USA > North Carolina > Guilford County > The History of Guilford County, North Carolina > Part 9
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Finger, then Superintendent of Public Instruction, urged the im- portance of establishing the institution. But it was at the session of 1889 that the question really came before the General Assembly for serious consideration for the first time. A committee from the Teachers' Assembly, consisting of Charles D. McIver, chair- man; E. G. Harrell, E. P. Moses, E. A. Alderman, Geo. T. Win- ston, D. Matt. Thompson and Mrs. J. A. McDonald, presented in person and urged the adoption of a bill establishing a training school for teachers, and this bill, in spite of active and intense opposition, passed the Senate by a large majority, and failed in the House by only a few votes. Had this bill become a law the institution would be co-educational.
"Before the meeting of the next General Assembly in Janu- ary, 1891, Governor Fowle had in his message urged the establish- ment of the institution. In the meantime, the King's Daughters had petitioned the Legislature to establish an indusrial school for girls. The North Carolina Farmers' Alliance, in 1890, at its annual meeting at Asheville, had passed strong resolutions asking the State to aid in the higher education of girls and women of the white race as it was already aiding in the education of white men, negro men and negro women. Hon. J. L. M. Curry, agent of the Peabody Fund, appeared before the General Assembly and made an earnest and powerful plea for the establishment of a normal college, and through him the Peabody Fund has always given substantial aid to this institution.
"By 1891 the North Carolina Teachers' Assembly had decided that it was wise to eliminate the co-educational feature, and in- structed its committee to that effect. This committee suggested the establishment of a normal college with industrial features, whereupon the act establishing the State Normal and Industrial College was passed and an annual appropriation made for its maintenance.
FACULTY.
"In choosing the Faculty of the College the Board of Direc- tors has selected those who in their judgment could best carry
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out its policies. Neither geographical, nor political, nor denomina- tional influences have decided their selection of teachers.
"The charter Faculty of the College numbered twelve, besides the assistants. Of these twelve, eight-Misses Boddie, Bryant, Fort, Kirkland and Mendenhall, and Messrs. Forney, Brown and McIver-are members of the present faculty. Three other mem- bers of the present faculty-Misses Allen, Jamison and Lee- answered to the first roll-call of students in 1892. The college now has a faculty and executive corps numbering thirty-six. Its teachers have come from all sections of the country. Four-fifths of them are Southern people, most of these having received train- ing in both Southern and Northern colleges, and more than one- half of them have been native North Carolinians. It has been a young company of aggressive workers, representing in their train- ing several State Universities, the leading normal colleges of the country, and such institutions as Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Welles- ley, Bryn Mawr, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and sev- eral European universities. The Governor has recently called Mr. James Y. Joyner, Professor of English in the State Normal and Industrial College, to the State Superintendency.
STUDENTS.
"For the past nine years the average number of students in the college has been about four hundred and twenty-five. This number will not materially change until more dormitory room shall have been provided. The total matriculation for the past ten years has been about 2,200, about 450 of whom have been in the college this year. Of the 1,750 who have left the college, 68 have died, leaving about 1,700. One thousand and five hundred of these have reported to me during the past two months, and more than 66 2-3 per cent. of them have taught school. I have asked each student to give the number of pupils taught by her. The aggregate number reported is, in round numbers, 130,000. It is natural to suppose that some of these children have been taught
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at different times by two or more representatives of the college. Deducting, therefore, 30,000 for duplicates, this would mean than 100,000 children have been taught by students.
"As the finances of the institution have justified it the Board of Directors has increased the physical equipment. Beginning in 1892 with dormitory capacity for less than one hundred and fifty boarders, with only fifteen recitation rooms in the college building, including the chapel, the president's office and the physician's office; with a teaching force of fifteen, including assistants, and with an enrollment of two hundred and twenty-three students, the college has steadily developed until at the end of its tenth year it has dormitory accommodations for three hundred boarders, twenty-five recitation rooms and offices in the college building and fourteen rooms in a practice and observation school building, a teaching force and executive corps of thirty-six, and an enroll- ment of about four hundred and fifty regular students, besides about three hundred pupils in the practice and observation school. Instead of ten acres of land the college now owns one hundred and thirty acres, and instead of five buildings owned and rented it now uses eleven buildings. Instead of looking upon a bleak hill of clay and briars its students enjoy, to some extent, looking upon growing trees and grass and flowers, and, by the generosity of Mr. George Foster Peabody, we have the immediate prospect of a beautiful park, plans for which have already been made.
"Representatives of the college are working in twenty-three of the States of the Union and the District of Columbia. In nearly every leading city from Greensboro to Boston representatives of the State Normal and Industrial College can be found working as teachers, students, stenographers, bookkeepers or trained nurses. "The State Normal Magazine, a self-supporting publication, has been the work of the faculty and students of this college. The best educational journal ever published in the South and now one of the leading educational journals of the country, was established and managed by our Professor of Pedagogy in connection with
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his work here. Several text-books that have received generous recognition throughout the country have been published by mem- bers of our faculty. The Audubon Society and the Association of North Carolina Women for the Betterment of the Public School Houses of the State are two State organizations which have resulted from the work of the faculty and students of the State Normal and Industrial College.
"This college has given some prestige to North Carolina's name beyond the borders of the State, and has had the good for- tune to interest influential people in the educational development of the State which it serves. In the ten years of its existence it has become as strongly entrenched in the regard of the people of North Carolina as if it had an hundred years of history behind it. In this short period it has enrolled 2,500 students, every county in the State has been represented in its matriculates, and ninety per cent .of its graduates have taught or are now teaching in the schools of the State. About every year witnesses an addition to the buildings of this institution, made necessary by its increased attend- ance and its growing usefulness. Only about two months ago the cornerstone was laid for the Curry Building, a practice and observation school, and a new Alumni Building is to be erected during the coming year.
BENEFACTORS.
"This report would not be complete without some reference to the special benefactors of the institution.
"Within the past two years Mr. George Foster Peabody, of New York, donated $11,000 to the State Normal and Industrial College; $5,000 of this is to be used for developing the Peabody Park, named for the great philanthropist, George Peabody, who in 1867 gave to the public schools of the South $3,000,000.
"The Students' Building is a gift to the college which means more than any single donation of money. It represents the affec- tion and loyalty of its daughters and those whom they have been
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able to interest in their Alma Mater. The gift of $1,000 from Mr. and Mrs. T. B. Bailey, who lost their only two children while students at this college, was made as a subscription to the Students' Building. Mr. and Mrs. Bailey have also established a permanent scholarship to be known as "The Sarah and Evelyn Bailey Scholar- ship.'
"Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Buxton in 1893 established the 'Jarvis Buxton Loan Fund' of $100 in memory of their little son. Soon after this Mr. and Mrs. Josephus Daniels established the 'Adelaide Worth Daniels Loan Fund' of $100 in memory of their little daughter. These funds, while small, have aided in the education of several students. In 1896 General and Mrs. Julian S. Carr established the 'Lida Carr Fellowship Fund,' the income of which is $200 a year. This has made it possible for from two to four people to remain in college each year since that time, who could not otherwise have done so. Much help along this line has been provided by the two literary societies, by the Alumna Association, and by the Woman's Education Club. Charles Broadway Rouss, of New York, gave one hundred dollars to be used as a loan fund to the daughter of a Confederate soldier.
"The State wants this institution to be good enough for any of its citizens, and the expenses low enough for all. The purpose for which the institution was created is clearly stated in section 5 of the act establishing it. It is as follows :
"'Section 5. The objects of this institution shall be (I) to give to young women such education as shall fit them for teach- ing; (2) to give instruction to young women in drawing, telegra- phy, typewriting, stenography and such other industrial arts as may be suitable to their sex and conducive to their support and usefulness. Tuition shall be free to those who signify their inten- tion to teach, upon such conditions as may be prescribed by the Board of Directors.'
"It is the general purpose of the institution to give such edu- cation as will add to the efficiency of the average woman's work,
7
i
STONE: RĂANDNE, VA
STATE NORMAL COLLEGE, MAIN BUILDING.
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whatever may be her field of labor. To that end there are three distinct departments in the course of study : the Normal Depart- ment, the Domestic Science Department, the Commercial Depart- ment."
It is well to close this chapter with a few facts relating to the Southern Education Board, of which Dr. Chas. D. McIver is secretary, having the oversight of the work of this Board in North Carolina.
The Southern Education Board consists of twelve members. They are Robert C. Ogden, president; George Foster Peabody, treasurer ; Charles D. McIver, secretary ; E. A. Alderman, W. H. Baldwin, Jr., Wallace Buttrick, J. L. M. Curry, Charles W. Dab- ney, H. B. Frissell, H. H. Hanna, W. H. Page and Albert Shaw. The Board was created and organized last November in accord- ance with the platform and resolutions adopted at the fourth annual meeting of the Southern Educational Conference at Win- ston-Salem a year ago, April 1901. The work undertaken by this Board is that of agitation and stimulation of all efforts toward universal education in the Southern States. It does not make any gifts to any educational institutions whatever. It has sufficient funds to aid in a campaign for local taxation and for the better- ment of public school facilities in several of the Southern States.
So far its chief work has been done in Virginia, North Caro- lina and Louisiana. It began to arrange for continuous cam- paigns in these States in January. It has also done some work in the State of Georgia, and is planning to aid in public educa- tionai campaigns in South Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi.
All the campaign work of the Southern Education Board is under the immediate direction of the Southern members of the Southern Education Board. The field work is in charge of three district directors, Doctors Alderman, Frissell and McIver. Dr. Charles W. Dabney is Director of the Bureau of Investigation and Publication. His chief assistant is Professor P. P. Claxton, and he is also aided by Professor J. D. Eggleston and an efficient corps
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of clerks. Rev. Edgar Gardner Murphy, of Montgomery, Ala., is the executive secretary and personal representative of President Robert C. Ogden, wherever his services may be needed, whether in New York or in visiting the various offices in the South.
Dr. F. S. Dickerman and Dr. Booker T. Washington are doing special work for the board as field agents, the latter being the special adviser in regard to educational matters relating to the colored race.
Hon. J. L. M. Curry and Messrs. Alderman, Dabney, Frissel and McIver constitute the general campaign committee, and have direction of all the work of the Southern Education Board.
The plan and work of the Southern Education Board is merely an extension of the campaign work that has been done for many years in the towns and cities of the Southern States by the Peabody Board under the guidance of the General Agent, Dr. J. L. M. Curry.
Many of these men and those composing the Southern Edu- cation Board are Southern people; some of them born here, and some having resided here for several years. Having seen the heavy load we are carrying, especially in maintaining a double system of public schools for two races, and recognizing the neces- sity for continuing this double system, they would like to aid us in carrying that burden, exactly as the Peabody Fund aided nearly every town and city in North Carolina to carry its burden when the latter were establishing their graded schools.
The General Education Board, with headquarters in New York, is composed of ten men, five of whom have lived in the South. Wm. H. Baldwin, Jr., chairman ; George Foster Peabody, treasurer ; Wallace Buttrick, secretary and executive officer ; J. L. M. Curry, Frederick T. Gates, Daniel C. Gilman, Morris K. Jesup, Robert C. Ogden, Walter H. Page and Albert Shaw compose this board. All except Messrs. Gates, Gilman and Jesup are also mem- bers of the Southern Education Board. Dr. Curry and Dr. Gilman are members of the Peabody Board and the Slater Board, and
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Messrs. Baldwin and George Foster Peabody are members of the Slater Board. The General Education Board will make an effort to co-operate with the Peabody, the Slater Board and the Southern Education Board so as to aid in Southern education, and to pre- vent duplication of effort.
The underlying principle of the Association is the recognition of the fact that the people of the Southern States are earnestly engaged in the promotion of public education, and that in this effort they should receive generous aid ; and to this end, and in pursuance of the following named and kindred objects, the Association will seek gifts, large and small, from those in sympathy with its plans. It is the purpose of the Board :
I. To promote education within the United States of America, with- out distinction of race, sex or creed.
2. To develop the public school system, especially in rural districts.
3. To develop the principle of self-help by urging increased local taxation, local contributions, or by other means.
4. To further the establishment of training schools for teachers, especially those designed to educate teachers of industrial and manual training.
5. To co-operate with other organizations interested in educational work, and to simplify and make effective the general work of education, avoiding unnecessary duplication.
6. To aid in the maintenance and improvement of educational insti- titutions already established.
7. To collect full information and statistics in respect to educational matters in the districts covered by the operation of the Board, which shall be kept at a general office.
8. To furnish the public with information, suggestions and counsel, and for this purpose to act somewhat as a clearing-house for educational statistics and data to be collated by the Board.
9. To educate public opinion in all matters pertaining to the gen- eral cause of education by publication of reports through the daily press and by other means.
10. To promote by all suitable means every form of valuable educa- tional work. WALLACE BUTTERICK, Secretary Executive Office. 116 Nassau St., New York, N. Y., May 31, 1902.
A few weeks ago Greensboro, N. C., raised $4,000 for the public schools of Guilford County. This amount will be duplicated
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by the General Education Board, the only condition attached being a special tax levy for schools in each district that receives any of the money raised.
"The educational awakening is now on in full force. We are at last realizing that universal education is a necessity for our people, and also that in our higher institutions of learning we must produce the best scholarship and culture. Libraries, labora- tories and great teachers must give scholarship a chance."-Prof. Mimms, of Trinity College.
The Outlook, May 17, 1902, has this to say in regard to Southern education : "North Carolina is one of the leading States in this new movement. The first gift of the National Board was one of $4,000 to the public schools in Guilford County, and that gift was made contingent upon the raising of an equal sum by the citizens of the vicinity."
This is a real movement of reconstruction.
Fifty years from the present the historians will say that Dr. Charles W. Dabney, of the University of Tennessee, was in his day the great educational statesman of the South. They will probably say that he, more than any other, brought learning from the heights of theology and law to the fruitful, pleasant valleys of how to do things. Manual training, agriculture, school garden- ing he encouraged. He presented the greatest need of the South before the thoughtful men of the Southern Education Board, so that they saw the situation. Dr. Dabney brought about self-reali- zation in the South. He focussed all eyes on the remedy of weak- ness. In science, in art, in literature, his work has been of creative service. "Everything in the South," said he, "waits on general education."
He organized the Summer School of the South, and gave the teachers there assembled charge of this individual, resourceful de- velopment. Recognized leaders of thought and great teachers came and all were inspired by a new hope. Dr. G. Stanley Hall, the distinguished philosopher, said in regard to the Summer School of the South :
DR. MCIVER,
PRESIDENT OF THE STATE NORMAL, COLLEGE, THE LUTHER OF NORTH CAROLINA EDUCATION.
.
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"It is the biggest one in the world. In numbers and interest it has never been surpassed. From what observation I have been able to give the class work, the character of the work being done is of the best. I think that the greatest impression made upon me, next to the number, is the social quality of the students. You have the advantage over us in the North by far, in the high char- acter, socially, of the ladies, especially, who are the teachers in the schools. Most of our teachers are from the lower walks of life, while yours are from the best. This means more than you can possibly appreciate. This school is sure to have a tremendous influence upon Southern civilization."
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CHAPTER XI.
HISTORY OF CHURCHES IN GUILFORD COUNTY.
Guilford has been a county of many religious sects, of churches and of ministers. However these people may differ in regard to other beliefs and manners, they all agree in the doctrine of Puritanism. To deviate from the Puritan standard to them is sin. The rigidity of Friends concerning outward show, and the will power of the Presbyterians relating to duty, have each the essence of Puritanism in them.
The Presbyterian Church, the Society of Friends, the German Reformed and Lutheran Churches, the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Methodist Protestant Church, the Episcopal Church, the Baptist Church and the Roman Catholic Church have had each a share in the moral and religious tone of this section of the State. In regard to time, influence and number, the Presby- terians and Friends are first. The work of the Society of Friends in this County relating to slavery and to the settling up of the West has touched our national life. The Presbyterians of Guil- ford have been soldiers and architects of state.
THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
The Presbyterian Church is and has been since its organiza- tion here a strong and most influential denomination in North Carolina. Her ministers have been men remarkable for allegiance to duty and for leading men. The true worth of many men is largely brought out by the shepherd of the people. Dr. David Caldwell, Dr. Eli W. Caruthers, Dr. Calvin Henderson Wiley, Dr. Jacob Henry Smith and his son, Dr. Egbert W. Smith, have had an influence for good in North Carolina equaled probably by
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no other body of five men. In statecraft, literature, education and the development of character as well as in the building up of the church, they have shed an influence of light and glory from the beginning of the history of Piedmont North Carolina.
In 1753 the Nottingham Company from Pennsylvania bought 21,120 acres of land on the waters of the North Buffalo and Reedy Fork. Dr. Eli W. Caruthers, in his Life of David Caldwell, pages 24 and 93, says that when these people were making their arrangements to change their residence, which was about the time David Caldwell commenced his education, or soon after, they made a conditional agreement with him that when he obtained license to preach he would come and be their pastor. From 1745 to 1758 the two Synods of Philadelphia and New York appointed missionaries to North Carolina. Book seven in the Register of Deeds office at Salisbury, N. C., contains the indenture to the Synods of Philadelphia and New York for a tract of land on the Buffalo Creek for the use of a church, and "to that use forever, including meeting house and study house."
In the life of the Presbyterian Church not only, but in educa- tional work also, perhaps no name stands above that of David Caldwell. In the spring of 1765 he was appointed by the Synod of New York and Pennsylvania to labor at least one year as a missionary in North Carolina. He settled near the present site of Greensboro. In this pioneer settlement he was pastor of both Buffalo and Alamance churches, a practicing physician, and teacher of what was for many years the largest school in North Carolina. He was a good farmer and had much to do with affairs of state. Marked intellectual vigor and physical energy character- ized his work in North Carolina.
Buffalo Church, two miles or more north of Greensboro, was organized five or six years before Dr. Caldwell came; and Ala- mance church soon after, or when he was here as a licentiate, in
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1764. His installation as pastor took place according to appoint- ment of Presbytery at Buffalo, March 3, 1768. In the graveyard at Buffalo he is buried and his stone bears this inscription:
"Sacred to the memory of Rev. David Caldwell, D. D. Graduated at Princeton College, N. J., removed to North Carolina at a period not exactly known. Organized the churches of Buffalo and Alamance, over which he has faithfully sustained the office of pastor for more than sixty years. He departed this life August 28, 1824, aged near one hundred years."
The tablets and headstones in the old graveyard at Buffalo reveal the last repose of many brave Revolutionary soldiers. The Gillespies, the Donnells and Rankins there buried fought for the cause of American liberty.
"In memory of Col. Daniel Gillespie, born in Frederick Co., Va., October, 1743. Son of pious and worthy parents, endowed by nature with a mind above ordinary grade, with a strong love of liberty and great decision of character, though without the advantages of a liberal educa- tion, he will nevertheless be ranked by a grateful posterity among the noble band of patriots whose skill and valor in the field of battle during the struggle of national independence, and whose wisdom and integrity in the council chamber where the principles were discussed and the platforms constructed of the happiest government on earth. Having through a long life discharged the duties of husband, father, soldier, statesman, citizen, with uncomon fidelity, he died in a good old age, January, 1829."
Alamance church, a few miles east of Greensboro, is the second oldest Presbyterian church in Guilford County. William Cusach gave the land for the church, of which it may be said that prayer was its cornerstone. On a day appointed the people, with their axes, came together. Andrew Finley proposed that they should kneel in prayer for Divine blessing on their undertaking on this consecrated ground. The band of workmen offered solemn supplication to God for the upbuilding of this church in their pioneer country. Soon a log house was built for worship. Henry Patillo, a missionary sent out by the Synod of New York, was present at its organization.
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