490 A SKETCH OF EDUCATION IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 



volumes, selected with great care by such scholars as Elliott, Thornwell 

 and Lieber. Maiiv of the books are of rare value. 



FUNDS. 



The college receives a portion of the proceeds of the $192,000 in agricul- 

 tural scrip. In addition, the Legislature has for tAvo years appropriated 

 ^10,000 for professors, and $2,500 for other purposes. "^ The trustees have 

 made an appropriation for the purpose of carrying out the agricultural 

 feature. A handsome conservatory is in course of erection, and an ex- 

 perimental farm will be carried on for the purpose of testing new seeds, 

 fertilizers, &c. The endeavor will be to make this college practical as 

 well as literary, and to afford a thorough training to the youth of the 

 State. 



THE COLLEGE OF CHAKLESTON. 



The College of Charleston was incorporated by Act of the Legislature 

 in 1785. Two other colleges were incorporated on the same da}' — i\Iount 

 Zion College, in Winnsboro ; and one in Cambridge. The last, it is be- 

 lieved has no further history. The second was, for years, a respectable 

 grammar school. Certain funds wliicli were bequeathed by individuals 

 to aid in " the first college which shall be chartered," were thus divided 

 among the three which were thus simultaneously created by the Legisla- 

 ture. The college thus chartered in Charleston enjoyed the possession 

 of the Old Barracks, with the lands attached to it, between George, St. 

 Philip's and Green streets, and it is on that land the present college building 

 stands. At the time of the charter the Rev. William Smith, afterwards • 

 Bishop of the Diocese of South Carolina, kept a large classical school in 

 Charleston, and it was determined to make his school the nucleus of the 

 new college, but it was not until 1794 that the college gave degrees to its 

 graduates. In that year a commencement was held, and the Baccalaure- 

 ate conferred on six candidates, among whom we find Nathaniel Bowen, 

 afterwards Bishop of the Diocese, and John Davis Gervais. 



This was the first and also the last commencement of the college in 

 that century. Its pretensions as a college seem to have been lost sight 

 of, and for many years it held rank only as a classical school, whose repu- 

 tation depended upon the character of its head. 



In 1824, an effort was made to raise its collegiate character, and three 

 of the principal schools were united under the' presidency of Bishop 

 Bowen. It was then a school of a mixed character, in which it was not 

 easy to distinguish the academics from the pupils of the grammar or 

 preparatory school. Having organized the college, Bishop Bowen retired 



