Part 1 (1/2)
History of Randolph-Macon College, Virginia.
by Richard Irby.
PREFACE.
The following resolution, adopted at the last annual meeting of the Board of Trustees, will answer as a preface to what will be given as a history of the oldest incorporated Methodist college in America now in existence, and can be pleaded as an excuse, if any be needed, why one so inexperienced in authors.h.i.+p should make this effort to rescue from oblivion what is left of the records and information now obtainable in regard to this, comparatively speaking, venerable college.
”On motion of J. J. Lafferty and W. H. Christian,
”_Resolved_, That the thanks of the Board be tendered to Richard Irby, Esq., for his labors in the collection of material for a connected and authentic historical account of this college, and that he be requested to continue and perfect this work, and that all friends of the college be requested to give him their cordial aid and co-operation.”
HISTORY OF RANDOLPH-MACON COLLEGE
EARLY EFFORTS OF METHODISTS TO FOUND SCHOOLS.
JOHN WESLEY, the founder of Methodism, was in every sense a highly educated man. His education began at the knee of one of the wisest and most accomplished women that ever lived to bless the world. It was continued at Oxford, but did not stop there; for he believed, and acted on his belief, that a man's education should continue as long as his intellectual energy survives.
The great business of Wesley was to spread scriptural holiness over the world, beginning at his own home. To accomplish this great end he sought and utilized every practicable agency. Early in the course of the great movement he put in motion, he established the Kingswood School, which he aimed to make as thorough, practically, as Oxford and Cambridge, and free from the surroundings which hindered evangelical believers in attendance on those schools, where he and his co-workers had encountered so much opposition and ridicule. At this school were to be allied in holy matrimony religion and learning, which G.o.dless hands had sought to put asunder; for he valued education and learning severed from, and unhallowed by, religion as worse than worthless.
Following the example of this great leader, Asbury, the ”Pioneer Bishop of America,” sought at an early day to carry out the same plans. But the difficulties he encountered were different from those Mr. Wesley met in many respects. At the close of the Revolutionary War, he found a continent over the broad area of which was spread a population of about three million of people. These people had just come out of a war of seven years, impoverished in every species of property except their broad acres of forest land, worthless until subdued by the st.u.r.dy husbandman. The currency of the country was well-nigh worthless and irredeemable in gold and silver. The great and controlling idea of the people was the restoration of wealth and material resources. This meant and required hard and constant work, which pushed aside schools and all other enterprises of the kind considered as of secondary importance. At that time only about eight colleges were found in the States, and these were slimly endowed, if endowed at all, and but poorly patronized.
But bold, and trusting in G.o.d, Asbury began the work of establis.h.i.+ng schools, hardly waiting for the clearing away of the smoke of battle. At the time he was made General Superintendent, or Bishop, (1784), there were in the United States 14,988 members in the Methodist Episcopal Church. These were scattered broadcast over the States bordering on the Atlantic Ocean, from New York to Georgia. The bulk of the members.h.i.+p was found in the Southern States. The Minutes for that year give New York City sixty members and Brunswick Circuit (Virginia) four hundred and eighty-four, and other circuits in Virginia more.
In the year 1784 Dr. c.u.mmings (in _Early Schools of Methodism_, New York, 1886) thinks Bishop Asbury founded the first Methodist academy ever established in America. It is reasonable, however, to put the date a little later, say 1785, for his services as General Superintendent did not begin till later, inasmuch as Mr. Wesley's letter appointing him to the place bears date September 10, 1784. This school or academy was located in Brunswick county, Virginia, on the road leading from Petersburg to Boydton, at a point about midway between the two places.
He named it
[Ill.u.s.tration: EBENEZER ACADEMY]*
*The Ebenezer Academy building is still standing, but it has been changed somewhat since it ceased to be used for school purposes. The cut used here was made from a pencil sketch of it made by Mr. Short, who lives near, and sent by Rev. J. Carson Watson, in whose circuit it is located. The walls are of stone, one of which has become injured; otherwise, the old house would be good for another century.
For a number of years this academy was controlled by trustees appointed by the Bishop or by the Annual Conference, and enjoyed such supervision as the Bishop was able to give, which, with such arduous labors as demanded his energies, was of necessity but slight and occasional. On this account, and other accounts incident to the times, the control of the academy was lost to the Methodists, and went into the hands of the county authorities, which control never was regained by the Church. But it was kept up as an academy for many years, and at it many of the most prominent men of the county and counties adjacent were educated wholly or partly. In this way it did a good work for the people of its day, and was the forerunner and prophecy of another school not far away, which, under better auspices, though not without difficulties, has lived to bless the Church and the world in this nineteenth century.
The first regularly incorporated Methodist college in the United States was c.o.kesbury College. It was located near Baltimore, Md. It was in operation only a few years. Augusta College, Kentucky, was the next.
That has long since ceased to exist. In the period preceding the division of the Methodist Episcopal Church, there were thirty-one literary inst.i.tutions controlled by this Church, of which three were exclusively for females and several, co-educational. Seventeen of these were located in the Southern States. Of the thirty-one, only seven colleges have survived, viz.: Randolph-Macon College, chartered February 3, 1830; Wesleyan University (Connecticut), chartered May, 1831; Emory College (Georgia), 1837; Emory and Henry (Virginia), 1838; Wesleyan Female College (Georgia), 1839. d.i.c.kinson College (Pennsylvania) chartered in 1783, but did not become a Methodist college till 1833, and was opened as a Methodist college September, 1834. Alleghany College (Pennsylvania) was chartered in 1818, and came under the control of the Methodist Church in 1833, and was opened as a Methodist college the same year.
It will thus be seen that all these male colleges which survived, were opened under Methodist patronage, nearly simultaneously, viz.: Wesleyan University, October, 1831; Randolph-Macon, January, 1832; Alleghany College, November, 1833; d.i.c.kinson College, September, 1834. This point of time thus became a marked starting-point in the history of Methodist colleges. Since this turning-point was pa.s.sed, the number of them has increased as rapidly as the members.h.i.+p of the church, and can now be counted by the hundreds, making the Methodist Church foremost in the great work of Christian education.
It may be noted here that all of the above-named colleges succeeded to buildings which had been used for school purposes, more or less complete, while those of Randolph-Macon were built wholly out of new material.
It is probable that the idea and purpose moving Bishop Asbury to found church schools, had never gone entirely out of the minds of the Methodists of Virginia, notwithstanding all the failures and disasters which had befallen the early enterprises. They found no school in the Conference territory of high grade where they felt safe in sending their sons. William and Mary College was under the control of the Episcopalians, and its location was noted for excess in worldliness and free-living, which did not invite Methodists, whose rules forbade such customs. The atmosphere of the college and town was unsuited to Methodists, and they were looked upon as unfit for the society of the so-called best people. Hampden-Sidney College, originally non-sectarian, had come under the control of the Presbyterians, with whom, in those days, Arminian Methodists did not think it safe to let their sons remain too long, lest they should become Calvinists. Was.h.i.+ngton College was then a feeble school, and remote from the eastern portion of the State, and outside the Virginia Conference. Under these circ.u.mstances, and for what were esteemed good reasons, the Methodists of the Virginia Conference, then composed of the eastern and middle portions of Virginia and North Carolina, moved in the matter of establis.h.i.+ng a college of high grade.
A resolution, adopted by the General Conference of 1824, recommending ”that each Annual Conference establish a Seminary of learning under its own regulations and patronage,” had the effect to direct the attention of the church throughout the connection to the subject of education. So almost simultaneously the New York Conference, with the Virginia Conference, moved towards the establishment of a college, as recommended by the General Conference, the result of which was the founding of the Wesleyan University at Middletown, Conn., and of Randolph-Macon College at Boydton, Va., the two oldest Methodist colleges, originally incorporated as such, now existing in America.
The credit of first planning or founding Randolph-Macon College has been awarded to Rev. Hezekiah G. Leigh and Gabriel P. Disosway. The former was a prominent minister in the Virginia Conference, and was justly esteemed by his contemporaries as an orator second to but few, if any, of his time. Dr. Bennett, in _Memorials of Methodism in Virginia_, says: ”Perhaps no man ever left a deeper impression on the hearts of the people among whom he labored. In every city where he was stationed, in every district, in every circuit, there are thrilling recollections of his preaching.... He was not simply an eloquent preacher, he was a wise, skillful, practical workman in the vineyard.” Dr. W. A. Smith, third President of Randolph-Macon College, said of him: ”Dr. Leigh had few equals in the pulpit. He filled a large s.p.a.ce in public attention, and wielded a wide and undisputed influence among his brethren in the ministry.” He was a native of Perquimans county, N. C., born November 23, 1795, but for many years prior to his death resided on his farm near Boydton, Va.
Gabriel P. Disosway was a native of the city of New York, of Huguenot ancestry, born December 6, 1799. He took his A.B. degree at Columbia College, New York, in 1821. In early life he became a citizen of Petersburg, Va., and married a Virginia lady. He was a pious and devoted Methodist, and by his superior education and literary abilities exerted a wide and salutary influence on the church circles of his town and day.
Having been a college-bred man, he may have suggested to Dr. Leigh the founding of a college, or the latter may have sought the advice and co-operation of Mr. Disosway, and thenceforth the two worked together as co-laborers in this good cause. Dr. W. A. Smith inclined to the latter view of the matter, for he says (_Funeral Discourse on Rev. H. G.
Leigh_), ”Regarding all the circ.u.mstances, the prominent position held by Dr. Leigh in originating all the preliminary measures, and his personal activity in advancing them, we have always considered him in a good sense the founder of Randolph-Macon College.” Mr. Disosway returned to New York in 1828, and thus the college ceased to have his active co-operation with Dr. Leigh, which might, and doubtless would, have been very acceptable and beneficial. He lived to an honorable old age, giving much of his valuable time to the great interests of the Church of his choice, and also to the great religious inst.i.tutions of his State and the country, with a number of which he was closely identified as manager or director. He also wrote frequently for the press, and was the author of several books, one of which particularly was highly esteemed, viz. _The Old Churches of New York_.”