Back to College Letters Collection
Back to Daniel McGeachy Letters | Jump to original | Jump to annotations
November 28, 1921 [1]
Dear Mother,
This day after it got started was just like most after speaking Mondays [2] except for one thing, I am a refugee and I certainly feel for the Belgians etc. [3] We haven’t any more Chambers building [4] than there is in Cornelious [5] and I haven’t got any underwear, shirts, razor, socks, stationary, hats, caps, belts, books, very few bedcloths, pajamas, ties, comb, brush or overcoat and I just saved $35 from R.O.T.C. [6] and bought a new one, I haven’t any tooth brush and several other things but I have all my suits my best pair of shoes and a pair of socks, a suit of pajamas, a bathrobe, trunk, suitcase, watch, pen, pillow case, and suspenders but at that I fared about as well or better than anyone else on third floor north. We had ten or fifteen minutes after any one knew about the fire till our floor was cut off and I think that we were lucky that no one was badly hurt.
I have written all this under the assumption that you know Chambers burned this morning at five o’clock. Most of the walls and the pillars are standing [7] but it is certainly gastly looking with the red glow from the fire still showing. I am going to stay with Miss Sally [8] I think. I never saw such a magnificent awe inspiring heart rending sight in all my life and never hope to again. People saw the glow from the fire in Concord, Charlotte and Winston-Salem [9] .
[page 2]
I still have on my pajamas for underwear. Classes begin again tomorrow. More foolish things happened. One boy saw a watch on a dresser, put it in the [portion of letter missing] and threw the whole thing out the window and rescued a scuttle of coal and carried it down [the?] steps. One boy got his fresh cap [10] and left his w[atch?] beside it on the table, however someone else got his wat[ch?]. I saw one boy drag a trunk out about ten feet, stop, get a comb out of his coat pocket and comb his hair and then go on. How he got his coat on I don’t know. One fell out of third floor window and strained his ankle a little. The old bell [11] is completely melted. The building caught somewhere in the main part, either in the cupola or the old library, and the wind blew our way and our hall was in flames before we hardly had time to move. The rest of our wing was half an hour later burning while South wing didn’t burn for an hour and they having a back stairway got everything out except Jim Phillips [12] who lost two suits, $30, and quite a lot of other stuff. I don’t know why he didn’t get more out. I have been about crazy all day, either I want to laugh or cry and don’t feel like doing either. I would rather all the rest of Davidson had burned, for Chambers is Davidson to me and I guess to many others. There were 131 rooming there. It is just 8:30 but I am certainly sleepy.
Love for all. I will be home early the 22nd if I can get a hat, a coat, a shirt, a clean sock and shave.
Yours,
Daniel. [13]
Jump to transcript
Original
[1] McGeachy wrote this letter home in the first semester of his senior year at Davidson. In 1921-1922, the academic year ran from September to December and January to June (DCC 1920-1921).
[2] “Speaking Mondays” probably refers to the days on which McGeachy had recitations for his classes.
Schedule of Recitations from Davidson Handbook. 1921-22. YMCA, 1921.
[3] 1.5 million Belgian citizens—20% of the population at the time—became refugees when the German forces drove from their homeland during World War I (Lipkes 13). Although Belgium was originally a neutral country, Germany invaded anyway in accordance with the Schlieffen plan. The Germans’ invasion of a neutral country was highly publicized in Allied propaganda.
[4] Named after graduate and donor Maxwell Chambers, the Chambers building became an integral part of the college after its construction in 1860. In fact, according to the Davidson College Encyclopedia article on Chambers, “many claimed that the college would have fallen apart if not for the gift from Maxwell Chambers” (Fernandez). As described in the Davidson College Catalog (DCC): “In the central part of this building are the large Commencement hall, a number of commodious recitation-rooms and laboratories, and the museum. In the two wings of the building are dormitory accommodations for one hundred and twenty-one students” (DCC, 1921-1922, 85).
Photograph 9-0098. Courtesy of Davidson College Archives.
[5] Probably a misspelling of Cornelius, a town located about 1 mile away from Davidson.
[6] Reserve Officer Training Corps. A U.S. Army program whose stated mission in the Davidson College Catalog (DCC) was to “provide systematic military training at civil educational institutions for the purpose of qualifying selected students as reserve officers in the military forces of the United States” (141). According to the Davidson College Catalog, all students working towards a Bachelor of Arts degree were required to take at least one course of R.O.T.C. (DCC, 1921-1922, 64). McGeachy was a First Lieutenant in Company D of the Davidson College R.O.T.C. (DCC, 1921-1922, 156).
Photograph 9-0111. Courtesy of Davidson College Archives.
[8] After the fire, Davidson residents opened up their houses to the students (The Davidsonian). Miss Sally was most likely a townswoman with whom McGeachy stayed.
[9] Concord, Charlotte and Winston-Salem are cities in North Carolina. They are 19, 22, and 65 miles away from Davidson, respectively. The fact that the fire could be seen so far away reveals the agricultural nature of the landscape, as well as the lack of trees and urbanization.
[10] This refers to the beanie that freshmen were required to wear from 1920-1961 (Edge).
Photograph of Artifact-169. Courtesy of Davidson College Archives.
[11] According to the Davidson College Encyclopedia, the Chambers bell “rang students to chapel and classes for over 60 years, until it was thoroughly destroyed in the Chambers fire on Nov. 18, 1921; it was first melted by the heat, and then smashed by its fall to the ground” (Ivins).
[12] James “Jim” Phillips was also a senior at Davidson in 1921. As there were only 85 seniors in the Class of 1922 and both Phillips and McGeachy were working towards a Bachelor of Arts degree (DCC, 1921-1922, 129), it is likely that they also had some classes together during their college career. Like McGeachy, Phillips was a member of the ROTC, the Glee Club, and the Mandolin and Guitar Club (Quips and Cranks, 1922, 46).
[13] Daniel Patrick McGeachy, Jr. was very involved in the college during and after his time at Davidson. As a student, he was a member of many organizations including the Glee Club, ROTC, and Kappa Sigma Fraternity (Quips and Cranks, 1922, 36). After he graduated, he went on to become a Presbyterian minister. He married Elizabeth McClure in 1927 and their two sons both also attended Davidson College. He received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Davidson in 1955. McGeachy died December 9, 1970 in Clearwater, Florida (Class of 1922). [For a photograph of McGeachy, see his 1 December 1921 letter]
Bibliography
Class of 1922 50th Reunion Pamphlet. Daniel Patrick McGeachy Alumni File. RG 5/8.1 Alumni Relations. Davidson College Archives. Davidson, NC.
Davidson College. Quips and Cranks Vol. 25. Davidson: Davidson College, 1922.
Davidson College Catalog, 1920-1921. Davidson: Davidson College Office of Communications.
Davidson College Catalog, 1921-1922. Davidson: Davidson College Office of Communications.
The Davidsonian, “Chambers Building Empty Shell of Former Majesty,” December 2, 1921. <http://library.davidson.edu/archives/davidsonian/PDFs/19211202.pdf> (accessed February 21, 2013).
Edge, Dustin. “Freshman Beanies and Pins.” Davidson Encyclopedia. May 2001. <https://davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/archives/encyclopedia/freshman-beanies-and-pins/>.
Fernandez, Jennifer. “Chambers – The Old and the New.” Davidson Encyclopedia. October 2003 <https://davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/archives/encyclopedia/chambers-the-old-and-the-new/>.
Ivins, Tammy. “Bells.” Davidson Encyclopedia, 18 July 2008. <https://davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/archives/encyclopedia/bells/>.
Lipkes, Jeff. Rehearsals: The German Army in Belgium, August 1914. Leuven, Belgium: Leuven University Press, 2007. (accessed February 19, 2013).
Photograph 9-0098. Davidson College Photograph Collection. Davidson College Archives, Davidson College, NC.
Photograph 9-0111. Davidson College Photograph Collection. Davidson College Archives, Davidson College, NC.
Recitation Schedule. Davidson Handbook, 1921-22. YMCA. 1921
Transcription and annotation author: Phoebe Parrish
Date: March 2013
From: DC0197s, Daniel Patrick McGeachy, 1901-1970 (1922) Letters, 1921(Finding Aid)
Cite as: Parrish, Phoebe, annotator. 28 November Daniel McGeachy Letter. DC0197s. <https://davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/archives/digital-collections/daniel-mcgeachy-letter-28-nov-1921>.
Sorry, comments are closed for this post.