THE BEGINNING OF THE WORK AT TUSKEGEE.
Before starting for Tuskegee I found it almost impossible to find the
town on any map, and had difficulty in learning its exact location. I
reached Tuskegee about the middle of June, 1881. I found it to be a town
of some 2,000 inhabitants, about half of whom were Negroes, and located
in what is commonly called the “Black Belt,” that is, the section of the
South where the Negro race largely outnumbers the white population. The
county in which Tuskegee is located is named Macon. Of Tuskegee and
Macon County I prefer to quote the words of Maj. W. W. Screws, the
editor of the “Montgomery (Alabama) Daily Advertiser,” who visited
Tuskegee in 1898, seventeen years after the Tuskegee Institute was
founded. Maj. Screws says:
“Just at this time there is probably no place in the United States, of
similar size, so well known to the people of the country, as this lovely
little city. It has always possessed merits which brought it
conspicuously before Alabamians, for in every locality in this and many
Southern States, are noble men and women who received their educational
training here.
“Thomas S. Woodward was one of the earliest white settlers in Macon
County, and was one of the commissioners appointed to lay off the site
for the court house. He built the first house in the new town, which
they called Tuskegee, a corruption of the old Indian name, Tuskigi,
which is said by Dr. Gatschet to be a contraction of Taskialgi
(warriors). The old Indian town stood in the fork of the Coosa and was
the home, part of the time, of the famous half-breed statesman,
Alexander McGillivray. The name passed in its present form to the county
seat of the new county.
“Tuskegee was settled by men who were well to do in a material point of
view. They owned rich lands on the creeks and streams and in the prairie
section of the county. This point is on a high, dry ridge, and from time
immemorial has been noted for its healthfulness. Here came those who
wished to build homes for their families, to have congenial company and
to give their children educational advantages. They did not desire the
projectors of the Montgomery and West Point Railroad to put the town on
its route, because of the interruption it was feared would be occasioned
to the schools. From the very beginning of its existence, education has
been the main feature of Tuskegee, and through its schools and colleges
a population gathered here which has never been excelled in point of
refinement, politeness and all the gentle amenities which tend to make
life comfortable.
“The town of Tuskegee was first settled about 1830. James Dent built the
first house. The town was first laid out in 1833. Mr. G. W. Campbell
came to the county with his father from Montgomery in 1835, and at that
time perhaps 150 people were in and about what now comprises Tuskegee’s
territorial limits. There was no court house building, and court
sessions were held in a small log house with a dirt floor. When court
was not in session the building was used as a school house. The Creek
Indians were in great numbers in the neighborhood, but they were
friendly and peaceful, and in 1836 commenced to move to their far
Western home, going overland to Montgomery, where they took steamer for
New Orleans. Tuskegee is one of the model towns in the way of good
order.
“Among the white settlers here are Dr. W. J. Gautier, and Messrs. G. W.
Campbell, J. W. Bilbro, J. O. A. Adams and W. H. Wright. They have a
perfect wealth of interesting reminiscence connected with the early days
of all East Alabama. Although they have passed the three score years,
they are hale, healthy men, engaged in business, and set a splendid
example of energy and active life to the younger generation. The firm of
Campbell & Wright has been in existence, possibly, longer than any other
in Alabama.
“The Montgomery and West Point Railroad is about five miles distant from
Tuskegee, the nearest station being Chehaw. From there to Tuskegee,
until about twenty years ago, the usual mode of conveyance for
passengers and baggage was stage coach and omnibus, while all goods were
transported by wagon. It was a tiresome, troublesome and expensive
method. This difficulty has been overcome through the Tuskegee Railroad
which now connects the two points.
“The population of Macon County before 1860, was largely heavy landed
proprietors. They suffered immensely by the results of the war from
disorganized labor, and reverses stripped them of much of their
property. The county is almost exclusively agricultural, and the average
yield year by year, of corn, cotton, peas, potatoes and other things
grown on well regulated farms, is fairly good.”
When I reached Tuskegee, I found that Mr. Lewis Adams, a colored man of
great intelligence and thrift, who was born a slave near Tuskegee, had
first started the movement to have some kind of Normal School in
Tuskegee for the education of colored youth. At the time he conceived
this idea Hon. W. F. Foster and Hon. A. L. Brooks, both white
Democrats, were members of the Alabama Legislature, and Mr. Adams so
interested them in the movement that they promised to use their
influence in the Legislature to secure an annual appropriation of $2,000
toward the expenses of a Normal School, provided one could be properly
organized and started. Messrs. Foster and Brooks were successful in
their efforts to secure the appropriation, which was limited in its use
to helping to pay teachers. A Board of three Commissioners was appointed
to control the expenditure of this $2,000. When the school was first
started this board consisted of Mr. Geo. W. Campbell, Mr. M. B. Swanson
and Mr. Lewis Adams. After the death of Mr. Swanson, Mr. C. W. Hare was
elected in his stead.
When I reached Tuskegee, the only thing that had been done toward the
starting of a school was the securing of the $2,000. There was no land,
building, or apparatus. I opened the school, however, on the 4th of
July, 1881, in an old church and a little shanty that was almost ready
to fall down from decay. On the first day there was an attendance of
thirty students, mainly those who had been engaged in teaching in the
public schools of that vicinity. I remember that, during the first
months I taught in this little shanty, it was in such a dilapidated
condition that, whenever it rained, one of the larger pupils would very
kindly cease his lessons and hold the umbrella over me while I heard the
recitations. But these little buildings, as inadequate as they were,
were most gladly furnished by the colored people, who from the first day
that I went to Tuskegee to the present time have done everything within
their power to further the interests of the school.
One curious thing that happened in connection with the students was, as
additional pupils began to come in, some of them had been attending
schools taught by some of those who came to the Tuskegee school, and, in
several cases, it happened that former pupils entered higher classes
than their former teachers.