2

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 rail-
road 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.