/ 9-^^' C!assiJl3 Oili- PRESENTED BY^ Professor Thomas Jefferson Lamar, ©tjnmaa ItftttBon Eamar S^amu^l ®gn&ab Wtl00« fuhltaljiei hg lira, ilarlija A. Hamar 1920 de:dicate;d to MARYVILLE COLLEGE THE MOST E^NDURING MONUMEJNT OF THOMAS JEFFERSON LAMAR BY HIS WIDOW CONTENTS Chapter Page I. The Boy and His Lineage. An Unrecorded Life — But Worthy of Record — French Forbears — Ameri- can Blending — Bast Tennessee Nativity — A Farmer's Homestead — The Father — The Mother — A Patri- archal Family — Thomas Jefferson — Boyhood Days — Grandmother Lamar — Beyond the Mississippi — An Exile from Home — Elder Meek, Foster-Father 7 II. The Student and His Teachers. The Old-Time Article School — Holston Academy — Orientation of Life — A Momentous Matriculation — Modest Mary- ville — Mighty Maryville — The Professors — A Room in the Seminary — Winning His Way — Literary So- ciety — Four Iniluential Years — Graduation 15 III. The Theologue and His Training. Call to the Min- istry — Maryville's Theological Department — Dr. An- derson's Methods of Teaching — Dr. Anderson's Per- sonality — Transfer to Union Seminary — The Union Faculty — The Seminary "Boys" — The City of New York — A Seminary Graduate 24 IV. The Minister and His Ministry. Licensure to the Ministry — Ministry at Weston, Missouri — And at Savannah, Missouri — Back to Tennessee — Blount County Churches — War-Time Ministry — After-War Church Reorganisation — Stated Clerkship of Synod — Earnest Preacher — Sage Counselor — Missions His Great Commission 31 V. The Teacher and His Teaching. Predilection for Teaching — A Professorship at Maryville — This An- . other Momentous Event — "Professor Lamar" — Try- ing Days — Better Days Coming — The New Pro- fessor's Scholarship — Patience in Class-Room Drill — Kindliness in Discipline — Sympathetic Heart — Fruit- ful Pedagogy 38 VI. A Christian Statesman. The Teacher ^Iso a States- ffian — Higher Christian Education — Extension of Maryville's Contribution to It — Its Clientage In- Chapter Page creased — The "South Hills" Expansion Planned — But War Engulfs Everything — Everything! Every- thing! — Yet Unzvavering in Purpose — Only Azvait- ing an Opportunity — Planning and Praying — Peace and Work Again 45 VII. A CoLivEGE Builder. Facing a Scrap Heap — What Synod Did — A Winter of Torture — Year One of the New College — The Salutatory — A Good Beginning — Finding Colleagues — The Motives He Urged — Win- ning Friends and Donors — Jehovah-jireh! A New Campus — And Four New Buildings — But Unremit- ting Toil and Cares — For Fourteen Long Years — Success! Two Hundred Students! — But Anxiety, Deficit, and Debt 51 VIII. An Endowment Founder. Endowment or Collapse! — Enlistment for the Forlorn Hope — The Task an Impossible One — The Means, a Modest Man — The Dynamics, Faith in God — A Three Years' Struggle — The Cost of the Campaign — Nothing Impossible with God — His Helpers — The Donors — The Day of Victory — Hallelujah! — The Supreme Sacrifice — Post-Mortem Endowment Building 63 IX. A Home-Loving Man. His College Home — His Mis- souri Home — His Savannah Providence — A Home of His Ozvn — Little Katie — The Home Broken Up — A Loving Nature — "Uncle Tommie" — A Home Again — Mrs. Lamar's Father — Mrs. Lamar's Mother — Mrs. Lamar's Brothers — The Wedding Tour — The Ad- vent of Little Ralph Max — The Stay of Ralph Max — The Departure of Ralph Max — Partnership in Sorrow — The Last Home-Coming — His Wife's Devotion , 73 X. A Typical MaryvillE Man. A Builder of Maryville Men — An Embodiment of the Maryville Spirit — In "Breadth of Human Interest" — In "Thorough Scholarship" — In "Manly Religion" — And in "Un- selfish Service" — A Gentle Man~^A Man of God — A Friend of Men — Honored of Men — Honored of Heaven 85 CHAPTER I The: Boy and His Linkage: Thirty-three years have elapsed since Professor Thomas Jefferson Lamar rested from his labors, and yet his memory stays fresh in the hearts of those who were associated with him in those labors. This biographical sketch is prepared by his friends, to express it as the inscription that is found on the monument erected to the memory of Dr. Isaac Anderson puts it, "not because they fear they will forget, but because they love to remember him" who was once their companion; and also because they would have others know more about the memorable qualities and services of their departed friend. An Unrecorded Life. To an extent seldom noted in any public man, the subject of this sketch avoided both in speech and in writing all references to his per- sonal history. He wrote no diaries, made no genealogical researches, and left practically no personal memoranda that would be of service in the preparation of such a story as is here attempted. Much he did speak and write regarding the causes that enlisted his heart's devotion ; but with utter self-effacement and the most sincere humility, he always kept himself in the background. . He never sought or took pleasure in prominence. Had it not been 8 Thomas Jefferson Lamar for the fact that others felt that it was due the causes he represented that his memory should not perish, and for the additional fact that the memories of friends could supply some of the data that he failed to record, his story would never have been told. But Worthy of Record. In "A Century of Mary- ville College," Professor Lamar's services to the College were somewhat fully recounted and dwelt upon. But this fact has only made his friends the more anxious to save from oblivion the complete story of a life that was so worthy of commemoration and imitation. The writer, first a student and then a colleague of Professor Lamar, has deemed it at once a pleasure and a duty to collabo- rate with Mrs. Lamar, the widow of the professor, in the preparation of this brief biography. Like Old Mortality, he would chisel away the moss and lichens that are grow- ing over a beloved name, and would seek to deepen the impression that that name has made in men's memories- French Forbears. Thomas Jefferson Lamar's pater- nal grandfather emigrated from France to the United States late in the eighteenth century. It is believed that he was a representative of that most worthy people, the French Huguenots, the expulsion of many of whom as the result of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and the loss of many of whom in the natural course of emi- gration, proved the most serious blow that France ever sustained. It is also believed that his grandfather left France on account of the political troubles that not much later came to a head in the French Revolution. Even his son showed his interest in French history by naming three of his sons after Frenchmen of recent renown — The Boy and His Linkage: 9 Napoleon Bonaparte, Jerome, and Lafayette. This was in keeping with what the Lamars did in other parts of our country; for example, General Lamar, the third president of Texas, bore the name of Mirabeau; while the Lamar county people of Texas named their county seat Paris. The Lamars of Mississippi, however, went even farther back when both father and son were named Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar. American Blending. The father of our Professor Lamar was William Lamar. He married Rebecca Hodges. The Hodges are said to have been of German or Dutch descent. Thus, in accordance with the rule rather than the exception in American family life, the heads of the family represented European races very different in their historic careers and racial characteristics. The Melting Pot began operation soon after the first settlements were made; and nowhere did it operate with more ease and with less delay than on the Southwestern frontier. Here men entered as foreigners, and in a few short years were amalgamated into the purest Americanism. East Tennessee Nativity. Nowhere on the frontier was this blending more quickly and effectively accom- plished than in the great glen or cove or valley of East Tennessee. The encircling mountains shut out all foreign influences and at the same time shut in all the native American influences, and gave them free scope. So it was no wonder that Thomas Jefferson Lamar, born and brought up in the valley of East Tennessee, where his parents also had been both born and reared, should have been so completely an American that not only was the French tongue of his grandfather entirely forgotten, but 10 Thomas Jefj^erson Lamar so were all foreign ideals that he brought with him across the sea. Thomas Jefferson Lamar was an American to the manor born. The De la Mar had been anglicized into plain Lamar; and Thomas Jefferson, the name of a Virginia commoner, had been prefixed to it. And his schoolmates called him just plain, ''Tom Lamar." He was a full-fledged American. A Farmer^s Homestead. The purest and most un- adulterated Americanism is found in the homes of the farmers of our country. Thomas Lamar was born in a farmhouse, and spent his boyhood on a farm. There he secured at first hand, from a farmer father, and from his mother, a farmer's daughter, insight and indoctri- nation into the simplest and most loyal Americanism as it is developed in the rural home and in a farmer's family. The Lamar farm was located near what is now Hodges, nearly four miles east of Strawberry Plains, near where the Southern railroad crosses Beaver creek. From the farmhouse could be seen on either side the mountain walls that enclose in a happy homogeneity both American homes and patriotic hearts. The Father. William Lamar was born in Jefferson county, Tennessee, near the close of the eighteenth cen- tury, on January 21, 1797. He had brothers named Thomas, James, Henry, and John, all of which names he afterward gave to sons of his own. In this same county of Jefferson he grew up on his father's farm, and in it he founded a home of his own, and there most of his children were born. His son, Thomas Jefferson, was still a school boy when the father removed the rest of his family to Missouri. There he resided until his death, iV r Thomas Jefferson Lamar. Ralph Erskme Tedford. WilHam Lamar. Daniel Meek. Thi: Boy and His Lineage ii which occurred on October 2, 1872, when he was in the seventy-fifth year of his age. The Mother. Rebecca Hodges, the daughter of Cal- loway Hodges, also of Jefferson county, Tennessee, was born on November 23, 1806, and so was nearly ten years younger than her husband. She was married to William Lamar on October 23, 1823, when she was only sixteen years old. Rev, Thomas Wilkerson officiated at the wed- ding. She died in their Missouri home on July 30, 1866, being then fifty-nine years of age. A Patriarchal Family. From this union there was born a patriarchal family. Mrs. Lamar was nearly eighteen years old when she first became a mother, and in her forty-third year her fifteenth child was born. There were ten sons and five daughters^ — ^two sons to each daughter. The children were: James Calloway, born on November 5, 1824; Thomas Jefferson, November 21, 1826; Napoleon Bonaparte, February 22, 1828; Joseph, November 8, 1829; Eliza, January 21, 1832; Charles H., May 10, 1833; John, December 18, 1834; William, Au- gust 2, 1836; Lewis Lafayette, June 28, 1838; Sarah Elizabeth, February 19, 1840; Henrietta, September 12, 1841 ; Martha Jane, December 20, 1843; Diana, Sep^ tember 8, 1845; Jerome, July 8, 1847; and Ferdinand De Soto, March 13, 1849. In 1874, when Professor and Mrs. Lamar visited Missouri, fourteen of the family were still living ; in March, 1920, two were stilL living, namely Lewis Lafayette, aged eighty-two years, at the old home near Weston, Missouri; and Mrs. Henrietta Hall, aged seventy-nine, at Denver, Colorado. Thomas Jefferson. The second child and second son 12 Thomas Jefferson Lamar in this large family is the subject of this biographical sketch. He was born, as is stated above, on Novem- ber 21, 1826. His mother's twentieth birthday occurred two days after his birth. The statesman, Thomas Jefifer- son, had died on the fourth of July of the same year, the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence; and perhaps this fact suggested the name for the baby. Boyhood Days. There was no lack of playmates even then, and playmates multiplied as the years went on. But so did the need of helpers on the farm. Thomas and the other boys were brought up to industrious and health- ful habits in the daily routine of the farm. Dr. Thomas Theron Alexander, in his biographical address regarding Professor Lamar, which was delivered at the dedication of the Lamar Library in 1888, quoted one who had known Thomas Lamar from childhood as saying that he was an "unusually kind and bright boy, making friends everywhere." It was a wholesome life he lived, and, as we may be sure, a useful one as well. His time was divided between work on the farm and attendance at school. Grandmother Lamar. Just as in the case of Isaac Anderson, the founder of Maryville College, it was a grandmother who devoted herself especially to his re- ligious instruction, so in the case of Thomas Jefferson Lamar, the refounder of the College, it was his paternal grandmother who gave him his principal religious instruc- tion and training. "Begin with his grandmother" is the familiar recipe for the making of a good man. In these two successful instances of the making of good men, the value of the recipe was abundantly vindicated. Paul hon- ored Timothy's "Grandmother Lois"; and we may well Th^ Boy and His Lineagk 13 honor these later grandmothers. How much Maryville College owes to them ! What stars will there be in their crowns ! Beyond the Mississippi. The family of William Lamar had become so large that it was evident that no ordinary upland farm among the hills of East Tennessee could adequately provide for their wants. Some of the Lamar relatives had emigrated to Missouri, and they sent back glowing accounts of their river-bottom farms. So, in 1844, William Lamar decided also to try his fortunes in the West ; and preparatory thereto he sold to William Walker his three-hundred-acre farm, part of which he had inherited, forty acres of which he had entered in 1824, and seventy-five acres of which, together with some slaves, he had received as a marriage portion with his wife, from Calloway Hodges in 1825. Then he embarked in a house-boat, with his large family, and made the long and interesting but tortuous journey, down the Tennessee and Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and up the Missouri, to the rich Missouri river bottoms of Platte county, Mis- souri. He settled not far from his kinfolk, near Weston, a little city located just across the river from Leaven- worth, Kansas. Here he, and later on, his children, when they made homes of their own, became prosperous citi- zens. Two of the sons, ''Ji"^" and "]oe," removed to the territory of Washington, and there, by stock-raising, became very wealthy. An Exile from Home. An honored elder of the Strawberry Plains Presbyterian Church, Daniel Meek, had become a warm friend of "Tom" Lamar while he was still a small boy. He saw the bright possibilities of 14 Thomas Jefferson Lamar the lad, and determined to do what he could to enable the boy to realize what he found was his chief ambition — the securing of a college education. So when the Lamar family made their plans to remove to the West, he under- took the hard task of persuading Mother Lamar to leave her son in Tennessee in his care, promising to stand by him until he should secure a college education. Thomas' thirst for an education overcame his own strong aversion to separation from his family; and at last his mother, too, gave her reluctant consent to the plan proposed by Mr. Meek. The separation from "little Tom" nearly broke her heart; but she comforted herself with the thought that her maternal sacrifice would aid in securing for her son the education he so much coveted. Elder Meek, Foster-Father. And now, until his years of school life should end, young Lamar found a foster-father in good Daniel Meek; and during that period his home was in the Meek household. In all his school days he had the cordial sympathy and the financial support of this providential friend. At Mr. Meek's home, during his vacations, he was at home; on his farm he worked ; and at his family altar he knelt with the family in prayer. And the affection he felt for his benefactor and family came to be like that of kinship. And Daniel Meek found his own swift reward in the rapid develop- ment of his young friend, and in his promise of great usefulness in coming days. CHAPTER II Tut Stude^nt and His Tkache:rs The Old-Time Article School. Those were the days before the present free-school system had been intro- duced. Each community had to rely upon itself in securing schooling for its children. A school teacher received his pay from the families whose children he taught. Usually his school was called an article or sub- scription school, for the custom was for his prospective patrons to sign their names to articles or a subscription paper stating how many children they would pay for at the tuition rate specified. Such schools were found in most self-respecting communities. It was in such neigh- borhood schools that Thomas Lamar and his brothers and sisters received their first introduction into the paths of knowledge. Though the schoolhouse was built of logs and the seats were made of puncheons or slabs, the mem- ories of that first temple of learning were always sacred to him, as in later years he looked backward to that schoolhouse in the woods. Holston Academy. The village of New Market was situated only about four miles from the Lamar home- stead, and about six miles from the Meek homestead. It boasted a school, chartered in 1832, that bore the name of Holston Academy. In the course of the years, Thomas Jefferson Lamar was promoted from the article school to a desk in Holston Academy. Here he found a congenial atmosphere, and formed a strong attachment for the place, an attachment that showed itself when in later i6 Thomas Jkffe:rson Lamar years he helped in the establishment and development of the virile presbyterial institution, New Market Academy, an institution which rendered excellent service to the cause of Christian education during the years extending from 1885 to 19 1 5. Here he came under the influence of Dr. William Minnis, pastor of the New Market Pres- byterian Church, and a resident of the village. Dr. Minnis had graduated at Maryville College, or the South- ern and Western Theological Seminary, as it was then called, in its first class, the class of 1825. He was one of the ablest and best ministers of East Tennessee. His influence on the modest lad, Thomas Lamar, was both helpful and wholesome. Orientation of Life. It was during these school days that young Lamar became a Christian. He united with his home church at Strawberry Plains, in 1842, when he was sixteen years of age, his pastor. Rev. Gideon Steb- bins White, receiving him into its communion. Among the elders of the church at that time was Daniel Meek, his foster-father. Mr. Lamar always retained a deep love for this church home of his boyhood. Among his papers was found a receipt for a liberal contribution made when the congregation, in 1871, built a new edifice. Here it was that he adopted high and Christian ideals of service, and decided that he would devote his life to the Christian ministry. And it was with this distinct purpose in his mind that he earnestly prosecuted his studies during the last year or two at Holston Academy. It was with this purpose before him that he decided to enter Maryville College to carry forward his preparation for his life work. A Momentous Matriculation. It did not seem to bfl U 03 CO The: Student and His Te^achers 17 those present when this modest and timid youth of eighteen presented himself at Maryville, before President Anderson, in the fall of 1844, for admission to the Col- lege, that a specially noteworthy or unusual event was then taking place. But the fact was that no more mo- mentous matriculation was to take place in Maryville's first century than was this lad's matriculation. There was present in this retiring youth the potential dynamic that was to create out of the rubbish of a ruined Maryville a new Maryville that was to surpass by far the earlier one. No prophet foretold the future service of this coming man of destiny; but the college historian of today looks back upon the wonderful achievements of the man that grew out of that quiet lad, and realizes the rare impor- tance of the matriculation of Thomas Jefiferson Lamar on that October day in 1844. It was the Master who said, "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation." God calls his chosen to their posts of responsibility and to their missions of service, not with the clangor of arch- angel's trump in the vaulted sky, but by the still small voice that speaks to the faithful heart; "for lo, the king- dom of God is within you." And his chosen ones silently heed his voice and obey his command and take their assigned posts, often with small realization on their part of the greatness of God's plans that are involved in the transaction. Modest Maryville. The Maryville College of 1844 was a very modest Maryville in every respect. Its re- sources were found principally in the men who had given themselves to its service. The two buildings — ^the two-storied, six-roomed, brick "Seminary," and the two- i8 Thomas Jki^^Erson Lamar storied, six-roomed, frame "College" — and the two quar- ter-acre lots constituted the college plant. Of endowment there was only a Professorship of Didactic Theology Fund that amounted then to less than $8,cxx). The entire property valuation of the institution, including the fund, the buildings, the library, and all, was less than $15,000. The student body was also small, as schools now run. During young Lamar's first year at Maryville there were seventy-eight students enrolled, of whom twenty, or over one-fourth, were candidates for the ministry, and one was in the theological department. Maryille was modest, too, in fame and prestige. It had never blown its own trumpet, and though it was widely and favorably known, it did not have the renown that comes through wealth or political influence. Mighty Maryville. But Maryville had a might that none could challenge — the might that comes from strength of character. The force of character in the Christian leaders who had devoted their lives to the service of the institution was an endowment richer than gold. The peculiar might of Maryville was found also in the ster- ling Christian character that its training was able to develop in the young men who were under its tutelage. The College was destined to contribute largely to the arousing in this latest matriculant, ere he should graduate, of altruistic ideals that should lead him to render priceless services in behalf of Christian education in the valley of East Tennessee. In short, Maryville, small as it was in most respects, was mighty in the men that taught and in the men that were taught, because in them the prevalent grace of God was operative. Like Bethlehem Ephratah, The: Student and His Te:ac«^rs 19 little among the thousands of Judah, little Maryville, too, was great because God was in her, and out of her he should bring those that should be rulers in Israel. The Professors. The Maryville faculty then, as for many years in that period, was a triumvirate. Chief of the three mighty men of valor was, of course, the head of the institution. Dr. Isaac Anderson himself. In 1819, when he founded Maryville College, then the Southern and Western Theological Seminary, he was only thirty- nine years of age; but a quarter of a century of almost unbelievably exhausting work had been performed since that time; and now, at sixty-four years of age, he was devoting all the wealth of his rich experience and un- selfish devotion to the institution which he loved with so intense an affection. His powers had not yet notice- ably begun to fail. Young Lamar learned to love Dr Anderson with a devotion that caused him always to speak of him with profound reverence and filial regard. He imbibed from his spirit invigorating drafts of the ''disinterested benevolence" that animated it. Wherever such a living embodiment of Christian principle as Dr. Anderson was teacher would be a great college, were there no other endowment or equipment! Then there was Rev. Fielding Pope, the able professor of Mathe- matics and Natural Philosophy. For eleven years he had shared with Dr. Anderson the cares and toils of the school-room. A polished and courtly gentleman, an accu- rate scholar, and an efficient teacher, he left his impress upon young Lamar, who recited to him for four years. The third member of the faculty was Dr. John S. Craig, Professor of Languages. H^ had been a teacher in th^ 20 Thomas Je^i^e^rson Lamar institution for seven years and a professor for four years. Rugged, severe, kindly, incisive, brilliant, original, deter- mined, and entertaining, he also was a prime favorite of the students. He took great interest in the youth Lamar, who was to be later on a colleague and always a loyal friend. In the days of small faculties, the personal influ- ence of the teacher upon his pupils was often as great as was that of parents. Thomas Lamar profited much from the personal interest of this illustrious triumvirate that then made up Maryville's faculty. A Room in the Seminary. Young Lamar was as- signed a room on the second story of the seminary build- ing, a little two-story brick of about twenty-five feet by forty, that was located at the east corner of the lot on which New Providence Presbyterian Church now stands. The unfinished building, intended for a female seminary, was purchased by the Theological Seminary for $600 in 1820, and it was thereafter in constant use until the Civil War. There were recitation rooms down-stairs, and dor- mitory rooms up-stairs, but not more than six rooms in all. There were six fireplaces, one of which was in young Lamar's room. The Seminary was located a square north of the Court House, the center of the village, and about two squares south of where the pioneers had built their Craig blockhouse. For nearly forty-five years it was the oldest building of the institution to which it belonged. During the Civil War Professor Lamar had the sorrow of seeing it demolished by Federal troops. Its bricks were used to make ovens for the army cooks. The Duncans, with whom Professor Lamar was then living, secured some of the bricks to make a walk in their front Tun Student and His Tkache^rs 21 yard; and so these bricks were to him for several years daily reminders of his school-boy days. Winning His Way. The college days of young Lamar were days of incessant industry. He was forced to be a Committee on Ways and Means to provide for the expenses of his education. Little help, if any, did he receive from his father after the family removed to Missouri. Something he earned at College by work, and, toward the end of his course, by tutoring. As we have seen, he worked at Mr. Daniel Meek's during the vaca- tions. He once said that he had plowed all over the hills of the Meek farm. Mr. Meek largely took the place of the absent father, and encouraged Thomas to go forward with his studies, and he backed up his counsel by sub- stantial gifts and loans of money. The entire expense of a college year at Maryville was then advertised to be only $71.75. "The student's expenses are reduced to the very lowest possible sum, and are certainly less in com- parison with the advantages afforded than at any other institution in the South or West." Thus did the College, as in thousands of other cases it has done, assist this young man in securing the inestimable treasure of a thorough college education. In this case and in many such cases, the bread cast upon the waters was found by the College in later days, as these sons of hers devoted their life's labors to the service of the College. Literary Society. There were two literary societies at Maryville, both of which, as was befitting in a theo- logical seminary, were designated by Hebrew names. The older one was the Beth-Hacma (House of Wisdom) Lit- erary Society; and the junior one, the Beth-Hacma-ve- 22 Thomas Je^f^Rson Lamar Bcrith (House of Wisdom and Covenant) Society. Young Lamar cast in his lot with the latter organization. In the program presented by the society at its thirteenth anni- versary, on September lo, 1845, at New Providence Church, his name appears as that of an orator. His sub- ject was "Mind." On the program for the first joint anniversary exercises of the two societies, held on Sep- tember 14 and 15, 1847, his name is given as that of a vice-president. Four Influential Years. In national matters, the annexation of Texas, the war with Mexico, and the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo all belong to these four college years. In the history of Maryville College these years mark the development of the institution into a college and the relegation of the seminary to the position of a fast-disappearing and subordinate department of the in- stitution. After twenty-three years of waiting, the legis- lature had in 1842 granted a charter to Maryville Col- lege; and it was in 1846 that the final amendments were secured, that rendered the charter acceptable to the directors of the institution. In the personal development of young Lamar, too, the four years were also epochal ones indeed. He grew out of eighteen years into twenty- two, and out of immaturity into manly maturity. The years were far and away the most influential ones in the making of the man that he came to be. They established his reputation for the sterling qualities of intellect and character that he always afterward displayed. Four years of Maryville, the magician, developed in young Lamar the Maryville character, which, in turn, he helped to impart to later generations of Maryville students. The: Student and His Tmchers 23 Graduation. The terms were not then arranged as now, and Lamar's graduation took place in the fall. On Tuesday night, September 12, 1848, a class of six young men delivered their graduating orations. Their diplomas were signed by Isaac Anderson, President ; Fielding Pope, Professor of Mathematics and Philosophy; and John S. Craig, Professor of Languages. The subject of Lamar's oration was, "Utility of Literature." The other mem- bers of the class were James Monroe Meek of Straw- berry Plains, William Edward Caldwell of New Market, Samuel Wright Wallace of Maryville, Sylvanus Howell of Mossy Creek, and John Maxwell Hoffmeister of Rogers- ville. In a letter written in August, 1848, William E. Caldwell asked his classmate Hoffmeister, "What is Tom Lamar's subject for a valedictory ?" Besides Lamar, both Caldwell and Hoffmeister entered the gospel ministry. Mr. Caldwell rendered eminent service in the ministry in Tennessee and Texas, and lived to see all his seven sons officers in the church of their fathers, and his only daughter the wife of a minister of that church. And so Thomas Jefferson Lamar joined that worthy host of educated men who could not have had a college training had it not been that Maryville offered them a helping hand. Well did he pass on to others and also repay to his alma mater the benefits that had been extended to him. He had been graduated into Maryville's confrater- nity of altruists. The prime glory of the Christian col- lege is the character contribution it has bestowed upon its students. Maryville's glory in this regard is a substantial and fadeless one. CHAPTER III The: Theologuiv and His Training Call to the Ministry. It was while he was still a youth that he decided that he was called to the ministry of the gospel. The ministers with whom he was espe- cially acquainted, such as his pastor at Strawberry Plains, Mr. White, and the pastor of the neighboring church of New Market, Dr. Minnis, commended to him by their virtues and zeal the gospel ministry which they adorned. His faithful friend, Ruling Elder Daniel Meek, and others of his friends, encouraged him to dedicate himself to the sacred service of the ministry. But above all these influ- ences was the conviction born in him by God's Spirit that his mission in life was to be that of a minister of the gospel. Always conscientious, he heeded the call, and immediately set out to prepare himself for this high call- ing. He entered Holston Academy, and then Maryville College, and there prosecuted his studies with the pur- pose of equipping himself as a preacher of righteousness to his people. And throughout his academy and college courses he ever kept in mind his sacred vocation, and thoughtfully and earnestly sought to make ready worthily to discharge its high and noble duties. His graduation from college in 1848 marked the successful completion of the literary preparation for his life work. Maryville's Theological Department. The story of the twenty-nine years of Dr. Anderson's training of young men for the ministry that had elapsed after the Southern and Western Theological Seminary had been founded, Th^ Th^ologu^ and His Training 25 in 1 81 9, is a very remarkable one indeed. Almost one hundred and fifty candidates for the ministry had been trained under the masterly tutelage of the great theo- logian and greater Christian, who, under God, was the founder and the chief laborer of this school of the proph- ets. But now, owing to many conspiring influences, the supply of candidates had almost ceased, and the seminary had become a college, and even the theological department had, in Dr. Anderson's old age, almost disappeared. And yet such was Mr. Lamar's reverence for Dr. Anderson and his loyalty to Maryville that, at the beginning of the next scholastic year after his graduation from the liter- ary department of Maryville College, he entered its theo- logical department in order to carry forward his studies for the ministry. He said of himself that he studied theology under Dr. Anderson "nearly two years." Dr. Anderson's Methods of Teaching. Mr. Lamar had come under the influence of Dr. Anderson's wonder- ful personality and benevolent character during his entire college course ; but now he felt that influence more vitally as he came in contact with him in the study of the great subjects of God and man and salvation. There were few teachers of his day who were more eflicient educators than was Isaac Anderson. He used a very complete syl- labus of 112 pages, in the form of question and answer, which he himself had prepared and published. The title page contains the following: ^'Questions on the System of Didactic Theology taught in the Southern and Western Theological Seminary. By Rev. Isaac Anderson, D.D. *A Bishop then must not be a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation.' — Paul, 'A 26 Thomas Jefferson Lamaj^ Bishop then must be apt to teach.' — Paul. 'The Priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.' — Malachi. Maryville, Tenn. Printed at the Intel- ligencer Office by Parham & Hoyt. 1833." The plan of instruction as stated on the last leaf of this syllabus was as follows : "In Didactic or Christian Theology the class have the subject given to them, as, for example, Natural Theology. They are then directed to read such and such authors; if the subject is a controverted one, they read on both sides. After they have done reading, they then hear a lecture from the professor, and are required to write an essay on the same subject and then read it be- fore the professor for remarks. Afterwards the class are examined, according to the preceding questions (in the syllabus), and such others as the professor may think proper. On archaeology, hermeneutics, biblical criticism, sacred chronology, ecclesiastical history, church govern- ment and discipline, and polemic theology, the students are required to read the most approved authors. And that they may make themselves familiar with these branches, the professor has lectures on these sciences in the form of question and answer. The students have the use of these manuscript lectures, and are required to be able to answer every question." Dr. Anderson's Personality. In this simple and yet thorough-going method young Lamar and his few fellow- students in theology were taught by the man of God the great themes they were to present to their fellow-men. But the most effective teaching of Dr. Anderson was that which proceeded from the noble Christian example that The TH:eoi.oGuE and His Training 27 he set before his boys. No one could be associated with him day by day and year after year without being pro- foundly affected by his Christian devotion, magnanimity, and zeal. In his ripe old age and before his mind had broken under the strain of untold toils and crushing bur- dens, he exerted a mighty and happy influence upon his beloved students. Mr. Lamar learned lessons from him which he continued to pass on to other Maryville students so long as he lived to labor for them. Transfer to Union Seminary. During the latter part of the scholastic year, 1849-50, Mr. Lamar left Maryville and entered the Class of 1852 at Union Theo- logical Seminary in New York City. He was admitted on February 23, 1850, and signed the matriculation book on April 18, 1850. Dr. Anderson was beginning to fail somewhat, and doubtless encouraged those that could do so to prosecute their studies in other theological semi- naries, well-equipped and well-endowed, to which the rail- roads now made access easier. Almost all of Maryville's ministerial candidates during the Fifties "went away" to Seminary. Three graduates of 1850 entered other semi- naries. Mr. Lamar wanted the best possible training, and he secured what he coveted. His theological training included the nearly two years under Dr. Anderson that have been referred to, and more than two years at Union Seminary. His grandfather, Calloway Hodges, and his father assisted him in meeting his expenses while he was in New York. The Union Faculty. During Mr. Lamar's course at Union Seminary, he profited by the instruction of able and distinguished teachers. Drs. Henry White and James 28 Thomas Je;f^e:rson Lamar Patriot Wilson were professors of Systematic Theology; Dr. Edward Robinson was Professor of Sacred Liter- ature; Dr. Thomas Harvey Skinner was Professor of Sacred Rhetoric, Pastoral Theology, and Church Gov- ernment; Dr. Henry Boynton Smith was Professor of Church History, while Dr. Luther Halsey was Instructor in Church History; William Wadden Turner was In- structor in Sacred Literature; and Edward Howe was Instructor in Sacred Music. Some of these men ranked among the leading scholars of America in their depart- ments. The curriculum they laid out for their students was one of the most extensive and scholarly then olTered in any theological seminary. The Seminary "Boys." There were twenty-two men who graduated in the Class of 1852, while eighteen others were connected with the class for a shorter or longer period. Among the men that were seminary mates of Mr. Lamar were the following : P. Mason Bartlett, D.D., LL.D., •'53, afterward President Bartlett, and Professor Lamar's colleague at Maryville from 1869 to 1887; Car- son William Adams, D.D., LL.D., '53, afterward the founder of Maryville's "Carson W. Adams Fund" ; Elijah Woodward Stoddard, D.D., '52, also a donor to Mary- ville; Elias Levi Boing, '53, later a financial agent of Maryville; Samuel Audley Rhea, '50, later the "Tennes- seean in Persia"; John McCampbell, '53, and George A. Caldwell, '53, other Tennesseeans by birth and ancestry ; Thomas Samuel Hastings, D.D., '51, the preacher and hymnologist; Wilson Phraner, D.D., '50, who outlived almost all his seminary mates; while among those who became foreign missionaries were George Whitfield Coan, Th^ TheoIvOGue^ and His Training 29 '49, Persia; Charles Livingston, '49, of Blantyre, Scot- land, Africa; Dwight Whitney Marsh, D.D., '49, Tur- key; William Woodbridge Eddy, D.D., '50, Syria; Seth Bradley Stone, '50, Africa; William Pratt Barker, '51, India ; Jasper Newton Ball, '52, Turkey ; Edward Toppin Doane, '52, Micronesia; Jerre Lorenzo Lyons, D.D., '54, Syria; and Sanford Richardson, '54, Asia. Among these and scores of other seminary men, Lamar formed many delightful and stimulating friendships. The City of New York. Mr. Lamar looked upon his mission in life as being so serious an undertaking that he coveted a thorough preparation for it. Instead of cur- tailing that preparation, as the manner of some sluggards and some zealots has been, he lengthened, as we have seen, the course prescribed by his church to those who desire to enter the ministry, by a full year. And he sought and obtained also the benefit of more than two years' residence in the metropolis of his country. Those were the days of sectionalism and provincialism, but he longed for the fullest acquaintance with all the sections of our country and first-hand knowledge of their ideas and ideals. And so the farmer's son from East Ten- nessee profited largely from the indirect education that he received from those years spent in the great Northern city of New York. In mission work in the neglected sec- tions of the city, too, he had an experience that broad- ened still further his already broad sympathies for the unfortunate. A Seminary Graduate. The rich years of inter- course with able Christian scholars and with the edu- 30 Thomas J^^:?^rson Lamar eating influences of a great city came all too soon to an end. On June i6, 1852, he graduated from Union Theo- logical Seminary, receiving his diploma signed by Pro- fessors Edward Robinson, Thomas H. Skinner, Henry B. Smith, and James P. Wilson. He was now a thoroughly educated man. Always of painstaking and accurate schol- arship, he had profited fully by the training in the coun- try school, Holston Academy, Maryville College in both college and theological departments, and Union Seminary. And now, at almost twenty-six years of age, he was ready to enter upon his ministry of the gospel, a ministry that was to continue nearly thirty-five years. CHAPTER IV Th^ Minister and His Ministry Licensure to the Ministry. In May, 1852, before he left New York, he was Hcensed to the gospel minis- try by the Presbytery of Brooklyn. His examination was eminently satisfactory, and, in reply to the solemn questions of the moderator, he declared his faith in the Scriptures as the Word of God, his acceptance of the Confession of Faith as containing the system of doctrine taught in the Scriptures, and his promise to study the peace, unity, and purity of the Church. And now having reached the goal toward which he had been pressing for ten years, he hurried westward with two purposes in mind, namely, first, to see his parents from whom he had parted when he was only a boy, and, then, to enter upon his ministry in the home mission field of the West. Ministry at Weston, Missouri. Although a Ten- nesseean, and very loyal to his native State, the fact that his parents and his brothers and sisters were now Mis- sourians, and that the need of the churches on the Mis- souri frontier was great, led him to begin his ministry in Missouri. During the years 1852 to 1855 he was located among his relatives near Weston, Platte county, and was in charge of churches of that locality. In the gazetteers of the Fifties, Weston, though settled first in 1838, is said to have been at that time the most important commer- cial town on the Missouri river or in the State, with the exception of St. Louis. Its population was three thou- sand, and it was the principal point of departure for 32 Thomas Ji^i^i^erson Lamar emigrants starting for California by the overland route; it provided the supplies for Fort Leavenw^orth ; and it also carried on an extensive trade with the Indians and the Far West. The town was picturesquely located on the Missouri river, five miles above Fort Leavenworth, and was described as "a. flourishing city and river port." Here among his kindred and amid the rich river farms of Platte county, he did his first work as a Christian minister. And while here he was ordained to the minis- try by the Presbytery of Lexington. His ordination at the hands of his brethren took place on May i, 1854. And he carried out their injunction and ever afterward gave full proof of his ministry. And at Savannah, Missouri. At the urgent invita- tion of Rev. Elijah A. Carson, an alumnus of Maryville, ordained in 1834, and then pastor at Savannah, the county seat of Andrew county, the second county far- ther up the Missouri river valley, Mr. Lamar removed to Savannah to take charge of an academy that offered a great field for useful Christian service. Savannah was located six miles from the river, and in the midst of a fertile farming region. Here he united the work of teacher and preacher, as he was destined to do during the rest of his life. It was while he was at Savannah, as will be seen elsewhere in this narrative, that he was married. Mr. Lamar was now in the prime of life. His five years of preaching and teaching in Missouri were fruitful years, and left a permanent impress upon the communities in which he labored. And they were especially enjoyable years, too, on account of his reunion with his relatives. Back to Tennessee. In the midst of this congenial The^ Ministe^r and His Ministry 33 work of his, there came an urgent call from the Synod of Tennessee for his return to Maryville to accept the pro- fessorship of Sacred Literature in his alma mater. While the call was to educational work, it in reality added a full-time ministry to the Synod of Tennessee; for, from his arrival in Tennessee and up to the last year of his life, he had pastoral charge of churches in addition to his college professorship. The call was extended to him by the Synod on September 2"], 1856, but his engagements and family responsibilities at Savannah were such that he could not leave until the scholastic year had ended. So it was not till the summer of 1857 that he and his family reached Maryville. He began his work in the College at the opening of the fall term of the year 1857-58. Blount County Churches. Mr. Lamar, like the other professors of the college faculty, took charge of such country churches in Blount county as would otherwise have been pastorless. In spite of the weariness that came as the result of long over-hours of teaching, he regularly preached for these churches, and, in addition, did all the pastoral work that he could find time for. He buried the dead and married the living, and proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom; and the people loved him and he loved the people. He preached for the people of Clover Hill, Forest Hill, Unitia, and other churches for many years. War-Time Ministry. The Civil War overturned in confusion all the institutions of peace, such as civil gov- ernment, social intercourse, the school, and the church. Blount county twice passed from one government to the other, social ties were strained and severed, the college and other educational institutions were closed, and so 3 34 Thomas Jefferson Lamar were many of the churches, though some were opened intermittently. Mr. Lamar, always a courteous gentle- man, endeavored to avoid giving needless offense to those of other convictions. Friends on the other side of the house, at critical times, lent their best efforts in his behalf to such good effect that he escaped the perils of the war, and nothing more serious befell him than the loss of his horse and some other property. During most of the four years in which our country was a house divided against itself, he was permitted to conduct services on Sab- baths for such people as could collect for the worship of Almighty God. He had lost his wife before the begin- ning of the war; and so his child, a motherless invalid, demanded all his attention; otherwise he could have en- tered the service as chaplain. As it was, he was acting chaplain for the sorely distressed people who lived in a section that was the battleground of many armies. And grievously did the people need the consolations and the cheer of the gospel, while they were harassed on every hand by the especially fratricidal strife that raged throughout East Tennessee. Mr. Lamar did all that lay in his power to keep alive in his countrymen, both friends and foes, faith in the presence, power, providence, wis- dom, and love of God. Anxious men and women and children listened to his messages and took courage. After- War Church Reorganization. At last the war came to an end, and peace returned to a weary land. Mr. Lamar searched for and found the records of the Synod of Tennessee, and then led in the reorganization of the Synod. A quorum was secured, and the Synod of Ten- nessee came together at New Market in October, 1865. The: Minister and His Ministry 35 The ecclesiastical machinery was salvaged from the dump heap and set to going again. He was the principal figure in this historic meeting of Synod. Around him gathered a goodly number, and they united in laying the founda- tions of the church anew after the destruction and deso- lation wrought by the war. His wisdom and sagacity and sympathy as a counsellor made him sought out by the people of many churches, as they endeavored to feel their way out of the darkness and wreckage of the war into a brighter day and into constructive work. And he was kept very busy preaching in these many churches. Stated Clerkship of Synod. The Synod appointed him stated clerk, and he ably discharged the duties of this office for twenty-two years, or until the time of his death. The fact that the Synodical College was located at Mary- ville led often to the appointment of a Maryville man as stated clerk. Professor William Eagleton held the office from 1825 to 1830; Professor Darius Hoyt, 1830-1836; Professor Fielding Pope, 1836-185 1 ; President John J. Robinson, 1851-1855 ; Professor Thomas Jefiferson Lamar, 1865-1887; Professor Gideon Stebbins White Crawford, 1 887- 1 89 1 ; and President Samuel Tyndale Wilson, 1891- 1919. Professor Lamar kept the records with his usual care and accuracy. The task of writing the records was a heavy one and was performed as a labor of love for the work of the Synod. The salary was merely nominal. The manuscript records of the Synod are, by order of the Synod, kept deposited in the college safe at Maryville. Earnest Preacher. Mr. Lamar was an able sermon- izer. Dr. Alexander says, "As a sermonizer he had few 36 Thomas Jefferson Lamar equals in this section of country." He sometimes preached extemporaneous sermons, but usually employed manu- script. He wrote out each sermon in full and with pains- taking care. He made his own goosequill pens, but his writing resembled electrotype work. He composed very rapidly, usually standing at a high desk. His sermons were always thoughtful and always earnest. A brother minister who often heard him, testified that he never heard him preach a poor sermon, or an uninteresting one. He was always an able preacher, but it was a matter of common remark that his very best preaching was that of his last year in the pulpit, the year closing in May, 1886, at which time his health broke down and put an end to his active ministry. Sage Counsellor. Reference has been made to the great service he rendered as a wise counsellor at the time of ecclesiastical reorganization in 1865. His service in this respect was by no means limited to that period. Always he was a sage counsellor. He had the gift of organization. He could set others to work, to do work that they did not know that they could do, and work that sometimes he himself could not have done. His study was a council-chamber where brother ministers and ruling elders of local churches and the presbyteries and the Synod, and colleagues of the college faculty, and present students and former students came for counsel and advice. His study was a council-chamber for Presbyterianism in East Tennessee, as well as for the College and the county. Indeed his place in this regard has never been filled. His most beneficent work for the church, aside from his service through the College, was rendered in the sage and Th^ Minister and His Ministry 37 sympathetic counsel that he freely gave to the many that sought it in his quiet study. Missions His Great Commission. The work of the church occupied his heart's devotion. He was busy day and night in advancing its sacred interests. His commis- sion to preach was a mission entrusted to him by Christ and his church. Home and foreign missions enlisted his enthusiastic cooperation and inspired his tireless support. The work in the Southern mountains — the work for which Maryville was founded and to which it has been devoted — stirred his liveliest sympathies. Christian education to him was a passion because it was a means to lead men to Christ and a means by which to carry forward the work of the Great Teacher. He rejoiced to see many of his choicest students go to foreign fields, and to destitute home mission fields. He was an able minister of the New Testament, called and commissioned to a congenial service — the proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom to a world that needs it. CHAPTER V The Te:achkr and His Teaching Predilection for Teaching. Professor Lamar was a teacher frorn his youth onward. While a student at Maryville, during his collegiate and theological courses, he was an assistant teacher or tutor. Mr. James Gillespie tells of reciting Vattel's Law of Nations to him. He had been out of the Seminary only three years when he became a "teacher" at Savannah, Missouri, and was so listed in the Minutes of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. After two years he was called to Maryville College, and there discharged the duties of his professorship until the outbreak of the war. And even during that dread vacation period of four years of civil strife; he taught a little private school in the home of the Duncans. It was attended by the Duncan and McCon- nell children, Nannie McGinley, and the household help. Mrs. Jennie Duncan Crawford recalls the professor's seating her on a trunk to work off a condition in her spelling book before permitting her to join the family in a day's outing that was being planned. He was always and everywhere a teacher. A Professorship at Maryville. On September 27, 1856, a day after the overwhelming defeat of the last effort ever made to remove the College from the town of Maryville, the Synod of Tennessee, in session at Athens, unanimously elected Mr. Lamar as Professor of Sacred Literature, to succeed Dr. John J. Robinson, who had The: Tocher and His Teaching 39 resigned. This professorship had been founded by the Synod through the agency of Rev. Thomas Brown, the most efficient agent of the College in ante-bellum days. The salary offered was $600, but the amoimt received was always less than the stipulated amount. Professor G. S. W. Crawford, in 1876, in an address that was re- vised by Professor Lamar, stated: ''From 1819 to 1861 no professor ever received so much as $500 salary, while the average was about $300." The first incumbent of the professorship was Rev. John J. Robinson, D.D., from 1850 to 1855 ; Professor Lamar was the second, from 1857 to 1 86 1. The Synod recognized the special interest attaching to the recall of a favorite son into the service of alma mater, and added a touch of sentiment to their action by appointing a special committee of two to pre- sent and urge the call, namely, Ruling Elder Daniel Meek, of Strawberry Plains Church, his benefactor and foster- father, and Rev. Gideon Stebbins White, the pastor of his boyhood days, who had received him into the church and encouraged him to enter the ministry. This Another Momentous Event. It was a mo- mentous event, as we have seen, when, in 1844, Thomas Lamar matriculated at Maryville. And another momen- tous event was it, indeed, when, in 1857, Rev. Thomas Jefferson Lamar returned to Maryville to reenter the College as one of its professors. It was a noteworthy event in the accession of a scholarly and faithful teacher ; but it Vv^as a most significant event because in this modest teacher there was also found an educational statesman and financial wonder-worker — thaumatourgos, as his Greek language would have called him. In this silent school- 40 Thomas Je^i^e^rson Lamar teacher there was embodied far-seeing vision and un- conquerable resolution. On that momentous day there entered the little college circle a man who was to snatch up the blazing torch of Christian education that had just fallen from the dying hands of Dr. Anderson and carry it onward, sometimes unaided and unaccompanied by others, until he should, almost a third of a century later, pass it over into the hands of others of Maryville's men. There entered into the service of alma mater that autumn day a man who was to defy the destruction of war, and, by God's assisting grace, was to establish on a lordly campus on the southeastern hills, the new buildings of a bigger and better Maryville than the fathers had dared even to hope for. There dawned upon Maryville on that day of his return the certainty of a new and glorious future. And yet perhaps none realized it, and no one less than he ! "Professor Lamar." Mr. Lamar entered upon his professorship in the fall of 1857. And thus "Tom Lamar" became, by the quick nomenclature of college boys, ''Professor Lamar," and Professor Lamar he re- mained to the end of his life. Nominally, he was Pro- fessor of Languages in the Literary Department, and Professor of Sacred Literature in the Theological Depart- ment of Maryville College; but practically, as was the case in almost all the heavy-laden teachers of that day, his work extended over most of the departments of the school. As Dr. Anderson, who had closed his earthly career only a few months before, had at some time con- ducted every class scheduled at Maryville, so Professor Lamar had ample opportunity to show his versatility, for The^ Teacher and His Teaching 41 the classes he conducted ranged all the way "from A to Izzard" in nature and variety. Trying Days. The College had been passing through hard experiences. Dr. Anderson for several years had been incapacitated both mentally and physically for work ; and on January 28, 1857, after Mr. Lamar's election as professor but before he had entered upon his duties, had closed his earthly career. The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, in session at Cleveland, Ohio, in May of that year, only echoed the general sorrow of the church when it recorded "with deep regret the decease of the Rev. Isaac Anderson, D.D., late President of the Institution at Maryville." In 1855 Dr. Robinson had resigned his professorship to accept a call to Kentucky. The only professor from 1855 to 1857 was Rev. John S. Craig. He was assisted by Charles C. Newman as tutor and other students as assistants. In 1855-56 there were only fifty-eight students enrolled; in 1856-57, sixty-two students, of whom twenty- two were in the College Depart- ment. There was a strong effort being made to remove the College to Rogersville. The fortunes of the College were at their lowest ebb. Many of the old friends of the institution despaired of its future. Better Days Coming. The Synod of Tennessee ended the contest for the removal of the College by de- ciding in October,' 1856, by a decisive majority, to have the institution remain at Maryville for at least ten years. It also called Mr. Lamar to the professorship, which he entered a year later. It took steps toward the completion of the brick college building, which had been begun in 1853. Immediately after the death of Dr. Anderson, the 42 Thomas jEFi^EiRSoN Lamar Directors elected Dr. John J. Robinson as the second president of the College, and he entered upon the dis- charge of his duties at the opening of the summer session, April 7, 1857. Professor Lamar's estimate of Dr. Robin- son was that he was "a fine scholar, an able theologian, eloquent preacher, and thorough instructor." Thus the steadfast Dr. Craig and the tutors were reinforced by two as able men as Maryville had ever had in her faculty, Mr. Lamar and Dr. Robinson, one a former student and tutor and the other a former professor of the institution, and both of them graduates of Union Theological Semi- nary. Popular confidence was reestablished, and the flow of students set toward the College again. Prosperity and growth, to a greater degree than before, seemed the sure destiny of the school. The worst was over, and a better day had dawned. Religious activity increased. A revival took place in College, and fifteen out of the sixty-six enrolled were converted. A college weekly prayer meeting and a Sabbath evening preaching service were established. The New^ Professor's Scholarship. The standards of scholarship upheld by the new professor were high. He had not been studying at Maryville and in New York and teaching in the West to no effect. Accurate and ver- satile, he entered upon his new duties with enthusiasm and painstaking devotion. The faculty of three — Craig, Lamar, and Robinson — commanded public favor as much as did any Maryville faculty of the first college century. They revised the curriculum and planned an advance in college standards. Whether it was Greek or Geography that Professor Lamar taught, it was well taught. Pre- paratory, college, and theological courses were all thor- Thi^ T^ache:r and His Ti:aching 43 oughly conducted by him. In the first post-bellum year, he taught almost all the curriculum ! For a few years in the Sixties he was also County Superintendent of Public Instruction for Blount county, and won the strong endorse- ment of State Superintendent John Eaton, afterwards the United States Commissioner of Education. Patience in Class-Room Drill. Of indefatigable per- severance, he was especially effective in the painstaking drill that he gave his students in the Greek verbs and particles, and in all else that he taught. Of long-suffer- ing endurance, he trained his students in the mastery of details. Quiet but persuasive, his influence was every- where strong, and nowhere stronger than in the class room. It was, the stolidity of the student rather than lack of persistence on the part of the pedagogue that accounted for any failure on the part of his pupil. Kindliness in Discipline. Where he felt it was pos- sible to save a student to better things, he was very patient and forbearing; but when the moral welfare of the entire school was involved, he could be very firm, and, when occasion required it, very stern. But, in it all, his kindli- ness of heart and genuine desire for the student's well- being revealed itself in all cases of discipline. Said one frequent offender : "He was kind to me, as if he wanted to do me good." With this kindliness, however, there went along a shrewd insight that read with remarkable accuracy the true inwardness of the student arraigned before him. He was not often deceived, even when the student flattered himself that he had succeeded in an attempted deception. 44 Thomas J^ffkrson Lamar Sympathetic Heart. He did not "carry his heart on his sleeve," and so some may have fancied him cold and indifferent, but they were entirely mistaken. Under his quiet reserve, there beat a heart of sympathy and loving- kindness. One of his students of the early days said of him : "No one ever went to him for help and came away empty." The fact that the students knew him to be thus in kindliest sympathy with them established between them and their teacher a very close and cordial relation- ship. And thus his heart taught his students even more effectively than did his intellect. Fruitful Pedagogy. And so this able and conse- crated teacher rendered a service to his students that won their gratitude and elicited their enthusiastic praise. Some of his students he made scholars, and Greek schol- ars, too; some he helped to a choice of a life vocation; some who had gone astray he won back to repentance and a new life ; many he aided in the greatest of all decisions — that of choosing the Christian life purpose. And so this teacher's influence flowed beyond the class room into the lives of his students. And for thirty years did this Chris- tian pedagogue render this gracious and helpful service to the students of Maryville College. CHAPTER VI A Christian State:sman The Teacher also a Statesman. There are teachers that are teachers and Httle else. Their orbit is a limited though worthy one. Of Professor Lamar, however, all who knew his work were constrained to say that he was not only a teacher and a Christian teacher, but also a Christian statesman. He had clear views and ideals of policy and of the best ways of realizing that policy. The daily routine of a treadmill existence was transformed into the delights of achievement as his vision pierced beyond the immediate present to the greater and more influential and serviceable future which should grow out of the prosaic present, and which was vitally connected with it. The treadmill work of today was connected in his broad vision with the useful triumphs of tomorrow, or of some other tomorrow. He was not content to be a mere school- room pedagogue. He was ambitious to help realize a better school-room and much beyond the school-room. He was a constructive educational statesman. Higher Christian Education. He recognized the fact that one of the most vital needs of the world is the need of higher Christian education. The result of his study of history and society was this tenet of his experimental philosophy : "The world is lost without trained Christian leaders." And since this is indisputably a fact, he decided to tie up his own life to this necessary and beneficent business of higher Christian education. Extension of Maryville's Contribution to It. From 46 ' Thomas J^ffi^rson Lamar 1857, when he entered the Maryville faculty, till 1887, when his life work terminated, he was ever ambitious and resolved that Maryville College should in the amplest possible way realize Dr. Anderson's expressed desire, that it should "do good on the largest possible scale." His heart was burdened with a sense of duty to inaugurate ways and means by which Maryville could grow in facili- ties for doing more widely the good thing it had, during all its days, been doing, namely, the making of well- trained and far-visioned Christian leaders. To this great end, he dreamed, he resolved, he attempted, he achieved, and, finally, he gave his life. Its Clientage Increased. In this endeavor he joined his colleagues immediately in an earnest effort to increase the number of students in attendance. So successful was the attempt, even in those days of small population and no public schools and comparative poverty, that the en- rollment at Maryville was nearly doubled in those four troubled years before the outbreak of the Civil War. A new popular favor came to the institution, and there was fair promise of a much larger and more enthusiastic clientage. The United Synod, at Huntsville, Alabama, in i860, bore testimony: "The College of the United Synod at Maryville is now commanding public attention and attracting the regard of our denominational body in a higher degree than perhaps at any former period." The "South Hills" Expansion Planned. In con- junction with President Robinson, Professor Lamar had his share in planning the removal of the College from the half -acre campus on Main street to the spacious and quiet "South Hills," where, in the earliest days of the A Christian Statesman 47 Seminary, the seminary farm had been located. He and President Robinson gave their personal note for $2,000, by which they secured option on fifty acres of that attractive site. Had the War not arisen, the probability is that their plan might have been realized, and the school have been removed to the South Hills. After the War, however, it was the East Hills, adjoining the South Hills, that Pro- fessor Lamar succeeded in securing, thus realizing the essential features of his ante-bellum dream. But War Engulfs Everything. While the little fac- ulty at Maryville was planning expansion, the cruel out- burst of civil war threatened extinction. The sectional quarrel had been of such long-standing duration, that many men had got into the habit of expecting that it would end in words, not blows ; but they were now sadly undeceived. The fury of the struggle had in it the accu- mulated momentum of the long-dammed-up tide of bitter- ness. And the heart-broken professor, upon his return from presbytery on April 23, 1861, found that, the day before, the College had been closed, and that now teachers and students were scattering wherever their sense of duty and the force of circumstances were sweeping them. It was as if^ an eye-witness from the shore, he had seen a gallant ship with which his fortunes and his interests were all identified, go suddenly down in the vortex of a raging whirlpool, leaving nothing behind but wreckage and the memory of its former beauty and utility. Everything ! Everything ! As he gazed, all that had been familiar and dear to him in connection with his own college days and then with his four happy years as teacher disappeared from sight. Engulfed in the maelstrom of 48 Thomas Jefferson Lamaii the War, there vanished the men who sat in the chairs of instruction and those who were enrolled in their classes as students. Down, too, went the modest endowment, the library, the buildings — one altogether and others practi- cally so — and, finally, even those ruins that remained. And amid these national and college disasters, the pro- fessor suffered the added griefs that come from domestic sorrow. He had lost in the summer before the outbreak of the War his wife and their infant child. But there remained with him his other child, little Katie, a beloved care that moved his heart with constant sympathy. And so within his borrowed home was this daily care, and without were the desolations of war. Yet Unwavering in Purpose. But throughout those dreary years Professor Lamar fainted not, nor swerved from his designs of good for the old College, and, through it, for the church and mankind. As he sat at the fire- place in the home of the Duncans, where he resided after the death of his wife, he would talk over his plans for reopening the College when the War should end; and then, before going to his room, he would conduct family worship, and never fail to pray for the College that then was not, but that should yet be again, if God should please. Dr. Alexander said of this period of Professor Lamar's life, "The professor, however, saw in the wide- spread desolation no ground for despondency, but rather an opportunity for work." Meanwhile he watched the progress of events with an eager eye and with confidence in the overruling providence of God. Only Av^^aiting an Opportunity. Tied down by the death of his wife to the care of his helpless child, he was A Christian Statesman , 49 not drawn into the war and war work. And so, provi- dentially, he was able to stay at his post, watching the interests of what had been and yet should be the insti- tution of higher Christian education to which he had devoted his life. Men may not turn aside the devastating currents of war, but they may wait until those currents have run their course and ebbed away ; and then they may take up again interrupted work and follow again the path- way from which they had been driven. This was another instance illustrating the truth of Milton's words : "They also serve who only stand and wait." Planning and Praying. "When the cruel war is over," was the refrain that ran through the thinking of Americans of both sections in those sad years of strife. Professor Lamar planned what should be with God's help in those blessed days to come; and then he prayed to God for his grace and favor to bring to pass the reali- zation of those plans. Tested and tried during those years and before those years, he believed most unre- servedly in the plans and providences of his heavenly Father, and sought with confidence to tie up all his own plans and purposes with the will of God. And God hears and heeds such knocking and seeking and asking as Professor Lamar brought to the place of prayer. Peace and Work Again. And when peace at last dawned again on a war-worn country, immediately this quiet, silent statesman began to set influences in operation to bring about the reopening and rebuilding of Maryville College in order that it might contribute its quota to the gigantic task then committed to the Christian colleges of the land in the preparation of a proper and adequate 4 50 Thomas Jei^i^ERSON Lamar educated leadership for the reunited country and the New America that was to be. For two great causes he toiled day and night ; they were never off his thoughts, namely, the church and the College. And within six months after the close of the war, largely through his leadership, the Synod of Tennessee was reorganized and had held an epochal meeting at New Market, on October 12-14, 1865, and had appointed him a director of the College and had ordered him to reopen the institution. Within twelve months more, he was able to carry this order into effect. And thus the statesman's dreams had been justified and had begun to be realized. But this story belongs to the next chapter. CHAPTER VII A CoLLi^Gie Builder Facing a Scrap Heap. Surely no more unpromis- ing outlook for a college builder could have existed than was that before Professor Lamar as, at the close of the war, he looked out upon Maryville College to take stock of its resources. Those resources, at the best, before the war were limited enough, but now were almost non-exist- ent. The original seminary building had entirely disap- peared, while the main building was a mere skeleton, with no doors or window frames or even window casiags. The library and, indeed, the wreck of the main building and the land it stood on, and all else, had been sold at sheriff's sale in 1864 to satisfy a judgment against the Directors. The endowment of $15,739 had been reduced to a face value of $7,182 and an actual value of $5,539. Add to this the cash value of real estate and other property, and the entire assets of the College did not amount to more than $6,036. Maryville College was, indeed, a scrap heap. What Synod Did. At the meeting of the Synod of Tennessee in its reorganization in 1865, Professor Lamar made a frank and, therefore, profoundly discouraging report of the condition of the finances, the plant, and the prospects of the College. A free discussion was had as to what should be done regarding the future of the Synodical College. Some felt that its case was clearly hopeless. It had been practically annihilated, and its friends were so impoverished that the problem of their own future was alone as serious a problem as they could 52 Thomas Je^fferson Lamar deal with. In the midst of the depression that prevailed, Hon. Horace Maynard, a delegate from the Second Church of Knoxville, rose and made an earnest speech in favor of the reopening and rehabilitation of the College, on the ground that otherwise the needed ministry for the churches of the Synod could not be secured. Professor Lamar and his friends agreed with Mr. Maynard's po- sition, and the Synod, as was stated in a former chapter, voted to revive the institution ; and to that end elected a full board of directors, and a treasurer, and empowered Professor Lamar to reopen the College in the fall of 1865, if practicable, and at the same time appointed him as financial agent of the school. A Winter of Torture. It was entirely impracticable to reopen the school in the fall of 1865. There was no money available and the building was uninhabitable. But something had to be done or the dead could never be restored to life. Professor Lamar nerved himself to a heart-breaking task, and, in December, 1865, he ^com- mitted Katie, his little charge, to the kind care of Mrs. Duncan, and went North, and labored for four months, or until x\pril, 1866, in a desperate endeavor to interest people in Maryville College, and to secure money for its rehabilitation. He was of a most retiring and diffident disposition, and so the work of seeking funds for the College was one that inflicted upon him untold torture and even agony. People at home were reduced to bitter poverty, while people in the North were not then in the habit of contributing largely to the cause of education even at home, and surely not to a far-ofif school in a sec- tion with which they had just been engaged in bloody A Coi.le:gk Buii,de;r 53 strife. It would be hard to exaggerate the nerve-racking wretchedness that Professor Lamar endured for the king- dom of heaven's sake during those dreadful four months of his first financial agency for his alma mater. He was so economical that his expenses amounted to only $190; but his best endeavors were able to secure only $125 in contributions. Hon. William E. Dodge contributed $100 of this sum. At last the four months came to a dismal end, and he returned to Maryville worn out and penni- less. Nothing was to be expected from a distance at that time of national disturbance and readjustment. Year One of the New College. So he returned to the Duncan fireside, and took to his heart again little Katie and his college problems. And he decided, as Dr. Anderson had decided in a similar predicament forty- seven years before, that, if others would not help, he would start the work without man's help. So on July 4, 1866, fit day for so heroic and patriotic an announce- ment, he had issued over the signature of his future father-in-law. Rev. Ralph Erskine Tedford, Recorder of the Directors of the College, a one-page announcement that the reopening of the College would take place on Wednesday, September 5, 1866. By September, 1866, Treasurer John P. Hooke, "by prompt and energetic action," as Professor Lamar said, had succeeded in se- curing at a cost of $587, through attorneys, the few bonds of any value that had escaped destruction during the Civil War. They were Knox county bonds. He also had collected by that date in interest on the bonds and out- standing notes the sum of $1,039. -^^^ ^^ i^ Septem- ber, 1866, the boarding house, a dilapidated little frame 54 Thomas Jefferson Lamar building on the present site of the Second Presb5rterian Church, was redeemed at die cost of $217, and the main college building, for $59.25. And the sum of $97.60 was paid for glass and putty with which to repair the win- dows of those rooms of the college building that were to be occupied by the classes. And so Maryville College began its first year of the new era, on the first Wednes- day of September, 1866. The window glass had not yet been put in, and there was not a decent room in the tumble-down building. The cattle, wandering about the village, stared in wonder through the window openings at Professor Lamar and the lucky thirteen men who had answered the call of the old college bell on that historic day. The Salutatory. James Andrew Goddard, one of the thirteen, has a very distinct recollection of Professor Lamar's talk made to them at that unpromising opening. The professor congratulated them upon the desire for an education that their presence there indicated. He spoke of the power of an educated man ; and of his own fixed purpose, for the sake of country and church, to push forward the long-intermitted work of Maryville College. He urged the young men to exercise patience until their surroundings could be made more presentable, and coun- seled them to fidelity and industry. He told them not to be discouraged because the war had interfered with their education. If they worked hard, they could make up what was lost. The thirteen who listened to this reassuring talk and joined in that first chapel service of the new day were Francis Miller Allen, George Eagleton Bick- nell, Gideon Stebbins White Crawford, Calvin Alexander A Coi^hmt Buii,pe:r 55 Duncan, James Andrew Goddard, Benjamin Houston Lea, Isaac Anderson Martin, William Henderson Porter, Edward W. Sanderson, Hugh Walker Sawyer, Joseph Patton Tedford, Charles Erskine Tedford, and Edward Weeks Tedford. Four were returned soldiers. Six later on entered the gospel ministry. Mr. Crawford was for sixteen years Professor of Mathematics in Maryville College. Beside the thirteen students present, William Edmond Parham, then a little child of six years, was a very interested spectator. Professor Lamar holding the little fellow between his knees as he talked with the students. A Good Beginning. In spite of the "horrible and disgusting" building, as one of the thirteen described it, the school grew by additions until the modest four-page catalogue published at the end of the year contained the names of forty-seven students — two in the college de- partment and forty-five in the preparatory department. Among these students were men who became leading citi- zens of the county and some who attained distinction elsewhere. Besides the immortal thirteen there were enrolled : John Casper Branner, now ex-president of Leland Stanford University; James E. Alexander, and J. Albert Wallace, who afterward became ministers; James H. Alexander, James M. Brown, M.D., Moses Carson, James P., Richard, and W. G. Chandler, T. P. and S. A. Cowan, James Culton, W. F. Do well, Capt. J. Perry Edmondson, B. F., I. W., J. L., and S. Hous- ton George, James A. and N. H. Greer, J. H. Harmon, W. W. Hedrick, John F. Henry, Z. Taylor McGill, Major William Anderson McTeer, R. P. McReynolds, C. A. H. 56 Thomas Jkffkrson Lamar Palmer, Robert Porter, J. G. Reed, M. C. Tipton, G. R. and W. A. Walker, James S. Warren, and D. M. Wilson. Several of these men were afterward directors of the institution, among whom were Major William Anderson McTeer, who has served thus far ( 1920) for forty-eight years (sixteen years as Treasurer), and Rev. Calvin Alex- ander Duncan, D.D., for forty-four years. The faculty that memorable first year consisted of Rev. Thomas Jef- ferson Lamar, Acting President, Professor of Languages, and Professor of Mathematics. Besides these depart- ments he conducted what else was taught, excepting those classes that were conducted by Isaac A. Martin, Tutor, sole member of the Junior Class. Finding Colleagues. In the circular catalogue for 1866-67, Professor Lamar wrote what was more than a wish; it was part of his statesmanlike purpose. "The friends of the institution," said he, "at the earliest practi- cable period, wish to provide a full and efficient faculty, and all the facilities for a thorough education." His own salary was not adequately provided for; what could he offer to others? And yet he began to gather about him colleagues who were to bear their share of the responsi- bilities and ambitions of the College. In Union Theo- logical Seminary he had known and esteemed P. Mason Bartlett, a member of the class following his own. He had hoped to secure this friend of his at the very opening of the College in 1866, and did print his name in the July circular as the professor to be in charge of the Depart- ment of Mathematics. But Dr. Bartlett did not join him at Maryville until in March, 1869, when he came to enter upon his duties as the third president of the College, to A Coi^LEGl^ BuiIvDE^R 57 which position he had been elected on September 26, 1868, upon the recommendation of Professor Lamar. In the fall of 1867, Professor Lamar secured as Professor of the Latin Language and Literature, Rev. Alexander Bart- lett, the brother of Dr. Bartlett. These three professors made up the faculty until 1875. They were aided by tutors and assistant teachers. In 1875, Rev. Gideon Steb- bins White Crawford, of the class of 1871, a graduate of Lane Theological Seminary in 1874, became Professor of Mathematics. Rev. Solomon Zook Sharp was a professor from 1875-78; William A Gate, from 1879-92; in 1884, two other former students of Professor Lamar's, Rev. Edgar Alonzo Elmore, '74, and Rev. Samuel Tyndale Wilson, 'y^, were added to the faculty. Six members of this faculty rendered a total of one hundred and twenty-nine years' service to the institution. The Motives He Urged. To illustrate the motives that Professor Lamar held before those whom he sought to bring into the Maryville faculty, the writer ventures to quote a few lines from a letter he received upon reaching Tennessee after his health had broken down in Mexico : 'T have now and then had it in my mind to write to you about accepting a professorship in the Gollege, but ques- tioning both the propriety and possibility -of persuading you to abandon your very hopeful and interesting mis- sionary work, I have not had the courage to do so. The only reason at all plausible I could think of was that, by stirring up and advancing a missionary spirit in the Gol- lege, you might multiply yourself many times in Mexico. ^ * * In view of the condition of your health and your probable exclusion from Mexico, and in view of a 58 Thomas Jk^ferson Lamar constitution that will have constant need of a healthful climate, and in view of the hopeful and promising field here presented for training and sending forth laborers into the field both home and foreign, will you not weigh prayerfully and carefully the reasons pro and con for making Maryville College the theatre of your life work?" Winning Friends and Donors. In a few lines may be recorded what it took years of toil to bring about — the interesting of generous donors in this little East Tennessee college. With the help of such agents as Rev. Samuel Sawyer, and the efforts of President Bartlett, and the mediation of influential friends who were leaders of the Presbyterian Church, Professor Lamar had the satis- faction of seeing a small but interested clientage built up, and money begin to be contributed to Maryville College. Jehovah-jireh ! A New Campus ! Real estate was low, and Professor Lamar looked longingly at the East Hills and the undulating and picturesque campus it might come to be. Could not the dreams of other days now come to pass? On October 14, 1867, a check for $1,000, the largest gift ever received by Maryville up to that time, was received from William Thaw of Pittsburgh, a donor whose name was so connected with Maryville thereafter that, had its owner consented, the name of the institution might have been Thaw College. Two days later, this check together with a note for $691.50 was paid to Julius C. Fagg for the sixty-five acres that still form the front of the campus. And now, at last, after forty-eight years, the College owned a beautiful, ample, and appropriate site ! For the forethought that secured this sightly campus and extended it till it is one of the A Coi^IvEGE) BuitDJ^R 59 largest and best in the possession of an American college, those of the present generation often bless the sagacity and statesmanship of Professor Lamar. The property has increased a hundredfold in money value, but it has also, throughout the era of expansion, allowed the build- ings a choice of sites, and made possible such immunity from fire risk as few colleges enjoy. And Four New Buildings! Mr. John C. Baldwin was interested by an article that Professor Lamar wrote for the New York Evangelist, and by visits from Dr. Bartlett and Mr. Sawyer; and within two years contrib- uted the splendid sum of $25,400 to the College. Mr. Thaw, Mr. Dodge, and others made liberal contributions, and the Directors were able to erect in 1869-70 a main building, almost a replica of the old college in town but much better built. It was named for Dr. Anderson, Anderson Hall. Memorial and Baldwin Halls, with ac- commodations for one hundred and thirty students and a boarding hall, were erected in 1870-71. The first build- ing erected, however, was a residence for Professor Alexander Bartlett, which also was made possible by a contribution by Mr. Thaw. Professor Lamar moved into the two north rooms on the second floor of Memorial Hall in the autumn of 1871, when the hall was first occu- pied by students. His rooms were very comfortable and attractive, very different from any that Maryville had ever been able to provide up to that time. The professor had charge of the young men who occupied the building. He remained thus in charge until his marriage in 1874. The three main buildings were well built after plans by Architect Fanstock, under the immediate and efficient 6o Thomas Ji^i^^erson Lamar supervision of President Bartlett, who, himself, in his youthful days, had had experience as a builder. But Unremitting Toil and Cares. The building of a college amid the hard conditions of those early after- war years called for heroic persistence in labors and heroic defiance of nerve-racking cares. Those were the days of divided counsels in national and State and local matters. Naturally there were serious differences of opinion as to college policies. And among other burdens borne at that time of testing and tension was that of litigation regard- ing the property of the College, which was instituted after the new buildings had been erected ; it extended over eight weary years. The fact that the College was "in Chancery" of course prevented possible donors from contributing to an endowment ; and all that the college people could do, was, in the expressive phrase of the English in the latest war, "to carry on." And with it all was an excessive amount of work in the class room and out of it, in a school that was prospering in the attendance registered but not in the means of paying the teachers. Countless harassing difficulties, burning heartaches, and cruel sacrifices are not recorded in this booklet, nor even in the knowledge of men; but they are all recorded in God's book of remembrance. For Fourteen Long Years. And this toil and trouble simmered and bubbled in the caldron from 1866 till 1880, with little intermission. There was a grievous wearing away of nerves and endurance during those trying years. Had it not been for the loyal support and inspiring sympathy of William Thaw and William E. Dodge throughout those weary years, the burden could A Collegia Builder 6i not have been carried. These generous friends of Chris- tian education contributed liberally every year toward the current expenses of the College, their benefactions thus taking the place of an endowment until the endowment could be sought and secured. The panic of 1873 inter- rupted these annual gifts ; and then, had it not been that Professor Lamar and President Bartlett were willing to teach when their salaries were in arrearages, the school would have had to be closed. Maryville College lives because overworked and underpaid professors and teach- ers have stayed by the stuff for the kingdom of heaven's sake. Success! Two Hundred Students! By 1880 the enrollment of students had arisen to two hundred, twice the high water mark of the ante-bellum College. And that signified the success of Maryville's lifelong struggle to do good on a larger scale. And the clientage was becoming a wider and more representative one, and the enrollment in the college department had risen to thirty- two. There were now four buildings, a spacious campus, a nucleus of $13,000 in endowment, and, best of all, what seemed a little army of students, at this loyal West Point of Christian education. But Anxiety, Deficit, and Debt. The builder had built, but al cost to himself, even to the shortening of his life. But not yet had he made his supreme sacrifice for the College. The lack of adequate income to pay the teachers' salaries and to meet the increase in the expenses of the institution as the number of students increased, taken in conjunction with the coming of hard times to the country, made it inevitable that a deficit and, consequently, 62 Thomas Jei^^ERSOn Lamar a debt should be incurred. There was but one safe and prudent way to provide against any debt and deficit, and that was to secure an endowment that should bring in a regular income that could be applied to financing the necessary budget of the institution. This had long been recognized to be imperatively the next advance that must be made by the College; and now that the lawsuit was disposed of, the way was open for an attempt to make the advance. CHAPTER Vni An Endowme^nt Founder Endowment or Collapse! Maryville College had now grown to such proportions, and was so steadily en- larging its proportions, that it was increasingly and con- vincingly evident that it could not go on trusting to annual contributions to provide for its growing budget. The panic of 1873 had for several years cut off or diminished the annual gifts of William Thaw and William E. Dodge, and the occasional gifts of others, until, in spite of bitter retrenchment, the debt amounted in 1878 to more than ten thousand dollars. Most of this debt was due to Pro- fessor Lamar, who for years had not drawn his full salary, and had even advanced money for the necessary expenses of the College. The faculty, the directors, the Synod, and Professor Lamar all realized that there must be a sub- stantial amount of endowment raised, or a collapse must ensue. And when, in 1880, the paralyzing litigation came to an end, all felt that the crisis must be faced and a desperate attempt to secure endowment must be made. Fourteen years after the College had been reopened, there was an endowment fund of only thirteen thousand dol- lars. And yet the necessary expenditures were mounting higher every year. Enlistment for the Forlorn Hope. At a meeting of the friends of the institution to consider the matter, by a process of elimination one and another were shown not to be available to conduct this forlorn hope campaign ; and then some one turned to Professor Lamar and said, 64 Thomas Jefferson Lamar "Professor, you see that you are the one that must go." The professor turned ashy pale, but, seemed to recognize the apparent necessity, and, ere the conference closed, had "enlisted for the duration of the war." He was no coward, or he would not have consented to go; his soul shrank from the dread ordeal, but, like his Master, for the sake of others he would go into the darkness of the Garden or even to his Golgotha. The Task an Impossible One. One hundred thou- sand dollars — no less — must be the goal, for no less than six thousand dollars a year must be added to the college income in order to meet the expense account. But how hopeless to seek to find donors for this vast sum, for it was indeed vast then, when large gifts to education were very rare. With a local clientage able to help but little, how could it be believed that strangers of another section, who had never seen Maryville, should contribute to it this preposterously large endowment? How could a modest school-teacher of Maryville, Blount county, Tennessee, challenge the attention and gain the liberality of enough men on a large enough scale to secure for this little and unknown school in the Southern mountains the sum of one hundred thousand dollars? The task was palpably and unquestionably an utterly impossible one. That is, it was impossible with men. The Means, a Modest Man. The timidity, the self- effacement, and yet the resolution of this endowment- builder are revealed in the following 'extract from a letter written in behalf of the College: 'Tf I have been over- anxious," he wrote, "and have crossed the limits of deli- cacy and propriety in urging the matter, I am sure your An Endowme^nt Founder 65 generous nature and broad Christian spirit will readily overlook and forgive. It has been my lot in life to work at foundations beneath the surface. I shall never expect to rise above the surface. But, then, there is, in the church and world, need of men to work below the sur- face, where they are obscure and unknown. And if they do well their work, they will not be forgotten. In my time I shall hardly look for Maryville College to rise much above the surface, but if we can lay deep, broad, and solid foundations, others, no doubt, will rear suitable super- structures thereon." Dr. Carson W. Adams said of him : ''He had what I call the force of modesty, combined with faith and quiet persistence, that led him to success." The Dynamics, Faith in God. In his shrinking self- depreciation, he said that he did not have the qualities needed by a financial agent of a college. He certainly did not have self-assurance and dash and egotism and callous- ness to rebuff, and similar traits, if such qualities are requisite to make an ideal endowment- founder ; but he did have a quality, which, joined with Christian fidelity, God can use to work miracles with, and that supreme and vital quality — faith in God — he had in large degree. In confident trust, he was accustomed to submit without a murmur to God's providences, and also to follow God's guidance, and, in it all, to commit his way unto the Lord, and trust also in him, assured that he would bring it to pass. And this faith, we may well believe, may, after all, be the best possible dynamics even in securing college foundations ! A Three Years' Struggle. At last all preparations were completed, and the professor started, on Novem- 6 66 Thomas Jefi^ERSOn Lamar ber 17, 1880, upon his forlorn hope. Less than a month later he was summoned home by the fatal illness of his only child. Ralph Max, the pride of his heart, died on December 15, a few days after the heart-broken father had reached home. Surely now he would give up his unwelcome task as financial representative of the College. No! a month later, on January 19, 1881, he set out again, this time accompanied by his wife. The first year he was in the field for seven months, and secured pledges for $65,000 — $25,000 from Mr. Dodge, $20,000 from Mr. Thaw, and $20,000 from Mr. Smith — on condition that $100,000 be secured by the end of the year. Little more was secured during the year, but the time limit was extended by the subscribers. The second year, 1882, Mr. Lamar spent two and a half months in the field, but only small subscriptions were secured. The third year wit- nessed the death of William E. Dodge, true friend of the College in a critical time in its history. His family assumed the subscription of $25,000 made by Mr. Dodge and renewed in his will, and still further extended the time limit. The Cost of the Campaign. The financial cost of the campaign as conducted with extreme economy by Pro- fessor Lamar was almost incredibly low — only $702; but the cost in other respects was excessive. The cost in com- fort was very heavy. For one of so retiring a nature as was Professor Lamar's, it was a crucifixion to have to approach strangers for financial help. And this pain was suffered not merely while he was in the field, but also so long as the necessity to seek out such possible donors rested over him as a gloomy pall. For three long years An Endowme:nt Founder 67 he was in inquisitorial torments. The cost in courage was- very great. Day after day he was forced to approach men who were strangers to him and to his cause ; and the loss of nerve power expended day after day, in screwing his courage to the sticking point, told seriously against him when, ere long, the break-down came. No soldier on the battlefield ever exhibited a higher type of valor than he showed in this battle for Maryville and the Chris- tian education of his people. No one but God and him- self knew how painful were the experiences of those three years. However, he flinched not, because he was a good soldier of Jesus Christ, and he had received his orders from his Lord and Master. Nothing Impossible with God. One November night in 1 88 1, he wrote home from New York, telling a col- league of his experiences. After recounting some griev- ous disappointments, he added : ''I am out every day calling on men, but as yet finding no response. All is darkness and uncertainty. I can not walk by sight. But I am here, and I know no better way than to keep try- ing and do my duty as best I can, and trust God for the issue. But let us not despair ; let us hope and work on. According to our resources, we are doing as much good, I candidly believe, as any institution in our country ; and we have a right to believe that God will help us, and make perfect his power in our weakness. I do not think that in anything I have ever before undertaken, have I had such a felt need as now of divine guidance, support, and help. I sometimes feel that for this special work I am without wisdom, strength, tact, or fitness. What has been done, and what may be done, is, and must be, of God 68 Thomas Jefferson Lamar only. May we all feel how absolutely dependent we are on him, and take hope and courage from the fact that with God nothing shall be impossible!" His Helpers. In the terribly depressing loneliness that came to him as he was among strangers, it seemed sometimes as if no one took his part, and that all forsook him; but, like Paul, he could say: *'But the Lord stood by me, and strengthened me." And he found to his com- fort that there were those who proved themselves true and tried brethren indeed. Among them were the four chief subscribers to the endowment, and Drs. Henry Kendall, Henry A. Nelson, Thomas S. Hastings, and Edward D. Morris. They carried his burdens on their own hearts, and their sympathy and help greatly encour- aged him in his gigantic task. The many letters inter- changed by these Christian men during this period were full of loyal interest and brotherly love. These friends highly esteemed the modest and devoted champion of Christian education for the youth of East Tennessee, and they did what they could for him and his cause. The Donors. There were, however, no persons more interested in the success of the endowment campaign than were the four men who subscribed the largest amounts to the fund. Mr. Baldwin had died before the fund was begun. Mr. Thaw, Mr. Dodge, and Mr. Smith all exhib- ited the keenest personal interest in the progress of the campaign and the liveliest desire for its success. In this attitude they were joined by Dr. Sylvester Willard, of Auburn, New York, who also subscribed liberally to the fund. Personal regard for the brave but modest leader from East Tennessee was united with warm sympathy Wlt.t.