General Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson (b. 1824 d. 1863) was a Civil War general in the Confederate Army under Robert E. Lee. He started his career as a professor at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, VA where he married Eleanor Junkin the daughter of Washington College (now Washington & Lee University) president Dr. George Junkin. After the death of his first wife he married Mary Anna Morrison, the daughter of Davidson’s first president Rev. Robert Hall Morrison in July 1857. In addition he was also the brother-in-law to Major D.H Hill, a Davidson professor and head of the Mathematics department at the time.
In 1949, R. Horace Johnston and his sister Rosa Johnston Stokes, Davidson class of 1911, gave a $100,000 gift to the college toward the completion of the new gym (Beaty 329). As a result, the new gym was named the Charles Worth Johnston Gymnasium, in honor of Horace Johnston’s father, who had passed away in July 1941.
The program opened in the summer of 1976, with a first year enrollment of 45 students. By 1984, the program would have 88 students. Since its inception, the program has become highly regarded and inspired similar programs at other schools.
The Junior and Senior Speaking exercises grew out of commencement activities, when representatives of the two literary societies would present orations as part of the ceremonies.
A year of study in a foreign country, confronting the student with new combinations of old ideas and opening his intellect to the possibilities for the development of new ideas, is an invaluable adjunct to any college program.
The Sigma chapter of Kappa Alpha fraternity was established at Davidson College in 1880 but operated in secret until 1884, when the faculty granted it rooms in Chambers.
The Visual Arts Building was named for: Katherine McKay Belk, Davidson Board of Trustees 1985-86, 1989- , and Tom Belk, class of 1946, Davidson Board of Trustees, 1972-1984.
The Kendrick K. Kelley Program in Historical Studies is Davidson’s unique honors program for history majors, and encompasses multiple components all designed to foster the study of history.
With a strong background as a minister in Virginia and South Carolina and an educational background that included Hampden-Sydney and Union Theological Seminary, Reverend John Lycan Kirkpatrick was elected President of Davidson College in 1860.
Cornerstone placed November 5, 1948. Dedicated on October 22, 1949 as Charles Johnston Gymnasium. Last basketball game played in gymnasium, February 25, 1989.
