University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1912-11-05

sitv. as emeritus professor and as
good citizen of Columbia and Mis-
souri,, DIR. r. H. Jesse is still as
deeply interested in the welfare of
the University as he was during the
years that he gave to its service. He
was asked the other day to recall
some of the memorable events in his
life and that of the University.
During all of his active life Doctor
Jesse was known as worker. 1t was
to work-the first work that he re-
called doing-that his thoughts first
turned
Il was about 9 years old at the
time" he said. 1T was when the
Yankee soldiers came through our
state of Virginia and left our planta-
ton bare of everything almost that
they thought worth carrying Off
There were not servants to do the
necessary work about the house, still
less the work on the plantation l
thought for the first time of making
my hands useful.
"The first work | ever did was to
help carry meals from the kitchen to
the dining room. You know, in those
days the kitchens were not built in
the house. but were in little one-room
houses at some distance from the big
house. So my job was running back
and forth across the yard between the
| kitchen and the dining room helping
carry the meals and the dishes for
the rest of the family.
Our home was at Epping Forest.
in Lancaster County. Virginia. 1t
was an old. old place. the birthplace
of Mary Ball. the mother of Washing
tot. 1t had been called the Old Ball
place before it was bought By the
Jesses. 1t had been in our family
about seventy years then. Near here
was the old White Chapel where
Washington and his mother attended
church, in his boyhood. Here | lived
until was sent TO Hanover Academy.
kept by General Hilary P. Jones. ad-
/ jutant general of Lees army. He
was only one of several officers in
/ the Southern army who turned from
/ the life OF soldier to teaching the
young.
Another place that | like 70 recall
is also full of historical connections
= This is Princess Anne in Somerset
County, Maryland. where taught
! school for two years. 1t was pleasant
! to me. however, for a greater reason
than the teaching. 1t was here that
! met a young lady. Miss Adeline
! Henry Poulk, who is now Mrs. Jesse.
! when I went to the University of
! Louisiana. it was mourning city
| that | entered. The terrible yellow
fever epidemic of rs had swept the
whole southern portion of the state.
and there were few people who had
not lost either friends or relatives.
In every shop window I saw Grape
hanging The epidemic had delayed
the opening of the university for sew
/ eral months.
81 went to the University of Louis
! lana as the dean of the first college
of liberal arts it had had since the
War. Of course all the Southern uni
| versities had been closed during the
war. and when that was over, during
the Reconstruction government they
had no funds. The departments of
law and medicine had continued. it is
true, as they were able to charge
! fees sufficiently high to make eX
penses. But there had been no lib
eral arts department in the Univer-
sity since, the war.
"Of the six of us who formed the
! faculty of the University of Louisiana
at that time. several have since be-
come known in other colleges and
universities. Prof. Brown Ayres, who
was our teacher of physics and chem
istry, later went to Tennessee. where
| he has been for years president of the
+ University of Tennessee. Prof. Alcee
I Fortier, our professor of Romance Ian
guages. has since become one of the
best known authorities in his time.
Professor Deiler taught Germanic
languages and Professor Cross, math-
ematics. Robert Sharp, who taught
Greek and English philology. later
became president of Tulane Univer-
I sity.