Blount Library Blog

Archival Display, March 2025: The President that Time Forgot

As Averett is a relatively old institution (dating to 1859) which displayed little rigorous concern with historic record keeping until the 1920s, we tend to have large gaps in our knowledge about our earliest years.  Occasionally, by happenstance (followed by significant effort), the archivist or a student researcher will stumble across some information that helps to fill one of those gaps.

One excellent example is the interim presidency of George H. Swann.  Following the death of C.F. James on December 5, 1902; and preceding the presidency of Robert Hatton in fall 1903, Swann was in charge for the remainder of a single academic year.  Though the archives has long held both a diploma (signed "Geo. Swann, Acting President") and a photo of the graduating class of 1903 (gathered around a man that is clearly neither C.F. James nor Robert Hatton), the brief tenure of Swann at the head of the college had not previously drawn a researcher's attention.

Swann is now the third known individual to hold the top position on a short-term basis, alongside:

• John Cralle Long: offered the principalship for the Spring of 1863, after President William Allen Tyree abandoned the school in favor of an offer to become pastor of a church.  Long held the position for at most six months until the arrival of Isaac Beverly Lake that fall.  (There is a slight possibility that he may not have actually taken the job.)
• Mary Catherine Fugate: took over as Acting President beginning in February 1966 after the death of Curtis Bishop.  She stepped down with the arrival of Bishop's official successor, Conwell Axel Anderson, for the fall semester.

While it is unlikely that many decisions of consequence were made during Swann's tenure as Acting President, acknowledging his career with the school is not, in itself, inconsequential.

Swann was our institutional second-in-command for at least a decade.  From the fall of either 1897 or 1898 (information is unclear), until the death of C.F. James, Swann was our Assistant Principal.  After James's official replacement, Robert E. Hatton, took over in July 1903, Swann returned to his previous position - albeit with a new title.  Now referred to as the college's "Vice President," Swann would remain in that position until his departure in the summer of 1908.

Likely due to his high administrative rank, it was Swann who was contacted when James began to feel unwell.  C.F. James described his "strange sensation" to Swann on the afternoon of December 3rd, and it was likely Swann himself who opened James's office windows to give him some air, and who gave instructions to summon medical assistance.  Presumably Swann was also a key figure in the commissioning and installation of a memorial stone for James, which was unveiled in the Patton Street Campus's chapel on June 8th 1903 (and was moved to Main Hall when the new building was constructed a few years later).

Beyond administrative work, Swann, James, and Hatton were also full-time faculty during the academic year. (Administrators commonly had teaching responsibilities until the 1930s.)  In addition to his work as "Assistant Principal / Vice President," Swann was the college's primary language teacher, leading students through Latin, Greek, French, and German.

His decade in the field of higher education in Danville was not an anomaly.  Swann appears to have had a long-standing commitment to education - especially at women's colleges.  He is known to have taught Latin and Greek at Chowan Female Institute in Murfreesboro, NC, probably from fall 1896 until his arrival at Averett.  He is also said to have taught at Bethel College, Kentucky (also a women's college), at an unknown school in Orangeburg, SC, and to have been the Principal of the Fincastle School, although years are not known for these positions.  Swann was also on the Board of Trustees of the University of Richmond for 51 years (1888-1939).

George H. Swann was born in 1851 in Powhatan County, VA; he returned to Powhatan County after his retirement and died there in 1939.  Twice married, his first wife, Lillie Rogers, was a teacher at Averett until her early death in the summer of 1907.  His second wife, Linda Collie, survived him by a few years.  George and Lillie's son, Dr. George Rogers Swann, also had a long career as an English professor at numerous academic institutions.

George Swann (center) with the 16 members of the 1903 graduating class.  Although we cannot connect names to faces, the image includes: Ethel Adams, Gertrude Adams, Bessie Anderson, Mamie Chaney, Mattie Fitzgerald, Lottie Hancock, Blanche Howell, Julia James (daughter of C.F. James), Susie Ligon, Grace Morrison, Iva Nelson, Alice Rogers, Mattie Slate, Mattie Tilman, Addie Tyree, Marguerite Williams.

C.F. James and George Swann (standing bottom center) in happier times in 1901.  This photo, included in the 1901 college catalog (but no longer extant in any copy owned by the Averett archives), depicts the staff and students of Roanoke Female College during the 1900-01 academic year.  As was common in the years at the Patton Street campus, the group photo was taken on the grand staircase at the front of the building.