The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-05-26

ton of the Twentieth Anniversary of
the Wake Forest Law School, Prof.
". Y. Gulley. the Dean Of the school. |
said in part.
Wake Forest College was founded
by. and still is the property of the
Baptists Of North Carolina. While it
was the intention and expectation of
its founders that it should be OF great
value to the denomination. it was
never their desire that Sectarianism
should find a place in it's classrooms.
On the other hand, they desired that
men raine here should be of service
to their fellowmen. to the State, and
the Nation. and the world. Before it
had had a fair opportunity to show
much as to it's products, the Civil
War came, and bfotted out to con-
siderable extent. everything that had
scarcely lifted from over our State
before it again opened its doors and in
the depths OF poverty az our peo- |
pie began again the struggle to ut
men for higher and better life. The
spirit OF it's founders still hung about
il. It's riends wished to see its men
fitted for all departments of life. Its
sons filled creditably the most i'm
portant pulpits in this and other
States. but at the meeting of the
Central Association at ForestviIle in
the autumn of 1884, the late Rev.
James S. Purefoy called attention to
what he termed q curious but I'm
explained fact" that of all the mem
bers of Congress from this State that
not one was a Baptist, that of all the
State officers. all Of the justices of
the Supreme Court. all of h Judges
Of the Superior Court, not n was a
Baptist.
BaptistS Not in Public Service,
Some members of the Association
NJ his UoC n
occurrence. Nevertheless the fact be-
gan to impress itself on our people
all over the State. Four years later
one of the places aforesaid was fill
ed by a Baptist, still four more years
and only one place occupied by a
Baptist. 1t was generally considered
that a majority of the people of the
State were BaptiSts and yet their ser
vices to the public were practically
nothing. People began to ask what
was the cause OF this. Has h col
lege no sons trained for civic life?
What must il do? AT that time the
president of the college was DR.. Chas.
l.. Taylor, a man who in my judgment
taken from all and in all, has done
more for the education of all the peO-
pie Of this State than any other man
who ever lived in it. In his report
to the board of trustees in 1898 he
again urged the necessity for the es-
VI q IN oA A0V III NAAS
college.
A committee consisting of the late
j. II. Holding, Hon. w. f. Daniel,
and another was appointed to ar
range for the teaching of the depart
ment. This committee met in Raj
eigh shortly after and secured the
services of two renowned juristS as
teachers, and the opening of the
school was duly advertised. At the
meeting of this committee it was
agreed that I SHOULD perform certain
duties, more clerical or mechanical
than otherwise, just a sort Of super
numerary to complete the trinity you
see. At the opening of the fall term
L came from my home in Franklinton
and in the formal language of the
letter writer's of the former genera
ton. seated myself pen in hand te
enroll the students in the law school
No Students at First.
When the fact became apparent
that We did not have a single student
1 confess to a trifiing shade Of dis
Couragement. 1t seemed barely pos
sible that the attempt to establish
a law schoo might after all fai
TO materialize. Not willing TO lie
the enterprise fall still born, I an
unce that l would come here m
a week and meet such men as saw fl
to come out. Even now it seem
strange to me that SO many men cam
week after week to these night meet
inEs. In the summer of 1894 l wa
chosen as professor of law and poll
teal science and other cognate sub
jectS for one year. / was to NEE
the classes three days in each week
This was the beginning twenty year
ago"
Some time since a deacon in
Presbyterian church sent me S45. tn
beginning OF a fund for the erection
Of a law building. That deacon an
I rave much in We be
lievc that with final perseverance
il is 'foreordained' that in the nea
future we shall see the law schoc
lat home in a c~ommodiouS build
ing with a library containing ever
law BOOK printed in the English lar
rrage. worth buying. This money
deposited in the bank and by the he
IF God and the hundreds of othe
men like j. Men. Johnson, each
these dollars shall grow into a thou