Arthur S. Colyar Biographical Files

These facts are mentioned to show that Leslie Kennedy, the wondering, roving Irishman made the location at this point a possibility. While Bishop Polk and Bishop Otey were perhaps more largely instrumental in fixing the location here than any two men in the country, Leslie Kennedy's work in getting the railroad built up this mountain, as I stated above, made the location possible, for without a railroad the University would never have been located here and if the railroad had not been built at that time, the probabilities are that it would have been more than a quarter of a century before anyone else would have dared to make the financial venture of building a coal road twenty miles up this mountain before the use of coal had become general.

My father-in-law Dr. Wallace Estill and myself were actively interested with Bishop Polk and Bishop Otey in the location of this institution and I regret very much that the extensive correspondence which I had with Bishop Polk and Bishop Otey at this time with reference to the location of this University, has all been lost or destroyed.

The Sewanee Mining Company also took an active interest in securing its location. More than 50,000 acres of land had been deeded to this Company for the purpose of including it to build this railroad and it in turn deeded to the University of the South, 15,000 acres of land, known as the "Porter, Logan and Estill grants," of 5,000 acres each, covering the ground upon which we now stand, and upon which this University was located. I regret to say, however, that the title to much of the land, was defective and it was afterward acquired either by purchase or gift from the people who were the rightful owners.

After this site had been selected the preliminary work looking to the building of this great institutions was commenced. The contract made with the Sewanee Mining Company when the 15,000 acres of land were given in 1857, stipulated that if the school was not opened within ten years from that date, that the land was to be forfeited to the Sewanee Mining Company.