Log College

A SMALL, RUDIMENTARY SCHOOL, ABOUT 20 FEET SQUARE, ERECTED IN THE MID 1720S BY THE REV. WILLIAM TENNENT (1673–1702), A SCOTTISH PRESBYTERIAN EVANGELIST WHO HAD MIGRATED TO NESHAMINY, OUTSIDE PHILADELPHIA. AT THE TIME, THERE WAS AN ACUTE SHORTAGE OF MINISTERS TO MAN THE CHURCHES IN THE EVER-INCREASING NUMBER OF COMMUNITIES SPROUTING ALONG THE EXPANDING FRONTIER. ENGLAND COULD NOT SPARE ANY, AND HARVARD AND YALE TOGETHER PRODUCED ONLY 850 MINISTERS BETWEEN 1701 AND 1740. THE SHORTAGE WAS GREATEST IN THE MIDDLE COLONIES, WHERE TENNENT HAD SETTLED AND FROM WHERE HE RAILED AT THE ELITIST ADMISSION POLICIES OF HARVARD AND YALE AND THEIR SLOW PACE IN PRODUCING NEW CLERICS. HE DECIDED TO BUILD HIS OWN “COLLEGE” TO TRAIN PLAIN BUT PIOUS YOUTHS FOR THE MINISTRY. THE SCHOOL HAD NO FORMAL NAME, AND TENNENT ADMITTED STUDENTS OF THE MOST HUMBLE BACKGROUND AND AWARDED NO FORMAL DIPLOMA. BECAUSE OF THE COMMONNESS OF ITS STUDENTS AND ITS LACK OF AN OFFICIAL CHARTER FROM CHURCH OR CROWN AND BECAUSE ITS CURRICULUM WAS NOT AS BROAD AS THAT OF EITHER HARVARD OR YALE, IT WAS HARSHLY CRITICIZED AND RIDICULED BY CONSERVATIVE VOICES IN THE CHURCH. INDEED, THEY GAVE TENNENT’S RUDE LITTLE BUILDING ITS NAME—LOG COLLEGE—IN DERISION. DESPITE ITS SIZE AND LIMITED CURRICULUM, THE INFLUENCE OF LOG COLLEGE PROVED FAR-REACHING. IT TURNED OUT SEVERAL DOZEN “NEW LIGHT” PRESBYTERIAN MINISTERS WHO, IMBUED WITH TENNENT’S SPIRIT OF EGALITARIANISM, FOUNDED SIMILAR SCHOOLS IN OTHER PARTS OF THE MIDDLE COLONIES, INCLUDING THE COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY (LATER PRINCETON COLLEGE). THOSE SCHOOLS, IN TURN, GRADUATED THE FOUNDERS AND PRESIDENTS OF SEVERAL MORE COLLEGES AND AT LEAST ONE SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.