University of Virginia Library

XVII. Religious Observances

During the year 1895, Rev. Dr. Otts, of Alabama, offered
to endow a lectureship in the University of Virginia,
to be devoted to the perpetual defense of the truths of
Christianity. The same proposal, it appears, had been
made to the trustees of Davidson College. The important
condition was attached to the gift in each case
that the two institutions should be associated in the management
of the double fund. The Board of Visitors,
from the beginning, shrank from acceding to this condition
because they feared that embarrassing complications
would arise in consequence of it, and they, therefore,
recommended that private arrangements for utilizing the
money should be entered into by those professors who
approved of the lectureship. Apparently, however, it
was not created even in this indirect way.

During the sessions of 1896–97 and 1897–98, a course
of lectures on the Bible, contemplated from a historical
and literary point of view alone, were delivered at the

University, with the financial assistance of persons who
were specially interested in this particular subject. These
lectures were countenanced by the Faculty's committee on
religious services, and also favored by a similar committee
of the Young Men's Christian Association, because,
both in spirit and in expression, they were undenominational
and unsectarian. The principal teacher in this
valuable course was Rev. Charles A. Young.

Among those outsiders of deep religious feeling who
were eager to aid in establishing a permanent lectureship
for systematic biblical instruction at the University, was
Colonel John B. Cary, of Richmond, who had been very
successful in business, and who, until his death, remained
an influential factor in his church. He passed away before
he was able to mature his benevolent plan fully, but
his earnest wishes were fruitfully carried out by his widow
and children. In 1902, the amount of the Cary endowment
approximated as large a sum as twenty-eight thousand
dollars. The subjects of the lectures embraced the
Old Testament Characters, the Acts and Epistles, the
Life of Christ, and the Teachings of Christ and His
Apostles. This lectureship was not originally connected
with the normal work of the University, but, from the
beginning, it was regarded by the authorities of the institution
with sympathy and approval, since all denominational
leanings were scrupulously avoided in its discourses.
Its themes, indeed, were strictly limited to the literary
and historical aspects of the English Bible, and from time
to time it was filled by invited clergymen of acknowledged
eminence.

The last chaplain to occupy the pulpit at the University
was Rev. L. C. Vass. He had been chosen to fill an
unexpired term, 1896–97, but died while in the act of
delivering his first sermon within the precincts. It was

always difficult to engage the services of a clergyman,
should a vacancy occur after the session had begun, and
this fact, in this instance, suggested that, for sometime at
least, no one should be called to succeed Mr. Vass, but
that, instead, his empty place should be taken from Sunday
to Sunday by representative preachers of the different
evangelical denominations. The invitation to each
in turn was extended by a committee composed of three
students and three members of the Faculty, the students
being trusted officers of the Young Men's Christian Association.
What was at first a temporary arrangement became
a permanent one in the end. The first clergymen
asked to conduct the services were the incumbents of the
pulpits in Charlottesville. These were followed by the
most famous preachers in the several Protestant denominations,
among whom may be mentioned Bishops Whittle,
Hurst, Granberry, Randolph, Tucker, A. W. Wilson,
R. H. Wilmer, and Julius Horner, and such ministers of
the gospel as Rev. Dr. A. Mackay Smith, Rev. Dr. R. H.
McKim, Rev. Dr. Hoge, Rev. Dr. Collins Denny, Rev.
Dr. J. William Jones, and Rev. Dr. W. W. Moore. Between
October 4, 1896, and June 13, 1899, thirty-five
clergymen of high distinction occupied in succession the
pulpit at the University; during the session of 1897–98,
thirty-nine; and this condition was repeated from year
to year,—for instance, during the session of 1902–3,
there were invited twenty-eight clergymen, and four bishops;
and they came from parishes and dioceses as far
away as New Orleans, Nashville, and New York, as well
as from those much less remote.

Rev. C. A. Young, to whose activities we have already
made a passing reference, had, during several years in
early life, been engaged in religious work among the students
of the University of Missouri; had, during the

three succeeding years, served as a professor in a denominational
college; had, afterwards, for a period of five
more years, filled the pulpit of a church situated in sight
of the campus of the University of Michigan; and in addition
to all this, had given instruction in the Bible to the
students of the Universities of Georgia, Ohio, Iowa, Kansas,
and Nebraska. In short, there was hardly another
minister of the gospel in the United States who possessed
such a remarkable record for usefulness as a teacher and
leader of young men in their religious life. His observation
of that class had extended, as he himself said, all the
way from Michigan to Georgia, from the Atlantic coast
to the far Pacific. "I have never known," he declared,
in summarizing his experiences, "a more manly Christianity
among students than I have found under the leadership
of the Young Men's Christian Association, of the
University of Virginia. There is no show or sham in
their religious pretensions."

The following table for the session of 1900–01 and
1903–04 shows the proportionate number of young men
at the University of Virginia affiliated with the principal
denominations:

                 

	1900–01	1901–02	1903–04
Protestant Episcopal	144	119	125
Presbyterian	64	60	68
Methodist	63	70	78
Baptist	45	52	60
Christian	14	16	18
Jews	10	7	5
Catholic	11	11	17
Lutheran	7	6	5

During the session of 1902–03, an assembly-room was
set apart for the Young Men's Christian Association in
the new academic building; and to its secretary, for clerical
use, the dormitory on West Lawn numbered 13 was

assigned. In order to assure a fixed income for the support
of the religious interests of the University, Professor
Peters proposed, at a meeting of the Faculty in 1900,
that the contingent fund of each student,—which, at this
time, amounted to ten dollars annually,—should be
charged with two dollars and a half for the maintenance
of the chapel and chapel service, provided that he should
offer no objection in writing to this diversion of his deposit.
Just one month later, Professor Barringer suggested
that the net proceeds from the Temperance Hall
leases should be used for the same general purpose.
The Temperance Society had now fallen into eclipse.

The Young Men's Christian Association and the Faculty
had united in choosing W. I. McNair to fill the position
of General Secretary of the association. Mr. McNair
had been in charge of the branch in Louisville, and
had won unusual distinction in that office. In 1898, he
was succeeded by J. M. Brodnax, who was followed, after
a considerable interval, by the Rev. Hugh M. McIlhany.
Dr. McIlhany took up, with extraordinary energy and
intelligence, the important duties incident to his position.
These duties still consisted of fostering a higher and better
life among the members of the association by constant
visits and exhortations; of assisting others beyond its
bounds in becoming more faithful Christians; in holding
weekly prayer meetings; in conducting Sunday school
within and without the precincts; in arranging different
Bible classes, and in inviting clergymen, or men of prominence
engaged in Christian work, to address the students
from time to time. The association maintained seven
Bible classes—all in the University,—and four Sunday
schools, three of which were situated in the country districts
not far off.

During many years, with the growth in the activities

of the association, the need of a large building of its own
had steadily become more insistent. Various practical
steps to acquire such an edifice had been suggested, but
none had been seriously taken. It happened that John R.
Mott, the general secretary of the World's Student Christian
Federation, had frequently visited the University of
Virginia on religious missions, and ultimately, through
the influence of Dr. McIlhany, he became deeply interested
in increasing the prosperity of its religious life by
securing more dignified quarters for the association. He
mentioned the subject to William E. Dodge, a philanthropical
merchant of New York, and the latter was only
prevented by death from donating the fund required for
the erection of a suitable building. His widow generously
determined to carry the interrupted design of her
deceased husband into effect, and with that object in view
offered to give forty thousand dollars to defray the cost
of construction, if an endowment fund of twenty thousand
should be raised for the support, through its annual income,
of the property. Before the end of two weeks,
the students, the professors, and their friends had agreed
to contribute ten thousand dollars of the desired sum.
By April, 1904, the architectural plans for the edifice had
been drafted and adopted, and on October 19, 1905, the
structure was formally dedicated.