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A T H E (ISS)
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WTY 1N72)-""' ~ THE
VOLUME ONE.
NO. TWENTY-FIVE.
Lincoln Memorial University at Cumberland Gap, Tenn.
By S. T. DALSHEIMER. tMC’H
T has often been said that America was
a hero worshipping country and that
Americans freely burned the incense of
admiration and affection at the feet of
her great men, but as long as this atti
tude is merited by the great men them
selves and as long as it is rendered
sanely and sensibly, it is a sentiment to
encourage and to prize. The tendency,
I
too, has steadily grown with American people to
commemorate the life of some beloved and revered
citizen, by erecting to him a monument more fitting
than any which the sculp-
tor or the artist can cre
ate, and thus gravening
his name on the very
hearts of the future gen
erations. We have schools,
hospitals, public parks,
libraries and every form
of charitable institution
bearing names which his
tory has made famous and
which loyal hearts design
to keep so, but perhaps in
all this long list there is
none more significant and
more full of tender mean
ing than is the-university
for the young people of
the southern mountains,
which beais the name of
a great man, born in the
South, reared in the moun
tains of his native state,
Kentucky, and who, de
spite the tremendous tides
of political strife, retain
ed his loyal devotion to
the southern people even
until his life’s end. Slow
ly, perhaps, but none the
less surely, the South has
learned how truly Abra-
ham Lincoln was a friend to her people, and only
because he fell a victim to individual fanaticism
was he prevented from giving ample evidence of his
kindly intentions, his generous plans and his just
provisions for the people of the South. His friends
of the North knew this and his friends of
the South have learned it during the years which
have passed since that noble life went out, and to
day we have a growing center for southern culture
and education, in an institution bearing the name
of Lincoln and owing its existence to the expressed
wishes of that typical American citizen. The ques
tion of slavery was one which had scarcely agitat
ed the people of this section, as there never were at
any time many negroes in these mountains, and dur
in the Civil War the interests of these mountain-
s'.*'* j'LXU’ ‘II
gg .g
AVERY HALL, LINCOLN MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY.
ATLANTA, GA., AUGUST 9, 1906.
eers were, in a great measure, enlisted with the
northern army. In fact, they gave so much valu
able aid to the union soldiers that the attention of
one of the commanding officers was called to the
fact, and this officer, Gen. 0. 0. Howard, mention
ed the matter to President Lincoln. The latter of
ten referred to the subject and in one of the last
talks which Gen. Howard had with President Lin
coln he remarked that he greatly desired to do
something for the aid of these mountain people.
This conversation may be said to have prompted
the first plan for some sort of an institution for the
people of the mountain districts, and although years
passed on before the thought and the wish began to
blossom and bear fruit, yet the splendid university
today is the outcome of the expressed wishes of
President Lincoln and the work of his devoted fol
lowers. That the people themselves were eager for
mental and spiritual advancement was shown as
long ago as the early Sixties. At that time Gen.
Robt. E. Lee held a service in the small log church
at Cumberland Gap. The plan to have Gen. Lee
speak there in the mountain pass where both armies
lay in readiness for the next step in the grim game
of war seemed a trifle useless to the uninitiated,
and the remark was made that “there will be no
audience.” Imagine then, the surprise which met
the speaker and his friends when by daybreak on
that long ago Sunday morning a small army of
mountain people began to assemble; they came over
miles and miles of* rugged roads, in every sort of
conveyance, the “prairie schooner” being most
prominent, for the people lived in it—and they
came from every direction until 5,000 had assem
bled! The Church proved far too small and the
great General decided to speak in the open air!
The scene was one never to be forgotten, for both
Confederate and Union soldiers cr.pt into the crowd
and the speaker faced a concouis? of hungry hu
man souls such as but seldom in the history of a
country had ever gathered
Gap, Tennessee. The mountain missionary, Rev. A.
A. Myers, and his wife conducted this school and
both weie impressed with the urgent need for a
larger building and increased facilities. They could
not begin to accommodate all the pupils who desired
admission, and Dr. Myers determined to bring the
subject to the attention of Gen. Howard whom he
knew to be interested in these very people. This
move proved a wise one, for Gen. Howard, in turn,
approached many persons of prominence and finan
cial influence in the North with the result that
enough money was raised to warrant the purchase
of more commodious buildings for the school. As it
happened, about this time a magnificent piece of
properly, designed for use as a hotel and sanitarium,
was partially destroyed by fire and wholly aban-
ot 7 COl'® 8 ® X -4K.
S^wra 011 ■ > -
in one lonely mountain
spot. lee of the South
and Lincoln of the North!
Both names blend to
gether in tender memories
ps we think of the past re
c< rd of both lives, as
ih.nk we must when con
sidering the splendid in
stitution which bears the
name of the one and ten
derly cherishes the mem
ory of both! Typical in
deed, of our country to
day, is this blending of
north and south, for there
is no institution in all our
land which insures more
mutual interest from the
people of both sections
than does the Lincoln Me
morial at Cumberland
Gap! The beginning of
the present institution,
howexer, was not accord
ing to the usual plans for
the founding of a univer
sity lor it was, at first,
merely a small mission
school in the basement of
a church at Cumberlan
