University of the South - Cap and Gown Yearbook (Sewanee, TN)

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James Hervey Otey was the first of the Founders to give definite thought to a University in the South formed by a united action of the states. His first action was the recording in the Diocesan Convention of resolutions con- cerning a theological and classical school. The next year, 1833, he was elected Bishop of Tennessee, and was con- ' secrated in 1834. In 1833 he met Leonidas Polk and com- municated his ideal to him. From that time on Polk car- ried the burden of founding the University. Leonidas Polk was a graduate of West Point with honors. Even in the years he was in the Military Acad- emy he was interested in education in the country. When he graduated from West Point he was oflFered a professor- ship in Amherst College. He almost accepted, but did not, and remained with the army. In 1827 he resigned his com- mission and entered the Seminary at Alexandria, Virginia. During the years his interest in education did not die, and in 1852 he began to study European institutions; the result of this study was his letter to the Southern Dioceses about a university. Stephen Elliot was a graduate in law before he be- came a minister. Later he studied for the ministry, be- came a priest and at the age of 33 was first Bishop of Georgia. He became interested in Polk ' s proposal, and in the early days of the University he was instrumental in raising money to build the foundations of Sewanee. f ' A '

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?l E®®ik n Inception of Sev anee A University is an Alma Mater, knowing her children one by one: not a foundry, a mint, or a tread- mill. The conception of the University of the South arose in the mind of Rev. James H. Otey. In 1832 the Tennessee diocese recorded his resolutions, which stated the need in the South for a school which should further Christian education. But it was not until three years later that these resolutions took definite form. In 1834 Otey was conse- crated Bishop of Tennessee. In 1835 in his address to the conven- tion, he says: ... a project has been set on foot by the friends of the church in the states of Tennes- see, Mississippi, and Louisiana for founding and endowing a Protest- ant Episcopal college. ... It is to be distinctly a church institution and must be near enough to these states as to serve conveniently their sons. So it is evident that between 1832 and 1835 he had been working to- ward the ideal of a University of the South. But he was not to go on alone; there were others. % cva