The Professors of the Radical University: E. M. von Fingerlin

E. M. von Fingerlin
1902 Chicora College yearbook

E. M.von Fingerlin in 1920
University of Southern California Yearbook El Rodeo, 1920

Edgar Maximilian von Fingerlin (b. February 9, 1846; d. September 29, 1919)
Konstanz, Germany.  White.
Education: University of Rome (A.B.), Collegis Romani (Ph.B., Ph.D)
Occupation: teacher.

E. M. von Fingerlin was born in Konstanz, a university town in the Grand Duchy of Baden (now part of southwest Germany).  His parents were Edgar Frieherr von Fingerlin-Busching and Barbara von Mumb-Mülheim. The parents were members of the Austrian nobility, and von Fingerlin inherited the title of baron (or Frieherr) of Fingerlin and Busching. 

Tragically, von Fingerlin never knew his father as he died in a hunting accident in August 1845. His mother remarried in 1848. She married the Marquis Giovan Battista Zappi, an Italian serving in the Austrian army. Tragedy struck von Fingerlin a second time in March 1857. That month his mother died, probably due to complications with childbirth. von Fingerlin remained close to his stepfather and credited him with being a great influence on his life.

von Fingerlin's stepfather Zappi joined the Papal Army in 1859, following the Austria's defeat in the Second Italian War of Independence. Through his stepfather's connections, von Fingerlin spent considerable time in the Papal Court.

Accounts of von Fingerlin's education are contradictory. One account says that he received his elementary school education in Rome, but a 1906 article in the University Courier student newspaper says that he attended gymnasium in Germany and then studied at an agricultural college ("Wehrie agricultural college") in Switzerland.

By all accounts, von Fingerlin was a student at the Collegio Romano in Rome. The college had been founded by Jesuits in the 1500s. The college awarded him a Ph.B. degree in 1862 and a Ph.L. degree in 1863.  The next year (in 1864), he received his Ph.D. from the University of Rome.

After completing college, von Fingerlin served in the Austrian military and achieved the rank of lieutenant.  In that capacity, he fought against Prussia (possibly in the 1866 Austro-Prussian War). By serving in the military, von Fingerlin was following a strong family tradition.  Not only had his father served in the Papal army, but his uncle was a colonel in the Austrian army who was killed in a cavalry charge in the Battle of Solferino (a 1859 battle against the Franco-Sardinian Alliance during the Second Italian War of Independence).

von Fingerlin moved the United States during the late 1860s. In accounts that he provided to newspapers, he said that he decided to leave Europe for the United States after becoming involved in the Second Franco-Mexican War. That war began in 1861 when France invaded Mexico and overthrew the Mexican Republic. In its place, they founded the Second Mexican Empire and installed Maximilian (the brother of the Austrian Emperor) as Emperor.

von Fingerlin told news reporters that Maximilian personally invited him and his brother Roger to come to Mexico and serve on his military staff. Both agreed. However, his brother ended up departing by himself. Accounts differ as to why von Fingerlin did not join him. One account says that he fell ill, while another says that it was a "turn of fate."

von Fingerlin said that he planned to join his brother in Mexico, but before he could do so, disaster struck. In 1866, shortly after the end of the Civil War, France withdrew its forces from Mexico in response to pressure from the US. Emboldened by the withdrawal, the Mexico Republic proceeded to fight and win a series of military battles against Maximilian's government.  These victories culminated in spring 1867 with Maximilian's capture at the city of Querétaro. Maximilian and officers serving under him were then executed by a firing squad. According to von Fingerlin, Roger was among those executed. 

von Fingerling said that he shaken by the death of his brother. von Fingerling was left as the only living representative of the family line.  After reflecting on his brother's experience in the military, von Fingerlin said that he resolved to leave the profession of arms. While he maintained an active interest in military affairs throughout his life, he never again worked as a military professional.

At least parts of this story were fabricated. Roger was not killed in the war. By the 1870s, he was living in Argentina. He died in Buenos Aires in October 25, 1886 of natural causes (aortic aneurysm). 

von Fingerlin was told the (false) account of his brother's death in Mexico by John Newman Edwards, according to a 1917 article in The State newspaper. Edwards was a Confederate veteran and journalist. He had been in Mexico during the last years of the war. He had moved there as part of a band of about a thousand Confederate soldiers led by J. O. Shelby who left the United States rather than surrender at the end of the Civil War. It is unclear how von Fingerlin would have met Edwards as they lived in different states. Edwards lived in Missouri during the late 1860s and 1870s. von Fingerlin would later move to that state, but by this time, Edwards was dead. Edwards published book on his experience in Mexico, and von Fingerlin might have learned of him from reading the book.

von Fingerlin arrived in the United States on June 8, 1868, one year after the end of the war in Mexico. At the time, he had been living in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland. He arrived via a boat from Le Havre, France to New York City. He lived in New York for five years before moving to South Carolina. 

In South Carolina, von Fingerlin first worked as a teacher in the state common schools. He became friends with former Confederate general Wade Hampton. Hampton helped introduce him to individuals working at colleges and universities within the state. Around 1876, after he had been working in the common schools for two years, von Fingerlin given a professorship at the University of South Carolina. This would begin a fifty-year career in higher education.

At the University of South Carolina, von Fingerlin taught modern languages. He replaced E. B. Otheman who had resigned. von Fingerlin was well-regarded by his former student C. C. Scott.  In a newspaper article discussing the university during Reconstruction, Scott wrote that von Fingerlin "spoke English with a foreign accent, was graduated from one of the leading universities in Germany [sic], and spoke German and French as fluently as any educated American or Englishman speaks English.  He is too well known in Columbia and Greenville to need any statement from me as to his scholarship, his ability, and his integrity." 

von Fingerlin taught at the University of South Carolina for about three quarters. His time at the university was cut short by the university's closure in the summer of 1877. He remained in Columbia and served as Professor of Modern Languages at the Columbia Female College (now Columbia College). When the University of South Carolina reopened in 1880 (as the South Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanics), von Fingerlin returned to teaching there. The reopened university did not maintain a professorship in foreign languages, but von Fingerlin was allowed to serve as a tutor or instructor. He did not receive a salary and instead was allowed to charge students a fee for taking classes with him on campus. During this time, von Fingerlin spent his summers in Round Lake (a village in eastern New York state), teaching Italian and Spanish at a summer school. 

It is unclear when exactly von Fingerlin left Columbia. Some accounts such as an obituary published in the Evening Vanguard newspaper state that he taught at Columbia Female College for seven years, until 1884. However, other accounts say that he left Columbia in 1882 to serve as Professor of Modern Languages at Adger College. Now defunct, Adger was a college in Walhalla, SC that was affiliated with the Presbyterian church. In January 1884, von Fingerlin was appointed college president pro tem following the president's resignation.

von Fingerlin left Adger College and moved to Greenville, SC in 1884. He remained in the city for the next twenty years.  He first served as a principal for the city schools.  He held that position from 1883 to 1885.  He then worked as a private teacher in English and modern languages for a year.  Then, in 1887, he was made Professor of Modern Languages at Chicora Female College. Chicora was a woman's college affiliated with the Presbyterian church.  At the time, the college was based in Greenville, although it has since merged with Queens University of Charlotte.

While teaching at Chicora, von Fingerlin took on additional work by accepting the position of Professor of Modern Languages at Furman University and Female College (now Furman University). Records are inconsistent as to when he began teaching there. A short biography published in a 1909 yearbook states that he began teaching in 1888, but he first appears in the Furman catalogue in the 1890-91 academic year.  He taught at Furman and Chicora until 1902.

In fall 1902, von Fingerlin left South Carolina for Missouri. There he worked as the Professor of Modern Languages at the State Normal School in Warrensburg (now University of Central Missouri). He was hired to replace a faculty member (Professor William F. Bahlman) who had taken a leave of absence to travel in Europe. However, he was then hired on a long-term basis and remained at the school, teaching foreign languages, for the next four years. 

In 1906, von Fingerlin announced that he was the State Normal School to escape the Missouri climate. He planned to move to Simmons College at Abilene, Texas. However, before his teaching started, he changed his mind and moved instead to Los Angeles.

In Los Angeles, von Fingerlin headed the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Southern California.  He played a significant role in strengthening the university's research culture.  In 1909, he was appointed by the university president to the Committee on Graduate Studies, a committee created to develop plans for graduate programs.  The committee was successful.  Later that year, von Fingerlin supervised a M.A. student, Adèle Stookey who wrote the thesis "L'origine du romantisme avec ses influences."

von Fingerlin seems to have been a well-regarded member of the University of Southern California faculty.  In an obituary published in the student newspaper, he is described as

a 'gentleman of the old school'; the wonderful personality he possessed, in addition to a thorough culture and an intense interest in all of the finer things of life, will ever be an inspiration to those with whom he has come in contact, and will spur them on to nobler, better things in the realms of culture and education.

von Fingerlin died in Los Angles on September 29, 1919.  He was buried Christ Episcopal Church Cemetery in Greenville, SC.

E. M. Fingerlin in 1917
From University of Southern California Yearbook, El Rodeo, 1917

E. M. Fingerlin in 1918
From University of Southern California Year book, El Rodeo 1918

E. M. von Fingerlin in 1906
Warrensburg State Normal School Yearbook

Sources
1) "Of Soldier Race, Turns to Books."  The State, July 29, 1917. p. 5.

2) "Professor von Fingerlin." The alumni magazine, vol. 1, no. 2 (1919 Dec.).

3) "Noted linguist and teacher passes away."  The Southern California Trojan, Vol. 11, No. 2, October 7, 1919.

4) 1880; Census Place: Columbia, Richland, South Carolina; Roll: 1238; Page: 245D; Enumeration District: 162

5) 1900; Census Place: Greenville Ward 5, Greenville, South Carolina; Page: 14; Enumeration District: 0036; FHL microfilm: 1241529

6). 1910; Census Place: Los Angeles Assembly District 71, Los Angeles, California; Roll: T624_82; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 0180; FHL microfilm: 1374095

7). Germany, Births and Baptisms, 1558-1898. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013.  FHL Film Number: 865624.

8). Naturalization Records for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, 1890-1957. NARA Microfilm Publication M1542, 153 rolls. Records of District Courts of the United States, Record Group 21. National Archives, Washington, D.C.  Certificate Date: 20 Feb 1919

9). South Carolina Naturalization Records, 1868-1991. Records of District Courts of the United States, Record Group 21; The National Archives at Atlanta, Georgia.

10) "Faculty Members Professor von Fingerlin." The University Courier, October 1906. 

11) "Edgar Maximillian von Fingerlin." The University Courier, April 1909.

12) "The University Professors." The Intelligencer [Anderson, SC]. April 20, 1882. p. 2. 

13) The Abbeville Press and Banner. January 2, 1884. p. 3.

14) Johnson County Star [Warrensburg, Missouri]. September 12, 1902. p. 2.

15) Johnson County Star [Warrensburg, Missouri]. September 19, 1902. p. 5.

16) Johnson County Star [Warrensburg, Missouri]. June 15, 1906. p. 4

17) "Gets German Professor." Austin American-Statesman [Austin, TX]. August 25, 1906. p. 5.

18) Johnson County Star [Warrensburg, Missouri]. September 14, 1906. p. 8.

19) "Death ends life full of adventure." Evening Vanguard [Venice, CA]. September 30, 1919. p. 1.

20) "Prof. Fingerlin's Funeral to be held Friday." Los Angeles Evening Express [Los Angeles, CA]. September 30, 1919. p. 11.