Wofford College - From The Archives

A March Madness tribute?

This cartoon has been sitting on my desk for several months, ever since I wrote a Wofford Today column on Dr. C. C. Norton, Wofford's longtime dean of the college and professor of sociology.  Dr. Norton was best known for his annual presentation of A Christmas Carol, but he was also known as a caricaturist and cartoonist in the South Carolina Methodist Advocate.  In the Norton Papers here in the archives, we have a collection of his cartoons and caricatures.  One of his cartoon series, Church Folks, looked at life in the South Carolina church of the mid 20th century.  

Here's one of my favorites of the cartoon panels.  Though the young fellow is wearing a helmet and carrying a football, I think the sentiment works just as well for March Madness. 

Financial Hard Times from 1893

It's going to start looking like I get new papers, photographs, documents, and other goodies in the mail every week.  Would that it were true!  This makes two weeks in a row that something arrived on my desk that I immediately thought was worth sharing with a wider audience.  

Considering what's going on in our country these days; hard times, unemployment, financial woes, this letter reminds us that these things have happened before.  In the 19th and early 20th centuries, "panics" occurred every so often, usually a result of some economic bubble finally bursting, as bubbles always do.  One of these panics occurred in 1893.  This letter from President James H. Carlisle makes some reference both to the panic and to federal efforts to bail the country out of it.  

(Click on the image for a pop-up version)

Roughly, the letter from Dr. Carlisle to H. Z. Nabers, of the class of 1893, says 

"Spartanburg, SC, February 9, 1893

"You must not let the hard times and slow-paying patrons depres you unduly.  When our Secretary at Washington borrows his fifty millions, some of it will come to you in due time.  Be economical, prudent, & hopeful.  As to what is due me, let it stand until you can meet it.  

"We are moving on as usual with some of the currents and casualties of college life.  I write hurriedly.  Very truly yours, James H. Carlisle"

Mr. Nabors was an 1893 graduate, though it's not clear if he has already finished college or if he's taking a term away from campus.  He must owe Dr. Carlisle or the college some money, perhaps as a tuition payment.  We can only guess.  He may already be in business for himself, as the letter suggests he's having trouble collecting his accounts.  

In any event, Smith Patterson of our development office brought this and several other items to me today from Mr. Zach Nabers, a 1967 Wofford graduate who lives in Greenville  We're always glad to have items like this that tell us more about life in long ago times.  

"Knotty" Rembert

I'm not quite sure why they called him "Knotty."  

Of all the reasons I've read, the one I like best, the one that sort of goes to the heart of teaching and mentoring, is that Dr. Rembert was always asking questions that were difficult to answer, posing problems that made students think.  Or perhaps it was because he worked his students hard.  One story is that he kept after one student to take one of his Greek courses for the better part of a year, and finally the student responded, "Doctor, I'd like to take that course, but I want a little little time to play tennis."  

Students being students, the nickname probably had something to do with his looks.  By all accounts, he was a skinny fellow with a thin neck and wild hair that went in all directions.  Maybe he had big, knotty hands.  Perhaps he had some unusual habits as well.  Students liked to repeat the stories they had heard of Rembert's student days - that he would stay out late, come home, put his feet in hot water, and read Greek until the wee hours.  Not exactly typical of a Wofford student of any day.  Descriptions of him as the rumpled professor abound, and he could be seen walking to and from his home on North Church Street twice daily, coat flapping, arms swinging, and his mind no doubt consumed with some topic on which he was planning to engage his classes.  

Arthur Gaillard Rembert was born in Charleston in the last months before South Carolina seceded from the Union, and grew up in the port city.  He came to Wofford in 1880 and graduated in 1884, winning distinctions in his work.  He took a master's degree from Wofford the next year.  After teaching elsewhere for a year, he returned to campus in 1887 to serve as the headmaster for the Wofford Fitting School, the preparatory school that the college used to operate.  He continued in this capacity for eight years, then moved to the college faculty as professor of Greek.  He also taught Bible and psychology during his thirty-eight years on the faculty.  

Were this his complete biography, forty years of service to Wofford, that might be impressive enough.  However, Rembert was one of two Wofford faculty members - Henry Nelson Snyder was the other - who attended the meeting where the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools - SACS - was founded.  Rembert helped set the standard for membership in SACS higher than Wofford could then attain - and he knew full well that the Fitting School that he had been running for the previous eight years was one of the things that would keep Wofford out of SACS until the 1920s.  He also continued to undertake graduate work in the summers, usually at the University of Chicago.  

Students held him in high regard.  In faculty meetings, when questions of student discipline came up, he always took the side of the student.  That's not to say he was a pushover, for as some students noted, he always asked the question when you weren't paying attention, always caught you when you weren't thinking.  He was always thinking, the students said.  When students started coming late to his class, he solved the problem by quizzing the last arrival thoroughly on the day's assignments.  Students scrambled not to be the last to arrive.  He took over Dr. Carlisle's "Students Class" in the Central Methodist Sunday School, which ended up meeting in the sanctuary because of its size.  He taught Wofford men and Converse women in that class.  

When he died in 1933, tributes from colleagues and students alike poured in.  Dr. Snyder, who had known him virtually all their professional lives, wrote, "The classroom was his kingdom, and the teacher's desk his throne.  It is to be doubted whether he really had any other ambition than that of being simply a teacher of men."  He continued, "He was not only a great teacher but a great educator as well, that is, he taught more than his subject and the mastery of it.  All over South Carolina there are men who may not remember a great deal out of the books Dr. Rembert taught but they will never forget that they learned much of how to live more richly and more nobly because he awoke in them the forces that give worth and dignity to human character."

And isn't that what we hope for from our teachers.  

Photos: The young Rembert, Rembert in 1915, the year the students dedicated the Bohemian to him.  

Wofford Songs and Yells

Today I'm going to share a new acquisition, something that literally arrived in the mail this morning.  This document belonged to a member of the class of 1910 named George Craig, and it was sent to me today by someone who was going through some of his papers.  It's a list of Wofford songs or cheers.  

Now, I'm no expert on college songs from the early 20th century, but many of these look to have been borrowed and altered from other schools.  Number 4 below, for example, seems very similar to one that students at the University of North Carolina use.  

Certain elements of number 5 below resemble lines from Georgia Tech's famous "I'm a ramblin' wreck from Georgia Tech"  

Of course, the use of the tune to John Brown's Body - or the Battle Hymn of the Republic - at a southern college in the Jim Crow South is also ironic.  

The other interesting thing, of course, is that several songs make fairly obvious references to alcohol.  It just goes to show that not all of our college student ancestors from the late 19th and early 20th century were teetotalers.  And of course, the song that ends with "Hang the Faculty" expresses a sentiment that is perhaps unviersal among college students, no matter the day.  

The "Yells" probably were led at various athletic events by student cheerleaders.  Some of them are kind of funny, others are just strange.  

I trust all of you will print these off and bring them to football games in the fall.  Rah! Rah! Sis Boom Bah!

World News, 1932-style

Every now and then I enjoy looking through old student newspapers and literary magazines to see what issues students were talking about in times past.  Consideringt he current economic situation, I was looking through some Depression-era Old Gold and Blacks to see if I could find student commentary on the Great Depression.  Instead, I found an article about the International Relations Club meeting of February 1, 1932 where the students discussed the situation in India.  At the time, India was still a British possession, but the Indians were struggling for independence.  The IRC was a high-level group of specifically-selected students - you had to be invited to join, my predecessor, Herbert Hucks used to tell me.  The article jumped out at me for another reason, as it mentions Mahatma Ghandi, who was in the news recently as some of his personal artifacts were just sold at an auction.  Here's some excerpts from the story.  

The International Relations Club held its regular bi-weekly meeting in the club room Monday night, February 1, at 8:30.  The topic for discussion was "India's Move Toward Independence."  It was ably presented by C. H. Watson.  H. S. Ackerman enlightened the group by giving a brief resume of current events.  After the scheduled program there was a round table discussion of the Japanese conflict and America's attitude toward war. 

In his discussion of the affairs as they now stand in India, Mr. Watson began by stating that, "The present time finds India in a state of passive resistance.  Mahatma Ghandi and several others are in jail due to their recommendation to their people to resist passvely the British government.  The followers of Ghandi have fallen back upon the idea of a peaceful picketing to harass the British police, and have indulged in many acts of non-violence to irritate the growing wound in relations with India.  In spite of the fact that England has passed a law providing for a heavy penalty for peaceful picketing, AP dispatches from Bombay declare that India women continue to station themselves outside stores and shops and try to keep the public from buying British goods.  The dispatch goes on to say that scores have been arrested but there seems to be an unending line ready to take their places.  The financial situation of the government seemed to be growing worse, due to the added expense caused by execution of new measures, wholesale arrests, and great expenditures entailed by other activities.  "It is not unlikely that the whole of Britain will soon awake to the fact that Ghandi is much more influential in a Bombay prison than he is on the outside."  

The article concludes with this assessment: "Indian affairs are darker than they have been for some time.  The constitution of 1919, under which India is ruled, was to have been revived after ten years.  The two countries can come to no understanding.  India is too disunited to force her desires on England, and England deems India entirely too disunited for home rule such as Ireland and Canada have, much less complete independence.  She is torn by internal strife and tantalized by British rule from without.  India's hopes lie only in the brilliant mind and simple personality of Mahatma Ghandi."  

The meeting concluded with discussion of Japanese incursions into China and American protests against those events.  A few domestic issues were discussed - floods in Louisiana and the agreement by railroad workers to wage cuts.  

It's a treat to find discussions of world events in these old student newspapers and to see that students had formed a club to share ideas about the world.  I wouldn't mind seeing something like this revived on the campus today.  

"Amazing" DuPre

Maybe students still have nicknames for professors and administrators.  If they do, then I'm pretty sure the professors and administrators don't want to know what those are.  In years past, faculty collected nicknames, flattering and otherwise, from students, and they seemed to stick through several different generations of students.  Sometimes the nickname had something to do with the professor's first or last name ("Dunc" for David Duncan Wallace, "Clink" for John G. Clinkscales, or even "Fish" for John L. Salmon) and sometimes it involved certain attributes ("Peg" for E. H. Shuler, who taught surveying and was prone to leaving survey markers around campus, or "Graveyard" for James A. Chiles, who was known to be a tough German professor.)  The dean during the 1920s and 1930s collected a few nicknames himself.  

Arthur Mason DuPre, who came to Wofford as a student in the 1890s from Abbeville County, graduated in 1895 and immediately went to work teaching in the old Wofford Fitting School.  He became headmaster of the fitting school, which was designed to prepare students for admission to Wofford's freshman class, in 1897 and retained that position until 1912.  He also taught Latin and mathematics.  One of his students at the Fitting School remembered plaing a game of basketball in full view of North Church Street with his shirt-tail out.  Suddenly he saw Dean DuPre, who was sitting on his front porch, put down his newspaper and make a beeline for the game.  The student realized when DuPre was about halfway there that he was probably coming to tell him to tuck his shirt in, and quickly did so.  DuPre kept coming, letting the student know that such conduct was improper and that in such a public place, Wofford students must be above reproach.  

He moved to teaching in the college in 1912, and in 1920 became the college's first dean.  Today, we think of "the dean" as the chief academic officer, but Dean DuPre's office was a strange mixture of student and academic affairs.  Essentially, he handled all student discipline, whether it came from an academic or a social problem.  College historian David Duncan Wallace later noted that he was "strict in his system of discipline, but rigorously fair.  He enjoyed an almost unprecedented popularity with the students, which would have been impossible but for the recognition that he ... was absolutely fair."  Shortly after becoming dean in 1920, DuPre spent a year as acting president, as Dr. Henry Nelson Snyder was granted leave to take part in a church-wide Methodist Educational Campaign to raise funds for Methodist-related colleges in the South.  He continued to serve as dean until 1940, when he returned to the classroom.  Ultimately, he worked at the college for 52 years.  

DuPre and Snyder, along with the college's long-serving treasurer, marked a shift from the days when the faculty took on administrative tasks in addition to teaching, to a time when individuals took on administrative tasks as a central part of their job, and taught less than a full load.  Still, having 3 or 4 people to handle all of the college's administrative tasks, and to keep tabs on 400 students, was no small undertaking.  

DuPre continued to teach a variety of subjects, was active in Central Methodist Church, and was even a member of the University Senate of the Methodist Church in 1941.  His successor in office, Dean David Wood, is a member of the University Senate today.  

There are more stories about "Old Mace," "Amazing DuPre," or "The Dean" than can be recounted in this space.  One student allegedly claimed that DuPre looked more like a Roman senator than anybody he ever knew (How the student knew what a Roman senator looked like is worth asking, though maybe DuPre taught him enough Latin that he figured it out?)  He was very much one of those characters that made Wofford unique.  

On the cover of the June 10, 1937 issue of the SC Methodist Advocate is this quote from DuPre that illustrates much of his, and the college's philosophy:  Remember that education makes us masters of conditions but servants of men.  Take this view and you understand something of the Wofford spirit.  You are not educated.  You have been, still are, and will always be, in the process of being educated.  Education is only a process.  At every step. at every goal reached, there comes not only the opportunty for, but also the call to, service.  To illuminate somewhat the dark places, to get under burdens here and there, to do your part in straight thinking, to so walk in the right way that others will be inclined to follow -- That is the opportunity ahead.