Archibald John Battle 1872-1889
- Educator, author, clergyman (1826-1907); A.B., M.A., D.D., LL.D. degrees; married to Mary Elizabette Guild (1847)
- Served as president for seventeen years and described as tall, erect, immaculately groomed and dressed, distinguished, stern, genial, approachable, sympathetic, and beloved by those who knew him
- Provided temporary classrooms on campus and began an ambitious program for an academic building, hiring G. P. Randall of Chicago as the architect who lost the drawings and plans for the building in Chicago's Great Fire in 1871
- Purchased eight lots across Elm Street for construction of the Mess Hall, housing a dining room, kitchen, about thirty bedrooms for two to four students each, and classrooms
- Weathered the difficulties of financial depression in 1873 and a campus epidemic of meningitis the same year
- Was the first president to live in the Administration building, occupying the first two stories of the left wing
- Established a school of law with a nominal relationship to the university arts program
Diary entries of Mercer student Aurelian Flavius Cooledge, related to the outbreak of meningitis on campus early in 1873:
Sunday, January 19, 1873
"Great deal of sicknes [sic] in the Hall. The physician comes out two or three times a day. Mr. Seago has gone home. The Dr. says that Mr. Gauldens [sic] case is a bad one. Mr. West has been delirous [sic] for two or three days, screamed like a madman last night."
"Great deal of sicknes [sic] in the Hall. The physician comes out two or three times a day. Mr. Seago has gone home. The Dr. says that Mr. Gauldens [sic] case is a bad one. Mr. West has been delirous [sic] for two or three days, screamed like a madman last night."
Monday, January 20, 1873
"The physicians regard Messrs. Hamilton & Harverys cases as bad this morning. Mr. West died at a little after two this evening. Several of the boys have gone home & others are intending to go on account of sickness. Mr. W. parents came to-night."
"The physicians regard Messrs. Hamilton & Harverys cases as bad this morning. Mr. West died at a little after two this evening. Several of the boys have gone home & others are intending to go on account of sickness. Mr. W. parents came to-night."
Tuesday, January 21, 1873
"Set up from 12 ½ o'clock with the corpse until after 4 oclock [sic]. Some of the professors & physicians advised the students to go home. Packed my trunk & went & stayed at the Hotel & left Macon at ten minutes past 11."
"Set up from 12 ½ o'clock with the corpse until after 4 oclock [sic]. Some of the professors & physicians advised the students to go home. Packed my trunk & went & stayed at the Hotel & left Macon at ten minutes past 11."
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