Part 31 (1/2)

[Ill.u.s.tration: PROF. R. E. BLACKWELL, A. M.]

Changes were made in the chairs to be filled, viz., one to be that of English and Modern Languages, and the other that of Latin and Greek. To fill the first Robert Emory Blackwell, A. M., was elected, and to the other Prof. Charles Morris, M. A., of the University of Georgia. Prof.

Blackwell was in Europe at the time, taking a course at Leipzig. He took his degree of Master of Arts in 1874. He had served as a.s.sistant in the School of English under Prof. Price, and was recommended by him in the highest terms. He was the first of Prof. Price's graduates, of a long list, to be elected to a chair of English.

Prof. Morris was, when elected, Professor of Latin and Greek at the University of Georgia. He, also, was highly commended to the Board by Prof. Price, who was a fellow-student with him at the University of Virginia. A more whole-souled, ingenuous man never lived than he, and his character was beaming from his face. Though a member of the Episcopal church, he threw his whole soul into the religious work of the College, and no one would have known that he was not a member of the Methodist church.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHARLES MORRIS, M. A., _Professor of Greek and Latin, 1876-1882._]

The scale of salaries was changed. The salary of the President was fixed at $2,000: of professors, $1,600. Dr. T. H. Bagwell was elected College physician, in place of Dr. H. M. Houston, resigned.

In parting with Prof. Price, the Board expressed for him the kindest and highest appreciation of his long and distinguished services.

Complimentary resolutions were also adopted in regard to Prof. Harrison.

As a part of a great educational advance, the following extract is given from Professor Price's letter of resignation:

”You have used me to do one piece of work that was so bold, and timely, and wise as to draw the attention of educated men throughout America to our College, and to win for your system of education the hearty applause of all that love the culture of our young men.

”In establis.h.i.+ng the chair of English you have taken a bold step and wise innovation. You have pushed the whole system of Virginia education distinctly forward, and you have given to your system of collegiate education a firm basis in the needs of our people. I have felt the sweetest joy of my life to have been permitted to help in this great work. I have seen the School of English, from session to session, bear richer fruits in the development of our whole student cla.s.s and in the growing power of the College over the educated opinion of the State. I beseech you now, in parting from you, to take the chair of English under your fostering care, not only to uphold it, but to develop and expand it as the characteristic and special glory of the College, and to bring it to pa.s.s that every alumnus of Randolph-Macon College shall be, to his own benefit and to your honor, as soundly and correctly educated as man ought to be in the knowledge and use of his mother tongue.”

At this meeting Dr. W. W. Bennett, chairman of the Building Committee, announced to the Board the completion of the Pace Lecture building, at a cost of about $11,000.

At the annual meeting of the Board of Trustees, held June, 1877, the reports made by the President and Treasurer showed great embarra.s.sment in financial matters, which, as a matter of course, affected the prompt payment of salaries to the members of the Faculty.

The patronage for the year was reported to be 132.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PROF. W. A. FRANTZ, A. M., _Prof. English, Central College, Missouri._]

The degree of A. M. was conferred on William Abner Frantz, of Virginia.

At the June meeting, 1877, Thomas Branch, Esq., resigned the office of president of the Board. Resolutions of regret at his action, and expressive of the kind regard of the Trustees towards him, were adopted.

Dr. J. A. Duncan was elected to fill the vacancy.

William Willis, Jr., resigned the oflice of Treasurer of the Board on account of ill-health and defective eyesight. This was accepted with great reluctance by the Board, and resolutions of sympathy for him in his afflictions and thanks for his faithful service were adopted.

Prof. W. A. Shepard was elected Treasurer _pro tempore_.

When the Board adjourned, it closed its last meeting in connection with the president who had inaugurated the College at Ashland, and had presided over it for nine years.

A few days after the opening of the session of 1877-1878 he pa.s.sed away, after a brief illness. The record of the journal made by the Secretary, and enclosed in black lines, is as follows:

[Transcribers' note: In the original book, the following paragraph is also enclosed in black lines.]

On Monday, September 24, 1877, at 4 o'clock A. M., Rev. JAMES A. DUNCAN, D. D., President of Randolph-Macon College, died at the President's house, Ashland, Va., after a brief illness. On Tuesday, the 25th, a brief funeral service was conducted in the College chapel by Rev. Leroy M. Lee, D. D.; after which the corpse was conveyed by a special train to Richmond. Funeral service conducted at Broad-Street Church by Bishop D.

S. Doggett, D. D.; a procession formed to Hollywood, and the body of this faithful and ill.u.s.trious servant of G.o.d buried there, in the hope of a glorious resurrection.

”This writer was a student at Randolph-Macon when Dr. Duncan was a little boy, not yet in his _teens_. He was then as full of fun and mischief as a boy could be, which, with his sprightliness, made him an uncommonly interesting boy. He was a scholar in the first Sunday-school cla.s.s he ever taught, and along with him were d.i.c.k and Gib Leigh and d.i.c.k Manson. He was intimately a.s.sociated with him in re-establis.h.i.+ng the College at Ashland, he beginning his presidency, with this writer as treasurer and chairman of the Executive Committee. Then, from 1870 to his last illness, he sat under his ministry in the old ball-room chapel, whose walls echoed to the tones of his wondrous voice, such as cathedrals rarely, if ever, have heard. This ought to render him competent, in part, to write of this most gifted man.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WILBUR F. TILLETT, A. B., D. D., _Sutherlin Medalist, 1877; Dean Theological Faculty, Vanderbilt University._]

But others have written tributes so much better and worthier of the subject that he will let them speak. The first tribute to him was given by Prof. Thos. R. Price, LL. D., who has more than once expressed to this writer the great remissness of the Methodist Church in not having had prepared a memoir of one of its greatest preachers and wisest men.