HISTORY
Chartered as an academy in 1783, when
this territory belonged to North Carolina, and as a college in 1795
by the Territory of the United States South of the River Ohio,
Washington College was "the first real institution of learning
west of the Alleghanies." (Roosevelt's Winning of the West )
Our Scotch-Irish forbears had hardly
reared their cabins before they built this "log college" in
the wilderness.
General John Sevier, the leader of
those sturdy patriots in the battle of King's Mountain, was one of
the trustees, and it was on his motion that the College was named in
honor of Washington. The territory was still infested by hostile
tribes of Indians.
The founder and first President was the
Reverend Samuel Doak, of Virginia, whose parents came from the north
of Ireland. He graduated from Princeton College in 1775, studied
theology, and became the "apostle of learning and religion to
this region." The first donation (four hundred acres of land in
North Carolina) was from Colonel Waitstill Avery a signer of the
Mecklenburg Declaration. The College was within the territory of the
Watauga Association, famous as the first attempt at free government
on the part of native Americans. Such are but a few facts from a
history full of interest throughout. An indigenous product of this
section of the mountainous South the interests of the College have
ever been identified with those of the people, sharing their
struggles and privations, whether amid the perils of frontier life,
the vicissitudes of war or the endeavor to restore the losses thereby
entailed. Their descendants, being conservative and tenacious of
traditions, this venerable Alma Mater has a strong hold on their
sympathies. Mr Doak was at the head of the institution for
thirty-eight years. It has sent forth numbers of useful men in every
generation since its founding, not a few of whom have been eminent in
the services of Church and State. There have been twelve presidents
one of whom died before entering upon his duties. For a while during
the Civil War, and a short period in the early seventies, (1870's)
when circumstances and lack of funds rendered it impracticable to
keep a sufficient teaching force to do legitimate college work,
little more was attempted than an academic course of high grade.
Though not organically connected with any ecclesiastical body, the
College has always been closely affiliated with the Presbyterian
Church. The charter provides that "the advantages of a liberal
education and the honors of the College shall be accessible to
students of all denominations."
LOCATION
The College is on the Southern Railway
in Washington County, ninety miles east of Knoxville. Washington
College is the name also of the station and post office. One of the
college farms lies adjacent thereto, but the buildings are a mile and
a half distant. Free transportation may be had from the station at
the beginning of each term if notice be given beforehand.
The small rural village almost wholly a
college community, is free from the allurements and distractions of
cities and large towns. A more ideal place for study could hardly be
found than the primeval grove in which the buildings stand. It is in
the midst of an intelligent community, long noted for its Christian
culture and sobriety. There are no saloons within forty miles. Salem
Church, on the campus, affords excellent church and Sabbath school
privileges. Then the neighboring mountains and foothills, flanking
the Upper Tennessee Valley, furnish a diversity and picturesqueness
of landscape whose ever-varying cast and hue invest it with perennial
interest. Such surroundings constitute a wholesome atmosphere for
mind and heart alike. (Source: Catalogue of Washington College, East
Tennessee:, College Press, 1907, pp 8-10)
