With great labor and many embarrassments the College furniture, laboratories and libraries had been transferred from Boydton to Ashland, under the special superintendence of Rev. T. S. Campbell. The buildings on the campus had been remodeled and repaired, and were in fair condition for occupancy, and for the work and use to which they had been converted. They had in former years been used for a summer resort, to which many visitors annually repaired for health and dissipation. The largest building was the hotel, which had several buildings attached. In the centre of the grounds was the ball-room, flanked by dressing-rooms. This building was converted into a chapel and society halls, while the hotel became the main dormitory building. The bowling-alley and other buildings also became dormitories. Three buildings were fitted up for professor's houses. The rooms on the lower floors of the hotel were made lecture-rooms. Though the buildings were extemporised, the whole arrangement was comparatively convenient and comfortable. What was defective and might have been complained of was more than compensated by the superb Faculty of instruction provided for the students in attendance. First and foremost was the President, Rev. James A. Duncan, D. D. Of him we will let others who were associated with him speak. His colleagues were Professor Thomas R. Price, M. A., Professor Harry Estill, A. M., Professor Richard M. Smith, Professor W. W. Valentine. [Illustration: PROF. RICHARD M. SMITH.] [Illustration: MAIN COLLEGE BUILDING, ASHLAND, 1868-1875.] Rarely has such a combination of teaching ability been found in any college, or one which met the needs of the time more fully. The name of the President had drawn from his far-away Southern home one of the most original characters the College ever had among its matriculates, John Hannon, of Montgomery, Ala. JOHN HANNON'S SKETCH OF DR. DUNCAN. "In the autumn of 1868 upon the train I first met Dr. James A. Duncan, as I was going to Ashland. Full-orbed, approaching his zenith, this pulpit star thus came into my sky. Though he has years since set behind the grassy hills of Hollywood, the light of his great character still lingers in the valleys and on the high places of my being. "It is impossible in a sketch like this to give the full spectrum of a character so rich as that of Dr. Duncan. There were X-rays, delicate gleamings of light from his presence, that could be felt, but do not photograph themselves upon the plates of a biography. He was not a man easy to forget.