Back to College Letters Collection | Back to Calvin Brice McKeown Letters
Jump to Original | Jump to Annotations | Jump to Works Cited
From: DC0133s, McKeown, Calvin Brice, 1854- (1874). Letters, 1871 (Finding Aid)
Transcript
Davidson College
No. 6a
October 5, 1871[1]
Mr. John Bigham[2]
Dear Sir
It is with great pleasure that I can take the time to write to you. I could not write sooner but I hope you will not be mad at me about it. I hope you are getting along very well with everything the girls not expected and especially Miss Janie that “magnetizing” gal you and most other persons knows how “magnetizing” she is. But I believe you are taken on about her as much as any other person. I speak for hear say and not from my own knowledge although I hope it is so. John you must not get mad you know me
[Page 2]
She is a nice girl, you know, and I don’t care if you speak a good word for me. I used to like her two bushel[3] but that fit is off of me and been off for some time. I saw her the Monday before I came up here and she was pretty enough to “magnetize a mice”. John do not let me make you feel bad because you like her. The faculty put us to work immediately after our arrival and we have been at is ever since even on Sunday we study the Greek Testament[4] –but- we can read a great many verses in a very small time from the reason –that we can get- so many “ponies”[5] but they do us no good whatsoever. I am rooming on North Wing 3rd Floor[6]
[Page 3]
with Donald McQueen of Sumpter, S.C.[7] He is a very nice young man and has been before but is in my class. You hear some boys talk about “hard” and “big” lessons but here is the place to get the. I like all of my professors except P.P. Winn[8] of the Greek department. He is too sure in everything. He makes you come to Hadley’s Greek Grammar[9] right off which I think is not right but he thinks so and so it must be. We recite during three hours of the day, during the others we have to be studying. Our hours are 9, 10, and 11 o clock. Two hours are given at dinner and we are compelled to study. Two hours in the night or to be in you room at least. Ms Williamson has never got hers yet and Belk[10] say it is doubtful whether –he comes or not-
[Page 4]
Tell J.S. Hicklin that I want him to write to me. Tell all the boys that I send my compliments to them and the girls the same if not more and receive a good part of them yourself.
Excuse bad writing,
Yourst etc etc
C.B. McKeown[11]
P.S. Write soon and give me all the news.
Original
Jump to top
Annotations
Jump to top
1. On October 5, 1871 the students of Davidson College would have been in the first semester of the year. Davidson College in the 1871-1872 academic year had 99 students and 7 faculty. It was located on the “Atlantic, Tennessee, and Ohio Railroad” approximately halfway between Charlotte and Statesville, North Carolina. The college offered a “Classical Course” (4-year) and a “Scientific Course” (3-year). Terms of admission to the college were “testimonials of good moral character, “honorable dismission” from the last school attended, and examination in English, Latin, Greek, and Mathematics. (DCC, 11-12)
2. McKeown is writing the letter to his friend John Thomas Bigham, of Chester, South Carolina. Bigham was born on February 8th, 1852 in Blackstock, South Carolina. Later in life, Bigham became a newspaper owner and editor in Chester, where he lived for the majority of his life. Bigham died in Columbia, South Carolina in 1930. (The State)
3. Two bushel was a term used back then meaning a large, unspecified amount of something. (Blodgett)
4. The Greek New Testament was a part of the sophomore, junior, and senior curriculum for the students. (DCC, 13)
5. Ponies were a colloquial term in the 1800’s for a study aid or a cheat sheet. (Blodgett)
6. The author was probably talking about the Old Chambers Building. This magnificent building of power and prestige was named after the memorable Maxwell Chambers. He generously left his inheritance to Davidson, laying the monetary foundation of this grand structure. The source of Maxwell’s fortune remains a mystery to many. Born in 1780, in Salisbury, NC, he entered the business field as a planter and cotton trader in Charleston, SC. Some suspect that he entered the slave trade and prospered from this enterprise. Even though he did purchase his own slaves, he also freed about 150, providing them with supplies and money to lead them to freedom (Chambers’ Gift, 3). It was Davidson College that received his largest financial gift. Chambers was a member of the building committee of the Concord Presbytery, which, in 1836, directed construction of the Old Campus. When he died on February 7, 1855, he left $260,000 to the college. This became the largest sum of money ever given to an ante-bellum southern college (3). The cornerstone was laid in 1858 and the building completed in 1860, with commencement following that summer. It cost the college $81,000 to build. It contained 72 sleeping rooms, 5 classrooms, dormitories for 1,000 students, 3 laboratories, a commencement hall (80 sq.ft), and a chapel (Old Chambers Building).
7. Donald McQueen was a sophomore attending Davidson College in 1871 from Sumpter, South Carolina. He married Clair Prince and later became an ordained minister in 1877 after he graduated from Davidson in 1874. He later retired from ministry in 1941. (Quattlebaum)
8. Professor P.P. Winn., Paul Patterson Winn, was a Greek Professor at Davidson between the years of 1869-1873. He graduated from the college in 1869, becoming a tutor at the college right after graduation. He was Assistant Instructor of Greek and Latin at Finley High School. He later became the principal of Clayton High School in Alabama in 1885. (Withers)
9. Hadley’s Greek Grammar was a textbook used to help student learn Greek in their freshman year according to the Davidson College curriculum. All freshman students were expected to use this book. (DCC, 13)
10. The name Belk in this letter may be referring to John Calhoun Belk of Lancaster Court House, South Carolina. He was one of the author’s sophomore classmates at the college. (DCC, 8)
11. C.B. McKeown, Calvin Brice McKeown, was a sophomore at Davidson during the 1871-72 school year. After attending Davidson, he attended the medical College of South Carolina later becoming a physician and druggist in Fort Lawn, South Carolina. (Withers)
Works cited
Jump to top
Davidson College Catalog, 1871-1872. Davidson: Davidson College [1871]
Photograph of Calvin McKeown. RG 5/8/1 C. McKeown Alumni File. DavidsonCollege Archives
Photograph of Old Chambers Building.
https://davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/archives/encyclopedia/chambers-old
“Obituary.” The State [Columbia, South Carolina] 24 Sept. 1930: n. pag. Print.
Quattlebaum, Alex M. Clergymen and Chiefs: A Genealogy of the MacQueen and Macfarlane Families. Charleston, S.C. (Fireproof Bldg., 100 Meeting St., Charleston 2940-2299): South Carolina Historical Society, 1990. Print.
Withers, William Alphonso. The Semi-centennial Catalogue of Davidson College, Davidson, N.C., 1837-1887. Raleigh: W.A. Withers, 1891. Print.
Transcription and annotation author: Jack Gibbs.
Date: May 2014.
Cite as: Gibbs, Jack, annotator. 5 October 1871 Calvin B. McKeown Letter to Mr. John Bigham. DC0133s.
Available: https://davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/archives/digital-collections/calvin-b-mckeown-letter-5-oct-1871.
Sorry, comments are closed for this post.