History of Randolph-Macon College, Virginia: The Oldest Incorporated Methodist College in AmericaIrby, Richard
History
History of Randolph-Macon College, Virginia: The Oldest Incorporated Methodist College in America
Irby, Richard
Randolph-Macon College; Randolph-Macon Woman's College
If a man could be too modest and retiring Dr. Garland was such a man.
Notwithstanding this, he lived to become President of Randolph-Macon
College from 1836, after Dr. Olin left, till 1847, then Professor and
President of the University of Alabama, Professor in the University of
Mississippi, and finally Chancellor of the Vanderbilt University at
Nashville, Tenn. In all these high places he influenced for good
hundreds of young men whose praise is in all the churches and homes of
the land. When he died, in 1895, these multiplied hundreds rose up and
"called him blessed." If Virginia ever gave birth to a man who did more
real service to the manhood of the South, his name and place would be
hard to find.
Prof. Edward Dromgoole Sims was born in Brunswick county, Va., March 24,
1805. He was the grandson of Rev. Edward Dromgoole, one of the pioneer
Methodist preachers in the State of Virginia, and one of the trustees
appointed by Bishop Asbury for Ebenezer Academy, before referred to as
the first Methodist school of its kind in the State.* He was a man of
talents and great influence, and a member of the original Virginia
Conference. One of his sons, George C. Dromgoole, was a member of
Congress for many years, and was probably the most talented and
influential member of the Virginia delegation in his day.
* This school was established in 1796, instead of 1786, as the
Records of Brunswick County, recently found, show.
Prof. Sims took his A. B. degree at the University of North Carolina in
1824, and his A. M. degree in 1827, and was a tutor at that University
for three years. He was a Professor at LaGrange College, Alabama, at the
time he was elected Professor at Randolph-Macon. Like Dr. Olin his
personal appearance was very marked. He was a man of great dignity and
gentlemanly manner, and a most devoted Christian. Though not endowed by
nature with the mental power of others of his associates, he
nevertheless, by industrious application, became a fine scholar and a
model professor. He was the originator of the "English Course" in
colleges, of which more will be said further on. His department embraced
the "Ancient Languages."
The Preparatory Department was under the control of Rev. Lorenzo Lea, an
A. M. of the University of North Carolina, and a native of North
Carolina. His contemporaries spoke well of him as a man of fine
accomplishments and skill as a teacher. He also had been a tutor at his
_Alma Mater_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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