The charter for Burritt College was secured by a board of thirteen trustees. They apparently were not superstitious regarding the number thirteen in those days. This board, of which John Gillentine was the chairman, obtained money for the erection of a college building from citizens of White, Warren, and Van Buren Counties and probably elsewhere. Nathan Trogdon was employed as contractor and builder. The building, a two-story brick structure, a drawing of which appears at the top of the early diplomas, stood about midway between the present main building and Billingsley Hall. Its original foundation could be partly traced when I was a student at the College. The first president was Isaac Newton Jones. He and W. B. Huddleston were the chief promoters of the college. President Jones, born at Calhoun, McMinn County, Tennessee, was only twenty-six years old when he accepted the presidency of Burritt College. Being the first graduate of Irving College in Warren County, he was both a scholar and a gentleman and a man of great energy. From the beginning, the curriculum of Burritt stressed Greek and Latin, Moral Philosophy, Mathematics, Logic, Natural Philosophy, and Evidences of Christianity. For at least sixty years, little change was made in these courses of study, except by addition of other subjects. After one year, Jones resigned and went to Bedford County where he married Mary Ann Davis. In 1873 he became president of Waters and Walling College in McMinnville; after three years he was elected to the presidency of Manchester College, which he held for five years. He continued to reside in Manchester until his death in 1898. He is remembered in his later years for his venerable appearance, his long white beard covering his chest and reaching almost to his waist. Jones was succeeded as president of Burritt by William Davis Carnes. In 1809, young Carnes had come, when only four years old, with his parents from South Carolina to McMinnville, where his father Alexander Carnes engaged in the mercantile business. William Carnes completed his education at East Tennessee College (now the University of Tennessee), where he finished the four years’ course in three years. Here he was called “Pop Carnes” as he was already married and had three children. After graduation, he became the principal of the Preparatory Department and continued his studies, receiving the A.M. degree two years later. He then became professor of English Language and Literature in the college. A serious illness caused him to return to his farm in Sequatchie Valley; and after his complete recovery here, he was offered the presidency of Burritt College.