It might be claimed that the Centennial year of American Independence was likewise the Centennial year of the University of North Carolina, although the charter was not granted until 1789.

In December, 1776, a Convention, then called Congress, of enlightened men met at Halifax to form a Constitution for the new free State of North Carolina, under whose protection the people could maintain the independence they had declared a few months before.

Without an army or navy, they had entered on a war for existence with a nation powerful, populous and wealthy, having the tradition of invincibility, which had, under Marlborough, within the century, broken the power of the Great Louis of France—had, with heavy hand, crushed the fortunes of the Pretender at Culloden—had sent Wolfe to storm the Heights of Quebec; had swept the seas with her fleets. The Revolution, if it failed, was Rebellion. The penalty of defeat was the doom of traitors. The State had barely two hundred thousand inhabitants, widely scattered, and badly armed, and divided in sentiment. But, notwithstanding these odds, this Congress, with wisdom unparalleled and faith approaching sublimity, provided for the interest of unborn children. They knew that those children would not be capable of freedom without education. They knew that there could be no education without teachers. They knew that teachers could not be procured without colleges. They knew that their leaders in the pulpit and in civil offices had received their education in distant States and even in the mother country across the ocean. They resolved that their youth, seeking intellectual advancement, should not be temporarily expatriated in order to obtain it. They made the requirement of the University a part of the fundamental law. On the 18th of December, 1776, in the Constitution of the new State, then first adopted, are found these golden words, written amid storms and thunderings, to be made good when the sun shone on a free and united people: “All useful learning shall be duly encouraged and promoted in one or more universities.”

Tradition has it that this provision in the Constitution was due to the Scotch-Irish of Mecklenburg. Smarting under resentment caused by the disapproval by the Crown of the charter of Queen's College, its friends procured from the people of the county a positive instruction to their delegates to the Halifax Congress of 1776 to provide for a State college. Among these delegates was Waightstill Avery, a graduate of Princeton, likewise a member of the committee which reported the Constitution, and the tradition which credits him with being the draftsman of the University and public school clause is certainly plausible.

That our forefathers thought that the University and the public school system were necessarily part of one organism is proved by their connection in the Constitution. The section in which the General Assembly is commanded to provide the University is as follows: Section 41—“A school, or schools, shall be established by the legislature for the convenient instruction of youth, with such salaries to the masters, paid by the public, as may enable them to instruct at low prices: and all useful learning shall be duly encouraged and promoted in one or more universities.” It was clear to the statesmen of a hundred years ago, and it ought not to require argument to prove it, that money spent for schools without providing teachers is mere waste and folly. And certainly our forefathers who, with their hearts sore from the attempted domination of the Church of England in colonial times, inserted in the Constitution that, “no clergyman, or preacher of the gospel, of any denomination, shall be capable of being a member, either of the Senate, House of Commons, or Council of State, while he continues in the exercise of the pastoral function,” together with other provisions, completely serving the connection between the Church and the State, never designed that state schools should look to religious colleges exclusively for their teachers, nor did they wish to be dependent on other States.

A second resolution was passed that the Board meet at Hills-borough on the 1st of August, 1792, in order to determine the location, and that due notice be given to each Trustee.

At the time and place appointed the attendance of members proved the interest taken in the question. There were present 25 Trustees out of 40. The largest number in these days of easy railroading is 39 out of 80, in 1885, when six professors were elected. Such patriotic sacrifice of comfort in the heated dog-days deserves to be recorded. Those who answered to the roll-call were as follows:

Alexander Martin, Governor, of Guilford; Hugh Williamson, the historian, of Chowan; Benjamin Williams, afterwards Governor, of Moore; John Sitgreaves, Judge United States District Court, of Craven; Fred. Hargett, State Senator, of Jones; Richard Dobbs Spaight, the elder, elected Governor that year, of Craven; William H. Hill, member of the Legislature and of Congress, of New Hanover; James Hogg, merchant, of Cumberland; Samuel Ashe, then Judge, afterwards Governor, of New Hanover; John Hay, lawyer, of Cumberland; William Barry Grove, member of Congress, of Cumberland; Col. Wm. Polk, member of the Legislature, then of Mecklenburg; Judge John Williams, of Granville; Alexander Mebane, afterwards member of Congress of Orange; Joel Lane, member of the Senate, of Wake; Alfred Moore, then member of the Legislature, afterwards Judge of the Supreme Court, of Brunswick; Willie Jones, of Halifax; Benjamin Hawkins, Senator in Congress, of Warren; John Haywood, State Treasurer, then of Edgecombe; Rev. Dr. Samuel E. McCorkle, a distinguished preacher and teacher, of Rowan; William Richardson Davie, afterwards Governor, of Halifax; Joseph Dixon, State Senator, afterwards member of Congress, of Lincoln; Joseph McDowell, Jr., member of the Legislature, of Burke; William Porter, member of the Legislature, of Rutherford; Adlai Osborne, Clerk of the Superior Court of his county, a well-read and influential man, of Rowan.

According to localities, counting New Hanover as an eastern county, and Cumberland, Warren and Guilford as middle counties, there were ten eastern, nine middle and six western trustees.

Willie Jones submitted a motion, which was adopted, that the Board would not select any particular spot, but would choose by ballot a place with liberty of locating within fifteen miles thereof.

The places in nomination were as follows: Raleigh, in Wake County; Williamsboro, in Granville County; Hillsboro, in Orange County; Pittsboro, in Chatham County; Cyprett's Bridge, over New Hope, in Chatham; Smithfield, in Johnston County; Goshen, in Granville County.

The Board proceeded to ballot and Cyprett's or Cipritz's Bridge, now Prince's Bridge, on the great road from New Bern by Raleigh to Pittsboro, was chosen. The fifteen miles radius allowed a range over wide areas of Chatham, Wake and Orange; from the highlands of New Hope to the hills of Buckhorn; from the Hickory Mountain to the eminence overlooking our beautiful capital on the west. The same influences which secured that the capital should be located within ten miles of Isaac Hunter's plantation, in Wake County, that is, as near the centre of the State as possible, carried this vote.

On the 4th of August, 1792, the Board adopted an ordinance to carry into effect the selection of the University site within the circle described. One commissioner from each judicial district was appointed by ballot. There were from the Morganton District, Wm. Porter, of Rutherford; the Salisbury District, John Hamilton, of Guilford; the Hillsboro District, Alex. Mebane, of Orange; the Halifax District, Willie Jones, of Halifax; the Edenton District, David Stone, of Bertie; the New Bern District, Frederick Hargett, of Jones; the Wilmington District, William H. Hill, of New Hanover; the Fayetteville District, James Hogg, of Cumberland. They were to meet in Pittsboro on November 1, 1792, prepared to visit in person all places deemed eligible.

At the appointed time a majority convened in Pittsboro, viz.: Hargett, Mebane, Hogg, Hill, Stone, and Jones. It was an excellent committee. Senator Hargett, a Revolutionary captain, had already assisted as commissioner in locating and laying out the city of Raleigh. Alexander Mebane had been a member of the Convention which framed the State Constitution and a useful officer of the Revolutionary army. He had long served the county of Orange in the State Legislature, and the year after this was elected to the Congress of the United States. James Hogg was an influential merchant, afterwards of Hillsborough, among whose descendants are the Binghams, Norwoods, Webbs, Hoopers, and others. Wm. H. Hill, a descendant of Governor Yeamans, was an able lawyer of Wilmington, afterwards State Senator and member of Congress. David Stone, then a member of the House of Commons from Bertie, afterwards Governor and Senator of the United States, was a well educated and accomplished young man. Willie Jones was one of the most active and influential men of the Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary periods, as Chairman of the Committee of Safety, wielding executive authority in 1776, a member of the Continental Congress, likewise a commissioner to select the site for the seat of government.

We have the journal of these Commissioners, giving a brief account of their labors among the wooded hills of Chatham and Orange in the early days of November, when the forests were clothed with their changing hues of russet and green, gold and crimson, when the squirrels chattered in the hickories and the deer peered curiously through the thick underwood, and the hospitable farmers welcomed them with hearty greetings, and the good ladies brought out their foamiest cider and sweetest courtesies, while on the sideboard, according to the bad customs of that day, stood decanters of dark-hued rum and ruddy apple brandy and the fiery juice of the Indian corn, which delights to flow in the shining of the moon. I give some extracts from the report submitted by the Chairman, Senator Hargett, as it is more satisfactory to have the narration in the language of the old soldier who saw bloody service under Washington.

The board taking the foregoing into consideration concurred therewith.

This report shows that, not discouraged at having failed to secure the location of the seat of government at what is now the village of Haywood, at the confluence of Haw and Deep Rivers, a determined effort was made to secure the University at the same point. If it had met with success our boys could add boat races to our athletic contests. The land speculators of one hundred years ago bought lots in this town of paper in the confident belief that it was destined to be a commercial and manufacturing city, but Haywood has taken its place by the side of Brunswick, Bath and other vanished or dwarfed “boom-towns” of the past.

Notice also that Joel Lane, having secured the location of the capital on part of his broad acres, sought ineffectually to capture the University. This shows the combination which carried the vote for Cypritt's Bridge as the centre of the circle inside of which its home should be. Lane had been a Halifax man and was a warm friend of Davie and of Willie Jones. The influence of these three, together with that of the Cape Fear Trustees, was greater than any other locality could command.

Let me describe the spot selected more particularly, as it appeared to the eyes of the Commissioners.

The construction of railroads has made a wonderful change in the relative importance of our public highways. In the old days those who made tobacco rolled it away to Petersburg, little wheels being attached to the hogsheads. Those who made corn generally converted it into hogs and drove them on foot to Philadelphia or Charleston. Wheat was ground into flour and sent by wagon to distant markets—to Fayetteville, Wilmington, New Bern, and Petersburg, and the villages by the way. The corn and rye not fed to swine were changed to whiskey and the fruit into brandy, and that which escaped the capacious throats of the neighborhood drinkers was peddled along the road to the rural drinkers or sold in bulk to the village shops. In violation of all rules of political economy a man was at the same time an agriculturist, a manufacturer, a transporter, a wholesale merchant, a retailer and a voracious consumer.

The returning wagons carried home supplies of molasses and sugar, iron and salt, shot and powder and flints, not forgetting the ribbons and combs and such paraphernalia that ladies in all ages will obtain to gild the refined gold of their personal charms. They were the vehicles also of the news of the day, there being no post-office nearer than Tarboro. The wondering neighbors heard from these drivers what was going on in the big world—that Washington had consented to accept a second term of the Presidency, that the heads of the King and Queen of France had rolled into the guillotine basket, that the allied armies had been driven back from the Rhine; and then what has proved to be of more importance than all the victories of the armies or the discrowning of kings that a Yankee schoolmaster, named Whitney, had invented a machine for picking seed out of cotton; and every old lady paused in the musical whir of her spinning-wheel to listen to the astounding intelligence, not more than three months old, that in the old country a man named Arkwright was spinning yarn by water power, and more incredible still a preacher, named Cartwright, was weaving cloth by wood and iron instead of human muscle.

From these causes the roads of those days, though over them rolled no modern carriages or effeminate buggies, or bicycles, or horse-scaring automobiles, frequently resounded with the heavy wheels of the covered wagons; and the cross-roads were places of importance where wagoners and the neighbors met for business and social enjoyments, listened to political speeches, and more rarely to homely but heart-stirring sermons.

The great roads from Petersburg to Pittsboro and the country beyond, and from New Bern towards Greensboro and Salisbury crossed on this eminence. At the northeast corner of the cross was a chapel of the Church of England, a sad relic of the futile efforts to establish a church in North Carolina. The locality was called New Hope Chapel Hill or the Hill of New Hope Chapel. The eminence is a promontory of granite, belonging to the Laurentian system, and extends into the sandstone formation to the east, which was once the bed of a long sheet of water stretching from near New York to the centre of Georgia. We have in our Museum pieces of rock formed from the mud and sand at the bottom of this old bay on which are ripple marks of the waves and prints of the plants and animals that grew in its shallows. It was on this plateau, elevated 250 feet above the country on the east, 503 feet above the ocean, then as now celebrated for its magnificent forests of oak and hickory, its springs of cool and purest water, its pleasant, mudless, dustless soil, its genial, healthful climate, on whose hillsides the mountain flora blossom, that the home of the University was fixed.

We are fortunate in having a contemporary description of the site in Davie's own words, when he was full of enthusiasm after eating his dinner, according to tradition, under the old poplar which bears his name.

“The seat of the University is on the summit of a very high ridge. There is a very gentle declivity of 300 yards to the village, which is situated in a handsome plain, considerably lower than the site of the public buildings, but so greatly elevated above the surrounding country as to furnish an extensive and beautiful landscape, composed of the heights in the vicinity of Eno, Flat and Little Rivers.”

“The ridge appears to commence about half a mile directly east of the building, where it rises abruptly several hundred feet. This peak is called Point Prospect. The flat country spreads out below like the ocean, giving an immense hemisphere in which the eye seems lost in the extent of space.”

“There is nothing more remarkable in this extraordinary place than the abundance of springs of the purest and finest water, which burst from the side of the ridge, and which have been the subjects of admiration both to hunters and travelers ever since the discovery and settlement of this part of the country.”

It will be noticed that the name Point Prospect has been changed to “Piney” Prospect. In old times point was pronounced a pint, and the change was natural, especially as the hill has pines growing on it and masses of these trees are the chief features of the scenery. I add that the water flowing from these springs into the creeks north and south of us have created an endless variety of hill and dale, with surprising wealth of flora, even the rhododendron of the mountains, which Gray stated until Dr. Simonds showed him our plant, could not grow below 1.800 feet.

After the ceremonies of laying the cornerstone, was had the sale of villages lots. A careful inspection of the map of the town preserved among the Harris papers and of the deeds given by the Commissioners of sale show clearly the plan. A broad avenue, called the Grand Avenue, 290 feet wide, being the distance between the eastern side of the East Building and the western side of the West Building, was laid out on paper, extending from the north front of the South Building northwardly to the limits of the University land, considerably beyond the present village school-house. Person Hall (Old Chapel) was located to front on this avenue.

Another avenue about 150 feet wide was designed to extend from the South Building eastwardly to Piney Prospect. The lots on both sides of Franklin or Main street, with the exception of those included in the Grand Avenue, were squares of two acres each, as were also those along Columbia Avenue. These two-acre lots were numbered 1 to 24; those west of Columbia Avenue, beginning at the south, being numbers 1, 3, 5, 7; those on the east being 2, 4, 6, 8; the two latter as well as 5 and 7 being on Franklin street. To the east of 6 on Franklin street were the odd numbers 9 to 23, the spaces occupied by Grand Avenue and Raleigh street not being included; that at the southeast corner of Franklin and Raleigh streets being No. 19. Similarly on the north side of Franklin street from No. 8, usually known as the Hargrave lot, to the east are the even numbers 10 to 24; that known as the Thompson lot being No. 18.

Besides these there were five lots of four acres each, Nos. 1 and 2 being the lots from Commons Hall to the Pittsboro road. Nos. 3 and 4 being east and west of Grand Avenue and north of Rosemary street, No. 5 being east of Hillsboro street and north of Rosemary, and No. 6 being the Battle lot, touched by no street, evidently set apart for sale because a spring was within its limits.

On December 4, 1792, at a meeting of the Trustees at New Bern, Messrs. McCorckle, Stone, Moore, Ashe, and Hay were appointed a committee to report a plan of education, and Hugh Williamson was afterwards added. Of these McCorkle, Stone, Moore, and Ashe have already been described. Hay was an able lawyer from Fayetteville, from whom Haymount is called, occasionally a member of the General Assembly, a strong Federalist with a sharp tongue, which often embroiled him with the Republican judges, Ashe, Spencer and Williams. His beautiful daughter was the first wife of Judge Gaston. Dr. Hugh Williamson had the reputation of having much varied learning, especially in the sciences. He was a graduate of the Literary Department of the University of Pennsylvania, was educated to be a Presbyterian preacher, but after serving two years left the ministry on account of ill health. After being Professor of Mathematics in his alma mater for a short while he obtained the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the University of Edinburgh, and practiced his profession in Philadelphia. Engaging in a coasting commercial venture at the opening of the Revolutionary War, he was forced, in order to avoid capture, to run into Edenton, in North Carolina, and there concluded to settle. When the militia was called out for the unfortunate Camden campaign he volunteered his service as surgeon, and remained in the hands of the British in order to care for the American wounded. He was afterwards member of the North Carolina Legislature, member of the Congress of Confederation and of the Convention of 1787, and a signer of the United States Constitution. Marrying a lady of wealth living in New York, he removed his residence to that city and there wrote his History of North Carolina. He also published a volume on the climate of America as compared with that of Europe, and was an active co-operator in advancing the interests of the University of North Carolina until his death in 1819. Jefferson said of him that he was a “very useful member of the Congress of the Confederation.” of “acute mind and of a high degree of erudition.” Of the committee the only college-bred men were McCorkle, Stone and Williamson.

Dr. McCorkle, as Chairman, reported in December, 1792, in general terms that, considering the poverty of the University, the instruction in literature and science be confined to the study of the languages, particularly the English, the acquirement of historical knowledge, ancient and modern; Belles Lettres, Mathematics and Natural Philosophy; Botany and the theory and practice of Agriculture, best suited to the climate and soil of the State; the principles of Architecture. The committee recommended the procurement of apparatus for Experimental Philosophy and Astronomy. In this they included a set of Globes, a Barometer, Thermometer, Microscope, Telescope, Quadrant, Prismatic Glass, Air-pump, and an Electrical Machine. They were of the opinion that a library be procured, but the choice should be deferred until additional funds should be provided.

The report is remarkable as being far ahead of the times. Notwithstanding that the chairman and the second on the list, Stone, were graduates of Princeton, a seat of the old curriculum, viz.: the Classics, Mathematics and Metaphysics, prominence is given to scientific studies and those of a practical nature. It is strikingly like the plan adopted by Congress for the establishment of the agricultural and mechanical colleges, in which, to use the words of the act, “Without excluding the classics, and including military tactics, shall be taught the branches of learning relating to Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts.” And I find that the course of studies, from which the classics were excluded, was called by the name adopted in 1870, the Scientific Course, although the Faculty adopting the latter had no knowledge of the scheme of 1792.

It is certainly to the honor of Dr. McCorckle that, while he established over a hundred years ago in the wilds of North Carolina a Normal School, the first probably in America, he likewise drew up a scheme for the more practical instruction which all institutions of higher learning at the present day have to a greater or less extent adopted. It is probable, however, that as the University of Pennsylvania, the alma mater of Dr. Hugh Williamson, was conspicuous in exalting scientific studies, his influence had weight in the report of the committee. I find that Dr. John Andrews, Provost of that institution, as late as 1810, writes that the principal teachers of Latin and English are not styled professors, but masters—that these schools were considered distinct from the college, subordinate to it and only kept up as nurseries of the philosophical classes. He thought that on the death or resignation of the Rev. Dr. Rogers, the head of the English school, it would be abolished altogether.

On January 10, 1794, the Board ordered the scheme of the Committee to be carried into effect, and that the exercises should begin on the 15th of January, 1795. The annual Commencement was to be on the Monday after the 10th of July each year, after which “there should be a time of recreation or holiday of one month only.” The next vacation was to begin on the 15th of December and end on the 15th of January of each year.

The prices for tuition were as follows:

No President was to be chosen, but a Presiding Professor only, to occupy the President's house and to be responsible for all the teaching. His style was “Professor of Humanity,” his salary $300 a year and two-thirds of the tuition money.

The Professor of Humanity and three Trustees, or the President of the Board, were authorized to employ assistance when needed. The salary of a tutor was to be $200, one-third of the tuition money, free board at Commons, and the use of a room in the “Old East.” The word “Humanity,” more often in the plural form, “the Humanities,” was held to include grammar, logic, rhetoric, poetry and the ancient classics, opposed to mathematics and the natural sciences.

Charles Wilson Harris, a recent graduate of Princeton, was chosen, in the spring of 1795. Tutor of Mathematics.

It was likewise resolved to build a Steward's House, to be ready at the opening of the institution, the size of the edifice to be at the discretion of the Building Committee.

The students were to be allowed, but not compelled, to live in the University building and board at Commons.

Absalom Tatom, of Hillsborough, who was afterwards a Commoner from that borough and, by his criticism of the University as being aristocratical, provoked violent denunciation by President Caldwell, and Walter Alves, of the same town, the new Treasurer, were added to the Building Committee.

A committee, composed of John Haywood, Davie, James Taylor, Adlai Osborne and Rev. Dr. McCorkle, reported that, as instructed, they had examined into the financial condition of the institution. That, “on the 1st of November, 1794, the institution would have in ready cash £6,297, 9s, 6d, ($12,594.95), exclusive of the hard money, which by that time for interest will be three hundred dollars, or thereabout. This interest was payable by the United States on bonds invested in the new debt created for discharging the Revolutionary obligations of the General and State governments.

The Committee, to report “the quantity and quality of the meats and drinks to be furnished to students,” was composed of Col. Wm. Lenoir, David Stone, Joel Lane, Robert Porter and John Haywood. The diet recommended seems sufficiently generous.

The Committee adds that “it is expected Potatoes and all other kinds of vegetable food will be furnished, and plentifully, by the Steward,” with a clean table cloth every other day. “They are of opinion that no drink other than water be provided, the word “drink” here meaning spirituous, vinous or malt fluids.” The report was adopted.

The election was by ballot on the 10th of January, 1794. It does not appear that there were any applicants, but the following were placed in nomination: Rev. John Brown, who had been a pupil of Dr. McCorkle, pastor of Waxhaw Church, afterwards a Professor in the University of South Carolina, and President of that of Georgia; Rev. Robert Archibald, a graduate of Princeton, pastor of Rocky River Church, afterwards embracing the doctrine of universal salvation, but it did not save him from being dropped from the Presbyterian roll; Rev. James Tate, an excellent Presbyterian divine from New Hanover; Rev. George Micklejohn, generally called Parson Micklejohn, who had been a minister of the Church of England in Colonial times, having under his jurisdiction, besides many others, the New Hope Chapel. He was a Tory and was forced to change his residence to the Albemarle country for fear of his influence over the Regulators. He was a rough, honest gentleman of the old Scotch school, according to tradition, who would hire a man to attend his services by the bribe of a generous drink out of his bottle of brandy. Many surmised that the choice would fall on Dr. McCorkle, a Trustee, who delivered the address at the laying of the corner-stone of the Old East; but, while his learning was conceded, Davie distrusted his executive ability. A story of McCorkle as a farmer shows that this distrust was well founded. He was used to carry into the field volumes on theological subjects for his diversion in intervals of manual labor. A neighbor seeking him on business found him stretched sub tegmine querci, deep in his studies, while his negro plowman was fast asleep under another tree, and the mule was cropping the grateful corn-tops.

In a letter of Davie's, written at a later period, is the suggestion of another objection to Dr. McCorkle, by reason of a distrust of the wisdom of all preachers. Speaking of some criticisms of the University, he wrote, “Bishop Pettigrew has said it is a very dissipated and debauched place. Some priests have also been doing us the same good office to the westward. Nothing, it seems, goes well that these men of God (the italics are his) have not some hand in.” Dr. McCorkle must have been included in this sneer. Davie, in truth, had imbibed some of the skepticism then so prevalent among the educated classes.

Although he was not chosen, the good Doctor had no resentment against the University. This is proved by his collection of a subscription from his congregation at Thyatira for the use of the University, the only instance of congregational help given in the early days. Whether a business man or not he was possessed in a large measure of piety and force. Born August 23, 1746, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, he was brought to North Carolina when nine years of age to a farm fifteen miles west of Salisbury. He was a bright student at the school of Dr. David Caldwell, graduated at Princeton in 1772 in the class of Aaron Burr, whose father of the same name

The opening of the University on the memorable January 15, 1795, gave no prophecy of the swarms of students annually appearing at the openings of our day. The winter was severe and the roads almost impassable. Governor Richard Dobbs Spaight, whose energy and devotion to duty had been shown when, as a student of twenty, he hastened to sail for America, ran the hazard of being captured by British vessels in order to throw in his fortunes with his native State, had braved the discomforts of twenty-eight miles of red mud and pipe clay and jagged rocks stretching from Chapel Hill to Raleigh. It is recorded that he had attendants, and we can assuredly guess that among them were State Treasurer John Haywood, and John Craven, the Comptroller, the first University Treasurer. The gazette of the period, the North Carolina Journal, merely states that there were present “several members of the corporation and many other gentlemen, members of the General Assembly,” then in session. We may almost certainly see in attendance the members from Hillsborough and Orange, Samuel Benton, father of the great Senator, “Old Bullion,” Thomas Hart Benton; Walter Alves, son of James Hogg; and William Lytle, son of Colonel Archibald Lytle who fought so bravely under Sumner at Eutaw; also William Cain, the Senator from Orange, whose liberality to the institution has been mentioned; William Person Little, Senator from Granville, and Thomas Person, Commoner, both nephews of the University's benefactor, detained at home by the infirmities of age; John Baptist Ashe, Commoner from Halifax, afterwards elected Governor but dying before taking his seat, in place of General Davie then employed on official duty elsewhere. Of course the ever-active Joel Lane, Senator from Wake, who offered broad acres to secure the University at Cary, was on hand. And it is reasonably certain, judging from the interest they took in the new institution, that John Macon, Senator from Warren, Daniel Gillespie, Senator from Guilford, whose son was afterwards Presiding Professor; and the brilliant young Commoner from Fayetteville, afterwards the first Chief Justice of our Supreme Court, John Louis Taylor, were willing to add eclat to the occasion by their presence. Of course in attendance were Alexander Mebane, the Congressman, and James Hogg, the rich merchant, Trustees, Commissioners to select the site, and members of the Building Committee.

The increase in numbers led to the election of a Tutor of Mathematics, in the sphing of 1795. The choice fell on Charles Wilson Harris, a recent first-honor graduate of Princeton, nephew of Dr. Charles Harris, a noted physician of his day, who taught at his home probably the first medical school in the State. Young Harris had a strong mind, elegant literary tastes, courtly manners, and weight of character. These two, Ker and Harris, sustained the burdens of instruction and discipline during the first year of University life, and sustained it with conspicuous fathfulness and ability. It was a great misfortune that Ker the next year went off into infidelity and wild democracy, thus raising up two sets of enemies in the Board of Trustees, Christians and Federalists, so that he deemed it prudent after eighteen months to resign his charge.

For the first year and a half, however, these two, Ker and Harris, had the difficult and unpleasant task of classifying and instructing the unorganized mass of all ages from mature young men to mere boys, some with a smattering of algebra and the classics, others innocent even of arithmetic and grammar.

We have no letters of Dr. Ker written from Chapel Hill, but by the kindness of William Shakespeare Harris and other relatives this want is abundantly supplied by those of his associate. Charles W. Harris was an elegant writer. His style is free from ostentation, his ideas are clearly and strongly expressed, his penmanship is good, and his spelling in advance of his age as a rule. It is strange, however, that he gives to Chapel in Chapel Hill two p's instead of one.

On the 10th of April Harris writes to his uncle, Dr. Charles Harris: “We have begun to introduce by degrees the regulations of the University and as yet have not been disappointed. There is one class in Natural Philosophy and four in the languages.” He continues, “The constitution of this college is on a more liberal plan than that of any other in America, and by the amendment, which I think it will receive at the next meeting of the Trustees, its usefulness will probably be much promoted. The notion that true learning consists rather in exercising the reasoning faculties and laying up a store of useful knowledge, than in overloading the memory with words of dead languages, is daily becoming more prevalent.” He then enters upon praises of Miss Wollstonecraft's book on the “Rights of Women,” as containing the true principles of education, and states that though the laws at present require that Latin and Greek be understood by a graduate, they will in all probability be mitigated in their effect.

He was of a social nature, and deplored the lack of congenial society. “My only resort,” he wrote, “is to Mr. Ker, who makes ample amends to me for the want of any other. He is a violent republican and is continually deprecating the aristocical principles which have lately prevailed much in our executive.” We can see that Harris' political faith was swerved by this well-educated, able and experienced middle-aged clerical politician, for he sneers at some strong words of praise of Washington by one Rev. Stanhope Smith, saying that “tho' he be the greatest man in America the encomium smells strong of British seasoning.”

He rejoiced that the Trustees resolved to inaugurate a museum and took active steps to procure for it specimens.

Although the articles given have been lost, the names of the donors should be remembered and the objects given recorded. The context shows that some of the specimens were given three years later.

On this occasion the Board determined to erect a house for a Grammar School, which should contain three or four lodging rooms, and thus relieve the congested state of the dwellers in the Old East Building. It would also separate from the older the very young students, some of whom were of such tender years, though tough in conscience, that it was necessary for their benefit to introduce corporal punishment. This school building was situated in the woods, south of Rosemary Street and west of the late public school, a place peculiarly lonely, but near two never-failing springs of purest water.

Richard Sims, an advanced student from Warren County, seems to have been the first master of the Grammar School. In the month of December, 1796, was chosen Nicholas Delvaux, and with him on account of the rapid increase of numbers, was associated Samuel Allen Holmes, who had been a preacher. The antecedents of both of these teachers are unknown. Soon afterwards Holmes was promoted to the University and William Richards, late a teacher in the Academy of Mr. Marcus George in Warrenton, was placed in the Grammar School in his stead.

It has been mentioned that those of the early students who wrote the best compositions were rewarded by having their names posted on an honor roll. The first who won this distinction was in August, 1795, Richard Sims, of Warrenton, his theme being “The Employment of Time.” The second was Thomas A. Osborne on Habit. The third was Thomas A. Osborne on the question, “Do Savage or Civilized Nations Enjoy the Most Happiness.” The fourth Edwin Jay Osborne on “The Uses of Geometry.” The fifth by Edwin Jay Osborne on “Self Government.” He divided honors in the sixth with Hinton James, the themes respectively being, “The Uses of the Passions” and “The Uses of the Sun.” In the next week the same Osborne and Henry Kearney were the first, on “The Distinction Between Resentment and Revenge,” by the former, and “The Uses of the Moon,” by the latter. This honor roll was discontinued after the first year.

The Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies have been such a large part of our university life that I must give their origin.

It was doubtless through the influence of Tutor Harris, who had seen the benefits of the renowned Whig Society of Princeton, of which he was a member, that the first literary society of the University was formed, as his name is the first on the list of signers to the preliminary articles. It was organized on the 3d day of June, 1795, under the name of “The Debating Society.” The first President was James Mebane, of Orange, afterwards of Caswell; the first Clerk or Secretary was John Taylor, of Orange; the first Treasurer was Lawrence Toole, who changed his name to Henry Irwin Toole, of Edgecombe, grandfather of Bishop Joseph B. Cheshire; the first Censor Morum, Richard Sims, of Warren, afterwards Principal of the Grammar School.

The objects of the society were expressed to be the cultivation of a lasting friendship and the promotion of useful knowledge. The members pledged themselves under hands and seals to obedience to the laws of the society and due performance of the regular exercises. I give the names of those fathers of the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies.

Charles Wilson Harris Cabarrus.Adam Haywood . . . . . . . Edgecombe. Robert Smith . . . . . . . Cabarrus.Alexander Osborne . . . . . . . Iredell.Edwin Jay Osborne . . . . . . . Rowan.William Houston . . . . . . . Iredell.William Dickson . . . . . . . Burke.James Mebane . . . . . . . Orange.John Pettigrew . . . . . . . Tyrrell.Richard Eagles . . . . . . . New Hanover.Hinton James . . . . . . . New Hanover.Haywood Ruffin . . . . . . . Greene.Richard Sims . . . . . . . Warren.Lawrence Toole . . . . . . . Edgecombe.Henry Kinchen . . . . . . . Franklin.William Morgan Sneed . . . . . . . Granville.Ebenezer Pettigrew . . . . . . . Tyrrell.William C. Alston . . . . . . . Halifax.Hutchins G. Burton, Senior . . . . . . . Granville.Evan Jones New . . . . . . . Hanover.John Taylor . . . . . . . Orange.Maurice Moore . . . . . . . Brunswick.Alfred Moore . . . . . . . Brunswick.Thomas Davis Bennehan . . . . . . . Orange.Francis Nash Williams Burton . . . . . . . Granville.Allen Green . . . . . . . South Carolina.Allen Jones Davie . . . . . . . Halifax.Hyder Ali Davie . . . . . . . Halifax.David Cook . . . . . . . Unknown.Nicholas Long . . . . . . . Franklin.George Washington Long . . . . . . . Halifax.

There was no constitution eo nomine, but there were “Laws and Regulations,” some of which are worthy of mention. The officers were a President, Censor Morum, two Correctors, a Clerk, and Treasurer. The President and Treasurer held offie for three weeks, the other officers for six weeks.

The Censor Morum was clothed with powers and duties which would not be tolerated in this generation, “to inspect the conduct and morals of the members and report to the society those who preserve inattention to the studies of the University, in neglect of their duties as members, or in acting in such a manner as to reflect disgrace on their fellow-members.” This making the society responsible for attention to University exercises has been long ago abandoned, after the effort came near breaking it into fragments. This powerful officer, evidently modelled after the august Censors of Rome, presided in the absence of the President.

By the kindness of Miss Caroline Pettigrew, granddaughter of Ebenezer Pettigrew, who with his brother John was a student of the University from the spring of 1795 to the fall of 1797, I am able to give glimpses of the inner life of the University in its infancy from letters written by them to their father. Their father was Rev. Charles Pettigrew, of Tyrrell County, who was chosen Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church, but was prevented, by the breaking out of yellow fever in Philadelphia at the time, and failing health afterwards, from being consecrated. I have also been permitted by Mr. Norman Jones, of Raleigh, to examine a letter dated April, 1795, written to his mother by his ancestor, Nicholas Long, grandson of Colonel Nicholas Long, of the North Carolina Continental line.

Letters by children to their parents were then as a rule much more formal than is now usual. Long addresses his mother as “Honored Mother;” but the Pettigrews wrote “Dear Father.” Long's father was dead and his mother had married a Methodist preacher, Rev. Daniel Shine. He sends his “respects” to Mr. Shine. A married sister he calls Sister Hill, and the husband of another sister he calls “Brother Green.” The Presiding Professor he called Rev. Parson Ker. The Pettigrews sign themselves, or rather John signs for both, “your dutiful sons.” They always send their “duties” to their mother and compliments to all others. In one letter the word “compliments” was in the message to the mother, but it was scratched out and “duties” substituted. Bishop Pettigrew's letter to Jackey and Ebley, as he calls them, are exceedingly affectionate and wise.

The boys saw no newspapers. Weeks intervened between letters. The postage to Bertie County, where Dr. Pettigrew once lived, is usually endorsed 17 cents. Once John informed him that he was forced to pay at Chapel Hill 12 1-2 cents when his father prepaid the same amount. The latter afterwards retorted: “What you designed for frugality accidentally resulted otherwise. You thought by your two letters on the same sheet, or rather half sheet of post paper, to save expenses, but I find 44 cents on the letter. 45 is just the postage of three letters. Your putting two wafers and two addresses has made it a double letter for which they charge double postage.” The consistency of the charges of the Postal Department seems open to criticism, judging from the foregoing statements.

In December, 1795, after a year's experience with the raw, mostly untaught youths of diverse ages and acquirements, the institution was divided into two branches, called “The Preparatory School” and “The Professorships of the University.”

This plan is interesting because it is the idea of General Davie, is far ahead of the times, anticipates in some respects the work of Jefferson with the University of Virginia, and is very similar to our present plan:

In addition to the regular course, the Professor of Languages must “attend, when required, the reading of Cicero de Officiis, and Horace and Livy, and in the Greek Longinus on the Sublime, the Orations of Demosthenes and Homer's Iliad.” The rudiments of language are to be attended to, the different forms and figures of speech are to be noticed by the professor, and comments made on the sentiments and beauties of the authors; parallel sentences quoted, particular idioms observed, and all allusions to distant manners and customs explained.

The students under the Professor of Languages are to deliver to him twice a week translations into English of some classic, in which, “after expressing the sense of the author, the spirit and elegance of the translation are principally to be regarded.”

The students of the other classes shall every Saturday deliver to the President a composition on a subject of their own choosing, and he shall correct the errors in orthography, grammar, style or sentiment, and make the necessary observations thereon.

Those passing approved examinations on the studies of the Preparatory School were entitled to be admitted “upon the general establishment of the University.”

Those passing an approved examination in English, and the first four rules of Arithmetic with the Rule of Three, could be admitted to study under the President and any of the Professors, except the Professor of Languages. In order to enter his department the applicant must stand an approved examination on the English language, and on Cæsar's Commentaries and Sallust. But it was not required to translate English into Latin.

No preliminary examination was required of one wishing to study under the fourth professor, i. e., Chemistry, the Philosophy of Medicine, Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts.

There were no prizes instituted by professors, but the Trustees endeavored to stimulate study by offering to donate a book to the best scholar in each department, viz.: a copy of the text-book used therein. The early students either borrowed or rented their text-books.

This plan of education is all the more observable because it was the work of Davie after mature consideration. The record shows that he offered it, that it was referred to a committee composed of himself, Judge Williams, Hogg, Haywood, and Adlai Osborne, and was reported back and adopted. The North Carolina Journal of that date has, doubtless in Davie's words, a statement of the object aimed at. He began by quoting from the French Convention, “That in every free government the law emanates from the people, it is necessary that the people should receive an education to enable them to direct the laws, and the political part of this education should be consonant to the principles of the constitution under which they live.” He proceeds: “The plan of Education established by the Board appears to be predicated on this principle, and designed to form useful and respectable members of society—citizens capable of comprehending, improving and defending the principles of government, citizens, who from the highest possible impulse, a just sense of their own and the general happiness, would be induced to practice the duties of social morality. A deep and fixed conviction that it is degrading to be tributaries to other States or countries for our literary and public characters, a general and strong desire to promote education and exalt and improve our national character, have given a tone to the public sentiment and bestowed a degree of emulation upon individuals, from which the most happy effects may be expected.”

Davie remembered that many of the leading men of the Revolution in North Carolina were from other States. Certainly the degrading dependence of our State for its public characters ceased after the establishment of the University. Not only that, but the institution has furnished chief legislative, executive, or judicial officers to all our Southern sisters, as well as to the general government.

In correspondence with Caldwell on the subject of granting degrees, Davie gave a clear exposition of the principles underlying his scheme. “The variation of the plan from that of other colleges makes the question of degrees a difficult one. A bachelor's degree generally imports a knowledge of the learned languages as well as the sciences. To confer such a degree upon a person who can understand neither Latin or Greek does not appear to be proper. The ruling or leading principle in our plan of education is that the student may apply himself to those branches of learning and science alone which are absolutely necessary to fit him for his destined profession or occupation in life. One study does not imply the necessity of any other, unless of one necessary to make it intelligible. But I am well convinced of the utility and policy of conferring degrees and granting special certificates.” He then asks criticism of the following plan: First. The degree of Bachelor of Arts (A.B) evidenced by a diploma in the Latin language, for proficiency in English, the sciences and either Latin or Greek. Second. A diploma in English certifying knowledge and progress in the arts and sciences, to one omitting both the classics. He does not suggest a name for this diploma.

These diplomas, as well as that of the Master's degree, should be signed by the President of the Board and another Trustees. In addition to the diplomas, certificates should be granted by the President of the University, specially stating the progress of the student.

After Davie left the State in 1805, Caldwell acquired such commanding influence as to assimilate this University to Princeton, his alma mater. Only one diploma was granted, that of Bachelor of Arts (A.B.), both Latin and Greek being essential to obtaining it, and this rule continued for many years. After the re-organization in 1875, Davie's plan somewhat modified was re-introduced. Both classics were still required for A.B., but a new degree of equal dignity was adopted where one classic is omitted, that of Bachelor of Philosophy, while if both classics are omitted, equivalent sciences being substituted, the degree of Bachelor of Science (B.S) is conferred. Several great institutions, notably Harvard and Cornell, now grant Bachelor of Arts, without requiring either classic, and this institution has recently followed their example. All universities grant certificates for special attainments.

It is remarkable that, after the University fell into the old Latin, Greek and Mathematical curriculum, which prevailed through so many decades, the scheme drawn by General Davie should have been substantially revived in our days. As proving the truth of this I mention the large liberty of electing studies, the not rigidly requiring Latin and Greek as necessary to graduation, the elevation of Chemistry, Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts to a separate school, which can be solely attended, the requiring of classical and mathematical students a moderate proficiency in science, and making advanced work in these departments elective, the great prominence given to the study of English literature and the attainment of a clear and graceful style in speaking and writing, the other languages being expressly declared to be auxiliary to this, the elevation of the French to equal rank with the classics, and the allowance of the substitution of French for either Latin or Greek. Indeed if we cut down our professorships to six, as was the case in Davie's scheme, (President and five professors) it becomes apparent that the changes of our day are mere centennial revivals, although not intentionally so.

The plan of education of to-day is an evolution mainly by the initiation of the Faculty, the Trustees as a matter of course ratifying their recommendations. In 1795, however, the Trustees controlled this as well as the other details of the institution, even prescribing text-books. Accordingly we find that the scheme was soon so modified as to strike out Geography as a required study in the Preparatory School, and Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws, Vattel's Law of Nations and Hume's History of England in the University. Astronomy was to be on the plan of Nicholson instead of Ferguson.

The difficulty of procuring books in the old times may be conjectured by this fact, that the Trustees purchased as many as six sets of the prescribed books, of others only three, to be rented to the students at a moderate hire.

It was found impracticable to put the new scheme, requiring a President and five professors, into full operation for two reasons: First, because of the want of funds, and secondly, because the Trustees could not find a man possessed of the necessary presidential gifts willing to take the place. Accordingly Governor Samuel Ashe, President of the Board, and Messrs. Davie, Willie Jones, Hogg, and Stone were appointed a committee to make inquiry for a proper person to be president and to ascertain the terms on which he could be procured. Three professors were then balloted for and the following were unanimously chosen: Samuel E. McCorkle, Professor of Moral and Political Philosophy and History; Charles W. Harris, Professor of Mathematics; Rev. David Ker, Professor of Languages. It was intended that Dr. McCorkle should have charge as Presiding Professor, thus dethroning Dr. Ker.

But an unexpected difficulty arose. The canny Scotch-Irishman foresaw that, when the President should be chosen, he would lose the snug residence provided for the chief executive. He therefore demanded that in case this should happen his salary should be increased to the extent of the annual value of the residence. To this the Trustees declined to accede and so Dr. Ker continued in office until the following July, the University classes being taught by Professors Ker and Harris, and the Preparatory School by Nicholas Delveaux and Samuel Holmes, Delveaux having one of the higher classes in Latin.

This rejection of the modest proposal of Dr. McCorckle was bitterly resented by his friends, although soon forgiven by that excellent man. Gen. John Steele, once a member of Congress and then first Comptroller of the Treasury, wrote General Davie a letter couched in such severe terms as to break the friendly relations between them. In the fall of 1799, after Davie's return from his mission to France, he endeavored to renew their old friendship. General Steele's answer, of which he kept a copy, shows that the sore was unhealed. He said, “My letter was the dictate of what I considered at the time, and still think, a just indignation for the ill treatment which Doctor McCorckle received.” . . . “I have no sons to educate, and my nephew (son of Dr. McCorckle) is relieved of the humiliation of acquiring his education at an institution whose outset was characterized by acts of ingratitude and insult towards his father.” As he begins the letter with a dry “Sir,” it is clear that resumption of friendly relations was for awhile of a formal and business nature.

The six months' term ending July, 1796, witnessed many disorders among the students, the nature of which we can only conjecture. This much is certain, that there was dissatisfaction with Dr. Ker, that much against his inclination he was constrained to send in his resignation, and the Trustees accepted it under protest that he had not given six months' notice as required by law. Professor Harris says that he was a man of talent, a furious Republican, and we learn from other sources that he became an outspoken infidel. Dr. Caldwell is authority also for the statement that another professor, Holmes, at that time “embraced and taught the wildest principles of licentiousness.”

When we remember that Harris, an excellent character in other respects, likewise had imbibed heterodox principles, we can easily see how a spirit of lawlessness and defiance of authority became rampant in the young institution, and how bitterly the Federalists among the students resented the violent partisanship of the Presiding Professor.

The by-laws of the University were also extremely vexatious. The boys of the Preparatory School, whom it became lawful to chastise as in other schools, were allowed to have rooms in the University building, and the strictest espionage, which might have been proper for their government, was enforced over grown young men—many of them accustomed to the largest liberty at home. The tutors of the Preparatory Department, sometimes undergraduates, were required to sleep among the students to see that they kept their rooms in study hours, to reprove and report them for every breach of the rules however trivial. Moreover the professors were ordered to visit each room twice a day, and monitors, one from each class, were expected to be spies on their fellows and to report their misdemeanors and even peccadilloes. The attempt several years afterwards to prevent the monitors from shirking this obligation led, as will be seen, to a serious disruption of the institution.

The rules governing the conduct of the students while eating at Commons were still more likely to produce angry feelings. The tutor must reprove one complaining of the food unjustifiably in his opinion, and order one behaving unseemly from the table. This indignity created wrath in the youth subjected to such public insult, banished in disgrace from his food in presence of his fellows.

While some of these rules and practices were from time to time rectified, others continued up to the end of the old regime in 1868. Their abolition in 1876 has been productive of more kindly relations between Faculty and students and general improved conduct in the institution.

Notwithstanding the disorders of the term, the Trustees who attended the examinations in July, 1796, including, among others, Governor Samuel Ashe and General Davie, certified that they were highly satisfactory and that many showed the strongest evidences of industry and most promising talents. The inspection began on Monday, the 11th of July, and was not finished until Friday, the 15th, Governor Ashe and a considerable number of Trustees, in addition to the committee, being present. The ladies did not vouchsafe their cheering presence. It is recorded that “several classes and some of the students received the marked approbation and applause of the Board and the committee.”

A clear view of the condition of the University at this second Commencement is given in the report signed by General Davie and Wm. Hinton, of Wake, the only Trustees who witnessed all the examinations:

The first or Senior class, consisting of six, were examined on Natural Philosophy and Mathematics and were distinguished for accuracy and progress.

The second, or Junior class of 12, were examined on Geography. Six merited the marked approbation of the committee and were publicly commended.

The third, or Sophomore class, consisted of 12; were examined on Arithmetic and obtained approbation.

In Virgil and Cicero nine were examined. Those in Virgil did not give satisfaction; those in Cicero were somewhat better.

The Rhetoric class did well. That in English Grammar, although numerous, acquitted themselves with approbation, as did also the French class. The like applause was given to the class in Cæsar and Sallust.

The classes in Nepos, Eutropius and six other inferior classes in the Preparatory School were satisfactory.

The Committee suggest that it is best to leave out Geography from the Preparatory School, “as most of the scholars will be too young to benefit much by the study in so early a state.”

As Dr. David Ker was first professor, and also, as Presiding Professor, the first executive of the University, it is proper to give his subsequent history. He lived for several years in Lumberton, Robeson County, engaged in a small way in merchandising; also pursuing the study of the law. Among his fast friends were a family by the name of Willis, which emigrated to Mississippi, and again became his neighbors and allies by marriage. From Lumberton in July, 1800, he emigrated to the Mississippi Territory, stopping several months with a friend in Nashville, Tennessee. He settled finally at Washington in the neighborhood of Natchez. He found the people, who had been injured by tobacco and indigo, rejoicing in the profits of growing cotton. An industrious planter in one year cleared the price of a negro. There was not a considerable school in the territory, but many planters had private tutors. He describes the people as largely composed of British sympathizers and “Revolutionary Tories,” but with a few Republicans. He avows to his correspondent, Senator David Stone, his willingness to accept the office of Secretary of State, the present incumbent, Col. Steele, being in a languishing state of health, or of judge, as Judge Tilton contemplated resignation. He reminds Senator Stone that his principles were in harmony with those of President Jefferson. His pecuniary resources becoming extremely slender, his wife opened a school for girls, in which he was an assistant. The Governor, W. C. C. Claiborne, appointed him to the clerkship of the Superior Court of Adams County, and soon afterwards he was made Sheriff. He then, on the recommendation of Senator Stone, who had years before nominated him as Professor of Humanity in our University, received from President Jefferson the office of Territorial Judge. He is described as able and impartial. His career was short, as he was cut off by disease contracted while holding court in an open house without fire in severely cold weather. A gentleman who knew him well describes him as a “man of fine education, a classical scholar, well read in the principles of moral and natural philosophy, of law and religion. His principles were well formed and matured and his moral character of the best model, firm, stern, inflexible, unyielding.” His wife, whose faith in the Christian religion was steadfast, burnt all his writings, lest they might contaminate others. The brave woman continued her school and educated her children, who founded some of the leading families of Mississippi and Louisiana, many of whose members hold honorable positions in their communities. Since the war between the States which brought them nearly all to financial ruin, the unmarried women of the family have shown the spirit of their first American ancestors, and have devoted themselves with enthusiasm to teaching.

Of the five children of Judge Ker, David died unmarried and Sarah (Mrs. Cowden) left no child; Eliza married Mr. Rush Nutt, and has many living grandchildren. One is Charles Clark, a prominent lawyer of San Jose, California; another is Sargent Prentiss Nutt, once a lawyer of Washington, D. C., now a planter near Natchez, at the old homestead, Longwood. Nearly all the rest of the Nutt branch are cotton planters in Louisiana or Mississippi.

Martha (or Patsey) Ker married Mr. Wm. Terry, and left three daughters, one of them still living on her plantation on the Yazoo, the widow of William B. Prince. Another daughter married Evan Jeffries, a wealthy planter, and their descendants are numerous.

A son of Judge Ker was John Ker, M.D., a surgeon in the Seminole war, who was afterwards a successful cotton planter and member of the legislatures of Louisiana and Mississippi. He had the religious faith of his mother, who lived with him until nearly 91 years of age. They are both buried at the old homestead, Linden, a mile from Natchez, by the side of Judge and David Ker, who were removed from their first resting place.

Dr. John Ker left six children, all of whom are dead except the two youngest, Wm. Henry and Mary S. Ker, who reside in Natchez. The oldest son, David, was a lawyer in Louisiana and then a sugar planter. Besides daughters, David has a son, J. Brownson Ker, a lawyer in New York City. Two of David Ker's daughters are successful teachers in the same city.

The second son, John Ker, was a lawyer for awhile and then a cotton planter. He served throughout the Civil War as Captain of a Louisiana company, was captured at Vicksburg. After the war he resumed the profession of the law. His son, Wm. B. Ker, is manager of a large sugar estate in Louisiana. One of his daughters is the wife of Hon. Murphy J. Foster, once Governor of Louisiana.

Dr. Ker's third son, Lewis Baker Ker, left two sons and four daughters, all living in Southern Louisiana.

The fourth son of Dr. John Ker is still living, Wm. Henry Ker of Natchez. He left the Junior class of Harvard to join the Confederate army and served throughout as a cavalry soldier in the army of Northern Virginia. After the war he undertook cotton planting, but not finding it profitable, adopted the profession of teaching and has pursued it with enthusiasm and success. For several years he has been Principal of the Natchez White Public Schools, President of the State Board of Education, and teacher in and once conductor of the Peabody Summer Normals in Mississippi. Harvard lately conferred on him the degree of A.B. At Harvard he was the stroke oar of the Harvard crew. He married Miss Josephine Chamberlain, and they have a son, John, living and two daughters, one of whom married Mr. Richard Butler, a sugar planter of Louisiana.

Dr. John Ker's younger daughter is still living, a fine specimen of the noble class of “Old Maids,” Mary S. Ker, who in addition to her professional duties, cared for two generations of orphaned nieces and great nieces. She has been steadily engaged in teaching since 1871, with the exception of a year and a half spent traveling in Europe. She has a place in the faculty of Stanton College, a female school in Natchez. It is to her courtesy that I am indebted for much of my information concerning the family of Dr. David Ker.

I copy the modest inscriptions on the tombstones of the first professor and the first lady who ever lived in Chapel Hill.

The new Professor of Natural Philosophy, James Smiley Gillaspie, as he spelt his name, was honored with the title of Principal of the University, instead of Presiding Professor. He was son of John Gillaspie, doubtless a near relative of Col. Daniel Gillaspie, of the Revolution, and Senator from Guilford. His home was at Martinsville, a village which took the place of old Guilford Court-House. By inducing him to assume executive duties and by adopting a resolution endorsing Caldwell's course, the Trustees induced the latter to accept the Chair of Mathematics. He voluntarily agreed to teach French in the Preparatory Department, for which an allowance of $30 was made.

The first year of Gillaspie's administration was fairly successful. His colleagues were Caldwell and Holmes in the University, and Richards and William Edwards Webb, a promising member of the Senior class, in the Grammar School.

I have chronicled the fact that Governor Smith offered to the University warrants for 20,000 acres of soldiers' land warrants at the first meeting of the Board in 1789, and handed over the warrants at the second meeting in 1790.

About the time of the construction of the old East, the old Chapel, or Person Hall, was begun. When funds ran low the hearts of the Trustees were gladdened by the gift of $1,050 in “hard money,” said to have been paid in shining silver dollars, for the purpose of finishing it, by General Thomas Person, of Granville. He was an old bachelor, who, not having children of his own, felt impelled to help educate those of others. General Person was a wealthy planter of Granville County. He was a sympathizer with the Regulators in their wrongs, but did not approve their overt resistance. He was an active patriot of the Revolution—a delegate to the first assembly of the people at New Bern in 1774, which met in defiance of the prohibition of the royal Governor. He appeared again as a member of the Provincial Congress at Hillsboro in 1775, and of the Congress at the same place in the spring of 1776, by which the State was organized for war, and which led the van in authorizing the members of the Continental Congress to vote for independence. He was one of the stout patriots who amid the storms of war framed a constitution for free North Carolina at Halifax in December, 1776. He was the second named of the large and able committee which reported the Constitution for the consideration of the body, and did their work so well that no changes were made in it. Nor was he trusted as a legislator only. He was one of the Provincial Council, which constituted the Provisional government of the State prior to the Constitution, and of the Council of Safety, which was its successor. He was one of the six Brigadier-Generals of the first military establishment. He was a member of the House of Commons during the entire war, and either as Senator or Commoner represented Granville County in the General Assembly for sixteen years. He always enjoyed the esteem and confidence of our people. He was always a fast friend of education and of the University. He was among the influential men who formed the first Board of Trustees. He attended the first meeting of the Trustees in 1790 at Fayetteville. For many years the “Old Chapel” was the place of divine worship and of all public meetings. For some time the two societies held therein their sessions. It witnessed the Commencement exercises and conferring the diplomas. Until after our great Civil War these documents bore on their face in sonorous Latin the antiquated words, “in Aula Personica.” The grateful Trustees directed that a slab be inserted in front of the building with the following inscription:

On January 9, 1793, Willie Jones and Wm. R. Davie, the leaders of the Republican and Federalist parties in the eastern section, in politics opposed, but personal friends, issued a joint appeal for subscriptions, stating that they were clearly of the opinion that the liberal education of youth must tend to promote the prosperity and happiness of the people. They hope that “the gentlemen of the county of Halifax, on an occasion so interesting to the rising generation, when the gentlemen of the county of Orange had given near $2,000, will not suffer any county in the State to exceed Halifax in supporting an institution of such vast and general utility.” The following is a list of donations from the Judicial Districts:

Total Hillsborough District $1614.80 Total Halifax District 1608. Total Wilmington District 2222. Total Newbern District 950. Total Fayetteville District 170. Salisbury 158.50 Grand Total $6,723.30

In the appendix will be found the list of names—a veritable roll of honor. The subscriptions run all the way from $5 to $200. Wm. Cain, of Orange, Alfred Moore, of Brunswick, soon to be a Judge, and Walter Alves, of Orange, were the largest subscribers. The latter, however, added his own donation to a legacy willed by his father-in-law in order to make up the $200. He was a son of James Hogg, changing his name at his father's request. The $100 subscribers were Jesse Nevill, of Orange; Wm. R. Davie, Willie Jones and Nicholas Long, of Halifax; John Burgwin, of Wilmington; Governor Spaight, Joseph Leech, Daniel Carthy, George Pollock, and Wilson Blount, of New Bern. In the lists will be found ancestors of many of the leading citizens of the State and friends of the University, such as the Spaights, Donnells, Bryans, Davises, Blounts, Greens, Osbornes, Halls, Moores, Ashes, Kenans, Burgwins, Wrights, Toomers, Joneses, Cutlars, Jameses, Hills, Dudleys, Sneads, Waddells, Haywoods, Alstons, Malletts, Longs, Whitakers, Smiths, Watters, Hooper, Strayhorns, Renchers, Johnstons, and many others, not couting those on the female side.

It is particularly gratifying to see the name of Wm. Bingham, the founder of the distinguished family of teachers in our State, who gave $20, a large sum for a teacher, then a recent settler among us. Rev. Dr. Samuel E. McCorkle showed his interest by procuring $42 from his congregation. The Central Benevolent Association, of Iredell County, subscribed $100 for the purchase of books and apparatus, and Rev. James Hall, D.D., the Preacher-Captain in the Revolution, out of his meagre salary sent $5.

It is evident that two or more of the agents procuring subscriptions neglected their duty. It is impossible to believe that so many well-to-do counties around Albemarle Sound and in the valleys of the Tar, the Neuse above Craven, the Pee Dee, the Catawba, the Yadkin, and other rivers, would have been totally unrepresented in this list if they had been properly canvassed. We should give all the more praise to James Hogg, W. R. Davie, Richard Dobb Spaight, Alfred Moore and Wm. H. Hill for successful activity. Wm. Barry Grove would have undoubtedly gathered a larger sum if he had not been engaged in his congressional duties.

The foregoing subscriptions were not, however, payable at once, but according to the dates fixed by the donors—mostly in one or two years.

In 1798 the Trustees were gladdened by the bequest of valuable lands and land warrants in Tennessee by a worthy Revolutionary officer, a Lieutenant in the Fifth Battalion of the Continental line, whose first Colonel was Edward Buncombe. His name was Charles Gerrard, a native of Carteret County, but at his death a citizen of Edgecombe, married, though childless. He was described in the North Carolina Journal “as a soldier brave, active and persevering, and justly admired as a citizen, husband, friend and neighbor.” His rank as Lieutenant entitled him to a grant of 2,560 acres which he located in 1783 at the junction of Yellow Creek with Cumberland River, not far below the city of Nashville.

This tract, the fruit of his toil and suffering and blood, he regarded with peculiar affection, and when he bequeathed it he requested in his will that it should perpetually remain the property of the University. For thirty-five years the Trustees regarded this wish as sacred.

The spelling given is according to the original will of Major Gerrard. Judges Gaston and Badger, in reporting the hereafter mentioned resolutions, adopt it. Afterwards the name was wrongly confounded with that of the founder of Girard College.

In addition to this tract, which was called his “service right,” Gerrard bequeathed warrants which he had purchased amounting to 11,364 acres. The story of the sale of these will be told hereafter.

I think it best to continue the history of the efforts for the construction of the early buildings, although departing from chronological order.

In order to complete the Main Building the Trustees obtained from the Legislature of 1801 the liberty of raising, by one or more lotteries, not exceeding 2,000 pounds ($4,000). The public conscience of that day saw no harm in calling in the aid of the Goddess Fortuna for promoting religion, education, or any other desirable end. The following was the plan of the University lottery No. 1: There were 1,500 tickets, costing $5 each. Of these 531 bore prizes and 969 blanks. There was one prize each for $1,500, $500, $250, $200, two of $100 each, five of $50 each, ten of $10 each, and five hundred of $5 each. The $250 prize was to belong to the last drawn ticket. The prizes aggregated $5,500, leaving a net profit of $2,000. The drawing was had under the superintendence of State officers, Wm. White, Secretary of State, and John Craven, Comptroller. The highest prize was drawn by ticket No. 1138, held by General Lawrence Baker, grandfather of a Confederate General of the same name.

The scheme of the second lottery drawn in 1802 was as follows:

There was 1 prize of $1,0001 prize of 5002 prize of 2501 prize of 100

1 prize of $200 to be the last drawn ticket. 20 prizes of 100 15 prizes of 50 895 prizes of 10 931 prizes. 1864 blanks. 2800 tickets @ $5 each, $14,000.

The foregoing is the scheme as stated in the Raleigh Register. As the prizes foot up $14,000 it is to be presumed that the University retained a large number of tickets and participated in the drawing. At any rate the net amount to the University Treasury was $2,865.36. The net amount from the first lottery was $2,215.45. The whole amount was, therefore, $5,080.81.

It is remarkable how completely public sentiment has changed on the subject of lotteries. The hostility to them seems to tend towards driving them from their last refuge, Church Fairs. In 1802 the best men lent their names and active aid to them. I have in my collections an autograph of George Washington, date not given, signed to a lottery ticket. In order to induce our citizens to buy the tickets of the University lotteries, batches of them were placed in the hands of Trustees and other friends of the institution, who were expected to use their personal influence to procure purchasers. We have copies of these letters of transmission. One is signed by Henry Potter, Judge of the District Court of the United States, Henry Seawell, State Senator and afterwards Superior Court Judge, John Haywood, State Treasurer, and Wm. Polk, President of the State Bank. They assert that “the interests of the University of North Carolina, and of Learning and Science generally throughout our State, are concerned in the immediate sale of the tickets.” They continue with delicate flattery: “From a belief that no measure calculated to promote the prosperity and happiness of our country is indifferent to you, this request is made.”

In order to inspire confidence, the proceeds of sale were to be sent to Benjamin Williams, who was not only Governor but a man of character and wealth. With a sense of propriety characteristic of the old school of gentlemen his official title is omitted.

The Commissioners of the second lottery were Messrs. Polk, Haywood and Potter. They state that the want of punctuality, in making returns by some of the agents for sale of the tickets in the first lottery, had occasioned “much difficulty, delay and embarrassment in the course of the drawing.” Those who performed their duty have the satisfaction that “their patriotic and well-meant endeavors have proved effectual and have already brightened the prospects of this institution, and of our country throughout, so far as depends on a general diffusion of Learning and Science.” The Commissioners are sanguine in their expectations of this mode of raising money, “however illy it may comport with the wealth and dignity of the State.”

The slowness with which the returns were made met with the stern denunciation of the Treasurer, Gavin Alves, son of James Hogg, who had by act of Assembly adopted his mother's name. In a letter to the Commissioners he accuses the “backward gentlemen” of shameful neglect of the trust reposed in them. He asks leave to threaten public exposure. At any rate “if neither sense of shame nor regard to propriety can actuate them I must try what incessant importunity will do.”

I find a third lottery advertised, identical with the second, but the project was abandoned. More than was allowed by the act of Assembly had already been realized.

It is painful to be compelled to record that $300 of lottery No. 1 and $604 of lottery No. 2 had not been returned by the agents of the University, mostly Trustees, as late as December, 1803. Measures were taken to notify delinquents that those not accounting within six months should have their names published in the newspapers. It was afterwards ascertained that those charged with the value of tickets intrusted to them for sale had failed to dispose of the same, so that it was a case of carelessness, not fraud.

In February, 1803, the lottery money not being sufficient to finish the Main Building, efforts were made to raise additional funds by subscription. Col. Polk, President of the Board, issued an appeal deploring the necessity of beholding its exposed and roofless walls and the almost naked shelves of the Library. He urged all “Patriots to come to the rescue, because no country can long remain free unless its religious, civil and political rights are understood by the mass of its citizens.” “Every one contributing even one volume toward improving the minds of youths, who are to succeed us on the stage of life, must feel a self-approbation. On these youths the character and fate of our country depends.”