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rr* U B* A T H E (ISS) IklltOJH^ T *'' '< 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