. Virgil I ' . Gibney, of New York City, one of the foremost surgeons in America and a professor in Columbia Medical College; Prof. Wm. 15. Smith, of Tulane University, and in Kentucky, fames H. Hazelrigg, of the Kentucky Court of Appeals; State Senators 4