Joseph Harris Chappell
American university president, educator (1849–1906)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Joseph Harris Chappell (October 1849 – April 6, 1906) was an American educator, pedagogue, curriculum designer, author, and college president. He served as the first president of Georgia Normal and Industrial College (now Georgia College & State University) in Milledgeville, Georgia, from 1891 to 1905.[1][2] He oversaw the building of the college campus and its curriculum.[2]
Joseph Harris Chappell | |
|---|---|
| |
| 1st President of Georgia College & State University | |
| In office summer 1891 – 1905 | |
| Succeeded by | Marvin M. Parks |
| President of Chappell College for Women | |
| In office 1886–1891 | |
| 2nd President of Jacksonville State University | |
| In office 1885–1886 | |
| Preceded by | James G. Ryals Jr. |
| Succeeded by | Carleton Bartlett Gibson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | October 1849 |
| Died | April 6, 1906 (aged 57) |
| Spouse(s) | Carrie Browne, Ella Kincaid |
| Relations | Absalom Harris Chappell (father), Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar I (maternal uncle), |
| Children | 4 |
| Education | University of Virginia |
| Occupation | Educator, pedagogue, curriculum designer, author, college president |
Early life
Joseph Harris Chappell was born in October 1849 in Macon, Georgia, to parents Absalom Harris Chappell and Loretta Lamar Chappell.[1][3] He was of English and French heritage, with many of his paternal relatives settling in Virginia in 1650.[3] His father was a politician and lawyer who had served in the Georgia House of Representatives, Georgia Senate, and United States House of Representatives.[4]
He had five siblings. His brother Lucius Henry Chappell (1853–1928) served two terms as mayor of Columbus, Georgia.[5] Another brother, Thomas Jefferson Chappell (1851–1910), was a lawyer, judge, and two term member of the Georgia House of Representatives.[6] Chappell was primarily raised in the city, with two years in childhood spent on his father's cotton plantation[3] in Georgia.
He attended the University of Virginia for one year, and never graduated.[3]
Career
Chappell started his career as a teacher in a country school in Clinton, Georgia in 1872.[3] From 1880 until 1883, he was an assistant teacher at the Columbus Female College.[3] Chappell had a brief tenure as the 2nd president of Jacksonville State Normal School (now Jacksonville State University) in Jacksonville, Alabama.[7][8] After the 1885 death of president James G. Ryals Jr., Chappell served for one year in the role of president.[7] From 1886 until 1891, he was the president of Chappell College for Women (also known as Chappell's College) in Columbus, Georgia,[3] a successor of the Columbus Female College after it burned down in 1884.
From 1891 until 1905, Chappell was the president of Georgia Normal and Industrial College (now Georgia College & State University), until he stepped down due to ill health.[2] He oversaw the building of the Georgia Normal and Industrial College campus and its curriculum.[2]
Chappell published the book Georgia History Stories (1905), which features 20 chapters on the history of the state of Georgia.[3]
He was married twice, first to Carrie Browne in 1883, who died in 1886 without children; and later to Ella Kincaid in 1891, and they had four children.[3][9]
Chappell died on April 6, 1906, in Columbus, Georgia after a long illness.[1] Chappell is included as part of the "Vanishing Georgia" collection at the Georgia Archives, with a portrait of him taken in 1903,[10] and a photograph with his three brothers from c. 1890s.[5]
Publications
- Chappell, J. Harris (1905). Georgia History Stories. New York City, New York: Silver Burdett and Company.[1]
- Chappell, J. Harris (1905). Baccalaureate Addresses of J. Harris Chappell, A. M., Ph.D: Delivered Before the Graduating Classes of the Georgia Normal and Industrial College, Milledgeville, Ga;, For the Years 1891 1904, Inclusive. Alumnae Association of the Georgia Normal and Industrial College. Atlanta, GA: Franklin Printing and Publishing Co. hdl:2027/loc.ark:/13960/t4cn7vq46.
