ARCHiV£;S
THE CECIL W. ROBBINS lliftARY
tOmSBURG, 27M^J
9 Louisburg College
Howard Baker:
Hurricanes Take Eastern
Snow Da^fs Hit Campus
Man for the President
Tar Heel Conference
» Ancestry
17*7 — !•«
Volume 46 No. 7
Louisburq College
Louisburg, N.C.
*
Bisho^^^JP^^Mmnick^^
Willaim C. Friday,
en J\orris,
Louisburs Collese
Gearins Up for
Bicentennial Week
Friday; “We’ve come a long
way together
By Paul Martini
On Saturday, January 24,
Lx>uisburg College had a
birthday party.
The party was held in the
Samuel M. Holton gymna
sium and celebrated Founder’s
Day, or the date that original
charter of the college (then
Franklin Male Academy),
which was January 6, 1787.
Louisburg College is the oldest,
chartered, two-year, church-
related, coeducational college
in America, and Saturday’s
festivities marked the
beginning of it’s 200th birthday
celebration.
Among the visitors and
guests were members of the
Board of Trustees, faculty and
staff, former faculty and staff,
patrons of the college, former
^Rresidents, representatives
from the North Carolina
Conference of the United
Methodist Church, descendants
of founders, members of the
State General Assembly,
alumni, parents and students.
The program opened as the
faculty and guests marched in
to the musical processional
“Pomp and Circumstance,”
performed by the Bicentennial
Brass Ensemble, arranged by
Roper Harvey.
Sidney E. Stafford, Chaplain
to the College, then adminis
tered the Invocation.
President J. Allen Norris, Jr.,
who was presiding, then gave
everyone a welcome. ‘ ‘ This day
Jan. 6, 1987, is a special day
for Louisburg College. 200
years ago. We are grateful that
the General Assembly for that
year signed the charter that
formed the first institution that
was a forerunner of what is now
cont.onpg. 2
By Scott Schlotzhauer
In 1787 something special
happened: Franklin Male
Academy, the predecessor to
Louisburg College, was
chartered. And in 1987, two-
hundred years later, Louisburg
College is still standing and
running better than ever. Two
hundred years is a very long
time and worth celebrating.
For the past few years a group
of dedicated faculty and staff
members have worked to this
end and the fruits of their labor
have been seen throughout this
year, but the climax of their
work can be witnessed March
23-28. It is a week listed on the
calendar as the Bicentennial
Week and it is full of events for
students, faculty and alumni...
the people that make
Louisburg special.
The festivities start on
Monday, March 23rd. The day
has been dubbed “Dress-up
Day” and everyone is invited to
dress-up in costumes from
some period within the past 200
years. The event will last all
day long, teachers can wear
costumes to classes and
students could be taught math
Louisburg - The History
By Dr. George-Anne Willard
This is our Bicentennial
Year! Louisburg College is the
oldest chartered, two-year^
church-related, coeducational
college in America!
Louisburg College had its
beginnings in the period that
witnessed the emergence of
America as an independent
nation* the binh of the
Methodist Oiurch in America,
and the establishment of
Pranklin County and £he town
of Louisburg. Hie coimty and
town were founded in J779. In
1785, the first Annual
Conference of the Methodist
Episcopal Church in the
United States was held at the
home of Rev. Green Hill near
Louisburg. In 1787, the United
States Federal Constitution was
ratified, and the first school in
Franklin County was chartered
by the North Carolina
legislature.
/Ilie Franklin Male Acade
my, the first ^^cestor of
Louisburg College/^was
charter^ on January 6, 1787.
Aniong the twelve trustees
named in the charter was Dr,
John King, a pioneering
founder of Methodism iri
Maryland and North Carolina.
In 1802> the Legislature
appointed fifteen trustees for
Franklin Male Academy, three
of whom had been named in
1787.
On January 1, 1805» classes
began at the academy under the
direction of ahe talented
Matthew Dickinson, A noted
scholar^ Dickinson was the
only teacher at the academy.
He . instructed students in
mathematics, philosophy, and
five foreign languages,
Dickinson and three other early
academy principals were
graduates of Yale; two of the
principals in the antebellum
period were graduates of the
University of North Carolina.
The , male academy ejdsted
until 1905, and its two-story
j^rajfipie building still stands on^
by an instructor from the ’20’s
and English from an instructor
from the early 1900’s. Prizes
will be awarded to those with
the best costumes; the first place
winner will receive twenty-five
dollars, second place will win
fifteen dollars, and third place
will win ten dollars. The prizes
will be awarded Monday
evening at the conclusion of the
Torch Run.
Mr. Richard Byrd is in charge
of the Torch Run. The idea
will be to run a torch, the
symbol of the Bicentennial
Year, from the state capitol
building in Raleigh to Main
Building on campus. The
runners will run one-mile
intervals passing the torch
between them. The event is
open for anyone in the
Louisburg family and
townspeople.
The second day’s events will
start with a special Bicenten
nial Chapel ^rvice at 11:00.
the speaker at this event will be
Dr. Belton Joyner, Executive
Director of the North Carolina
Conference Council on
Ministries. The Louisburg
Ensemble will sing at the
cont. on pg. 8
east campus.
On December 27, 1814, the
North Carolina Legislature
chartered the Louisburg
Female Academy, the second
ancestor institution of
Louisburg College. Both the
male and the female academies
flourished, especially during
the administrations of two
husband and wife teams-Mr.
and Mrs. John B. Bobbitt and
Mr, and Mrs. Asher H. Ray.
Tlie Rays and some of their