Billington M. Sanders and Mercer Institute

From Shaler Granby Hillyer's "Reminiscences:":

When it was determined by the Georgia Baptist Convention to found a school in which young men desiring to become ministers of the gospel might be educated, the first necessity was to find the right man to place at the head of it. The school was to unite manual labor with study. It was thought that such a school would afford to the students an opportunity to defray at least a part of their expenses by working a portion of each day on the farm.

This scheme made it almost necessary that the principal should be not only a good scholar with adequate experience as a teacher, but also a good, practical farmer. Just such a man was found in the person of Rev. Billington M. Sanders. He had graduated at the University of South Carolina. After leaving college he was for several years a practical teacher. He then engaged in farming, and so successfully that he soon had a comfortable estate. These two essential qualities were supplemented by his being a useful Baptist minister. When, therefore, he was placed at the head of Mercer Institute, he was qualified to be at once the principal in the schoolroom, the manager on the farm, and the leader in the house of worship. So he was emphatically the right man in the right place.

I do not propose to follow Brother Sanders through the history of Mercer Institute. Suffice it to say that his administration, with the aid of competent assistants, was so successful that in less than seven years Mercer Institute was developed into Mercer University, and Brother Sanders was made its first president.

In his administration both in the Institute and in the University, his discipline was watchful and rigid; but at the same time he was as a father to the students, and I think the great majority of them so regarded him. But passing by his official labors let me rather devote this reminiscence to the moral of his life.

Brother Sanders was a man of deep and earnest piety, not only in forms of worship, but in practical godliness that threw the light of his example over all within the reach of his influence. The breadth of his benevolence was sufficient to embrace all the nations of the earth. I recall an incident which will illustrate this.

About forty-five years ago, Ireland was visited with a dreadful famine by a total failure of her potato crop. The case was so serious that appeals for help came across the Atlantic to the people of our country, and nobly did they respond. In the little village of Penfield the cry was heard. Under the leadership of Brother Sanders a public meeting was held in the College chapel. The question was, "What shall we do for Ireland?" Brother Sanders answered the question in an able, earnest, and effective speech. I sat in front of him. I have never forgotten his tall and manly figure as he pleaded with the audience in behalf of the starving poor in distant Ireland. I said his speech was effective. In that small community, three hundred dollars were collected and invested in grain, which in due time was sent across the sea upon its mission of love and mercy.

From Jesse Harrison Campbell's history:

8. The eighth anniversary [of Georgia Baptist Convention] was held at Milledgeville, in March, 1829. Rev. B. M. Sanders' exposition of Matthew, eleventh chapter and twelfth verse, was read and directed to be printed, and Rev. Mr. Mercer's "prerequisites to ordination," to be published in the minutes. Mr. Josiah Penfield (late of Savannah) had bequeathed to the Convention $2,500 as the basis of a permanent fund for the purposes of theological education, to bo paid on condition that a like sum sheuld be raised by the body for the same object. Our people had not been accustomed to pay large sums, and it was considered a happy circumstance that notes were promptly given by responsible persons to the amount of $2,500, the sum required to be made up. This may be considered an epoch in our history in Georgia, for an impulso was then given to the cause of ministerial improvement, which has already resulted in incalculable good, and which it is believed will be felt for ages yet to come. Already has this small beginning been augmented to near $200,000. In Savannah, where he lived, and labored, and died, the name of Penfield will be long held in sacred remembrance ; and among the Baptists of this State he will ever be regarded as a benefactor of God's people.

Mercer University, Macon, Ga., is an institution having its genesis at a meeting of the Baptist Associations of Georgia, at Powelton, 27 June 1822, held to discuss, among other matters, the question of ministerial education. In 1827, at a similar meeting, held in Washington, Ga., the project was further discussed, and in 1829, Josiah Penfield, of Savannah, bequeathed $2,500 as a fund for education, on condition that the Baptists should raise an equal amount. This was promptly done, and two years later it was resolved to establish *a Classical and Theological School . . . open only for those' preparing for the ministry." It was soon seen, however, that the school could not be so restricted, and in 1832 this bar was removed. Mercer Institute was established on a site of 450 acres, at Penfield, in January 1833, with 39 students,— "Penfield" in memory of Josiah Penfield, and "Mercer," after Dr. Jesse Mercer, early conceiver and patron of the school. In 1837, a charter was obtained giving the institution collegiate rank, and changing its name to "Mercer University."

book flaps...THE FOURTEENTH of January, 1833, was an eventful day for Georgia Baptists and the Commonwealth of Georgia. The opening of Mercer Institute at Penfield, Greene County, on that day marked the culmination of hopes, dreams, prayers, sacrifices, and achievements of imperishable influence and of inestimable worth. These were given form and expression in the founding of an institution that was destined to play an increasingly important role in forming and fashioning the lives arid the affairs of men and women in Georgia, throughout the nation, and to the ends of the earth."
This opening paragraph of Dr. Spright Dowell's book, A History of Mercer University, 1833-1953, signifies better than any possible explanation the spirit and purpose of the work that has absorbed Mercer's president emeritus since soon after his retirement in 1953.
More than a simple recounting of the facts of Mercer history, as colorful and interesting as they may be, Dr. Dowell's work delves into the significance of this creative event 125 years ago, the roots from which it grew, and effects it has had on succeeding generations of Baptists and Georgians.
It begins with the status of education, religion and civilization in the early years of this country in order to place in perspective the establishment of the institution and its influence on an increasingly complex and changing civilization.
The book is the product of more than three years of research, writing and editing. Although Dr. B. D. Ragsdale's The Story of Georgia Baptists, published in • 1938, dealt extensively with Mercer history, Dr. Dowell's is the first complete, and, of course, the only up-to-date history of the first Baptist institution of higher learning in the state. The theme is built around the idea of the vine — Mercer — and its branches — other Baptist institutions which have grown into increasing prominence through the years. "Viewing the Landscape" is the opening chapter, and the theme is followed in ensuing chapters such as "Preparing the Soil," "Planting the Seed," and "Transplanting in Macon," on down to the final chapter, "Reaping and Rewards." An appropriate passage from Jesse Mercer's collection of hymns entitled "Mercer's Cluster" has been selected by Dr. Dowell to head each chapter.

Doctor Mercer and Deacon Penfield

From Adiel Sherwood's "Gazetteer of Georgia", 1837:

The Baptists have a Convention, the objects of which are to promote the cause of Christ by Missions, and " to afford an opportunity to those who may conscientiously think it their duty to form a fund for the education of pious young men, who may be called by the spirit and their churches to the Christian ministry." Its funds in hand are about $2,000. In 1828, Mr. Penfield, of Savannah, left the Convention $2,500, for education purposes, provided, they would raise as much more. This was promptly done at its session, March, 1829; so that the funds soon to be realized are more than $7,000. It has but two young men pursuing a course of studies calculated to render them more acceptable ministers. It has purchased a number of standard Theological books for indigent ministers, and employs annually one or more domestic missionaries; beside contributing to the funds of the General Convention. There is a sluggish indifference in many to the promotion of its designs, and a bitter hostility in others; but since the revival of 1827—8, its prospects are brighter.

From Shaler Granby Hillyer's "Reminiscences":

The matter which most deeply engaged the attention of the Convention was the Penfield legacy. The history of this legacy is given so fully in our records that it is hardly necessary to repeat it here. Nevertheless, for the sake of many who may not have had access to the records it may be useful to state briefly the facts.

Deacon Josiah Penfield, of Savannah, had recently died. In his will he had bequeathed twenty-five hundred dollars to the Georgia Baptist Convention, to be devoted to the cause of ministerial education among our young men in Georgia, on condition that the Convention would raise an equal sum to be added to it for the same purpose.

To meet this condition and thus to secure the legacy was the problem that confronted the Convention of 1829. And nobly did they meet it. But there is a small inaccuracy in the account of this case, as given in the "History of Georgia Baptists," compiled for the Index in 1881, which deserves to be noticed.

In that account we are told how the twenty-five hundred dollars were raised. It gives twenty-six names with the amount subscribed by each one. But when we add up the several subscriptions as given, the aggregate is only twenty-four hundred and fifty dollars, instead of twenty-five hundred—the sum required to secure the legacy. The question at once occurs: Whence came the other fifty dollars ? I think I can answer that question.

Though not a member of the Convention, yet I was in the midst of many Baptists, all of whom were interested in what was going on at the Arsenal. Hence I learned some things about the doings of the Convention from the conversation of those around me. I think it was near the close of the Convention when some one in the parlor, at Doctor Boykin's house, announced to the company that Mr.* Mercer had saved the Penfield legacy. The parties present were evidently much pleased.

As I understand the case it was about this way: The committee appointed to see what could be done towards raising the twenty-five hundred dollars, after as thorough a canvass as they thought it worth while to make, reported the subscriptions. When added up, however, it was found that the aggregate fell below the required amount. What was to be done? There were perhaps a few moments of disappointment. Brother Mercer, however, relieved the situation by adding to his subscription the whole of the deficit, and thus completed the required amount.

The above is the version of the story which I have all these years held to be the correct one. I have often spoken of it to groups of brethren, and I have never heard it disputed. I am persuaded, therefore, that it is substantially correct. And if so, it is certainly due to the memory of Doctor Mercer that it should not be forgotten.

There were twenty-six subscribers, it seems, to that twenty-five hundred dollars. This gives an average of a little over ninety-six dollars to each one. That was

note.—Dr. Campbell says that the degree of D.D. was conferred upon Mr. Mercer by Brown University; but his intimate friends seldom used the title, knowing it would not be agreeable. Thus it is naturally dropped when he is spoken of in a familiar way. For similar reasons the title Is sometimes omitted, in this work, in the case of other brethren.—Editor.

a liberal subscription for only twenty-six people to make. And great has been the result of that day's work in the Convention of 1829.
That twenty-five hundred dollars secured the Penfield legacy. Every man's dollar was worth two; for when the legacy and the subscriptions were united, the Convention had in hand a fund of five thousand dollars devoted to the education of ministers. That five thousand dollars was a God-given boon to the Baptists of Georgia. It quickened into some degree of life the zeal of our people for the improvement and elevation of our ministry. Like a seed dropped into good ground, that fund began to grow, and is still growing—slowly, it may be, but it is still growing—and we hope ere long to see it expand into a magnificent endowment for Mercer University.
But let us never forget that the first design of the fund of 1829 was to promote ministerial education. This design, is the glory of our beloved University. In spite of its limited resources, during the first fortyone years of its life, counting from 1833, it educated a hundred and twenty preachers. If to these be added those who have been educated in like manner during the succeeding twenty-two years, the number would probably reach nearly two hundred. Such are some of the fruits of that little seed that was planted in 1829.