University of Virginia - Corks and Curls Yearbook (Charlottesville, VA)

Page 17 text:

1907 . CORKS AND CURLS 7 tion, from the Dutch in whose service he had for some time been employed. He had been fighting in the low countries against Spain, and he was selected for the Marshalship at the suggestion of Henry, Earl of Southampton for tithe ability of his body as well as his mind? Dale arrived in Virginia and anchored off Fort Comfort on the night of May 22d, 1611. He brought with him about three hundred people and stores and stock necessary for the Colony. F inding many affairs in, a somewhat run- down condition, owing largely to the sickness which had prevailed in the pre- ceding summer, he set to work with characteristic energy to repair and restore the forts and public buildings and to erect new buildings. He, moreover, pro- oeeded to institute some much needed reforms. He abolished the inefficient system of comn'iunity of interest under which the colonists had hitherto worked, and set apart lots in severalty to be cultivated separately on a proper rental to the Colony, He promptly suinmoinedvthe Council and on May 3Ist it was ttdetermined with Godls grace, to go up into the Falls word to search for and advise upon a site for a new T owne, orders to establish which had been given .in England. I Having made his search, Dale finally selected lia highland environed with 'the Mayn Riverf, and here in the loop of the James near Dutch Gap he laid off the new t0wn of Henrico; named for Henry, Prince of Wales, King James, promising son, to whom Sir Walter Raleigh had dedicated his history of the world. Here, towards the middle of September, Dale having selected from three hundred to three hundred and fifty men for the work, proceeded to build the new town, Hfrom whence might be no more remove of the principall seatef, Within ten days he had iistrongly fortified seven English acres of ground, by january he had erected strong wateh-towers at each corner of the town; a hand- some church and store houses; also houses for himself and men, and had made Henrico iimuch better and of more worth than all the work ever since the Colony began therein clone? The first story of these houses was of brick burnt by his men, and some idea may be had of the development of the colony by the fact that a little later, in February, 1612, uthey were building an hospital with four score lodgings, tand beds alreadie sent to furnish themy for the sick and wounded or lame, with keepers to attend them for their comfort and recoveriefl This was the first hospital ever built in America and the place Where it probably stood in Henrico County is still called liMount Myladyf, possibly a corruption of Malady.

Page 16 text:

6 CORKS AND CURLS VOL.XX The First University in America HE University of Virginia, whose paternity, Thomas Jefferson, its founder, deemed a prouder epitaph than even the fact that he had been President of the United States, and had almost doubled its area, is the mother University of the present University system of the country. But a long prior to its founding; prior even to the founding of Harvard College, a . 'tLi'niversityi'i had been projected in Virginia, and this University was the first educational institution ever planned and begun on American soil. 3331:21'1Tw1a ,:ae' t : So little is known of it that it is mainly ignored in histories of the United - States, and only the barest mention of it is to be found in, any histories whatever. M , For the following facts relating to it, I am indebted mainly to the works of the late AlexanderBrown, Esquire, of Nelson County, Virginia, whose pious 1i labors in collecting the records of the early Virginia Settlement and publishing 3; them in his great work, ttThe Genesis of the United Statesf have placed under ?;H itribute of gratitude all historians who desire to know the truth touching the ifounding of this country. The three chief enemies which the colony which first settled this country '1 i and established here the Anglo-Saxon civilization had to face, were the Hsal- i vagesj, as they termed the Indians; itthe SiCk116SS,,, as they termed the malaria, and ignorance of the best methods to govern the new country. Virginia was the first colony that England had ever planted, and all of these dangers were novel to the experience of these people. It will give some idea. of the cost of plant- ing this first settlement to state that by the time the next settlement was planted on the shores of N orthern Virginia, in 1620, the Virginia Colony had cost in. money what would be the equivalent now of over a million dollars. But the real cost had been in the sacrifice of life which had attended its final accomplish- ment. Captain John Smith states that it had cost ltneare eight thousand livesfi. Later, and less conjectural statements show that of the first seven thousand three hundred,emigrants who sailed for Virginia, over six. thousand perished in the first twenty years of the colony's existence. It was to meet all of the three great enemies above mentioned that Sir Thomas Dale was borrowed by Prince Henry, the patron of Virginia coloniza- S LXZ'VTTH..;.'3 .A. 13 ...2 . 2-2.41111.W ': i f'ma...un$mi;:l 1' 1 . L . A V V '

Page 18 text:

8 CORKS AND CURLS VOL.XX So firmly established, notwithstanding all drawbacks, was the Colony that before very long the idea of establishing a Universityii there with a View pri- ' marily to the education of the infidels UndianQ had taken hold upon the people both sides of the water. Such an education was planned and laid out on broad grounds, with a separate high school and college; the first for the ChriStian- izing and education of the children of the Indians, in which the promoters specifi- cally embraced industrial education to fit them by good and honest trades, to become citizens of the new State; a suggestion which our present government might adopt with profit. In furtherance of this, James authorized the Arch- bishops of Canterbury and York, to take up collections for the new Uni- versity which was to be founded at Henrico, and this was done, over fifteen hun- dred pounds being collected and turned over to the members of the company. The plan was enlarged by the Virginia Company at its Court held November 18th, 1618, and Governor Yeardley, who was going back to Virginia, was in- structed by the company, waccording to a. former grant hereby ratifiedf, to select tihe location for a university at the new town of Henrico, and make preparations to build the college immediately. In pursuance of this, on his arrival in Virginia, ten thousand acres of land in the loop of the James were selected by him as an endowment for the University, and one thousand acres was set apart as the endowment of the college. , i The Virginia Company by resolution acknowledged the receipt of one thouse and pounds from the collections authorized by the Bishops and bound itself to invest the same and to apply it towards the building of the college. It further determined to settle at first fifty persons, and by a. subsequent vote one hundred, on the University-lands as tenants on shares, on-e-half of the products to go to the college; and fifty of these tenants were sent over at one time, and reached Virginia on December 4th, 1619, to settle these lands. The college itself for the training up of the children of the Indians, was now being organized, and accord- ing to the records, in 1618, the Rev. Mr. Lorkin was offered a position as a teacher therein and took it under advisement. At the Virginia Court of June 24th, 1619, the affairs of the college were dis- cussed, and it being recognized that an'account of their proceedings must be given, Ttthe following committee of choice gentlemen and others of His Ma.jesty,s Council for Virginia? was chosen to attend to the matter, Sir Dudley Diggs, Sir John Denvers, Sir Nathaniel Rich, Sir John Wolstenihiolms, Mr. John Fe-rral, Dr. Anthony, and Dr. Gul'ston.