PRESBYTERIAN SCHOOLS MANAGED BY COLORED PEOPLE.
It will be noticed that quite a number of the Presbyterian Schools are
under the management of colored people. These schools are very well
managed and reflect great credit on the ability of colored men.
SWIFT MEMORIAL INSTITUTE.
Swift Memorial Institute is located at Rogersville, Tenn. It was
begun by Rev. W. H. Franklin in 1883, under the most unfavorable
circumstances. He began at the very bottom and had no other capital
save intellectual ability, school-training, strong purpose,
perseverance, and unswerving faith in God and the righteousness
of his cause. It is true that he had the hearty endorsement and
co-operation of the Presbytery of Holsten, the Synod of Tennessee,
and the Freedmen's Board, but they were not in a condition to render
him the assistance required and the conduct of the whole work, for a
number of years rested upon his shoulders. In the face of opposition,
discouragement and prejudice of every kind, the work had a gradual and
solid growth. Each year found the school advancing and intrenching
itself in the confidence of the people at home and abroad. Mr. Franklin
did not lose any opportunity to earnestly present the necessity and the
claims of the school in Tennessee, in Ohio and in Michigan. In 1887,
when the founder had raised a subscription of $500, the Freedmen's
Board appropriated $1000 to purchase a desirable site which had been
selected. The school soon outgrew its new accommodations. In 1890, the
school had prospered to such an extent, and had so favorably commended
itself to the Board that it pledged $5,000 for a suitable building
provided that the friends of Rev. E. E. Swift, D. D., of Allegheny,
for whom the school was named, would raise $5,000 additional. After
two years of soliciting, pleading, praying and hoping, the Board and
the Ladies of the Church in Pennsylvania, Illinois and elsewhere
took hold of the matter in real earnest and soon the building was
erected. The site was enlarged and made more desirable by an additional
purchase. May, 1893, found the school in an elegant and substantial
brick building, 116 × 42, and three stories high, erected at a cost
of $15,000. The building has all the modern improvements and is much
admired by all visitors for its simplicity, its neatness and its
conveniences. It has many visitors. The whole plant, site, building and
furniture, cost about $25,000. These funds have been supplied by the
Freedmen's Board, Women's Societies and benevolent individuals, besides
many gifts annually for current expenses and scholarships.
The literary work will compare most favorably with that done in
other like institutions of the best grades. The students have taught
in this State and in other States and are much in demand. It is a
Christian centre and is giving a thorough Christian training to all
of its students. Its industrial and domestic departments are giving
such training as will revolutionize the home life, give intelligent
direction to the applied hand, and give business-like system to all the
activities. The present year marks the most interesting and prosperous
one in its history. All the rooms in the girls' dormitory are occupied,
and no place can be found for the boys. The great, pressing and
immediate want of the institution, is a dormitory for the boys. With
this want supplied, the ability of the school to do a much-needed and
urgent work for Christ and humanity will be increased many fold. Few
schools under the auspices of the _Freedmen's Board_ have a better
field and a better opportunity to do a great, useful and permanent work
for a needy, meritorious, and appreciative people. With timely and
sufficient aid, few schools have a brighter, more fruitful, or a more
glorious future. The faculty of the school is as follows:
Rev. W. H. Franklin, A. M., Mr. J. J. Johnson, A. B., Miss Ada G.
Battle, N. S., Mrs. Flora E. Elms, N., Mrs. Ida V. Penland Love, N.,
and Mrs. Laura C. Franklin, Matron.
REV. W. H. FRANKLIN.
[Illustration: REV. W. H. FRANKLIN, A. M.]
Rev. W. H. Franklin, A. M., was born at Knoxville, Tenn., April 14,
1852. His parents were free and enjoyed the respect and confidence
of all who knew them. His father was a competent brick mason and
was much in demand in his trade. His mother is a modest and sensible
woman. The ancestors of both parents were influential. His grandmother,
with several members of her family, went to Liberia in 1850. Mr.
Franklin had the opportunity of attending school one month, just as
the Rebellion began. He learned to read and to write his name in that
month. When Burnside came to Knoxville in 1865, he entered school
again. He was generally acknowledged not only the head of his class,
but also the head of the school he attended. He attended the schools of
Knoxville until 1870. He then taught school at Hudsonville, Marshall
Co., Miss., for two terms and saved sufficient money to help build a
better house for his mother and to enter Maryville College, Maryville,
Tenn. In that institution he took high rank in his class, and in the
college. His talents received immediate recognition. The first year he
appeared as Vice-President of the Athenian Society and a participant
in its annual exercises, delivering a recitation and the diplomas to
the graduates of the society. From that time his recognition and place
was secured until his graduation in 1880 from the classical course.
His graduating oration was said to be the best on the occasion. He
entered Lane Theological Seminary in Sept., 1880, and graduated from
it in 1883, in a class known for its high ability. The _Commercial
Gazette_ awarded him the highest medal of praise. From Lane he came in
June of the same year to Rogersville, Tenn., which was to be his future
field of labor. He was ordained minister by Union Presbytery, Synod of
Tennessee, in 1883. In June he took charge of his work at Rogersville.
He began the work of making a real church and of founding a school
for the higher education of colored youth. The task was to make brick
without straw and in the face of persistent, opposition and prejudice.
He disregarded both. The result is that he has succeeded in building up
a strong church work and a splendid school. He has a plant estimated
to be worth $25,000 and a full school of students representing four
different States.
He has done much other work in the interest of the race. He has
corresponded with newspapers, represented his people in conventions,
represented his Presbytery in the memorable Centennial General Assembly
and is now a director of Maryville College. His _alma mater_ conferred
A. M. upon him several years ago. Mr. Franklin has the respect and
confidence of all his acquaintances in Church and State, and is known
as a scholar, educator, orator and preacher of no mean ability. He
has never sought notoriety, but has been contented to do his duty
conscientiously and efficiently in the field which he has chosen for
his labors.
HAINES NORMAL AND INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTE.
The Haines Normal and Industrial Institute is the product of the great
missionary effort of Miss Lucy C. Laney, formerly of Macon, Ga. It
was established in Augusta, Ga., in 1886, where it is now located and
successfully managed by its founder, to whose personal efforts its
existence for the first three or four years is solely due.
After that time she succeeded in having it placed under the auspices of
the Northern Presbyterian Church, and it is to-day under the care of
the Freedman's Board of that church.
The present usefulness of the school has doubtless outreached the
expectations of its founder and the Board. The original design was
to make it simply a home where a few girls might receive an all-round
development, and a means for furnishing day-school advantages to
as many as could be cared for. It is now a large boarding school,
furnishing _home_ accommodations in the main buildings for sixty or
seventy girls, and in rented cottages for fifteen or twenty boys;
_class-room_ facilities for 550 pupils, the highest number reached
being 436; _industrial_ training in sewing, laundrying, nursing,
printing, shoemaking and general house-cleaning.
[Illustration: HAINES NORMAL AND INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTE.]
The following selection taken from an article written by Rev. E. P.
Cowan, D. D., Secretary of the Freedmen's Board of the Presbyterian
Church, in the August number of _The Church at Home and Abroad_ (1893),
presents very forcibly the real character of this school growing
out of the character of its founder and present head. "He (referring
to Rev. David Laney, who died a year ago,) has put no son into the
Gospel ministry to succeed him, but his worthy daughter Lucy is to-day
practically doing the work of a faithful minister or servant of Christ.
Miss Laney is a graduate of Atlanta University, and has an education of
which no woman in this land, white or colored, need be ashamed.
[Illustration: LUCY C. LANEY.]
"Equipped for the work and fired with a dauntless zeal for the
elevation of her race, of whom she always speaks as 'my people,' she
entered Augusta, Ga., single-handed and alone and began teaching
the few children she could at the beginning draw around her. As she
taught, her school increased. No one stood with her at the first. The
Freedmen's Board was back of her, but we scarcely knew her value at
the time, commissioning her for the work, but giving her only what she
could collect for her services on the field. On this point her success
brought us the information we needed. We did not help her at the first
as we would now. Her courage, patience, self-forgetfulness, and withal
her good common sense, attracted attention. She began with a few and
at the end of the first year reported seventy-five scholars under her
care. At the end of the second year she reported 234. The progress of
her work was so satisfactory that when the opportunity to place $10,000
in some particular educational work in the South came to the Board,
the unanimous opinion of the members was that Miss Laney's school had
merited the proposed help.
"When the Assembly met at Minneapolis in 1886, Miss Laney met the late
Mrs. F. E. H. Haines, who was then President of the Women's Executive
Committee of Home Missions, and was so impressed with her earnest
Christian character and her deep interest in the colored people of the
South, that she went home and named her school the Haines School."
The literary department of Haines School consists of College
Preparatory course, Higher English, Grammar School, Primary and
Kindergarten. The school contains the material for a strictly Normal
course, and more than a dozen young women have graduated from the
higher English or high-school course. Trained teachers are needed to
put such a course into effect.
The Grammar School department, except the highest grade, furnishes
practice work for these young women and it is preparatory to the higher
English course.
The College Preparatory course aims to prepare students for college.
With a very few exceptions all of the graduates from this course have
entered Lincoln University, making at entrance Sophomore class. One
entered Junior class two years ago.
The Higher English course aims to prepare the average young man and
woman for active life as well as to stimulate them to further study in
school.
The Kindergarten is complete in itself. Its furnishing, the training
of the Kindergartner and her salary, are a gift to the school from its
friends in Buffalo, N. Y. Though but lately added to the school, the
Kindergarten is the result of the long-cherished plans and personal
efforts of Miss Laney. Not only the Kindergarten, but the entire
success of the school, is due to contributions from friends who have
been reached and impressed with the actual needs of the Negro by Miss
Laney in her numerous speeches to Northern audiences; "a mission," says
Dr. Cowan in the same article quoted from, "for which she has a rare
gift, apparently without knowing it." No less able is she to impress,
by her own life of sacrifice, Christian character and native ability.
A lasting influence for good in this school, and especially in the home
life, now lives, sacred to the memory of Miss Cora Freeman, who was
associated with Miss Laney, when the foundation of the work was being
laid, and who shared bravely the hard things which necessarily attend
the beginning of a large, unselfish work of this kind. She died after a
service of three years.
Miss Irene Smallwood, the present Kindergartner, Mr. Frank P. Laney
and Mr. James Smith, both of Washington, D. C., at present, were also
associated with Miss Laney in the earlier work of the school.
A large four-story brick building, a wooden building for the industrial
work and Kindergarten, one acre of land, three rented cottages,
together with radiating Christian influences, constitute Haines
School, one of the evidences of the native ability and disposition
of the Negro, of the hopeful results of Christian education for the
Negro, of Northern devotion to the Negro, and the promise of a fuller
development of better things for the Negro eager to be uplifted, and
for consecrated hearts, willing to give.
MONTICELLO SEMINARY.
The story of the development of this school is better told when
interwoven with the life of Rev. C. S. Mebane, its founder. Rev. C. S.
Mebane, A. M., Principal of Monticello Seminary, Monticello, Ark., was
born of slave parents in Alamance county, N. C., in the year 1857.
At the close of the late war he and six other children with penniless
parents witnessed the hardships that confronted those who were thrown
out upon the frozen charities of the world. A few years of earnest
toil rewarded the once poverty-stricken family with a comfortable
living. Having reached the years of manhood he was not content with a
common school education, but had a thirst for higher training, and as
soon as the necessary arrangements could be made he entered Lincoln
University, Chester county, Pa., for the purpose of fitting himself
for the ministry. Here he made the acquaintance of the late Mr. W. R.
Davenport, of Erie, Pa., who supported him through school in honor
of his deceased son, Frank R. Davenport. Having completed his course
in school he entered upon the church and school work at Monticello,
Ark., in the fall of 1888. Of a self-denying, fatherly disposition,
he has often cared for the suffering and unfortunate both with hands
and purse. He revised the old organization, infused new life into it,
gathered about him the handful of members, selected officers, and began
the race to success. A Sabbath School was organized and regularly kept
up, and preaching service was at first observed twice a month.
[Illustration: REV. C. S. MEBANE, A. M.]
But before the church work was well on footing, he entered the
schoolroom; and here the struggle began in earnest.
The school session continues eight months and is divided into four
departments: the Primary, Preparatory, the Teacher's and Higher courses.
The boarding pupils live in the "Home" and are taught domestic work in
connection with their studies.
The last two years have been the most successful in the history of the
school. The enrolment for the first passed the 200 line; and while it
may not go beyond that this year on account of "hard times," it has
drawn upon larger areas and new territory.
IMMANUEL TRAINING SCHOOL.
This work was begun in a small dilapidated frame building at Aiken, S.
C., in 1882. That building constituted a part of the first real estate,
which, through the aid of Dr. Derby, Mrs. H. G. Burlingame, Miss E.
M. Greenleaf, and many other friends, was purchased for the colored
people's use in April, 1882. As witnesses to the lawful execution of
the deed, Dr. Derby and his brother-in-law, Mr. George H. Kennedy, who
was spending the season in Aiken, signed their names to it.
That unfinished boarding house, which has since been used as a home,
church, school and boarding hall for students, all at the same time,
was, in a sense, the foundation of what is now Derby Hall--one of
the best buildings of the school. To accommodate it to the various
demands of the work, changes were made from time to time. But after
the erection of a house of worship and a school building, there
remained but one thing more to do, and that was to reconvert the entire
structure into a boarding hall principally for the accommodation of
students from a distance. The new mansard roof was put on and other
necessary alterations and improvements made during the summer of 1891,
at a cost of $1,600. The building now contains twenty-six rooms.
All of the helpful branches of industry are taught in this school.
REV. W. R. COLES.
Rev. W. R. Coles, the superintendent of the Immanuel Training School,
and pastor of Immanuel Presbyterian Church, of Aiken, S. C., was one
of the first graduates of Lincoln University. Speaking of his work as
founder of the Immanuel Church, he had the following to say:
[Illustration: REV. W. R. COLES.]
"Laboring as Synodical Missionary, by appointment of the Synod of
Atlantic (and approved by the Presbyterian Committee of Missions for
Freedmen), I came to Aiken on the 23d day of May, A. D. 1881, seeking
a home for my family, and to look after the general interests of our
work. While here (June 10, 1881), I received a communication from the
Freedmen's Committee, informing me that my work as Synodical Missionary
would terminate with June 30, and that it was the will of the Committee
that I locate again in the pastorate.
"I, therefore, settled in Aiken, and commenced missionary work, holding
services in my own house from June 30 till the latter part of November,
when we moved into a rented house, the property of Henry Smith, on
Newberry street. This building was, on the night of the third Sabbath
in November, 1881, formally set apart as a place of worship, under the
name of 'The Newberry Street Presbyterian Mission.' The way being clear
we organized a Sabbath School on the fourth Sabbath in November, 1881,
with thirteen members: Mr. J. F. Chestnut, Superintendent; teachers,
Mr. James F. Chestnut, W. R. Coles, Mrs. R. E. Coles; Librarian,
Mr. T. G. Bronson; Treasurer, Mrs. R. E. Coles. Thus established,
we labored, preaching and conducting Sabbath School every Sunday,
holding prayer-meeting one night during the week, and visiting, etc.,
till the fifth Sabbath in January, 1882, when, at the request of nine
communicants, I, acting as an evangelist, assisted by Rev. T. P. Hay,
of the First Presbyterian Church of Aiken, S. C., formally organized
The Immanuel Presbyterian Church of Aiken, S. C. Messrs. Alexander
Johnson and Vincent Green were elected, ordained and installed as
Ruling Elders; John Mayes as Deacon."
DAYTON ACADEMY.
The history of Dayton Academy and the career of Rev. Henry D. Wood must
go together.
[Illustration: REV. HENRY D. WOOD.]
Rev. Henry D. Wood, A. M., Principal of Dayton Academy, Carthage,
N. C., was born in Trenton, N. J., Feb. 10, 1847. He received his
early training in the public school of that city. A youth of sixteen
years (1863) he enlisted in the famous 54th Massachusetts Regiment
and served in defence of his country and for the freedom of his
people until these were accomplished. He returned to Brooklyn, N.
Y., and for several years found employment with the Orington Bros.,
Importers, working his way from the position of porter to a clerkship
in the shipping department of that house. United with the Siloam
Presbyterian Church, and was at once made an elder in that church, and
though holding a lucrative position, was so impressed with his call
to the ministry that he resolved to make preparation for that work.
He entered Lincoln University, where he held high rank in character
and proficiency in studies, and was graduated from the Theological
Department in '78. In 1880 he was commissioned by the "Presbyterian
Board of Missions for Freedmen," ordained by the Presbytery of Yadkin,
and entered upon the work in which he is now engaged. He found here a
destitute, neglected field, an organization of about forty members in
two churches, no Sabbath schools, public schools limited to two months,
and the people too poor to better their condition.
He made known the condition of things to personal friends North, who
generously responded to his appeal for help, and arousing his people
to effort in their own behalf, soon succeeded in erecting one of the
neatest and most comfortable churches in this part of the country.
The people were encouraged to deeper interest in their own improvement.
Day school was opened in his residence, but it proved too small;
many were crowded out. The Board established a parochial school and
each year it was enlarged. In '86 it was found necessary to advance
the grade, hence "Dayton Academy," a handsome three-story building
comprising class-rooms and girls' dormitory, also a boys' dormitory,
with dining-room and kitchen.
Three church buildings are valued at about $3,500; school property
about $1,500; church membership about 400; Sabbath school about 450;
Day school scholars, 260; five teachers in Academy.
This school supplies teachers for the public schools, and they are
found doing good service in Sabbath schools and in churches, and
everywhere.
ALBION ACADEMY.
The Albion Academy, at Franklinton, N. C., was founded in the year
1877, by the late Moses A. Hopkins, Minister to the Republic of
Liberia. At the time of the founding of this Academy there were no
adequate facilities to serve a liberal education in the community.
Aided by friends at the North, the late William Shaw, of Pittsburg,
Pa., and John Hall, and the First Presbyterian Church, of Albion,
N. Y., the Academy was organized and established amid the strenuous
efforts of bitter opponents to resist it.
The first principal of the school was its founder, the late Rev. Moses
A. Hopkins.
Many young men and women have been sent from this institution to
higher schools, as Lincoln University, Pa., Biddle University, N. C.,
Fisk University, Tenn., and Howard University, D. C., etc. The school
is designed for the education of the many thousands in this section
of the State. It is the only educational centre of the Presbyterian
Church, in Eastern North Carolina, for the Negro race. It offers the
benefits of a liberal education to the Negroes of the South, as well as
the State of North Carolina.
[Illustration: REV. JOHN A. SAVAGE, D. D.]
Many friends in the North have given largely to the support of the
Academy. There are three halls. The Stamford Hall, and the Darling
Hall, are for the young ladies. The Academy Hall contains eight
recitation-rooms and a chapel hall.
REV. JOHN A. SAVAGE, D. D.
After the resignation of Rev. Samuel S. Sevier in the year of 1892,
as the principal of the Academy, Rev. John A. Savage, D. D., was
called and appointed by the Board of Trustees to the presidency of the
Academy. Since his government the Academy has taken a fresh start in
every direction.
Rev. Mr. Savage, the president of Albion Academy, is a graduate of
Lincoln University. He is an unassuming gentleman of much natural
ability and his work in the State of North Carolina is most creditable.
The school has been rapidly built up under his charge, and many young
men and women in the community are thankful to Rev. Savage for his kind
attention and earnest interest in their education.
BIDDLE UNIVERSITY.
This University is located at Charlotte, N. C., and is named in memory
of the late Henry J. Biddle, of Philadelphia, whose widow, Mrs. Mary D.
Biddle, has been one of its most liberal supporters. It is chartered
by the Legislature of the State, and is under the auspices of the
Presbyterian Church in the United States.
The object of the institution is the education of colored teachers and
preachers, and leaders for the race in other walks of life.
It stands at the terminus of seven railroads, in the midst of a dense
and comparatively intelligent colored population, and occupies a site
of sixty acres in the suburbs of the city.
[Illustration: BIDDLE UNIVERSITY.]
It is situated in the heart of the South Atlantic region, which
contains the two Synods of Atlantic and Catawba, having 290 colored
churches, 180 ministers, scores of young men in preparation for the
ministry, with a large number of schools and academies under their
care. These schools and churches must be furnished with intelligent
Christian teachers and preachers, who must be largely educated on
the field, and in contact with the people among whom they are to
labor. Such a training is given here at less expense than it could
be elsewhere; the student has the best opportunities for a liberal
education together with the refining influence of a Christian home, and
he is kept at the same time in contact and sympathy with the people.
[Illustration: REV. D. J. SANDERS, D. D.,
_President of Biddle University, Charlotte, N. C._]
This institution has a colored president and I think that he has
demonstrated the ability of the colored man to govern. I regard Rev. D.
J. Sanders, D. D., as a very able man, and I think he has done as well
at Biddle as any other man could have done, considering the period
through which the institution has just passed.
No institution in the care of the Presbyterian Church has a wider field
or greater opportunities. Its students are gathered from all the South
Atlantic States, and are scattered in their school and church work
through all this vast region, and as far west as Texas.
It is the only institution of its kind maintained by our Presbyterian
Church in the South; and it certainly is one of the most important
agencies in the hands of the Church for the accomplishment of good
among 8,000,000 of colored people. It commends itself to the prayers
and gifts of all good men.
The _importance_ in the eyes of the Church, of the interests which
Biddle University represents, is forcibly put in the language of a
recent circular addressed to churches on its behalf by the _Board of
Missions for Freedmen_:
"What is done," say they, "for Biddle University, will, in a great
measure, determine the success of our whole work among the Freedmen."
FERGUSON ACADEMY.
Ferguson Academy is situated at Abbeville, S. C. The property was
acquired by the Freedmen's Board of the Presbyterian Church in 1891.
In 1892 Rev. Thomas H. Amos, A. M., then pastor of the First African
Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, was elected principal to succeed
Rev. E. W. Williams. The enrolment then consisted of sixty-two
students, which have grown from that number to 210.
The property consists of three buildings valued at $7,000 or $8,000,
free of debt.
[Illustration: REV. THOMAS H. AMOS, A. M.]
The course of instruction is divided into nine grades. The faculty
consists of Rev. T. H. Amos, A. M., Principal; Prof. Joseph W. Lee,
Mrs. Ida B. Amos, Eliza A. Pindle, Misses Carrie M. Richie and Mattie
F. Barr.
There is an industrial department connected with the school, and
most of the work is done by the students. The management of the
work is economical; the instruction painstaking and thorough, the
discipline kind, and the graduates have the reputation of being moral
and efficient teachers. There is no doubt but that the influences of
such a school are uplifting to the masses of colored youth in the
community. Those who have investigated the work of the school praise
the management and thank its benefactors for what it is doing. The
friends of Negro education may have confidence in Ferguson Academy, and
find it an appropriate channel through which the rising generation of
this people can be helped to places of usefulness and respectability.
The religious tone of the instruction is deep and in addition to this
the diligence and experience of its faculty and the supervision of the
officers of the Presbyterian Board guarantee that this is a light to
scatter the night in the regions where its graduates, both male and
female, will go forth.
HARBISON INSTITUTE.
Harbison Institute is located at Beaufort, South Carolina; Rev. G. M.
Elliott, President.
The aim of Harbison Institute is to give thorough training in those
studies laid down in the course, and thereby fit those who attend upon
its instruction for practical life, and help them to succeed in the
work of their choice.
Persons whose moral character, or whose general influence would be
detrimental to the good of the school, will not be received or retained
in the school.
The use of intoxicating liquors, tobacco, profane or indecent language,
card-playing, and everything tending to immoral life, are strictly
forbidden.
Immoral or vicious conduct; insubordination to school authority;
habitual tardiness, or truancy; habitual uncleanliness of person, or
indecency in dress; persistent disorder, or misdemeanor on street,
while going to or from school, will be deemed sufficient grounds for
suspending the offender from the privileges of the school.
This school is doing just the kind of work needed in the locality where
it is situated.
J. B. SWANN.
Rev. J. B. Swann, who is conducting an Industrial School, at Lothian
(Anne Arundel county), Maryland, has been a very active worker in
behalf of Negro education, from the time he entered Lincoln University
in the fall of 1867, up to the present time.
He started out as a Missionary teacher under the Board of Home Missions
for Freedmen during the summer months while attending Lincoln, and
succeeded in building his first day-school at Mocksville, N. C., in
1869. From Mocksville, he was commissioned by the Board to West River,
Md., where he labored for twelve years. From this place he was sent to
Greensborough, N. C. Here he took charge of a school which had been
previously organized and he made quite a success of the work. A few
years later Mr. Swann returned to Lincoln for the purpose of taking a
theological course. After finishing his studies he began his present
work. His success has been marked and the results of his untiring
efforts have been gratifying both to him and the Board.
[Illustration: REV. J. B. SWANN.]
MARY POTTER MEMORIAL SCHOOL.
Mary Potter Memorial School is located at Oxford, N. C., and is under
the management of Prof. G. C. Shaw.
[Illustration: PROF. G. C. SHAW.]
This school is named in honor of Mrs. Mary Potter, of Schenectady,
N. Y., who was very much interested in the Freedmen and contributed
liberally toward their educational improvement. She donated the money
to start this school, and after it had become too small for the
accommodation of the many young people who crowded into it, friends
of Mrs. Potter and friends of the colored people contributed to its
enlargement. It is now in a splendid condition and very creditable work
is being accomplished.
Professor Shaw, the principal of this school, was born of slave parents
at Louisburg, N. C., June 19, 1863. He entered Lincoln University in
1881 and graduated in 1886. Devoted one year to the study of theology
at Princeton Theological Seminary. Graduated from Auburn Theological
Seminary, of Auburn, N. Y., in 1890.
It was while he was at Auburn that he made the acquaintance of Mrs.
Potter, who offered him encouragement in the line of work he had mapped
out for his life.
While in Oxford, he has succeeded in organizing a church and building
up the school. Mr. Shaw tells me that he contemplates adding an
industrial department to the school shortly and thereby increasing its
usefulness.
COTTON PLANT ACADEMY.
Cotton Plant Academy is located at Cotton Plant, Ark. Rev. F. C.
Potter, Principal. It is a school for co-education, and is doing very
good work for the moral uplifting of the colored people in the section
where it is located.
RICHARD ALLEN INSTITUTE.
Named after Rev. R. H. Allen, D. D., late Secretary of Board of
Missions for Freedmen of the Presbyterian Church; is the outgrowth of
the Mission established in 1885 by the Presbytery of Pine Bluff, Ark.
The school was opened November 7, 1887, in the dwelling-house of
the principal, and at first occupied one room; a second and then a
third were soon in demand; from an enrolment of twenty-one pupils it
increased to 138, and has steadily advanced until the roll has reached
nearly 300. With the assistance of Messrs. W. B. Alexander, J. W.
Crawford, J. B. Speers, Judge W. S. McCain, J. R. Westbrooks, _et al._;
a title with no encumbrance was secured to the property, and a building
commenced, foundation and studding in place, when the weather prevented
further work. When completed, this building had four rooms below, two
rooms in second story, and one extended room on the third floor. In
this, from 250 to 300 pupils were accommodated. The loss of this house
by fire on the 17th of January, 1894, was a severe blow, entailing a
loss of $5,000, confining the whole school in the dormitory of Richard
Allen Institute, which was erected in 1892, by the assistance of Miss
Mary E. Holmes, and fitted up to accommodate a number of pupils.
This is a chartered Institute under the laws of Arkansas, and is
supported like all other Missions under the Board of Missions for
Freedmen of the Presbyterian Church.
Rev. Lewis Johnston, Principal.