University of Georgia

“ Of the total population, 10 years of age and over, 30.5% were illiterates in 1900—49.9% were illiterates in 1880—and as regards the whites of native birth alone, Georgia ranked ninth in illiteracy, in 1900, among the states and territories of the Union. Of the illiterates about four-fifths were negroes in 1900. In addition to the public schools, the state also supports the University of Georgia ”

“ In that year he became professor of mathematics and natural philosophy in Yale, where he remained until 1801. On the opening of the University of Georgia in 1800, he was chosen the first professor and acting president, continuing in the latter office until 1810, but retaining the professorship of mathematics, natural philosophy, and chemistry a year longer. In 1812 he was appointed surveyor-general, and in 1814 became commissioner of the general land-office of the United States, which office he held until his death. ”

“ It is served by the Georgia, the Central of Georgia, the Southern, the Seaboard Air Line and the Gainesville Midland railways. Athens is an important educational centre. It was founded in 1801 as the seat of the university of Georgia, which had been chartered in 1785. ”

“ Columbus, Americus, Atlanta, and Rome, as well as Savannah, are considerable shipping points, for cotton; Athens is the seat of the university of Georgia; Augusta and Columbus are manufacturing centres; Macon has three religious colleges; Darien, Brunswick, and St manufacture and export lumber. Andersonville, in Sumter county, acquired terrible celebrity during the civil war as the site of the chief military prison of the Southern Confederacy. Atlanta is by far the best example of rapid growth the State affords. ”

“ Augusta has a public library of 10,000 volumes; two handsome monuments—one erected in 1849 to the Georgia signers of the Declaration of Independence, the other to the Confederate soldiers; a Masonic Temple, Odd Fellows' Hall, and Cotton Exchange, besides many other notable private and public buildings. The chief educational institutions are the Georgia Medical College, a branch of the State University at Athens, Richmond Academy, Saint Mary's and Sacred Heart academies, Paine's Institute for Colored Students, and high schools for white and colored pupils. ”

“ Pio Nono College at Macon is a recently established Catholic institution, chiefly founded by the efforts of the bishop of Savannah. The Atlanta University for the education of negroes was established by the now extinct Freedmen’s Bureau and various charitable societies of the Northern States. It receives an annual appropriation from the Georgia legislature of $8000. It accommodates 240 pupils. There are a number of institutions, in addition to those enumerated, that are entitled colleges, but come more properly within the designation of high schools. ”

“ There are several thriving industries, including, besides the various branches of the publishing trade, the manufacture of woollen and cotton goods, and of physical and mathematical instruments. The university, the famous Georgia Augusta, founded by George II. in 1734, and opened in 1737, rapidly attained a leading position, and in the year 1823 its students numbered 1547. ”

“ No woman is eligible to serve as president of this college. A board of Women Visitors was appointed by Governor Atkinson.
Considerable effort has been made by the Georgia Federation of Woman's Clubs to have the doors of the State University opened to women. ”

“ This institution has been conducted with singular wisdom and propriety, and has already proved an inestimable blessing to the colored people of Georgia. Gradually, but surely, all the prejudices of the whites have been overcome, and the predictions of many that it would eventuate in a mere nursery of Radicalism and hate to the superior race, have not been justified by the facts. On the contrary, we have the testimony of our own School Superintendent, Mr. B. M. Zettler, that some of the most efficient and conservative teachers in the Bibb County schools were educated at the Atlanta University. ”

“ Georgia had 5 graduates. We find that Princeton had representatives from 10 of the colonies; Yale from 6; Harvard from 5; the University of Pennsylvania from 3; William and Mary from 2; and Columbia, Brown and Rutger's from 1 each. Fifty-six delegates signed the Declaration of Independence. Of these, 28, or just one-half, were College graduates."
Incidentally, and as illustrative of the influence of college-bred men in the Legislature, Mr. Adams, speaking of the great liberality of South Carolina in founding a college in that State, says:—
"But no State ever made a better investment. ”

“ The capital of Clarke county, Georgia, on the W. bank of the Oconee River. It is the seat of the Georgia university, which was founded in 1801, and the central town of a large cotton-growing district. Population in 1870, 4251, of whom 1967 were coloured. ”

“ Atlanta, Ga.—There are known to be more than 142 of the present pupils of Atlanta University engaged in teaching during their three months’ vacation. This short term is all the present school system of Georgia contemplates during the year. Although many are prepared every year to take up the work, the demand is constantly larger than the supply. A short time since, application was made at the institution for three teachers in one day, to take schools already organized in the country, and none could be found to go. ”

“ But are the colored people idle? In one of the classes which graduated from the Atlanta University not long ago, were two married women who did their own house-work, walked more than three miles through the red mud of Georgia to school, were punctual in attendance and graduated with honor. ”

“ The anniversaries of the different colleges of the land are calling the attention of the benevolent public to their growth and wants. We especially urge the claims of the colored people South to a full share of the gifts made for endowment purposes.
THE FREEDMEN. REV. JOSEPH E. ROY, D.D., Field Superintendent, Atlanta, Ga.
ANNIVERSARY REPORTS. ATLANTA UNIVERSITY, GEORGIA. BY REV. C. W. FRANCIS.
Unless you could look through our eyes you would not know, from a formal record of the closing exercises of our school, how much interest and hope and pathos are crowded into these busy days. ”

“ There are two national and two savings banks. Educational institutions are numerous, and comprise the North Georgia Female College, Oglethorpe College, a medical college, a university for men of colour, and a variety of schools. ”

“ The total receipts of the Athletic Association from all sources for the year ending August 31, 1935, were $91,620.25, of which $71,323.27 came from admissions to football games.
The stadium of the Georgia School of Technology has a seating capacity of 29,000. ”

“ There are 235 graduates from the college and normal courses, nearly all of whom, together with hundreds of post undergraduates, are engaged in teaching and other useful work in Georgia and surrounding States. ”

“ Atlanta, Ga.—The Fall term of the University opened October 1st. The first week gives promise of a very full school. There are already thirty girl boarders, and the indications are that their Hall will be as badly crowded as last year. The reports of the Summer work of the students, in all parts of the State, are very cheering. There is an increasing desire for education. The white people are taking a deeper and more kindly interest in the education of the colored children and in the University. ”

“ Do you think the boys would stand for that?”
105 “Jeepers, why shouldn’t they?” demanded Kit hotly. “And I’d like to know what they’ve got to say about it anyway. I don’t think that’s the college spirit. Anyone who wants an education and is willing to work for it should be admitted.”
“Yes, but if they had any sense at all,” responded Georgia placidly, “they wouldn’t put themselves into a position of being snubbed. You can talk all you want to about the college spirit from the standpoint of Deans and faculties, but when all’s said and done, it’s the student spirit that rules. ”

“ He still remains, bearing his cross in triumph, and still preaching the Redeemer to the grandchildren of those who first welcomed him and united with him in the good work of his mission. How much his labors have done to form and give tone to the character of the people of the State of Georgia, none may say; but under his eye and aid has arisen a system of female education, which has and is working wonders throughout the State. He has seen the ignorant and untaught mothers rear up virtuous, educated, and accomplished daughters ”

“ When one sees how New England is packed with seminaries, colleges, academies and high schools, he can hardly help believing that the Lord is willing that the colored people of the State of Georgia shall have one institution for thoroughly fitting teachers for the common schools of their race, and at least giving those who can and wish to obtain a college education the opportunity of doing this. ”

“ Atlanta has an imposing array of educational institutions, extending from the public school system to the great polytechnic institute known as the Georgia Institute of Technology. There is a variety of technical schools, including law, medicine, dentistry, handicrafts, business colleges, industrial schools and divinity schools. ”

“ He handled these great themes with a master hand and invested his exposition of them with a most fascinating eloquence. Few men in Georgia ever accomplished so much in so few years. Few men in Georgia were even the object of such affection at home and such admiration beyond the bounds of the State. The career which has been so suddenly cut off was shining with golden promise. ”

“ It is not necessary that all departments should be equal to make the university real. It was enough at Harvard to have Agassiz and Gray, Lowell, Goodwin and Holmes to justify the name of the university. Silliman and Dana made a university of Yale. Such men are as rare as they are choice, and no university faculty was ever yet composed of them alone, and none ever yet had too many of them. ”

“ The said loans or scholarships to be granted to each applicant shall be based upon the condition that the full amount thereof shall be repaid to the State of Georgia in cash in full with 4% interest from the date of each payment by the State on such loan or scholarship, same to be payable annually, the first annual payment to be due on or before one year from the date the applicant completes his internship, or same may be repaid to the State of Georgia in services to be rendered by the applicant by practicing his profession at some place within the State of Georgia to be approved by the board. ”

“ As was natural, the political development of Georgia was much more rapid than its industrial progress. In January, 1783, Lyman Hall was elected governor. He was distinguished for the patriotic stand he took at the very beginning of the controversy between the Colony and the King. The Legislature met in Savannah after the evacuation of the town by the British; but it was so far from the central and upper portions of the State, and there was so much dissatisfaction among the people on this account, that in May Augusta was made the capital. In that town the General Assembly met July 8, 1783. ”

“ It is a kindred wish that every one of you may remain a citizen of Georgia. I also wish that the friends who have come from afar to be your instructors shall not take to themselves wings and fly away, but shall settle in this grand old State, and their children after them. There is no enmity between the white and colored people in this State. ”

“ The principal buildings are the city hall, a masonic hall, an oddfellows hall, the Richmond academy, the Georgia medical college, the opera-house, and an orphan asylum. Besides these, the city possesses an arsenal, water-works, a number of banks, newspaper offices, extensive cotton factories and flour mills, several foundries, two tobacco factories, &c. Water-power is abundantly supplied from the river by the Augusta canal, which was constructed in 1845. Augusta was an important place during the revolutionary war, and continued to flourish amazingly till the opening of the Georgia railway. ”

“ If it were a mere recording instrument of conventional opinion and average information, it is hard to see why the University should exist at all. To clasp hands with the common life in order that it may lift that life, to be a radiant center enkindling the society in which it has its being, these are primary duties of the University. ”

“ The General Assembly shall be authorized by general law to provide for an education trust fund to assist students and parents of students in financing postsecondary education and to provide for contracts between the fund and purchasers for the advance payment of tuition by each purchaser for a qualified beneficiary to attend a state institution of higher education. Such general law shall provide for such terms, conditions, and limitations as the General Assembly shall deem necessary for the implementation of this subparagraph. ”

“ In conclusion, we think it proper to dwell for a moment upon the fact that the Atlanta University, besides the influence which it wields directly upon its scholars, reaches, through the many who pass out from its walls as teachers, almost the entire colored population of our State. While the mental man is being developed, the moral man is carefully trained, and temperance and religion are important parts of the instruction given. ”