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

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EDWIN ANDERSON ALDERMAN.

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1848 — The Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies move from their halls in the South building into their new halls in the north end of the Old West and Old East. 1852 — Smith Hall (the Library) completed. 1853 — Chair of Agricultural Chemistry established ; Benjamin S. Hedrick, professor. 1854 — Chair of Engineering established; Charles Phillips, D.D., LL.D., professor. 1857 — Death of Dr. Elisha Mitchell on Mount Mitchell. 1858-9 — Greatest number of students before the Civil War — 461, of whom 168 were from other States than North Carolina ; 93 seniors. 1S59 — President Buchanan attends commencement. The two Societies move into their new halls in the New West and New East buildings. 1864-5 — The smallest number of students under President Swain — 60, of whom there were four graduates. 1867 — President Johnson attends Commencement. 1868 — The new Constitution gives election of Trustees to Board of Education; old Trustees and Faculty replaced by new. Death of ex-President Swain. Solomon Pool, D.D., elected president. 1872 — Exercises suspended by law. 1874 — Constitutional Amendment restoring election of Trustees to the General Assembly. 1875 — University re-opened ; Charles Phillips, D.D., LL.D., chairman of the faculty. 1876 — Kemp Plummer Battle, LL.D., elected president. 1877 — October 12 established as University Day, a holiday. Summer Normal School inaugurated. 1881 — General Assembly grants annuity of five thousand dollars. University Railroad finished. 1885 — General Assembly grants additional annuity of fifteen thousand dollars ; new professorships added ; appropriation for Summer Normal School withdrawn and school ended. Memorial Hall dedicated. Gymnasium completed. 1S89 — Charter Centennial. 1891 — President Battle resigns the presidency and accepts the Chair of History, endowed by the Alumni. George Tayloe Winston, LL.D., elected president. 1895 — Centennial of the opening of the University. 1896 — President Winston resigns. Edwin Anderson Alderman, D.C.L., elected president. 1897 — January 27, President Alderman inaugurated.

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eDWIN ANDERSON ALDERMAN was born in Wilmington, N. C, May 15, 1 86 1. He was prepared for college at the Bethel Military Academy, near Warrenton, Va., and in 1878 entered the University of North Carolina. His college career foreshadowed a successful life work ; he was a leader in every phase of University life, and on graduation, besides receiving special honors in English Literature and Latin, won the Willie P. Mangum Medal for Oratory. On leaving college he immediately entered on his chosen work of educa- tion, being elected principal of the Goldsboro High School. In 1885 he assumed the superintendency of the Goldsboro Graded School, which by skill- ful organization he made prominent among North Carolina ' s public schools. From 1S85 to 18S7 he held the honorable position of president of the North Carolina Teachers ' Assembly. In 1889, as State Institute Conductor he began a three years ' canvass of the State, that resulted in untold good to the cause of education. His brilliant oratory, zeal, and intense earnestness drew large audiences, composed of all classes and conditions of people, and brought as a reward a great educational awakening from one end of the State to the other. In [892-3 he occupied the Chair of History and Literature at the State Normal and Industrial School, which he had done so much to establish, but resigned at the end of the year to accept the Chair of Pedagogy at the Uni- versity of North Carolina. His work in this capacity proved him a teacher of preeminent ability, and his course became at once one of the most popular and important in the curriculum. While occupying this position the task of organizing the University Sum- mer School was imposed upon him. So successful was he in this undertaking that the school is now one of the best of its kind in the whole country, and has made for itself a distinctive place among the State ' s educational institu- tions. In 1S96, the president ' s chair being vacated by Dr. Winston, the trustees unanimously elected him to the presidency of the University. Thechoice gave great satisfaction to all sections, parties and professions throughout the State. 24