University of Virginia Library

XLIX. Finances—Endowment Fund

The most vital incident in the financial history of the
University of Virginia, during the Ninth Period, was the
acquisition of a large endowment fund. In the winter of
1903–04, the Washington chapter of the General Alumni
Association held a meeting, and as the national celebration
of the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase
was about to take place, it was decided that the
hour was propitious for the collection of an imposing
sum for the expansion of Jefferson's seat
of learning. The first to suggest this memorable
undertaking was Robert Lee Preston, who was seconded
by Cazenove G. Lee; and in the beginning,
its most indefatigable promoter was Thomas Nelson
Page, whose wife made the first contribution to the fund.
A plan was drawn up for obtaining a million dollars by
gift from the alumni and friends of the University
of Virginia as well as from the admirers of Jefferson
throughout the United States. A committee was appointed,
which comprised, not only Mr. Preston and Mr.
Page, who served as chairman, but also H. A. Herbert,
Samuel Spencer, and Randolph H. McKim. The first
step taken by this committee was to choose an advisory
committee composed of men of national distinction.
Both President Roosevelt and former President Cleveland,
when approached, expressed a keen interest in the
practical success of the project. At the meeting of the
General Alumni Association, held in the following June
(1904), the announcement of that project, and what had

already been accomplished in its prosecution by the energetic
and devoted chapter in Washington, was received
with unanimous commendation. This chapter was
already represented by a board of five trustees.

At the meeting of the General Association in June,
1905, Mr. Preston brought up the question of choosing
a board of trustees from the body of the association
itself, which was not to exceed seven in number, and
which was also to be impowered to hold the endowment
fund. The board of trustees, which, previous to 1905,
had represented the association at large was composed
of Joseph Bryan, Charles Steele, and William A. Clark,
so that there were at this time two boards,—the board
of five appointed by the Washington chapter, and the
board of three appointed by the association as a whole.

The orginal resolution establishing a board of three
trustees was now rescinded, and a new board, composed
of Joseph Bryan, Samuel Spencer, Thomas Nelson Page,
Thomas F. Ryan, A. P. Humphrey, William A. Clark,
and the President of the University ex-officio, was nominated.
This board, which displaced all the previous
boards, was authorized to hold the Jefferson Memorial
Endowment Fund and whatever sums should be presented
to the General Alumni Association.

At the annual meeting of the general body held in June,
1906, a committee composed of President Alderman,
C. J. Faulkner, DeCourcey W. Thom, Eppa Hunton, Jr.,
Homes Conrad, and Armistead C. Gordon, was appointed
to draft an amendment to the charter. This committee,
reporting at the next annual meeting (June, 1907), recommended
that this document should be so framed as to
allow of the more formal creation of an alumni board
of trustees, seven in number, who should hold, manage,
and expend the endowment fund in harmony with the

provisions of a deed of trust which should clearly define
their rights, powers, duties, privileges, and responsibilities.
This suggestion was adopted by the association.
The deed of trust, dated February 7, was drawn and
recorded in the clerk's office of Albemarle county, in
1908, contemporaneously with the grant by the State
Corporation Commission of the amendment to the charter.
In accord with the authority given by this amendment,
the following seven trustees were now elected:
Joseph Bryan, Thomas Nelson Page, Thomas F. Ryan,
A. P. Humphrey, C. J. Faulkner, W. W. Fuller and the
President of the University ex officio. This board convened
for the first time in Washington, in December,
1908, and organized by the nomination of President
Alderman as its chairman. Before this, however, occurred,
Mr. Bryan had died. In concert with Eppa
Hunton, Jr., he had, under direction of the then existing
board of trustees, been receiving and investing the
endowment fund. Mr. Hunton was, at this time, a member
of the Board of Visitors. William H. White succeeded
Mr. Bryan as trustee, on the declination of the
position by Charles Steele, and Mr. Hunton Thomas F.
Ryan, who was also unable to serve. Mr. Hunton was
appointed the treasurer of the fund.

The members of the new board of trustees were to
remain in office during good behavior, but were to be
removable by the vote of three-fourths of the association
at large. All vacancies arising in their ranks were
to be filled by the board itself. The endowment fund
was to be held intact, and only the income was to be used.
Every person who was in possession of any sum controlled
by the association for the benefit of the University
was directed to deliver it to the treasurer of the board
of trustees. It seems that, ultimately, the subscriptions

to the endowment fund in the hands of the Board of Visitors
were also diverted to the same officer. The board
of trustees was required to assemble at the University
before each annual meeting of the Visitors, and, on that
occasion, they were called upon to determine the expenditures
for the approaching scholastic year, and
also to draft a report to the association which should
show the condition of the principal of the endowment
fund, the amount of the income derived from it for the
past fiscal term, and the purposes for which that income
had been disbursed. By 1909, the Fund had come to be
designated the General Alumni Association Fund of the
University of Virginia.

The first suggestion of the endowment fund, as we
have seen, was broached in the winter of 1903–04.
President Alderman occupied his seat for the first time
in the autumn of 1904, and one of the numerous tasks
of magnitude which confronted him at the very start
was to take up and carry on the struggle of collecting
the precise sum which the General Alumni Association
had announced must be acquired for the University's
benefit. In the midst of the routine duties which he
had to perform from day to day, and of the multitudinous
interests which he had to watch and direct without
intermission, he threw himself, with all the energy
at his command, into the campaign for the completion
of this noble undertaking. His devotion to the task
was the most powerful factor in that splendid quest, and
to him more than to any other single individual was its
ultimate success attributable. By June 13, 1905, sixty
days after his formal inauguration in April, he was able
to report that $228,000 had been contributed to the
amount in view. Of this sum, one hundred thousand had
been presented by Mr. Rockefeller as a memorial to

Dr. Curry. Mr. Carnegie, when approached by President
Alderman, promised to give $500,000 to the fund
so soon as the other $500,000 had been assured. In
November, 1908, there still remained to be obtained of
the latter amount, $250,000. This was the most difficult
feat of all to accomplish, and yet between November
and February, 1908–09, the last dollar of it had
been secured through the untiring activity of the President
of the University. The following were the contributors
who came forward in this short interval, and
made the complete fund a certainty,—Colonel Oliver
W. Payne, who gave $50,000; Archibald Cary, $20,000;
the Christian Woman's Board of Missions of Indianapolis,
$30,000; Thomas F. Ryan, $25,000; C. H.
Senff, $25,000; General Education Board, $50,000;
and Charles Steele and his personal friends, $50,000.

Looking back upon the campaign, President Alderman
said, in a letter, written in March, 1909, when the stress
of the work had passed and victory was won, and yet
the consciousness of the obstacles overcome had not yet
grown dim: "Mr. Carnegie had developed a feeling
that the alumni alone ought to be the contributors to
the fund. This had to be dislodged from his mind, and
in addition $150,000 had to be raised in a few days if
any certainty was to be assured as to the permanent
success of the great enterprise. I was able to accomplish
it because it had to be done."

In the end, the total amount collected to meet the requirements
of Mr. Carnegie's contingent gift of five
hundred thousand dollars was $693,653, which was
almost two hundred thousand dollars in excess of that
conditional sum. On February 19, 1909, President
Alderman announced in person to the assembled members
of the Faculty that the campaign for the endowment

fund had been successfully concluded; and that one
million dollars had been added to the financial resources
of the University. The resolution which that body at
once adopted expressed precisely the emotions which
were felt by every alumnus of the institution: "Deeply
moved by the unselfish and unsparing sacrifice of President
Alderman,—who, at the risk of health, and at the
cost of many an ache of nerve and depression of heart,
has steadfastly pursued the good of our University,—
we assure him of our unstinted appreciation of his labors,
our thrilling joy in his triumph, and our unreserved
loyalty to him as he gives himself up to directing the
new power, that it may eventuate in the greatest good
to all the interests of the University, over which he so
worthily presides."

We have already mentioned incidentally the names of
some of the generously disposed persons who contributed
to the endowment fund. Among the donations which
were accepted by Mr. Carnegie as a portion of the five
hundred thousand dollars to be raised to fulfil the conditions
of his gift, were $22,000 from Mrs. Thomas Nelson
Page, which constituted the Barbour-Page Foundation,
$27,500 from the Christian Woman's Board of
Missions, $20,000 from Archibald Cary, and $19,683.20
from the trustees of the Athletic Club. The following
sums then in the possession of the Board of Visitors,
were also accepted: the gift of John D. Rockefeller,
$100,000; of G. F. Peabody, $10,000; of C. R. Crane,
$5,000; of Charles J. Peabody, $1,000; and of James C.
Carter, $10,000. Through the influence of Charles
Steele, Robert Bacon contributed $10,000; and so did
H. McK. Twombley. Other benefactors were Joseph
Bryan, who gave $10,276; Samuel Spencer, $5,136; Dr.
William C. Rives, $5,000; W. K. Jessup, $1,000; Theodore

Price, $1,000; Elihu Root, $1,000; A. P. Humphrey,
$2,210; DeCourcey W. Thom, $1,000; and
Henry L. Higginson, $5,000.

The Carnegie donation was set apart for the endowment
of the following chairs: Edgar Allan Poe School
of English; James Wilson School of Political Economy
and Political Science; James Madison School of Law;
James Monroe School of International Law; Walter
Reed School of Pathology; and the Carnegie School of
Engineering. The report of the treasurer of the fund for
the fiscal year ending July 1, 1911, disclosed the possession
of a principal of $959,658.50, without counting
the $50,000 which had been contributed by the Christian
Woman's Board of Missions, but which remained
under its own control. The total amount of the fund
was, in reality, at this time, $1,009,658.50, from which
an average income of $47,500 was annually derived. In
1914–15, the securities in the hands of the alumni board
of trustees were appraised at $928,980.80, while other
moneys reserved for various uses amounted, during this
fiscal year, to $100,000.00 additional. In June, 1918,
the entire fund held by the trustees had a market value
of $916,938.65; and of this amount, $788,978.01 was
reserved for general purposes, and $127,969.64 for purposes
designated in the original gifts. In the latter category
were included the Barbour-Page Foundation, the
Curry Memorial Fund, and the Isaac Cary and Rives
donations.