The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1911-11-26
WOODROW WILSON
BY Chas. 0. Andrews.

1t would be hard to find a school boy
over the age of twelve months who has
not heard of the name of Woodrow
Wilson
Woodrow Wilson was born in staun-
ton. Virginia, December %, 1856. His
rather was the Rev. Joseph r. Wilson
and one Of the most influential church.
men or the south. His mothers
maiden name was Jessie Woodrow
she vas Of Scotch irish decent and
with deep moral convictions coming
through long line of ancestors, one
or whom wrote the History of the
Sunerings of the Church of Scotland
from the Restoration to the Revolu-
tion'
The Wilson's and the woodrows
were men of firm qualities, deep con-
victlons and habits Of research and
study, all of which are inherited by the
man in whom both names are com
bined. When he was born he was
named Thomas Woodrow, but in later
LIE ne seems to have dropped the first
given name.
At the age Of two years his father
moved to Augusta. Georgia, where he
TOOK charge of one of the largest and
most influential churches in the south.
Augusta was then city of about 15,-
VOO inhabitants. and 1t was here that
the boyhood Of the future governor of
New Jersey and president of Prince
ton was spent. He, though only a
child. remember something of the war
clouds that lowered over the south.
On certain Gay in November. 1860,
the little boy swinging on his fathers
gate saw two men meet on the size
walk and heard one of them say.
Lincoln is elected and there will be
war" Something in the shrill tone of
the Speaker struck for the first time a
chord of lasting memory. There was
another war event that made a lasting
impression upon the hoy: In the sum-
mer of 1855 he saw Jefferson Davis
ride by, under guard. on his way north
10 FORTRESS Monroe. 1t was about this
time that his fathers church was oc-
cupied by federal soldiers. 1t was at
this same church that his father had
invited the first general assembly of
the Southern Presbyterian church to
meet and became its first clerk.
Young Wilson was not taught his
alphabet till he was eight years of abe,
but he remembers hearing his father
and mother read from Sir Walter
Scott and Charles Dickens. Joseph T.
Derry was his first teacher, and an
other pupil at the same time was JUS
tice Joseph r. Lamar of the supreme
court of the United States.
Woodrow Wilson's father was a
master of the English language. He
believed that mo one had thought
until he could put it quickly and def
nitely into words" This he taught his
son to do. He was a constant COM
panionA of his son and on certain days
they would visit the foundries, shops
and factories around Augusta.
Rev. Wilson moved to Columbia,
South Carolina, in the autumn of 1870
and became a teacher in the Southern
Theological Seminary, which position
q fr1lrs &c saTtf1
tinued to attend school. but most of
his training was under the direct
supervision of his father, and in spite
of his late years to start at books he
soon qualified for college and at seven
teel he was sent to Davidson College,
North Carolina. He joined one of the
debating societies and played baseball
~dn the college nine, and once had the
pleasure of hearing the captain of the
team say, Wilson, you'd make dandy
player If you were not so damn lazy"
He fell i'll just before the end of the
year at Davidson and was taken to his
new home in Wilmington, n. c..
whittier his father had been called as
pastor of one of the churches. Wood
row stayed with the family throughout
that year and part of the next and it
was during this period that he became
acquainted with seaport life, as much
shipping was done from Wilmington.
In the autumn of 1875 he entered
Princeton, where he graduated with
the class of 1879. His going north to
college was fortunate, for it gave him
at an impressionable age an oppor-
tunity to understand the northern, as
well as the southern, point of view,
and prepared the way for the breadth
of sympathy that has marked his his
tory and writings, and enabled him to
write an account of the conflict be-
tween the states In such a manner
that his books have practically never
been charged with sectionaIism from
either side. He was among the young
southern men to see clearly that the
south was part of the union, but
that the glory for its history never
was to be forgotten, its secession
apologized for.
Five years after gra 5aution he wrote
his first book in which he emphasized
the necessity of blotting out the sec
tional lines between the North and
South. He remained southern by in
stinct, and ii IS very sure he intended
70 cast his lot with the legal pro-
fession of the SOUTH for he studied law
vetsity of Virginia and then began
praeticing law in Atlanta, Georgia, in
1850. He lived there about two years
end il is said he did not become
wealthy. and also found out that rrac-
teal law did not satisfy his intellectual
hunger. He was not satisfied to re ad
what law is and accept it without
knowing its origin and history. To
satisfy this hunger he. in 1888. en-
tered Johns Hopkins University. then
entering upon its brilliant period. It
ia American Politics" II was the ef-
for4 IF a ma sfar 1.-THE hook drew a