USA > North Carolina > Guilford County > The History of Guilford County, North Carolina > Part 7
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In 1766 he married the daughter of the Rev. Alexander Craighead, and as the salary from his churches was not sufficient for the support of a family, it became necessary for him to increase his fortune. He established the first institution for the higher education that achieved more than local fame. The average attendance of students was from fifty to sixty, a large number for the time and the country. The school was not interrupted by the war until 1781, the students being in the American army. The number was small until peace.
Judge Archibald D. Murphy, in an address before the literary societies of the University of North Carolina in 1827, referring to the facilities for higher education before the opening of the University in 1795, said : "That the most prominent and useful of these schools was that of Dr. David Cald- well, of Guilford County. The usefulness of Dr. Caldwell to North Caro- lina will never be sufficiently appreciated. The facilities of the school · were limited. His students were supplied with a few Greek and Latin classics. The students had no books on history or miscellaneous literature. There were indeed very few books in the State, except in the libraries of lawyers who lived in the commercial towns." "I well remember that after completing my course of studies under Dr. Caldwell I spent nearly two years without finding any books to read, except on theological subjects. * *
* Few of Dr. Caldwell's students had better opportunities of get- ting books than myself. At this day, 1827, when libraries are established in all our towns, when every man has a collection of books, it is difficult to conceive the inconveniences under which young men labored thirty or forty years ago."
During the Revolution, Dr. Caldwell was in the prime of manhood and his service to the state was of great value. Hated alike by Tories and British, he was driven from home and to escape his enemies was forced to spend many nights in the forest. His library and many valuable papers which he had prepared were destroyed. They tried to seduce him with British gold, but
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neither persecution nor money could shake his loyalty to the cause of America. "Dr. Caldwell was a member of the State Convention of 1776, which drew up the 'Bill of Rights' and framed the Con- stitution. He was a member of the convention to consider the Constitution of the United States, in 1778, where he took a decided stand as an advocate of states' rights." When the University of North Carolina was erected he was urged to accept the presidency. In 1810 the institution conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity.
Dr. Caldwell died the twenty-fifth of August, 1824. It is said that "time-worn veterans in the service of their country, men who have stood firm against the intrigues of ambition, who have fought the battles of freedom and maintained the rights of the people in the halls of our National Legislature, year after year, until they had grown gray in the service, have been known to shed tears at the mention of his name, when passing in public convey- ance by the place where his remains lie buried, and by the church" in which they had heard him preach. (Caruthers' Caldwell, p. 36.)
The work of Dr. Caldwell had carried the educational devel- opment near the beginning of Dr. C. H. Wiley's work for the state. Now let us go back to bring forward another thread in the educational growth in this County. During the last decades of the eighteenth century Richard Mendenhall was demonstrating Quaker patriotism by teaching at night for sixteen years in his store at Jamestown, furnishing books and tuition free of charge. Young men, old men and boys, busy struggling with the problem of existence, were taught the rudiments of education. Richard Mendenhall, himself a classical and mathematical scholar of ability, inspired a love of culture. A monthly paper, The Public School Journal, published by him, was probably the first paper in the South in the interest of education.
From 1820 to 1830 George C. Mendenhall was the most prominent man in this section of the state-lawyer, farmer, wealthy slave-owner and teacher. On his farm the negroes were
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trained as special workmen ; carpentry, harnessmaking, shoemak- ing, tailoring, cooking, agriculture, reached a high state of per- fection. The problem of the education of the negro was solved.
"Tellmont," the law school of George C. Mendenhall ( for white students), was situated on a beautiful knoll on his farm at Jamestown. Long cedar avenues leading up to it were terraced and the grounds rendered otherwise attractive. Some of the State's eminent lawyers here received instruction for their life- work, Judge Dick, Judge Armfield, Mr. Simmons of Montgomery County, and others.
About 1830 Horace Cannon taught in "the little brick school house" at New Garden. His school was largely attended. He gave instruction in philosophy and Brown's English Grammar. (His son, Joseph G. Cannon, is a leading Republican in Congress from Illinois.)
In 1833 a classical school for males was founded as Greens- boro by the Orange Presbytery, called Caldwell Institute. Rev. Dr. Alexander Wilson, a man of high scholarship from Ireland, became principal, with Rev. Silas. C. Lindsay as assistant. After two years Rev. John A. Gretter was added to the faculty. In 1844 Prof. Ralph H. Graves succeeded him.
About this time the school was moved from Greensboro to Hillsboro, N. C. The Greensboro High School was chartered to take its place, with John M. Morehead, John M. Dick, John A. Gilmer and others as trustees. Its principal, Rev. Dr. Eli W. Caruthers, was, like Dr. David Caldwell, a graduate of Princeton, and the pastor of Buffalo and Alamance churches. He wrote a life of Dr. Caldwell and history of the "Old North State," valuable contributions to the North Carolina literature. In no small way did he serve the people of the state. A classical school at Old Ala- mance church was taught by him.
The decade from 1830 to 1840 in North Carolina was full of effort and enthusiasm for education. In this period Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians and Friends each resolved that educa-
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tion was the question of paramount importance, and the demoni- national colleges of the State were founded; Wake Forest, in 1832 ; Trinity College, in 1838; Davidson College, in 1836; New Garden Boarding School, in 1837; Greensboro Female College, in 1837. Of these five denominational colleges in the state, two were in Guilford County-New Garden Boarding School and Greensboro Female College. New Garden Boarding School became, in 1888,
GUILFORD COLLEGE.
Six miles west of Greensboro, on a beautiful, undulating plateau, is located Guilford College, or New Garden Boarding School of Friends. For a hundred years the Yearly Meeting, the highest authority of the Society of Friends in the State, was held here. (Since 1881, High Point has been the seat of that assembly.)
Guilford College had its origin in a deep religious concern for the education of the members of the North Carolina Yearly Meet- ing and for the promotion of the Society of Friends. Nothing less powerful than religion could have sustained the worthy men and women in their struggle against poverty and indifference for the establishment and maintenance of this school for their own children and for future generations. Steps preliminary to its erection were taken at the Yearly Meeting of 1830. Subordinate meetings were asked to report the following year upon the charac- ter of the schools attended by the children of Friends, of Friends' children of school age, and the number of these not in school. The subordinate meetings reported that : "There is not a school in the limits of the Yearly Meeting under the care of a committee either of monthly or preparative meetings. The teachers of Friends' children are mostly not members of the Society and the schools are in a mixed state; which brought the Meeting under exercise for a better plan of education, and Dougan Clark, Jeremiah Hub- bard, Nathan Mendenhall, Joshua Stanley and David White were appointed to prepare an address to the subordinate meetings on the subject of schools."
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That address contained the following high estimate which Friends have in regard to education : "We believe that the Chris- tian and literary education of our children, consistent with the simplicity of our profession, is a subject of very deep interest, if not of paramount importance, in supporting the various testi- monies that we profess to bear to the world, and even the very existence and continuance of the Society."
A committee was appointed to receive subscriptions for the establishment of a boarding school, and $370.55 was received that year. Another committee was appointed later to digest a plan relative to buying a farm on which to locate the school. In 1832 $1200 was subscribed, and a plan of operation was proposed. This plan was that a small farm be bought, buildings erected for the accommodation of fifty boarding pupils. The institution should be near a meeting house, "somewhere within the limits of New Garden, Deep River, Western, or Southern Quarterly Meetings." The farm was not to be located on a public road, it was to be provided with an orchard to furnish fruit for the students, and a pasture for cattle for the convenience of the institution; the farm was to be in a healthful neighborhood and watered by a con- stantly running stream. The farm, the orchard, the dairy, the running brooks and the healthful environment have always been marked features of this school.
A committee, appointed by the Yearly Meeting, consisting of two men and two women from each of the Quarterly Meetings, decided upon the location, appointed the superintendent and teachers. This was probably the first time it was ever seriously proposed to appoint women for such duties in North Carolina.
Each monthly meeting within the limits of the Yearly Meet- ing was to select one man or woman who would be willing, when sufficiently educated, to teach in the primary or monthly meeting schools. These were to be educated at the expense of the monthly meeting, or from the general fund of the Yearly Meeting, if the parent or guardian were unable to pay.
FOUNDER SHALL
FOUNDERS' HALI., GUILFORD COLLEGE.
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In 1833 the school was located at New Garden. A charter from the General Assembly was obtained through George C. Men- denhall, that year a member of the Senate of North Carolina. In 1834 Elihu Coffin donated a tract of seventy acres of land, adja- cent to that first bought. Interest in the school was not confined to the North Carolina Yearly Meeting. Interest in education was the chord of vibration between North Carolina Friends and those of England, Philadelphia and elsewhere. In 1834 English Friends had given $2000 for buildings; in 1837 Joseph John Gurney, of England, gave $500, one-half of which was to be used as the trustees saw fit, the other half in aiding the children of Friends unable to meet the expenses of their education. Through the gifts of English Friends "early provision was made to defray the expenses, wholly or in part, of ten children at the school. This assistance was given for several years at a period in the history of the school when, but for this aid, "the attendance would have been discouragingly small." George Howland, of New England Yearly Meeting; Roland Green, of Rhode Island; Francis T. King, a noble philanthropist of Baltimore; New York Yearly Meeting, Philadelphia Friends and others have given large contributions. At present the school is well endowed.
"Of the members of North Carolina Yearly Meeting," said President Hobbs in his address on August 23, 1883, before a students' reunion, "no one, perhaps, exerted a greater influence for the school at home and abroad than Nathan Hunt. An emi- nent minister of the gospel, he used his extraordinary eloquence to aid the effort which was being made for the establishment of a higher institution of learning."
Destined not to close its doors though Civil War raged wild, and the slavery question drove many from this high and quiet place, though Poverty howled about it like a hungry wolf, New Garden Boarding School was opened Ist of August, 1837. Fifty students were in attendance the first day-twenty-five boys and twenty-five girls-second in the United States in regard to co- education, Oberlin College being first in that respect.
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Dougan and Asenath Clark, two well-known and accom- plished Friends, were the first superintendents. The first teachers were Jonathan L. Slocum, of Providence, R. I., governor of the boys' school; Catherine Cornell, governess of the girls' school; Harriet Peck and Nathan B. Hill.
The various buildings of Guilford College are Founders' Hall, King Hall, named for Francis T. King; Archdale, for Governor John Archdale, our Colonial Quaker Governor ; the Y. M. C. A. Hall, and Memorial Hall, built by Messrs. B. N. and J. B. Duke, in memory of their sister, Mary Elizabeth Lyon.
For a decade before the Civil War the school was harrassed by financial matters. In 1860 the sale of the property was pro- posed. Friends, North and South, rallied to its support. New Garden Boarding School was the only school of its grade in this State to withstand the Civil War without the loss of a day, con- tinued without interruption on a gold basis. Isham Cox was a great friend of the school, helping to relieve it of debt. Jonathan E. Cox, for many years, was interested in disbursing the debt.
JONATHAN E. COX.
Born in the County of historic Panquotank, inheriting the equanimity and spiritual life of a Quaker ancestry, Jonathan E. Cox was born twenty-first of January, 1818, the son of a widowed mother. While a boy on the farm he was an industrious worker, and accumulated with his own hands a comfortable living. He had great strength and endurance, his physical manhood he regarded as holy and he was a man in the happy union of constitu- tional harmony. When he was forty-one years of age he was elected superintendent of New Garden Boarding School and re- moved with his wife and four children to Guilford County for the purpose of educating his children. Seeing the oncoming cloud of war, he hoped to remove to the Western States. But in two years the Civil War broke upon the South, the darkest day for the Quakers of North Carolina. Jonathan Cox was determined
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to emigrate with his family when men like Francis T. King said to him that in view of the $18,000 debt on the school and the war, the institution would have to be sold, unless Jonathan Cox would take the school upon his own responsibility. A hasty council was held. Nereus Mendenhall, Isham Cox and Jonathan Harris were found willing to stand by the school, and Jonathan Cox assumed the whole responsibility of maintaining the institution.
Jonathan E. Cox did what no other man in North Carolina , could do-he preserved a high-grade school during the Civil War without the loss of a day. This was due no less to his business ability than to his tact and smooth temper. With his means he helped many a youth in this State to an education. He gave away his fortune in the support of the school where for fourteen years he was superintendent. For this cause he gave away the best of his life.
In 1888 the school was chartered as Guilford College. Three courses of study are given : Classical, Scientific and Latin-Scien- tific. The bachelor's degree in Arts and in Science is conferred after a course of four years. Guilford College was the first and only school in the State for many years offering women the advan- tage of Greek culture and higher mathematics.
Among the best friends of the institution have been the Men- denhall family, the Cox family, Jesse M. Bundy, Dr. Joseph Moore, Francis T. King, Dr. J. C. Thomas, Jeremiah Hubbard and many others.
Representative students of this school are: Dr. A. Marshall Elliott of Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Nereus Mendenhall, Dr. Dougan Clark of Indiana, Judge Blair of California, Mr. B. G. Worth, Captain James N. Williamson, Mr. L. Banks Holt, ex- Lieutenant-Governor Reynolds and others.
LEWIS LYNDON HOBBS.
The first president of New Garden Boarding School after becoming Guilford College, in 1888, was Lewis Lyndon Hobbs.
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He was born in Guilford County, the youngest son of Lewis and Phoebe Hobbs. He was prepared for college at New Garden. In 1872 he entered the Freshman class at Haverford College, Penn- sylvania. At Haverford he received the degree of Bachelor in Arts, and later, Master in Arts. In 1876 he returned to New Gar- den Boarding School as Professor of Greek and Mathematics. In 1885 Dr. Joseph Moore, of Indiana, became president of the school, and Prof. Hobbs taught Latin and Greek.
Not only has President Hobbs been president of Guilford College since the trustees secured the charter raising the standard for higher education in the State, but he has also been clerk of the North Carolina Yearly Meeting of Friends. Clerk of this body corresponds to the office of Speaker of the Senate in the Legisla- ture. President Hobbs is most thoroughly conversant with his church, its needs and its members. His work on educational mat- ters, however, has been felt beyond the limits of the Yearly Meet- ing. After the death of Dr. Nereus Mendenhall he filled the vacancy caused thereby in the County Board of Education; he also was for four years a member of the State Board of Examiners. President Hobbs is a young man, quiet, unassuming, but a close thinker and an unceasing, effective worker for education, standing among the foremost in North Carolina in the warfare for culture, education, strength and beauty of character.
GREENSBORO FEMALE COLLEGE.
(See "History of Church and Private Schools" by Prof. Raper of the University of North Carolina, pages 202-210.)
The year 1837 marks an epoch in education in Guilford County. Not only was New Garden Boarding School opened for students, but also steps were taken for the erection of Greens- boro Female College. The members of the Methodist Episcopal Church sent a petition (See Hist. of Education in N. C. by C. L. Smith, p 120) to the Virginia Conference of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, asking that a college, under the auspices of the denomination, be established at Greensboro. This year the North
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Carolina Conference began its separate existence. Greensboro Female College is of the same age as the Conference. In 1838 the North Carolina Conference secured a charter for the institu- tion from the State Legislature, so this school has the honor of being the first chartered college for women in North Carolina, and with the exception of the Wesleyan Female College at Macon, Georgia, the first south of the Potomac.
The Church bought two hundred and ten acres of land in . the western limits of Greensboro, and in the centre of a beautiful park on West Market Street the school was erected. The intelli- gence and social refinement of the people of Greensboro determined the location. In April, 1846, the College was opened, with Rev. Solomon Lea as its president. His successors have been : Rev. William Albert Micajah Shipp, Rev. Dr. Charles F. Deems, Rev. F. M. Jones, Dr. B. F. Dixon, Dr. B. L. Reid, Dr. Dred Peacock, Mrs. Lucy Roberson.
Among the best friends of the institution have been the great and good Dr. C. F. Deems, J. S. Carr, T. M. Jones, J. A. Odell, Dr. Sidell, Mrs. Susan Mendenhall and Mrs. Ann Bumpass. 'l'he alumna from 1848 to 1863 numbered 191 ; from 1863 to 1873, 51 : from 1873 to 1897, 428. These graduates are to be found all over the South, many in the North and West.
At commencement, 1902, Mrs. Lucy H. Roberson, having been unanimously chosen by the trustees of the College, was inaugurated as president to succeed Dr. Dred Peacock. The alumnæ and friends of the institution hailed with enthusiasm President Roberson's inauguration. Woman as president of a college in North Carolina is a new departure, opening a wider field and new incentive to woman's work in behalf of education.
The library of this College is considered the best collection of books and papers on North Carolina history.
EDGEWORTH SEMINARY.
In 1840 EDGEWORTH FEMALE SEMINARY was established by Governor Morehead. On a centrally located site he erected a four-
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story brick building. Miss Ann Hodge was chosen principal. Among the teachers were Misses Emily Hubbard and Eliza Rose, Misses Nash and Kollock, Rev. Mr. John A. Gretter. Professors Breite and Brandt were instructors in music.
Dr. and Mrs. D. P. Wier succeeded Miss Hodge. After them came Rev. Gilbert Morgan and wife, who introduced the collegiate plan with four classes and preparatory department to train young girls to enter the lowest classes. The expenses for board and tuition were $150: wax-works, $20; shell-work, $20; silk and worsted work, $10. In the first collegiate year were taught Arith- metic, English, Latin, and Greek Grammars; Spelling, analysis and dictionary ; Geography, History of United States, Book of Commerce, Mythology, Jewish Antiquities, Watts on the Mead. French, Latin or Greek Languages, with one ornamental branch, and lectures on Self Knowledge and Self Culture. Some of the women of the best intellectual culture of the State have matricu- lated at Edgeworth, who in their old age were women of marked scholarship. They enjoyed mathematics and even worked prob- lems in Calculus for pleasure. A gold medal for especial excel- lence through a four years' course at Edgeworth Seminary is pre- served at the State Normal College, a relic of the thorough edu- cation of young women in Guilford County before the days of railroads.
In 1850 Prof. Richard Sterling succeeded Mr. Morgan at Edgeworth Seminary. The school was closed in 1862 by reason of the War. In 1868 Rev. J. M. M. Caldwell, grandson of Dr. David Caldwell, conducted Edgeworth Seminary until 1871, when Edgeworth died and passed into history.
NORMAL SCHOOL AT HIGH POINT.
In 1880 Major William Bingham Lynch founded an excellent School at High Point. A brick house was provided, 100 feet long by 47 feet wide, four stories, capable of accommodating 125 board- ing pupils. It was destroyed by the War.
NOTE: For much of the above information see Educational Report for North Caro- ina, by C. H. Mebane, for 1896-'97-'98.
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In 1880 Major William Bingham Lynch founded an excellent military school at High Point, but it soon closed.
THE COMMON SCHOOL, SYSTEM of North Carolina went into operation in 1840 with the administration of Governor John M. Morehead, who was much interested in educational development. This was the era of internal improvements. Dr. Nereus Menden- hall, a Guilford man, was also one of the architects of our public school system. But Dr. C. H. Wiley was the main spirit and became the first Superintendent of Public Instruction in North Carolina.
DR. WILEY was born in the neighborhood of old Alamance Church. The Rankin and Wharton families of Guilford County are his relatives. Dr. Calvin H. Wiley was a Presbyterian minis- ter, statesman and educator. The present system of public educa- tion in this State was organized by his efforts. Before the days of railroads he visited every county in the State from sea to mountains in the interest of schools. The First Annual Report of the General Superintendent of Common Schools of North Carolina, by Calvin Henderson Wiley (the year 1854, page 8), states these facts: The Common School System went into opera- tion in 1840. The Literary Board was made the chief executive head until 1854, from which Board not a single report or an official statistic appeared.
The whole income of the public schools of the United States, in 1850, aside from that raised by taxation or donations, was two millions, five hundred thousand dollars. The income of the Pub- lic Fund of North Carolina, aside from swamp lands and county taxes, was equal to one-twentieth of the whole. The Legislature, by granting of lotteries and corporate privileges, was the only substantial aid to the cause of general instruction. Judge A. D. Murphy, in 1819, made report for education, but it passed soon from public mind.
Dr. Wiley says: "I felt, too,-not a pleasant reflection to a sensitive mind-that while I was spending freely in books, in postage, in travels and
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neglecting more profitable sources of revenue, and not saving much of my salary, some were thinking I was growing rich on the public money, and robbing the schools which had lost many thousands for the want of a more efficient organizer, and which contributed to my salary about 50 cents each, or in the ratio of three-fourths of one cent to the child, while I was trying to save twenty times that amount to each on the single small item of books alone."
"Such was the prospect on one side, on the other were tempting pecuniary inducements to resign. Very strong financial considerations had to be sacrificed by my continuance in office. I felt that to resign would at once create confusion and a want of confidence in the system, and that the eyes of many were turned to me in hope while those who elevated me to office had reason to expect my best exertions to the last and under all temp- tation."
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