The session commenced with thirty-one pupils; but before its close in June, 1887, one hundred students had been enrolled. This number has, during the past year (1887-88), been increased to one hundred and thirty-five. In view of this rapid increase in attendance, Professor Van Hoose was obliged to erect another building for the accommodation of students. This building, a handsome three-story brick structure, contains a chapel on its first floor and school-rooms on the other two floors. The present faculty of this institution consists of nine teachers. In addition to the primary and the collegiate departments, instruction is afforded in law, hygiene, telegraphy, and book-keeping. Departments of art and music are also attached to the institution, the facilities for the study of music being very good. GEORGIA FEMALE COLLEGE.1 We conclude our consideration of Baptist institutions with a notice of the Georgia Female College, which, although now discontinued, still, in view of past services rendered, is fairly entitled to honorable mention by the side of living and thriving seminaries for the advancement and development of higher female education within the borders of the Commonwealth. The college to which we here refer was located at Madison, Morgan County, and was incorporated by an act of the Legislature of Georgia on the 17th of January, 1850.2 At that time it was known as the "Madison Collegiate Institute," but soon afterward the board of trustees, by a legislative amendment, changed the name to that of Georgia Female College. The school was founded under the auspices of the Baptists, and the men mainly instrumental in establishing it were residents of Madison. Rev. George Y. Browne was called to the presidency of the institution in 1850, and, entering upon his duties in the following year, ably and successfully conducted its operations for the space of a decade. In 1861 he removed to Alabama, but in 1870 returned to Madison and accepted the position which he had formerly occupied in the college, and which declining health compelled him to resign in 1878. "As an instructor," we are told, "George Y. Browne had no superior and but few equals, and those who enjoyed the benefit of his instruction received no superficial education." Among the other presidents of the Georgia Female College may be mentioned the Rev. J. R. Branham, D. D.; Prof. A. B. Townes, of South Carolina, who held the office for a brief period; Prof. R. T. Asbury, the present head of Monroe Female College, who was called to the chair about 1880; and Col. Edward Butler, son of the late Rev. D. E. Butler, 1 American Baptist Register for 1852, p. 428. White's Historical Collections of Georgia, p. 566. He who was in charge of the institution when it was burned in 1882. was the last of the presidents, and the Georgia Female College is now but a pleasant and interesting memory, constituting no unimportant link in the chain of the educational history of the Commonwealth. In 1852 the institution had fine buildings, a large endowment, and was a flourishing school. Fourteen thousand dollars had been recently subscribed in Morgan County, which had been increased to eighteen thousand dollars by subscriptions from other parts of the State, for the completion of the buildings, purchase of apparatus, etc. The fac ulty at that time consisted of twelve instructors, representing the branches of mental and moral science, the natural sciences, mathematics, rhetoric, belles-lettres, natural theology, physiology, French, Italian, Spanish, music, and drawing and painting. The whole number of pupils in attendance during the first session of the college (1851-52) was one hundred and forty-eight. In 1854 we are advised of the contemplated formation of a normal class, free of all tuition fees, for the benefit of those graduates who might desire to receive instruction in the theory and practice of teaching. One hundred and fifty-six names were enrolled on the college register during the preceding year, and the apparatus was reported to be "of the most recent and approved construction." A quarter of a century elapses, and we again meet with the Georgia Female College, this time under the efficient management of Professor Asbury, who then, as now, enjoyed a widely extended reputation as a thorough and successful teacher. He was assisted by an able corps of instructors. The main college building was a large and well arranged brick edifice, situated in a beautiful grove, and presenting an attractive appearance. The college was supplied with fine philosophical apparatus. Such is the last glimpse that we have of an institution which was very popular in its day, and which gratefully recognized as the foundation and chief corner-stone of its prosperity the administration of the Rev. George Y. Browne. PRESBYTERIAN INSTITUTIONS. OGLETHORPE UNIVERSITY.1 Having reviewed the leading Baptist denominational schools in Georgia, our attention is next directed to those in the establishment and maintenance of which Presbyterian energies and resources were chiefly enlisted. Of these there are two. First in time, and also in impor 1 Georgia Illustrated, etc., by William C. Richards. Penfield, Ga., 1842. Pp. 6–8. tance, is Oglethorpe University, one of the oldest chartered colleges in the State, and for many years a vigorous and flourishing institution. This University had its origin in a division of the interests of the Educational Society of Georgia,' at its dissolution, between the two manual labor schools, the Midway Seminary and the Gwinnett Institute. The trustees of the Midway Seminary, in the spring of 1835, tendered it to the Hopewell Presbytery, believing "that ecclesiastical supervision would give weight and permanency to the object, and secure that moral and religious influence over it which, with a strict and reasonable discipline, would render it more worthy of support and confidence." The Presbytery accepted the offer, and appointed a committee to report on the expediency of elevating it to the rank of a college. ORGANIZATION OF THE COLLEGE. That committee reported at the fall meeting of the Presbytery in 1835, through their chairman, the Hon. E. A. Nisbet, the following resolution, which was adopted: “ Resolved, That it is expedient that Hopewell Presbytery undertake to endow, organize, and maintain a college, to be under the exclusive government and control of the Presbyterian Church." It was further "Resolved unanimously, That this institution shall be located at Midway, Baldwin County."3 In pursuance of this determination, the Presbytery appointed a board of trustees, consisting of twenty-four members, to take charge of Ogle. thorpe University, as the new college was called. The first meeting of this board was held at Milledgeville, Ga., October 21, 1835; and just two months from that date the desired charter was procured from the General Assembly. This was ample in all respects. The preamble of the act incorporating Oglethorpe University runs as follows: "Whereas, The cultivation of piety and the diffusion of useful knowledge greatly tend to preserve the liberty and to advance the prosperity of a free people; and whereas, these important objects are best obtained by training the minds of the rising generation in the study of useful science Alluding to this organization, Doctor Wilson (Necrology, p. 29) says: "The most important enterprise ever entered into by any ecclesiastical body in the State had its inception at the session of Hopewell Presbytery at Thyatira Church, in the spring of 1823. This was the formation of the Georgia Educational Society. Out of this enterprise arose the whole movement of denominational education in the State. To it we trace the existence of Oglethorpe University, Emory College, and Mercer University." See also ibid., pp. 29-35. 2 Professor Talmage's sketch in Georgia Illustrated, p. 6. 3 The idea of establishing the college at Midway was an after-thought, it having at first been the intention of the Presbyterians to found it at Washington, in Wilkes County. This location was selected with reference to its healthfulness, its central situation, and because it was easy of access to all pupils coming from Georgia and the southern States. It was near the great thoroughfare from New Orleans to the North, and within a few miles of the line of the Central Railroad from Savannah to the West, thus bringing the seaboard and the mountains to its doors. See Prince's Digest (to 1837), pp. 877-8. and imbuing their hearts with the sentiments of religion and virtue; and whereas, it is the duty of an enlightened and patriotic Legislature to authorize, protect, and foster institutions established for the promotion of these important objects: Be it enacted," etc. One of the provisions of this charter was that "It shall not be lawful for any person to establish, keep, or maintain any store, or shop of any description, for vending any species of merchandise, groceries, or confectioneries," within a mile and a half of the University, under the penalty of a sum not less than five hundred dollars; the form of deeds granted in the sale of University lots requiring the forfeiture of the lot to the University when those restrictions were violated. THE UNIVERSITY ORGANIZED. On November 24, 1836, the University was organized by the election of the following officers and faculty: Rev. C. P. Beman, D. D., president, and professor of chemistry and natural philosophy; Hon. Eugenius A. Nisbet, vice-president, and professor of belles-lettres and mental philosophy; Rev. Samuel K. Talmage, professor of ancient languages; Rev. C. W. Howard,1 chaplain and lecturer on moral philosophy and evidences of Christianity; and N. Macon Crawford, professor of mathematics and astronomy. The corner-stone of the University was laid with appropriate ceremonies, and an address was delivered by Chief-Justice Joseph Henry Lumpkin, March 31, 1837. The main college edifice had been commenced the August before, and was completed in July, 1840. This building Professor Talmage, writing in 1842,2 thus describes: "It is a brick structure, painted white, two stories high, beside a basement. It is constructed after the Grecian-Doric order, without and within. The central part contains the finest college chapel in the United States; its whole dimensions are fifty-two feet front by eighty-nine feet deep, including a colonnade fourteen feet deep, supported by four massive pillars, and the vestibule to the chapel eleven feet deep. The dimensions of the chapel are forty-eight feet by sixty in the main story, and fortyeight by seventy-one in the gallery, the latter extending over the vestibule. The ceiling of the chapel is in the form of an elliptical arch, resting on a rich cornice, and containing a chaste and ornamental centre piece. Attached to the building are two wings, thirty feet front by 1 Doctor Howard is entitled to special notice and credit by virtue of the fact that it was at his suggestion and through his personal exertions that the Midway Seminary was established, under the auspices and patronage, as we have seen, of the Hopewell Presbytery. To him likewise belongs the honor of having been instrumental in transforming the school into a college; of proposing the name of Oglethorpe University, which the institution afterward bore; and of having raised, in one year, in Georgia, an endowment fund of one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. (See T. P. Janes's Hand-Book of Georgia, pp. 201-2.) ?See Georgia Illustrated, pp. 7-8. 11409-No. 4- 6 thirty-four deep, and three stories high; making the entire front of the edifice one hundred and twelve feet in length. Each story in the wings is divided into a professor's office in front, and a recitation or lecture room in the rear. There are in the basement story and the wings sixteen rooms, affording ample accommodations, museum, apparatus, and all other conveniences for college purposes." On each side of the campus there was a row of dormitories of one story for the habitation of the students. The other buildings were the president's house, on the south side of the campus, below the dormitories; the academy, a large two-story edifice, opposite it on the north side; and an old chapel, the interior of which was converted into recitation rooms. The college commenced operations in January, 1838. From that time the number of students gradually increased until 1842, when it amounted to one hundred and twenty-five. Of these, fifty were in the collegiate and seventy-five in the preparatory department. The first class was graduated in the fall of 1839. The college year was divided into two sessions. The winter session, which began the collegiate year, opened on the first Monday in January and closed on the second Wednesday in May. The summer session began four weeks after the latter date, and closed on Commencement Day, the Wednesday after the second Monday in November. In the fall of 1839 the Presbytery, at the request of the board of trustees, offered the institution to the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia, by whom it was unanimously accepted. President Beman resigned his position in 1841. In November of the same year the Rey, Samuel K. Talmage, a graduate of Princeton, and uncle of the present Dr. T. De Witt Talmage, was called to the presidency of the college. He remained in office until his death, which occurred September 2, 1865. The exercises of Oglethorpe University were suspended toward the close of the War through the lack of necessary funds; and from 1867 to 1869 the college was still struggling with financial difficulties. All attempts at reorganization had proved fruitless, and the several elections made had been repulsed by declinations. Finally, on October 6, 1869, Rev. W. M. Cunningham was chosen president. He died, however, before the reopening of the college, and on March 31, 1870, Dr. David Wills was appointed his successor. About the same time it was decided to remove the University to Atlanta, where its exercises were resumed in October, 1870, with Doctor Wills as president. After continuing its operations for a year or two, in 1872 the institution was closed, and has not since been reopened, though its organization is maintained through the board of trustees, who meet annually in Atlanta. These were placed twelve feet apart, and each one was divided into two rooms eighteen feet square. 2 See Doctor Talmage's sketch of Oglethorpe University, in Georgia Illustrated, p. 8. |