Part 36 (1/2)
Pictures are individually captioned, as follows: ”PRESIDENT SMITH.”, ”PROF. SHARP.”, ”DR. MARTIN.”, ”PROF. ARMSTRONG.”, ”MISS PARRISH.”. At the bottom of the page, the quincunx is captioned, ”FACULTY RANDOLPH-MACON WOMAN'S COLLEGE, 1893-1898.]]
[Ill.u.s.tration: [A third set of five small pictures, displayed in a quincunx. Pictures are individually captioned, as follows: ”PROF LANDON”, ”MRS. SAUNDERS.”, ”PROF. RIDd.i.c.k.”, ”PROF. PAGE.”, ”DR.
TERRELL.” At the bottom of the page, the quincunx is captioned, ”FACULTY RANDOLPH-MACON WOMAN'S COLLEGE, 1893-1898.]]
On motion of John P. Branch (subst.i.tute for one offered by A. G. Brown), it was
”_Resolved_, That Richard Irby be appointed Secretary and Treasurer, the same to give half of his time to the business of the College.”
His duties were defined as follows: To have charge of the financial and business concerns of the College, and also of the library, grounds, buildings, etc. This office was accepted, and he entered upon his duties the first day of July following.
At the same session the Board proceeded to fill the chair of Moral and Mental Science and Biblical Literature. Rev. John A. Kern, of the Baltimore Conference, was elected to the chair, and he accepted the same.
Prof. Kern was a graduate of the University of Virginia. In 1866 he entered the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He had filled many of the most important appointments of that Conference, and was then, as now, esteemed a man of talent, and growing year by-year in ability and acceptability. The estimate placed on him by his friends was not too high, as his subsequent career has proven.
The Board accepted the libraries which had been offered to it by the Literary Societies, consisting of about four thousand volumes, and the Librarian was directed to consolidate them with the College Library.
This was a much-needed and timely improvement, and became a nucleus for a library which, in course of time, will be, it is hoped, a credit to the College.
[Ill.u.s.tration: REV. JOHN A. KERN, D. D. _Elected President of Randolph-Macon College in 1897._]
The new President was requested to continue his efforts in raising funds for the endowment, which had so far been attended with laudable success.
This he was not slow in heeding.
On account of failure to record the financial statement of 1886, the exact amount of net a.s.sets of the College cannot here be given.
The retiring President served nine years, almost identically the same period served by his predecessor, Dr. Duncan. His administration was also, like Dr. Duncan's, marked by great financial embarra.s.sment, which had a depressing influence on a sensitive temperament like his was. That his days were shortened by the constant burden of care, like his predecessor's, can hardly be doubted. Both of them were, in a sense, martyrs to the cause of Christian education.
Dr. Bennett never regained his health. He moved to his farm, in Louisa county, and took work on the contiguous appointment at the Conference of 1886. While engaged in the work of his charge he gradually declined in health, and died June 7, 1887.
REV. W. W. BENNETT, D. D.
”WILLIAM WALLACE BENNETT, son of Eli and Mary C. Bennett, was born in the city of Richmond, February 24, 1821. He was reared under the fostering care and social surroundings of Methodism, and was the subject of religious impressions from an early period.
”In 1839, under the ministry of Rev. Gervas M. Keesee, he made a profession of religion, and united with the Methodist Episcopal Church in Portsmouth. Here, with the help of cla.s.s-meetings and other social, as well as the public means of grace, his religious experience had a healthful beginning, that developed the elevated character and useful life that our beloved brother has bequeathed to the church. Soon after his conversion, he, and several others who were exercised about a call to the ministry, met and conversed upon the subject, and prayed for divine guidance, giving evidence that when he entered the itinerancy it was no rash adventure. In the fall of 1841, he removed to Mecklenburg county, where his brother, Rev. John R. Bennett, was in charge of the circuit. There he pursued his studies, obtained license to preach, and began his ministry, pa.s.sing through what he conceived to be the crucial test of his call to preach. Discouraged, as he informed the writer, by what he conceived to be a failure in the pulpit before a large congregation, he was tempted to give up the ministry; but falling in the hands of an experienced and G.o.dly cla.s.s-leader, who encouraged him by his counsel and his prayers, he returned to his work with renewed consecration, and a conviction too strong to be jostled again.
”From the best information obtained (the records of four years of this Conference being lost) he was admitted on trial into the Virginia Conference in 1842, and travelled as junior preacher on Louisa and Bedford Circuits. In 1845-'46 he was in charge of Powhatan Circuit, and in 1847 was stationed in Charlottesville, where he availed himself of the educational advantages of the University of Virginia, and graduated in several of the schools in 1850. At the Conference of this year he was stationed in Was.h.i.+ngton city, organizing the first society of the M. E.
Church, South, at our national capital. In 1851 he was elected Chaplain of the University of Virginia, but on account of sickness resigned the position. He soon, however, regained his accustomed health, and in 1852-'53 travelled Loudoun Circuit with W. W. Berry and John C.
Granbery, respectively, as junior preachers. In 1854-'55-'56-'57 he was Presiding Elder of the Was.h.i.+ngton District. While on this appointment he was married, December 20, 1855, to Virginia Lee, daughter of Edward and Mary Kendall Lee Sangster, of Alexandria. A wise and happy union. In 1858-'59 he was appointed to Union Station, Richmond, and in 1860-'61 was stationed at Centenary, in the same city.
”In 1862 he was appointed Chaplain in the Confederate Army, and a.s.signed to the superintendency of the Tract a.s.sociation. Seeing the necessity of a more generous distribution of Bibles and religious literature among the troops, he arranged to go abroad for a supply, and during the last winter of the war successfully 'ran the blockade.' He had scarcely, however, entered upon the work in London when the war ended, and he returned to Virginia.
”In 1865-'66 he travelled Nottoway circuit, and in November, 1866, was appointed editor of the _Richmond Christian Advocate_. By judicious management and editorial ability, this necessary and popular journal was established on a promising basis. In 1874 Rev. J. J. Lafferty became his a.s.sociate, who, in 1877, by satisfactory negotiations, a.s.sumed control, and was appointed editor of the paper. The motives influencing Dr.
Bennett in this change were characteristic of the man and the result of thoughtful conversation. His successor well understood him, and tells us, in his affecting notice of his death, that 'he made known to him his uneasiness in conscience as to his position--that he was too stout in health to be out of the regular ranks. With much emphasis, he declared his wish to be found in the pastorate when G.o.d called him.' Before the Conference met in Lynchburg Dr. Bennett had arranged to change his position. It was then made to appear his duty to go to the college, and he yielded. But there must have been a peculiar joy when the summons came that he was in his loved employ--the shepherd of a flock.
”In 1877 he was elected President of Randolph-Macon College. This position he held for nine years, during, perhaps, its most critical history; but by able, kind, and impartial administration, with the confidence of his brethren in the ministry, the active co-operation of his professorial a.s.sociates, and the affection of the students, the College accomplished a n.o.ble work. By his activity in visiting throughout the Baltimore and Virginia Conferences and elsewhere, and under his stirring appeals, the number of students compared favorably with other inst.i.tutions, and a large amount of money was raised in the interest of the College. The sentiments of a writer from the Pacific coast, we are sure, find echo here, that 'Virginia Methodism owes Dr.
Bennett a great debt for the work done by him at Randolph-Macon at the crucial period of its history.' He left the College an enduring monument of his heroic devotion, but, as many think, at the cost of his life. At the close of the session in 1886 his health was so impaired that he resigned the presidency of the College, and secured a retired home near Trevilian's, in Louisa county, hoping that relief from the burdens and cares of college work and the quiet of the country might nurse him back to health again. But, alas! his disease baffled the best medical skill and the loving attentions of his family and friends. He was prevailed upon during the summer to visit the mountains, and, with some slight improvement, he was in his place at the last Conference, believing that he could even then attend to the work on some fields that would be open, but naming none. The change disease had wrought in his robust frame was a subject of mournful remark by all that knew him, and grave apprehensions were felt that he would never recuperate. From that Conference he was sent to Gordonsville and Orange, where he gave for a time pastoral care and pulpit work that was surprising to his friends.
But as the summer advanced, he was compelled to yield, and after a short confinement to his bed, his earthly labors ended.