Marshall University

James E. Casto

• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Year: 2005
• Print ISBN: 9780738541907
• eBook ISBN: 9781439633366
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Education General
• Index: History

In 1837, the people of Guyandotte, then a village on the Virginia frontier, resolved to open a school for their sons and daughters. Tradition says local lawyer John Laidley convinced his neighbors to name the school for his friend, Chief Justice John Marshall. The one-room log cabin that housed those first students soon gave way to a two-story brick building that, with various additions over the years, became the schools Old Main. For decades, the cherished landmark has stood like a proud sentinel, watching Marshall grow and evolve into a major university with an enrollment over 16, 000. This remarkable volume, with more than 200 historic photographs from the Marshall archives, chronicles the dramatic Marshall saga.

One

FROM ACADEMY TO COLLEGE

Mount Hebron Church, a one-room log structure erected in the early 19th century at a site known as Maple Grove, served several denominations and, in 1837, became the home of the fledgling Marshall Academy. It is not known what the church looked like, as no image of it has come down to us, but it must have looked very much like this, a typical cabin on the Virginia frontier of that day.

Like the school that carries his name, John Marshall was born in a log cabin on the Virginia frontier. He fought in the Revolutionary War, spending the frigid winter of 1777–1778 with George Washington and the American troops encamped at Valley Forge. After the war, he took up the law, served briefly in the House of Representatives, and was secretary of state under Pres. John Adams. In 1801, Adams appointed Marshall chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He would occupy that post for 34 years, handing down a series of historic opinions that mark him as one of the great figures in American constitutional history. It was the Marshall court that established the principal of judicial review, holding that the high court had the power to declare invalid any act of Congress that was in conflict with the U.S. Constitution. Chief Justice Marshall died in 1835, two years before the founding of Marshall Academy; thus he never knew the school had been named for him.

A number of Guyandotte area citizens played roles in the founding of Marshall Academy, chief among them attorney John Laidley, shown here with his wife, Mary Scales Hite. Laidley was a friend and admirer of Chief Justice Marshall, with whom he had served in the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829–1830, and it was at Laidley’s behest that the new school was named for the famed jurist.

In 1858, the academy’s trustees persuaded the Virginia House of Delegates to amend the school’s charter and rename it Marshall College, although it remained a preparatory school, not a college as we know it. Closed during the Civil War, it reopened in 1867 as a state normal school chartered to train teachers. Most of the Marshall students gathered for this 1870 photograph soon would be in schoolrooms throughout the state.

It was under Lawrence J. Corbly that Marshall truly began to come into its own. Previously, the heads of the school had been called principals. Corbly, who served from 1896 to 1915, was the first to hold the title of president. He is shown here seated at the dining table with students in what is today the east end of Old Main.

Here is another photograph of President Corbly, this time pictured with a bevy of Marshall coeds. A scholar and world traveler, Corbly tightened academic standards at the school, requiring for the first time that all members of the faculty have at least baccalaureate degrees. During his tenure, Marshall’s enrollment tripled, going from 222 students in 1896 to 670 in 1915.

Marshall’s Old Main, as it is known today, is actually a series of buildings constructed at various times over the years and eventually joined. This old photograph shows the south side of Marshall College State Normal School as it looked in 1885, certainly a far cry from the structure’s future appearance.

This view clearly shows the separate structures that eventually would be joined as Old Main. The peaked tower at right would later be demolished, and still later, the familiar castle-like towers would be adde...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• One - FROM ACADEMY TO COLLEGE
• Two - ONE HUNDRED YEARS AND COUNTING
• Three - IN WAR AND PEACE
• Four - THE FABULOUS FIFTIES
• Five - “WE ARE NOW ... MARSHALL U”
• Six - TRAGEDY AND REBIRTH
• Seven - YEARS OF GROWTH
• Eight - INTO THE 21ST CENTURY