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Thornwell Jacobs Leads Campaign For Oglethorpe University
After Honored Career Before the War and Then a State of Hiatus For Half Century, the Alma Mater of Sidney Lanier,
Governor Brown and Many Other Noted Georgians, Will be Re-Founded.
There is a general stirring of enthusiasm and
victory among the Presbyterians of Georgia,
and indeed throughout the South, over the
success of the movement to revive Oglethorpe
University and make of it a really good institu
tion. It is to be located at Atlanta, of course,
and others besides Presbyterians are feeling the
thrill of what such a Christian University will
mean to all this section of the South.
The Golden Age acknowledges to peculiar
pride in the fact that the successful leader of
the movement is Dr. Thornwell Jacobs, the ad
vertising manager of this paper, and a young
man of rare gifts as an organizing genius.
Speaking of his visit and address at Macon last
Sunday, The Telegraph says:
"Oglethorpe University, the alma mater of
Sidney Lanier, the poet, whose fame has gone
over the world, is to be resounded and the fine
story of it was recited at the First Presbyterian
Church yesterday morning by Thornwell Ja
cobs, the secretary of the movement.
"Oglethorpe was the first Presbyterian col
lege south of Virginia, and the first denomina
tional college for men in Georgia. For many
years it did a magnificent work at Milledge
ville, the then capitol of the State, producing
some of the brighest minds of the country. De
stroyed by the war, after 50 years it is to be
rebuilt.
"Two hundred men, each representing a lift
Callaway 9 s Story of The Golden Age Editor
Pastor of “Tabernacle,” Macon, Gives Racy Sketch of the Man Who is Helping Him in Meetings This Week
Rollicking Memories of Mercer School Days,
(Rev. T. W. Callaway, in Macon Telegraph.)
Note: While the Editor of The Golden Age
is in Macon, engaged in an evangelistic cam
paign, under the auspices of The Tabernacle
Baptist Church, of which Rev. T. W. Callaway
is the popular and enterprising pastor, we re
produce in these columns Mr. Callaway’s splen
did character-sketch of our Editor, which ap
peared in The Macon Telegraph last Sunday.
—Managaging Editor.
“THE GEORGIA CYCLONE.”
Character Sketch of Will D. Upshaw, Editor,
Lecturer and Civic Reformer.
OMING today as Macon’s guest, and
striving for this community’s bet
terment for a week or more, is one
of the most unique and remarkable
sons of Georgia in this generation.
There is enough of the unusual
about him to justify a personal
sketch. He is William 1). Upshaw,
who is now Editor of The Golden
C
Age, Atlanta, and whose breezy, stirring man
ner of speech has given him, North and South,
the platform name of “The Georgia Cyclone.”
Will D. Upshaw, as he is remembered during
his Mercer school days, is no stranger in Ma
con. Although as an editor, lecturer and civic
reformer, he has been kept largely beyond the
borders of his native state, for a number of his
years, the unselfish work he did for the endow
ment of Mercer University and the wholesome
enthusiasm he created in Mercer’s student
body, will never be forgotten here.
Carried a Train to Atlanta.
When Upshaw was at Mercer he never did
things by halves. This story is still told on
the campus: There was to be a big oratorical
battle in Atlanta—a debate between Mercer
and Athens. Atlanta was counted in the
enemy’s country. Upshaw was determined
that Mercer should make the right sort of im
pression in the capital city. A handful of stu
dents couldn’t back up Mercer’s champions and
The Golden Age for November 7, 1912.
WIPk w
THORNWELL JACOBS.
command the attention of Atlanta like it ought
to be done. It was the shank of the school year
and most of the boys were too near “broke”
to pay for a trip to Atlanta and then “make
buckle and tongue meet” till commencement.
Something must be done. One day there was
a hurried call from the prudential committee
of Mercer to meet on important business. Sud
denly Upshaw, heading a committee of stu
dents, walked in on the prudential committee
and standing on his crutches, he spoke after
this manner: “Gentlemen, you are spending
money to advertise Mercer through the news
papers. If we will carry a special train
wrapped in orange and black and storm Atlanta
with the presence and enthusiasm of the whole
student body, it will create more Mercer senti
ment than a thousand dollars spent in ordinary
newspaper advertising. I’ll put a hundred
dollars into the proposition of carrying this
special train to Atlanta. If you will vote us a
hundred and fifty dollars to make the thing
go.” “It is a good scheme,” said the wise
and big-hearted C. B. Willingham. “I move
we give the boys the money.” The news set
the students wild. They paraded the campus
and sang a song Upshaw had written for them
—a parody on “Hot Times.” President Pol
lock was serenaded and the campus was ablaze
with enthusiasm and the prophesy of victory.
A special committee parceled out the money
among the boys who needed it, lending to some
and giving it to others —anything to carry ev
ery boy on the hill.
Atlanta Was Captured.
When the special train, wreathed in Mercer
colors, rolled into Atlanta, ringing with college
yells and songs, the “enemy’s country” sat up
and took notice, and about the time several
chartered street cars, packed with yelling, sing
ing Mercer boys, covered the principal streets
of Atlanta, everybody knew that Mercer Uni
versity, at Macon, was on the college map of
the state.
of one thousand dollars or more, are being
gathered into a board of directors to control
the institution. While the smallest gift will
thus be a thousand dollars the largest will be
much more and the average will be something
like two thousand. A site of 137 acres includ
ing an 82-acre lake, valued at SIOO,OOO, on
Peachtree road, Atlanta, has been given and ac
cepted for the institution and over one hundred
of the men secured. The First Presbyterian
Church will put at least one more on the
board, some of the leading members subscribing
the necessary SI,OOO therefor, and possibly more
than one. It is particularly desired that there
should be a strong Macon delegation on the
board.
The plans contemplate the securing of some
thing like a million dollars in the next five
years at least hall of which will be set aside for
endowment.
Among the most interesting features of the
plan is the proposal to establish in the univer
sity a chair of English literature to be named
lor Sidney Lanier. This will be the first monu
ment of the sort to any Southern poet and the
fact that Lanier was a Macon boy adds espe
cial interest for this city.
"The address was accorded a splendid re
ception by the Presbyterians of the First
Church. The presence of one representative
from this body is already practically assured.
Ihe victory in debate that night at the
Grand completed the conquest of the “enemy’s
country,” while the long line of debate and
oratorical victories for Mercer that followed in
rapid succession gave Mercer a place in the
thought of Georgia student life that she had
never known before. Several other times Up
shaw went down in his pocket to carry special
trains to these contests in Atlanta. lie would
go out and lecture on Fridays and Saturdays to
make the money necessary for these invest
ments, and also for carrying two or three wor
thy'boys through school with him. Such de
votion on the part of Will I). Upshaw to Mer
cer University caused the lamented C. B. Wil
lingham to declare of him: “Upshaw has done
more lor Mercer University during his short
stay there than any other student I have ever
known.” His trip to New York in behalf of a
loan fund and his unsalaried work in the field
of Mercer’s endowment, followed by his several
years of similar work for the enlargement of
Bessie Tift College, at Forsyth, are too well re
membered in Georgia to need comment in this
story. Chancellor Barrow, of the State Uni
versity, said of this unparalleled campaign of
work without pay ” : “Not only Mercer Uni
versity and Bessie Tift College owe Will D.
Upshaw a lasting debt of gratitude for his un
selfish work in their behalf, but the other insti
tutions of learning as well. His ready elo
quence and his inspiring example fired the
youth of the whole state and well nigh every
college in Georgia is feeling still the building
influence of his work’?’
Becomes Editor and Reformer.
About seven years ago this busy, working son
of Georgia entered into what he declared to
be the "dream of years,” when he became an
editor and civic reformer. He founded “The
Golden Age?’ an undenominational Christian
weekly paper devoted especially to the woA
of fighting whiskey and building up citizenshi).
(Continued on Page 8.)
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