Coffin, Charles. Journal of Dr. Charles Coffin, 1800-1822; Copied from the Original, by Mrs. C. M. McClung. Knoxville, Tennessee: McClung Collection, Lawson McGhee Library, 1929. [7752]
Blue cloth, 8 3/4 x 11 1/4 inches, some scuffing, corners bumped, ex historical society library with white ink call numbers to spine, a few ink stamps within. 372 leaves of text, ix., leaves of Index. Typewritten and mimeographed leaves on India or similar paper, sewn-bound into a buckram binding. Good. Hardcover.
No copies at WorldCat or for sale (April 2022); one copy located at Knox County, Tennessee, Public Library.
"Dr. Charles Coffin, the second president of Greeneville College, kept an outstanding journal. The surviving excerpts record parts of twenty-two years of his life and the life of Greeneville College (now Tusculum University). In the journal, Coffin recorded remarkable stories from history, and some of the more mundane details of his everyday life. " - Doak House Museum online.
He also records visits to Indian ruins, reveals secret medical recipes made from local plants, speaks of old roads of which the Indians have no memory, and relates the buying and procurement of materials for buildings, &c.
Charles Coffin (1775-1853), b. Newburyport, Massachusetts; d. Greenville, Tennessee. He graduated at Harvard (1793), and began the study of medicine, but at some time changed his goal to that of becoming a Presbyterian minister. In May, 1800, he went to Greenville, TN, and taught in the Greenville college for one year, when he returned to New England and collected funds and books for the institution. He was vice-president of Greenville college, 1803-10; president, 1810-27; and third president of East Tennessee College (University of Tennessee), 1827-32. He received the degree of D.D. from Williams College in 1808.