 | A history of Caroline county, Virginia |  |
REV. E. H. ROWE
Rev. E. H. Rowe, son of Rev. John G. Rowe and Margaret
Ann Purcell, his wife, was born on September 17, 1857, in Westmoreland
county, his father at that time being pastor of the
Methodist Churches of that county. Shortly after the Civil
War the family returned to Bowling Green and here the subject of
this sketch grew to manhood.
Rev. E. H. Rowe received his preparatory training in private
schools of Caroline, after which he attended Randolph-Macon
College, the University of Virginia, and Princeton University.
He attended the last named institution after he had entered the
temporarily from the active pastorate for this purpose. The
following quotation from a letter written by Professor Thomas
R. Price, M. A., LL. D., Professor of Greek in the University of
Virginia and sometime Professor of English in Columbia, of New
York City, which letter was for some time in the possession of
the author, indicates the high standing of Mr. Rowe in the
University of Virginia.
"It was a grief to me to learn that you had made up your mind
not to return to us. I shall miss you from your place in my
class, and, as I had hoped, in my list of graduates. But I do not
doubt that you have acted wisely: and your education is already
ample for you to make of yourself whatever you wish to become.
If, as you propose, you go into the Church, your excellent English
style, accurate and simple, will be your best outfit: and your
knowledge of Greek, and, as I believe, of Latin, will enable you
to carry on your professional studies to any extent, and to become
a distinct force in giving to our somewhat narrow and
degraded forms of religion a wider, truer and nobler development.
One man now who is capable of dealing with the sacred texts of
Christianity and with the early records of the primitive Church,
as an accurate and scholarly interpreter of what they mean, is
worth an hundred who in their blind ignorance go on narrowing
and degrading the faith into erroneous perversions. * * *
In 1879, Mr. Rowe was licensed to preach by the Bowling
Green Quarterly Conference, Rev. L. Rosser, Presiding Elder,
and became a member of the Virginia Conference in 1884. His
first appointment, as pastor, was to the Church in Murfreesboro,
N. C., where he served for two years, resigning at the end of the
second year to enter Princeton University for special courses.
On returning from Princeton Mr. Rowe was appointed to the
Boydton (Virginia) Church, but after one year of service he retired
from the itineracy, on account of increasing ill health, and was
given an educational appointment, by his Conference, to the
Bowling Green Seminary, Bowling Green, Va., of which institution
he became principal in 1888.
In 1894, Mr. Rowe was elected President of Wesleyan Female
College at Macon, Ga., the oldest female college in the South,
and served in this capacity for two years. On his acceptance of
the presidency of this school Bishop A. G. Haygood, a member
of the Board of Trustees, said, "I believe you are the providential
man for our college." Upon his retirement from the presidency,
Rev. W. P. Lovejoy, also a member of the Board of Trustees,
wrote, "I believe you have proved to be the providential man for
us," and the Board of Trustees, as a body, passed resolutions in
"appreciation of the able, faithful, and successful services"
rendered to the institution. While President of Wesleyan Female
College Mr. Rowe was a member of the South Georgia Conference
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
Mr. Rowe was elected President of Martha Washington College,
Abingdon, Va., upon his retirement from Wesleyan in 1896, but
before entering upon his duties resigned the position to take up
again the presidency of Bowling Green Seminary. Upon returning
to Bowling Green larger plans were made for the Seminary, and,
in keeping with the enlarged plans, the name of the institution
was changed to Southern Seminary.
The Southern Seminary prospered in Bowling Green until
1901, when it was moved to Buena Vista, Va., where it still
flourishes. An editorial in the Baltimore and Richmond Christian
Advocate of June 4, 1914, said in part: "We most cordially
congratulate Rev. E. H. Rowe upon the completion of twentyfive
years as the head of the Southern Seminary. During that
period Dr. Rowe has rendered faithful and efficient service in the
field of education, and so wisely administered the affairs of the
institution over which he presides that it has grown to be one of
the largest and most prosperous schools for young ladies in the State.
"The pupils of the Southern Seminary come from every section
of the country, and its patrons render most unqualified endorsement
of its work. The commencement exercises of this year (1914)
were of special interest, marking the closing of the forty-seventh
session and commemorating the twenty-fifth year of Dr. Rowe's
administration. Addresses were delivered by Dr. Joshua Stansfield,
pastor of the Meridian-Street Methodist Church of Indianapolis,
and by Senator Robert M. LaFollette of Wisconsin."
In 1922, Dr. Rowe sold Southern Seminary, and, at the Annual
Conference of Virginia in 1922, addressed the presiding Bishop
(W. A. Candler, of Georgia) as follows:
"Though I have severed my connection with Southern
Seminary, I have not retired from the field of education. I have
mapped out work enough to fill my time even though I shall live
to the green old age of my mother, who died in her eighty-fourth
year; and, whether so or not, it has seemed to me more important
than any other work of the Church."
The Bishop accordingly appointed Dr. Rowe to such a relationship
in the Conference as would enable him to continue his
work of education in a new field, whereupon he (Dr. Rowe)
retired to his plantation—"Holly Hill"—to give himself to the
task of working out the principles of his proposed reforms in
education, and for the publication of the same under the title
"A New System of Complete Education."
The proposed reforms embraced in the "New System of Complete
Education" were first definitely set forth by Dr. Rowe
at the Annual Virginia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, in 1916, in the following resolutions:
"While rejoicing in the inauguration of a Conference-wide
evangelistic movement, which we heartily endorse, * * we are
coming, at the same time, to see more and more clearly that
Christ came not simply to `pluck brands from the burning,'
but rather to build up an order of spiritual life and character
that will exemplify the spirit and ideals of the Sermon on the
Mount * * * . And since the chief hope for such a type
of character is out of the first and unspoiled life of childhood
and youth * * * ; therefore,
"Resolved, First, That we will give ourselves to the spiritual
education of the young life of the Church through all of the
Church organizations, especially through the Sunday school.
"Second, That we will endeavor to influence all institutions of
learning to establish a distinct department of spiritual education
* * * which shall have for its great aim the systematic development
and training of the spiritual nature * * * using the
same definite, sustained and philosophic methods which are being
used by our modern educational system for the development of
the physical and intellectual nature * * * that the faculties
of the soul may thus be given an equal chance with the mental
and physical to come to their full perfection."
(See Virginia Conference Annual of 1916).
No further action was taken on this matter by the Virginia Conference
during the next four or five years, notwithstanding the
fact that the question was constantly kept to the front by Mr.
Rowe, who regularly presented resolutions and memorials touching
the matter to Annual and General Conferences. The idea made
progress, however, and won the approval of many leading educators
and churchmen.
In 1921, the Virginia Conference definitely placed its approval
on Mr. Rowe's proposed reforms, and memorialized the General
Conference of 1922, in the following words:
"The Virginia Conference memorializes the General Conference
to create a commission of five or more, for investigations and
recommendation for such a reform in the existing system of
education as will give to the spiritual nature of man a place of as
much prominence at least as the intellectual, and will provide
that the education of the spiritual nature shall begin at the same
time as that of the intellectual, and shall continue co-ordinate to
the end of the course of education. Second, that the Methodist
Episcopal Church, and other denominations, be requested to
co-operate by the appointment of like commissions."
A still more notable advance of this educational idea was made
in the Annual Virginia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, held in Norfolk in 1922, when this Conference
created the commission for which Dr. Rowe had so long contended,
placing thereon such eminent educators as Dr. R. E.
Blackwell, President of Randolph-Macon College; Dr. Dice
Anderson, President of Randolph-Macon Woman's College, and
Dr. J. W. Moore.
Dr. Rowe married (1) Miss Emma B. Scott, of Bowling Green,
in 1861, who died in 1884, leaving one child, Scott Rowe; (2)
Mary Winslow Shaw, of Massachusetts in 1888, by whom he had
four children, two of whom—Orra Curtis (Mrs. F. E. Coyne, Jr.,)
and Edgar H., Jr.—still survive; and (3) Frances Walker Hunter,
of Tennessee, in 1908, by whom he has a son and daughter,
John Rufus and Frances Hunter. Dr. Rowe has one brother,
Mr. Purcell Rowe, who lives in California, and three sisters,
Mesdames J. T. Richards, B. F. Smoot and A. A. Anderson, who
reside in Caroline.
| A history of Caroline county, Virginia | |