Today in Milligan History (2/28)
Today in Milligan History
an ongoing project of Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society
Good day, Milligan!
Proverbs 28:14 – Blessed are the ones who always tremble before God, but those who harden their hearts fall into trouble.
This is, Friday, February 28, 2014, and on this day in Milligan history . . .
1755 Two miles north of mile marker 23 on Route 11/321, just east of nearby Greeneville, TN, settlers from Pennsylvania and North Carolina organized the New Hope Quaker Meeting beside Ripley Creek. Among the founding members were Samuel Ellis, clerk; Samuel Frazier, recorder; Benjamin Iddings, Ellis Ellis, Elihu Swain, and Joseph Thornburg, overseers; Daniel Bonine and George Haworth, overseers of the poor.
1860 James Ireland R. Boyd married Rhoda Williams on this date. Boyd was one of the earliest teachers in the academy established by the Buffalo Creek Church (now Hopwood Memorial Christian Church) in 1851. For a while the academy was known as Boyd’s School, then the Buffalo Male and Female Institute, and finally Milligan College. Cynthia Ann Cornwell (1985): Beside the Waters of the Buffalo: A History of Milligan College to 1941. Milligan College History Project: Milligan College, TN, 1989, p. 4.
1947 In years past the Fall semester at Milligan College did not begin until mid-September, had a Christmas interruption, and then continued well into the following year. So the February 28 edition of The Stampede had something to say, in poetic form, about the mid-winter experience of getting grades, and having Mom and Dad back home receive records of the grades.
So live, that when thy teachers come to join
The innumerable grades, which add
To that mysterious sum, which each shall take
On his report card to the silent halls of home,
Thou go not, like a sneaking dog at night,
Scourged to his kennel, but sustained and soothed
By flattering grades, approach thy doom
Like one who rushes from the doors of school
For home, and lies down to pleasant dreams.
- – – The Stampede, February 28, 1947, albeit without appropriate apology to William Cullen Bryant
1959 Milligan College’s basketball team closed out an 8-13 season. Delmer Harris (1959) led the team in scoring with 20.5 points per game. He had 136 field goals and 158 free throws for a total of 430 points. His free-throw average was .787. Del Harris, of course, went on to a professional career in the NBA. Milligan had a strict non-professional policy at the time; that is, no athletic scholarships were being issued. The Mill-Agenda, Vol. 8, No. 6, January-February 1959.
2012 Milligan College announced it would begin offering a Master of Science in Counseling degree in the Fall of 2012. Milligan College news release, February 28, 2012.
2012 Two veteran members of the Milligan College faculty, Bertram S. Allen, Jr. (1967; Fide et Amore; Milligan 1979-2012) and Patricia Phillips Magness (1969; Fide et Amore; Milligan 1984-2012), spoke at the college’s annual “Journeys Lecture,” sponsored by Alpha Chi. The Journeys Lectures offer retiring faculty members an opportunity to share reflections on their lives with the Milligan community.
Birthdays: In 1901 Linus Pauling in Portland, OR . . . in 1940 Mario Andretti in Motovun, Croatia . . . Milligan College alumna Cynthia Ann Cornwell (1985) in Urbana, Illinois. Cornwell is the author of Beside the Waters of the Buffalo: a History of Milligan College to 1941 (Milligan College, TN: Milligan College History Project, 1989) . . . and in 1992 Milligan College senior Lindsey Renee Campbell in Elizabethton, TN, senior Maleah Shae Wolfenbarger . . . and in 1993 sophomore Elena Leigh Baker in Tomsk, Russia.
In 1933 Franklin Roosevelt appointed Francis Perkins Secretary of Labor – the country’s first female cabinet member.
In 1943 George Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess re-opened on Broadway.
In 1983 125,000,000 television viewers tuned in to see the last episode of M*A*S*H.
Do you know of an event or an anniversary that the Milligan community would find interesting? Drop a note to email@example.com.