The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-11-24
ATLANTA BEGINS
CAMPAIGN TORETA|N
OLD OG[ETHORPE
Plans to Re-establish Fa-
nous Old University
Now Under Way
Nv ROBERT MORAN.


Atlanta, November 23.-fSpecial )-Plans
for the re-establishment of Oglethorpe
university on magnificent tract of 1877
acres on Peachtree road, near Atlanta,
were announced here Sunday.
Quiet work has been going on for a
year and a half to secure subscriptions
toward the rebuilding of this institution
from all parts of the south, and at a
meeting of prominent Atlanta business
men held In the Atlanta Chamber. of Com
merce, announcement was made that 10
southern states from Virginia to Texas
had subscribed a total Of 100000 in cash
toward this project, while the site which
has been donated for it is eonservatively
estimated to be worth 100000.
With 100000 of assets the committee
which has been working on the plan for
many months comes to Atlanta and goes
before the Atlanta people in an announce
ment in which it asks $250,00O be given
to this project
When this proposition was put up to
the meeting of Atlanta business men they
indorsed it, and said they would under
take to raise the s25O,0OO needed to put
the university here, and they gave ah-
thority for the publication of the an
nouncement to that effect on Sunday
morning.
They further decided to have Capt.
James w. English Sr., chairman of the
meeting, appoint a campaign committee
of 100 leading citizens who will take
charge of the work of raising the money
This committee will be named at once,
and it is expected to begin the active
work of solicitation the first of the week
1t has been made clear to these business
men, and it will be made clear to the
people of Atlanta, that if they do not
want Oglethorpe university and will not
give the sum named for it's establishment
here, Houston, Tex, is willing, waiting
and eager to take it and to put up $3.50. :
900 or more, if necessary, to get it. Mem
phis has made similar offer, so that
it is not question of the rebuilding of
Oglethorpe, but where it shall be built
There is little doubt. however, that At
lanta will make good, for this city has
never yet failed in any undertaking of
the kind to which it has put it's shoulder
The Atlanta business men who met at the
Chamber of Commerce meant what thew
said. and the fight for the fund will be-
gin in earnest next week.
Or the subscriptions already raised
Georgia has given approximately sl25. 900
IN cash, while some SIS 000 has been given
by the nine other states. 1t is announced
That as soon as Atlanta puts up the re-
quired s250,000 the subscriptions outside
n aff NrrfII
mately 100000.
Thus far 107 men have given $1,000 each
or more to this project. One man, S. M.
lnman of Atlanta, has given $35 900, which
Is a cash subscription contingent upon
conditions that will be easily complied
with. Sixty-eight of the men who have
given $1,000 each are residents of Atlanta
some - others are residents of Georgia
outside of Atlanta; while the rest reside
in the various other states interested.
DR.. Thornwell Jacobs, who has been
conducting the movement for the re-
establishment of Oglethorpe, has told the
story of Oglethorpe from 43 different
platforms in the last Is. monhs, and in
not one single instance has he failed to
secure subscription of $1000 and he has
received on occasion as many as $60OO
Active campaign committees will get to
work this week soliciting funds for the
years ago, when it Was proposed to bring
two Presbyterian universities here from
Columbia, S. c., and from Tennessee,
and unite them in Atlanta, Atlantans sub
scribed S265, 600 to do it. The plan fell
through because of some legal difficulty
in the way of the removal of the Ten
nessee institution.
1t is now proposed to rebuild Oglethorpe
university upon site facing Peachtree
nh miles ha nf
the city and opposite a station on the
Southern railways line from Atlanta to
Washington. Here there has been given
for the purpose a tract of 1877 acres, in
cluding S2-acre Silver lake, the perpetual
privileges of which have been granted to
the university.
While this institution will be under
Presbyterian control, neither synod nor
presbytery will have anything to do with
it. The institution will not be sectarian
nor ecclesiastical in it's government The
control will be exercised by board of
directors consisting of 200 men, each a
member of the Presby yterian church., and
each of whom will have given $1,000 or
more toward founding the institution.
Old Oglethorpe university was one of
the first institutions of higher learning
established in the south. 1t was built
as the direct result of the efforts of the
Georgia Education society, founded by
the Hopewell presbytery in 1923. Plans for
its establishment We're not completed until
1885, and from then on to the time of the
war it did magnificent work in educat-
ing the young men of the state and of
the south. 1t was located at Milledgevlle,
the capital of the state. 1t was the alma
mater of Sidney Lanier, the south's great
est poet Ancestors of Theodore Roose-
welt and Senator A. o. Bacon of Georgia
fStt