Samuel Kennedy Talmage was born in 1798 in Somerville, New Jersey to Thomas Talmage Sr. and Mary McCoy. He was raised in the Presbyterian church. In 1820 he graduated from Princeton University, which would later confer on him an honorary Doctorate of Divinity for his work as an educational leader. He also attended the Theological Seminary at Princeton and was ordained by the Presbytery of Newton in 1825. After graduating from the Seminary, Talmage traveled down South to serve as a missionary. Eventually, he served as the minister of the First Presbyterian Church in Augusta, Georgia through which he became involved in the founding of Oglethorpe University. In 1836, he was elected to the first faculty of Oglethorpe by the Board of Trustees to serve as the Professor of Ancient Languages. After the University’s first President Dr. Carlisle Beman resigned, Talmage was made Chairman of the faculty. After serving the administration successfully for a year as the Chairman, he was elected to be the second President of Oglethorpe University. Talmage would serve as the President for twenty-four years until he fell ill and his subsequent death in1865, serving the University even after it shuttered in 1863 due to the Civil War.
In this collection, you can find Talmage’s correspondence and the addresses he gave to the University.
Donald Fraser was from Liberty County, Georgia where he was raised in a Puritan family. He graduated from Oglethorpe University in 1848 with a Bachelor of Arts. He was always interested in becoming a minister, so after leaving Oglethorpe he attended the Columbia Theological Seminary in South Carolina. He served as a pastor in churches in Liberty County, Georgia, and in Florida. He fought for the Confederate Army and was the chaplain of the Second Florida Regiment. After the war, he returned to Oglethorpe to serve as a professor of Ancient Languages. When he taught at Oglethorpe, he and his family lived at the Calico House. Professor Fraser was known by the students for his gregarious personality and his ability to make Greek and Latin interesting. When Oglethorpe shuttered during the Civil War, Fraser went on to open the Donald Fraser School for Boys in Dekalb County, Georgia.
In this collection, you can find indentures for Oglethorpe from the State of Georgia and the State of Florida from the Donald Fraser papers, a collection of receipts from the Donald Fraser School, and many important papers and items signed by Donald Fraser in the Financial Documents.