University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XII.

In 1839, Bishop Meade determined to take a step he had been
considering for some years and open a Church school for boys in
Virginia. The idea was to establish an institution which should
combine instruction equal to that of a first-rate college with strict
school discipline and the salutary influences and amenities of
family life, and should offer all these advantages for a price sufficiently
low to come within the reach of the large body of church-people
with moderate means. So admirable a scheme it was
thought could not fail to recommend itself to the judgment and
support of the Church in Virginia and elsewhere. To inaugurate
such a school successfully, two things were deemed necessary,—
suitable buildings, and a principal who should combine high moral
character, energy, an aptitude for teaching and managing boys,
and much enthusiasm. But the equally important requisite of
some moderate endowment or reserve fund to meet expenses
was entirely ignored.

With money furnished by himself and friends Bishop Meade
purchased a large, old-fashioned residence, "Howard," with a
hundred acres of land adjoining the Theological Seminary, three
miles from Alexandria, Virginia. The house, with its brick offices,
could, by crowding, be made to accommodate thirty boys for a
beginning, and in the mean time additional buildings could be
put up. After wide inquiry and consultation with Dr. Muhlenberg
and other experienced Church teachers, Bishop Meade
decided that Mr. Pendleton was the man of all others likely to
make such a head-master as his new school required. He therefore
went to Newark to offer the position to Mr. Pendleton, and
pressed his acceptance of it as an important Christian duty.

The question for the young clergyman's decision was a serious
one. His professorship in Delaware afforded a comfortable support
for his family, and permitted him to exercise his office as
parish minister usefully and acceptably in the surrounding
country. To give this up and enter upon an untried field; to endeavor
to build up a large public school, where great outlay was
necessary, without any endowment or fund to begin with, and
where the personal views and opinions of the principal were to
be entirely subordinate to the vague and often visionary ideas of
a miscellaneous and inexperienced board of trustees; and, above
all, to relinquish for years the preaching of the Gospel as the
main work of his life, was what Bishop Meade and his other
Virginia friends urged upon him. The importance of the issue,
and the difficulty of deciding where he could best use his talents
to the glory of God and the good of men, threw him into a violent
fever, and for some days he was very ill. By the time he regained
his health he had determined to remove to Virginia and take
charge of the Episcopal High School.

Only the most disinterested devotion to duty and hopefulness
of disposition could have influenced him to this decision. The
terms on which the school was placed in his hands were difficult
and unreasonable almost beyond belief. It is hard to understand
how any body of trustees could have exacted them, or any competent
man, unless his eyes were blinded by religious zeal, no
matter how sanguine and trustful was his nature, have been found
willing to comply with them. No provision was made for any
endowment, present or future. All the expenses of the institution
—furniture, scientific apparatus, salaries of teachers, food, fuel,
repairs, and the thousand things for which money is required
in a large establishment—were to come out of the tuition fees.
These were also put at the lowest possible rate. Full-pay scholars
paid only two hundred dollars per annum; sons of clergymen
were to be taken for one hundred dollars, and poor but deserving
youths were in some instances to be admitted without charge.
Nor was this all. Not only was there no salary attached to the
position of rector, but he was required to pay to the trustees a
yearly tax of thirty dollars upon each pupil over the minimum
of thirty, whether that thirty were all full-pay scholars or not.

Mr. Pendleton saw and appreciated some of the difficulties of

the plan from the first, but was to learn by bitter experience the
impossibility of carrying it out. The prospect of usefulness
overcame his misgivings, and he threw himself into his new and
attractive work with all the ardor of his nature. Mr. Milo
Mahan, afterwards the distinguished theologian and divine, just
graduated from Dr. Muhlenberg's school at Flushing, Long
Island, was engaged as first assistant, to teach the ancient languages.
Robert Nelson and John Page, both of them trained by
Mr. Pendleton, and familiar with his modes of teaching, became
the other instructors. The school opened in October, 1839, with
thirty-five students. Its first year was one of much personal discomfort,
especially to Mr. Pendleton and his family, who were
crowded into two small rooms, but, with this drawback, passed
satisfactorily and encouragingly.

The large building, which has ever since furnished the main
accommodation for the boys, was erected during this year. The
plan chosen for it was in almost all respects contrary to the taste
and judgment of the principal, being ugly without and inconvenient
within. Upon him, however, devolved the worry and
responsibility of superintending the building, while becoming day
by day more conscious of its defects. The second year found
the addition in a habitable condition, and the session opened with
one hundred and one scholars. For this increase of pupils a large
increase of teachers was, of course, necessary. Had all the
students paid the full amount, the twenty thousand dollars might
possibly have met the expense of fitting up and maintaining so
extensive an institution. But of the number, fourteen were half-pay
scholars, and five paid nothing. Out of the income thus
diminished, thirty dollars per head were paid to the trustees for
seventy-one boys, and an additional subsidy of three hundred
dollars towards the salary of one of the seminary professors was
exacted. The principal made every exertion to utilize all the
resources at his command and make the school self-supporting.
A fine garden provided an abundant supply of vegetables and
fruit for the household. The farm was brought into a high state
of cultivation, and large quantities of hay cut and sold. Cattle
were bought and fattened for the use of the school But all
efforts were unavailing to make the income adequate to the
expense.

In all other respects the happiest results were experienced.
Harmony and kindliness prevailed among scholars and teachers.
A high grade of scholarship was established and maintained. A
wholesome religious influence was constantly exerted; and while
the sound judgment of the principal discouraged any unhealthy
excitement among the boys, his own deep religious experience, his
genuine sympathy with each of them, and the virtue and beauty of
Christianity as exhibited in his daily life so illustrated and recommended
the truths of the Gospel that an unusually large proportion
of the High-School boys became earnest and consistent
Christians, and many of them clergymen.

In 1840, Mr. Pendleton's second son was born, and, in fulfilment
of a boyish promise, was named Alexander Swift, after a beloved
West Point classmate of his father.

Bishop Meade's home, "Mountain View," over which Mrs.
Philip Meade, Mrs. Pendleton's sister, presided, was only a day's
ride from the High School, and there was frequent intercourse
between the households. An extract from a letter to his wife,
who had gone to nurse her sister in illness, will tell of the many
and varied claims upon Mr. Pendleton's time and attention.

The survivors of those days can testify to the wisdom and
prudence with which the High School was conducted by Mr.
Pendleton. Gentleness and firmness were combined in his
government; and in the few instances in which authority was
defied and stringent discipline became necessary, it was administered
with even justice and a pity for the offender which rarely
failed to produce a beneficial effect. Some of his modes of
punishment had a touch of the comical connected with them. A
stolen fishing expedition brought a long day's angling from an
upper window to the boys who had engaged in it. A mock duel,
gotten up to terrify the challenged party, was deprived of all
dignity and amusement by the principals and seconds having to
stand up in presence of the assembled school and drench each
other with water discharged from huge tin squirts.

Mr. Pendleton thus governed the school, conducting its religious
services in the week and sometimes on Sunday, and taught
the advanced classes in mathematics, chemistry, astronomy, and
engineering. In addition to these duties, if there was any class
in any department which seemed to make no progress, or any
boy specially hard to teach, he took them in hand, and, by
patience, sympathy, kindness, and his peculiar skill in awakening
the dormant mind and imparting knowledge, usually succeeded
in bringing forward those whom others had pronounced
hopelessly stupid.

Respected by every pupil, and beloved by all save the few who
found his care and uprightness irksome, he was the chosen companion
of their hours of recreation. Base-ball was not known in
those days, and "bandy" was the favorite game. After the early

breakfast, in the good weather, it was the school custom to warm
up for the day's work by a vigorous game of bandy. If the
rector remained chatting longer than usual with his family or
guests, a dozen eager boys, crooked sticks in hand, would peer
in at the open door, until some one more venturous than the rest
announced, "The boys are waiting for you, sir," and the overtaxed,
overworked principal would soon be at the head of the
throng, racing up- and down-hill and over the fences after the ball.

The strain of the first two years proved too much for Mr.
Pendleton's health. In the vacation of 1841 he took the first
pleasure-trip of his life, going with his wife to the Greenbrier,
White Sulphur, and other Virginia springs. For six weeks they
travelled by stage from place to place, enjoying the wild mountain
scenery, collecting flowers new and strange to them, and
taking special interest in the records of the rocks as geological
science was beginning to decipher them. A sudden rise in
Cedar Creek caught them under the Natural Bridge, where they
narrowly escaped drowning. A stay at Hot Springs, followed
by a longer sojourn at the White Sulphur, effected so great a
change in Mr. Pendleton's constitution, that for many years he
remained free from the bilious disorders that had so greatly
harassed him.

In October, 1843, Just after the opening of the session, the front
building of the High School took fire from a defective flue, and
nothing but the brick walls escaped the flames. As the fire broke
out in the morning, there was no danger of loss of life; but a
strong wind was blowing, and for a time the whole establishment
was threatened with destruction. Telling his wife to collect their
children and send them to a place of safety, Mr. Pendleton
devoted all his energies to saving the large, newly-erected schoolhouse.

With the aid of the boys, the Seminary students, and other
neighbors, the roof and side next the flames were covered with
blankets kept constantly wet. Here, where the heat was almost
insupportable, the principal took his place, which he never left
until danger from the fire was over. Little inconvenience and
no loss was experienced by any of the large household except
himself and family. They had almost all of their personal
effects destroyed, and had again to be crowded into two rooms

in an out-house. The insurance on the burnt dwelling was sufficient
to rebuild it in a more commodious manner, and the fire
proved an ultimate advantage to the property.

The Oxford movement, begun in 1837, had created commotions
and dissensions among churchmen in America as in
England. The "Tracts for the Times" were read and discussed
by thinking men everywhere. Their teachings, especially that
of "Tract No. 90," were opposed to the views of the Bishop of
Virginia and the great majority of her clergy. Some of the
students at the Theological Seminary were, however, much attracted
by the earnest tone of the Tracts, and the fascinating
idea presented of the Catholic Church as the infallible spiritual
director and guide, and the dispenser of salvation to all her
children. Mr. Mahan and other devout, earnest seekers after
truth among the teachers and visitors at the High School were,
for a time, not a little inclined towards Dr. Newman and his associates.
Mr. Pendleton, on the other hand, considered the whole
movement and its teachings as contrary to the standards of the
English and American Episcopal Church, and was active in
pointing out and refuting what he thought erroneous to the
younger men by whom he was surrounded. Since he first
turned his thoughts towards the ministry he had been a diligent
student of theology. And now, more than ever, he searched
deeply into the works of the English fathers, that he might bring
the soundest and most able authorities to bear in the long and
impassioned discussions concerning the Church, tradition, sacramentarianism,
etc., which often lasted far into the night.

After listening one evening to one of these earnest discussions,
Mr. Pendleton's little daughter inquired, with puzzled curiosity,—

"Mamma, what is the Church?"

"My dear, that is what your papa and these other gentlemen
have not yet decided," was the sprightly reply.

Pushing her inquiry further, the child was told by her father
that she was "too young to understand;" but hearing an older
questioner referred "to the Thirteenth Article," she betook herself
to the prayer-book, and there found her ideas so sadly confused
by its stately and conservative definition that it required
the lapse of a number of years to give her any clear comprehension
of the apparently simple term.