1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Hampden-Sidney

HAMPDEN-SIDNEY, a village of Prince Edward county, Virginia, U.S.A., about 70 m. S.W. of Richmond. Pop. about 350. Daily stages connect the village with Farmville (pop. in 1910, 2971), the county-seat, 6 m. N.E., which is served by the Norfolk & Western and the Tidewater & Western railways. Hampden-Sidney is the seat of Hampden-Sidney College, founded by the presbytery of Hanover county as Hampden-Sidney Academy in 1776, and named in honour of John Hampden and Algernon Sidney. It was incorporated as Hampden-Sidney College in 1783. The incorporators included James Madison, Patrick Henry (who is believed to have drafted the college charter), Paul Carrington, William Cabell, Sen., and Nathaniel Venable. The Union Theological School was established in connexion with the college in 1812, but in 1898 was removed to Richmond, Virginia. In 1907–1908 the college had 8 instructors, 125 students, and a library of 11,000 volumes. The college has maintained a high standard of instruction, and many of its former students have been prominent as public men, educationalists and preachers. Among them were President William Henry Harrison, William H. Cabell (1772–1853), president of the Virginia Court of Appeals; George M. Bibb (1772–1859), secretary of the treasury (1844–1845) in President Tyler’s cabinet; William B. Preston (1805–1862), secretary of the navy in 1849–1850; William Cabell Rives and General Sterling Price (1809–1867).