Mount Vernon Literary Society address and invitation

The Mount Vernon Literary Society of Washington College was organized April 26, 1847. It was conducted by students but under the supervision of faculty. It held debates and invited speakers for commencement and Washington’s Birthday celebrations. They would meet once a week and generally had three categories of students - debtors, essayists, and declaimers. In 1892 tensions between boarded students and those living in town was running high and a rival society, Philomathean Society, was formed until 1902 when it was superseded by the Adelphia Literary Society. The Mount Vernon Literary Society remained popular at Washington College until the late 1960s. In 1970 all of the colleges various literary societies were replaced by The Writer’s Union.

J. Frank Hazell (1840-1872) was born on November 22 to William Anderson Hazell (1802-1856) and Lydia A. Wilds Hazell (1810-1887). The family lived in Delaware, but parts of the family land extended into Maryland. Frank was known as an orator. In 1864 he was among a group of picnickers that were arrested at Hare’s Corner near Fort Delaware for providing comfort to the Confederate prisoners there. J. Frank Hazell died on October 25, 1872 at the age of thirty-two.

Dr. Christopher Christian Cox (1816-1882) was born in Baltimore on August 28 to Luther James Cox and Maria Catharine Cox. He graduated from Yale in 1835 and received his Doctoral from Washington University in 1838. He practiced in Baltimore and then taught at Philadelphia College of Medicine from 1848-1849. Cox served as a surgeon in the United States Army from 1861-1862. During the Civil War Cox was a member of the National Union Party, a coalition of Democrats loyal to the Union. He served as the first Lieutenant Governor of Maryland from 1865-1868. He was also a founder of the Literary Society of Washington in 1874. Dr. Cox died November 25, 1882 in Washington D.C.