What's New at Log College Press? — September 1, 2023

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Dear Friends,

As summer draws to a close, we wish to give an update on what’s been happening at Log College Press. Our virtual shelves are filling up with old Presbyterian books, articles, poetry and manuscripts. We recently reached a milestone of sorts - there are now over 20,000 works available to read at Log College Press.

In a year of celebration and remembrance, we have previously paid tribute to John Witherspoon’s 300th birthday (Feb. 5, 1723); Thomas Murphy’s 200th birthday (Feb. 6, 1823); the 100th anniversary of Robert P. Kerr’s passing (March 25, 1923); the 250th anniversary of Joseph Caldwell’s passing (April 21, 1773); the 150th anniversary of William H. McGuffey’s passing (May 4, 1873); A.A. Hodge’s 200th birthday (July 18, 1823); the 150th anniversary of Gardiner Spring’s passing (Aug. 18, 1873); the 150th anniversary of Thomas Smyth’s passing (Aug. 20, 1873); and we are looking ahead to the 300th birthday of Samuel Davies (Nov. 3, 1723). These anniversaries are reminders of the rich heritage of American Presbyterianism, and how these men have contributed in their own ways to shaping our history. As we like to say, there is no time like the present to study the past.

Meanwhile, to return to the here and now, members of the Dead Presbyterian Society have special access to certain features on this website, which include the Early Access and Recent Additions page, as well as the DPS quote blog, and the Log College Review. We wish to draw your attention to notable works of interest that have added recently.

Some highlights at the Early Access page:

  • Samuel Davies, Travel Diary (1753-1754) — A kind and helpful supporter of our work noticed that some handwritten manuscript journals have been digitized by the Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia, including Davies’ diary which covers a portion of his trip to Great Britain to raise funds for the College of New Jersey (Princeton).

  • William Henry Foote, Journal (3 volumes, 1794-1869) — This is a remarkable manuscript journal (written in beautiful penmanship) which covers almost the entirety of Foote’s life, and includes newspaper clippings, family history, ecclesiastical records (some pertinent to the founding of the Presbyterian Church, C.S.A.), and much more.

  • Francis Alison, Peace and Union Recommended (1758) — A notable sermon preached by an Old Side divine at the opening of the synod at which the Old and New Sides were reunited.

  • David Bostwick, Self Disclaimed and Christ Exalted (1758) — A powerful sermon on the words from John 3:30: “He must increase but I must decrease.”

  • Jonathan Dickinson, A Sermon, Preached at the Opening of the Synod at Philadelphia, September 19, 1722 (1723) and A Vindication of God’s Sovereign Free Grace (1746).

  • Samuel Finley, The Curse of Meroz; or, The Danger of Neutrality, in the Cause of God, and Our Country (1757) — A notable patriotic sermon preached during the French and Indian War.

Some highlights at the Recent Additions page:

On the Log College Review:

  • Reviews by Jonathan Peters: Review of Francis R. Flournoy, Benjamin Mosby Smith: 1811-1893 (1947) [2023], and Review of William E. Thompson, In Stonewall’s Long Shadow: James Power Smith, Aide de Camp (2020) [first appeared in The Confessional Presbyterian 18 (2022)].

Meanwhile, please feel free to browse the many resources available to our readers in print and in digital format. We appreciate hearing from our readers if they find matters needing correction, or if they have questions about authors or works on the site, or if they have suggestions for additions to the site. Your feedback helps the experience of other readers as well. Thank you, as always, for your interest and support. Stay tuned for more good things to come.

William H. McGuffey Entered Into Glory 150 Years Ago

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The young are on the voyage of life; the old have reached the harbor. - William H. McGuffey

It was 150 years ago today on May 4, 1873 that Presbyterian minister and educator William Holmes McGuffey entered into glory. Author of McGuffey’s Readers, his name lives on in many ways, and today we remember the man who has been referred to as “America’s Schoolmaster.”

Born on September 23, 1800, in Washington County, Pennsylvania, to a family of Scottish emigrants, he was educated at Greersburg Acadamey in Darlington, Pennsylvania. By the age of 14, he was working as a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse in Calcutta, Ohio. In 1826, he graduated from Washington College in Washington, Pennsylvania, and went on to join the faculty there. Three years later, he was ordained as a Presbyterian minister by Robert H. Bishop.

After teaching at Washington College, he joined the faculty of Miami University at Oxford, Ohio. In 1836, he became President of Cincinnati College. Three years later, he became President of Ohio University. In 1843, he became President of the Woodward Free Grammar School in Cincinnati. After serving as a professor at Woodward College from 1843 to 1845, he accepted an invitation to serve as the chair of moral philosophy and political economy in the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he remained for the rest of his life.

It was in 1835, while teaching at Miami University — at the recommendation of his friend Harriet Beecher Stowe — that a Cincinnati publisher asked him to to create a series of four graded readers for young students. Thus, the eclectic series of McGuffey’s Readers was born. He authored the first four readers, while his brother Alexander H. McGuffey authored two more after that. These volumes were the first early reading books to gain wide-spread popularity in the American educational system. The series consisted of stories, poems, essays, and speeches. They included extracts from John Milton, Lord Byron, Daniel Webster and other highly-regard writers, as well as frequent allusions to the Bible. From 1836 to 1960, over 120 million copies were sold, and they remain in print today. They were a favorite of Henry Ford who in 1934 relocated the actual Pennsylvania log cabin where McGuffey was born to Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan to create a McGuffey schoolhouse. Frequently seen in the popular TV show, Little House on the Prairie, McGuffey’s Readers have long been a household name symbolizing Christian education, much like Noah Webster’s Dictionary.

McGuffey spent nearly three decades in Charlottesville where an elementary school built in 1915 was named after him (it is now known as the McGuffey Art Center). His name adorns other institutions and buildings, and a state in his honor can be seen at Miami University. After he died there was some talk of burying his body alongside that of his first wife, Harriet, who in 1850 was buried in Dayton, Ohio, but the University of Virginia prevailed upon his family to have his earthly remains laid to rest at the University of Virginia Cemetery and Columbarium.

For McGuffey, the bond between religion and education was sacred. Christians were people of the Book, and education was essential to reading the Scriptures and understanding the world which God made. We are thankful for his labors in promoting both education and the Christian religion in a busy, productive life on earth, which came to a peaceful end 150 years ago today.