class. The student has not become intimately acquainted with Mr.
Washington until he becomes a Senior. It is here that the members of the
Senior class talk of their past and future lives and receive the
outpourings of a great but simple soul. Mr. Washington's long and
frequent absences from the school are no less regretted by the teachers
than by the students.
Soon after entering school I began to think of what I should do after
graduating. My inclination led me to feel that success would be found
along mercantile lines. In spite of this I applied myself zealously to
my trade. During my last two years in school I did what teaching in
blacksmithing my literary work permitted, the school being without an
instructor in this industry for a short while. There was then no course
in engineering or in machinery, so I did all the pipe-work and kept the
machinery of the school in repair. In this way I learned something of
machinery without an instructor. With some pride I recall the fact that
I "ironed" the first farm-wagons, the first two-seated spring-wagon, and
the first buggy made at Tuskegee. I also "piped" the school's first
bathroom for girls.
In May of my Senior year I was very much surprised to receive a note
from Principal Booker T. Washington intimating that he desired me to
connect myself with the school the following year. Later he stated the
nature of the work he wanted me to do. I accepted the offer he made me.
I was asked to teach in the night-school and instruct in the
blacksmith-shop one-half of each week-day.
A few days after graduation I visited my home with the intention of
spending the summer there. I was there about three weeks, when I
received a letter from Mr. John H. Washington requesting my return to
Tuskegee the next week, if I could so arrange. He at that time was both
superintendent of industries and commandant. On my return he informed me
that the Principal had decided that since his duties as superintendent
of industries were so important, he was to be relieved of all others,
and that in lieu of instructing in the blacksmith-shop, I was to be
offered the work as commandant.
At once I set about getting the boys' rooms in order for the opening of
school. During the two previous years, even while a student, I had
virtually been acting as commandant, since no one man could carry double
responsibilities such as Mr. J. H. Washington had been carrying. I was
appointed commandant, and placed in charge of the night-school for a
year. I then resigned, looking forward to following my old-time
inclination of engaging in some mercantile business. I knew that I could
accumulate means for this purpose sooner by working at my trade, as I
received two dollars per day working as a blacksmith during vacation
seasons at Birmingham, Ala.
My first marriage occurred in 1891, my wife being Miss Sarah J. Harris.
We were classmates at Tuskegee four years, and graduated together. She
died in 1894 at Institute, W. Va. Our long association and acquaintance
made us understand each other even before we were married. Having become
a Christian before myself, she had much to do with my conversion while I
was a student. She was a great help to me in many ways, and through her
economy I was able to begin the purchase of my first property. Portia,
the oldest and only child now living of the three children born to us,
is in the Little Girls' Home at Knoxville College, Tenn. In 1897 I was
married to Miss Florence Lovett, a graduate of Storer College, Harpers
Ferry, W. Va. She shares my burdens, and is in every way a part of
whatever success I am able to achieve. Four children have been born to
us.
After resigning my position as commandant and head of the night-school
at Tuskegee, I spent a few weeks visiting relatives, and then returned
to Marietta. Here I worked at my trade in a carriage-shop, where a great
deal of machine-work was done for two furniture factories and a
planing-mill. Much of my time was spent in repairing machinery and
making bits and knives for the factories.
While at home I tried to make myself a part of the people in a helpful
way. I lived with my parents about two miles from the town. On my
father's farm was a church, the ground for which had been given by my
father. I was elected superintendent of the Sunday-school of this
church, and filled this position as long as I remained there. Soon
after the Sunday-school was started it occurred to me that the young
people of the community could be greatly helped by a literary society.
With the aid of others I organized a society and was elected its
president. We met every Friday night at the house of some member. It was
the custom to meet at different places, so that the long distances
necessary to walk would be equally shared by all. Even by this
arrangement some had to walk three and four miles, but the pleasure and
benefit derived from attending the society repaid us for the trouble.
After I had been at my home about a year, I received a letter from Mr.
Booker T. Washington requesting that I write to Mr. J. Edwin Campbell,
Principal of the West Virginia Colored Institute, then located near
Farm, W. Va. Enclosed with Mr. Washington's letter was one Mr. Campbell
had written, asking that a Tuskegee graduate be named to take the
position of Superintendent of Mechanics. This title has since been
changed to Superintendent of Mechanical Industries. On January 3, 1893,
I arrived at the West Virginia Colored Institute and entered upon my
duties, and have held the position ever since.
[Illustration: STARTING A NEW BUILDING.
Student masons laying the foundation in brick.]
In the early summer of 1898 Mr. J. H. Hill, who was then principal,
resigned to accept a Lieutenancy in a company of United States
Volunteers. During the interim following the resignation of Mr. Hill and
the appointment of Mr. J. McHenry Jones, the present principal, I was
placed in charge of the school by the Board of Regents. Mr. Jones was
elected principal September 21, 1898.
Until the fall of 1898 my duties were many and varied, as I had no
assistance in carrying on the industrial work of the school. I taught
blacksmithing, carpentering, and mechanical drawing. Besides this, I
have had to put the sewerage system into the institution, and the
heating apparatus into several of the school buildings. Still, a part of
my time in 1894 was devoted to teaching in the literary department. My
work now, while as exacting as ever, is more along the line of
superintending the mechanical industries and in teaching mechanical
drawing.
The school has grown, since my coming here, from 3 teachers and 30
students to a faculty of 18 teachers and 187 students. There are 6
instructors in the mechanical department for boys. We give instruction
in carpentry, printing, blacksmithing, brick masonry, plastering,
wheelwrighting, and mechanical drawing. These industries are housed in a
building--the "A. B. White Trades Building"--that cost $35,000.
In concluding this sketch, I repeat with emphasis what I said in the
beginning: Whatever my accomplishments may be, the credit is due to
Tuskegee. I do not wish in life to be regarded as a man of chance
possibilities, but rather as one who has consistently persevered in all
of his struggles. Tuskegee teaches nothing with greater force than that
success lies in that direction. Principal Washington, among other
things, has taught that it is necessary to get property and have a
bank-account. I have complied with that teaching. I own a farm of 100
acres within one-eighth of a mile of the school. My first property,
which I still own, consists of a one-acre lot and a seven-room house. It
gives me pleasure to contribute annually $10 to Tuskegee, although this
but inadequately expresses my gratitude to the institution to which I
owe so much.
[2] The West Point system is followed in training the young men. Except
that there are no guns, a complete battalion organization exists.
XVI
A NEGRO COMMUNITY BUILDER
BY RUSSELL C. CALHOUN
I have been asked to here set forth incidents of my life as I remember
them, especially as they relate to my life at Tuskegee and my work since
leaving there. Though there have been quite a number of events in my
life, it is somewhat difficult for me to give them in the way they are
now desired, as it never occurred to me that they would be worth
repeating.
Concerning my ancestry, it is impossible for me to give anything beyond
my maternal grandfather, who was about three-fourths Indian. My
recollections of him go back to the time when I was about six or seven
years of age. My mother, having more children than she could really care
for, decided to allow one of my brothers, who was perhaps a year and a
half younger than I, and myself, to live with him and his second wife.
My grandfather was quite seventy-five years of age when we went to live
with him, and was too feeble to work. He was supported from the
poor-house, which gave him a peck of meal, 2-1/2 pounds of bacon, 1
pound of coffee, 1 pound of brown sugar, and once a month 25 cents'
worth of flour. That, together with the little his wife could earn from
place to place, constituted the "rations" of all of us for a week.
Of my birth no record was kept, my mother having been a slave. All I
have been able to learn of the date of my birth is what my mother
remembers connected with the close of slavery. In trying to ascertain
from her when I was born, she said, "You was born some time just after
Christmas, in the month of January, the third year after the surrender."
My mother had twelve children. I was the eighth child and the second one
born after slavery. All except two of the children were born in the same
one-room log cabin with a dirt floor, in the town of Paulding, Jasper
County, Miss. My mother did the cooking for her master's family and the
plantation help, did all of the milking, and was also washer-woman.
In the summer of 1896 I again visited Paulding, just after graduating
from Tuskegee. I had to go there to move my aged mother to more
comfortable quarters. She was quite ill, and died soon after I reached
Florida with her. When I went to Paulding I measured the house in which
I was born, and found it to be 9 feet wide, 17 feet long, 7 feet high,
with no windows, with but one door, and a dirt chimney. The furnishing
as I remember it was composed of a chair, a stool, a table, and my
mother's bed, which was constructed in one corner of the house. The bed
was made by putting a post in the ground and nailing two pieces of wood
to the wall from this post, then by putting in a floor, making something
like a box to hold the bedding. The children slept in a similarly
constructed place, except that the mattress was on the ground and was
filled with straw. Our bedding, for the most part, was what wearing
apparel we possessed thrown over us at night. Outside the house was a
long bench, which was kept for the accommodation of visitors.
A peculiar incident in our home life happened one Sunday morning in
March--one Easter Sunday. All of the smaller children were seated on the
floor eating their breakfasts from pans and skillets, when a big black
snake, without any regard for the children, went into a hole by the
fireplace. When one of my older brothers undertook to find him and
opened this hole, he found, instead of one, four black snakes that had
been wintering in the side of the house.
There was no church or school for us in that whole section. A white man,
a Doctor Cotton, to whom I was afterward given until I should become
twenty-one years of age, sent his boys to a school which required that
they walk eight miles to it and return each day.
When I was perhaps eight years of age I remember that my mother and all
of the children went to Spring Hill to a camp-meeting; that was the
first service at which I had heard a minister. They had a Sunday-school,
and I was put into a class. The teacher gave us leaflets and asked us to
read where we found the big letter "A." This was the first and only
letter that I knew for many years. This camp-meeting was held once a
year, though at times there would be prayer-meetings among the different
families on the plantation.
My mother, being a hard-working woman and knowing the value of keeping
children busy, compelled every one of us to work in some way around the
house or on the farm. I know of no lesson which she taught me and which
has been of more value to me than that of "doing with your might what
your hands find to do." It was a rule of her household that we should
not go to bed without having water in the house. The water had to be
brought from a spring a mile and a half away. I remember clearly how one
night one of my brothers and myself tried to deceive her; how we secured
some not overclear water from a hole near-by our home, and how she
pitched it out and sent us the whole distance to the spring. Although
this was many years ago, I now see, more and more, what it means to go
all the way to the real spring, and I thank her memory for the lesson.
When I was about ten years of age the same Doctor Cotton of whom I have
spoken came to my grandmother's to hire one of the boys to mind the
bars, as the teams were hauling corn to the barn and the drivers did not
want to put them up each time. I was delighted to be the chosen one of
the two. My first chance to earn money was thus offered.
I stayed there every day from sunrise to sunset for a little more than
three weeks, and it was a happy day when Doctor Cotton requested all
hands to come up and be paid off. I do not know what the rest received;
though I had boarded from the scanty fare before mentioned at my
grandmother's home, he gave me fifteen cents, paying me in three
nickels. I had never had any money in my hands before, and for fear I
might lose it I put it in my pocket and held the pocket with both hands,
and ran for more than two miles, carrying it home. One nickel of the
three was given me for my share.
Seemingly this Doctor Cotton was very much impressed with the way I had
performed my duty at the bars, for in the next few weeks he again
visited my grandmother. I was quite anxious to know what his frequent
visits meant, and was very much delighted, as well as surprised, when it
was told me, one morning when it was very cold, and I had on only two
pieces of clothing made of some very coarse material resembling canvas,
that I was to live with Doctor Cotton until reaching manhood, and was to
eat at his house. He told me in my grandmother's presence that if I
would stay with him until I was twenty-one years of age I would receive
a horse, a bridle and saddle, a suit of clothes, and $10, in addition to
my "keep." This was such an apparently big offer that my grandmother's
and my heart leaped for joy.
When I had lived with him for a few days he had given me the first pair
of shoes, of the copper-toe variety, I ever wore.
I have never forgotten my first day's stay at this new home. My whole
object that first day was to eat everything in sight. At my own home I
slept on the dirt floor; at this new home I slept in the attic, my bed
being a pile of cotton-seed with a quilt for covering. My duty at this
new home was to attend to the horses, to bring the cows from the
pasture, sweep the yard, wait on the table, nurse two children, etc. I
stayed at this place for two and one-half years, and as my knowledge of
things increased my duties became more and more exacting.
During this whole time, and for two years before, I had not seen or
heard from my mother. I was twenty miles from any railroad, and had
never seen or heard of a railroad train. We lived on the public road
between Paulding and Enterprise, and by some means I heard that my
mother had gone to the "railroad." Though I had never been away on my
own resources, I resolved to do better than I was doing. I remember very
well that it was Monday morning when one of the doctor's daughters said
to me, "Russell, you go down to 'Vina's house, tell her to come and
scour for me; come by the store and get a package of soda; then come
through the field and drive the turkeys home." Providence never favored
any one more than it did me on that day. I went by the store and told
them to do up the soda, I went by and told 'Vina that she was wanted,
but I did not drive the turkeys home.
I started out in search of my mother, and after walking more than half
the distance I overtook an ox-team, and the driver allowed me to ride a
part of the way. I reached the railroad town about night, and standing
there was a freight train of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad.
I was never so frightened in all my life as when the whistle blew and
this object moved away. I remember asking the driver of the ox-team
where the thing's eyes were, and where the horses were that pulled it.
The doctor, suspecting that I had gone to Enterprise in search of my
mother, made plans to capture me and have me returned, but all of this
failed. By good fortune I found my brother, who was married and living
in this town; here again I became a nurse, having to care for his two
children.
Afterward I went to live with a white family which was very kind to me.
The young man who carried me to his house as a nurse put into my hands,
after I had been there some months, the first spelling-book I had ever
had; saying to me that if I would stay with them for two years, he would
at the end of that time send me to school. I stayed at this place for
some months, when my mother came from somewhere, I know not where, and
with five of the boys we joined ourselves together to work on a
plantation on "halves." We worked very hard that year.
Our food was furnished by the owner of the plantation. On many of those
long, cold days, for all day, we had only a "pone" of corn bread. At the
close of the year, after the owner had taken his half, and on account of
bad management on the part of an older brother who had charge of
affairs, my mother and her younger children received nothing for the
year's work, and this, notwithstanding the fact that we made five and
one-half bales of cotton and a large quantity of corn and peas. I
received as my "salary" for the year's work one shirt worth thirty cents
and a pair of suspenders worth about fifteen cents. I resolved to run
away again. This trip was made at night, on foot, over newly laid
railroad-ties, for a distance of seventeen miles.
I reached Meridian, Miss., at a late hour of the night, and took refuge
in a shed used for the storing of railroad iron. The next morning I
overheard two colored men, who were on their way to get meat ready for
the town-market two miles away, talking. I joined these men, and sought
employment along with them, but they soon learned that I knew nothing of
"butchering." However, the owner of the pen, who had a large garden,
gave me a trial, and I remained with him for three years.
After I was there a little more than a year my work was to plant and
care for the small seeds. This man, Mr. Nady Sims, was a good man, and I
had no cause for leaving him except that of wishing to get a place to
earn more money, that I might help care for my mother and her smaller
children.
I went next to a brick-yard, where I received fifty cents per day. There
were three boys at each "table," and we had to "off-bear" 5,500 bricks,
the task for each day. This was indeed hard work.
Drifting into hotel work, I soon acquired the habit of most of those who
are engaged in such work: I spent all I earned for fine clothes.
During my stay on the vegetable farm I boarded at the home of one of the
young men previously referred to, whose sister, Mary Clinton, who has
since become my wife and devoted assistant, one day heard a woman say
she knew of a school in Alabama where boys and girls could work for
their education, and that she was going to send her boy to that school.
This thought remained in her mind for some months, and she decided to go
to Tuskegee, though her brothers and sisters discouraged the idea,
feeling, as they said, that if she went to this unknown place her whole
life would be a failure.
She reached Tuskegee in September, 1885, at a time when there was but
one building. She worked in many places while there, including the
laundry, the teachers' dining-room, the sewing division, with Principal
Washington's family, as well as with the families of other teachers. On
account of poor health, especially because of throat trouble, she was
compelled to return home at the end of five years without graduating.
No sooner had she reached home again than she began a crusade for
Tuskegee. I was then twenty-one years of age, had never had a day's
schooling, and could read but very little. I proposed marriage to Miss
Clinton as soon as she returned, but she replied: "You do not know
anything except about hotel work. I have been to Tuskegee and see the
need of your knowing something. I also need to know more than I do. I
can easily marry some one who knows more than you do, but if you will go
to school I will assist you in any way that I can." This proposition I
accepted, and on September 2, 1890, I reached Tuskegee and began my
first day in school.
I had some knowledge of carpentry, and was for that reason assigned to
the carpenter-shop for work during the day; I attended school at night.
There were ninety-three young men and women in the class when I entered
school; of that number only two, in addition to myself, remained through
the entire course. I can never forget my examination by Miss Maggie J.
Murray, now Mrs. Booker T. Washington. There were quite three hundred
new students in the chapel of Porter Hall, one of the oldest buildings
of the institution, taking examinations at the same time.
She gave me two slips of paper, a pencil, and the questions, and said to
me: "Write the answers to these questions." She went about other duties,
and after about three hours returned to me for my papers; then for the
first time in my life I learned the meaning of geography and arithmetic.
The slips of paper mentioned asked questions on those subjects. I had
not put anything on the paper. She asked me if I knew of any large
cities; if I had ever crossed a river or seen a hill; if I knew the name
of the railroad over which I had come to reach Tuskegee.
I was able to answer each of these questions very readily; and she said,
"Calhoun, that is geography."
She assigned me to one of the lowest classes in the night-school. I
bought books which cost $1.70, and had fifty-two cents left. I soon
spent the fifty cents.
For seven months during my first year's stay my only possession was
represented by a two-cent stamp. I had had many "good friends" before
going to Tuskegee, and debated long as to which of them I should devote
the two-cent stamp, trusting to receive some financial aid. Finally I
decided on one of these "good friends." I used the stamp, and have not
heard from him from that day to this.
While carpentry was my special trade, I found the opportunity to get
information as to the other industries on the grounds. All of this
supplemental study has proved most helpful to me in my present work.
Most persons who enter school for the first time, and especially
industrial schools, get wrong impressions at the start. Notwithstanding
the fact that I was a young man who had "knocked about" the world quite
a little, I thought I had made a mistake in entering school, and did not
begin to see that I had done properly until I had been there for eight
or nine months. I asked for an excuse to leave school early in the first
term; it was denied me. I tried to sell my trunk for $7, so that I might
run away. I had a penchant for running away from disagreeable
surroundings. I was offered $6, but for the sake of the difference of $1
I decided to remain.
I do not hesitate to say that each day I live in my heart I most
heartily thank the good friends who have made it possible for Tuskegee
to be; I am also most grateful that I was able to reach it and receive
the training which I received there. I did nothing great while at
Tuskegee, but I remember with pride that I gave no trouble in any way
during my sojourn.
I used my spare hours making picture-frames, repairing window-shades,
making flower-stands and flower-boxes, and working flower-gardens for
the various Faculty families. The money received I saved until the end
of the school term. At the end of each term there were always a large
number of students who cared nothing for their books, and all but gave
them away. Looking three months ahead, I bought these books and sold
them to new students who entered the following year.
One year alone I cleared $40 in this way. The second-hand book business
among the students began from this effort on my part to add to my little
pile of cash money.