How often did we hear Professor Billingsley, as we called him, declare, “There is no royal road to learning” and “Knowledge is power” and quote these inspiring lines by Longfellow:
“The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight;
But they while their companions slept
Were toiling upward in the night.”
In March, 1906, Burritt College suffered a great disaster when the main building was destroyed by fire. But through the energetic leadership of President Billingsley money was raised for the reconstruction of the building. After being closed only one term, the College continued its useful educational service. Burritt, Phoenix-like, had risen from its ashes.
Billingsley by this time had become an important figure in education in Tennessee, having served as President of the State Association of Public School Officers, and of the State Teachers’ Association as well as a member of the State Textbook Commission and of the State Board of Education. In 1911 he was, accordingly, invited to join the faculty of the Middle Tennessee State Normal School at Murfreesboro.
Unfortunately death came to him the following year just after he had entered into this broad field of usefulness. I remember, with what a feeling of personal loss, I read the news of his death which reached me some weeks afterwards in Constantinople, Turkey, where I was then a teacher.
“There has not lived another man in this portion of the State in the last forty years,” declared the Sparta Expositor, “whose influence has been more widespread and powerful for good than was his. Earnest, honest, modest, clean, wholesome, highminded, honorable, tireless, and unceasing in the discharge of his duty, a well grounded scholar, a wise counsellor and true friend, he has inspired thousands of young men and women to lead the life that is worth while.”
The last three presidents of Burritt College were W. S. Graves, serving twice, H. B. Walker, and H. E. Scott. For several years the College continued to prosper. President Billingsley bequeathed the most of his estate as an endowment for the benefit of Burritt College and the Church of Christ in Spencer and for the preaching of the Gospel in backward communities. A new dormitory, called Billingsley Hall, was erected and also a gymnasium. But certain developments in education began to make it difficult for Burritt to make progress. The first was the establishment of county high schools throughout the State, with free tuition, which took away a large number of students from the Preparatory Department of the College. The second adverse development was the increase in the facilities of the University of Tennessee and the establishment of State Normal Schools and other state schools on the college level. Burritt could not successfully compete with such institutions in which tuition was free. As a private school Burritt could have survived only with a large endowment, and that was not to be secured. No Vanderbilt, Duke, or Peabody came to the rescue of Burritt.