With a subscription list of less than $20,000, including the county subscription, a large portion of which, in those days, as in the present, was uncollectable and worthless, this band of workers went forward, "not knowing whither they were going," but, like Abraham, trusting in the Lord, whose spirit had prompted the enterprise, that he would bring about a successful issue. Could they have foreseen the difficulties ahead, the work probably would never have been undertaken, nor would Columbus ever have discovered a new world if he had foreseen the difficulties which were before him. It is not untimely to pause and dwell on some of the actors in this work. The chairman, Rev. John Early, who was afterwards Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was at this time in the prime of life. He was not a college-bred man. He probably valued college education as highly as he did because he felt so keenly the need of it. He was, however, in the best sense, an educated man, and a man among men. From his early manhood his brethren and fellow-citizens manifested their appreciation of him by calling him to the highest positions in the church and in the state. The latter, however, were not accepted by him. It may be safely said that no man ever lived in Virginia who was more intimately or more widely known than John Early. No man ever knew more men. Few ever had more seals to their ministry. Not neglecting his own peculiar work in the church, he was always foremost in everything that he esteemed promotive of the good of the church and the state. From the outset he threw into the college enterprise all his great energy, and gave it the benefit of his large practical sense, because he felt that the church, as well as the state, was in need of such an agency. Under the charter, as subsequently amended, he was elected President of the Board of Trustees, and retained that position for about forty years, rarely ever failing to attend the annual meetings, when attendance involved days of tedious and difficult travel over rough roads. When over eighty years of age he was found at his place in the Board. Doubtless his latest prayers were for the success of the cause to which he gave many of the years of his manhood's prime. Randolph-Macon College will never let the name of John Early be forgotten. His portrait adorns the Trustees' room, and his eyes look down every June on his successors in the Board of Trustees, who are laboring to carry forward the work which he and his co-laborers commenced in 1825.