History of Wake Forest College, Volume I

694 Pages·2003·7 MB·English

by  George Washington Paschal

Copyright, 1935, by Wake Forest College

Edwards & Broughton Company
Raleigh, N. C.
To The Memory of My Father

RICHARD BRAY PASCHAL
March 3, 1820-December 5, 1870

AND TO THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER

MATILDA SCHMIDT PASCHAL
March 18, 1823-August 8, 1922
OF WHOM TWO SONS, ELEVEN GRANDSONS,
THREE GRANDDAUGHTERS AND FOUR
GREAT-GRANDSONS HAVE WON THE
DEGREES OF WAKE FOREST COLLEGE
PREFACE
When I consulted Dr. R. D. W. Connor, now Chief Archivist of
the National Archives, as to what I should include in a history of
Wake Forest College, he said: "Put in everything; no one will ever
work over again the documents from which you draw your account,
and what you omit will be permanently lost to the history of the
College and the State."
With this admonition in mind I have prepared the present volume,
covering the period from 1834 to 1865. By relegating much matter
to footnotes and adding to the number of pages I have approximated
the ideal; at the same time I have made the work a kind of source
book for the history of the College, often giving reprints of matter
no longer easily accessible.
The reader will observe that I have tried to make this history of
the College a part of the general history of the State and to interpret
its life and work in relation to the political, social, economic,
religious and educational conditions out of which it arose and which
modified its development from year to year. This has made it
necessary often to refer to contemporary events and to parallel
developments in other educational institutions and to introduce an
account of the Associational academies.
Until the eve of the Civil War, Wake Forest had two fields of
operations; one of these was, of course, local; the other, which was
no less important, was among the churches and their members,
where the agents of the institution labored for more than a quarter of
a century to gain for it a support that meant its very life.
Accordingly, I have told of the faithful and long-continued work of
the numerous agents with almost as much circumstance and detail as
of the internal administration and work of the College.
The division on the Literary Societies, covering 110 pages, was an
afterthought, but to me it has proved one of the most interesting
studies of my volume, since with the full records of the Societies
open before me I was introduced as it were into the very company of
the college students of a century ago, felt the contagion of their
enthusiasm, could see what they did and hear what they said, and
vi Preface
learned their hopes and fears, their thoughts and aspirations. Nothing
that concerned them seems mean or trivial.
In connection with the account of the Literary Societies I
have devoted a rather long chapter to the score or more speakers
invited by the Societies to make their Commencement addresses.
Nearly all these were North Carolinians, among the ablest of their
day. To the preparation of their addresses for our educational institu-
tions they devoted their best care and thought. Some are of
exceptional excellence, but whatever their merits or shortcomings
they must be regarded as the best of their kind North Carolina could
produce and deserve consideration as a part of the general literary
history of our State, especially in the history of a college which
called them forth.
While in general I hope my work will be readable, there are
numerous tabulations and lists which are for reference rather than
reading. In making them I have endeavored to be accurate by
checking with every available document. This has cost me an
unbelievable amount of toil, especially on the biographical data in
the tabulations in the chapter on "The College in War."
The arrangement of the material of the volume has given me
considerable trouble; I have made that which on the whole seems to
give the better emphasis and sequence. In the method of treatment
which I have adopted some repetition has been unavoidable. With
more time at my command perhaps I could have made some
improvement, but I have done the greater part of the work while
teaching from fifteen to seventeen hours a week and furnishing
every week about 6,000 words of editorial matter for the Biblical
Recorder.
Wake Forest, North Carolina
May 20, 1935
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I THE INSTITUTE PAGE
I Introductory .......................................................1
II North Carolina Baptists Before 1830 .............16
III Samuel Wait and the Convention ..................30
IV Fight for the Charter .....................................53
V Manual Labor Days ………………………….65
VI The Trustees and their Problems ……………92
VII The College Buildings ……………………104
VIII The Teachers of the Institute ....................118
IX The Students, Work and Recreations ..........131
X Beginnings of the Literary Societies ............146
XI Religion in the Institute ...............................159
XII The Institute Becomes a College ...............171
II THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE
XIII The Town of Wake Forest .......................185
XIV The Loan from the State .........................201
XV Bequests ...................................................213
XVI Contributions-Wait Agent .......................223
XVII Agency of Thompson, McNabb and Jordan .244
XVIII Agency of James S. Purefoy .................265
XIX Agency of Wingate .................................271
XX Agency of Thomas H. Pritchard ...............285
XXI Agency of John Mitchell ………………..290
XXII Associational Academies……………….312
III ADMINISTRATIVE
XXIII The College Begins .................................345
XXIV Curriculum ..............................................352
XXV Administration of Samuel Wait I .............379
XXVI Samuel Wait II.........................................388
XXVII President William Hooper .....................402
XXVIII The Administration of John Brown White...414
XXIX Administration of Washington Manly Wingate 428
viii Contents

IV ACTIVITIES OF STUDENTS PAGE
XXX Board and Dress .............................................449
XXXI Social Life, Recreations and Discipline ........459
XXXII Religion ........................................................467

V LITERARY SOCIETIES
XXXIII Euzelians and Philomathesians ...................489
XXXIV The Society Halls .......................................503
XXXV The Society Libraries ..................................520
XXXVI Literary Work .............................................534
XXXVII Public Exercises ........................................559

VI ALUMNI
XXXVIII Ministerial-Board of Education ................601
XXXIX Ministerial Education II...............................617
XL Physicians ...........................................................632
XLI Lawyers .............................................................639
XLII Teachers, Planters and Others ..........................645
XLIII The College in War .........................................653
ILLUSTRATIONS
College Building ..........................................Frontispiece
FACING PAGE
The Jones Residence ..............................................65
The North and South Brick Houses .....................345
President Samuel Wait .........................................379
President William Hooper ....................................402
President John Brown White ................................414
President Washington Manly Wingate ................428
President and Mrs. Wait, Professors Morse, Brooks,
Walters and Foote .............................................601
I THE INSTITUTE
CENTENNIAL HYMN
Tune Austria, Sung at Centennial Celebration, Commencement, 1935

Hail, Wake Forest, Alma Mater,
A hundred years now crown thy head;
Praise we then our great Creator,
Who through all the years has led.
May thy torch of truth glow brighter,
Still supplied with grace divine;
Clear and strong and ever brighter
On the path of wisdom shine.

Ne'er forgot be thy great mission,
Fire the heart of noble youth,
Guide them with thy safe tuition
To the fount of living truth;
Courage, faith and power inspiring,
Fit their souls for high emprise,
Ever to the heights, untiring,
Patiently to toil and rise.

Dearest Mother, hear the landings,
Of thy sons of other days,
Sons who won the world's applaudings,
Sons whose deeds proclaim thy praise;
Sons whose spirit knew no terror,
Or in high or lowly place,
Sons who braved the frowns of error,
Sons who served with Christlike grace.

Alma Mater, our dear Mother
Honored ever, honored now,
Be it ours to add another
To the laurels on thy brow!
O Wake Forest, how we love thee,
Dowered with thy fostering care;
Kindest Heaven smile above thee,
God exalt and keep thee fair.