Franceway Ranna Cossitt (April 24, 1790 - February 3, 1863) was an early minister in the Cumberland Presbyterian denomination of Christianity.
[2] Cossitt moved to Tennessee and established a school at a little place on Cumberland River, called in its day New York, a few miles below Clarksville.
On the 19th of February, of the same year, he was married to Miss Lucinda Blair, of Montgomery County, whose father was a prominent member of the Church.
The men who visited the Legislature to procure a charter were advised to drop the "Presbyterian" from the proposed name, as it might arouse sectarian opposition among the members and their friends, and thus cause the application to be rejected.
The change was displeasing to some leading members of the Church and was perhaps the first step in producing a series of embarrassments which grew so much that in a few years the existence of the Institution was placed in jeopardy.
The country was comparatively new and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church had been chiefly devoted to the more immediate work of saving sinners and collecting congregations.
The students were to work two hours each day except the Sabbath and to pay sixty dollars a year into the College treasury.
A large log building was constructed for College purposes, and the students who were educated there during ten of the first years of the Institution "rubbed their backs against wooden walls.".
[3] Notwithstanding what would now be considered the grimness and severity of the system, the college was popular and in the spring and summer of 1830, 125 men were attending classes.
At the meeting of the General Assembly in 1830, it was thought necessary to raise the charges in money from sixty to eighty dollars as the expenditures were greater than its friends had anticipated.
Mr. Shelby continued his connection with the Institution till the summer or fall of 1833 when he sold his interest to Mr. Harvey Young.
The following year, Mr Young died, and the entire management of the financial affairs of the College fell into the hands of Mr. Barnett.
At the same time, a number of persons fell victim to cholera and a malignant fever spread over the country.
Prospects seemed to brighten but after a temporary revival of interest and confidence, some people at the College believed that the Church had deserted it, and that assistance was to be expected from that quarter.
The result of this condition of things was a great effort on the part of Cossitt to arouse the Church to take interest in the College.
F. C. Usher, who was connected with him in the department of instruction, published a circular letter, in which earnest appeals were made to the ministers and members of the Church.
Several of the most popular young men in the Church were engaged as agents and Cossitt confidently believed that the College would be endowed and that the most liberal provision would be made for the education of candidates for the ministry.
However, by the time of the General Assembly in 1842, Cumberland College was still in debt, and its property was under execution, and liable to be placed under the sheriff's hammer any day.
A committee of churchmen, was appointed to consider the matter, and take action; they met in Nashville, on 1st July 1842, and determined to establish Cumberland College in Lebanon, Tennessee.
The friends of the old Institution, sold its property, paid its debts, and continued its operations with respectable success for a number of years.
He spent some time in Washington City, and while there published and circulated a pamphlet, setting out the character and claims of the College.
He preached in several of the churches Washington as well as in Baltimore and Philadelphia, receiving very respectful attention in both cities.
Early in 1830, the leading men connected with the College starting publishing the Religious and Literary Intelligencer, at Princeton.