In the autumn of 1894 Asa Jr.’s older brother Howard entered college in Oxford, GA, at the age of 15. The following autumn Buddie joined him, only a few days prior to his 15th birthday. This sounds early by today’s standards, but in those days a boy could enroll at Emory College as a sub-freshman as young as 14.

Emory was a fine Methodist college located 40 miles east of Atlanta in Oxford, GA, just a hop over the train tracks from Covington. Its male-only student body could choose one of three degree options. Howard followed the Bachelor of Arts (A.B.) track, which had the higher admission criteria. Buddie started as an A.B., stepped down to a Bachelor of Philosophy (B. Ph.) during his sophomore year, and barely made it to graduation.

Buddie’s freshman year began with academic struggles, to his father’s dismay. Howard’s satisfactory performance plummeted after Buddie’s arrival, too. In January of 1896, Asa, Sr., wrote: “I am real blue about my boys today.  Everybody tells me how smart you both are.  …Your marks are past as low as they can be to admit of your mischief.  Can't you do better?  Ain't there some way for you to learn your lessons? …Buddy especially ought to get the best marks. Sound body. Strong mind. Been in good schools all his life. Now why can't I see better reports? Write to me why. I am asking only that you do your best. I can give you nothing but a good education. Won't you take that?”

Howard, always susceptible to his father’s pressures, pulled his grades up. Buddie did only as much as was necessary to stay enrolled and felt no obligation to curtail the mischief the letter alluded to.

There were problems from the start. Some were a natural consequence of having two teenaged brothers so close in age with such different personalities living and socializing together. It’s no revelation that siblings fight. But Howard and Buddie had deeply mismatched personalities and the school community was too small to give them the space to develop outside of each other’s presence and influence. They fought frequently enough to necessitate intervention, but their parents’ hands were tied by distance and the demands of the growing Coca Cola business, which was starting to enter a period of legal struggles that dominated Asa, Sr.’s, attention.

Buddie arrived at Emory at a social disadvantage. His brother had already spent a year there, making friends and learning the ways of college life. Howard joined the Kappa Alpha Order fraternity and the Atlanta Club, spent a year with the Phi Gamma debate society, and was a member of the mandolin club and tennis club. A self-admitted shy and self-conscious boy, Howard came out of his shell when he moved away from home. Buddie’s arrival was not welcome. Howard spoke poorly of his brother behind his back, and was easily lured into physical fights when Buddie egged him on. He started skipping classes, at one point totaling 10 absences to Buddie’s 8, and both of their grades suffered. But he continued to try to maintain his reputation with their parents as the “good” son.

In 1896 Asa, Sr., wrote to Howard: “I received your letter [and] also one from your brother.  He presents a very different statement of the troubles with him as it touches you – from what you state.  While I know he has done wrong, acted more wickedly, I fear you too are not [doing] right.  He is your younger brother.  You have never treated him as it is your duty to.  You prefer other boys to him, speak disparagingly of him to others and allow others to speak to you evilly of him & tear him down.”

Family anecdotes claim that Howard had Buddie blackballed from Kappa Alpha, an organization that the Candlers had close ties to. This claim was made by Buddie himself to his children and grandchildren during a time when he and Howard were not speaking to each other, so his version of what happened could be skewed. But two pieces of evidence support his claim.

1. Buddie never joined any fraternity. Most of his schoolmates joined organizations, commonly fraternities and debate clubs. Buddie was in the Atlanta Club by default. He also briefly appeared on the Phi Gamma roll, one of the two big debate societies on campus, although he didn’t participate in any debate on record. Later he would establish the Emory Bicycle Club (more on that in Hobbies) and join a cryptically named and probably joke organization called the Cat Club as “pet swiper.” That was it. Many of his classmates appeared in multiple organizations every year, and more boys joined fraternities than abstained. Buddie never participated in Greek life, in spite of a family legacy with KA. This makes him an odd man out in the Candler clan.

2. Their father’s letters on file in the Emory University Manuscript, Archives & Rare Papers Library demonstrate the senior Asa’s keen interest in clubs, and perhaps some tension between the brothers over Howard’s passion for KA. In November of 1895 Asa, Sr., wrote: “I hope for your parents sake you do nothing that would be wicked or harmful to us and to you both.  I hope you, Asa, are not worrying and teasing Howard about decent society affiliations.  Don't do that.  Wait till I see you.  I want you to make so splendid a record in college both as a gentleman & scholar as that you will be greatly desired by all good clubs.”

Their uncle, future Georgia Supreme Court Justice John Slaughter Candler was initiated into Kappa Alpha’s Epsilon chapter in 1877, elected grand historian in 1881, served as 10th KA Knight Commander 1881-1885. Their uncle and host, Emory President Warren Candler was also a lifelong member and champion of KA. Buddie and Howard’s younger brother Walter was a proud KA member and a participant in Emory and KA activities throughout his adult life. Cousins who attended Emory also joined KA, such as John Slaughter’s son, Asa Warren Candler. John Slaughter’s son-in-law, George Speight Ballard, even built the historic KA Mansion on Eagle Row at Emory University. The KA connection runs deep in the Candler family. It’s notable that Buddie wasn’t a member.

So there may be truth in Buddie’s claim to his grandchildren that their Great Uncle Howard had him blackballed from the only fraternity the Candler men ever cared about. Although that would have caused drama for all involved, it wasn’t the half of what was to come.

Emory had no on-campus dormitories, so the school relied on local homeowners to offer rental housing, and a few privately owned “Helping Halls” acted as de facto dorms. Kids from out of town could secure room and board there, often sharing quarters and abiding by strict house rules. But Howard and Buddie didn’t need to find housing. From 1888-1898, the future Bishop Warren Akin Candler, younger brother of Asa, Sr., and the boys’ uncle, was the President of Emory College. As such, he maintained residency at the President’s House, now known as the Dean’s House, just up the road from the northern edge of campus at the corner of Wesley and West Soule. Rather than renting, Howard and Buddie lived with their uncle and aunt in relative comfort compared to their Helping Hall classmates.

Side note: While the fact that Buddie and Howard lived with Warren is well documented, their location was never confirmed in previous Candler family histories. Not all Emory Presidents lived at the President’s House. I reached out to an Oxford historian, and he was able to provide a manuscript titled “Oxford Echoes” by Dr. Charles C. Jarrell, which was written for the Wesleyan Christian Advocate. An excerpt can be found on the Oxford Historical Society website. Dr. Charles’ account confirmed that Warren Candler was indeed a resident of the President’s house during his term, including the years of this nephews’ enrollment.

Figuratively speaking, Warren was a towering figure among the student body. Literally speaking, he was a short, squat man. His height earned him the nickname King Shorty. He was loved and feared, and his booming oration from the pulpit spawned running jokes that circulated among the student body like old-timey memes. The Candler boys’ relationship to the all-powerful King Shorty lent them status, but also put them in the crosshairs of their uncle’s moral strictures. And he was certainly strict. Even Howard, who spent his life trying to be the buttoned-up, responsible one, found himself in trouble with King Shorty, mostly for skipping class. Buddie, who sniffed out trouble like a bloodhound, repeatedly fan afoul of his uncle’s high expectations. See the photo gallery below for a glimpse into King Shorty’s legacy among the student body.

Personal correspondences on file at the Emory Rare Paper Archive tell a story of impudence and self-aggrandizement in Buddie’s behavior. Buddie felt that his uncle’s status on campus gave him leeway to act up and break rules without the fear of consequence. After all, his daddy’s Coca Cola business was gaining fame, and in 1897, at the end of Buddie’s sophomore year, the school built and named Candler Hall in honor of his uncle (supposedly against Warren’s protests). Is it any wonder that his family’s status went to his head? When caught in a prank or a rule violation he would invoke his relationship to King Shorty with the expectation that he would benefit from cronyism, which frustrated his father.

But Buddie’s attitude may have been justified. Some of his activities should have been expellable offenses, but his parents rose to his defense and talked Warren down each time he threatened serious punishment. Some of Buddie’s infractions reported in family lore and in personal correspondences included:

• Skipping classes and church

• Smoking on and off campus

• Riding a bicycle on the campus quad after bike traffic was banned

• Behavior deserving of the yearbook superlative “Class Pugilist.”

• Hiding a live goat in the belfry of Seney Hall (reported incorrectly in other resources as the chapel)

• Filling the campus chapel with hay or snow (some resources claim it was hay, while school records say snow was placed in the chapel during this period)

Note: some of the stories itemized above have been reported in varying detail by previous sources. While my conclusions are partially informed by those anecdotal stories, I have also used additional primary resources including: Emory campus life stories from the time period, documents on file with the Oxford Historical Society, local Covington/Oxford histories, Emory College Zodiac yearbooks, and more.

In 1897 Uncle Warren had enough. He wrote to his brother telling him he could no longer provide a home to his nephew. Asa, Sr., and Lucy Elizabeth rallied and campaigned for forgiveness for their son. By now Howard had joined on with enough of the poor behavior that Warren kicked both nephews out. They were forced to take up residence in one of the Helping Halls. Full excerpts of the letters sent from Asa, Sr., to both boys and privately to Howard appear below in the timeline.

Family lore claims that the final infraction was due to riding a bicycle on the campus quad, and while that may have contributed, their father alludes to smoking in his letter to Howard. Bicycles were relatively new and fashionable at that time, and Buddie had used his monthly stipend to buy one against his family’s advisement. This appears to have resulted in Asa, Sr., removing his access to his stipend and putting all purchase approvals through Howard, further straining their sibling relationship.

Buddie fixated on his bike, the first of many speed machines that he would fixate on throughout his life. Two letters from his father to his brother mention the bike, in terse asides without context. King Shorty had decreed that bikes were dangerous contraptions and banned them from campus after a student crashed his two-wheeler into a carriage. So if Buddie rode his bicycle on campus, it would have been in direct violation of his uncle’s rules. And that, the lore goes, was the final straw.

Howard graduated in June of 1898 with honors. Buddie graduated in June of 1899 with none. Asa, Sr., permitted Buddie to take the family’s speedy pony and trap to campus for commencement week celebrations, and then brought him home briefly before deploying him to Los Angeles. In a letter to Howard he expressed pride that Buddie had made it through to the end and asked his oldest son to congratulate him. “Buddie left this morning in the trap to attend Emory Commencement.  …If you have time to write him a letter on Sunday directing it to Oxford encouraging him, calling attention to the fact that though he did not take first honor, that you believe he has taken a good education, and that he has every equipment necessary to being successful.” This is one of the most interesting correspondences in the archive because fifty years later, when Howard donated his papers to Emory, he felt compelled to comment in the margin: "Could not do this with a clear conscience."

This tension between the two elder Candler brothers would continue in the next phase of Buddie’s life, out in sunny California.

College Days Timeline

College Days Gallery

Photos Charles Howard Candler:

College Days Resources

• Life at Emory College, Oxford

  • City of Oxford, GA, Official Website

    • Emory Oxford walking tour map

    • Emory Oxford walking tour list

  • Oxford Historical Society Website

  • Emory at Oxford Annual Catalogue - 1885-1886

  • Class of 1899 Names and Photos

  • 10th Emory President Warren Akin Candler (1888-1898)

• Regional Transportation Info:

  • Oxford and Covintgon, GA, Street Cars

  • Newton County Street Cars

  • Street cars in Georgia

  • Georgia Railroad info - Atlanta to Covington

  • 1895 Rail Timetables

  • Atlanta’s Union Station

• Books:

  • A History of Emory University, Henry Morton Bullock, 1936

  • An Uncommon Place, Joseph C. Moon, 2003

  • Oxford Echoes, Charles C. Jarrell, 1967