(Transylvania University: Horace Holly, D. D.)

Autograph Letter signed to Prof. [Parker] Cleaveland.

Transylvania University: (Lexington, Kentucky): 1824. Item #642

4to. 8 ½ x 11 inches. Letter in ink, legible hand; fourteen lines; set into a paper border at a later date.

Fine letter announcing a position opening for a professor of Natural Philosophy and Mathematics at Transylvania University. Holley asks Prof. Cleaveland if "you know of any gentleman fitted for this office, and who would like to live in Kentucky...we can give a salary of $1200 in gold or silver, equivalent to $2400 of our currency". The money to pay the salary was part of the legacy left to the University by Col. James Morrison, a Revolutionary War sharp shooter, and successful merchant and hemp grower in Lexington. He left $ 50,000 in his will for the construction of Morrison Hall and for salaries.

Horace Holley (1781 -1827) was a Unitarian minister and president of Transylvania University in Lexington. A Yale educated lawyer, he converted to Unitarianism in 1809. In 1818, Holley was offered the presidency of the struggling Transylvania University. He accepted, and immediately began a series of changes that positioned the university among the nation's elite institutions. However, his theological views clashed with those of the Presbyterian Church, which had historically wielded great influence at Transylvania. Holley's sympathies for the Federalist Party also won him a number of enemies in the state. His opponents began to spread rumors regarding his personal life. Governor Joseph Desha also opposed Holley and persuaded the General Assembly to cut off the university's funding. In the face of such overwhelming issues, Holley resigned his post in 1827.

Holley moved his family to New Orleans, Louisiana where he was offered the presidency of a planned new university. However, before the university could be opened, Holley contracted yellow fever while vacationing aboard a ship bound for New York and died July 31, 1827.

"Prof. Cleaveland" is undoubtedly Parker Cleaveland (1780-1858) who was an educator, studied law and theology, and was, in 1803, appointed tutor at his alma mater, Harvard. In 1805, he became Bowdoin College's first professor of mathematics and natural philosophy.

Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature, I, p. 394 and 866. See https://www.kyhempsters.com/ for more information on Morrison's entrepreneurial activities in Lexington.

Price: $325.00