W&J’s twin towers
Two days and 150 years ago, on March 4, 1865, what we now know as Washington & Jefferson College came into being. It was on that date that two colleges – one in Canonsburg and the other in Washington – each with its own proud history, became one.
As R. Lloyd Mitchell, retired professor of philosophy at W&J, told an audience at the college Wednesday, that history began not long after the Rev. John McMillan and a guide reached the crest of Laurel Ridge on horseback to behold “the sublime spectacle of the mighty West.” Not long after that, McMillan was teaching students in what is now Canonsburg in a tiny log cabin, which still stands, soon to become Jefferson Academy in 1781.
Soon after, Washington Academy was established, later chartered as a college in 1806, four years after the chartering of Jefferson College.
A fierce rivalry developed between the two schools, separated by just 10 miles, and both suffered in the battle for patrons and students. The Civil War hurt the schools further as the blood of many of their students and potential students soaked the fields of Antietam, Manassas and Gettysburg.
And so it was that on that day in 1865, as Abraham Lincoln delivered his second Inaugural Address, the colleges embraced union as their salvation.
A little more than a month later, the South surrendered, and the nation, too, would be joined as one.
Classes were conducted on both campuses for a few years, but eventually Washington was chosen as the sole location, a decision furiously opposed but eventually upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
As the war came to an end, construction began on the two towers of Old Main, which had stood since 1836. The towers would be symbols of the convergence of the two colleges, but inevitably they also would stand for the unity of the nation. Many students of both colleges, fighting for both the Union and the Confederacy, were lost in the war. Although not their intended purpose, the new and imposing towers of Old Main, not completed until 1875, would also become a memorial to those lost lives.
As one, the new college thrived. Had they remained independent rivals, Washington and Jefferson most likely could not have each attracted enough students to remain solvent, and we would be without the reputable institution that W&J is today.
Had the confederate states won their independence, neither they nor the northern states likely would have had the resources to develop into the nation of power and influence that the United States would become.
Especially in these times of bitter political partisanship, we must consider the importance of unity of purpose. United we stand, divided we fall. That’s something the towers of Old Main should bring to mind.