Private university in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
University of Nashville
was a
private university
in
Nashville, Tennessee
. It was established in 1806 as
Cumberland College
. It existed as a distinct entity until 1909; operating at various times a medical school, a four-year military college, a literary arts (liberal arts) college, and a boys preparatory school. Educational institutions in operation today that can trace their roots to the University of Nashville include
Montgomery Bell Academy
, an all-male preparatory school; the
Vanderbilt University
Medical School;
Peabody College
at Vanderbilt University; and the
University School of Nashville
, a co-educational preparatory school.
History
[
edit
]
Dr.
Philip Lindsley
, first president
The predecessor to the University of Nashville, Davidson Academy, was founded as a preparatory school for boys in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1785.
[1]
[2]
In 1802 this institution moved to a building in downtown Nashville. The facility, named Cumberland Hall, was located at 300 Peabody St., on the corner of what is now Peabody St. and Third Avenue.
[3]
The building no longer stands, but a Tennessee State Historical Marker was erected on the site. In 1806, Davidson Academy changed its name to Cumberland College.
[1]
[2]
United States President
Andrew Jackson
served on the board of trustees for many years during this time.
[3]
Meanwhile, Reverend
Philip Lindsley
(1786–1855) was named the chancellor of Cumberland College in 1824.
[4]
In 1826, the Tennessee Legislature changed the name of Cumberland College to the University of Nashville.
[1]
In 1827, future Confederate General
Gideon Pillow
was part of a graduating class of twelve.
[5]
Under Reverend Phillip Lindsley, the University of Nashville provided educational instruction to young men, and Nashville became known as the '
Athens
of
the South
.
[
citation needed
]
' In 1850, all parts of the college level instruction were shut down, a consequence of a
cholera epidemic
in the city.
[4]
Meanwhile, Cumberland Hall was torn down, and the University of Nashville opened a medical college in 1851.
[2]
Literary Department Building
In 1853, a new building was constructed at 724 Second Avenue in Nashville, and in 1854, the college re-opened.
[6]
In 1855, Lindsley's son and successor
John Berrien Lindsley
merged the
Western Military Institute
and the University of Nashville.
[2]
It moved its entire operation from
Georgetown, Kentucky
, where it had operated since its founding in 1847, to Nashville.
Bushrod Johnson
was a professor at the Western Military Institute from 1851 to 1855.
[6]
He served as its headmaster when it moved to Nashville in the merger and continued in that capacity until the outbreak of the
American Civil War
in 1861.
[6]
He served the
Confederate States Army
during the war as a general.
[6]
It was during this period that
Sam Davis
attended the Western Military Institute; he was later called the "boy hero of the Confederacy", and hanged by Union forces as a spy in 1863.
[6]
The Western Military Institute did not offer instruction from 1862 to 1865. In 1862, the campus building served as a Union hospital for Federal officers.
[7]
Industrialist Montgomery Bell left the University of Nashville $20,000 in his will in 1867,
[2]
and Lindsley used the proceeds to open up the
Montgomery Bell Academy
(MBA) that year as a new preparatory school in Nashville.
[4]
The new school took over the operations of the then defunct Western Military Institute and the University of Nashville preparatory school.
[8]
In 1866,
E. Kirby Smith
was named co-chancellor of the University of Nashville, along with Bushrod Johnson, who returned to the school as a professor, to replace Lindsley.
[6]
General Smith served as its chancellor from 1870 to 1875.
[9]
That year, a financial crisis was resolved when the Peabody Fund made a large donation, and the University of Nashville's operations were split into three different entities. The board of trustees that had operated the University of Nashville since its re-incorporation in 1826 remained intact and were given the operations of the
Montgomery Bell Academy
preparatory school. The medical school became part of
Vanderbilt University
in 1874.
[10]
The collegiate program received the financial donation from the Peabody Fund, established a new board of trustees, and it was renamed the Peabody Normal School.
[2]
To create a major
Southern
teachers' college, the grounds and buildings of the Peabody Normal School were donated to the
George Peabody College for Teachers
in 1909.
[2]
The donation was estimated to be worth about $250,000. In 1914 the George Peabody College for Teachers purchased a new site adjacent to
Vanderbilt University
,
[2]
with over 50 acres (20 hectares) of wooded lawn. It constructed new buildings. However, after falling upon hard times in the 1970s, Peabody College amalgamated with the wealthier university in 1979.
[2]
However, the board of trustees of the formerly affiliated
preparatory school
, Montgomery Bell Academy, continues to operate under the name of "The Board of Trustees of the University of Nashville."
[4]
Notable alumni
[
edit
]
- Jose Andres Coronado Alvarado
(1895?1975), Costa Rican diplomat who served as head of Latin American relations while at the university.
[
citation needed
]
- William Barksdale
(1821-1863), U. S. congressman and Confederate General, killed at
Gettysburg
(July 3, 1863).
[11]
- John Meredith Bass
(1804?1878), mayor of Nashville, Tennessee.
- John Bell
(1797–1869), Tennessee senator and presidential candidate (graduate of Cumberland College)
[12]
- Rufus Columbus Burleson
(1823-1901), second president of
Baylor University
, Baptist preacher.
[13]
- Sam Davis
(1842-1863), boy hero of the Confederacy.
[6]
- Thomas Fletcher
(1817–1880), acting governor of Arkansas (1862)
[14]
- John Berrien Lindsley
(1822?1897), educator and president of the University of Nashville.
- George Maney
, Confederate general and U.S. diplomat to several South American countries.
[15]
- Van. H. Manning
(1839?1892), U.S. Representative from Mississippi and Confederate States Army officer during the American Civil War.
[16]
- Albert A. Murphree
, (1870–1927), president of
Florida State College for Women
(1897–1909) and the
University of Florida
(1909–1927).
[17]
- Gideon Johnson Pillow
, (1806?78), U.S. and Confederate States Army general and lawyer.
[5]
- Peter Pitchlynn
, (1806?1881), chief of the
Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma
(1864?1866), liaison to the U.S. government (1845?1861, 1866?1881).
[18]
- Samuel Hollingsworth Stout
(1822?1903), American farmer, slaveholder, and Confederate surgeon
[19]
- William Walker
, (1824–1860), U.S.
filibuster
. Executed in
Honduras
in 1860.
[20]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
Dillingham, George A. Jr. (Fall 1978). "The University of Nashville, A Northern Educator, and A New Mission In the Post-Reconstruction South".
Tennessee Historical Quarterly
.
37
(3): 329?338.
JSTOR
42625882
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
"Peabody College Chronology"
.
Jean and Alexander Heard Library
. Vanderbilt University
. Retrieved
September 27,
2016
.
- ^
a
b
Conkin, Paul Keith (2002).
Peabody College: From a Frontier Academy to the Frontiers of Teaching and Learning
. Nashville, Tennessee: Vanderbilt University Press. p. 12.
ISBN
9780826514257
.
OCLC
50228629
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
"The Grandmother of Peabody College"
.
Jean and Alexander Heard Library
. Vanderbilt University
. Retrieved
September 27,
2016
.
- ^
a
b
Frank, Ed (December 25, 2009).
"Gideon Johnson Pillow"
.
The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture
. Tennessee Historical Society and the University of Tennessee Press
. Retrieved
September 27,
2016
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
"Metro Planning Dept. Building Western Military Institute Site (Hospital No. 2 Site)"
.
Battle of Nashville Preservation Society, Inc
. Retrieved
September 27,
2016
.
- ^
"Nashville, Tenn. Hospital for Federal officers"
.
Library of Congress
.
- ^
"OUR MISSION & HISTORY"
.
Montgomery Bell Academy
. Retrieved
September 27,
2016
.
- ^
"Vanderbilt Collection - Peabody Campus - Wyatt Center: Edmund Kirby Smith"
.
Tennessee Portrait Project
. National Society of Colonial Dames of America in Tennessee
. Retrieved
May 3,
2018
.
- ^
"History"
.
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
. Retrieved
September 27,
2016
.
- ^
"Finding Aid for the General William Barksdale Letter MS.3476"
.
Special Collections Online
. The University of Tennessee
. Retrieved
June 5,
2017
.
- ^
Caldwell, Joshua W. (July 1899). "John Bell of Tennessee: A Chapter of Political History".
The American Historical Review
.
4
(4): 652?664.
doi
:
10.2307/1833782
.
JSTOR
1833782
.
- ^
Reynolds, J. A. (June 12, 2010).
"BURLESON, RUFUS COLUMBUS"
.
Handbook of Texas Online
. Texas State Historical Association
. Retrieved
June 5,
2017
.
- ^
Hempstead, Fay (1890).
A Pictorial History of Arkansas, From Earliest Times to the Year 1890
. St. Louis and New York: N. D. Thompson Publishing Company. pp. 1141?1142.
LCCN
24005660
.
OL
24611790M
– via
Internet Archive
.
- ^
Bishop, Randy (2013).
Civil War Generals of Tennessee
. Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing Company. p. 124.
ISBN
9781455618118
.
OCLC
824081797
.
- ^
Allardice, Bruce S. (2008).
Confederate Colonels: A Biographical Register
. Shades of Blue and Gray Series. Columbia and London:
University of Missouri Press
. p.
251
.
ISBN
978-0-8262-1809-4
.
LCCN
2008018253
.
OCLC
227191547
.
OL
16839816M
.
- ^
"ALBERT MURPHREE"
.
Office of the President
. University of Florida
. Retrieved
June 5,
2017
.
- ^
Ownby, Ted; Wilson, Charles Reagan, eds. (2017).
The Mississippi encyclopedia
. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi. p. 1006.
ISBN
9781628466928
.
OCLC
959373243
.
- ^
"Collection Title: Samuel Hollingsworth Stout Papers, 1843-1911"
.
The Southern Historical Collection at the Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library
. UNC University Libraries
. Retrieved
June 4,
2017
.
- ^
Rodriguez, Junius P. (2007).
Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia
. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. p. 502.
ISBN
9781851095490
.
OCLC
123968550
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Parks, Joseph Howard,
Edmund Kirby Smith, CSA
, LSU Press, 1954.
- Stonesifer, Roy P. and Hughes, Nathaniel Cheairs,
The Life and Wars of Gideon J. Pillow
, University of North Carolina Press, 1993,
ISBN
978-0-8078-2107-7
.
- Rudolph, F.,
The American College and University
, The University of Georgia Press, 1991,
ISBN
978-0-8203-1284-2
'
External links
[
edit
]