Old Oglethorpe Collection Research Guide: Important People

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.

Reverend Charles Whitmarsh Lane was the son of Joseph Lane, who was the architect of Oglethorpe’s Central Hall. He moved to Milledgeville when he was 13 years old. He graduated from Oglethorpe with a Bachelor of Arts in 1842. He started as a Mathematics tutor after graduation and went on to take over as the professor of Mathematics when John Fitten resigned. Lane would remain the Professor of Mathematics for twenty-five years, a faculty tenure only matched by Dr. Talmage. He was ordained into the Presbyterian ministry in 1857, and in that position, he sought to serve the community and did much mission work in the area. 

In this collection, you can find a copy of a hand-drawn map of the Old Oglethorpe campus created by Professor Lane.

William Jacob Sasnett, alongside Thomas E. Loyd and John H. Fitten, was a member of the first graduating class of Oglethorpe in 1839, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts. He was the founder of the Thalia Literary Society. In 1841, he and John H. Fitten were conferred the University’s first honorary degrees and both received a Masters of Arts. Sasnett was ordained as a Methodist minister and was the first in Oglethorpe’s long line of graduates that became ministers. He also published a book called Progress in Nashville in 1855. He went on to serve as a professor at Oxford University, which would later become Emory University. He would also serve as the President of East Alabama Men's College (which would later become Auburn) and the President of Georgia’s La Grange Female College. 

In this collection, you can find William Sasnett’s correspondence.

Benjamin Hunter was born to a Presbyterian family in South Carolina, he was an avid member of the church and planned to be a minister from a young age. He enrolled in Oglethorpe at only 18 years old and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1857. After Oglethorpe, he attended the Columbia Theological Seminary and was ordained in 1860. His plans to be a minister were complicated by the Civil War. In 1865 he started “Rock College” with Professor W.W. Lumpkin, a high school on the University of Georgia campus that prepared war veterans for college work. He stayed until the college could no longer support his salary and was elected back to the faculty of Oglethorpe as a professor of physical science in 1870. After one year, he left to serve as the President of Georgia Industrial College.

In this collection, you can find Benjamin Hunter’s diary from when he was a student at Oglethorpe, his father’s personal financial manual discussing expenses for his sons as students at Oglethorpe, and Hunter’s report card for the year 1855.

Reverend Nathaniel Macon Crawford was the son of the senator William H. Crawford and grew up mostly in Washington D.C. When he was fifteen, he attended Franklin College (which would go on to be the University of Georgia). He graduated with honors in 1829. After college, he studied law under his father and was admitted to the bar but never practiced. He moved to Milledgeville, Georgia to serve as the clerk of the executive department of Governor George R. Gilmer's administration. Crawford was part of the first faculty at Oglethorpe University elected by the Board of Trustees in November of 1836. At only 26 years old, he started as a professor of Mathematics and Astronomy in 1837. Despite his young age, he was a successful and popular professor. Dr. Talmage himself described him as “a walking literary cyclopedia”. However, he would only stay at Oglethorpe for two years. Crawford was raised Presbyterian but later joined and was ordained in the Baptist Church in 1844. He left Oglethorpe in 1839 due to the financial struggles of the University, resigning because the Trustees could not pay his full salary. He would move on to a professorship at Mercer University, then the Chair of Biblical literature, and eventually became the President in 1854. After the Civil War, he served as the President of Georgetown College in Kentucky. 

In this collection, you can find correspondence between Nathaniel Crawford and his student John H. Fitten.

John H. Fitten graduated from Oglethorpe University in 1839 with a Bachelor of Arts. Fitten, Thomas E. Loyd, and William J. Sasnett were the first students to be graduated from the University. He was elected to be a tutor in Mathematics immediately after receiving his degree. In 1841, he and Sasnett were conferred the University’s first honorary degrees, and both received a Masters of Arts. After two years of tutoring, in 1842 he was made a professor by the Board of Trustees replacing his favorite teacher Professor Nathaniel Crawford. He resigned in 1845 when the University was unable to pay his salary due to financial struggles. 

In this collection, you can see Professor Fitten’s certificate to be a Delegate to the Georgia Convention, his correspondence, an Oration he delivered before the literary societies, and a clipping from a periodical about Fitten’s literary magazine.