History of Randolph-Macon College, Virginia Part 11

[Ill.u.s.tration: JUDGE EDWARD R. CHAMBERS, _Professor of Law 1842-'43.

Trustee of the College. Judge Circuit Court. Member of Virginia Convention 1851 and 1861._]

The above record is given to show the great financial strait of the College and to bring to mind the liberality of the members of the Board and the Faculty. But for this liberal action the College would have ceased its work, as so many others were forced to do.

Some steps were taken at this meeting to establish a Medical Department in the College.

The following degrees were conferred, June, 1843:

A. B.

GEORGE W. BENAGH, Virginia.

EDWARD S. BROWN, Virginia.

HAMPDEN S. SMITH, N. C.

THOMAS E. Ma.s.sIE, Virginia.

WILLIAM H. LAWTON, S. C.

FELIX H. G. TAYLOR, Miss.

RICHARD H. POWELL, Alabama.

THOMAS W. BLAKE, N. C.

HENRY B. ELDRIDGE, Virginia.

WALLER Ma.s.sIE, Virginia.

JOHN F. RIVES, Mississippi.

NATHANIEL R. WADDILL, Va.

JOHN C. WALKER, Virginia.

A. M.

JAMES F. SMITH, South Carolina.

D. D.

Rev. ROBT. NEWTON, England.

WILLIAM WINANS, Mississippi.

LOVICK PIERCE, Georgia.

WILLIAM A. SMITH, Virginia.

1843-1844.

The dark cloud resting on the prospects of the College in June, 1843, still hung over it the succeeding year, notwithstanding the efforts made to relieve the embarra.s.sment. Patronage continued to decrease. The session opened with sixty matriculates in the College and thirty in the Preparatory School, the smallest number in the history of the College up to this year.

The President, in the annual report, alludes to the depression of Faculty and patrons, neither of whom "could feel proper interest in an inst.i.tution _which might close its doors at any time_." This feeling of despondency seemed to have pervaded also the members of the Board, for a bare quorum were in attendance at the opening session. The president, in his report, said: "We shall regard it as a calamity if you leave this place without making some definite arrangement by which our future may be relieved from all embarra.s.sment."

[Ill.u.s.tration: HOLLAND N. MCTYEIRE, A. M., D. D., _Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South; Regent Vanderbilt University._]

That grand layman, D'Arcy Paul, in this dark hour, came to the relief of the College by guaranteeing the salaries of the professors to the amount of $5,000 on certain conditions. Thus, in the good providence of G.o.d, the life of the College was prolonged.

[Ill.u.s.tration: COL. WM. TOWNES, TRUSTEE. _Elected 1844._]

The following received degrees June, 1844:

A. B.

JOHN LYON, Virginia.

WILLIAM C. DOUB, N. C.

WILLIAM M. CABELL, Virginia.

HOLLAND N. MCTYEIRE, Ala.

ARCHIBALD CLARK, Virginia.

THOMAS H. RODGERS, Virginia.

JAMES G. FANNING, Georgia.

JOHN HOWARD, Virginia.

RICHARD IRBY, Virginia.

RICHARD S. PARHAM, Virginia.

WILLIE M. PERSON, N. C.

BENJAMIN F. SIMMONS, N. C.

J. L. GILLESPIE, Virginia.

A. M.

THOMAS B. GORDON, Georgia.

GEORGE B. JONES, Virginia.

Rev. EDWARD WADSWORTH, Va.

FRANCIS A. CONNOR, S. C.

Rev. THOS. H. JONES, Virginia.

WILLIAM H. Ba.s.s, Virginia.

HENRY F. JONES, N. C.

Rev. Henry B. Cowles having declined to accept the office of Agent, to which he had been previously elected, was again elected.

Warren DuPre resigned the tutors.h.i.+p, and Holland N. McTyeire was elected to fill the place.

It would be an omission if, in describing and relating other matters, the description of an old-time Annual Commencement should be left out.

These occasions were notable events in the first two decades of the College. In those days preparations were begun four weeks before the Commencement day by releasing the Seniors from regular daily exercises so as to give them time to prepare their orations, which each one had to write and commit to memory and rehea.r.s.e before the Professor of English, who was authorized to make corrections in matter, style, and also in manner of delivery. The Commencement generally was held the third Wednesday and Thursday of June. The Sunday previous a sermon was preached by some eminent minister appropriate to the occasion. Selecting one occasion that the writer witnessed as a specimen, that of 1842, the following description is faithful: The visitors, in the main, began to fill up the boarding-houses around the College and the hotels of Boydton on Tuesday. The Board of Trustees a.s.sembled on Tuesday at an early hour, holding their meeting, strictly private, during the day. Friends of the graduates from Virginia and the Carolinas were largely in attendance on Wednesday in time for the opening of the exercises in the chapel. On this occasion the far-famed evangelist, Rev. John Newland Maffett, had been selected to deliver the annual oration before the literary societies. He arrived on Tuesday by private carriage, having travelled over seventy miles. The Alumni Society orator had also arrived.

The exercises of Wednesday opened at 11 A. M. The band had been discoursing musical selections for hours previous on the campus, and continued in the gallery of the chapel, to which they and the crowd had repaired. The chaplain invoked the blessing of G.o.d on the College and the young men. The president introduced the alumni orator, who delivered his address to the Society and the audience. The applause of the auditors would have been prolonged but for their anxiety to hear the silver-tongued orator, whose fame was as wide as the country. He was in the prime of life. His dress was faultless; his black locks were unruffled, as when he left the hair-dresser's shop an hour before, for it was said he held his hat in his hand all the way from Boydton as he rode in the carriage to the chapel. Be that as it may, every lock was in perfect order. He was a native of the Emerald Isle, but was thoroughly naturalized. His manner was well-nigh perfect, possibly a little too dramatic; his voice musical, his enunciation rolling and faultless.

What was the theme memory cannot recall. All that is remembered is his action, voice, and the general effect on the auditors. The house was packed; the crowd outside was as great as that inside. The oration over, all breathed naturally again; the boys applauded, the ladies waved their handkerchiefs and fans, and the band struck up enlivening notes, and all said, as the morning exercises closed, "We have heard an orator to-day."

In the afternoon the representatives of the Was.h.i.+ngton and Franklin Societies--George Benagh and Felix Taylor of the former, and Marcellus Stanley and Rives Waddill, of the latter--did their societies great honor as their representatives by delivering in the chapel eloquent orations.

At night the Societies held their annual meetings, at which the presidents-elect, distinguished honorary members, presided and made addresses. In the debates following the honorary members were expected to take part. The Society medals and honors were delivered to graduate members. These meetings were held in the halls, and were not open to the public.

At night the parlors of private houses and the hotels were radiant with the wealth of beauty gathered mainly from the Old Dominion and the old North State. If there were ever fairer and more lovely women since the days of Helen this deponent never saw them.

The next day the graduating cla.s.s made their last bows to a College audience, having, according to custom, appeared three times before in the last year of their course. It would be hard to decide which did best, if the verdict had to be given by the fair auditors who heard them.

The "Latin Salutatory" came first, delivered by the second-honor man.

This was followed by the orations of others, without regard to grade.