Terminology: "Log College" or Academy?

The material below is excerpted from Mark F. Miller's 1979 dissertation David Caldwell: The Forming of a Southern Educator and addresses the issue of whether or not it historically appropriate and accurate to refer to Rev. Dr. David Caldwell's school as "David Caldwell's Log College."

"In the many years since David Caldwell's death, his legend and place in history have undergone considerable change and fluctuation. A historiographical examination of Caldwell provides an interesting case study of the process of myth- and image-making in history. Today Caldwell enjoys a greater notoriety around the state than at any time since his death. His name and accomplishments appear in every history of the state and a sizeable establishment exists in his native Guilford promoting his fame.

However, distortions have crept into the recent resurgence of the Caldwell legacy. One principal example is the term "log college." Clearly today the words "David Caldwell" and the "log college" are tightly interwoven in the public's mind; the two are inseparable - almost synonymous. But things were not always that way. For a starting pointing, it is significant that in his study of Caldwell, Eli Caruthers (a former student who later wrote a biography of Caldwell) never mentioned the term "log college." If the school had been widely know by that name certainly Caruthers would have identified it as such. The omission is glaring. Furthermore, in the eighteenth century there was indeed a "Log College," but it was located in Pennsylvania and occupied a special place in the hearts and minds of Presbyterians, particularly New Side Presbyterians. This Log College, built by Gilbert Tennent and his sons, soon developed into a religious mecca for many in reviewing their traditions and theological training. Caldwell too was a product of the log college mentality. For him to have traveled south and to have opened his own school and called it "the log college" would have been most presumptuous.

The obvious next question is "when does the term 'log college' come into general usage?" The process was a slow one and the result surprisingly recent: not until a newspaper article of the mid-1930s does the term "log college" become standard. Throughout the nineteenth century, the accepted name was simply the Caldwell school or academy.

The source of the "log college" story can be traced to William Henry Foote's Sketches of North Carolina (1846). In summarizing his remarks about Caldwell's educational contributions, Foote made a casual reference to Tennent's Log College in Pennsylvania and speculated that Caldwell's school might be regarded as "the Log College of North Carolina.

Later historians (circa late 1800s) adopted the "log college" terminology and a newspaper article in the mid-1930s introduced that terminology into the public mindset where it has since remained.

This brief anecdote is indicative of the problems and difficulties involved in accurately tracing a historical subject through time. Myths and images are surprisingly ease to create, but inevitably hard to die."