but as the money was not paid, this amount was regarded as a debt due to the University by the State, and it was agreed that interest should be paid upon the same at the rate of eight per cent. per annum. In compliance with this arrangement, the sum of eight thousand dollars has been regularly and annually paid by the State to the University to the present day. The act establishing this permanent University fund was not passed until December 21, 1821.1 "Finally," says Governor Lumpkin, in a letter dated November, 1855,2" what has been called the permanent endowment of the University was made by the act of the Legislature of 1821, by which the State took into its own keeping the one hundred thousand dollars of bank stock owned by the University, and secured to the University the payment of eight per cent. per annum on one hundred thousand dollars; since which date the limited financial condition of the institution has been free from any serious embarrassment." 3 Dr. John Brown was succeeded in the presidency of the college by Robert Finley, D. D., of Baskingridge, N. J., whose term was brief. It was terminated by his death in 1817. Then ensued an interregnum, occasioned chiefly through the inability of the Board of Trustees to organize the faculty in a satisfactory manner. This lasted until 1819, when the Rev. Dr. Moses Waddell was elected president. Franklin College was then in a very unfortunate plight. "When he took charge of it," writes Governor Gilmer, "there were neither funds, professors, nor students." Doctor Waddell was an admirable disciplinarian and organizer. Under his management the institution was established upon a firmer and better basis than at any former time. The attendance of students increased, and the Board secured the services of a respectable number of professors and enlarged the library and apparatus. His term expired in 1829, when the Rev. Alonzo Church, D. D., of Brattleborough, Vt., was called to the chair. The latter had for some years been filling the professorship of mathematics and astronomy in the institution. 1 1 Prince's Digest, pp. 873-4. The act was entitled "An Act to provide for the permanent endowment of the University, and to appropriate moneys for the erection of a new collegiate edifice at Athens." 2 Lewis's Report, p. 119; see also pp. 113-4 of the report. 3" Georgians," p. 239. + Doctor Waddell had taught a large academy in Abbeville (S. C.) with remarkable success, for a number of years. Under his tuition some of the most distinguished men in Georgia and South Carolina received, in whole or in part, their education. From long and successful experience he had acquired a reputation for the government and instruction of youths which amply qualified him to give character and reputation to the college, as subsequent events abundantly proved. (Georgia Gazetteer, 1837, p. 119. See also Ramsay's History of South Carolina, Vol. II, pp. 369–71.) 5 This was originally due to an act approved November 28, 1806 (Clayton's Digest, p. 308), by which the trustees had been allowed to establish a lottery for the purpose of raising three thousand dollars to purchase a library for the use of the University. White's Statistics of Georgia, p, 73, 1 2 In 1830 one of the main college buildings, including the library and a portion of the apparatus, was destroyed by fire; and to replace the loss thus incurred, and also to aid in the current expenses, an appropriation of six thousand dollars was made by the Legislature, which was annually continue from 1830 until 1841. While this fund has been regarded by some in the light of a donation from the State, it would appear to have been really nothing more than an acknowledgment by the State of a long outstanding debt. For, when the thirty-five thousand acres of land were sold and brought one hundred and fifty thousand dollars or more, only one hundred thousand dollars, as has been seen, were invested in bank stock for the benefit of the University, leaving about seventy-five thousand dollars, beside the five thousand acres lost under the treaty of Beaufort, unaccounted for, in the hands of the State. This liability was met by an annual appropriation of the interest thereon, which was estimated at six thousand dollars. ASSISTANCE TO THE UNIVERSITY BY THE STATE. The first money advanced by the State to the University.consisted of five thousand dollars, paid in 1802.3 Another loan of ten thousand dollars was made in 1816,4 and still another of the same amount in 1830. The last-mentioned sum was to be employed in repairing the damage inflicted by fire in buildings and equipment. In the same year, it will be remembered, the six thousand dollar appropriation began, which was in part devoted to the same object. From 1841, when this appropriation was discontinued, until 1875, a period of thirty-four years, nothing whatever appears to have been contributed to the University by the State. In February of the latter year an act was passed giving five thousand dollars a year for three years to the "Georgia State College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts," which was a branch of the University, the origin and history of which will be shortly considered. On the 29th of September, 1881, the Legislature appropriated two thousand dollars per year for four years, to make tuition free; and on September 27, 1884,7 an appropriation of two thousand five hundred dollars was made to repair certain buildings on the college campus. 1 Three had been erected-Old College about 1801, Philosophical Hall about 1817, and the Demosthenian Hall in 1824. 2 See act of December 21, 1830. (Cuthbert's Digest, pp. 185-7.) 3 Act of November 27, 1802. 4 Act of December 18, 1816. 5 Session Laws of 1875, p. 11. (Clayton's Digest, p. 79.) Session Laws of 1881, p. 16. In the same year ten thousand dollars were appropriated by the Legislature to rebuild North Georgia College. 7 Session Laws of 1884, p. 15. Among these was the chapel (built about 1832), which has, with the assistance of this fund, been entirely remodelled in its interior arrangements, and is now a very respectable audience hall, The most recent State donation to the University was that which was effected during the last session of the General Assembly, in October, 1887. By four separate enactments of the same date, five thousand dollars were given to the University to repair its buildings; five thou sand, for a similar purpose, to the branch college at Dahlonega; and thirty-five hundred dollars each to the branch colleges established at Thomasville and Milledgeville. These sums, inclusive of the amount realized from the sale of the forty thousand acres of land, conveyed by the act of February 25, 1784, made available by the State by the advance of sixty-six and two-thirds cents on the dollar, and forming the endowment fund of the University from which the eight thousand dol lar annuity is drawn, constitute all the pecuniary assistance which the State has, in one way or another, given to what Chancellor Tucker terms "the child and property of Georgia." New College was built about 1831. Like Old College, it is used as a dormitory for the accommodation of students. In the following year the Ivy Building and the chapel were erected; and from 1834 dates the construction of the Phi Kappa Hall. This belongs to the Phi Kappa Literary Society, which was founded in 1820, Washington's birthday being the anniversary of its establishment.2 The other literary society of the University, the Demosthenian, was founded as early as the year 1802,3 and is therefore almost coeval with the opening of Franklin College. Its annual meetings are held on February 19th of each year. Both of these societies are in active and successful operation, and have always been regarded as important factors in the college training. Each has a library of about three thousand volumes. PRIVATE BENEFACTIONS. In 1854 Dr. William Terrell, of Hancock County, bequeathed twenty thousand dollars to the University, which it still retains. With this fund, says Governor Herschel V. Johnson in his message of 1855,4 au agricultural chair was established, the interest of this gift being ap plied to the support of its professor. This was the second benefaction which the institution received from private sources, the first having been Governor Milledge's land gift in 1801. The bequest of Governor George R. Gilmer should be next mentioned. By it he donated fifteen thousand dollars to the trustees for the purpose of improving the "school-masters of Georgia." In 1873 the city of Athens gave the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars for the erection of what is known 1 Acts of 1887, pp. 10-13. 2 Georgia Gazetteer, 1837, p. 121. 3 Ibid., 1829, p. 64. We are told that it "had at that time for its accommodation a handsome brick building, with a beautiful hall and other apartments, and was in a flourishing condition." 4 Lewis's Report, p. 94. 11409-No. 4- -4 as the "Moore College." This structure was completed in the following year, and is by far the handsomest building on the campus. It is three stories high, exclusive of the mansard roof. The entire first floor and basement are appropriated to the use of the chemical department, and contain, among other things, analytical laboratories, an assay-room, a room for microscopic and spectroscopic work, and an industrial museum. The second floor is devoted to the department of natural philosophy, and the third to that of engineering. Moore College is the seat of the "Georgia State College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts." THE CHARLES MCDONALD BROWN SCHOLARSHIP FUND. The most recent and noteworthy donation to the University was made by Senator Joseph E. Brown, ex-Governor of Georgia, in 1881, and is known as the Charles McDonald Brown Scholarship Fund. This fund, consisting of fifty thousand dollars, bears the name of one of Senator Brown's sons, who died while prosecuting his studies at the University, and by whom, had he lived, this sum might have been possessed. The income arising from this fund is intended to "aid worthy young men of the State in their efforts to get an education," and four students are, each year, enabled to avail themselves of the assistance thus afforded. An applicant for benefits under this fund must be "eighteen years old, of good moral character, apt to learn, of reasonable health and proper ambition," and "he must be prepared at least for the Freshman class." Money is loaned out only to those who, unaided, would not be able to acquire a university education, on the condition that they refund the money thus loaned, as soon as they can make it, after providing for their livelihood in an economical manner; and the amount which is repaid by each student, with interest at four per cent., in return for the money he has received, is added annually to the principal of the endowment. Young men pursuing their studies for the purpose of preparing themselves for the ministry, or who, after completing their studies, may devote themselves to the work of the ministry, are required to return with interest only one-half the amount loaned to them. The colleges participating in the benefits of this fund are those at Athens and Dahlonega, and the Medical School at Augusta. Doctor Church's administration closed in 1859. He had served the University in the capacity of president for thirty years. About the same time the Senatus Academicus of the State of Georgia was abolished, and all its rights, powers, duties, and privileges were given to the Board of Trustees of the University of Georgia, in whom was vested the sole government of that institution, subject to the direction of the General Assembly of the State. In 1860 the title of president was changed to that of chancellor, Rev. Andrew A. Lipscomb, D. D., 1 See Act of December 14, 1859. (Laws of 1859, pp. 26-7.) |