USA > North Carolina > Western North Carolina; a history, 1730-1913 > Part 41
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65
COVE CREEK ACADEMY. Twenty years ago (1893) this useful and successful school in the western part of Watauga county, was presided over by Mr. Julius C. Martin, now a distinguished lawyer of Asheville. It flourished under his management as principal, and has continued on the road to success.
ASHEVILLE FREE KINDERGARTEN. Miss Sara Garrison was a teacher in 1889 in a kindergarten school in the factory district. In the same year an association was forined and two kindergartens established and placed in charge of Miss Garrison and Miss Slack of Baltimore. They were so suc- cessful that a training school was established for fitting women to teach such schools, and Mrs. Orpha Quale of Indian- apolis taught a class of eight young ladies. Four kindergar- tens were in operation. Mr. George W. Pack having donated a school building necessitated the incorporation of the asso- ciation in 1892. He met most of the expenses of one of the teachers who worked at half rates rather than have the school suspend. In 1894 only two kindergartens were in operation and Mr. George W. Vanderbilt opened another for colored children in the Young Men's Institute at his own expense. A New England lady secured $200 from friends in Boston and the Asheville board of aldermen gave $150 for a kinder- garten to be re-established in the factory district. The public kindergartens were suspended for want of funds in the year 1912, but arrangements have been made to re-open them.
BURNSVILLE BAPTIST COLLEGE. About the time the Presbyterians established their college at Burnsville the Bap- tists erected a large and handsome set of college buildings, which have done a great work ever since.
435
SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES
BINGHAM SCHOOL was founded in 1793, at Mebaneville, N. C., by Rev. Wm. Bingham, who was succeeded by the late W. J. Bingham, and he by the late Col. Wm. Bingham. After the death of the last named, in 1873, Major Robert Bingham became superintendent. The military feature, introduced during the Civil War, has been retained. This school was removed to Asheville under Col. Robert Bingham's super- intendence in the fall of 1891; though the original Bingham School, as it is claimed, continues to flourish at Mebaneville. Both schools are doing well.
RURAL LIBRARIES. Small but carefully chosen libraries have been placed in our country schools. This means that six hundred thousand country children have such opportun- ities of enriching their lives by reading as were never before offered to the young people of North Carolina.
ALLEGHANY SCHOOLS. Sparta has had a high school almost from the beginning of the town, Prof. Brown having located there in 1870, and with the exception of short intervals, has had charge of it ever since. There are also a good many academy buildings at Whitehead, Laurel Springs, Scott- ville, Piney Creek, Elk Creek and Turkey Knob. In 1909 the Orange Presbytery established a high school at Glade Valley, there being four buildings, all steam-heated and mod- ernly equipped.
BAPTIST MOUNTAIN MISSIONS AND SCHOOLS. Mr. A. E. Brown has furnished a list of schools which are maintained by the Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Church. A tract gives the following information:
" Some Mountain Mission School work in this region is being done by Northern Methodists, the Congregationalists, the Disciples and the Southern Presbyterians. Aside from the work done by Southern Bap- tists, however, the Northern Presbyterians are doing the largest Moun- tain Mission School work in the South. Here and there in the moun- tain region Baptists have tried to operate schools all along during the past, but not until the Home Mission Board put the denomination be- hind the educational efforts in the mountains was there any perma- nency in the work. The people have responded nobly to the leadership and backing furnished by the Home Board. Southern Baptists are probably better equipped for this work than any other denomination. This is ground on which to base a deepened sense of responsibility and not ground for any unworthy pride.
"To sum up : There are more white people per square mile in the mountains than in any region of equal size in the South. The isolation
436
HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA
of the mountains is for lack of means for inter-communication, and not for lack of people.
"There are more native born American whites ready to be trained and to profit by training in this district than in any other."
The schools in the mountains of North Carolina follow:
" Mars Hill College, Mars Hill. Five buildings, nine teachers, 360 stu- dents; territory, Madison county and part of Buncombe; draws students from every section of the South.
" Yancey Institute, Burnsville. Four buildings, five teachers, 261 stu- dents; territory, Yancey county.
" Mitchell Institute, Bakersville. Two buildings (with the third to be erected in the near future), four teachers, 140 students; territory, Mitchell and Avery counties.
" Fruitland Institute, Hendersonville. Four buildings, seven teachers, 221 students; territory, Hendersonville, Transylvania and Polk counties.
" Round Hill Academy, Union Mills. Three buildings, six teachers, 169 students; territory, Rutherford and McDowell counties.
" Haywood Institute, Clyde, N. C. Two buildings, four teachers, 80 students; territory, Haywood county.
"Sylva Institute, Sylva. Four buildings, three teachers, 87 students; territory, Jackson and Macon counties.
" Murphy Institute, Murphy. Three buildings, three teachers, 96 stu- dents; territory, Cherokee and Clay counties, N. C., and Polk county, Tennessee."
JOHN O. HICKS, PEDAGOGUE. 15 John O. Hicks, originally from Tennessee, built a school at Hayesville just at the close of the Civil War that has been a noted high-school ever since. Hicks, after some thirty years of successful teaching, turned the school over to N. A. Fessenden of Boston, Mass., and went to Walhalla, South Carolina, and after a few years teaching at that place moved to Texas, where he died in 1910.
The same school that John O. Hicks organized and built up at Hayesville is still in operation with an enrollment of over two hundred. The influence that has gone out from this school has permeated the whole county until the public schools of the county are unsurpassed. From this school have gone out hundreds of men and women who are prominent over the United States. Among them are the Revs. Ferd. McConnell, Geo. W. Truett and T. F. Marr; the Doctors W. S., M. H., and W. E. Sanderson of Texas and Oklahoma ; lawyers, O. L. Anderson, J. H. and Luther Truett and the lamented Judge Fred Moore.
APPALACHIAN TRAINING SCHOOL was incorporated in 1903, succeeding the private school of Professors B. B. and
437
SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES
D. D. Dougherty, at Boone. It began in 1899 when $1,500 was appropriated on condition that an equal sum should be provided from private sources. In addition, $2,000 per annum was appropriated for maintenance. With the first $3,000 appropriated the present brick administration build- ing was started. Other appropriations followed and other buildings were erected until in 1911 the maintenance fund was increased to $10,000 per annum for all succeeding years. There have been contributions from people in every State east of the Mississippi river except from New England. There are now 500 acres of valuable land, six large buildings, farm houses and barns, two dormitories and a mess hall. There are three sessions annually of four and a half months in the fall and spring, and two and a half months in summer. Aver- age attendance is 200, while over 400 were taught in 1911. There is a full faculty. Board for women is $6.50 and for boys $7.50 per month. In 1913 the legislature appropriated $15,000 to erect a brick dormitory for girls capable of holding 200 students. It is in course of erection.
A CAMP SCHOOL. There is a summer camp which comes to Bryson City every summer, and is situated on the left bank of the Tuckaseegee river about half a mile below the town. It is composed of boys from various colleges who thus pursue their studies through the summer. They live in tents, but the kitchen and mess hall are of wood. The professors have their families with them and live in the same camps.
SOLITUDE, OR ASHLAND. Toward the close of the nine- teenth century Professor F. M. Wautenpaugh of Omaha, Neb., succeeded in having a large and convenient building erected on a high hill overlooking Solitude, and for four or five years conducted a business college and high school most satisfactorily. But the stockholders grew impatient for a dividend on the money they had invested in the enterprise and the school closed. It is now owned by a religious society popularly known as the Holiness People. A religious paper, called The Sword of the Lord, is published monthly at Solitude by Rev. E. L. Stewart. There is also a public school house, neat and attractive, which is attended by about 140 children.
BAPTIST HIGH SCHOOL, MURPHY. The Baptist high school occupying the site of the former residence of the late Ben Posey, Esq., a distinguished lawyer, was built in 1906-7, and
438
HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA
afterwards enlarged. There are dormitories and other build- ings. It is in the southern part of town, about half a mile from the court house.
THE MURPHY GRADED SCHOOL. The Murphy graded school cost $30,000 and stands on Valley River avenue in the eastern part of the town, midway between Murphy and East Murphy. It is built after the colonial style and overlooks Valley river from its site on a splendid elevation. It has twelve class rooms, a library, an auditorium, a principal's office, closets, electric lights and water. It was built in 1909 and is a credit to the community.
CULLOWHEE NORMAL AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL. " In 1888, a number of the leading citizens of Cullowhee, desirous of a better school than the ordinary public school of that day, organized themselves into a board of trustees for the estab- lishinent of what was to be known as the Cullowhee High School. They procured the services of Prof. Robert L. Mad- ison as principal, and under his leadership and supervision the school began to flourish and make rapid progress. In 1893, the institution was recognized by the State, and through the efforts of Hon. Walter E. Moore, representative from Jack- son, an appropriation was secured for the purpose of establish- ing a Normal department of the school for the training of teachers. At the session of the General Assembly, in 1905, through the efforts of Hon. Felix E. Alley, representative from Jackson, the appropriations were still further increased and the name of the school was changed to Cullowhee Normal and Industrial School, the institution then becoming a State school for the training of teachers.
"The State has recently erected a large and commodious home for young ladies. The building was designed by a com- petent architect, is well furnished, and is equipped with water works, steam heat and electric lights. The administration building is furnished with patent desks and chairs, is lighted by electricity and heated by steam. The handsome audi- torium is seated with opera chairs and will accommodate six hundred persons. The institution has a newly installed sewerage system and is supplied with an abundance of pure water from distant mountain springs. The electric light and steam heating plants are both located on the school grounds and owned and operated by the institution.
-
439
SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES
"The supreme purpose of the school is the development and training of teachers. It proposes not only to give the student training in the fundamental and cultural branches of study, but so to train him or her as to prepare them to teach."
MISSION WORK OF NORTHERN PRESBYTERIANS. In the summer of 1884 Dr. Thomas Lawrence was a guest of Rev. L. M. Pease, originally of New York city, who, with his wife, had founded the famous Five Points mission in New York city, but who had removed to Asheville in the seventies, and had started and was then conducting a school for girls. On a drive into the country Dr. Lawrence was impressed with the fine looks and intel- ligence of some boys he saw at a school, and Mr. Pease offered to devote all his landed property near Asheville for a training school for girls of the vicinage. At that time the Home Mission Board was seeking a location for some such training school. The result of this conversation was the transfer of this property to the Home Mission Board. The late Mrs. D. Stuart Dodge was active and influential in effecting this. The terms were satisfactory to all concerned, and a life annuity from the pri- vate purse of the Rev. D. Stuart Dodge, D. D., of New York, having been secured to Mr. and Mrs. Pease, the Home Industrial school was soon thereafter organized, in 1887, with Mr. Pease as superintendent and Miss Florence Stephenson as principal, a position she still holds. The success of this school encour- aged the evangelization of the mountain region and the Nor- mal and Collegiate Institute was opened in September, 1892, with Dr. Lawrence as president and Mrs. Lawrence as prin- cipal, with a faculty of fourteen expert teachers and officers, on part of the Pease property. Dr. Lawrence retired when he reached seventy-five years of age in 1907, and Prof. E. P. Childs succeeded him. Thereafter five other boarding schools have been established in this section, it being the policy of the Presbyterian Church to hand these flourishing schools to their respective communities just as soon as they are able to assume the expense and responsibility of their support and manage- ment. Of the twenty-two elementary day schools planted during the last quarter of a century in the more sequestered and needy communities seven have been successfully trans- ferred to local public school authorities. The remaining fifteen are still doing good work; while in four other centers additional social, kindergarten and Sabbath school work is
-
40
HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA
being done under the management of the board. Miss Flor- ence Stephenson, Miss Mary Johns, Miss Julia Phillips, Miss Frances Goodrich, Dr. J. P. Roger, a Christian physician, have done a great work for our people and their names are house- hold words in many a mountain cabin. Dr. G. S. Basker- ville made a success of the farm school on the Swannanoa river, after the school had been organized by Prof. Samuel Jeffries, a graduate of the agricultural department of Cornell University, in 1893. Dr. J. P. Roger is in charge of the farm school now.
The following is a list of the schools and churches estab- lished in Western North Carolina, exclusive of those established elsewhere in the South:
Normal and Collegiate Institute, 1902. Prof. E. P. Childs, president. Miss Mary F. Hickok, principal. Fifteen teach- ers and officers. Average enrollment, 304.
Home Industrial School (preparatory to the Normal and Collegiate Institue), 1887. Miss Florence Stephenson, principal. Teachers and officers, ten. Average enrollment, 140
Pease Home (for little girls), 1908. Miss Edith P. Thorpe, matron. Adjunct to Home Industrial School, and furnishing school of practice for Normal and Collegiate Institute.
These three boarding schools for girls occupy, with the chapel, manse, and superintendent's home, the beautiful suburb of Asheville, ceded by Mr. Pease. The whole plant is valued at $200,000.
Farm School, nine miles from Asheville, on the Swannanoa river, 1895, J. P. Rogers, superintendent. Sixteen teachers and officers. Spacious school and farm buildings and 650 acres of fertile land.
These four flourishing boarding schools form the Asheville group. Their success has been largely possible through the wise counsel and constant beneficence of Dr. D. Stuart Dodge, New York City, who inherits a name which has, for three generations, been synonymous with philanthropy.
Bell Institute, Walnut, Madison county, 1908. Miss Mar- garet E. Griffith, principal. Five teachers and officers. Average attendance, 284; 65 boarders. Value of school prop- erty, $12,000.
Dorland Institute, Hot Springs, Madison county, 1887. -
441
SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES
Established by the late Dr. Luke Dorland, in his old age, after a long life of eminent usefulness in other fields. Miss Julia E. Phillips, principal. Eleven teachers and officers. The plant is valued at $40,000, and provides school room and dormitory accommodations for 70 girls, farm and home for 30 boys, having, in addition, an attendance of 60 day pupils.
Stanly McCormick Academy, Burnsville, Yancey county. Prof. Lowrie Corry, principal. Seven teachers and officers. Six buildings, including school building, principal's home, separate dormitories for boys and girls. Average attendance, 206; 50 boarders. Building and grounds valued at $46,000. This prosperous academy has a magnificent patron in Miss Nettie McCormick, Chicago, Ill.
Besides the schools of higher grade, above mentioned, a successful academy was maintained more than ten years at Marshall, which prepared for and subsequently gave place to the excellent graded school now being maintained by the public authorities.
In addition to these boarding schools, 21 elementary day schools were meanwhile being planted in the remotest and most inaccessible regions, under carefully trained Christian teachers- fourteen in Madison, four in Buncombe, and three in Yan- cey county, with an average attendance of 1,200 pupils, under 41 teachers. The moneys invested in school buildings and teachers' homes, the people contributing as they were able, would aggregate $30,000.
In accordance with their policy, as already remarked, the board, in the more recent years, has been gradually retiring from these fields as the local authorities became able and willing to take over the work. The value of properties in buildings and lands, held for educational purposes, including the seven boarding and 21 day schools, aggregates $400,000, not to make mention of the salaries of, on an average, more than 100 efficiently trained teachers necessarily employed.
Col. Robert Bingham, one of the most experienced and eminent educators of the commonwealth, in an article pub- lished in the North American Review, refers to the prudence and wisdom which has characterized the administration of this mission school work, and says, in substance: "Of all the moneys donated by northern philanthropists for the better- ment of education in the South, those contributed by the
442
HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA
Northern Presbyterian Church has been most judiciously and wisely expended."
The list of the organized churches is as follows: Oakland Heights, Asheville, Buncombe county; College Hill, Riceville, Buncombe county; Reems Creek, Reems Creek, Buncombe county; Brittain's Cove, Brittain's Cove, Buncombe county; Jupiter, Jupiter, Buncombe county; Cooper's Memorial, Marshall, Madison county; Barnard, Barnard, Madison county; Allanstand, Allanstand, Madison county; Big Laurel, Big Laurel, Madison county; Dorland Memorial, Hot Springs, Madison county; Burnsville, Burnsville, Yancey county.
SOUTHERN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH SCHOOLS. 16 Glade Valley School, near Sparta; organized 1910; boarding and day school for boys and girls; buildings and furnishings worth $20,000. Five teachers in regular service; 130 students; full academic course; board and tuition per month, $10.
Lees-McRae Institute, at Banner Elk; established 1901; boarding and day school for girls; industrial, there being no servants. Buildings, furnishings and farm worth $25,000. Eight teachers; 165 students; usual academic course with manual training. Tuition and board per month, $8.
Lees-McRae Institute at Plumtree; organized 1902; board- ing and day school for boys; industrial, large farm connected with school; buildings, farm, furnishings, stock, etc., worth $22,000. Five teachers and about 110 students. Course prepares for freshman class in good college. Board and tui- tion, $8, many of the students making as much by their own labor.
Mission Industrial School, near Franklin; organized 1911; boarding and day school for girls; industrial, no servants. Buildings and furnishings worth $10,000. Five teachers and 75 students. Course same as that of best high schools. Board and tuition, $8 per month.
The Maxwell Home and School, near Franklin; organized 1911, for homeless boys who are destitute. Manual train- ing, chiefly, the farm containing 500 acres. Buildings, fur- nishings and farm, worth $15,000. Three teachers, capacity for 30 boys at present. With $50 to get a start, a boy can make his own way here.
Mountain Orphanage. At Balfour, established in 1905 by Home Mission Committee of Asheville Presbytery. Mr.
443
SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES
and Mrs. A. H. Temple have charge of 40 children. Property worth $5,000.
COLORED PEOPLE'S SCHOOLS. 17 "Very soon after the war the importance of the education of the colored people, now citizens and voters, was impressed upon the minds of the thinking people of this section. The first effort in this direc- tion was the parochial school of the Protestant Episcopal Church, which was opened in 1870, and was taught by Miss A. L. Chapman of Rochester, N. Y. After two years she was succeeded by Rev. Mr. Berry, who was both pastor and teacher. This double office has been filled without inter- ruption by educated and influential colored men up to the present time, and many heads of families look back with gratitude to the little room on South Main street, and the parochial school building on Valley street, where the rudi- ments of an education were obtained, and foundations of character laid, which have been a blessing to them and their households.
"In 1885 Rev. L. M. Pease, recognizing the importance of hand, as well as head and heart training, erected a building for an Industrial school on College street, and opened it the same autumn with three thoroughly educated colored teachers. At the close of the school year, being financially unable to continue it, he deeded the property to the Woman's Board of Home Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which continued the work under the superintendence of Rev. Newell Albright, whose health was such as to require a residence in this climate. When Mr. Albright resigned after one year, the school was thoroughly organized and established and has continued to do excellent work under the superintendence of Miss A. B. Dole, who, by her judicious management of the race question, and devotion to the interests of the colored people, has made many friends among both races.
"Rev. C. E. Dusenberry of the Presbyterian Church has a parochial school on Eagle street, under the auspices of the Holston Presbytery, where industrial work is taught to some extent, and a kitchen garden conducted. The purpose of this is to teach correct methods of housekeeping, such as mak- ing fires, washing dishes, setting and waiting on tables, laun- dry and chamber work.
"In the Victoria suburb a combined chapel and school house
1
-
444
HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA
was erected five years ago by a donation from Mr. Taylor of Cleveland, O., where a flourishing day school has greatly benefited the population. Mrs. W. J. Erdman was the pro- jector and manager of this school till her removal to Phila- delphia one year ago. The teacher's salary is paid by the Freedman's Board of the Presbyterian Church, by which they are also appointed.
"In 1892, Mr. Stevens, the principal of the public school for colored pupils, was greatly impressed with the necessity of an institution for colored young men on the plan of the Y. M. C. A. He set about devising plans for the erection of a building for this purpose, and made a journey during vacation to Bar Harbor, Me., for the purpose of soliciting aid from Mr. George Vanderbilt. In this he was successful, and Mr. Charles McNamee was commissioned to erect a struc- ture, suitable for the purpose contemplated, on the corner of Eagle and Market streets. It is a fine, substantial building with a tiled roof. There are stores and offices on the first floor and a large lecture hall. On the second floor is a library and reading room, a parlor and school room and the office of the superintendent. This was occupied by Mr. Stevens for one year, and the following one by Mr. John Love, an Asheville boy, who was graduated at Oberlin, O., and resigned one year ago to take work in Washington, D. C. The present incumbent is B. H. Baker, a graduate of Howard University.
"The lecture hall has been in demand for lectures, con- certs, exhibitions and entertainments, and on Sunday after- noons for a song service with a large attendance. There is a religious service one night in the week, a night school for boys and a kindergarten eight months in the year."
CHARLES McNAMEE, EsQ., for many years the attorney and adviser of Mr. George W. Vanderbilt, who erected the Young Men's Institute at the corner of Eagle and Spruce streets, Asheville, for the use of colored people, about the year 1893, in a letter dated October 24, 1895, says that he is the trustee of the property and that "It was the original intention that the income of the building over and above the running expenses should be devoted to paying Mr. Vanderbilt back the prin- cipal and interest of the cost of the building and ground." The foregoing references are to times prior to November, 1895.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.