October, 2016

Most Presbyterian College students have heard the story about a Presbyterian minister named William Plumer Jacobs who founded an orphanage and a college in what was once a rough post-Civil War railroad town. They may even have learned that his efforts to do so were derided by some townsfolk and labeled “Jacobs’ Folly” before he succeeded in founding both their alma mater in 1880 and Thornwell Orphanage (now Thornwell Home and School for Children) in 1875.

But while they may have a deep appreciation for this milestone moment in the history of both institutions and Clinton, S.C., it’s a shame when students graduate without a fuller understanding of the man who made PC possible. As the college approaches the 100th anniversary of Rev. Jacobs’ death in 1917, however, we encourage every student to take the time to get to discover the man behind the history.

Of course, students never will meet PC’s founder in the flesh. But they might experience something close to meeting him in the Russell-Arnold Archives housed in the James H. Thomason Library. In the Founder’s Library, we have a large collection of his books and many personal artifacts that were donated to the college by his grandsons, William Plumer Jacobs II and J.F. Jacobs. In one of Rev. Jacobs’ diary entries a few years before he died, he wrote:

“I have in my Library some 3,000 books.  These have become in part a history of myself.  I have lived in the books, and they have been absorbed in me.  For the most part they are good and useful books and I am desirous that in some suitable way they should be kept together and made a monument to my memory – old dry books are a very suitable memorial of an old dried up man.”

In that same diary entry, Rev. Jacobs also stated his hope that “a hundred years hence (the library) would be an object lesson … This is only a little of my folly but even wise men are foolish at times.” What a prescient statement. Nearly a century has passed and his books of theology, language, fiction, philosophy, and history – in addition to personal items like his desk, the inkwell in which he dipped his pen, and his glasses – indeed are tangible testaments to the life and times of William Plumer Jacobs.

We encourage every student at PC to spend some time in the Founder’s Library before they graduate. It is a beautiful room – a great space where you can imagine a thoughtful discussion on the mysteries of the universe with a man who very likely pondered the same things. We believe Rev. Jacobs would have been proud of the young men and women PC students have become and he would have loved meeting them.

They are, after all, his greatest, lasting legacy.

Posted by Hal Milam