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

by Richard Irby

RANDOLPH-MACON COLLEGE AND THE STUDY OF ENGLISH.

Prof. J. B. Henneman, of the University of Tennessee, writes as follows in the Sewanee Review. It is gratitying that the good work done by Randolph-Macon is so freely acknowledged:

"It was Randolph-Macon College, rather than the State University of Virginia, though it was the work of one of her graduates, that was to have the distinction of creating a School of English in the South which should send forth apostles with all the fervor of converts and enthusiasts. Randolph-Macon College would have deserved notice for devoting a separate chair to English Literature as early as 1836, almost from its inception; and Edward Dromgoole Sims, a Master of Arts of the University of North Carolina, gave a course on Historical English in the year 1839. He was installed in that year as Professor of English, after a stay in Europe, where he heard lectures on Anglo-Saxon. Tradition tells how, having no text-books, he used the blackboards for his philological work. At the end of three years he removed to the University of Alabama in consequence of having contracted a marriage not then allowed under the laws of Virginia. He was preparing a series of text-books in Old English, tradition again says, when he died, in 1845. Had he accomplished his purpose, these works would have preceded Klipstein's in point of time. (Other occupants of the chair of English at Randolph-Macon were William M. Wightman and David S. Doggett, both afterwards bishops in the Methodist Church, South.) It was again at Randolph-Macon College (though now removed from Mecklenburg to Hanover county) that, immediately after the war, there was founded a distinct school of English, based on historic and scientific principles, and productive of far-reaching results. I believe that I am but paying a worthy tribute to one whom all his pupils have found a helpful guide and inspiring instructor in making the statement that this movement was mainly due to the inspiration and effort of one man—Thomas R. Price.

"The suggestion of the course of English at Randolph-Macon College sprang from the study of the ancient languages. The feeling existed that it was impossible to expect appreciation of idioms in a foreign language when students knew nothing about those in their own tongue. To quote from Professor Price's own words at the time: 'It was irrational, absurd, almost criminal, for example, to expect a young man, whose knowledge of English words and constructions was scant and inexact, to put into English a difficult thought of Plato or an involved period of Cicero.' The course pursued in consequence was entirely original in its premises, and endeavored to meet these difficulties. Both the disease and remedy were brought out by the conditions present; and to this, I think, may be ascribed, in large measure, the success of the movement and its value as a stimulus. The end set was to place, in the ordinary college course, the study of English on an equal footing with that of Latin or Greek, giving it the same time and attention, aiming at the same thoroughness, and enforcing the same strictness of method. A knowledge of the early forms of English was demanded, not as philology pure and simple, constituting an end in itself, but as a means for acquiring a true, appreciative knowledge of the mother tongue, and thereby for understanding its literature and other literatures all the more. It now seems almost incredible that it required so great an effort at the time to take this step or that old traditions could become so firmly crystallized.

"Professor Price's efforts succeeded all the more easily in that they were seconded by his presiding officer, the Rev. Dr. James A. Duncan, a man of singular breadth and sympathy of mind, who had grouped about him, irrespective of church and denominational ties, a band of worthy associates. Price, as Professor of Greek and Latin, gave up the latter to his colleague, James A. Harrison, who had charge of the modern languages, and taking control of the English, developed it side by side with his Greek, so as to cover a course through four continuous years. This was the result of the work of two sessions, 1868-'70. The movement soon spread far and wide. Other institutions, impelled by the same needs, either imitated it outright—some of them actually going so far as always to unite the English department with the Greek, as if there were some subtle virtue in the connection (building possibly even wiser than they knew)—or developed out of their own necessities similar arrangements.

"After the men at Randolph-Macon had been drilled in the rudiments and given their primary inspiration, many of them were dispatched to Europe for further training, and returned Doctors of Leipzig and fired with a new zeal. In mere appearances, it should seem as if this Randolph-Macon migration to Leipzig was the beginning of the attraction exerted by that University on young Southern scholars, an attraction which has been rivalled in recent years only by that of the neighboring Johns Hopkins. The land lay open before these young men, and they proceeded to occupy it. Robert Sharp returned Doctor from Leipzig, and was soon called to Tulane; William M. Baskervill returned Doctor from Leipzig, and started an impulse at Wofford College, South Carolina, which he broadened and deepened after his transfer, in 1881, to Vanderbilt; Robert Emory Blackwell returned from Leipzig and succeeded Professor Price in his work at Randolph-Macon; Frank C. Woodward succeeded Baskervill at Wofford in 1881, and removed to the South Carolina College in 1887; W. A. Frantz has built up a following in Central College, Missouri; John R. Ficklen, having followed Dr. Price to the State University, has become associated with Sharp at Tulane. The English fever at Randolph-Macon became epidemic. Dr. James A. Harrison accepted a call, in 1876, to Washington and Lee as Professor of Modern Languages, and formed a new Virginian centre for specialists. Even Price's successor in the Greek chair at Randolph-Macon, Charles Morris, soon resigned to go to the University of Georgia as Professor of English. Nor has the manufacture of Randolph-Macon professors of English ever entirely ceased. Howard Edwards, formerly of the University of Kansas; J. L. Armstrong, late of Trinity College, North Carolina, and now of the Randolph-Macon Woman's College; John D. Epes, of St. John's College, Maryland; John Lesslie Hall, Ph. D. (Johns Hopkins), of William and Mary, are later accessions to a list by no means complete.

"It is very curious to trace these various ramifications of mutual influences, and to see them acting and interacting, crossing and recrossing. Three main lines may be detected. Just as the University of Virginia, through its graduates, became the pattern for many, especially State institutions, and Hampden-Sidney, Davidson, Central, and, particularly, Presbyterian colleges, felt the influence of the course at Washington and Lee; so Randolph-Macon affected, among others, Wofford, and then Vanderbilt, which, in turn, has become a new centre of activity.

"The transmission of this spirit to Wofford College, and thence to Vanderbilt University at Nashville, is peculiarly instructive. W. M. Baskervill, trained under Price and Harrison, and in Leipzig, came to Wofford in 1876, where he met with a sympathetic circle. The president, Dr. James H. Carlisle, had always been interested in English work, and was a close student of the history and meaning of words. Charles Foster Smith was fellow-professor with Baskervill, and James H. Kirkland, first an appreciative pupil, was afterwards colleague as Smith's successor. All three of these young scholars ultimately took their degrees in Leipzig, and were called to Vanderbilt University, of which Dr. Kirkland is the newly-elected Chancellor. The English language and letters have been steadily emphasized by the close sympathies uniting these three men in their common work in the department of languages. Kirkland's Leipzig dissertation was on an English subject, though he is now professor of Latin; Smith, the professor of Greek, has been a constant contributor on English points, and Baskervill is specifically professor in charge. Through the standard which their fortunate circumstances allowed them to set, a new centre of influence has been formed in Nashville.

[Illustration: REV. JOHN HANNON, A. M., D. D., Ukiah, California.]

"It was this Wofford influence, if I may be personal for a space, that had much to do with sending me to the University of Virginia to hear Price in Greek. And I but echo the feeling of many in Professor Price's class-room, that it was hard to know to which of the two languages his class leaned the more, Greek or English, so intimately upon one another, especially in the work of translating, did the two depend. At any rate, it is singular that his pupils, stirred by the Greek, just as at Randolph-Macon, have used this classical impulse to enter upon the keener study of their native language and literature. I was privileged to be in the last Greek class which Professor Price taught at the University of Virginia; and contemporaneous with me at the University were other pupils: Charles W. Kent, Ph. D., of Leipzig, just returned to his Alma Mater as Linden Kent Professor of English Literature; James Douglas Bruce, of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and the editor of this Review. Eventually Professor Price's strong predilections for English, and the memory of the work wrought while at Randolph-Macon, led, in 1882, to his acceptance of a call to the chair of English in Columbia College, New York, a change which, in the face of all he had accomplished at the South, many of his old pupils were selfish enough to regard with regret."

On the recommendation of the Faculty, the degree of A. M. was conferred on John Hannon, of Alabama, and William Waugh Smith, of Virginia.

The vacant chair of Modern Languages was filled by the election of Mr. James A. Harrison, of New Orleans. This officer proved to be a valuable accession to the Faculty, and his success at Randolph-Macon was the prophecy of further success at Washington and Lee University, and the University of Virginia, where he is at this writing.

In regard to the enterprise referred to at the last annual meeting, the
Board adopted the following resolutions:

"Whereas suitable halls for the literary societies of this College are imperatively necessary in the work of this institution; and whereas the Washington and Franklin Literary Societies have taken this enterprise in hand with commendable zeal and liberality: therefore,

"Resolved, I. That we gratefully recognize the efforts of the young gentlemen in projecting and prosecuting this enterprise.

"II. That we consider the success which has already attended their efforts as a gratifying evidence of the speedy completion of the work.

"III. That we commend this enterprise and the young gentlemen engaged in it to the liberality of all the friends of this College and the cause of liberal education.

"IV. That we pledge our hearty co-operation in this work in every way in our power."

[Illustration: PROF. J. A. HARRISON, M. A., LL. D.]

At the close of the college year ending June, 1872, the following items of interest were reported to the Board at the annual meeting:

The Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad Company conveyed to the Board of Trustees a tract of land lying on the south of the line of said railroad, near what was called the Club House, containing about twenty acres, "on condition that the Trustees erect on the said land permanent college buildings within fifteen years after the date of conveyance, and that the deed shall contain the prohibition of the sale of ardent spirits without the written consent of said company."

This was considered to have been a better location for college buildings than the first occupied, and the project might have been carried out but for want of means to erect the buildings.

The Financial Agent further reported the need of additional college buildings on account of increased attendance of students. The number in attendance the past session was 167, being 25 more than any previous session at Ashland. Amount of fees, $7,652.30; amount remitted to privileged students, $6,182.50; amount received from the Virginia and Baltimore Conferences, $2,682.33. This was a gratifying result.

Available assets, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $58,729 65
Assets not now available, . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24,603 67
Total, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $83,333 32
Liabilities, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23,216 49

Resolutions commending the Agent for his work were adopted, and pledging the support of the Board to him in his work.

The absence of the two oldest members of the Board, viz., Bishop John Early and D'Arcy Paul, Esq., on account of age and feebleness, were noted by suitable resolutions.

[Illustration: LIBRARY HALL.—Built by the Washington and Franklin
Societies 1872.]

President Duncan, in his annual report, said: "It is specially gratifying that I can congratulate the Board on the plan of fiscal management adopted at your last meeting. The experience of the last twelve months has demonstrated the wisdom of your action, and the same illustrating your good fortune in securing an officer whose efficiency in a most laborious task merits your high commendation…. The large number of students have been generally studious and well behaved, a large proportion of them are Christians, and thirty-two are candidates for the ministry. During the year the reputation of the College has extended, and its patronage steadily increased. Both the patronizing Conferences manifest increasing interest in the College."

The degree of A. M., on recommendation of the Faculty, was conferred on
Charles Carroll, of North Carolina.

Mr. Jordan W. Lambert, on behalf of the Building Committee of the Literary Societies, reported the Hall building as completed, at a cost of $12,954.40, on which the committee had raised $7,093.30, leaving a balance still due, $5,861.10.

A committee appointed to consider this report submitted the following:

"Your committee, after a full conference with the committee of the two Societies, submit a proposition made by them to secure from the Board of Trustees the necessary amount to discharge the existing obligations of the Societies, which proposition is made the basis of this report, and is most heartily recommended to the favorable consideration of the Board.

"It may be proper to state, in connection with this report, that the committee submitted in detail the accounts with the various persons from whom they had secured material, both by donation and purchase, and also the correspondence with various friends of education both North and South, all of which was most gratifying to your committee, as they exhibited on their face the evidence of great energy, system, and tact, which not only reflects credit on themselves, but also on the Societies represented by the committee as well as the College itself.

"In consideration of the foregoing facts, we offer for adoption the following resolution:

"Resolved, That the proper officers of the College proceed at once to raise $5,700, and if it be necessary, they be authorized to create a lien upon the property referred to, to secure the payment of principal and interest, and the Financial Secretary be instructed to pass over the amount thus raised to the Building Committee, to be used by them in liquidating the obligations created in the erection of the hall."

Accompanying this report was the following paper:

"ASHLAND, VA., June 27, 1872.

"In consideration of $5,700 to be advanced by the Board of Trustees of Randolph-Macon College, the Washington and Franklin Societies will undertake and pledge themselves to use their best efforts to pay $1,000 annually upon the principal until the whole amount is liquidated, interest to be paid by the Board of Trustees. It is understood and agreed that if the Board of Trustees should find it necessary to create a lien upon the property to raise the amount so advanced, they will not in any way bind the furniture of the two Societies.

[Transcribers' Note: In the original text, the names of those belonging to each society were bracketted, and "Committee F. L. S." and "Committee, W. L. S." appeared on the right-hand side of the page, beside their respective brackets.]

Committee F. L. S.

(Signed)
"J. W. LAMBERT,
"F. C. WOODWARD,
"R. E. BLACKWELL,

Committee W. L. S.

(Signed)
"CHARLES CARROLL,
"HERBERT M. HOPE,
"W. B. PAGE,
"H. C. PAULETT,
"JOHN M. BURTON,"

[Illustration: WASHINGTON HALL, Randolph-Macon College.]

[Illustration: FRANKLIN HALL, Randolph-Macon College.]

To show the appreciation of the work done by the Societies, the Board, on motion of Rev. A. W. Wilson, adopted the following:

"Resolved, That the President be instructed to express in the chapel, during the public exercises of the day, the Board's appreciation of the energy and zeal of the Literary Societies in the erection of the Library building, and that the Secretary furnish the Societies with a copy of the action of the Board."

In the chapel the same day Maj. Sutherlin pledged the Board to a subscription of $500 towards the Library Hall.

The above record in relation to this worthy and remarkable effort—one that has found few, if any, parallels in the history of colleges—is given at some length to show the spirit of the young men of the period succeeding the war, and also to stimulate a like spirit in the young men who are now filling these halls and others after them. Such an example seems to be needed at this time to rekindle the interest in these most worthy Societies, which is not as great as it formerly was, and as it should be.

At this meeting Major William T. Sutherlin, of Danville, who had manifested his interest in the College by agreeing to pay three hundred dollars annually towards the current expenses of the College for five years, submitted the following proposition:

"To the Board of Trustees of Randolph-Macon College:

"I propose to place in your hands good eight per cent. securities to the amount of four hundred dollars ($400), the interest to be collected by you, and invested in a suitable medal, to be presented at each annual commencement to the best orator connected with the college who shall contend for the same, to be decided by three competent judges who have no official connection with the College, to be selected by yourselves, whose decision shall be final. The fund hereby donated shall be held by you and appropriated to the above purpose in perpetuity, and to no other. Respectfully,

(Signed) "W. T. SUTHERLIN."

On motion of Rev. A. W. Wilson—

"Resolved, That the proposition be accepted, and that the thanks of the Board be returned to Major Sutherlin for the generous donation, and that the medal be styled the Sutherlin Prize Medal for Oratory."

Rev. A. G. Brown, Financial Secretary, made the following review of the financial operations of the year:

"1. That the current expenses of this session have been promptly and fully paid to June 1st.

"2. That means are in hand to meet obligations to July 1st.

"3. That we rely principally upon the assessments and special donations to the College for the succeeding three months.

"4. That the assets of the College have been improved in value and in the amount of interest they yield.

"5. That the liabilities have been materially reduced.

"6. That the financial interests of the College are freed from legal or legislative embarrassments.

"These are gratifying results. I mention them for your information and encouragement. They are the sign of a better day. Let us consecrate ourselves to this noble institution, and, with the blessing of God on our duty faithfully performed, we may expect to see it what it ought to be in the scope of its usefulness and the development of its resources, a strictly first-class College.

(Signed) "A. G. BROWN,

"Financial Secretary Randolph-Macon College."

This gratifying report, the best that had been submitted for years, caused the Trustees to adjourn in a cheerful mood.

[Illustration: G. E. M. WALTON, Founder of the Walton Greek Library.]

[Illustration: MAJ. W. T. SUTHERLIN, ELECTED TRUSTEE, 1860. Founder of the Sutherlin Prize for Oratory.]

A called meeting of the Board was held in Richmond October 13, 1872. A letter was presented from Prof. Thomas R. Price, which was as follows:

"Rev. James A. Duncan, President:

"DEAR SIR,—As Professor of Greek in our College, I feel great pleasure in informing you, and through you the Board, of the noble act of generosity by which Mr. George E. M. Walton, of Hanover county, Va., has planned a lasting benefit to the School of Greek.

"Mr. Walton was, as you know, the father of Mr. Andrew Minor Walton, who, with rare learning and diligence, discharged until his death, in September, 1871, the duties of Assistant Greek Professor in Randolph-Macon College. In order, then, to foster in the College the studies that his son loved so well, and at the same time to keep alive in the College history and traditions the memory of that son, Mr. Walton has offered to give to Randolph-Macon College the sum of one thousand dollars to create and endow what shall be called the Walton Greek Library. This donation Mr. Walton desires to see, without delay, put into the proper legal form. His own wishes and intentions, as given to me in conversation, are:

"1. That the money shall, in consultation between him and the agents of the College, be securely and permanently invested.

"2. That ten dollars of the annual income shall be used to buy, in the shape of a valuable Greek book, or other appropriate gift, as the Faculty may decide, a prize that shall be called the Walton Greek Prize, and bestowed on the student that, in the judgment of the Faculty, has made during the session the best progress in Greek studies.

"3. That the remainder of the income arising from the investment of the fund shall be annually expended, under such regulations as the Board and Faculty may establish, in the purchase of Greek books, including the texts of Greek authors, Greek lexicons, Commentaries on Greek authors, works on Greek history, Geography, Grammar, antiquities, etc., and all direct auxiliaries to Greek study, to form a special and distinct collection, to be called the Walton Greek Library.

"4. That this Library shall be carefully guarded by the College authorities and secure adequate protection from theft and fire.

"There is visible in this act of Mr. Walton no less wisdom than of generosity and tenderness. The helps to the successful carrying on of Greek study are becoming year by year more numerous and more masterly, but, unluckily, more costly, too. To use them is indeed necessary for every earnest student, but to buy them is oft-times to the student impossible. To meet this necessity is the object of Mr. Walton's gift, while his prize will serve to stimulate and reward Greek study; in all the classes of our school the Library will, year after year, as it widens, open to students that are more advanced the treasures of Greek learning.

"Being sure that you will feel the same pleasure that I feel in this wisely-devised increase to our means of education, I ask you to make Mr. Walton's purpose known to the Board, and to have the proper measures taken for the consummation of the gift.

"With great respect, your obedient servant,

"THOMAS R. PRICE,

"Professor of Greek."

The donation of Mr. Walton was accepted with thanks, and an order was made to carry out his intentions as speedily as possible.

It may be stated here that this fund was safely invested, and the annual proceeds, from the year of its establishment, have been applied, as directed, in annual prizes and the purchase of books, until, at this writing, the collection has, become imposing and very valuable. The first prize was awarded June, 1872, to R. E. Blackwell, of Virginia.

The College year 1872-'73 was remarkable in the patronage and financial outcome. The number of students was 234, the largest in the history of the College up to that year. The receipts for fees amounted to $11,220; Conference educational collections, $3,411. The excess of current receipts over current expenses reported, for the first time in the history of the College, went towards needed improvements of the property and reduction of debts of other years. Available assets were reported at $74,610; liabilities, $26,377—net assets, $48,233. This exhibit, made by Rev. A. G. Brown, Financial Secretary, was highly gratifying to the Board, so long accustomed to discouraging reports.

Of the 234 students, 44 were studying with a view to the ministry, and 29 sons of ministers.

The honorary degree of D. D., on recommendation of the Faculty, was
conferred on the following: Rev. John C. Wills, president of Central
College, Missouri; Rev. Alpheus W. Wilson, of the Baltimore Conference;
Rev. John D. Blackwell, of the Virginia Conference.

The degree of A. M. was conferred on Franklin C. Woodward, of Virginia.

The "Sutherlin Medal for Oratory" was awarded Franklin C. Woodward, of
Virginia.

[Illustration: FRANKLIN C. WOODWARD, A. M., D. D., Sutherlin Medalist, 1873; President South Carolina College.]

The "Walton Greek Prize" was awarded to Robert Sharp, of Virginia.

An educational convention to devise plans to increase the Endowment and Building funds of the College was held in Richmond, April, 1874. The following plan was adopted:

"I. That delegates shall be appointed (by the committee under item III.), consisting of one layman and one preacher in each district, whose duty it shall be to present the subject to the several District Conferences at their meetings during the summer and fall of this year, and take up collections for this object, and that the presiding elders be requested to arrange the exercises of their district meetings so as to secure one whole day for the interests of Randolph-Macon College.

"II. That we earnestly solicit the co-operation of the presiding elders in this great work, and request the appointment of meetings in the several pastoral charges, in which this cause shall be presented and collections taken.

[Illustration: PROF. W. M. BASKERVILLE, PH. D., Vanderbilt
University.]

"III. That a committee be appointed, who shall attend these meetings, take up collections, etc."

(Committee: Rev. J. A. Duncan, D. D., Rev. A. G. Brown, and Richard Irby, Esq.)

It was resolved that a committee be appointed to mature a plan for the further prosecution of this work, and report to an adjourned meeting at Ashland in June, 1874.

It was resolved that any contributor of $20,000 shall have the privilege of naming a professorship in the College.

It does not appear on the record that any direct and decided benefit resulted from this convention, but it kept the subject before the people, and doubtless bore good fruit in after times.

[Illustration: JOHN T. MOORE, Of the Virginia Conference; Sutherlin
Medalist, 1874.]

At the annual meeting, June, 1874, it was found that, by inadvertence, the amendment to the charter approved April 9, 1874, contained a clause which read as follows:

"[Section] 14. That the said Board of Trustees shall never be less than twenty-four nor more than forty-four, one of whom shall be elected by the Board president thereof; provided, also, that no member of the Faculty or Board of Instruction in the College shall be a member of the Board of Trustees."

This vacated the office of the president of the Board, inasmuch as Dr. Duncan was a member of the Faculty. Steps were taken to have the above clause stricken out by the Legislature.

[Illustration: [Portrait of Thomas Branch, inscribed "Tho. Branch", and captioned "Trustee 1846 President Board of Trustees 1877.">[]

To the office thus vacated Thomas Branch, Esq., of Richmond, Va., was elected. He was the only layman ever elected to that office.

Mr. Branch had been a trustee for thirty years. He was one of the most zealous and constant friends the College had. His donations to the College had been frequent and liberal. He had been largely instrumental in having the College moved to Ashland. Recognizing the faithful service and devotion of Mr. Branch to the College, the Board thus unanimously elected him president. At the same time Rev. Alpheus W. Wilson, of the Baltimore Conference, was unanimously elected vice-president.

[Illustration: GEORGE MERRITT NOLLEY, A. M.]

The attendance of students for the closing year had been 235, one in excess of the previous year's number.

In the record of this year the regular report of the President and
Faculty is not found, though doubtless one was made.

On the recommendation of the Faculty, the following degrees were conferred:

A. M.—George Merritt Nolley, of Virginia; Robert Emory Blackwell, of
Virginia.

D. D.—Rev. C. Green Andrews, of Mississippi; Rev. William A. Harris,
President of the Wesleyan Female Institute, Staunton, Va.

On motion of Rev. J. C. Granbery, the following was adopted:

"Whereas, since the last annual meeting of the Board the venerated Bishop John Early, for many years the president of the Board, has been taken from us by death: therefore,

"Resolved, That in the death of Bishop John Early the College has lost one of its most zealous, faithful and useful friends, and the Board of Trustees one of its most honored and efficient members."

His term of service (1830-1874) was the longest on record.

The School of English, under Prof. Price, had shown great progress, and had become the most popular of all in the College, evidenced by the fact that out of 235 students, 191 took the English course.

The report of the Financial Secretary gave the following items:

Assets, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $72,496 47
Liabilities, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21,538 12
Net balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $50,958 35

This exhibit of the finances was particularly favorable and gratifying when it is remembered that the country had in the past year passed through one of the severest financial panics ever known, a panic whose withering effects on business did not cease for many years. The College, in common with all other enterprises requiring the use of money, felt the effects of it, and it might be said that it felt it for nearly a score of years.

A called meeting of the Board was held in Richmond during the session of the Virginia Conference, November, 1874. This meeting was held to bring the College more particularly to the attention of the Conference with a view of enlisting its members in a hearty effort to raise $50,000, to be used in increasing the facilities of the College, specially in buildings and apparatus.

The action of the Trustees was laid before the Conference, and the following action was taken thereon:

"1. That we will seek to raise within the bounds of the Virginia Conference $50,000 for the College, to be expended in the erection of suitable buildings under the direction of the Board.

"2. That the Joint Board of Finance apportion this amount among the districts of the Conference.

"3. That all the preachers be solicited to do their utmost to secure the full amounts apportioned to their respective districts."

At the annual meeting of the Board, held June, 1875, the announcement was made of the death of two of its most useful and venerable members, viz., D'Arcy Paul, of Petersburg, and Rev. Henry B. Cowles, of the Virginia Conference.

It would be meet and right to give the tributes paid to these Trustees, so worthy of them, if space allowed. The first had served most faithfully for a period of thirty-five years, and the other thirty-three.

The annual report of the Financial Secretary was not so satisfactory as to current receipts, the number of students at the College having fallen down to 215, instead of 235. There had been deficiencies in other items. All these deficiences were caused, in the main, by the financial condition of the country, which was so sadly affected by the panic of 1873. There were some cheering signs, however, to offset these deficiencies. The largest donation ever made to the College up to this time had been received the past year. This was made by Mr. James B. Pace, of Richmond, Va., viz., $10,000 in Virginia State bonds. This was given to build the Pace Lecture Hall, a building so much needed, and which is now, and will be for years to come, a monument to the liberal donor.

[Illustration: JAMES B. PACE, Trustee, and Founder of Pace Hall.]

[Illustration: RANDOLPH-MACON COLLEGE, 1880 to 1886.]

[Illustration: PACE HALL.]

Another donation of $5,000 was made by the old and fast friend of the College, Thomas Branch, president of the Board; by others, $808.50—total, $15,808.50.

The financial statement for this year is given in the comparative statement furnished by the Financial Secretary in his annual report:

Assets. Liabilities. Balance. 1872, . . $58,729 65 $23,216 49 $35,513 16 1873, . . 74.611 13 26,377 14 48,233 99 1874, . . 72,496 47 31,538 12 50,958 35 1875, . . .91,660 78 20,974 36 70,686 42 Increase, 99-1/4 per cent.

The degree of Master of Arts was conferred on John W. Redd, of Virginia.

Rev. A. G. Brown reported the building by him as a private enterprise of the hotel near the southwest corner of the campus. This was a much-needed improvement.

Notwithstanding the increase in assets during the year, the current receipts were not sufficient to meet current expenses.

At this meeting Rev. John C. Granbery, who had served the Board faithfully as secretary since 1868, resigned the position, on account of his having accepted a professorship at the Vanderbilt University. He also resigned his place as Trustee of the College.

Rev. Paul Whitehead was elected to succeed him as trustee and secretary, and he has been secretary of the Board from that meeting to the present time (1898).

[Illustration: JOHN B. WARDLAW, Of Georgia; Sutherlin Medalist, 1874.]

At a called meeting of the Board in October, 1875, President Duncan informed the Board that the condition of his health was such that he felt unable to do the heavy work devolved on him. An arrangement was therefore made to lighten his duties, and he was requested to travel as much as practicable in the interest of the College.

[Illustration: JOHN W. REDD, A. M., 1875. Prof. Centre College, Ky.]

At an adjourned meeting of the Board, held November, 1875, Rev. A. G. Brown, Financial Secretary, tendered his resignation. A portion of his letter is here given, partly as history, and in justice to him:

"That my labors have not been more efficient, I deeply regret, yet in what has been accomplished I am not without cause for gratitude to God, to whose merciful kindness I am infinitely indebted.

[Illustration: REV. PAUL WHITEHEAD, D. D., Secretary Board of Trustees, 1875-'98.]

"The assets of the College have been increased in value about one hundred per cent.; nearly fifteen thousand dollars of its debt has been paid; valuable additions and improvements have been made to the grounds and buildings; the State stock owned by the College has been materially increased in value; the annual deficit on account of current expenses, ranging from twenty-five hundred to three thousand dollars a year, has been provided for; all claims for interest on College debts, amounting to about eighteen hundred dollars per annum, have been promptly paid; the salaries of the professors and employees have been paid in full to October 1st, as well as all bills on current account. In no instance has the credit of the College been allowed to suffer. Its business has been systematized so as to be easily understood. The patronage of the College has been largely increased; its interests have been faithfully represented in the patronizing Conferences…. I have never hesitated to use my personal means and influence in financial circles whenever exigencies required my so doing. Meanwhile the country has passed through a period of unprecedented financial depression. The wisest schemes have failed; the ample fortunes of wealthy citizens and corporations have been swept away; the active industries of the country have been fearfully impaired, and the shrinkage in the marketable value of property of all descriptions has scarcely been less than one-third. This sad condition of business, without a parallel in the history of this country, has seriously hindered all our efforts in behalf of the College. I have done what I could. That I have not accomplished more has not resulted from any lack of love or zeal for the College, but is mainly referable to the mysterious adversity which has come upon us.

"In resigning my office as Financial Secretary, I do not abate one jot or tittle of my interest in the College. No! I love the College as I love the church; and fidelity to the church enjoins upon me and upon all fidelity to the interests of this institution. Be assured of my hearty prayers and co-operation in the future as in the past. As a member of this Board, I shall stand shoulder to shoulder with you to make Randolph-Macon a permanent and ever-increasing blessing to church and state."

The following resolution, offered by Rev. Paul Whitehead, was then adopted:

"Resolved, That the resignation of Rev. A. G. Brown as Financial Secretary be accepted, to take effect December 1, 1875, and that the Board hereby express their appreciation of the fidelity, ability, and integrity with which he has discharged the duties of his office."

This resolution was not any too flattering. It may be truly said that it
is doubtful whether any man in the Conference could have brought the
College through the trying period of the panic as well as the late
Financial Secretary.

It was "Resolved, That the presiding bishop be requested to appoint at the ensuing Virginia Conference an agent for the College."

At an adjourned meeting held at Danville, November, 1875, the Board abolished the office of Financial Secretary.

William Willis, Jr., of Richmond, was appointed Treasurer, and Prof.
William A. Shepard, Proctor.

At the request of the Board, the Bishop appointed Rev. Thomas A. Ware, agent.

[Illustration: WALTER H. PAGE, Of North Carolina; Sutherlin Medalist;
Editor Atlantic Monthly.]

At the annual meeting in June, 1876, the Building Committee reported the Pace Lecture Hall as being about half completed, with funds on hand to meet expenses of completion. This was the second brick building erected on the campus.

The following received the degree of A. M.: John M. Burton, of Virginia;
Howard Edwards, of Virginia; Robert Sharp, of Virginia; R. Bascom
Smithey, of Virginia.

The President, in his annual report, does not give the statistics as to the number of students in attendance, but the catalogue for the year gives it as 167. He, evidently regarding this as the last he would make, takes the occasion to speak in the kindest and most commendatory terms of his associates of the Faculty. He was on the most cordial terms with them, and his kindly regard was fully reciprocated. Referring to his resignation, which he was about to tender, he said:

"And now I approach a matter which it gives me very great pain to announce. Many reasons combine to make it best, however, that I take the step now; but these reasons I do not propose to open for discussion, because I have become satisfied and decided in my convictions.

"I have worked earnestly, in all good conscience, before God for eight years to promote the cause of Christian education in connection with Randolph-Macon College; nor have I spared myself till my health demanded it. I have done what I could. Eight years ago, in a critical moment in the history of the College, your flattering representations of the service you believed I might render to Christian education induced me to sacrifice my own inclinations and to accept the presidency of Randolph-Macon.

"What has been done is too well known to you to make it necessary for me to recount the familiar facts. My rejoicing in it all is the blessing the College has been to our young men, and the fact that, by abundant labors, I have also had a personal share in the rebuilding and re-establishing an institution whose work is its best witness. In God's providence these labors have, I trust, been blessed unto permanent good.

"But in the meanwhile I have found that to repeat or continue them would be a tax on my health and strength too great for me to bear. I am fully satisfied that the confining duties of College life are entirely incompatible with my future health and consequent usefulness; but I cannot consent to be a nominal president of an institution whose funds are not sufficient for the support of all the active officers she needs. When invitations to more lucrative positions were extended to me I have not entertained them for a moment, simply because I could not allow my duty, as a minister of Christ, in relation to this work to be governed by monetary considerations. But now, when unembarrassed by any invitations whatever, after calm reflection on all the reasons which favor or oppose it, after careful and prayerful meditation upon it as a question of duty as under God's guidance, I am fully persuaded that the moment has come when I may and ought dutifully to return to the position I formerly occupied as a preacher in the church of God. This conviction is too firmly and clearly fixed for me to alter it at present.

"I hardly need to say that my devotion to the College is unchanged. My readiness to do whatever I can to advance its welfare, I know you will believe and appreciate. Therefore, most respectfully, with the warmest wishes for your success personally and officially, I feel it my duty to tender my resignation as President of Randolph-Macon College. This I propose shall take effect at the beginning of the next session, or at the meeting of the Virginia Conference.

"With many prayers for the prosperity of the great cause, which I must now serve less efficiently, but not less earnestly, and with immutable love for Randolph-Macon, I am, most respectfully and sincerely yours,

"JAMES A. DUNCAN."

[Illustration: REV. JOHN D. BLACKWELL, D. D., Vice-President Board of
Trustees, and President Elect, 1877.]

The resignation of President Duncan was most reluctantly accepted, with resolutions of highest regard for him personally and commendation of his great services to the College. It may be stated here that he continued to act as president in the interval between the annual meeting and the adjourned meeting, held in Richmond, July, 1876. At this meeting Rev. John D. Blackwell, D. D., was elected President. He declined to accept the office. At the adjourned meeting, in November, Dr. Duncan was re-elected, and he consented to serve again, under the most pressing solicitation of the Board and the evident urgency of the case.

It has been said that "coming events cast their shadows before." So this resignation of Dr. Duncan, on account of the consciousness of failing health, was a shadow, and a very dark one it was, of the event of the coming year, which was to cause mourning in all Southern Methodism and in regions beyond.

The annual meeting adjourned, in sadness and gloom, to meet again in
Richmond, July 25th.

The financial condition was not satisfactory, and the old embarrassment of former years was again felt.

At the adjourned meeting, held in Richmond, Va., July 25, 1876, the resignations of Professors Thomas R. Price and James A. Harrison were tendered. Professor Price had been elected to the chair of Greek at the University of Virginia, and Prof. Harrison to the chair of Latin at Washington and Lee University.

[Illustration: PROF. R. E. BLACKWELL, A. M.]

Changes were made in the chairs to be filled, viz., one to be that of English and Modern Languages, and the other that of Latin and Greek. To fill the first Robert Emory Blackwell, A. M., was elected, and to the other Prof. Charles Morris, M. A., of the University of Georgia. Prof. Blackwell was in Europe at the time, taking a course at Leipzig. He took his degree of Master of Arts in 1874. He had served as assistant in the School of English under Prof. Price, and was recommended by him in the highest terms. He was the first of Prof. Price's graduates, of a long list, to be elected to a chair of English.

Prof. Morris was, when elected, Professor of Latin and Greek at the
University of Georgia. He, also, was highly commended to the Board by
Prof. Price, who was a fellow-student with him at the University of
Virginia. A more whole-souled, ingenuous man never lived than he, and
his character was beaming from his face. Though a member of the
Episcopal church, he threw his whole soul into the religious work of the
College, and no one would have known that he was not a member of the
Methodist church.

[Illustration: CHARLES MORRIS, M. A., Professor of Greek and Latin, 1876-1882.]

The scale of salaries was changed. The salary of the President was fixed at $2,000: of professors, $1,600. Dr. T. H. Bagwell was elected College physician, in place of Dr. H. M. Houston, resigned.

In parting with Prof. Price, the Board expressed for him the kindest and highest appreciation of his long and distinguished services. Complimentary resolutions were also adopted in regard to Prof. Harrison.

As a part of a great educational advance, the following extract is given from Professor Price's letter of resignation:

"You have used me to do one piece of work that was so bold, and timely, and wise as to draw the attention of educated men throughout America to our College, and to win for your system of education the hearty applause of all that love the culture of our young men.

"In establishing the chair of English you have taken a bold step and wise innovation. You have pushed the whole system of Virginia education distinctly forward, and you have given to your system of collegiate education a firm basis in the needs of our people. I have felt the sweetest joy of my life to have been permitted to help in this great work. I have seen the School of English, from session to session, bear richer fruits in the development of our whole student class and in the growing power of the College over the educated opinion of the State. I beseech you now, in parting from you, to take the chair of English under your fostering care, not only to uphold it, but to develop and expand it as the characteristic and special glory of the College, and to bring it to pass that every alumnus of Randolph-Macon College shall be, to his own benefit and to your honor, as soundly and correctly educated as man ought to be in the knowledge and use of his mother tongue."

At this meeting Dr. W. W. Bennett, chairman of the Building Committee, announced to the Board the completion of the Pace Lecture building, at a cost of about $11,000.

At the annual meeting of the Board of Trustees, held June, 1877, the reports made by the President and Treasurer showed great embarrassment in financial matters, which, as a matter of course, affected the prompt payment of salaries to the members of the Faculty.

The patronage for the year was reported to be 132.

[Illustration: PROF. W. A. FRANTZ, A. M., Prof. English, Central
College, Missouri.]

The degree of A. M. was conferred on William Abner Frantz, of Virginia.

At the June meeting, 1877, Thomas Branch, Esq., resigned the office of president of the Board. Resolutions of regret at his action, and expressive of the kind regard of the Trustees towards him, were adopted.

Dr. J. A. Duncan was elected to fill the vacancy.

William Willis, Jr., resigned the oflice of Treasurer of the Board on account of ill-health and defective eyesight. This was accepted with great reluctance by the Board, and resolutions of sympathy for him in his afflictions and thanks for his faithful service were adopted.

Prof. W. A. Shepard was elected Treasurer pro tempore.

When the Board adjourned, it closed its last meeting in connection with the president who had inaugurated the College at Ashland, and had presided over it for nine years.

A few days after the opening of the session of 1877-1878 he passed away, after a brief illness. The record of the journal made by the Secretary, and enclosed in black lines, is as follows:

[Transcribers' note: In the original book, the following paragraph is also enclosed in black lines.]

On Monday, September 24, 1877, at 4 o'clock A. M., Rev. JAMES A. DUNCAN, D. D., President of Randolph-Macon College, died at the President's house, Ashland, Va., after a brief illness. On Tuesday, the 25th, a brief funeral service was conducted in the College chapel by Rev. Leroy M. Lee, D. D.; after which the corpse was conveyed by a special train to Richmond. Funeral service conducted at Broad-Street Church by Bishop D. S. Doggett, D. D.; a procession formed to Hollywood, and the body of this faithful and illustrious servant of God buried there, in the hope of a glorious resurrection.

"This writer was a student at Randolph-Macon when Dr. Duncan was a little boy, not yet in his teens. He was then as full of fun and mischief as a boy could be, which, with his sprightliness, made him an uncommonly interesting boy. He was a scholar in the first Sunday-school class he ever taught, and along with him were Dick and Gib Leigh and Dick Manson. He was intimately associated with him in re-establishing the College at Ashland, he beginning his presidency, with this writer as treasurer and chairman of the Executive Committee. Then, from 1870 to his last illness, he sat under his ministry in the old ball-room chapel, whose walls echoed to the tones of his wondrous voice, such as cathedrals rarely, if ever, have heard. This ought to render him competent, in part, to write of this most gifted man.

[Illustration: WILBUR F. TILLETT, A. B., D. D., Sutherlin Medalist, 1877; Dean Theological Faculty, Vanderbilt University.]

But others have written tributes so much better and worthier of the subject that he will let them speak. The first tribute to him was given by Prof. Thos. R. Price, LL. D., who has more than once expressed to this writer the great remissness of the Methodist Church in not having had prepared a memoir of one of its greatest preachers and wisest men.

The following is Prof. Price's sketch of Dr. James A. Duncan:

"THE GREAT PREACHER."

"The bitterest hour for them that mourn their dead is not when the breath rattles in the throat nor when the clod rattles on the coffin. It comes when, after all the stir and turmoil of death and funeral are over, the family go back to the ravaged home, and grope their ways, blinded with tears, through the rooms that the dead man has left forever empty. Not even the sudden jar of the final separation strikes so deep a wound as the growing sense of loss, as the accumulating despair of unsatisfied longing. So, in all the many regions where Dr. Duncan, the great apostle of Virginia, was known and loved, the deepest grief was not felt when all those thousands followed the hearse and sobbed around the open grave under the stars at Hollywood. A deeper sorrow comes to us now, after taking up again the task of life, when we feel, amid our pleasures and our business, that the great advocate of God, who lived Christ among us as sublimely as he preached him, has been withdrawn forever from among the potencies of our time; when we remember that, in evil days, when many bad men are seeking to break down the honesty and to dull the moral sense of the Virginia people, we are left without the mighty aid of that one man who knew best of all how to stir the hearts and to guide the acts of our people to good. Yet with the calmness of the deeper sorrow comes, too, the calmness to think out the secret of the dead man's power over the great masses of the Southern people, for that power was one that reached far outside of his church and of all churches deep down into the moral life of Virginia. Thus even for us laymen, for us that have no right to preach and no theology to teach, the character of this wonderful man has an abiding interest. It is worth while for us all to know what were the means by which he worked. As his life did such immense good to so many thousands of our people, the contemplation, and, if possible, the understanding, of that life, can hardly fail to do good to the great communities that are now mourning for him.

"On the first meeting with Dr. Duncan, were it only a hurried talk at a street-corner or a few minutes' conversation on a railway train, the first impression that came to the stranger from his sweet eyes and tender lips was the sense of a strange and overpowering love and loveableness in the man. The face and voice stole their way to the heart and mastered the affections. All the children were drawn to his caressing hands by a charm that their little hearts could not withstand. The negro servants in the houses that he visited could be seen to hang upon his words and to strive to catch his smile. The belle of the springs, on her way to the ball-room; the roughest mountaineer loafing on the skirts of a camp-meeting; boys and old men, the ignorant and the educated, had to yield themselves to the fascination of the fresh and guileless love that emanated from his beaming eyes and tender, penetrating voice. Whether he was moving with his exquisite grace, smiling and talking, through a parlor, or standing all aglow in his passionate eloquence beside his pulpit; whether he spoke to one man, soul to soul, in the quiet of his study, or faced the thousands of eyes that looked up to him from a great city church, or from the green hillsides of a rustic amphitheatre, the power that went forth from him, winning all hearts and softening all hardness, was the power of an exquisitely loveable nature, giving love richly and pleading for love in return. But as you listened to him, as you watched the play of his mobile features, and took in the rich, sweet tones of his voice, this first impression of the man's intense loveableness was deepened by the impression of his marvellous intellectual power. The shrewdness of his observation, the penetrating keenness of his intelligence, the splendid precision of his thought and of his utterance, took instantaneous possession of the hearer's mind. His knowledge of human character as men moved before him, his ready insight into the tangled web of human motives, was almost infallible. In spite of his boundless charity and graciousness, he was a man that could not be deceived or cheated. He took men in at a glance. The smile that curled around his lips, the light that sparkled in his eyes, showed to the dullest, as to the wiliest, that the secrets of their character were seen, that the very depths of their soul lay unveiled before him. Thus, when you talked with him, you were sure to feel that, while his love opened his heart to you, his intellect opened yours to him. In managing men, above all, in wielding the discipline of a college, the amazing quickness and penetration of his intellect made him the fittest of all men to control both character and conduct. The offender who came to hide his sin beneath a lie, found the lie impossible, and flung himself with passionate tears upon the love of the man that both understood and pitied his weakness. Even in great audiences, when he spoke to thousands of God and goodness, the veils of self-deception fell away before the glances that he shot into the souls of men. In all the history of Christianity no man ever pleaded for Christ before men with a mightier control over the secrets of human hearts, with a sharper penetration into the weakness and badness of each human soul. It was this union of moral with intellectual force, this union of the attractive power of love with the penetrative power of understanding, that gave to Dr. Duncan his unrivalled and irresistible control over the heart and intellect of the Virginia people. The world is so bad that we are apt to confuse amiability with silliness, and to see a sign of intellectual weakness in a good man's love and care for his fellow-men. But here, at least, it was one man as strong as he was good, a man that joined to the charm of a tenderly loving heart the power of a splendid genius and of an incisive intelligence. Thus he rose on the hearts of men to be a living power in our State and time. Thus to each man that saw much of him, to every human being that was exposed for long to the influence of his words and actions, the man, simple and kindly, and great in all his deeds, shone forth as the revelation of a higher life, as the proof and example of what Christ's teaching meant.

"The mystery both of the moral power and of the intellectual power of this great man lay in his astounding unselfishness; for the egoistic habit of mind is a hindrance not only to the moral but also to the intellectual progress of the man. A selfish regard for one's own interests, the bad trait of regarding all things and all men as subordinate to one's own designs, not only deadens the moral sensibility, but it even distorts and discolors all intellectual insight into the world. If we fail to care for other men's good by being so busy about our own, we fail equally to penetrate into their characters and to see the good and evil that is in them by being unable to remove from our intellectual vision the beam of our own desires and designs. From all these obstacles, to noble acting and to accurate thinking, Dr. Duncan was sublimely free. He had resigned himself so fully into the hands of God that he had ceased absolutely to care for his own advantage or to be perplexed by the contemplation of his own aims. Thus he moved through the annual courses of his serene and glorious activity, preaching and teaching and helping all good causes, with a mind unperverted from great things by any care for little ones, with a soul ready for any sacrifice, and, what is harder still, ready to throw itself into full and instantaneous sympathy with any soul that opened to his approach. In all his dealings with men, as friend with his friends, as preacher with his congregations, as teacher with his pupils, the loveliness and warmth of his affections were equalled only by the pliability and penetration of his intellect, by his wisdom in advising, by his discretion in helping.

"All the ordinary temptations to self-seeking fell off powerless from the supreme unselfishness of his nature. When the fame of his eloquence spread over many States; when he was acknowledged as the greatest orator of his church, and, perhaps, of his country; when the richest churches of the greatest cities offered him vast salaries to leave the struggling people and the impoverished college that he loved, he clung fast to poverty, and put aside, without a struggle, the temptations of ease and wealth. Even when temptation assailed him in craftier forms; when men told him of the mighty congregations that New York or St. Louis or San Francisco would pour forth to catch from him the words of life, he said that 'he loved his own people best, and must stay to help Virginia along.' Like his Master, he chose poverty rather than riches; like his Master, he chose to work in a little village, among a small band of disciples, rather than among the splendors and plaudits of cities; like his Master, he made of life one long series of sweetly-borne self-sacrifices. Before the spectacle of such sublime self-depression all words of common praise are unseemly. But to them that lived with him, who saw the great soul take up so bravely and bear so lovingly the burthen of poverty, trouble, and suffering, the life he led was a miracle of beauty and holiness, making the world brighter and nobler by even the remembrance of him.

"In his preaching, as in his life, the same blending of love with wisdom, of childlike simplicity with manly power, was revealed. There was no fierceness, no affectation, no struggling after oratorical effects; but, as the powers of his mind got into motion, as the thoughts rolled on, clear and massive, the words and sentences grew rich and lofty, the sweet voice swelled out into organ tones, the small and graceful figure swayed to the pulsations of his thought, and the beautiful face glowed with all the illumination of love. There was no theology in his sermons, no polemical divinity in his conception of divine truth. To love God, and to love men was for him, as Christ taught him, the sum of all righteousness. This power of love was the agency through which he did his work in the world. As the warmth of the sun controls all the processes of nature and commands all the movements of the universe, so warmth of love, as the central fact of God's moral government, was for him the source of all power, the means of subduing all wrong, and of bringing the world back into harmony with God's laws.

"No human life ever lived in this world of ours was attuned more fully to a loftier harmony. As we think of all the good deeds he did, of all the wise words he spoke, of his solemn yet tender warnings against evil, of the love that charmed so many souls to do right, of the sublime unselfishness that made his life a sacrifice to other men's good, we can feel that to us, in our own State, born of our own stock, in full sight of us all, a man has been given to live for our good, as nearly as man may, up to the life-story of the Christ himself.

"University of Virginia. T. R. PRICE."

The following is taken from the Minutes of the Virginia Conference, and was written by an old college mate, Dr. J. C. Granbery, now bishop:

"James Armstrong Duncan was born in Norfolk, Va., April 14, 1830. He was dedicated to God from his birth and trained in piety by his father, the venerable David Duncan, who has been prominent through two generations in the education of the youth of the Southern States, and who accepted the chair of Ancient Languages in Randolph-Macon College while James was a child; and by his mother, a woman of saintly character, who preceded her son by a few years to the heavenly land. In his boyhood he was a universal favorite, and displayed the gifts of mind and genial spirit and grace of manner which became so conspicuous in his riper years. We may mention his overflowing humor and gaiety, tempered with a kind and generous nature; and a wonderful power of mimicry, which furnished unbounded amusement to his comrades, and, indeed, to persons of mature age, but was never used to wound in feeling or reputation. In 1847, during one of those gracious revivals with which our church has been signally blessed year after year, he sought and found Jesus. In one of his latest and most effective sermons, he has described his conversion and affirmed that the vow of consecration then made had been the controlling principle of his ministry and the motive of those labors which his brethren sometimes thought excessive.

"He was licensed to preach probably the next year. The people of Mecklenburg still speak of his first sermons, in which they saw the prophecy of his future greatness. Having graduated in June, 1849, he was immediately placed in charge of a society in Alexandria, which had just organized in connection with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. From that hour his popularity and success as a preacher and pastor began, and they steadily waxed fuller and more lustrous until his death quenched a star than which none shone with a purer and more brilliant radiance in the whole firmament of Methodism. A great revival attended his labors during the few months before the session of our Conference and the prosperity of the church was secured. He was kept on our northern border for nine years, in Fairfax, Leesburg, Alexandria and Washington—everywhere beloved with enthusiasm, everywhere successful in his ministry. Then followed nine years of faithful labor in the city of Richmond. In 1857 he was sent to Trinity, one of our oldest and most important stations. There had come a crisis in the history of that church. Its prosperity was already impaired and seriously threatened by the unfortunate location of the house of worship. The young pastor soon had the building crowded with an eager congregation. The eloquence of his discourses and the charm of his social manners were a theme of general comment throughout the city. Two series of sermons to young men and women proved peculiarly attractive, and resulted in extensive and lasting benefit. He took front rank among the pulpit orators of the land. All denominations flocked to hear him, and delighted in his company and friendship. These honors he bore with modest dignity and consecrated with godly simplicity to the service of the Master. A little band from Trinity determined, under his leadership, to build a handsome and commodious church on Broad street near the Capitol Square. In 1859 he was appointed to this new charge, and preached in a rented hall until the church was completed. It was dedicated in March, 1861, and, with the exception of two years, he continued in pastoral charge until the Conference of 1866. All this time his influence widened and deepened. He was a power in that city. When it became the capital of the Confederate States, and was crowded with representatives from all parts of the South, his faithful, spiritual, eloquent preaching entranced, edified, encouraged, and impressed with a saving efficacy an untold multitude, whose number eternity must reveal. No man in our day has accomplished more for Methodism or for the cause of Christ in the capital of Virginia than James A. Duncan.

"In addition to his pastorate, he edited the Richmond Christian Advocate from the fall of 1860 to the fall of 1866. With characteristic generosity he did this work without money and price—a free-will offering to the church, except the two years he devoted his whole time to the paper. The readiness and versatility of his talents were admirably shown in this office, for, with many other claims upon his time, he wrote not only the editorials, but much of the most popular and enjoyable correspondence with which the Advocate was enriched during those years. Great curiosity was aroused to find out the anonymous authors of series of letters published in the paper; but few, if any, suspected that they came from the fertile brain of the editor.

"Two years he was pastor of the Washington-Street Church, in Petersburg. Such men as D'Arcy Paul loved to speak of the rich spiritual feasts on which he fed them from the pulpit, and the no less precious influence of his pastoral visits. In that city he suffered a severe spell of nervous fever, his first illness since childhood.

"This brings us to a third era of nine years in his eventful life. After the war Randolph-Macon College re-opened and feebly struggled for life. Dr. Duncan was among the strongest advocates of its removal from Boydton to Ashland. The Board of Trustees resolved on this critical movement in the summer of 1868. The Faculty resigned, and an election was held to fill the vacant places. Dr. Duncan was unanimously chosen President. He signified promptly a disposition to accept the responsible post, but demanded a few days in which to carry the question in private prayer to the God whose he was and whom he served. Repeatedly and emphatically he declared the singleness of purpose with which he entered on this office, and that he would not remain one day in it if it were not for the conviction that he was thereby serving most efficiently the church of Christ.

"No one who knew the man doubted his sincerity and simplicity of aim. He never sought self. He was indifferent to wealth in a degree which some even censured as extreme. He served not ambition. The esteem and approval of good men he must have prized, but never, so far as we know, did he exhibit any undue concern about such things. He belonged to Christ, and to the church for Christ's sake. He went in the courage of faith and the spirit of consecration to the College, and devoted himself to the duties in the chair of Moral Philosophy and in the presidency. The halls were filled with a larger number of students than had ever sought its advantages in its palmiest days before the war. He governed by his personal influence, by the love and confidence with which he inspired the young men, and diligence and good behavior were the rule with rare exceptions.

"The reputation of the institution for a high grade of scholarship and thoroughness of culture was inferior to that of no other college in the land. Young preachers, often numbering more than forty in a single session, sat under his special lectures in theology, and were moulded by his example and his teaching. With the authority of a prophet, with the gentleness of a father, he preached to the students, week after week, the word of life, and saw many of them accept with glad heart the yoke and burden of Christ. In private they revealed to him all that was in their hearts, and sought his sympathy and counsel. In public, whatever the occasion on which he spoke, they hung breathless on his lips, and received what he said as if from an angel of God. Those who have attended the Commencements can bear witness to the outgushing of love, the wise and noble utterances, the manly frankness and boldness, and the tenderness, almost motherly, with which he bade those young men farewell in unstudied words of genuine eloquence, and the beaming faces, the streaming eyes, the thunders of applause with which they responded. Nor were these his only labors. Often during the sessions he hurried off to preach in city or country at the call of the churches of the Virginia and Baltimore Conferences, or in order to raise money for the College. The summer vacation was no rest to him, but his busiest period. Incessantly he travelled through the two Conferences, speaking on Christian education, and speaking at District Conferences, at protracted and camp-meetings. He was in labors more abundant, not sparing himself, never reluctant to help in any good work. Everywhere he was sought, everywhere he was welcome. Thousands ascribe to him, under God, their first impulse to serve Christ, their revival from a lukewarm and languishing state, or their fuller consecration and seeking of a higher spiritual life. We may safely affirm that no man of his own generation has so powerfully impressed the religious character of an equal number within the bounds of these two Conferences as James A. Duncan. He was elected to the General Conferences of 1866, 1870, and 1874. That of 1870 he did not attend, his duties at the College not allowing his absence. He lacked only a few votes to be chosen bishop at that session, several delegates of this body, who held him in high admiration, and thought him in every way worthy of the honor, withholding their votes because they believed him essential to Randolph-Macon College. From that time the mind of the whole church turned to him as the fittest person to be elected to the episcopacy. In 1876 he attended the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church as one of three fraternal messengers from our General Conference, and his address on that occasion was marked by its catholic spirit, fervent love for Christ, and grand and thrilling eloquence.

"In the summer of 1874, exhausted by ceaseless toil of travel and preaching, and exposed to a malarial atmosphere at a camp-meeting, he was seized with a fever, which took a typhoid phase, and he lay for weeks at the point of death. For one year he was scarcely fit for any work, and though he afterwards rallied and resumed his course of untiring labors, the seeds of disease lurked in his system, and often developed in severe spells of sickness; yet he worked on, cheerful, energetic, consumed with zeal. The past summer he spoke and preached with an ardor, power, and success equal to his happiest efforts in the years of his vigorous health. Sunday, September the 9th, he was in Baltimore, to preach at the re-opening of Trinity, and this he did, in the forenoon with great power, despite intense physical pain. On his return to Ashland it was found that his jawbone was decayed, and poison diffused throughout his frame. Erysipelas attacked his face. His sufferings were great, but borne with patience and sweetness. He sat up, however, a part of each day, and seemed not to suspect that his end drew near. Monday morning, the 24th, he fell asleep in Jesus.

"Oh! the surprise, the shock, the grief of heart, the sense of loss, the feeling of desolation, which that news produced. Crowds attended his funeral at Broad-Street Church, which, by a marble tablet, acknowledges him its founder, and Bishop Doggett pronounced his eulogy. Memorial services were held in Richmond, Petersburg, and Baltimore. Resolutions of highest praise were passed by Quarterly Conferences and by the faculties of colleges and universities. The secular and religious press honored his memory with heartfelt tributes; but all these honors fell far short of expressing the reverence and love with which he is cherished in thousands of hearts and thousands of homes. We yield to our sorrow of personal bereavement, and then chide ourselves for the selfishness when we ought to be grieving over the loss to the church. We think with sadness and almost with despondency of the bereavement of our College, and Conference, and Church, and tears fill our eyes, and a sword pierces our heart, at the unbidden suggestion of the void in our own life which the death of this dear, this noble friend and brother has made.

"We have said little of his private life. He was early married to Miss Twitty, of North Carolina, who for many years proved a companion and helpmeet worthy of such a man, and passed away in 1870. He married in 1873, Miss Wade, a daughter of a minister of the Baltimore Conference, who ministered to him and comforted him through the last years of his life, years of comparative weakness and pain, and now mourns, yet in resignation and trust, his death. He leaves four children of the first and one of the second marriage. The widow and children have the deepest sympathies and fervent prayers of this Conference.

"A few more words we must say about this loved brother. He was a natural orator. Perhaps this remark should be changed, not to abate its force, but to enlarge its application. He was a born talker, equally gifted in conversation and in public discourse. He had every physical advantage—grace of attitude and gesture, a voice which everybody likened, in sweetness, richness, and compass, to the organ, and, we must add, to the organ when struck by a master musician, for he had his voice under perfect command, and moderated it to convey the fullest variety of pure and worthy sentiment; a countenance on which one loved to gaze, handsome in repose, lovely when lit up by the noble thoughts and feelings of his great soul. He had every intellectual and moral advantage; a ready flow of happy diction, which seemed perfectly spontaneous, and yet exactly suited the thought; a playful humor, and, when needed, keenness of wit and satire which added zest to his serious speech, but detracted not from its weight; a quick insight into the heart of a subject, judgment remarkably sound, the logical spirit without slavery to logical forms, and an imagination which could sport like a butterfly amid flowers, or soar like an eagle beyond the clouds; sensibility delicate, deep, strong—acute sympathy with his fellow-man; a response in his feelings to everything true, pure, generous, and grand. Above all, he was full of the Holy Ghost, and could say, 'For the love of Christ constraineth me.' His adaptation to all classes of hearers, to all classes of circumstances, was marvellous. He could interest and edify the child, the unlettered, the cultivated, the scholar, with equal ease. Every variety of style came naturally to him, from a familiar home talk, through all gradations of argument, instruction and pathos, to the impassioned, sublime and overwhelming appeal. The earnestness and simplicity of his soul were ever manifest; that he preached not self, not philosophy, not human wisdom, not excellency of speech, but Christ and him crucified, not for fame, but to win souls.

"In his social and pastoral qualities he no less excelled. Others have equalled, none surpassed him in diligence and fidelity; but who can compare in charm, in breadth and tenderness of sympathy, in aptness to guide and comfort, in power to draw forth trust and love? Place him in any parlor, at any table, among the rich or poor, and he would be the centre of attraction—every eye fixed on him, every ear attend his voice. Let him sit by the bed of any invalid, though a stranger before that hour, and soon he would soothe and cheer, and the heart would open to his words as though he had been a life-long friend. The young and old, men and women, the rude and the cultivated, felt free to confide to him their troubles and ask his sympathy and aid; yet, in the narrower circle of long-tried friendship and of home, never did there beat a truer, more constant, more generous heart; so unselfish, so frank, so forbearing, so trustful, so magnanimous, never giving up a friend, though he may have strayed far, and long, and fallen low; never slow in responding to any call for help.

"But we must close this sketch. He was our favorite and our ornament, we might almost say our idol; but we glorify God in him. He has been taken away in his prime, at the height of his usefulness, when we were leaning on his counsel and strength, when we were rejoicing in the prospect of many years of his company and service. But we thank God for his example, his work, and his prayers. He rests from his labors, and his works do follow him."

A meeting of the Board was called, to assemble at Broad-Street Church October 4, 1877, to make provision for the College after the loss of President Duncan. Dr. A. W. Wilson, vice-president, announced his death, and a committee, consisting of Dr. W. W. Bennett, Dr. Samuel Rodgers, and Hon. Wm. Milnes, Jr., was appointed to report suitable resolutions to the Board, and they presented the following, which was unanimously adopted:

"Resolved, That, as the Board of Trustees of Randolph-Macon College, we have the deepest sorrow in our hearts in announcing to our church and people the great loss we have sustained in the death of Rev. James A. Duncan, D. D., our late President. His devoted life as a Christian minister and his constant and arduous labors for the past nine years in behalf of Randolph-Macon College, and the high position to which he and his co-laborers in the Faculty have brought the institution, demand that our people should give some expression of their appreciation of this work, which, in its widening influence, we trust shall abide for generations to come. And in the judgment of this Board nothing can more adequately express our conviction of the value of his life and work for the College and the cause of Christian education than that the church should determine to raise a 'memorial fund' of $100,000 for the accomplishment of an earnest and often-expressed wish of our deceased President, the permanent endowment of the College and the enlargement of its sphere of usefulness."

The presidency of the Board having been made vacant by the death of
President Duncan, Rev. W. W. Bennett was elected to it.

To fill the presidency of the College, Rev. W. W. Duncan, brother of the late President, was elected.

At an adjourned meeting, held in Lynchburg, Va., November 16, 1877, Secretary Rev. Paul Whitehead presented a letter from the Rev. W. W. Duncan, Professor in Wofford College, South Carolina, declining the presidency, to which he had been elected in July last. This declination and the financial embarrassment of the College elicited the hearty interest of the Virginia Conference, then in session. A large committee from that body was appointed to confer with the Board to concert measures which would meet the serious condition of the affairs of the College. The joint conference was held for several days.

After the joint conference was concluded, on the 19th of November, the
Board proceeded to elect a President of the College. The result of the
first ballot was: For R. N. Sledd, 6 votes; for W. W. Bennett, 6 votes.
Necessary to a choice, 7.

The second ballot resulted in the same vote.

The third ballot, other members having come in, resulted as follows: W. W. Bennett, 9 votes; R. N. Sledd, 5 votes. Necessary to a choice, 8 votes. So Rev. W. W. Bennett, D. D., was declared elected.

[Illustration: BISHOP W. W. DUNCAN. Elected President 1877.—Declined to accept.]

[Illustration: REV. W. W. BENNETT, D. D., President of the Board of
Trustees, 1877; President of the College. 1877-1886.]

Resolutions respecting the death of William Willis, Jr., late treasurer of the Board, who had died since the last meeting of the Board, were adopted.

At this meeting Rev. Thomas A. Ware resigned his place as Agent.

The new President, when elected, was the editor of the Richmond Christian Advocate, of which he had been the proprietor, wholly or in part, for ten years. He was a leading man in the Virginia Conference, and largely acquainted with the ministers and people of the church in Virginia and elsewhere, having been a member of the General Conference for a number of sessions. He was in the full vigor of manhood. His education had been secured at the University of Virginia. Having been an active member of the Board for years, and frequently on important committees of the Board, and having lived in Ashland for a number of years, he was thoroughly conversant with the affairs of the College. He felt and appreciated the great purposes of its establishment and the capabilities which it might be endowed with by the action of the church. He also knew what a burden he was about to take up and carry—a burden which had taxed the energies and heart of his predecessor; but, hopeful and sanguine, he probably did not appreciate the full weight of the burden which was to test his heart and energies, in turn, to their utmost strain. It was well that he was hopeful and trustful.

Dr. Bennett commenced his duties with the following colleagues in the
Faculty December 1, 1877: Robert Emory Blackwell, A. M., Professor of
English and Modern Languages; Harry Estill, A. M., Professor of
Mathematics; William A. Shepard, A. M., Professor of Chemistry; Charles
Morriss, M. A., Professor of Greek and Latin.

At a meeting of the Board, held in Baltimore, March, 1878, the Faculty was increased by the election of William Waugh Smith, A. M., to the chair of Moral and Mental Philosophy. Some time afterward he entered upon his duties as professor, and his connection, in some capacity, has continued to this day. Of his connection with the College more will be recorded further on in this narrative.

[Illustration: GRAY CARROLL, Sutherlin Medalist, 1878; District
Solicitor, Little Rock, Ark.]

At this meeting it was proposed to have published a memorial volume of the late President Duncan. That it was not done promptly, and in a manner worthy of him, is, and always will be, a source of regret to those who knew and loved him. This affords another instance and example of how little has been done to let the lives and labors of Virginia's gifted men speak after they are dead. Surely he was worthy of a fitting biography.

[Illustration: RICHARD B. DAVIS, A. B., 1862., Member Board of
Trustees.]

At the annual meeting, June, 1878, the President, in his annual report, gave the number of students in attendance as 141, from twelve different States. He reported a revival of religion as having occurred, with twenty converts among the students.

[Illustration: FRANK NOLAND, First "Pace" Medalist, 1878; Assistant
Editor "Landmark."]

An effort has been made, with some success, to retire the floating debt of the College, amounting to about $23,000, on some of which ten per cent. interest was being paid, averaging eight per cent. The President was hopeful of good patronage and retiring the debt.

The following, on recommendation of the Faculty, received degrees, viz.:
Henry A. Boyd, of North Carolina, A. M.; Mansfield T. Peed, of
Virginia, A. M.; William J. Sebrell, of Virginia, A. B.; Wilbur Fisk
Tillett, of North Carolina, A. B.; M. P. Rice, B. S.

The "Sutherlin Medal for Oratory" was won by Gray Carroll, of Virginia.

The "Walton Greek Prize" went to Clarence Edwards, of Virginia.

[Illustration: PROF. R. BASCOM SMITHEY, A. M.]

The "Pace" medal for the best English essay was awarded to Frank Noland, of Virginia, the first to win it. This medal was offered by Mr. James B. Pace, of Richmond, Va.

Prof. Harry Estill resigned, July 8, 1878, the chair of Mathematics after ten years' service. He was the last of President Duncan's Faculty to leave. He went to the Washington and Lee University, and took the same chair at that institution, his Alma Mater.

To the chair thus vacated Royal Bascom Smithey (A. M. 1876) was elected, and he has filled it with great satisfaction to his pupils and the Board to the present time (1898).

[Illustration: CLARENCE EDWARDS, A.M., "Pace" Medalist, 1879;
Attorney-at-Law.]

The old chapel was consumed by fire March 12, 1879. Fortunately there was nothing in it but the furniture, which was saved. It had a varied history. Before the war it was a ball-room; during the war a hospital; after the war a place for religious service for nearly eleven years. Its walls had resounded with the eloquence of Duncan, Wightman, Guard, Ran. Tucker, Rosser, Bennett, and others. In it many of Randolph-Macon's brightest sons had received their diplomas; in it many had been "born again" to a new life. Services were held afterwards in the Mathematical lecture-room in the Pace building until the "Duncan Memorial" building, with church and chapel, had been completed.

[Illustration: CHARLES W. TILLET, A. B., Sutherlin Medalist, 1879;
Member of North Carolina Senate.]

Immediate steps were taken to erect the new building, and Rev. George W. Nolley took an active and successful part in raising the funds for its erection. The ladies of the church also did a good part in this work; also the Faculty and the students.

In June, 1879, the Finance Committee reported that about one-half the "floating debt" had been subscribed. Nevertheless, for want of endowment, the current expenses of the year had exceeded the income. They therefore recommended that the President be requested to devote his time and attention specially to the raising of funds for retiring the debt.

The following degrees were conferred, viz.:

A. M.

T. E. CRENSHAW, Virginia.
CLARENCE EDWARDS, Virginia.
WM. J. SEBRELL, Virginia.