whole nation. At one time in the 1850's over a score of these graduates sat together in Washington as congressmen or senators in the councils of the national government. But the University of Nashville grew legally and directly out of Cumberland College (1806-1826), which in its turn succeeded Davidson Academy (1785-1806), established by the legislature of North Carolina eleven years before Tennessee became a state. The succession here is unbroken as regards property, control, educational purpose, and legal status, as shown clearly by the following from an act of the Tennessee legislature passed November 27, 1826: "That there is hereby established at said place a university, to be known and distinguished by the corporate name of the 'University of Nashville,' and that the corporate name of the trustees of Cumberland College be no longer used, and that the privileges, property, claims, and all rights of any description whatever, that were, or may be, vested either by law or equity in said trustees of Cumberland College, be henceforth vested in said University of Nashville. North Carolina granted Davidson Academy a tract of land covering roughly that part of Nashville now bounded by Broadway and Eighth Avenue (Spruce Street), and extending southward and eastward to the Cumberland River and the former Peabody campus, on Second Avenue (South Market Street). Rev. Thomas B. Craighead was president of Davidson Academy from 1785 to 1806, and of Cumberland College from 1806 to 1809. He was succeeded by Dr. James Priestly, who was president from 1809 to 1816, and again in 1820-21. Then came the new era in name and in fact, Dr. Philip Lindsley leaving the presidency of Princeton University to become the president of the University of Nashville from 1826 to 1850. His son, Dr. John Berrien Lindsley, was chancellor from 1855 to 1870, and Gen. E. Kirby Smith from 1870 to 1875, when Peabody College was established. Then the College of Arts of the University of Nashville was discontinued by act of the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, passed March 23, 1875, and approved by Gov. James D. Porter on March 24, which is, in part (Chapter 104, Acts of 1875): "Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, That the charter of the University of Nashville be so amended that the trustees may have the power, if in their judgment the interests of the institution require, to discontinue a course of instruction strictly collegiate and literary, and make an arrangement with the trustees of the 'Peabody Fund,' or other associations, for the establishment of a normal school." Thus was Peabody launched on its historic mission in 1875 by the trustees of the Peabody Education Fund in the home of the University of Nashville, which had been wrecked by war and had, besides its grounds and buildings, only a small income from the remnant of its former endowment. Gov. James D. Porter and Dr. John Berrien Lindsley, then secretary of the State Board of Education, coöperated most effectively with Dr. Barnas Sears, first general agent of the Peabody Education Fund, in this new enterprise, which was to mean so much for the advancement of education through the special emphasis on the training of teachers. Peabody in its fifty years has had varied experiences, dotted with successes and defeats, ever changing to meet new demands, but keeping a true continuity by one steadfast, unchanging purpose. Dr. Eben S. Stearns was the president of Peabody Normal College from 1875 to 1887, its first period of struggle and experiment. Dr. William H. Payne was the second president, during that period of buoyant vigor, from 1887 to 1901, when courses of study and faculty and students and influence were bountifully multiplied. Then followed a period of transition to Greater Peabody under Gov. James D. Porter as president from 1901 to 1909, when the present phase of Peabody was made possible. From 1875 to 1909 financial support came by annual grants from four sources, amounting in all to $1,126,540 from the Peabody Education Fund, $429,000 from the State of Tennessee, $127,909 from the fees of students, and $109,800 from the University of Nashville, besides the use of its grounds, buildings, and library, which later were donated towards endowment and building fund (about $200,000 of the million and three-quarters available in 1910). The new era was founded on new endowment and trustees, new campus and buildings, reorganized courses of study and faculty. Vital changes took place in all these respects during 1911 to 1914. In 1911 instruction ceased on the old campus, and was resumed on the new in 1914 after three buildings were ready for classes. The past decade has been signalized by steady progress and the vigor of renewed youth. The continuity of Davidson Academy, Cumberland College, and the University of Nashville in source of income and in academic character was unbroken through the period of ninety years, from 1785 to 1875. With the founding of Peabody College, in 1875, a new chapter of history was begun, with a new purpose and a new mission-that of training teachers scholastically and technically for all phases of public education. But the environment of the newly-founded Peabody College became its ancestry in many respects and to a large degree. Peabody and this ancestry represent in very truth the cultural history of Nashville, the educational development of that vast empire of the South and Southwest. From the viewpoint, then, of cultural and scholarly lineage Peabody might have been justified in undertaking to celebrate its one hundred and fortieth anniversary instead of its fiftieth. 1. Trustees of Peabody Education Fund, 1867. For description, see page 81. Twelve standing: G. W. Riggs, D. C.; G. N. Eaton, Md.; W. M. Evarts, N. Y.; E. A. Bradford, La.; C. Macalister, Pa.; J. H. McIlvaine, O.; S. Wetmore, N. Y. Five sitting: G. P. Russell, Mass.; W. A. Graham, N. C.; George Peabody; R. C. Winthrop, Mass.; W. C. Rives, Va. |