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His son, Rev. Robert Emory, was subsequently president of Dickinson College, Pennsylvania, and was most highly esteemed by the church. His name is known and repeated to this day as the christian name of children whose fathers were under his care and tutelage at Dickinson College.

At this meeting the Board found the Preparatory School in operation. It had been opened in January, 1832. The first principal, Rev. Lorenzo Lea, A. M., was not able to take charge of it promptly because of a previous engagement at Chapel Hill University, North Carolina. He did commence his work, however, early in the year. His place was temporarily supplied by Mr. Hugh A. Garland, brother of Prof. Landon C. Garland, a graduate of Hampden-Sidney College, who afterwards was clerk of the House of Representatives of the United States, and the author of "The Life of John Randolph, of Roanoke."

The Preparatory School had during the first term a patronage of thirty-eight. The Board ordered for this School an assistant teacher.

In order to extend the influence and patronage of the College, the Board took steps to secure the cooperation of the Georgia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, offering a representation on the Board of such as should be nominated to it by the Conference.

Rev. Martin P. Parks, professor-elect, requested by the Board at its last meeting, appeared and delivered "a learned, eloquent, and patriotic address" before the Board and the public.

The same gentleman, who had been appointed by the Board to visit the South Carolina Conference to invite their cooperation in the College enterprise, made a report of his mission, and laid before the Board the response of the Conference, which was as follows: "The committee to whom was referred the address and resolutions of the Board of Trustees of Randolph-Macon College, report:

"That they have had the same under consideration, and been favored With an interview With the esteemed agent of the Board, Brother Parks, and from all that has been presented to them, and which they have duly weighed and examined respecting the College, have come unanimously to the conclusion that the Conference ought to regard it with favor, and accordingly do recommend the following resolutions:

"All of which is respectfully submitted.

"On motion, it was resolved unanimously that the above report he adopted.

"The Conference then proceeded to nominate the following Trustees, viz.: Col. Thomas Williams, Major Alexander Speed, Rev. Dr. William Capers, Rev. Wm. M. Kennedy, Rev. William M. Wightman, and Rev. William Holmes Ellison.

"Teste: WILLIAM M. WIGHTMAN,

The above nominees of the South Carolina Conference were elected members of the Board.

George W. Jeffries, of North Carolina, was elected a trustee in place of John Nuttall, deceased.

The Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church was invited to unite and co-operate with the Board on the same terms and conditions offered the Georgia Conference. An agent was appointed to visit these Conferences in order to secure their co-operation. John Early was appointed to visit them.

The Holston Conference was likewise invited to cooperate with the Board, and Rev. William Hammett was appointed to visit that Conference.

The Finance Committee reported the receipts and expenditures to date, as follows:

Receipts, . . . . . . ,350 02 Expenditures,. . . . . 10,516 26 Balance on hand, . . . . 3 76

Appropriations for the first year , ,500.

A steward for the Boarding Hall was elected. The price of board of students was fixed at six dollars per month at the Steward's Hall.

On motion of Rev. William Hammett, Rev. Stephen Olin, of Franklin College, Georgia, was unanimously elected President of the College.

It was ordered that the College be opened for students on October 9, 1832.

Prof. Edward Dromgoole Sims, A. M., of LaGrange College, Alabama, was elected Professor of Languages.

Dr. Olin and Prof. Sims subsequently accepted the positions to which they were elected. Their letters of acceptance were as follows:

"DEAR SIR: I hereby announce to you, and through you to the Trustees of Randolph-Macon College, that I accept the presidency of that institution, as conferred upon me in July, 1832. I design to resign my professorship in Franklin College as early as I can, consistently with duty and propriety, and hope to be at Randolph-Macon at least as early as the next commencement.

"Yours very respectfully,

"S. OLIN.

"DEAR SIR: Your letter communicating the result of the late election of officers for Randolph-Macon College was received eight or ten days ago.

"In relation to the Professorship of Languages, to which the Trustees have done me the honor to invite me, I have to say: In a previous letter to you on this subject entire freedom to accept or decline was reserved by me until I could procure more satisfactory information from Brother Paine concerning the prospects of the institution. At this time there exists no objection in my mind, and accordingly I now make known to you, with pleasure, my acceptance of the appointment, and desire you to communicate the same to the Board of Trustees.

"Please accept for yourself and them my sincere regard and best wishes.

"With brotherly love, ED. D. SIMS.

The acceptance of Dr. Olin completed the Faculty, when it came, several months after the College was opened. Rev. M. P. Parks, professor-elect, acted as president until Dr. Olin entered on his duties. The first Board of Instruction was as follows:

Rev. Stephen Olin, A. M., D. D. , President and Professor of Moral Science.

Rev. Martin P. Parks, graduate West Point Academy, Professor of Mathematics.

Landon C. Garland, A. M., Hampden-Sidney College, Virginia, Professor of Natural Science.

Rev. Edward D. Sims, A. M., Chapel Hill , Professor of Languages.

Rev. Lorenzo Lea, A. B., Chapel Hill , Principal of Preparatory School.

It will be appropriate and interesting to give sketches at this point of the men composing this first Faculty of the oldest Methodist College now in existence in America by date of incorporation; not simply on that account, but because they were mostly men of great ability, and made their mark on the times in which they lived in a way and to an extent that few others, if any, have ever done in the South.

Dr. Stephen Olin was a native of Vermont, as was Dr. Wilbur Fisk, who, contemporaneously with him, was moving on a parallel line at the Wesleyan University, in Connecticut. These names, Olin and Fisk, the Church, and the alumni of the colleges they presided over will never let die. Wherever the initials "S. O." and "W. F." are seen in any catalogue, it will be readily understood that they respectively stand for these names, and they are common now, over a half-century after the principals ceased to live.

President Olin was a graduate of Middlebury College, Vermont. He took the first honor in his class. From too much confinement and over-study his health gave way. On this account he went to South Carolina, and took charge of an academy at Cokesbury.

It was the rule and custom at the Cokesbury Academy to open the school with the reading of the Scriptures and prayer. This requirement he had to carry out. One day while engaged in prayer he was powerfully convicted, and immediately sought pardon, and found peace in believing. Very soon afterwards he felt called to preach, and entered the ministry, and after a few years he joined the Conference, and was appointed to a church in Charleston, S. C. His health, however, allowed him to remain but a short time in the itinerancy. He accepted a professorship in Franklin College, Athens, Ga., at which institution he remained till he left to become President of Randolph-Macon College.

Rev. Solomon Lea, who was associated with Dr. Olin during his presidency at Randolph-Macon, gives the following points in regard to him:

"In his physique he had large frame and limbs, but was well proportioned. He had dreamy eyes and sallow complexion, indicating deep affliction. He never saw a well day, and yet he faithfully attended to all his duties. I have heard it said that he thanked God for his affliction. Like Paul he could glory in his affliction. He preached but seldom on account of his health. I shall never forget his sermons. The impression made by them seemed to follow me day and night for weeks and months. His style and manner were peculiar, differing from any other man I ever heard. His language was simple, pure English, free from technicalities and pompous words. His manner rather labored, not from loudness of voice, nor from gesticulation, but his profound thoughts elaborated in his giant mind seemed to struggle for utterance. There was no attempt at what is called eloquence. I have heard most of the great preachers of the day, some of them yery great, but I never heard the equal of Olin."

Rev. Leroy M. Lee, D. D., long a member of the Virginia Conference, and editor of the Conference paper, said of Dr. Olin: "He was the only truly great man I have ever seen of whom I do not feel constrained to say, on analyzing his character,

"'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view.'"

Rev. W. M. Lewis, D. D., of Missouri, who spent several years of college life under him, said of him: "He was of large and majestic form, a physical and intellectual giant, a paragon of moral and religious excellence, a perfect model of a Christian gentleman and scholar and pulpit orator. In my opinion the church has never had a better or greater man."

Rev. W. B. Rowzie, long connected with the College as Financial Agent and also as Chaplain, said: "He was a genial companion. No one could he in his society without feeling that he was in the company of one of the first men of the age, and yet he was modest and unassuming, as if unconscious of his greatness."

Dr. John E. Edwards, who visited the College frequently in its early history, wrote: "Dr. Olin's personal appearance impressed me as no other man ever impressed me. The Greeks would have deified him as a god."

It may be thought that the estimates of Dr. Olin above given were partial, and hence not fully reliable. It is proper, therefore, to give the opinion of Rev. Theo. L. Cuyler, D. D., one of the most distinguished ministers of the Presbyterian Church, and one of the best writers of the present century. He speaks of him as President of Wesleyan University, Connecticut, about ten years after he left Randolph-Macon:

"In physical, mental, and spiritual stature combined, no Methodist in the last generation towered above Dr. Stephen Olin. He was a great writer, a great educator, and preeminently a great preacher of the glorious gospel. During the summer of 1845, While I was a student for the ministry, I spent some time at Middletown, Conn. Dr. Olin was then the President of the Wesleyan University, and was at the height of his fame and usefulness. Like all great men, he was very simple and unassuming in his manners; with his grand, logical head was coupled a warm, loving heart. When his emotional nature was once kindled it was like a Pennsylvania anthracite coal-mine on fire. These qualities of argumentative power and intense spiritual zeal combined made him a tremendous preacher. No one doubted that Stephen Olin had the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

"In physical stature he was a king of men; above six feet in height, he had a broad, gigantic frame and a lofty brow that resembled the brow of Daniel Webster. The congregation of the principal Methodist Church in Middletown always knew when Dr. Olin was going to preach; for the astral lamps were moved off the pulpit to prevent their being smashed by the sweep of his long arms. He was a vehement speaker, and threw his whole man, from head to foot, into the tide of his impassioned oratory. In the blending of logical power with heat of spiritual feeling and vigor of declamation, he was unsurpassed by any American preacher of his time. His printed discourses read well, but they lack the electricity of the moment and the man. Thunder and lightning must be heard and seen: they cannot be transferred to paper. As I recall Olin now ; as I see him again in the full flow of his majestic eloquence, or when surrounded by his students in the class-room, I do not wonder that the Middletown boys were ready to pit him against any president or any preacher on the American soil. There are old graduates of the University yet living who delight to think of him and to speak of him, and to assert that

"'Whoso had beheld him then. Had felt an awe and admiration without dread; And might have said, That sure he seemed to be the king of men. Less than the greatest that he could not be Who carried in his port such might and majesty.'

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