Occupation University professor Name Edward Joynes | Died June 18, 1917 | |
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Born March 21, 1834 Accomac, Virginia Resting place Elmwood Memorial Gardens Spouse(s) Eliza Waller Vest Joynes Children Walker Waller Joynes
Louise Joynes Ragsdale Relatives J. Willard Ragsdale (son-in-law) Books Minimum French Grammar and Reader: With Exercises and Graded Selections for Reading and Dictation, and Review Exercises for Translation Into French Similar People Wallace Fowlie, Moliere, Arthur Conan Doyle | ||
Edward Southey Joynes (1834–1917) was an American university professor of modern languages, especially German and French. Although he taught at the College of William & Mary before the American Civil War, the bulk of his career was spent teaching foreign languages at other Southern universities in the Reconstruction Era. For example, he was the first Professor of Modern Languages at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Additionally, he helped establish the public school system in Columbia, South Carolina and co-founded Winthrop University.
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Early life
Edward Southey Joynes was born on March 21, 1834 in Accomac, Virginia. He studied in Berlin, Germany in 1856. His father was Thomas R. Joynes, an attorney who had served in the Virginia General Assembly and his grandfather, Levin Joynes, served in the American Revolution. He attended Concord Academy and Delaware College.
Career
In 1858, he was Professor of Greek and Greek Literature as well as German at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.
During the American Civil War of 1861-1865, he was the only faculty member at William and Mary not to serve as an officer in the Confederate Army, but he worked as chief clerk for the Confederate Bureau of War, reporting to the Secretary of War and interacting with many Confederate leaders, including General Robert E. Lee, with whom he developed a friendship. He also served as a private in the 3rd Virginia Regiment (Home Guard), but it is not likely that he saw fighting. He left the War Department in 1864 to return to teaching. After the war, he was hired by Robert E. Lee to teach modern languages at Washington and Lee University (then known as Washington College) in Lexington, Virginia. He then served as the first Professor of Modern Languages at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. He was officially on the faculty roll in 1875. Later, her was Professor of Modern Languages at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee and finally at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina.
He paved the way for the establishment of the Columbia City School System. He was a co-founder and charter member of the Board of Trustees at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Joynes Hall on its campus is named in his honor.
While teaching literature, he believed undergraduates should not know much about the author of a given text; instead, this should be reserved to graduate students.
Personal life and death
He was married to Eliza Waller Vest Joynes (1854–1914). They had two children.
He died on June 18, 1917 in Columbia, South Carolina.