Commencement Exercises

The third annual commencement exercises of the medical and dental departments of the Tennessee medical college will be held at Staub’s theatre, on Thursday evening, March 17th.

Source:  Knoxville Daily Journal and Tribune, March 16, 1892, page 5

 

Names of the Doctors.  The Young Gentlemen Who Will Graduate To-Night

Below is a list of those awarded diplomas by the Tennessee medical college yesterday.

Four failed to pass and in their presence the finely engraved diplomas were consigned to the flames.  This probably signifies that not all who enter the portals of this college becomes [sic] a physician, or a dentist — or means that when the names of the members of the faculty are signed to a diploma, they are to be respected and that the man who bears the diploma is in every respect qualified for practice.

Following is the list from the medical department:  J. F. Ausmus, S. L. Franklin, W. H. Eyle, A. D. Miller, E. G. Miller, G. M. Meek, J. C. Newman, C. R. Roadman, H. A. Smith, J. W. Smith, O. R. Tomlinson, J. W. Wallace, all of Tennessee; R. J. Haynes, Alabama; M. M. Stapler, Florida; J. C. Tilson, North Carolina; H. B. Wilson, Ohio; E. R. Weaver, Georgia.

Those from the dental department were as follows:  S. Bennett, T. R. Donnelly, B. F. Scott, David Rees E. B. Pennington, of Tennessee; G. D. Rouse, South Carolina; J. G. Foley, Kentucky and J. H. McCallie, Idaho.

Source:  Knoxville Daily Journal and Tribune, March 16, 1892, page 4

 

The Completed Program.  Order of Exercises at the Medical College Commencement

Following is the program for the Medical college commencement exercises:

Orchestra — Crouch.
Divine Invocation by Rev. John H. Frazee, D. D.
Orchestra.
Address by Edward Terry Sandford, esq.
Orchestra.
Conferring degree of Doctor of Medicine by Hon. William Rule, member of the board of trustees.
Orchestra.
Conferring degree of doctor of dental surgon [sic] by Hon. William Rule.
Orchestra.
Charge of the graduates by Prof. J. M. Masters, M. D.
Orchestra.
Awarding prizes. — Auld Lang Syne.

The summary of the matriculants during the past year shows the states to have been represented as follows:

Alabama 6, Florida 1, Georgia 14, Idaho 1, Illinois 2, Indiana 2, Kansas 1, Kentucky 3, Michigan 3, Minnesota 2, Mississippi 1, Missouri 2, New York 1, North Carolina 2 Ohio 2, Pennsylvania 1, South Carolina 6, Tennessee 45, Wisconsin 3, Virginia 7.  Total 107.

Source:  Knoxville Daily Journal and Tribune, March 16, 1892, page 8

 

An Enjoyable Event

The Tennessee Medical college commencement exercises take place at Staub’s theatre to-night.  After the exercises the faculty, graduates, invited friends and members of the press will set [sic] down to a fine spread at the Lamar house.

Source:  Knoxville Daily Journal and Tribune, March 17, 1892, page 8

 

Grist of Doctors.  Twenty-five Ground out by the Tennessee Medical College.  Commencement Exercises.  Staub’s Theatre Filled by a Representative Audience.  Third Annual Banquet Held.  The Lamar House Banquet Hall a gay Scene — the Toasts

The third annual commencement exercises of the Tennessee Medical college was greeted with one of Knoxville’s largest, best and most appreciative audiences last night at Staub’s opera house, notwithstanding the worst weather known to the season.

At the hour for the exercises to commence the orchestra filled the building with appropriate music from the genius of medicine, Apollo, and as the curtain arose the graduating class filed in from the rear of the state and took seats reserved for them in the parquet.  The stand was occupied by the speaker of the evening, Mr. E. T. Sanford, Capt. Wm. Rule, Rev. Dr. Frazee, Chancellor H. R. Gibson, Dr. J. C. Cawood and members of the faculty.

Chancellor H. R. Gibson acted as master of ceremonies and announced divine invocation by Rev. Dr. Frazee, pastor of the First Congregational church, of this city.

After a pleasant overture by the orchestra, Mr. E. T. Sanford, Esq., one of Tennessee’s most promising young attorneys, was introduced by Judge Gibson.

After expressing feelings of gratefulness for the honor and privilege of addressing the graduating class, he said in looking over the world’s literature no sufficient type of doctor or lawyer could be found.  While the world speaks lightly of these professions, it is not serious, for they come to us in times of distress with due haste.  It gave him peculiar pleasure to address himself to the profession and attest to its importance.  The entrance upon a life’s career is a most important event.  It will he [sic] fraught with sadness in the leaving of familiar faces, but this soon vanishes.  We are gathered to-night to bid you God speed in your race.

“It is fortunate for you that you are young.  I cannot play the part of adviser, because it takes gray hairs to play the part of Polonius.  Chauncey Depew sums up my advice in his trite way, “stick, dig and save.”  Mr. Sanford made some very humorous references to some of the alleged curious actions of members of the dental and medical professions.

“My main theme is the dignity of your profession.  I say there is no profession of more importance to mankind.  I assume that you have adopted your profession deliberately, but if you have adopted it from mercenary view, I would advise you to bury your diplomas to-night, for you will not succeed.  You may fool the world for awhile, but it will find you out in time.”

“The physician is a trust deed, whose talents are to be devoted to mankind and who holds a position of unexampled confidence; he is intrusted [sic] with secrets that lawyers, or those of any other profession, can never know.  Men trust lives to your care which are dearer to them than life itself.  Your’s [sic] is a sacred profession.”

“The world demands you shall be trustworthy, not in the sense of ability to keep a secret, but to be one in whom the world is willing to confide.  You must be men of courage, who will beard death in his den in answer to the cry of the sufferer.  A cowardly physician is an impossibility.”

“You have promised to be generous men.  Often your services can only be paid with gratitude, and, in many ways, you must follow the example of the divine Healer.  You have given bond to society of possessing a broad, liberal, progressive mind.  When a man gives a pill or pulls a tooth, and feels this ends his duty, falls short of a true physician.  The state of medical science is an index to the intellectual condition of the world at the same period.

“The advances made in the last quarter of a century in medicine makes it a remarkable epoch.

“Let me hope your professional course may be inspired by the loftiest aspirations and when you leave this world other men may continue to revere your name.”

Mr. Sanford’s address was a very able effort of which the foregoing is a bare skelton [sic].  It was delivered in a clear voice, an impressive manner and without notes.  He was greeted with appreciative applause at its conclusion.

The orchestra played another pretty selection, which was followed by conferring the degrees of Doctor of Medicine, first on graduates in medicine by the Hon. Wm. Rule.  The names of the members are as follows:

John Franklin Ausmus, Samuel Leonidas Franklin, Tennessee; Robert Jemison Hayes, Alabama; William Hudson Lyle, Abraham Dulaney Miller, Edward George Miller, Gains Monroe Mee, Jefferson Cawood Newman, Cheslie Rankin Roadman, Henry Ashby Smith, J. Worth Smith, B. A., Tennessee; Maury Munnerlyn Stapler, Florida; Oscar Rowland Tomlinson, Tennessee; Jacob Carson Tilson, North Carolina; Henry Baxter Wilson, Ohio; Elbert Rogers Weaver, Georgia; John William Wallace, Tennessee.

The conferring of the degrees of doctor of dental surgery followed, the class being composed of the following:

John Hugh McCallie, Idaho; Evan B. Pennington, Tennessee; Samuel Bennett, Kentucky; George Douglas Rouse, South Carolina; Bert Frank Scott, David Rees, Thomas Richard Donnelly, Tennessee; John Grant Foley, Kentucky.

After music the charge to the graduates was given by Prof. J. M. Masters, of the faculty.  This was a very able address and made a deep impression on the class and the audience.  While in the main serious and reflective, it nevertheless abounded with much good humor, and his utterances were frequently greeted with applause.  Many sallies of wit were so clothed in medical terms that the medical fraternity only could appreciate them.  But the doctors ability to arose the risibility of an audience was a surprise to his hearers.  The charge was full of serious admonitions and he urged the idea that while they ceased to be pupils, they never ceased to be students.  The hard trials attending the practice of a physician were graphically set forth and much sound practical advice given in an impressive manner.

The address was received with an enthusiastic round of applause.

The awarding of prizes followed and was made doubly interesting by the concise and appropriate remarks made by Chancellor Gibson in presenting them.

A prize of a gold medal offered by the faculty for the highest standard attained in all the branches at the final examination.  Awarded to William Hudson Lyle, of Tennessee, with honorable mention of the attainments of Edward George Miller, Oscar Rowland Tomlinson, and Cheslie Rankin Roadman, of Tennessee.

A prize of a gold medal for the best anatomical preparation.  Awarded to J. W. Wallis, of Tennessee.

A prize of a gold medal offered by the faculty for the highest standard attained in the final examination.  Awarded to John Grant Foley, of Kentucky, with honorable mention of the attainments of David Rees, of Tennessee.

A special gold medal for the best examination of operative and mechanical dentistry, and work done in college laboratory, offered by the demonstrators of operative dentistry.  Awarded to F. B. Pennington, of Tennessee, with honorable mention of J. H. McCallie, of Idaho.

The prize of a gold medal offered by the East Tennessee Dental Depot for the highest attainment in the final examinations of junior students, awarded to Thomas B. Hill, of Alabama.

Bountiful remembrances in the way of baskets of lovely flowers were loaded on the stage and were called off to their owners by Judge Gibson and Dr. Drake.

The exercises at the opera house closed with a benediction by the Rev. Dr. Sutherland, and Auld Lang Syne by the orchestra.

The Third Annual Banquet

After the exercises at the opera house, the faculty, board of trustees, graduating class and representatives of all the principle [sic] business interests f the city, numbering, all told, some two hundred citizens, met in the elegant parlors of the historic Lamar house, and, in due time, were ushered into the spacious dining hall.

Here a banquet was prepared that, for elegance, surpasses anything ever before attempted.  The hall was profusely decorated with evergreen and an orchestra discoursed music from behind a screen of heavy palms.

The elaborate skill and taste in the arrangement of the spread surpasses the description.  A great pot of Calla lillies stood in the center and at intervals along the table were pots of rare and beautiful roses, while wreaths of myrtle were trained along the center of the table, full length.

When the guests were seated, there was presented a most notable gathering of Knoxville’s representative citizens.

After divine blessing had been asked, a finely disciplined corps of waters served the guests with a menu of eleven courses which occupied the guests until after the hour of one o’clock this morning.  It was a most elaborate menu, in fact too elaborate, so much so that the time was prolonged beyond allowing time for giving even the substance of the bright and intellectual feast that followed.

Prof. C. E. Ristine presided as toast master and announced the following toasts:

“The Faculty,” Prof. F. C. Cawood; “The Class of ’92,” Dr. Gaines M. Meek; “The Class of ’93,” Thomas B. Hill; “The Three Graces,” Mayor J. W. Yoe; “The Physician and the Law,” E. T. Sanford; “On Higher Ground,” Rev. J. H. Frazee; “The Press,” Hon. Wm. Rule; “An Educational Center,” Mayor L. A. Gratz; “Our City’s Greatest Need,” Major T. S. Webb.

Source:  Knoxville Daily Journal and Tribune, March 18, 1892, page 1