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CENTRE COLLEGE STILL IN FAVOR.

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fessor of natural and physical science; Alfred B. Nelson, A. M., M. D., professor of pure and applied mathematics; John W. Redd, A. M., professor of Greek and modern languages; Samuel R. Cheek, A. M., professor of Latin and English; James B. Walton, A. M., principal of the preparatory; W. C. Grinstead, assistant in the preparatory department.

President Ormond Beatty was born in

Mason county, Kentucky, in 1815, and became a student of Centre College in his seventeenth year, graduating in 1835. His rare abilities and proficiency as a student led to his appointment to the professorship of natural science in his Alma Mater before his graduation. He accepted on condition that he be granted to spend a year at Yale College.

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PRESIDENT ORMOND BEATTY.

From this chair he was transferred, in 1847, to that of mathematics, but in 1852 was restored to his original chair. In 1870, he was elected president of the college and to the chair of metaphysics. His versatile, thorough scholarship enabled him to fill all these positions with ability. Thus, it will be seen that Dr. Beatty has been president and professor in Centre College for half a century. He has been several times appointed commissioner to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, and served under appointment of that body and others in positions of highest trust and responsibility. He was a delegate to the first general council of the Presbyterian alliance in Edinburgh in 1877, and also to the second meeting of that body in Philadelphia in 1880. In 1882, he was elected the first president of the College Educational Association of Kentucky. In 1883, he represented the trustees of the Theological Seminary at Danville, before the General Assembly at Saratoga, to show reasons for not disturbing the relations and control of that institution.

Dr. Beatty is a man of great natural ability and a profound scholar, possessing a mind singularly logical and practical. A man of remarkably equable temper and a speaker of rare force and clearness. He has few equals as a public debater.

Though colleges of a high grade have successfully multiplied in the South-west since the civil war, Centre College continues in favor with the patronizing public. In the college and academy for the session of 1884-85, the attendance of students was two hundred and eight.

The financial status of the college is set forth in the report of the financial agent for 1885, as follows: General fund, in bonds, stocks, and notes, in productive real estate, in endowment of the chair of vice-president, and

other funds, $189,709; in buildings and grounds, library, apparatus, etc., $70,500; total, $260, 209.

In May, 1885, the strength and resources of the old Synod of Kentucky are represented in the statistics of the official report of that date, showing three presbyteries, sixty-one ministers, eighty-nine churches, two hundred and forty-four elders, and one hundred and sixty-nine deacons. There were added to the church, on examination, five hundred and twenty-five; on certificates, two hundred and twenty-five, making a total membership of sixtythree hundred and seventy-four. Of baptisms, there were one hundred and ninety-two adults and one hundred and fifty-four infants. There are fifty-two hundred and ninety-eight Sunday-school members. The contributions for the year ending May, 1885, were: For home missions, $6,687; foreign missions, $3,641; education, $652; publication, $326; church erection, $5,837; relief fund, $638; freedmen, $636; aid to colleges, $6, 189; sustentation, $231; General Assembly, $415; congregational, $99,450, and miscellaneous, $13,354; total, $138,056.

1 The Roman Catholic Church, in 1800, had no bishop and but two priests in Kentucky. There were two churches and eleven stations, with a membership of about two thousand. In 1884, the statistics of the church show the Catholics to have two bishops, one hundred and ninety-three priests, two hundred and fourteen churches and chapels, five colleges, fifty-two academies and select schools, one hundred parochial schools, sixteen thousand three hundred and forty-four pupils in charge, nine asylums, four hospitals, and a membership of two hundred thousand. The church has preserved a wonderful unity and steadiness throughout the century of its existence, and seems to be solidly and permanently grounded for its work in the future. It has passed through many trials and vicissitudes in this time, but in all these the management of its interests appears to have been in skilled, prudent, and discreet hands, equal to all emergencies. Its greatest shock received was, perhaps, during the "Know Nothing" political movement of 1855, which spent its violent and proscriptive force within a year or two in an organized assault upon the foreign element of the country and the Roman Catholic Church, which embraced the great body of these in its folds. It was an organization against the antecedents and declarations of our republican institutions, and needed but the sober thought of reconsideration to reverse its purposes and policy by public sentiment. During the turbulent and violent excite

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1 Webb's Catholicity in Kentucky, p. 580.

BISHOP MARTIN JOHN SPALDING.

SKETCH OF BISHOP SPALDING.

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ment which for a brief period characterized its history, while acts of local and personal violence were mutually unavoidable, due credit was given to the leadership of the church for the earnest and co-operative efforts made by it to subdue and restrain from violence and to preserve law and order.

Among the very able and distinguished men who have given themselves. to the ministry of the Roman Catholic Church in Kentucky, Right Rev. Martin John Spalding may be said to be pre-eminent in the intermediate period of our State history. He was born near Lebanon, Kentucky, in 1810, of Maryland parentage. He graduated here in 1826, giving marked evidence of his intellectual superiority. The next four years he spent in the diocesan seminary at Bardstown, preparing himself for the priesthood, under the instruction of Bishop David and Rev. Kendrick. In 1830, he set out for Rome, in company with James M. Lancaster, where both entered the renowned College of the Propaganda. After four years of severe study, he passed a most rigid examination, publicly defending two hundred and fifty-six propositions through a critical ordeal of seven hours. He next prepared himself for holy orders, and was ordained a sub-deacon on the 3d, a deacon on the 10th, and priest on the 13th of August. He returned home and assumed pastoral charge at Bardstown, and in 1836 became a leading editor of the Catholic Advocate, the organ of the church in Kentucky. In 1838, he was called to the presidency of St. Joseph's College, in which position he served for two years. In 1844, he became vicar-general at Louisville, and the same year gave to the public his admirable "Sketches of Pioneer Kentucky," which he had been compiling for some years.

In 1847, Rev. Spalding received from Rome the bulls appointing him coadjutor to Bishop Flaget, in which position he performed the main and active labors of the bishop himself, and succeeded the latter on his death, in 1850. He was an ardent advocate of religious education, and delivered himself of the following pronounced sentiment on the common Catholic objection to common-school education under State auspices: "Education without religion is the body without the soul, the building without the foundation, philosophy without fundamental principles," an utterance of profound significance, if secular education is entirely without the corresponding provision for religious instruction. Finding the ministerial forces inadequate for the needs of his jurisdiction, the bishop visited and traveled Europe in search of re-enforcing assistants. He succeeded in organizing and extending his work by the introduction from Europe of five ministers of priestly orders, four deacons, and one sub deacon. In 1864, he was installed seventh archbishop of Baltimore, in the presence of forty thousand spectators. He convened the second plenary council of Baltimore; distinguished himself at the Ecumenical council at the Vatican at Rome in 1869–70; returned to America amid many public honors at Baltimore and Washington; during his archiepiscopate, erected many new churches, established new schools, founded and endowed new works of charity, and in April, 1872, died, honored and

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