History of Randolph-Macon College, Virginia / The Oldest Incorporated Methodist College in America

by Richard Irby

A. B.

JOHN DAVIS, Va.
OLIVER H. P. CORPREW, Va.
FRANK X. FOSTER, S. C.
EDWARD T. HARDY, Va.
SAMUEL HARDY, Va.
WM. G. de GRAFFENREIDT, Va.
OLIN M. DANTZLER, S. C.
BENJAMIN F. LOCKETT, Va.
THOMAS J. LOCKETT, Va.
THOMAS P. JERMAN, S. C.
GEORGE HOWARD, Va.

A. M.

JAMES F. DOWDELL, Ga.
WILLIAM F. SAMFORD, Ala.
JOHN F. RIVES, Miss.
THOMAS H. CAMPBELL, Va.
WILLIAM G. CONNER, S. C.
JOHN C. WALKER, Va.

D. D.

Rev. W. M. WIGHTMAN, S. C.
EDMOND W. SEHON, Ky.

The session of the College, 1846-'47, opened very inauspiciously. In addition to (and probably in large measure growing out of) the financial troubles which had been thickening for years past, a want of harmony and co-operation between the President and some of the members of the Faculty began to be shown. This led to disorder and insubordination among the students. To inquire into the matter at issue a meeting of the Trustees was called in September, 1846, at which, after reciting a history of the troubles, President Garland tendered his resignation, and requested the immediate acceptance of the same. This was followed by the resignation of their positions by Professors D. S. Doggett and David Duncan, and Tutor Thomas H. Rogers.

The resignation of the President was not accepted for prudential reasons. That of Professor Doggett, to take effect at the close of the session, was accepted, as was that of Tutor Rogers. Professor Duncan was induced to withdraw his.

The Board then adjourned to meet in the succeeding November, at the session of the Virginia Conference, which was to meet at the College.

At the adjourned meeting held November 13, 1846, the Board accepted the resignation of President Garland. Rev. Wm. A. Smith, D. D., of the Virginia Conference, was elected to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of President Garland. The Faculty, as re-organized, was as follows, viz:

REV. WM. A. SMITH (President), Prof. Moral and Mental Philosophy.
REV. CHARLES F. DEEMS, A. M., Prof. Latin and Belles Lettres.
EZEKIEL A. BLANCH, A. M., Prof. Pure and Applied Mathematics.
DAVID DUNCAN, A. M., Prof. Greek Language and Literature.
JAMES W. HARDY, Prof. Experimental Science, Astronomy and Optics.

The severance of President Garland from the College, after a service of fourteen years in various capacities, was a source of great sorrow to his old pupils and friends. However deficient he may have been in some qualifications for the presidency, which from the first he not only did not seek, but frequently declined, he preserved all along the unqualified respect of all as an able professor and scholar. So devoted was he to the prosecution of his favorite study, Astronomy, that he generally broke himself down every year by attempting to perform the arduous work of the president and also of full professor. Added to this he was for years Treasurer. To a sensitive nature like his, the demands of creditors made on him when he could not meet them was a burden of itself heavy enough for any one to bear. If the College had had an endowment fund large enough to pay the expenses as they were incurred, and had allowed him to retain a professorship at a fair salary, with a president taking on his shoulders the duties which in most colleges devolved on the president, his valuable services could probably have been retained—certainly if the dissension had not arisen in the administration of the College. It is proper here to state that this dissension was only with Professor Hardy, and was not participated in by the other members of the Faculty, and did not lead to the resignation of several of them.

President Garland accepted the Chair of Mathematics in the University of Alabama, at Tuscaloosa. He never returned to his native State except on visits. The whole of a long life was spent, first, at the University to which he went, then at the University of Mississippi, from which he was called to take the Chancellorship of the Vanderbilt University, at Nashville, Tenn., which he accepted and filled for many years. Here in connection with his old pupil, Bishop McTyeire, he did valuable work, till age and feebleness forbade active work. Then he was made Chancellor emeritus. He died suddenly, but not unprepared, at the Vanderbilt University.

The closing years of President Garland's administration were the darkest in, the history of the College. Many of its friends were hopeless of its ever rallying again. Others gathered new hope, and their faith "staggered not" in this dark hour. All the older Methodist colleges had gone down, or were tottering to their fall. So much the greater faith was needed at Randolph-Macon.

It was a fortunate circumstance that this re-organization took place at the session of the Virginia Conference, which was held at the College, and presided over by Bishop Capers.

[Illustration: REV. WM. B. ROWZIE.]

Rev. W. B. Rowzie, who for many years had been Agent, resigned the position. A better friend the College never had.

At the request of the Board, Rev. B. R. Duval and Rev. Nathaniel Thomas were appointed Agents for the College. They were men of extraordinary energy and zeal, and they at once entered on a thorough canvass of the Conference in raising funds for the College. President Smith entered on his duties with characteristic zeal. He was fortunately possessed of an unconquerable will and a buoyancy of disposition, without which he would have quailed under the discouragements under which he labored.

"Wm. A. Smith was born in Fredericksburg, Va., November 29, 1802. His mother was a consistent member of the Methodist Church, and in death prayed that her son might live to preach the glorious gospel. His father was a man of honorable character and position. Both died when he was of a tender age. For a time the orphan boy had rough usage; but he was afterwards adopted and raised by Mr. Russell Hill, a friend of his father, and a worthy merchant of Petersburg. When seventeen years old, he was converted, and joined the M. E. Church. He had received a good English education, and had commenced the study of the classics; but feeling that he was called of God to the ministry, and not being able to attend college as he desired, he studied privately one year at the home of his uncle, Mr. Porter, in Orange county, and taught school two or three years in Madison. In 1824 he travelled the Gloucester circuit under the Presiding Elder; in February, 1825, he was admitted on trial into the Virginia Conference. In 1833, while Agent for Randolph-Macon College, then in its infancy, he met with a fearful accident: the carriage which he was driving upset and fell on him, breaking his right thigh and dislocating his left hip, and badly laming him for life. He was a delegate to the General Conference of the M. E. Church every session from 1832 to 1844, and occupied a high position in that great council as an adviser and debater. In the memorable appeal case of Harding, and in the yet more important extrajudicial trial of Bishop Andrew, which led to the division of the church, he won a reputation wide as the United States, and inferior to that of no minister of any denomination, for the highest deliberative and forensic eloquence. He was a member of the Louisville Convention which organized the M. E. Church, South, and of all the General Conferences of this church to the date of his death. He commanded universal respect and confidence among his brethren by the sincerity of his zeal, the wisdom of his counsels, and the power of his reasoning. His impress will long remain on the legislation and institutions of Southern Methodism. In 1846 he was called from the regular pastorate, by the urgency of the Trustees of Randolph-Macon College, sanctioned by the Virginia Conference, to the Presidency of this institution. He was selected for that place because his courage, energy and strength of intellect seemed indispensable not only to the prosperity, but even to the saving of this noble institution. Twenty years of his life was consecrated to this cause—years of self-sacrifice, of unremitting toil, of courageous battling with difficulties and victory over them; of hope where others desponded, of faith where others doubted, of resolution where others wavered. He was diligent in his study, diligent in his lecture-room, diligent in his travel through Virginia and North Carolina to collect money and to arouse interest in behalf of the College. The number of students steadily increased, the standard of scholarship was elevated, and through the joint efforts of Dr. Smith and the agents of the College an endowment fund of $100,000 was raised. Then came the terrible war, which emptied those classic halls and swept away the funds which had been gathered with so much toil. Yet not in vain had he labored. Scores of ministers, hundreds of pious young men, educated under his care, moulded by his influence, are this day in their several spheres carrying on the same grand work to which he was devoted, and have learned, from his teachings and example, never to surrender, never to despair of Randolph-Macon.

"We have not spoken of Dr. Smith as a preacher and pastor. He soon rose to eminence in the ministry, and stood with the foremost in the pulpit and pastorate for faithfulness, ability and success. He had a deep, distinct, happy, constant experience of the saving grace of God in Christ Jesus. His zeal for the cause of religion was pure, steady, consuming. He was fully consecrated to the work of the ministry. The doctrines and polity of our church had no stronger, nobler expounder and champion than he. His sermons were "logic on fire"—grand and solid discussions of the leading truths of the gospel, animated with deep emotion. Thousands were converted under his ministry; many of them became preachers of the word in our own and other denominations; the churches he served were ever edified and trained, not less by his pastoral fidelity than by his luminous discourses.

"As a man, he was of marked character. Who that ever saw him could forget that bold, frank, noble face and forehead, which revealed at a glance the lofty attributes of his intellect, the loftier attributes of his heart! Cunning and deceit he knew not; to fear he was a stranger; his convictions he was ever ready to avow and maintain. Yet, with all his courage and indomitable energy of will, he had a tender, sympathetic heart, and much of a child-like spirit, simple, unselfish, trustful, easy to be entreated." *

* Copied from Memoir in Virginia Conference Minutes.

Rev. C. F. Deems did not accept the chair of Latin, and O. H. P. Corprew was elected professor pro tempore, and filled the place.

At a meeting of the Board held March 31, 1847, an effort was made to establish a medical department of the College, but it never resulted in any permanent success.

[Illustration: BENNETT PURYEAR, A. M., LL. D., Professor Chemistry
Randolph-Macon College; Chairman Faculty and Professor Chemistry,
Richmond College.]

At the meeting of the Board held June, 1847, President Smith reported that the session had been pleasant and the prospects of the College improving. The success of the Agents in their work gave promise of better financial conditions. A committee was appointed to reorganize the Preparatory School system, and it was proposed to establish one or more at salient points.

[Illustration: WM. A. SMITH, D. D., President of Randolph-Macon
College, 1846-1866. President Central College, Missouri.]

Professor J.W. Hardy tendered his resignation, which was accepted. He had been elected President of La Grange College, Alabama, where he died after a short service.

The following received degrees: