Future of Division III

[MCScots2013]

Thank you for the correction!

[WUPHF]

It would be interesting to know how many colleges in the South were burned/destroyed during the Civil War. Maryville's original "campus"—better described as its only building— was destroyed by the Confederates under Gen. "Fightin'Joe" Wheeler, not Gen. Sherman as one might think as Maryville is located in Tennessee. 

And some were not significantly damaged, but were commandeered and used during the Civil War as barracks, hospitals and such.

[Ralph Turner]

There were several attempts to move the seminary which became Maryville College to Danville, Kentucky in the mid 1800s. Bonus points for anybody who knows what other Presbyterian school is in Danville, Kentucky.

Hint: The Kentucky institution was also founded in 1819.

Too easy for an old SCAC/SAA guy:  Centre.

Trinity(TX) was founded in Tehuacana (2020 population: 228) in 1869, moved to Waxahachie (2020 pop, 41,140) in 1902, then to San Antonio in 1942 (2020 pop, 1.4M), where it merged/took over the campus of the failing University of San Antonio.  It finally moved to its present home in a former quarry site in 1952:  "On moving day, the new campus consisted of a dormitory housing 60 residents, a classroom building that lacked a heating system, a barren library, and an uncompleted student union."

The former Waxahachie campus now houses Nelson University, fka Southwestern Assemblies of God University. 

Long ago, far far away, I explored the old Trinity bldg in Tehuacana. In its day, it was a beautiful edifice, high on the hill.

[Ron Boerger]

Long ago, far far away, I explored the old Trinity bldg in Tehuacana. In its day, it was a beautiful edifice, high on the hill.

Indeed.  Texas Hall, as it became known, is in a sad state of disrepair.  It's now owned by the Preservation Texas Institute, who are leading a repair effort. The site was originally proposed for the then-nation's capital in 1849-50; Tehuacana came in second to Austin in a nationwide vote in 1850.

[Hawks88]

Huntingdon College was founded in Tuskegee, AL in 1854 as Tuskegee Female College. It was renamed Alabama Conference Female College in 1872 when it became affiliated with the Methodist Church. It moved to Montgomery in 1909 and was renamed Huntingdon College in 1935 after the first male students were admitted in 1934.

[y_jack_lok]

Changing things up tonight. Instead of "Future", let's talk about the Past. I knew we had some interesting facts like the first College in Tennessee to give a woman a baccalaureate degree or playing in the first Tangerine (Citrus) Bowl in 1947, but these are noteworthy:

I always wanted to make a Past of Division III thread.

So many colleges have a history of almost closing, almost burning down to the ground, almost moving to another city or town. And usually a fascinating history with varsity athletics.

Some colleges actually did move to another town.

I think Macon was founded somewhere close to South Hill, correct? there's a historical marker somewhere in that area.

I'm also fairly certain that MCV (Medical College of Virginia,  now part of VCU) was founded somewhere around HSC before moving to Richmond.

Yes, RMC was founded in Boydton, VA in 1830 and moved to Ashland in 1868 because, per Wikipedia, the rail line to Boydton was destroyed during the Civil War.

[jknezek]

The ruins of Liberty Hall Academy still stand on W&L's grounds, just across the street from the soccer fields. But W&L's tenuous claim to its 1749 founding rest on Augusta Academy, which could have been one of several small educational buildings in and around the Shenandoah Valley that may or may not have ties to the later Liberty Hall.

The ties from Liberty Hall, first recorded in 1773 but not moved to the site of W&L until 1777/1778, are well established. I think the ties back to 1749 are wishful thinking. Augusta Academy was likely no more than some itinerant teaching of property owner's children in various homes to ensure basic math and reading proficiency. The only real tie I've heard of is that a teaching trail exists between people who were at both named institutions, and possibly a gifting of the name between those teachers.

[awadelewis]

Sewanee was founded in the late 1850s by the Bishops of the Southern Dioceses of the Episcopal Church.   These were all men raised in the patrician planter culture of the Antebellum South. The leader of that group, Bp. Leonidas Polk of Lousisana, was a scion of the one the major planter families in central TN that included Pres. James Polk, was the roommate to Jefferson Davis at West Point,  and was, based on his record during the Civil War, a far better clergyman than he was a general.  Best known for being decapitated by a cannon ball at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain.   The reasoning behind wanting to found a "New and Grand University of the South" sounds familiar today as people were concerned about the "liberal ideas" that children of the planter families were getting from those dens of iniquity like Harvard and Yale.

There was a big event in 1859 for the laying of the cornerstone on the Mountain that brought clergy and layman from all of the south to the wilds of the Cumberland Plateau.   Unfortunately, the cornerstone celebrated that day was blasted to smithereens by a group of Illinois infantrymen a few years later as the Union's Army of the Tennessee passed over the Mountain on their way from the Tullahoma campaign to the Chattanooga campaign.

A large amount of the money backing the startup of The University of the South came from plantation money.  For example, one of the larger donors was John Armfield who was a partner in the largest slave trading concern in the Antebellum South. But the war flushed all that money away. The land was a donation from the Sewanee Coal and Iron Company which eventually became Tennessee Consolidated Coal and Iron that was a  founding component of US Steel.

After the war,  the Bishop of Tennessee, Charles Quintard, led an effort to restart the institution to ensure that we kept the land grant.  We offered Gen. Lee the position of Vice Chancellor and President but he turned us down as wanted to remain in Virginia.

But many of what I call the "middle managers" of the Confederate Army settled in Sewanee after the war.   The place became one of the centers of the Lost Cause movement.  A large portion of the campus that is consistently being nominated as the most beautiful campus in the country dates from that era. And like the South, we had our ups and downs through the years.

So... in spite of the protests of my fraternity brothers, friends, and acquaintances from Washington and Lee,  I can seriously make the claim of Sewanee being the "First University of the Confederacy".   That can be viewed as either a good or bad thing.

[WUPHF]

Just thinking about one of the other themes here, many colleges and universities today were founded as academies, seminaries, one-year normal schools and through mergers.

For the latter, there is the previously mentioned Case Western Reserve and Carnegie Mellon as the obvious examples, but also:

UW-Platteville was a merger of the first normal school in Wisconsin with the local polytechnic.

Southwestern (TX)

Brevard College

University of Hartford involved a merge of independent art and music schools along with a liberal arts college.

[MCScots2013]

The ruins of Liberty Hall Academy still stand on W&L's grounds, just across the street from the soccer fields. But W&L's tenuous claim to its 1749 founding rest on Augusta Academy, which could have been one of several small educational buildings in and around the Shenandoah Valley that may or may not have ties to the later Liberty Hall.

If W&L can claim 1749, maybe Maryville should claim 1802. Reverend Anderson was ordained at age 22 and shortly built a two-story cabin called Union Academy, locally referred to as "Mr. Anderson's Log College". I'm kidding, of course. W&L can claim 1749 and we'll keep 1819.

Anderson was born near Lexington and studied at Liberty Hall before heading south to the frontier. Wouldn't mind stopping by and taking a look at the ruins, if allowed, next time I'm in the area.

"Mr. Anderson's Log College" was relocated from Knoxville to the Smoky Mountain Heritage Center in Townsend several years ago after finding itself being in the middle of a developed subdivision.

[jknezek]

The ruins of Liberty Hall Academy still stand on W&L's grounds, just across the street from the soccer fields. But W&L's tenuous claim to its 1749 founding rest on Augusta Academy, which could have been one of several small educational buildings in and around the Shenandoah Valley that may or may not have ties to the later Liberty Hall.

If W&L can claim 1749, maybe Maryville should claim 1802. Reverend Anderson was ordained at age 22 and shortly built a two-story cabin called Union Academy, locally referred to as "Mr. Anderson's Log College". I'm kidding, of course. W&L can claim 1749 and we'll keep 1819.

Anderson was born near Lexington and studied at Liberty Hall before heading south to the frontier. Wouldn't mind stopping by and taking a look at the ruins, if allowed, next time I'm in the area.

"Mr. Anderson's Log College" was relocated from Knoxville to the Smoky Mountain Heritage Center in Townsend several years ago after finding itself being in the middle of a developed subdivision.

You'd be more than welcome. They are publicly accessible. A pair of walls that have been braced to stay standing. 

https://www.wlu.edu/sociology-and-anthropology-department?utm_source=my

[y_jack_lok]

Just thinking about one of the other themes here, many colleges and universities today were founded as academies, seminaries, one-year normal schools and through mergers.

For the latter, there is the previously mentioned Case Western Reserve and Carnegie Mellon as the obvious examples, but also:

UW-Platteville was a merger of the first normal school in Wisconsin with the local polytechnic.

Southwestern (TX)

Brevard College

University of Hartford involved a merge of independent art and music schools along with a liberal arts college.

My wife graduated from Southwestern. If I'm not mistaken, it's a uniting of four different institutions.

[WUPHF]

My wife graduated from Southwestern. If I'm not mistaken, it's a uniting of four different institutions.

Yes, Southwestern has an interesting history for sure and might have been known as Texas University if things had played out differently.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwestern_University

Separately, an interesting resource on closed colleges and universities run by a former history professor.

https://www.lostcolleges.com/

[jknezek]

But many of what I call the "middle managers" of the Confederate Army settled in Sewanee after the war.   The place became one of the centers of the Lost Cause movement.  A large
So... in spite of the protests of my fraternity brothers, friends, and acquaintances from Washington and Lee,  I can seriously make the claim of Sewanee being the "First University of the Confederacy".   That can be viewed as either a good or bad thing.

As a W&L alum, you can have the title. W&L was a tiny school, barely scraping by on President Washington's endowment gift, when the Civil War broke out. Overshadowed by VMI, W&L almost folded when a decent percentage of the student body died as part of the Liberty Hall Volunteers, part of Stonewall's Brigade. The makeup of the company, formed immediately after secession, went from exclusively W&L undergrads and profs to a hodgepodge of Army of Northern Virginia replacements as the war dragged on.

Lee, of course, became President after the surrender and he did, by all reasonable accounts, save the school. He also instituted some change that still reverberate today, including the Honor Code, adding practical courses of study to what had been a purely classical institution, and building Lee Chapel, now University Chapel.

There was good reason to name the school after him following his death. The reverence for Lee and "The Lost Cause" mythology, which was massively propagated by W&L linked scholars is, in my opinion, one of the less savory holdovers from Lee's association with the school.

As a New Jerseyan, even in the late 90s, W&L was a bastion of alternative history to what I had been taught. I had one history professor who absolutely despised the U.S. history I knew, and one who did a much better job of melding the north/south narrative divide.

But really it was the frats that drove home that W&L was different. As a Yankee, there were houses I simply was not welcome in. Of course, you had to also be the "right kind" of southern for those houses, so being a Yank was my disqualifier, but far from the only one. It was quite an interesting experience for those of us not from the south.

No, Sewanee is welcome to the title. W&L is struggling with their history and their alums enough these days, and it has cost the school plenty. I have no love for the Lost Cause, but University Chapel is a lesser place without all the historical plaques and an open view of the Recumbent Lee statue. History is best in context, and Lee Chapel should have had the context added instead of the history removed to the museum.

They can rename every building on campus, they should even rename the school in my opinion, but Lee Chapel was the proper place for history and I don't like what happened to it.

[Ralph Turner]

"History is best in context,"

Yes. Politically incorrect history can be the most accurate.

I recently mused at a youtube video of a British Member of Parliament of African descent decrying slavery until she learned that her ancestor was a prominent tribal chief who sold his conquered enemies into slavery for a hefty sum.