EDUCATION IN GEORGIA.

CHAPTER I.

EARLY SCHOOLS IN GEORGIA.

THE ORPHAN HOUSE AT BETHESDA.1

The earliest efforts toward education in Georgia found expression in the school for the religious instruction of the Indians, located at Irene, under the conduct of the Moravians, 2 and in the Orphan House established at Betbesda, near Savannah, by the Rev. George Whitefield, in association with his friend the Hon. James Habersham. The former of these continued for only a few years, its existence terminating with the departure of the Moravian settlers for Pennsylvania, in 1738. The other claims a more extended notice, since it constituted the most prominent institution of learning in the colony prior to the Revolution.3

ORGANIZATION BY CHARLES WESLEY AND GEORGE WHITEFIELD.

The idea of founding an orphan house in Georgia was suggested by the Rev. Charles Wesley, who, at his meeting with Mr. Whitefield in 1737, convinced him of the educational wants of the plantation and the

1 Bethesda, Its Founders, etc.; A Historical Sketch, by J. F. Cann. Sketch of Hon. James Habersham, and Robert H. Griffin's Address. Union Society Records, 1750-1858. Savannah, 1860.

White's Historical Collections of Georgia (New York, 1854, pp. 329-33), containing an account of the institution taken from a pamphlet printed in the year 1746, entitled, "A Brief Account of the Rise, Progress, and Present Situation of the Orphan House in Georgia." Also Ibid., p. 681.

Historical Record of the City of Savannah. Savannah, 1869. Pp. 197–9.

History of Georgia, by Charles C. Jones, Jr., LL. D. Boston, 1883. Vol. I, Chap. XXV.

2 Jones's History of Georgia, Vol. I, p. 199.

3 One of the earliest school-masters in the colony was Charles Delamotte, the son of a London merchant and a friend of the Wesleys, who arrived in Savannah early in 1736. (Jones's History of Georgia, Vol. I, p. 204.)

immediate necessity for supplying them. Accordingly, the latter having previously by a personal visit to the colony satisfied his mind of the justness and expediency of the project, petitioned the Georgia trustees, from whom he received a grant of five hundred acres of land as a home for his proposed institution. His next business was to procure the funds requisite for the erection of buildings. With this object in view, Whitefield commenced preaching in the fields. His efforts were eminently successful. "So wonderful," we are told, 66 were these open-air ministrations, so eloquent was he in utterance, and so powerful in thought and argument, that multitudes flocked to hear him." English liberality was not tardy in responding to his summons, and the contributions to his orphan house multiplied so rapidly that, when he returned to Georgia early in 1740, his receipts amounted to more than one thousand pounds sterling.

Before his arrival his friend, Mr. Habersham, had located the fivehundred-acre grant about ten miles from Savannah, and had begun to clear and stock the land. Meanwhile such orphans as he had collected were entertained and instructed in a house hired for that purpose. Years afterward, in reviewing his conduct in connection with the inception of the institution, Mr. Whitefield remarked:

"Had I proceeded according to the rules of prudence I should have first cleared the land, built the house, and then taken in the orphans; but I found their condition so pitiable and the inhabitants so poor, that I immediately opened an infirmary, hired a large house at a great rent, and took in, at different times, twenty-four orphans."

1

The first collection made in America in aid of the Orphan House was at the church of the Rev. Mr. Smith, in Charleston, S. C., early in March, 1740. Mr. Whitefield was on a visit to that place, having gone there to meet his brother, who was a ship captain. He was invited to deliver a public address in behalf of his Georgia orphans, and the contribution amounted to seventy pounds. On the 25th of that month, with his own hand, he "laid the first brick of the great house which he called Bethesda, i. e., house of mercy." At this time the orphans under his charge numbered forty. Besides them, there were about sixty servants and workmen to be paid and fed. Having but little to his credit in bank, he again departed to influence subscriptions of money and provisions. By the 5th of June he was welcomed in Savannah, bringing for Bethesda money and supplies valued at more than five hundred pounds. His family, as he termed them, now numbered one hundred and fifty, and their subsistence and compensation depended entirely upon his exertions. He could take no rest, and in a little while was off for Charleston on his way to the populous northern provinces, where the balance of the year was consumed in preaching, and whence he returned to the Or

This structure, which was finished the same year, was of wood, and measured seventy by forty feet. (Union Society Records, 1750-1858.)

phan House on the 14th of December, having, during his absence, delivered one hundred and seventy-five discourses in public, and secured "upward of seven hundred pounds sterling in goods, provisions, and money for the Georgia orphans." Having spent a happy Christmas with his charge, committing the management of the temporal affairs to Mr. Habersham, and leaving Mr. Jonathan Barber as superintendent of spiritual concerns at Bethesda, he departed early in January, 1741, for England.

DESCRIPTION OF THE ORPHAN HOUSE.

The general arrangements of the institution at this time, and the routine of duties observed by the orphans, are minutely described by an eye-witness, who, after mentioning that the House contained sixtyeight children, the whole family numbering eighty-four persons, besides nineteen laborers about the premises, says: "The bell rings in the morning at sunrise to wake the family. When the children arise, they sing a short hymn, pray by themselves, go down to wash, and by the time they have done that, the bell calls to public worship, when a portion of Scripture is read and expounded, a psalm sung, and the exercises begin and end with prayer. They then breakfast, and afterward some go to their trades, and the rest to school. At noon, they all dine in the same room, and have comfortable and wholesome diet provided. A hymn is sung before and after dinner. Then, in about a half an hour, to school again; and between whiles they find time enough for recreation. A little after sunset, the bell calls to public duty again, which is performed in the same manner as in the morning. After that, they sup and are attended to bed by one of their masters, who then prays with them, as they often do privately."

Upon his return from Europe, Mr. Whitefield ascertained that the number of children had so greatly increased, that, in a short time, he made another voyage to renew his exertions in their behalf. Of the prosperous condition in which he found Bethesda on the occasion of his next visit, we are apprised by one of his letters, written in 1746: "Many of the boys," he writes, "have been put out to trades, and many girls put out to service. I had the pleasure the other day to see three boys at the house in which they were bred-one of them out of his time, a journeyman, and the others serving under their masters. One that I brought from New England is handsomely settled in Carolina; and another from Philadelphia is married, and lives very comfortably in Savannah." In the following year Mr. Whitefield purchased a plantation of six hundred and forty acres of excellent land in South Carolina, and placed several negro slaves upon it; the profits and products of this investment were applied to the support of the orphan asylum at Bethesda.

PETITION FOR A COLLEGE CHARTER.

Conceiving the design of converting the Bethesda Orphan House into "a seminary of literature and academical learning," Mr. Whitefield on the 18th of December, 1764, submitted to His Excellency James Wright, Esq., "Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief of His Majesty's Province in Georgia,” and to "the members of His Majesty's Council in the said Province," a memorial, in which he called their attention to the fact that no institution of that character had as yet been founded south of Virginia; "and consequently [he continues] if a college could be established here (especially as the last addition of the two Floridas renders Georgia more centrical for the southern district) it would not only be highly serviceable to the rising generation of this colony, but would probably occasion many youths to be sent from the British West India Islands and other parts. The many advantages accruing thereby to this province must be very considerable."1

The Georgia authorities heartily applauded and indorsed this design of Mr. Whitefield, whose next step was to proceed to England, that he might, by personal influence, obtain from the Crown the necessary sanction and assistance. That the matter might be brought directly to the notice of His Majesty, Mr. Whitefield prepared and delivered into the hands of the clerk of the Privy Council another memorial, in which he prayed for a charter upon the plan of the College of New Jersey, and expressed his readiness "to give up his present trust and make a free gift of all lands, negroes, goods, and chattels which he now stands possessed of in the Province of Georgia, for the present founding and toward the future support of a College to be called by the name of Bethesda College in the Province of Georgia." His earnest wish was to obtain a college charter "upon a broad bottom," to provide proper masters to instruct and prepare for literary honors many youths who, in Georgia and the adjacent provinces, were desirous of superior educational advantages, to inaugurate a liberal trust which would endure long after he was gathered to his fathers, and to know that his beloved Bethesda would not only be continued as a house of mercy for poor orphans, but would also be confirmed to the latest posterity "as a seat and nursery of sound learning and religious education."

This favorite and crowning scheme of Whitefield's life was never consummated. His petition for a college charter was refused. Heavy as was his disappointment on account of this failure, he did not allow himself to be daunted. Abandoning the idea of a college, he deter mined, if possible, to make Bethesda an academy similar in its plan to one then established in Philadelphia, which sustained a high reputation. Revisiting Bethesda in 1769, he reports that everything there exceeded

Jones's History of Georgia, Vol. I, pp. 408, 409.

A letter to His Excellency, Governor Wright, etc., etc, London, MDCCLXVIII. Pp. 1-30,.

his most sanguine expectations. During this year two wings had been added to the main building for the accommodation of students, Governor Wright himself laying the corner-stone in March.

Mr. Whitefield remained at Bethesda some five months or more, giving personal and continual attention to the affairs of the institution.

DEATH OF WHITEFIELD AND FAILURE OF THE ORPHAN HOUSE.

But the care proved too arduous for him, and, with impaired health and a fast declining constitution, he made a trip to the North, only to be arrested by illness at Newburyport, Mass., where he died early on the morning of the 30th of September, 1770. By his will the Orphan House estate was vested in Lady Selina, Countess Dowager of Huntingdon;1 and upon her demise, which occurred in June, 1791, it passed into the hands of thirteen persons, who were specially appointed trustees of Bethesda College, then duly named and incorporated.3

Shortly after Whitefield's death, the Orphan House was consumed by fire. It was afterward partially rebuilt, but in the course of a few years suffered a second demolition by hurricane and fire. Those charged with its conduct became seriously embarrassed by these casualties and the lack of funds, and the institution soon ceased to have an active existence. By act of December 22, 1808, the Legislature directed the trustees to sell the estate, and, all debts being paid, to provide for the distribution of the proceeds among certain eleemosynary institutions in the city of Savannah. In 1854 the Board of Managers of the Union Society purchased a part of the original Bethesda tract, and upon the very spot formerly occupied by Whitefield's Orphan House erected buildings for the accommodation of the boys committed to their charitable care. "Thus happily," exclaims Colonel Jones,5 "is the philanthropic scheme of the most noted of English pulpit orators, who 'loved to range in the American woods,' who was never happier than when

1 "And whereas there is in this State a very considerable property, as well real as personal, known and distinguished by the name of Bethesda College, or Orphan House estate, originally intended for an academy, and devised in trust by the late Reverend George Whitefield, for literary and benevolent purposes, to Selina, Countess of Huntingdon. Be it enacted, etc." (Section III of Act of February 1, 1788. Watkins's Digest, p. 373.)

2 Mr. Whitefield in his will had expressed the wish that, as soon as might be after his decease, the plan of the intended Orphan House or Bethesda College might be prosecuted.

3 Act of December 20, 1791. (Marbury and Crawford's Digest, p. 566.)

4 One-fifth of the net proceeds was to be applied to the uses of the Savannah Poor House and Hospital Society; and of the remainder of such net sum, one-half was to be paid to the Union Society in Savannah, and the other half to the Chatham Academy (which was established by Act of February 1, 1788), to increase their funds for the instruction of youth generally; the proviso in the case of the latter being that it should support and educate five orphans. (John A. Cuthbert's Digest of School Laws, Milledgeville, 1832. Pp. 47-8.)

B History of Georgia, Vol. I, pp. 414-15,