The History of Randolph-Macon Woman's College: From the Founding in 1891 Through the Year of 1949-1950

RANDOLPH-MACON WOMAN’S COLLEGE

RANDOLPH-MACON WOMAN’S COLLEGE

MAIN HALL TOWER IN SPRING

THE HISTORY OF RANDOLPH-MACON WOMAN’S COLLEGE

FROM THE FOUNDING IN 1891

THROUGH THE YEAR OF 1949–1950

BY

ROBERTA D. CORNELIUS

THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS

CHAPEL HILL

Copyright, 1951, by

RANDOLPH-MACON WOMAN’S COLLEGE

Manufactured in the United States of America

BY THE WILLIAM BYRD PRESS, INC.

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

To

PRESIDENT WILLIAM WAUGH SMITH, FOUNDER

and to

PRESIDENT THEODORE HENLEY JACK

With whose sympathetic encouragement and wise counsel this book was written

FOREWORD

The American college is one of the most distinctive institutions developed by the genius of the American spirit since the beginning of English civilization in our land. Except for the church, it is the earliest institution of a general public character developed by our people. As an institution, the college antedates by more than a century the separation of our people from the Mother Country and the establishment of a new national government. Fashioned in the beginning on an English model, it has beaten new paths and followed new practices. The college has been the seed-ground of American democracy, the guardian of the American spirit, the chief architect of the American way of life.

The history of education in the United States revolves in large measure around the college. The histories of individual colleges, therefore, constitute the very warp and woof of the history of American education. Partly for this reason, but primarily because the growth and development of Randolph-Macon Woman’s College deserve a permanent recording, a history of that growth and development was projected as a major part of the celebration of the College’s first fifty years of service. Completion of the project has been unavoidably delayed by war and other conditions, yet significantly enough the publication date falls in the sixtieth year since the founding in 1891.

As colleges go, even in this yet new land of ours, Randolph-Macon Woman’s College is not covered over with the ivy of collegiate antiquity. It is a young college, but even so, it has been a pioneer in the field of higher education for women in the South, and its history, its achievements, its contributions have been outstanding, as a reading of the pages which follow will demonstrate; yet with all its achievements, there runs through its history the golden thread of simplicity and sincerity.

When William Waugh Smith conceived the idea of establishing in Virginia a college for women comparable with the best colleges for men, there was not in that broad region commonly called the South a woman’s college nationally recognized as an institution of the first rank. With meagre resources at his disposal, but with prodigious energy and determination, he brought together a small faculty of first-rate quality, attracted to the new institution by its promise of superior educational standards, and, as the record shows, in a relatively short time this fledgling college came to national recognition. The story of its early struggles, its insistence on high standards, its courageous determination to create a college for women in the South of national significance is set forth in the early chapters of this history. The vision, the energy, the determination, the faith of William Waugh Smith was matched with his able and devoted faculty and with a small, exceptionally well-qualified group of students. On such a foundation as this, Randolph-Macon has been built, and on this noble foundation, the College has grown stronger as the years have passed and its contributions to the students from all sections of our country have won for it a high place in American education.

When plans for the writing of a history of the College as a part of our semicentennial celebration were being developed, the minds of those most interested in the project turned at once to Dr. Roberta D. Cornelius as the one most competent in energy, in ability, in devotion to the College to prepare the history. A graduate of the College, a professor of English on its faculty for many years, the editor of the Alumnae Bulletin, Dr. Cornelius accepted the responsibility, and through the years, despite a heavy burden of other duties, she has labored with intelligence, with remarkable persistence through almost endless hours to gather together every available bit of information on the College and finally to prepare the completed book. Though she is a loyal alumna, her story is not a panegyric, a mere filiopietistic effort. It is a sound, judicious, even critical history, done in accordance with sound historical canons, well documented, beautifully written by a hand skilled in the use of the English language. In her History of Randolph-Macon, Dr. Cornelius has made an outstanding contribution to her College not only, but to our knowledge of educational history in the South and in the nation.

Though this history is primarily a project of the Alumnae Association and is essentially a contribution of the alumnae to the College, it has been formally approved for publication by the Board of Trustees, acting through a committee appointed for that purpose.

On behalf of the College, I express to Dr. Cornelius the profound appreciation all of us who love this College have for the notable achievement represented in this History of Randolph-Macon Woman’s College.

THEODORE H. JACK

President

August 11, 1950

PREFACE

A preface is of necessity brief; it does not afford scope for recounting all the details of such a project as the writing of a college history. Only the main facts can be stated.

Under the presidency of Mrs. C. B. Nettleton, the Alumnae Association decided to have a history of Randolph-Macon Woman’s College prepared as a gift for the College on the fiftieth anniversary of its opening. That anniversary fell on September 14, 1943. Because of wartime exigencies and later time pressures, publication has been long postponed. The book will be an anniversary volume, however, for it will now mark the passage of sixty years since March 10, 1891, the day on which the College was officially founded.

The Association submitted its plan to the College authorities and upon obtaining their approval established a committee to take charge of the work. The original members of this committee are Dr. Gillie A. Larew, Dr. Susie Ames, Miss Annie Whiteside, and the author as chairman. Later appointees are Mrs. Joseph B. Haley and Mrs. Theodore Owen, with Mrs. J. H. McMullen as a consultant. The author has frequently sought the aid and counsel of her associates on the Committee, all of whom have made valuable contributions to the undertaking. Whatever errors or defects appear in the book, however, must be attributed to the author alone, for, as the plan developed, the writing fell to her. Though she has put forth her best effort in her desire to make the book worthy of its subject, she cannot tell to what extent she has reached that high standard.

That the author should make due acknowledgment of all her obligations is impossible; she can express her gratitude to only a relatively small number of the many who have generously helped her in her task. The administrative authorities of both Randolph-Macon Woman’s College and Randolph-Macon College should stand first among those without whose aid the work could never have been done. Of these the author wishes to mention especially President Theodore H. Jack of Randolph-Macon Woman’s College; President J. Earl Moreland, Dean T. McNider Simpson, Jr., and Dr. Samuel C. Hatcher of Randolph-Macon; Mr. Robert C. Watts, chairman of the Executive Committee of Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, Mrs. W. J. D. Bell, Miss Harriet Fitzgerald, Mrs. Nolan B. Harmon, Jr., and the late Mrs. Nicholson B. Adams, trustees and also members of the Executive Committee.

Among others to whom the author is indebted are Mr. Marshall J. McNeal, treasurer of Randolph-Macon College, and Mrs. Thelma S. Klugh, secretary to President Moreland. Mr. McNeal kindly looked up material that would otherwise have been inaccessible, and Mrs. Klugh rendered gracious aid by copying some passages from the records and by verifying several references.

To the librarians at both the Randolph-Macon colleges, the author is deeply indebted. In particular does she owe acknowledgments to Miss Martha Bell, Miss Mildred Johnson, Miss Helen Sinclair, and Miss Maria Proctor of the Randolph-Macon Woman’s College Library, and to Mrs. J. B. Haley, former librarian, and Mrs. Theodore Owen, present librarian of the College at Ashland. She owes much also to the late Miss J. Maud Campbell of the Jones Memorial Library in Lynchburg, to Mrs. J. Warren Dickerson, present librarian there, and to Mrs. Joseph E. Wingfield, a member of the staff at the Jones Library. Generous aid has been received from Mr. Jack Dalton and Miss Roy Land of the Alderman Library at the University of Virginia. The authorities and staff of the State Library in Richmond have likewise given valuable assistance.

Miss Jessie A. Hyde, secretary to the Council on the Junior Year Abroad, Institute of International Education, graciously furnished copies of material needed, and members of the Headquarters Staff of the American Association of University Women have answered patiently and accurately questions addressed to them at various times.

The author feels herself especially indebted to Mr. Marion L. Howison and Mrs. Wayne Metcalfe, nephew and niece of Mrs. William Waugh Smith, to Mrs. Addison White, daughter of Dr. William A. Webb, and to Mrs. D. R. Anderson for supplying her with valuable source material. Mrs. Archer Perrow, daughter of Dr. Richard M. Smith and niece of Dr. W. W. Smith, was also very kind in contributing some genealogical data on the Smith family.

For aid in the consulting of certain legal records, grateful thanks are due to Mr. C. W. Woodson, clerk of the Court of Campbell County, to Mr. H. H. Martin of the Corporation Court in Lynchburg, to Mr. C. W. Taylor, Circuit Court clerk in Hanover County, and to Mr. Nathaniel Hutcheson, clerk of the Circuit Court of Mecklenburg County. Mr. S. H. Williams of the legal firm of Williams, Robertson, and Sackett has kindly made available the printed volumes of the Acts of the Assembly of Virginia and has clarified several matters hinging upon points of law; Mr. Douglas Robertson of the same firm has contributed needed information on the various extensions of the city limits of Lynchburg. Colonel E. Griffith Dodson, custodian of State Records, was kind enough to show the author the original handwritten text of the Randolph-Macon charter and to have a certified copy of it made for her. Mr. William Hill of Boydton aided her in her researches on the original college. Miss Laura Townes, great-granddaughter of Colonel William Townes, an early trustee of Randolph-Macon College, kindly talked with the author on the subject of the Townes family in relation to old Randolph-Macon at Boydton. The late Mrs. G. F. Briggs of Boydton lent an interesting subscription book that she owned.

Many officers and members of the faculty at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College have given valued aid. Among these are the late Dr. A. W. Terrell, the late Mr. William S. Adams, Dr. A. A. Kern, Dr. B. W. Arnold, Jr., Dr. J. I. Hamaker, Dr. Herbert C. Lipscomb, Dr. Elsie Helmrich, Dr. Mabel Kate Whiteside, Dr. Susie M. Ames, Dean Gillie A. Larew, Dr. Audrey Shuey, Dean Almeda J. Garland, Mr. A. M. White, Miss Annie Whiteside, Miss Dorothy Hughes, Dr. Cora Louisa Friedline, Mrs. Haskins Williams, Mrs. S. T. M. Harmanson, Miss Mabel Davidson, Dr. Elizabeth Brook, Dr. Hester Hastings, Mrs. Archer Summerson, Mrs. J. W. Wiltshire, Jr., Miss Jan Buys, the late Mr. J. C. Burks, Miss Nan Burks, Miss Marion Leys, Miss Evelyn Harvey, Mrs. Robert Trader, Miss Sheila Armstrong, and Mrs. Paul Ullman. A former faculty member, Dr. T. Moody Campbell, has also contributed valuable information.

Deep appreciation is due to the Randolph-Macon Alumnae Association, to the chapters that made contributions to the History Fund, and to the presidents and other officers who have served since the enterprise was begun. The presidents included in this group are Mrs. C. B. Nettleton, Mrs. Powell Glass, Mrs. S. H. Williams, Miss Elizabeth Wright, Mrs. Nolan B. Harmon, Jr., Miss Virginia Howlett, and Miss Annie Westall. One to whom the author and the entire History Committee are especially indebted is Miss Mary Boiling Stokes, executive secretary of the Alumnae Association from 1924 to September, 1950. To her successor, Mrs. John M. Ribble, and to the other members of the Alumnae Office staff, namely, Miss Bessie Minor Davis, Mrs. John P. Kirby, and Miss Mollie Winfree, the author also makes grateful acknowledgment.

Many individual alumnae and students have helped in this undertaking. Among those to whom special acknowledgment should be made are Mrs. Fred Fuqua, Miss Elizabeth Gish, Miss Flora Stanley, Mrs. Frederick Messick, Mrs. John H. Davis, Mrs. John W. Rosenberger, the late Mrs. B. R. Turner, Miss Mabel Burton, Mrs. W. W. Houston, Mrs. R. M. Woodson, Miss Elizabeth White, Mrs. J. Earl Moreland, Miss Edith Blackwell, Miss Sallie Adams, Mrs. John Otey, Miss Mary Ivey, Mrs. H. G. Sandifer, Mrs. W. S. Hundley, Mrs. E. B. Krebbs, Mrs. J. I. Hamaker, Mrs. E. M. Bowman, Miss Marion V. Magruder, Miss Erdman Bowe, Mrs. H. H. Murray, Mrs. E. K. Large, Jr., Mrs. James L. Clifford, Mrs. John Beebe, Miss Virginia Conson, Miss Lucille Simcoe, Mrs. A. W. Howard, Mrs. Samuel T. Schroetter, Jr., Miss Rose Ann Martin, Miss Sarah Ruth Gignilliat, Miss Betty Jo Hanna, and Mrs. John Chamberlain.

There are no doubt many persons whose names have been inadvertently omitted from the list of those giving important aid in the work on the College History. To all of them the author wishes to convey her deep apologies and to assure them of her gratitude, even though she has failed to mention them by name.

—R.D.C.

CONTENTS

FOREWORD BY PRESIDENT THEODORE H. JACK

PREFACE

I. RANDOLPH-MACON ORIGINS AND GROWTH

II. THE FOUNDING OF RANDOLPH- MACON WOMAN’S COLLEGE

III. THE FIRST YEAR, 1893-1894

IV. THE FIRST DECADE AFTER THE OPENING YEAR

V. A PERIOD OF EXPANSION

VI. THE CONCLUDING YEARS OF DR. WILLIAM WAUGH SMITH’S ADMINISTRATION

VII. A PERIOD OF TRANSITION

VIII. DR. WILLIAM A. WEBB’S ADMINISTRATION

IX. DR. DICE R. ANDERSON’S ADMINISTRATION

X. THE ADMINISTRATION OF DEAN N. A. PATTILLO AS ACTING PRESIDENT

XI. THE PERIOD OF 1933 TO 1950 UNDER THE ADMINISTRATION OF DR. THEODORE H. JACK

XII. THE COLLEGE AND ITS ALUMNAE

NOTES AND REFERENCES

Note on Alumnae Names and Class Affiliations

Note on Abbreviations

Notes on the Chapters

INDEX

Note on the Cover Emblem

The emblem appearing on the jacket and on the cover is an adaptation of a long-used and beloved design incorporating the motto of the College, "Vita abundantior? That design signalizes the year in which the College opened, 1893; the present emblem marks the year of founding, 1891, but carries both dates.

ILLUSTRATIONS

RANDOLPH- MACON WOMAN’S COLLEGE, MAIN HALL TOWER

Frontispiece

DR. WILLIAM WAUGH SMITH

Facing page 20

DR. WILLIAM ALEXANDER WEBB

Facing page 172

DR. DICE ROBINS ANDERSON

Facing page 208

DR. THEODORE HENLEY JACK

Facing page 270

These Illustrations Follow Page 430

DR. AND MRS. WILLIAM WAUGH SMITH

THE COLLEGE IN 1893

THE COLLEGE IN 1906

DUTIES OF THE WEEK AS TABULATED BY MABEL BURTON, 1906

TENNIS IN THE NINETIES

THE CLASS OF 1897

MR. ROBERT WINFREE

DR. FERNANDO WOOD MARTIN

PART OF PLAN B OF THE RIVERMONT COMPANY,

SHOWING THE SITE OF THE COLLEGE

DR. ALEXANDER WATKINS TERRELL

A CAMPUS ARCH IN MAY

MARIA GRAVES

WILLIAM HENRY CHAMBERS

THE SMITH MEMORIAL BUILDING

Men of the Docks, BY GEORGE BELLOWS

MISS LOUISE JORDAN SMITH

PEARL S. BUCK, 1914,

WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE, 1938

DR. NATHAN ALLEN PATTILLO

DR. C. CLEMENT FRENCH

THE FERNANDO WOOD MARTIN SCIENCE BUILDING

A DISTANT VIEW OF THE MARTIN SCIENCE BUILDING

THE TERRELL MEMORIAL INFIRMARY

THE LIBRARY

PORTRAIT OF DR. B. W. ARNOLD, JR.

ALUMNAE DAUGHTERS IN THE CLASS OF 1949

PHI BETA KAPPA, THE DELTA OF VIRGINIA

SCENES FROM GREEK PLAYS SCENES FROM PLAYS GIVEN IN 1950

THE MAY COURT OF 1940

AIRPLANE VIEW OF THE COLLEGE, 1948

PRESSER HALL

PRESIDENT AND MRS. THEODORE H. JACK AND THEIR DAUGHTERS

THE HOODING CEREMONY AT GRADUATION

THE CLASS OF 1943, WITH SQUIRES, GRADUATION DAY, 1943

GROUP OF ART STUDENTS RECEIVING CRITICISM FROM THEIR TEACHER

ADVANCED STUDENTS OF MUSIC IN CONFERENCE WITH THE DIRECTOR

Azaleas, BY JOHN HENRY TWACHTMAN

MISS ELEANOR STRUPPA AND MEMBERS OF THE DANCE GROUP

Passacaglia

Das Christgeburtspiel, ANNUAL GERMAN CHRISTMAS PLAY

SENIOR CLASS OF 1950 WITH SOPHOMORES ON EAST HALL STEPS,

COMMENCEMENT, 1950

A BUSY CORNER IN THE LIBRARY

IN THE LABORATORY OF ORGANIC CHEMISTRY

THE LIPSCOMB PORTRAIT BY JOHN CARROLL

THE ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICERS OF THE COLLEGE, 1950-1951

HORSEWOMEN

COSTUME FROM THE COLLECTION OF PERIOD DRESSES

MAIN HALL IN WINTER

All plates are by the Lynchburg Engraving Company

RANDOLPH-MACON WOMAN’S COLLEGE

CHAPTER ONE

RANDOLPH-MACON ORIGINS AND GROWTH

Founded in 1891, Randolph-Macon Woman’s College opened its doors to students on September 14, 1893. The history of its parent foundation, the Randolph-Macon Board of Trustees, goes back, however, to the third decade of the nineteenth century. Then it was that the movement was initiated which led first to the establishing of Randolph-Macon College for men and, some sixty years after that event, to the development of the Randolph-Macon System of colleges and preparatory schools. Thus when the college for women was founded there lay behind it nearly seventy years of history. Though the original charter, granted by the Legislature of Virginia on February 3, 1830, provided only for Randolph-Macon College, to be erected at Boydton, Virginia, that charter was so enlarged and amended in 1890 as to permit the Board of Trustees to erect, establish and maintain such schools, academies, or other institutions of learning for the instruction of the youth of the land as to them may seem desirable. In 1890 the expansion began under the vigorous leadership of Dr. William Waugh Smith, then president of the original college, which in 1868 had been moved from Boydton to Ashland, Virginia.

The first school to be built under the enlarged powers of the Board was the Randolph-Macon Academy, established at Bedford City (now Bedford), Virginia, and opened in 1890 as a preparatory school for boys. A similar academy was built at Front Royal in 1892 and opened the same year. In 1897, four years after the establishment of the Woman’s College, Randolph-Macon Institute, a preparatory school for girls, was opened at Danville, Virginia, as the successor of the Danville College for Young Ladies—an institution which had that year been transferred to the Randolph-Macon Board. When these affiliated schools were founded, they met an urgent need for institutions affording sound preparation for the work of the two Randolph-Macon colleges. But later, when the standards of secondary education had so improved that many high schools, as well as other private academies, were offering the requisite preparation, the need for schools directly preparatory to Randolph-Macon College and Randolph-Macon Woman’s College diminished. In view of the changed situation the Randolph-Macon Board of Trustees decided to discontinue its operation of the school for girls and to consolidate the two academies for boys. The Randolph-Macon School for Girls, as the Institute in Danville was then called, passed in 1930 to an independent board of trustees, who converted it into the present Stratford College. The Bedford academy for boys was merged in 1933 with the one at Front Royal, which continues as a valuable secondary school.

As early as 1883 the subject of the higher education of women had been brought before the Board of Trustees. More than once the possibility of extending to women some educational opportunities at Randolph-Macon had been discussed but rejected as impracticable. In 1890, however, definite action toward the building of a college for women, in Lynchburg, was taken, and on March 10, 1891, the Board authorized the execution of the plans made for such a college. The credit for launching this enterprise and bringing it to a successful conclusion must go to Dr. William Waugh Smith and his co-workers. Their efforts led to the establishment of Randolph-Macon Woman’s College. With a campus given by the Rivermont Land Company of Lynchburg, a plant and equipment adequate for the demands of the first year, an initial endowment of $100,000, and an enrollment of somewhat fewer than a hundred students, that institution began its career in September of 1893. Its president, Dr. W. W. Smith, who guided its destinies for nineteen years, saw it grow from the pioneer stage to one of national service and recognition. Dr. Smith’s successors, Dr. William A. Webb, Dr. Dice R. Anderson, Dean N. A. Pattillo, who three times served as acting president, and Dr. Theodore H. Jack have further directed its development to its present well-established position among American colleges for women.

Such, in the briefest terms, is the story of Randolph-Macon Woman’s College and its institutional setting. The College is nearly sixty years old. But, as the reader has seen, it is rooted in a history that antedates its founding by more than sixty years. This antecedent tract of history has had more than an intangible bearing upon the history of the college for women. In addition there have been many ties, administrative, academic, and personal, between the two Randolph-Macon colleges.

The incorporation of the Randolph-Macon Board of Trustees by the Virginia Legislature on February 3, 1830, was itself not so much a beginning as a milestone, for five years’ work had been done before the College was chartered and two more were to elapse before its opening. The initiation of the educational enterprise to which the founding of Randolph-Macon belonged goes back, indeed, to 1820, when the General Conference of the Methodist Church, meeting in Baltimore, adopted resolutions declaring That it be, and is hereby recommended to all annual conferences, to establish, as soon as practicable, literary institutions, under their own control, in such a way and manner as they may think proper and That it be the special duty of the episcopacy to use their influence to carry the above resolution into effect, by recommending the subject to each annual conference.¹ At the meeting of 1824, also held in Baltimore, the Conference gave approval and support to the action taken in 1820, recommending that each annual conference, not having a seminary of learning, use its utmost exertion to effect such an establishment.²

The Virginia Annual Conference in 1825 took cognizance of the foregoing recommendation and began to make plans for setting up a college within its bounds. Possibilities were canvassed and plans carried forward from year to year by various committees which duly presented their findings and recommendations at the annual meetings of the Conference. At the meeting of 1827 a constitution for the proposed college was reported to the Conference and, after some amendment, was given official approval. At the same meeting a resolution was adopted providing that each member of the Conference should take a subscription paper and use his influence and best exertions to obtain subscriptions for the benefit of the College contemplated to be founded within the bounds of this Conference.³

In 1829 a site at or near Boydton, Mecklenburg County, Virginia, was recommended. A group of Mecklenburg citizens had offered land that might be purchased for a small sum and subscriptions amounting to $10,000 on condition that the College be built at Boydton.⁴ Commenting on the choice of this location, Captain Richard Irby, historian of Randolph-Macon College, says that it was probably made mainly through the influence of Rev. Hezekiah G. Leigh, the prime mover in the College enterprise, and Howell Taylor, a very influential Methodist of the county, together with Hon. William O. Goode and Col. William Townes, men of great popularity.⁵ Placed there, the College would have the advantage of being near the border between Virginia and North Carolina in what seems to have been a region of genial prosperity. The county of Mecklenburg, writes Captain Irby, was one of the largest and wealthiest in the State, and its people and the people of the adjoining counties of North Carolina were friendly and homogeneous.⁶

The Conference approved the recommended site and authorized the committee in charge to apply to the General Assembly of Virginia for a charter.⁷ Action was taken toward that end, and the bill of incorporation was started on its course through the Assembly on January 13, 1830, when Mr. Rives of Campbell offered in the House of Delegates a motion That leave be given to bring in a bill to incorporate trustees of a literary institution to be called Henry and Macon College, and located at the village of Boydton, in the county of Mecklenburg. This motion having been passed, Messrs. Goode, Rives of Campbell, Garland of Nelson, Campbell of Nottoway, Alexander of Mecklenburg, Johnson, Trotter, and Brown of Harrison were appointed to prepare and bring in the bill.⁸ On Friday, January 15, Mr. Goode, who had been chosen as a member of the prospective board of trustees, presented the measure, which was then laid on the table. Upon motion of Mr. Goode it was taken up on January 18, 1830, and, after being read the first and second times, was ordered to be recommitted.⁹ On January 21 Mr. Goode reported with a substitute, a bill, to incorporate the Trustees of Henry and Macon College, the Henry mentioned presumably being Patrick Henry. Though the text of the bill in its various stages is not available, the substitute seems to have removed a provision fixing forever the site of the college at or near Boydton.¹⁰ The substitute was laid upon the table but later (evidently after having had a first and a second reading) was ordered to be engrossed and read a third time. For Friday, January 22, 1830, the following entry appears in the Journal of the House of Delegates:

An engrossed bill, to incorporate the trustees of Henry and Macon College was read a third time, and sundry blanks therein were filled; whereupon a clause by way of a ryder, was offered thereto by Mr. Atkinson of Isle of Wight, which was read the first and second times, engrossed and read a third time:

Resolved, That the bill (with the ryder) do pass, and (the title being amended on motion of Mr. Alexander of Mecklenburg,) that the title be an act to incorporate the trustees of Randolph Macon College.¹¹

The ryder offered by Mr. Atkinson of Isle of Wight and incorporated in the bill as Clause 15 was as follows:

And be it further enacted: That nothing herein contained shall be so construed as at any time to authorize the establishment of a theological professorship in the said College.¹²

The bill with the ryder was passed and sent to the Senate, but not until after a sharp controversy on the issue of denominational control. Two objections were brought forward: that the trustees might be intending to establish a theological institution, and that ill effects were likely to be produced by having the majority of the trustees members of one church. The rider, after it had been added, seemed to meet the first objection. On the second point both Mr. Goode and Mr. James Garland spoke. To the question whether there was a single minister of the Gospel named as a Trustee, who was not of a particular denomination of Christians; and whether a majority of the Trustees were not of that persuasion, (the Methodists), Mr. Goode answered that although he did not know the faith of all the Trustees, there were several not of the denomination to which reference had been made and that some of them belonged to the Episcopal Church. Mr. Garland argued eloquently in favor of the bill. He said that it represented no intention to connect Church and State or to found a theological institution. Yet he inquired whether the legislators would go so far as to prohibit the establishment of any institution which was to have as its head a member of a particular church. He suggested that there were probably forty out of forty-seven colleges in the United States with ministers as heads and asked whether that state of affairs had produced any undesirable results. He made further inquiry as to whether persons who had given nothing to the proposed institution or those who had made contributions to it had the better right to name the trustees. He said that these people had contributed their money to a Literary Institution, without having any desire of teaching Religion, not even squinting at Theology, and therefore, they had a right to expect to administer its concerns. But if the Legislature were so apprehensive of its running into a Theological Institution, why could they not provide that its charter should be forfeited, in case such an attempt were made? He said he himself was made a Trustee under this bill; and for one he declared he did not belong to the Church for which this Institution was said to be erected.¹³

When the bill with its rider was passed, there were 106 affirmative votes. Since the negative votes were not counted, there must have been very few.¹⁴ According to a brief editorial in the Richmond Enquirer of January 23, 1830, the strong vote in favor of the measure was to be attributed to the efficacy of the rider added upon the motion of Mr. Atkinson. There is little risk in asserting, the editorial concludes, that without that ryder, (for cutting off the institution from all Theological Professorships) the bill would not have received the sanction of the House of Delegates.¹⁵

In the Senate the bill also encountered some opposition and was somewhat amended but was passed with nineteen affirmative and three negative votes on February 2, 1830.¹⁶ The two amendments added by the upper house provided that the president and trustees of the Boydton Academies might, if they wished, convey to the College the lots and houses owned by them and that the Randolph-Macon Board of Trustees should make an annual report of the general condition of the College to the President and Director of the Literary Fund to be by them communicated to the General Assembly.¹⁷ The House of Delegates concurred in these amendments and the bill of incorporation became a law on February 3, 1830. The text of the act, written in the court hand of the day, was recorded on parchment in the Enrolled Bills of 1829-30 and was printed in the Acts of the Assembly for the same year.¹⁸

In the hundred and twenty years that have passed since February 3, 1830, the act of incorporation has been amended from time to time, but it is still the basic charter under which the Randolph-Macon institutions are operated. The most notable amendments have been the dropping of the sections forbidding the establishment of a theological professorship and requiring annual reports to the directors of the State Literary Fund, the amendment of July 9, 1870, ratifying the removal of the College from Boydton to Ashland, and the previously mentioned addition of 1890, authorizing expansion.¹⁹

The trustees incorporated by the act were thirty in number, though that number was not specified as necessarily permanent; the minimum was to be twenty-four, the maximum forty. They were incorporated, with their successors, to be a body politic and corporate by the name of the ‘Trustees of Randolph Macon College,’ who shall have a perpetual succession and a common seal, and by the name aforesaid, they and their successors shall be capable in law to possess, purchase, receive and retain to them and their successors forever, any lands, tenements, rents, goods, and chattels or interests of any kind whatsoever, which may have been already given, or may hereafter be given, or by them purchased for the use of said College; to dispose of the same in any way whatsoever they shall adjudge most useful to the interests and legal purposes of the institution; and by the same name to sue and implead, be sued and impleaded, answer and be answered, in all courts of law and equity; and under their common seal to make and establish, from time to time, such by laws, rules and ordinances, not contrary to the laws and Constitution of this Commonwealth, as shall by them be thought essential to the good order and government of the professors, masters and students of said College.²⁰

A goodly proportion of the trustees named in the charter had been active throughout the earlier stages of preparing for the establishment of the College. Both the Conference committees and the local citizens were well represented. The entire list, with the names as they appear in the official handwritten text of the act of incorporation, is as follows: Hezekiah Leigh, John Early, Edward Cannon, W. A. Smith, William J. Waller, Thomas Crowder, Moses Brock, James Boyd, William Hammett, Caleb Leach, Mathew M. Dance, Lewis Skidmore, Augustine Claiborne, Ethelbert Drake, Henry Fitts, John Nutall, James Wyche, John P. Harrison, Greenville Penn, Walker Timberlake, John G. Claiborne, Howel Taylor, James Smith, Joel Blackwell, John Y. Mason, James Garland, Richard G. Morris, John W. Lewis, William O. Goode, and Nathaniel Alexander.²¹

According to Captain Irby, all these trustees were men of mark in their callings.²² At least four of them were at that time members of the General Assembly of Virginia: John Y. Mason, William O. Goode, who had introduced the bill of incorporation and had defended it against objections that arose, James Garland, who had spoken earnestly in its favor, and Nathaniel Alexander, who had offered the amendment changing the name of the College from Henry and Macon to Randolph Macon. (The name was not hyphenated then nor until the latter years of the nineteenth century.) Of these four, Colonel Alexander is described as a wealthy planter and a man of fine education who represented his county in the Legislature more than once.²³ The other three were for several terms members of the United States House of Representatives, and Judge Mason was appointed Secretary of the Navy by President Tyler in 1844, was Attorney General for more than a year (1845-46) in President Polk’s administration, succeeded Bancroft as Secretary of the Navy in 1846, and had charge of Naval affairs during the Mexican War. At the time of his death, 1859, he was in France as envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary.²⁴ Judge Garland is of special interest because he spent the latter half of his life as a resident of Lynchburg, where he served as judge of the Corporation Court for nineteen years.²⁵ John W. Lewis, who was to be the first treasurer of the Board of Trustees, was a lawyer of prominence.²⁶ Especially prominent churchmen were the first president of the Board, the Reverend John Early, later a bishop living in Lynchburg, the Reverend William A. Smith, the most successful antebellum president of the College, and the Reverend Hezekiah G. Leigh, always active in work for Randolph-Macon and in Conference councils.²⁷

It is noteworthy that of the thirty trustees named in the act of incorporation, there were five who were not Methodists,²⁸ namely, John Y. Mason, William O. Goode, Nathaniel Alexander, John W. Lewis, and James Garland. In speaking of the non-Methodist trustees, Captain Irby notes their membership on the Board as showing that sectarian bigotry was not so strong in olden times as some have been inclined to believe.²⁹ One of these men, John W. Lewis, was made treasurer of the Board and remained in that position until his death in 1834 or 1835.³⁰ Furthermore, although the College was established through the instrumentality of the Virginia Conference of the Methodist Church, there is in the charter no mention of that church or conference. There is no requirement that the Trustees, or any proportion of them, be members of the Methodist, or of any other, church. The late President R. E. Blackwell, in an unpublished paper,³¹ accounts for this fact by the persisting strength of Jeffersonian influence against the establishing of any connection between Church and State. The controversy in the House of Delegates shows, indeed, how strong that influence was. It will be remembered that Mr. Garland, in speaking for the passage of the bill of incorporation, had been careful to point out that the proponents of the measure had no intention of linking Church and State in the founding of the proposed college. The previously cited editorial, New College, in the Richmond Enquirer of January 23, 1830, says, It [the new college] has received the warmest support from the Methodist Conference—but its friends disclaim all sort of scholastic connection with that society....

In view of the objections raised against denominational control it seems fortunate that no reference had been made in the text of the charter to church affiliation. Dr. Blackwell said The charter was a free charter with no mention of the Methodist Church. He then drew a parallel from the experience of Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, which he said had the same kind of charter by reason of Jeffersonian influence.³² It may well be, however, that the sponsoring conference wished to avoid all possibility of a narrow type of denominationalism and therefore chose to make the charter a thoroughly liberal one. Thus Randolph-Macon College and, later, the Randolph-Macon System of colleges and preparatory schools were, and continue to be, legally owned and operated, without stockholders or profits, by their incorporated Trustees, not by the Methodist Church or Conference.

A further circumstance of interest, and perhaps an additional evidence of a liberal outlook, is that the name of the College was drawn neither from the annals of Methodism nor from the roster of benefactors. So far as the records show, neither John Randolph of Roanoke nor Senator Nathaniel Macon of Warrenton, North Carolina, contributed in money or friendship to the college at Boydton, though the late Dr. William E. Dodd, in his biography of Macon, says that Warrenton tradition indicates that Macon appreciated the honor conferred upon him by the Trustees.³³ Both Randolph and Macon were men of integrity and of religious faith, but it seems that neither of them could have been designated as a conventional churchman. According to Dr. Dodd, Macon, though a man much interested in religion and one professed of the Baptist persuasion was not a member of any church.³⁴ Randolph, who was an Anglican, was long estranged from the church, but returned to it after experiencing a religious conversion in 1818.³⁵

The question naturally arises as to why Randolph’s name had been substituted at the last minute for Henry’s. Dr. Blackwell thought that the object was to make friends for the bill of incorporation since John Randolph of Roanoke was the greatest political influence in the state at that time.³⁶ The fact that Randolph and Macon were close friends and that they lived in counties adjoining Mecklenburg probably had much to do with the change.

Captain Irby, Dr. Dodd, and others have explained the selection of name by a prevalent fashion of naming colleges for statesmen and famous personages. The examples of William and Mary, Hampden-Sydney, and Washington College (Washington and Lee University) are cited. Captain Irby goes on to say, Following the precedents set by these colleges, the names then most prominent in Virginia and North Carolina were selected, John Randolph, of Roanoke, and Nathaniel Macon, one living on the south side of the Roanoke River and the other on the north side.³⁷ Dr. Dodd mentions the fact that Boydton was about half way between the homes of Macon and Randolph. However the name was chosen, it has now become well loved by thousands of men and women throughout the United States and by a good many in foreign countries.

Thus it was that between January 13 and February 3, 1830, there came into being the charter on which Randolph-Macon Woman’s College was founded some sixty years later. At the same time the name Randolph Macon (not then hyphenated) was adopted. Six years afterward the Board of Trustees adopted a seal³⁸ bearing a somewhat conventionalized representation of the first College building, and that seal was later to become the official emblem of Randolph-Macon Woman’s College as well as of the other Randolph-Macon institutions. The charter, the name, the seal, a church affiliation free from sectarianism—these are the concrete elements of the Woman’s College heritage that may be traced back to Randolph-Macon beginnings. But the principles and the experience of the earlier college have also entered into that heritage.

As one looks back over the years and considers the steadiness of purpose, the faith, the tireless effort requisite for building with scant material resources an enduring educational foundation, one can but feel a deep admiration for all who worked together in establishing Randolph-Macon College, in maintaining it even through its most difficult periods, and in bringing it to its present honorable and useful position as a small but sound and vigorous institution of higher learning. Its history gives it a confidence that comes from healthy and well-rooted growth. A large endowment naturally affords a sense of security, but it may be that great devotion on the part of intelligent persons who love a college, who believe in it with all the strength of their minds, and who dedicate to it their best endeavors is an even better guarantee of permanence. Such a guarantee was inherited from the past by Randolph-Macon Woman’s College. When that college was founded in the early nineties with an initial endowment of $100,000 and total assets valued at about $227,000,³⁹ it had far greater resources than those commanded in 1830 by the older institution. But without the long and resolute history of the original college behind him, Dr. William Waugh Smith might never have had the courage to undertake his great constructive enterprise. But for the success that had been attained in the building of Randolph-Macon College, the Board of Trustees might not have felt justified in supporting him.

The maintaining of Randolph-Macon College had demanded great faith and constancy of purpose in the face of changing circumstance. Fortunately its guardians had been like the Apostle Paul in knowing how both to abound and to suffer need. Financial stringency had faced them about 1846,⁴⁰ but in the decade of the 1850’s, they had enjoyed prosperity. Colonel William Townes, writing to James Maclin in 1851, said, The college from almost having gone down is now in a more prosperous condition than it ever was and stated that it had say Sixty Thousand dollars at interest to endow professorships, and a larger number of students than it ever had....⁴¹ In the year 1858, under the presidency of Dr. William A. Smith, the endowment was brought up to $100,000, which, according to Captain Irby, was the largest endowment ever contributed by public subscription to any college in Virginia or in the South, up to that date.⁴² What then seemed a phenomenal success in thus adding to the endowment was celebrated by an enthusiastic alumni reunion in June, 1859. But two years later the War between the States broke out. Even in the face of this cataclysm, the College continued its work until February of 1863, at which time it closed temporarily.⁴³

When the College reopened in the fall of 1866 for its first postwar session, it was confronted with a new difficulty. The question had arisen as to whether there might be found some more accessible and generally favorable location than Boydton, which was then a day’s journey from a railroad. The advantage of a site near the North Carolina border had been offset by the establishing of Trinity College in 1859 as an institution affiliated with the Methodist Church.⁴⁴ As early as November, 1863, the Virginia Conference, meeting in Richmond, had adopted a resolution looking toward the transfer of the College to another location and calling attention to advantages that might be gained by moving it to Lynchburg.⁴⁵ But the Boydton trustees who had been such loyal supporters of Randolph-Macon from its very inception—Colonel William Townes, Judge E. R. Chambers, and others—were bitterly opposed to a change of location.⁴⁶

The College continued at Boydton for two sessions, but in the summer of 1868 the majority of the Trustees came to the decision that a new location was essential to the prosperity of the institution. Ashland, Virginia, was selected.⁴⁷ It was not far from the bounds of the Baltimore Conference, which in 1867 had joined the Virginia Conference as a co-sponsor of Randolph-Macon. The buildings formerly used by the Ashland Hotel and Mineral Wells Company for its summer resort were available. These could be adapted to academic purposes until more suitable quarters could be built. The Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad also offered valuable aid and gifts of land.⁴⁸ The move was made, but it occasioned bitterness and rather protracted litigation on the part of the minority group of the Board.⁴⁹ Distressing as this division in its governing body was, the College soon made Ashland its home and has continued there since 1868. It celebrated its centenary in 1930 under the presidency of its greatly beloved Dr. Robert Emory Blackwell, and in 1950 it has traversed two decades of its second hundred years. With an endowment much increased through gifts from the Methodist Church, the alumni, and other friends, it is making great progress under the leadership of President J. Earl Moreland.⁵⁰ The resolution with which its trustees have maintained it and have indeed twice builded it is the same spirit that animated its seventh president, Dr. William Waugh Smith, when he set about founding Randolph-Macon Woman’s College.

Dr. Smith may well have drawn inspiration from the college that he had known as student, professor, and president. Though he had been associated with Randolph-Macon only after its being transferred to Ashland, he must have been acquainted with its earlier academic history as well. The third president of Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, too, Dr. D. R. Anderson, and many of its greatest teachers received their undergraduate training at the college in Ashland and thus profited by the characteristic standards and ideas that it had inherited and developed from the formative years at Boydton.

The Randolph-Macon faculty seems to have been from the first an enterprising group alert to the claims of scholarship. Especially noteworthy was the contribution to learning made by Professor Edward Dromgoole Sims, a graduate of the University of North Carolina and the first professor of languages at Randolph-Macon. Believing that English should be taught with the same care and precision as that given to the classical languages, he introduced such a mode of instruction. He obtained from the Board a leave of absence for European study, which he devoted to English philology. Professor David Duncan was brought into the faculty as professor of ancient languages and Mr. Sims was able, upon his return from Europe, to give his time to the teaching of English. He taught with enthusiasm and resourcefulness. Unable to procure textbooks in Anglo-Saxon at that date, he managed very well without them, giving notes to the students and writing on the blackboard such exercises as are requisite to proper instruction in a language. His students are said to have remembered long their work with him, though at the time they were not aware of its unique character. It was undoubtedly due to his influence that the Trustees established in 1836 a professorship in English literature and thus made their college a pioneer in English studies in the United States.⁵¹

The separate Chair of English seems to have been set aside a few years after Professor Sims’ resignation in 1842, but it was re-established independently about 1870 by Dr. Thomas R. Price, who had been elected to the Randolph-Macon faculty as professor of ancient languages in 1868. Struck by his students’ ignorance of their own language, he relinquished the teaching of Latin and, in addition to giving instruction in Greek, set up a four-years’ college course in English.⁵² In doing so he had not only the approval but the encouragement of President James A. Duncan and the Board of Trustees. In later years, after having become professor of English at Columbia University in 1882, he wrote of the step taken by the Randolph-Macon College authorities in establishing a separate school of English as the boldest and wisest move in education that had occurred in his time and as a measure entirely original with them.⁵³ It was not until 1882 that a school of English was established at the University of Virginia, and Dr. Price, who had gone to the University in 1876 as professor of Greek, had lent his aid to the undertaking there. Mr. Philip A. Bruce, in his history of the University, testifies to Dr. Price’s work and reputation, saying that he was one of the first to insist that English studies should, in the scheme of liberal education, be placed on a footing of equality with the Latin and Greek languages and that his students had spread the principle derived from his brilliant leadership at Ashland.⁵⁴ Professor Joseph Lamb Armstrong, first head of the English Department at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, had been one of those students. Like some others who had come under Dr. Price’s influence, he had gone to the University of Leipzig for further philological study.

The impetus given to English studies is perhaps Randolph-Macon’s greatest nineteenth-century achievement in scholarship. But many other faculty members as well as those concerned with this advance in education worked together in building a curriculum that was marked by emphasis on the humanities and mathematics, by the use of the laboratory method in science, and by the recognition of physical education as an integral part of a liberal arts training. The influence of these principles was felt later at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College.

Another Randolph-Macon principle that can be traced very far back is the belief that the students are active, adult partners with the faculty and the administration in the building of a college. An item from the Trustees’ Minutes of June, 1837, gives interesting support to this thesis. There one learns that in the course of the preceding session a called meeting of the Board had been held at the suggestion of the faculty that it would be impossible to give satisfaction to the Senior Class in the studies of Magnetism, Optics, Electro-Magnetism, and Astronomy, without the purchase of proper instruments for the elucidation of these subjects. . . . An appropriation of $500 to $600 had been made. Though that amount was not immediately available from the College funds, Captain Beverly Sydnor, then treasurer of the Board, had kindly advanced it.⁵⁵ Here, then, is an instance of a co-operation that may be regarded as characteristic of Randolph-Macon, with students, faculty, trustees, and individual trustee working together in the interest of scholarship.

The students made important contributions to the College through their literary societies: the Washington, organized in February, 1833, and the Franklin (at first named the Union but rechristened at its second meeting), organized the following September.⁵⁶ For a long period their membership included all the students in college, and almost immediately after the opening of Randolph-Macon Woman’s College corresponding societies were installed there.⁵⁷

The most ambitious undertaking of the literary societies at the older college was the erection of the first permanent building on the Ashland campus and, according to the Randolph-Macon historian, the first brick building in the town of Ashland.⁵⁸ Used to house the libraries of the Societies and to provide rooms for their meetings, this structure later became the Administration Building of the College and anchored the College to its present campus, though other permanent locations in Ashland had been previously considered.⁵⁹ It is said to have been planned by the young men, let to contract by them, and paid for by them (in most part). Those mentioned by Captain Irby as having done the main work in raising the funds were Charles Carroll of North Carolina and H. C. Paulett of Virginia on the part of the Washington Society and William W. Smith and Jordan W. Lambert from the Franklin.⁶⁰ The success of this enterprise in which he had taken so important a role may have been in part responsible for Dr. Smith’s future confidence in the ability and trustworthiness of students—a factor that was to be of much import to the two Randolph-Macon colleges of which he became president. At both he introduced the honor system and student government.⁶¹

The line of presidents at Randolph-Macon College, beginning