Higher education in Tennessee

Front matter

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Chapter II. — University of Nashville. Davidson Academy 20

Cnmberland College - 23

Philip Lindsley 25

University of Nashville 31

List of professors^ with length of service, fi:om 1808 to 1850 35

Relations of the State to the university 36

The Congressional land grant and the finances of the university 38

Besignation of Dr. Lindsley 40

Suspension of the university 41

Period from 1850 to 1861 41

The literary department again 45

J. Berrien Lindsley becomes chancellor of the university 47

Literary department becomes a milkary college 47

Montgomery Bell Academy 48

The civil war 49

After the war 50

Administration of Gens. E. Kirby Smith and Bushrod R. Johnson 50

Medical department of the University of Nashville becomes the medical department of the University of Nashville and of Vanderbilt University 52

Peabody Normal College 53

University of Nashville and the Peabody fund 53

The normal school the work of three distinct bodies 55

The normal school opened 56

Peabody scholarships 56

Removal of the normal college agitated 58

Tennessee makes her first appropriation to the normal college 59

W. H. Payne becomes president of the college and chancellor of the university 59

Aim and character of the Peabody Normal 60

Peabody Normal the probable heir of the Peabody fund 61

Chapter III. — The University of Tennessee. By Prof. T. C. Karns, M. A. Blount College 63

East Tennessee College 64

East Tennessee University 66

After the war 68

Medical and dental departments 81

4 CONTENTS-

Degrees in 1879 83

Changes ^ 84

Sammer normal 85

Distinctions and honors 85

Farm experiments 86

Experiment station 86

Dr. Humes resigns 87

Shopwork 88

New president 88

New experiment station 89

Reorganization of 1888 90

Department of law 99

Yonng Men's Christian Association 99

Scholarships 102

Endowment, property, and income 102

Authorship 103

Science Hall 103

Instruction of colored students 103

Miscellaneous 105

Conclusion 105

Chapter IV. — Vanderbilt University. Central University of the Methodist Episcopal Church South 107

Shelby Medical College 108

Revival of the university movement after the war 109

The Memphis convention 110

Organization of the board of trust 112

Controversy between Bishops Pierce and MoTyeire 113

Cooperation of the college of bishops 114

Attempt and failure to raise $500,000 114

Cornelius Vanderbilt and Vanderbilt University 115

Medical department ; opening of the law department 118

Preparations for the opening of the academic and biblical departments 120

Dedication and inauguration of the university 122

Scheme of studies and degrees 122

Subcollegiate classes 125

Creation and history of the dental department 125

Creation and history of the department of pharmacy 126

History of the medical department since 1874 128

History of the law department since 1875 129

History of the biblical department 130

History of the engineering department 134

The board of trust— important changes in its constitution and organization . . 138

Death of President McTyeire and election of his successor 140

Sketch of Bishop McTyeire 141

Endowment, revenue, and plant 143

Abolition of subcollegiate classes and elevation of standard of admission 146

Reconstruction of scheme of studies and degrees, and distinct separation of

college and university instruction 148

College degrees 149

University degrees 166

Honorary degrees «. 167

Number of academic degrees confeired ••••••••«• - » f****^ ^*^

CONTENTS. 5

Pago.

Attendance for the university as a whole, and for the academic department . . 158

The Vanderbilt as a university 159

University students 161

The fellowship system .-. 161

Honors, prizes, scholarships, and examinations 163

The honor system 165

Government of students 166

Student societies, organizations, and publications 167

Coeducation of the sexes 171

Influence of church connections 172

Academic faculty 172

Writings of Vanderbilt professors 174

Edward Emerson Barnard, the astronomer 181

Relative places of board of trust, chancellor, and faculty in the government of

the university 183

Resignation of Chancellor Garland 183

Chapter V. — Cumberland University. Cumberland College 186

Cumberland University opened 186

Limited means of the university 187

Preparatory department 187

Constitution of the board of trust 188

Changes in presidency and faculty ; sketches of professors 188

Depression; revival 189

Creation of departments of engineering and theology 189

College building enlarged 190

The civil war 4 191

University reopened 191

President McDonnold 192

Chancellor Nathan Green, jr 193

Changes in the theological department 194

Endowment 194

Examinations, attendance, graduates 195

Business college and telegraph institute 195

Medical department 195

Law school 195

Law school self-supporting , 196

Methods of instruction ; course of study 196

Enlargement of law faculty 197

Largest law school in the United States ^ 198

High professional and moral character of law faculty ; sketches of professors- . 198

Civil war closes law school ; reopened 199

Death of Robert L. Caruthers 200

Present faculty 200

Prominent graduates of Lebanon Law School 200

Chapter IX. — Other Colleges for Males or for Both Sexes. Washington College

First literary institution in the Mississippi Valley j Samuel Doak, "the

Apostle of Learning and Religion in the West " 226

Martin Academy, Washington College 227

Dr. Doak leaves Washington College 227

Subsequent history 228

Greeneville and Tusculum College 229

Mary ville College 231

Southern and Western Theological Seminary 231

Jackson College 235

Franklin College 236

Hiwassee College 236

Bethel College 237

Carson and Newman College 237

Lookout Mountain Edncational Institution 238

U. S. Grant University 239

King College 242

Christian Brothers' College 242

Winchester Normal 243

Milligan College 243

Chapter X. — Colleges for Women. Nashville Female Academy . 245

Columbia Female Institute & 246

Memphis Conference Female Institute 247

T^ S^harp College 247 caifT£irz&

Rogersville Synodical College 249

Saint Agnes' Academy 249

Camborland Female College .,. 250

Columbia Atliensenm , 250

Brownsville Female College .^ 251/

Sonle College 253

Tifflinessee Female College 253

Saint Cecilia Academy 254

Ward's Semijiary . : 254

Wealeyan Female College 2^

Marton Female College [ 2p5

Clara Conway Institute .' 257

Higbee School 258

Nashville College for Young Ladies 258

Centenary College 259

Belmont College 260

Chaptku XI. — Colleges for Negroes.

Fisk University

Work of American Missionary Association. First school among the

Negroes - 261

Opening of the Fisk 262

Teachers go out from Fisk 262

A. K. Spence becomes president 263

Jubilee singers 263

Jubilee Hall 264

E. M. Cravath becomes president 265

Livingstone Hall 265

Departments and courses 266

Physical and industrial training 266

State and State normal students 267

Attendance— graduates 267

Financial 268

Evangelization of Africa 268

Central Tennessee College —

Founding 269

Normal and theological departments organized 270

Graduates — courses 271

The Meharry medical, dental, and pharmaceutical dei^artiuents 271

Law department 273

Manual training and industrial education 273

Knoxville College :

Founding, etc 274

Industrial education 275

Colored department of the University of Tennessee 276

Roger Williams University 278

Hoffman Hall 280

8 CONTENTS,

Chapter XII.— The Pubuc School System of Tennessee, by Thaddeus P. Thomas, m. a

Pago.

Failure to recognize importance of public schools 282

Public lands in Tennessee ceded to the State 282

The war 283

The school fund 285

Amendment of 1891 285

Statistics 286

Teachers' institutes 287

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PaesL University of Tennessee— Summer and winter views of the university. .Frontispiece.

Peabody Normal College — ^Main building 54

Wintbrop Model School 58

Lindsley Hall 58

University of Tennessee — Botanical Laboratory 76

Quantitative Chemical Laboratory 76

Blacksmith shop 86

Wood- working machine 86

Mechanical building 90

Agricultural and Experiment Station building 90

Free-hand drawing room 96

Reading room 96

Battalion of cadets '. 100

Y. M. C. A. building (front view) 100

Gymnasium 100

Science hall 102

East view of Science Hall and view of Y. M. C. A. building 102

Vanderbilt University — Main building 116

Wesley Hall 130

Professor's residence .-% 130

Mechanical Hall 136

Observatory 136

Science Hall 144

Gymnasium 144

Cumberland University Building (burned in 1864) 190

Caruthers Hall 194

University of the South, University avenue 204

St. Luke's Hall (the theological building) 204

Convocation House 206

'*Above the Clouds" 206

The Hodgson Library 210

Walsh Memorial Hall 212

Thompson Hall (the medical building) ^ 212

Southwestern Presbyterian University 218

U. S. Grant University — Science Hall 240

Theological Building 242

Columbia Female Institute 246

Columbia Athenaeum 250

Higbee School, Memphis 256

Nashville College for Young Ladies 258

Fisk University — Fisk Memorial Chapel 262

Jubilee Hall :.... 266

Livingstone Hall 266

Theological Hall 268

Central Tennessee College — Meharry Dental and Pharmaceutical Schools 270

Meharry Medical College 270

Machine shops 274

Interior view of machine shops 274

Boger Williams University 278

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

Department of the Interior,

Bureau of Education, Washingtonj D. 0., January 5, 1893.

Sir : The accompanying monograph, on higher education iu Tennessee is one of the series of monographs on education in the various States, edited by Dr. Herbert B. Adams and published by the Bureau of Education. The author is Dr. L. S. Merriam, lately a student and fellow in Johns Hopkins University. For a r^sum6 of higher education in Tennessee I refer you to Chapter I, pages 1-11. The monograph, besides treating of higher education proper, contains also a chapter on the public school system of Tennessee, written by Mr. T. P. Thomas. I respectfully recommend that this monograph be published

at the earliest possible date.

W. T. Harris,

Commissioner, Hon. John W. [NToble,

Secretary of the Interior,

AUTHOR'S PREFATORY NOTE.

I take advantage of this opportunity to express my sense of obliga* tion to Mr, T. C. Karns, professor in the University of Tennessee j Mr. W. P. Trent, professor in the University of the South, and Mr. T. P. Thomas, fellow in Vanderbilt University, for preparing, respectively, the chapters on the University of Tennessee, the University of the South, and the Public School System of Tennessee.

It would be impossible to thank by name all who have rendered assistance or furnished information in the preparation of this monograph. But for the kindly cooperation of these many friends, mostly college officers, it could not have been written. I shall, however, mention two gentlemen by name, Dr. J. Berrien Lindsley, ex-chancellor of the University of Nashville, and Dr. W. M. Baskerville, professor in Vanderbilt University. Dr. Lindsley put at my disposal his very valuable collection of materials on the history of the University of Nashville, besides affording other assistance, and Dr. Baskerville read and corrected my MS. on Vanderbilt University.

For purposes of convenience, bibliographies are appended to the histories of their corresponding institutions instead of being collected in one place at the end of the volume. College anliouncements and registers are not mentioned, as their use may in general be taken for granted. Neither, of course, are mentioned such sources of information as epistolary correspondence or personal interviews.

L. S. Merriam.

Johns Hopkins University,

December 12. 1891.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR.

•

Lucius Salisbury Merriam, the author of the folio wiug monograph, was bom January 20, 1867. He was drowned in Cayuga Lake, near Ithaca, N. Y., November 18, 1893. The proof sheets of this report were read by him early in the preceding summer. His untimely death was widely mourned by friends and scholars throughout the country, in which he was already favorably known by reason of his able contributions to economic science.

He was educated in the high school at Chattanooga, Tenn. ; at Vanderbilt University, where he was graduated in 1889; and at the Johns Hopkins University, where he took the degree of doctor of philosophy in June, 1893. Before coming to Baltimore he held a graduate fellowship at his alma maier from 1889 to 1890. When Prof. E. W. Bemis was called from Vanderbilt, in 1892, to the University of Chicago, Merriam was invited to take the chair of economics at Nashville, but he determined to finish his course of graduate study. He held a fellowship in political economy at the Johns Hopkins University from 1892 to 1893. He was regarded by his friends and instructors as one of the most talented, critical, and promising students of economics at the Johns Hopkins University.

While in Baltimore he prepared several scholarly papers for publication : (1) Social Legislation in the United States in 1889 and 1890 (Economic Review, April, 1891) ; (2) The Appointment of a Receiver for the City of Nashville in 1869 (American Law Review, May- June, 1891); (3) The Theory of Final Utility in its Relation to the Standard of Deferred Payments (Annals of the American Academy, January, 1893) ; (4) History of Higher Education in Tennessee (U. S. Bureau of Education, 1893).

Of all these papers the present study is probably the most important. It will undoubtedly attract wide attention and prove of great practical value. It is critical and scholarly, like everything which Merriam wrote, and represents the earnest endeavor of an honest student to tell the truth regarding the educational history of Tennessee. There was no unfriendly feeling on Merriam's part toward the higher educational institutions of his State. He was striving for the best interests of higher and secondary education in Tennessee, to which State he was twice invited to return as a professor of history and economics. He was held in the highest esteem at Vanderbilt University and at the University of Tennessee. He accepted an attractive call to teach his own special subjects at Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y., where, in a few weeks, he won the confidence of the faculty and the admiration of his students. '

In an academic memorial of Merriam, published in the Johns Hopkins University Studies in January-February, 1894, President Schurman, of Cornell University, said of this young Tennesseean: '*I got the impression of a man of earnest purpose, serious character, and transparent honesty." Prof. J. W. Jenks, of Cornell, said; ^' I fully agree that in losing him we hav^e lost one of the ablest and most promising of the younger economists of the country.'' Dr. Sidney Sherwood, one of Merriam's instructor's at the Johns Hopkins University, said : *^ I believe he would have achieved much toward the establishment of the system of economic theory looked for by the next generation ; a system that is based on economic life and not on metaphysics. His accomplished work, however small in amount, goes to confirm this belief." Prof. John B. Clark, another of Merriam's instructors in Baltimore, said: ^'I can not even try to describe the charm that his personality had for me.

16 HIGH£R EDUCATION IN TENNESSEE.

* * * Hemadetheimpressionof a man who was destined to be a leader of thought. Originality, analytical power, an accurate judgment, and moral oamestness were hit characteridtics. He would have entered unexplored fields of research/'

Although Merriam's life was suddenly cut short, he made a deep impression upoB his friends and pupils in the North as well as at the South. He will be remembered by all who knew him as a young Tennesseean of noble charater, fine scholarship, and high aims. His devotion to truth for its own sake was perhaps his most conspicuous trait.

The young woman who was drowned with Merriam in Cayuga Lake, at Ithaca, from the capsizing of a row boat, was also a rare type of humanity. She was a South Carolina girl from Laurens County, who had earned her own way from her father's plantation through school and college at Columbia and into the law department of Cornell University. As a school teacher in her native State she had obtained the means of educating a younger sister. By public authority in South Carolina she had been engaged to prepare a report on the industrial education of women. Miss Yeargm, like Dr. Merriam, had finished her educational work, and their labors will doubtless enter into the educational life of the New South.

Herbert B. Adams,

Editor.

CHAPTER I. GENERAL SURVEY OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN TEliTNES

SEE.

The history of higher edacation in Tennessee is in the main the history of private initiative and activity. Practically all that has been done by Government for colleges and universities has been done by the United States and not by Tennessee herself.^ The State has, however^ acted as agent of the Federal Government whenever it has extended aid to institutions of learning within her borders.

In 1806, conformably to the spirit in which North Carolina had ceded and the United States had accepted the territory afterwards known as Tennessee, Congress appropriated 100,000 acres of public land in Tennessee to two colleges, one to be established in the eastern, the other in the western part of the State. The same act also appropriated 200,000 acres of land for academies and schools of a lower grade. East Tennessee College, at Knoxville, chartered for the purpose and united with BlouDt College, and Cumberland College, at Nashville, chartered on the foundation of Davidson Academy, secured the grants for colleges. But, the State being made the administrator and trustee, these institutions realized little from the bounty of Congress, and that little only after the lapse of many years. In the case of the Federal subsidy to found West Tennessee College the State seems to have transmitted promptly the proceeds of land sales.

The name of the University of Tennessee (East Tennessee College became East Tennessee University in 1840 and the University of Tennessee in 1879) would imply that it was a State institution supported by the State. It makes biennial reports to the State superintendent of public instruction, and it is correlated with the public school system. It is a fact not generally known that in 1822 Cumberland College and East Tennessee College came into possession of 60,000 acres of land through the generosity of the State in relinquishing for twenity-eight years her right to tax other thousands of acres belonging to the University of North Carolina,

Exercising the discretion conferred by the constitution (1870) to exempt from taxation such real, personal, or mixed property " as may be held and used for purposes purely religious, charitable, scientific, literary, or educational," the legislature has exempted "all property belonging to any religious, charitable, scientific, literary, or educational institution and actually used for the purposes for which said institution was created " and " all property belonging to public schools, colleges, academies, and other seminaries of learning.'' ^

• The State has given considerable assistance to normal education. 2 Laws of 1883, chapter 105, paragraph 2. 17

The Peaboily Normal College is unique in being, so to speak, tlie resultant of three forces. It rests on the foundation of the old University of Nashville, enjoying the use of its plant and endowment; and it is further supported and fostered by the State of Tennessee and by the Peabody education fund. That it bids fair to fall heir to that immense fund lends an added interest to the already interesting history of the University of Nashville. For a quarter of a century this institution was raised by Philip Lindsley to a position of paramount influence in Tennessee and the Southwest. Free from the domination of any religious sect and situated in the capital city of the State, at the center of her civil and political life, the University of Nashville stood for Tennessee in her entirety as perhaps no other college has ever done.

Whence have come the funds for the maintenance of colleges and universities! The answer is, chiefly from private purses through tho various Christian denominations. The University of Tennessee, West Tennessee College, and the University of Nashville are the only prominent colleges in the history of the State that are not denomination&L The Baptists have their Carson and Newman College and their Southwestern Baptist University J the Northern Methodists their U. S. Grant University; /the Southern Methodists their Hiwassee College and their Vanderbilt University; the Cumberland Presbyterians their Bethel College and their Cumberland University; the Northern Presbyterians their Greeneville and Tusculum College, their Maryville College^ and their Washington College; the Southern Presbyterians their King College and their Southwestern Presbyterian University; the Episcopalians their University of the South; the Eoman Catholics their Christian Brothers' College, etc. The largest of these church schools are not the result merely of local efibrt, but of the combined efforts of theii" respective churches in several States or parts of several States. Probably a moiety at least of the wealth invested in Tennessee colleges has come from other States. In this regard Tennessee may be called fortunate. The most largely endowed institution in the State, Vanderbilt University, is a notable illustration of this. Established or supported by conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, representing the States of Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama^ and Kentucky, its magnificent foundation was the gift of two citizens of the State of New York.

The negro colleges — fl^sk University, Eoger Williams University, Central Tennessee College, and Knoxville College — were s^ll established by Northern churches at the close of the civil war. They form a most interesting chapter in the history of Tennessee education. The struggles and self-sacrifice of their founjLlers and their ultimate success are colored with somewhat of heroism and romance. The negro can not hold in too high honor these pioneers in the Christianization and education of his race. Fisk University, the highest grade ptirely collegiate institution for negroes in the world, was established by the American Missionary Association of the Congregational Church ; Knoxville Col-

GENERAL SURVEY. 19

lege, which has been made the colored department of the University of Tennessee, was founded by the United Presbyterian Church; Eoger Williams University owes its creation to the American Baptist Home Mission Society, and Central Tennessee College, with its professional departments and its splendid industrial plant, is the work of the Freedmen's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Besides these higher institutions of learning for negroes there are a number of normal and industrial schools of a lower grade which do not fall within the scope of this monograph. The industrial feature is prominent in all the negro schools. The majority of them receive from the John F. Slater fund appropriations in aid of industrial training.

In spite of these adverse conditions the avowedly preparatory school is making headway in Tennessee. The famous Webb school, formerly at Culleoka, now at Bellbuckle, is the forerunner of others that may • ere long boast of equal excellence. In December, 1887, the association of Tennessee colleges and universities was organized, its chief object being to arrive at and maintain a common standard of admission to college. The heads of preparatory schools attend the meetings and join in the deliberations.

Closely connected with the existence of the pseudo college is the evil of indiscriminate conferring of degrees. But the pseudo college is not the only offender. The better class of institutions are some of them so generous with their degrees, at least with their honorary degrees, that academic honors have become a cheap commodity in Tennessee.^

The smaller colleges of the State are almost always open to females as well as males; and of the larger ones, the Peabody Normal College, the U. S, Grant University, and the Southwestern Baptist University admit women.^ But coeducation is not an accepted policy in Tennessee. Of the institutions treated in this monograph the following are coedueational: U. S. Grant University, Southwestern Baptist University, Peabody Kormal College, Bethel College, Carson and Newman College, Winchester Normal, Greeneville and Tusculam College, Mary ville College, Milligau College, Lookout Mountain Educational Institution (diseontinued), Washington College, and all the colleges for negroes.

The war period forms an interregnum; it makes a break in the history of Tennessee education. So bold is the landmark that it might well be used to reckon time from. There was scarcely a college but had to close its doors, some never to open them again. Sometimes everything was swept away; and again only the bare walls were left. The schools that escaped unscathed were few. But what made it especially difficult for the colleges to regain their footing, if indeed they were able to regain it at all, was that the people and the country had suffered as much as themselves. The sources had dried up.

^See ^'Honorary Degrees as Conferred in American Colleges/' a paper read before the National Educational Association, July, 1889, by Charles Forster Smith.

^Som-^ few women may usually be found in one or more classes of the Vanderbilt University, but they are not technically students. See Chapter iv,