University of North Carolina Chapel Hill - Yackety Yack Yearbook (Chapel Hill, NC)

Page 19 text:

became a source of revenue. It was through Davie ' s powerful advocacy that the Legislature loaned |io,ooo (afterwards made a gift) to be expended in buildings. The Trustees met for organization December i8, 1789, Charles Johnson, of Chowan, grandtather of the late eminent Dr. Charles E. Johnson, of Raleigh, being the chairman of the meeting. Davie handed in warrants for 20,000 acres of West Tennessee lands, the gift of Benjamin Smith, a Revolutionary hero, afterwards Governor. At the next meeting, November 15, 1790, Col. William Lenoir, Speaker of the Senate, was made President of the Board of Trustees. It so happens that this excellent man, having on him scars received at King ' s Mountain, was the last survivor of the forty of North Carolina ' s best citizens who constituted the first Board of Trustees. At the meeting of the Board in August, 1792, held at Hillsborough, steps were taken to locate the Uni ersity. It was agreed to elect one commissioner from each of the eight judicial districts whose duty it should be to select a site within a circle ot thirty miles diameter. The center of this circle was to be chosen by the Board by ballot. The following centers were voted for : Raleigh in Wake County, Hillsborough in Orange County, Williamsboro in Granville, Goshen in Granville, Pittsborough in Chatham, Smithfield in Johnston, Cyprett ' s Bridge in Chatham. Cyprett ' s (or Cipritz) Bridge, now Prince ' s Bridge, on the Raleigh and Pittsborough road, over New Hope Creek, was adopted. The Commissioners of Location were Wm. Porter, of Rutherford ; John Hamilton, of Guilford ; Alexander Mebane, of Orange ; Willie Jones, of Halifax ; David Stone, of Bertie ; Frederick Hargett, of Jones ; Wm. H. Hill, of New Hanover ; James Hogg, of Cumberland, afterwards of Orange. Of these, Hargett, Mebane, Hogg, Hill, Stone, and Jones acted. They reported in favor of New Hope Chapel Hill, in Orange County, at which point 1180 acres had been donated by Col. John Hogan, Benjamin Yergin, Matthew McCauley, Alexander Piper, James Craig, Christopher Barbee, Edward Jones, Mark Morgan, John Daniel, and Hardy Morgan. The great-granddaughter of one of these (Mark Morgan), Mrs. Mary E. Moore, has recently donated to the University his old homestead and about 800 acres of valuable land. The first buildings were the Old East, the Old Chapel, or Person Hall and the President ' s dwelling, now o ccupied by Prof Gore. The cornerstone was 9

Page 18 text:

f Mi 0| i B f islnri| of tbe ' Glnivcrsitv ' ot Tllortb Carolina. HE fouiKlation stones of the University of North Carohna were hiid in the darkest hour of the Revolution, after the defeat of the American army on Long Island, before the victories of Trenton and Princeton shed a ray of light into the general gloom. In enacting the fundamental law of the new free State, the patriots of 1776 saw that liberty could not exist among a benighted people. Hence we find in the constitution ratified in December of that year, All i ;,v useful learning shall be duly encouraged and promoted in one or more Universities. They realized the impossibility of ha ing public schools without teachers. They further realized that no government can be intelligently conducted without instructed leaders. Owing to the troublesome times of the war and the po ' erty which was its heritage, the University charter was not granted until 1789. The convention of the people sitting in the same town of Fayetteville, where the ( jeneral Assembly was legislating, in the same month voted to make North Carolina a member of the American Union. The Draughtsman of the charter was William Richardson Davie, an eminent lawyer who had been a gallant cavalry officer in the Revolution, after- wards Governor and Minister to France. By his influence, the land warrants granted to the Revolutionary soldiers, who had died without leaving heirs, were set aside on an endowment for the new institution. As these were to be located in West Tennessee, on lands then claimed by the Chickasaw Indians, it was long before they

Page 20 text:

laid with imposing ceremonies on the 1 2th of October, 1793, by Wm. Richardson Davie, then Grand Master of the Masonic Fraternity. Rev. Dr. Samuel E. McCorckle, who in addition lO parochial duties, had a flourishing school called Zion-Parnassus at Thyatira, six miles west of Salisbury, was the Orator of the Day. The doors were opened for students on the 15th of January, 1795. Rev. Dr. David Kerr, acted as President, with the title of Presiding Professor. The winter was of extreme severity. Not a student was present. In a few days, Hinton James, of Wilmington, whose work as civil engineer may still be seen on the Cape Fear, appeared, the first student. By the end of the term in July, the members had increased to about one hundred. Rev. Dr. Kerr remained only one year, became a lawyer, and by the appoint- ment of Jefferson was the Federal Judge of the territory of Mississippi. The Professor of Mathematics, Charles W. Harris, was a superior man, but he went off into law and died early of pulmonary consumption. By his advice Rev. Joseph Caldwell, then a tutor at Princeton, was chosen Professor of Mathematics and Presiding Professor. In 1804 he was, on the motion of Wm. Gaston, afterwards an eminent Judge of the Supreme Court, made President. For years the young University rested almost entirely on his shoulders. Dr. Caldwell in 18 12, in order to have time to write a book on Geometry gave up the Presidency and confined himself to the Professorship of Mathematics. Rev. Robert A. Chapman, D.D., was then President until 1816, when he resigned the office to Dr. Caldwell, who held it until his death in 1835. Dr. Caldwell was an active and enlightened man. In 181 1 he traveled through the State and raised $[ 2,000 for finishing the South Building. In 1824 the Trustees sent him to Europe for the purchase of scientific apparatus, the affairs of the University being then in a prosperous condition. During the latter part of his term the institution was in great straits, but in the year of his death the lands owned by the institution in West Tennessee came into market, and after paying its debts left an endowment of about $150,000. Ex-Governor David L. Swain, began his administration in 1835 under favorable auspices. During the flush times between 1850 and i860 the number of students rapidly increased, reaching 461 in 1858. The Old East and the Old West buildings were enlarged one-third in 1848, Smith Hall (the Library) was finished in 1852, and the New East and New West buildings in 1S59. 10