570 History of Methodism 



lege entered upon the work of increasing the endow- 

 ment, and continued his labors into the spring of 1864. 

 The aggregate amount contributed and pledged by 

 subscription, and known during this period to be be- 

 queathed to the college by divers benevolent friends 

 of education, largely exceeded the minimum endow- 

 ment of $200,000, which the Board of Trustees had 

 adjudged to be necessary and had resolved to raise. 

 This comfortable endowment (excepting a few thou- 

 sand dollars only which have been saved and the 

 greatly impaired estate of the late Rev. John R. Pick- 

 ett, which is ultimately secured to the institution) was 

 entirely lost by the war. 



All the female colleges under the auspices of the 

 Conference were left in the like condition of financial 

 embarrassment. 



A professorship of History and Biblical Literature 

 was created in Wofford College 4th July, 1866, and 

 the Rev. A. H. Lester, A.M., was elected to fill the 

 new chair. At the same time a Divinity School was 

 established, and placed under the supervision of the 

 Rev. A. M. Shipp, D.D., Rev. "Whitefoord Smith, D.D., 

 and Rev. A. H. Lester, A.M. 



In December, 1869, the following report of the con- 

 dition and prospects of this institution of learning 

 was submitted to the Conference: 



The first session of the sixteenth collegiate year commenced in 

 "Wofford College on Monday, 4th October last, with a patronage of 

 one hundred and five students in the college and preparatory 

 schools. The number in attendance during the preceding session, 

 beginning on Monday, 4th January last, was one hundred and 

 twenty. The patronage of the college for the current scholastic 

 year would have been, without doubt, largely in excess of all former 

 years had not the excessive drought of the summer cut short the 

 crops of the State, with the success or failure of which the numbers 

 in attendance at the institution must of necessity fluctuate. The 



