ECKSTEIN NORTON UNIVERSITY.
This school was founded by one of the most successful educators of the
race, the late Rev. Wm. J. Simmons, D. D., and his associate, Rev. C.
H. Parrish, A. M., who is its worthy president. In 1890 it opened under
the most favorable auspices, and each year has succeeded beyond the
sanguine expectations of its friends. For purity of atmosphere, for
development of the physical powers, for freedom from the allurements
and unwholesome amusements of city life, no better place could have
been selected than Cane Spring, Bullitt county, Ky., twenty-nine miles
from Louisville.
[Illustration: Eckstein Norton University, Cane Spring, Ky.]
The object is to teach the students how to work; to teach the dignity
of labor, that hands must be used as well as heads and that both can
be successfully used together. It teaches manliness and race pride;
that skill tells regardless of skin or parentage. It gives, besides the
industries, a literary training which begins with the primary and ends
with the college. As much is required from the study of the Bible as
from any other book.
This school has had its adversities in deaths of teachers and
conflagration of buildings, yet it has bravely struggled through all.
Its session for 1896 opened with students from fourteen different
States, and with prospects bright and encouraging. Students who enter
this University must come with a purpose and must use with profit their
time. Anything short of this will not be tolerated.
[Illustration: Eckstein Norton Conservatory of Music Cane Spring Ky.]
Children who come as young as eight years are under a special matron
who cares for them as a mother. In the Industrial Department will
be found carpentry, blacksmithing, farming, printing, plain sewing,
dressmaking, tailoring, cooking, etc. Business Department includes
Shorthand, Typewriting, Bookkeeping, etc.
The Musical Conservatory is the first of the race manned by teachers
from the best Conservatories of Music of this country. The course
of study is in accord with Oberlin, Boston, Chicago and others. A
Conservatory building is now being erected under the direction of
Prof. Hattie A. Gibbs, who has traveled extensively through the East in
its interest.
Many of the graduates who have gone out from this institution are
successfully teaching in the various districts of their counties, and
some are assistants in the schools of their towns. Many of these young
men and women return after their schools close and take up their duties
in the College Department. Classes and studies are so arranged that
students may study what is most desirable, leave off at any stage,
recruit their health or finances, and return to complete the course at
any future time. The time to finish any course is the least possible,
consistent with thorough work in all departments. The school recognizes
annually the 16th of December (birthday of Honorable Eckstein Norton,
after whom the school is named), Donor's Day, at which time the work
is reviewed and the memory of those who have helped the institution,
living or dead, is kept fresh and revered by students and friends;
letters of encouragement are read and contributions announced.
The faculty is competent and consists of the following persons:
Rev. C. H. Parrish, A. B., A. M., President; P. T. Frazier, A. B; Mary
V. Cook, A. B., A. M.; Alice P. Kelley, A. B., A. M.; Hattie A. Gibbs,
Oberlin Conservatory; Minnetta B. James, Minnesota; Cornelia Burk,
Virginia; Amanda V. Nelson, Matron.
REV. CHARLES HENRY PARRISH, A. B., A. M.
One of the most remarkable men among the Negro educators of this
country is Rev. C. H. Parrish. He is a native Kentuckian, and worked
his way up from errand boy in a dry goods store to the presidency of a
flourishing school, and one of the most noted ministers in the Baptist
denomination. In infancy his mother beheld a son in whom her soul could
delight. Obedient, true and faithful were traits in his character so
conspicuous that he was a favorite in his town among all people.
He entered State University, Louisville, Ky., September, 1880, with Dr.
William J. Simmons as president, and graduated May, 1886, at the head
of his class with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In 1886 he became
pastor of the Calvary Baptist Church, where he still remains greatly
beloved by a large membership, and enjoys the respect and confidence
of all who know him as being an efficient minister and a Christian
gentleman who loves truth for its own sake and pursues it faithfully
regardless of everything.
Many honors have come to him as delegate to State, Educational and
National Conventions--holding offices of trust in many. At this time he
is President of the State Teachers' Association, and Chairman of the
Executive Board of the General Association of Colored Baptists.
He stands at the head of the Eckstein Norton University, an institution
devoted to the training of the head, heart and hand, and therefore
gives to the Negro youth the kind of education best adapted to his
development. He has traveled extensively in the interest of the school,
and by his strict attention to business he has made the work a success.
[Illustration: CHAS. H. PARRISH, A. B., A. M.]
Though Rev. Parrish leads a busy life, he finds time to look after
race interests. He is author of "What We Believe," a hand-book for
Baptist Churches. So highly was this work prized that the American
Baptist Publication Society compiled it with works by Dr. John A.
Broadus, Dr. Alvah Hovey, Dr. J. L. Burrows and others. Rev. Parrish
ranks high as an educator, pulpit orator, president and author. He is
clear, comprehensive and convincing in the presentation of his views
upon all subjects, and adds to this fact a beauty of language, grace of
rhetoric, and forceful logic, which stamps him at once as extraordinary
in his gifts and acquirements.
MISS MARY V. COOK, A. B., A. M.
The subject of this sketch is a native of Bowling Green, Ky. Her life
was uneventful till she reached school age, when her ability for
learning asserted itself. By her persistent efforts and her insatiable
desire for knowledge, she soon outgrew the educational facilities of
the place, and was chafing for better advantages, when Dr. Wm. J.
Simmons made it possible for her to enter the State University at
Louisville, Ky.
After her graduation she was elected permanent teacher and made
principal of the Normal Department, and professor of Latin and
Mathematics in the State University, which position she held until a
few years ago, when she was called to a like position in the Eckstein
Norton University.
Miss Cook has appeared on the programmes of some of the most noted
bodies of the race, read a paper on Afro-American women at the
Educational Congress in Chicago, 1893, and has addressed crowded houses
throughout the New England States under the auspices of the Baptist
Women's Home Mission Society.
[Illustration: MISS MARY V. COOK, A. B., A. M.]
In 1892, when a fight was made against the enactment of the Separate
Coach Law, she, with three other ladies, was invited to the State
Capital to enter protest before the Legislature. She has traveled
extensively through the South land and made a close study of her
people, their progress, etc. She has gone as far west as California
in the interest of the work in which she is engaged, and the school
is now reaping the benefits of that trip. She has recently accepted a
place on the Executive Board of the National Federation of Women, of
which Mrs. Victoria Mathews is chairman.
Miss Cook is a thorough business woman; her industry and close
application to affairs intrusted to her is of marked comment. She
is conscientiously consistent with an honest conviction of right,
to which she adheres with admirable fearlessness. She is, by her
very constitution, compassionate, gentle, patient, self-denying,
loving, hopeful, trustful, and by the power of her own pure soul she
unconsciously molds the lives of those under her. It would be utterly
impossible to live on day after day with Miss Cook, and not feel the
desire for as noble a life springing up in your own heart. She has a
wonderful influence over her pupils, who love her with the love that
casteth out fear. And she not only influences them, but all who come in
contact with her are wonderfully impressed.
Miss Cook is an intelligent little woman, a deep thinker; keeps abreast
of the times and holds no mean place in the galaxy of distinguished
colored women.
The women of her own State delight to honor her and have conferred upon
her some of the highest offices in the organizations of which she is a
member. Miss Cook has a literary inclination; being a strong, graceful
writer, she has contributed much that is good to colored journalism.
When she has appeared on the public platform, she has never failed
to carry her audience by the force of her terse style and convincing
argument. She was recently appointed Commissioner of the State of
Kentucky to the Women's Congress which convened at Atlanta, Ga.,
December, 1895, before which body she read an interesting paper.
Slowly and surely, step by step, Miss Cook has risen to this high plane
of usefulness and her life is an inspiration, modestly displaying the
great unselfish heart of the woman, whose highest ambition is to be of
use to her race and humanity.
MISS HATTIE A. GIBBS.
Miss Hattie A. Gibbs is the youngest of five children of Hon. Mifflin
W. Gibbs, of Little Rock, Ark., and his amiable wife, Mrs. Anna
Alexander Gibbs.
Miss Gibbs entered the Oberlin Public School at six, and began the
study of music at nine under the direction of her sister, who at that
time had made considerable advancement in that study. At eleven she
entered the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and also kept up her studies
in school for three years, after which she entered the high school and
devoted all her time to those studies. After two years of hard study
of Greek, Latin and Mathematics, she graduated with honors before her
fifteenth birthday.
As a student she was an untiring worker, her hours for study
encompassed almost the entire day. She accustomed herself to rising at
four o'clock to begin her practice.
[Illustration: PROF. HATTIE A. GIBBS.]
In the Conservatory Department of Oberlin College the attendance is
about 500, and out of this number the average attendance of colored
students is eight or ten. Students are required to finish a course
of three studies before a diploma is awarded. Besides finishing the
studies of piano, pipe organ and harmony, she had the advantage of
several terms in voice culture, and since her graduation she has made
special study of the violin in order to better prepare herself as
director of Eckstein Norton Conservatory of Music, of which she was a
founder and of which she is now in charge.
The women of the race should be proud of her. The people of Kentucky
should be proud that one so able has placed her services within reach,
and ought to show the colored peoples' appreciation, by contributing
money toward erecting such suitable buildings, as will stand long after
the founder is numbered with the dead--a race monument in itself.
In disposition Miss Gibbs is amiable; in mind she is great; in heart
she is noble; in manners she is gentle; she has a steadfast and
undeviating love of truth, fearless and straightforward in action and
integrity and an honor ever unsullied by an unworthy word or deed, and
after all, these traits so prominent in her make-up make her greater
than her worldly success in her art, for in themselves they constitute
greatness.
She has a clever handicraft at all the arts commonly styled "woman's
work." Not only have her hands been trained to glide dexterously over
the keyboard, but she has made every day of her life tell, and the
result of her industry is that she is skilled in painting, crayon work,
artistic embroidery, dressmaking, cooking and all that goes to make up
an accomplished woman.
This brief sketch has been given with the hope that young people, who
wish to accomplish any particular pursuit in life, may herein find an
example of what a woman can do, and the truth may be brought to them
that "there is no excellence without great labor."
GLOUCESTER AGRICULTURAL AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL.
[Illustration: PROF. W. B. WEAVER.]
Professor W. B. Weaver, the principal of the Gloucester Agricultural
and Industrial School--was born April 7, 1852, at Winton, N. C. The
first school he attended was taught by his oldest brother under a cart
shelter, from there to a log hut which had been used as a barn, making
seats out of boxes and plank boards. In 1869 he spent a few months
in a public school, where he was advanced to the grade from which he
could enter Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, Hampton, Va. He
worked his way through, and in 1873 began teaching his first school, in
his native State, having in his school 112 pupils. In 1875 and 1876 he
taught in the Valley of Virginia, in 1878, at Williamsport, Pa., and in
the fall of 1879, he returned to Virginia, and looking for a fruitful
field, was sent by Gen. S. C. Armstrong to Gloucester county, where he
began this noble effort for the uplifting of his race. He opened school
in December, 1879, in a little log cabin, which was used by slaves as
a meeting-house before the war. In this dark room he taught over 75
pupils. He soon caused the people in the community to see and feel the
need of education; and securing the co-operation of the School Board
and by the aid of the colored people, a two-story building was erected
known as Bethel Public School-house. Here 196 pupils were in attendance
and three teachers employed. His school did not close at the end of the
public school term of five months as other schools; but by keeping the
people interested, he raised money enough to continue for eight months.
[Illustration: THE LOG CABIN.]
Seeing the need of an industrial school for Gloucester and surrounding
counties, he gave up the public school work and entered upon the work
of establishing an industrial school. An educational mass-meeting
was called in which the Board of Trustees were elected. Prof. Weaver
then commenced the work of raising money for the proposed school. In
October, 1888, he opened school with four pupils in a board house once
used for a store. Coming out of a well-arranged crowded school-room
into this dilapidated make-shift with only four pupils, made him feel
strange. But having made a start in the direction which he believed
to be right, he did not look back, but daily pressed on the work of
teaching.
[Illustration: BETHEL PUBLIC SCHOOL.]
In 1890, thirty-three acres of land were bought and Richmond Hall
commenced. In October of that year he opened school in this building
though only partly finished.
[Illustration: RICHMOND HALL.]
Since that time 120 acres more of land have been purchased, a large
farm put under cultivation, other buildings erected, and industrial
shops opened. One large building known as Douglass Hall has recently
been erected and in use, though not completed. It is a three-story
building 78 × 60 in size and will cost, when completed, upward of
$6,000.
The school is located in Gloucester county, on York river, and is
accessible by a daily line of steamers plying between Baltimore and
West Point.
It is in easy reach of over 30,000 colored people. It has sent out
several graduates, who are doing good work among their people and for
their country. There are at present ninety-seven pupils on roll, and
the school property is valued at $15,000.
[Illustration: DOUGLASS HALL.]
Mrs. A. B. Weaver, the wife of Prof. Weaver, has been a strong helper
with him in this work. He says that his success is largely due to her
constant work, wise counsel and strong faith in God. Many times, when
the way would be dark, and to continue in this industrial school work
looked impossible, she would encourage him to hold on a few days
longer. She graduated from the Albany High School of New York in 1880,
and in '81 became one of his assistant teachers in the Bethel Public
School, and she has stuck firmly to the work ever since.
[Illustration: MRS. ANNA B. WEAVER.]
The object of this school is to make good and useful citizens, to train
teachers, preachers, mechanics, farmers and leaders for the race.
The school depends largely on charity for support. The colored people
in Gloucester are very proud of this school, its work and its workers,
and contribute freely of their small means to its support. It is an
outgrowth of the Hampton school and is known as Hampton's second son,
and shows the wonderful influence of that school. It also shows how the
colored people are striving to help themselves, and how they succeed
when they have had a chance in such schools.
SCHOFIELD SCHOOL.
This school was established in 1868 by Martha Schofield.
It was started in a little frame schoolhouse which was soon crowded to
its utmost capacity. To-day the property, entirely free from debt, is
worth $30,000, and includes two substantial brick buildings, and two
frame buildings in Aiken, S. C., with a farm of 281 acres three miles
distant.
Through all these years it has influenced and moulded many lives. In
the North and South, in the city and country, you will find colored men
and women who will tell you that they received their education at the
Schofield School.
Much has been done, much remains to be done. In the country places,
in the towns and villages of the South, are hundreds of young men
and women growing up in the densest ignorance--in ignorance of the
commonest decencies and proprieties of life--with minds capable of
greatest effort, but darkened and obscured; with immortal souls
clouded with superstition and the teachings of ignorant preachers. They
reach out their hands to us with the cry: "Come over and help us!" What
can we do for them?
In our schoolrooms they receive thorough training in the branches of a
common-school education. In the boarding department they may receive
industrial instruction which will fit them to take up the duties of
everyday life. Daily contact and association with refined, cultured
teachers will develop latent possibilities, will arouse new ambitions
and longings for a higher, purer life. Even a few months' sojourn at
the institution leaves an indelible mark on the character. When a
student comes back year after year until he has completed the required
course of study, his growth is more rapid, the results of incalculable
value. Not until one realizes the narrowness, the poverty of the
environment from which such a student comes, can one fully estimate
the benefit of such an institution. Nor does the good stop with the
one directly benefited. As the scholars go out into their homes to be
teachers and workers, they carry the knowledge gained, and the light
in their own hearts, and thus reach multitudes with whom we never,
directly, come in contact.
There are those whose lives are consecrated to this work, whose daily
time and strength are spent among these people for their uplifting.
There are constant calls on their sympathy, constant appeals for help,
but unless the help and support comes from the North they cannot
respond.
Their greatest need is a larger Endowment Fund to meet the current
expenses, that the labor and care connected with the raising of money
may be rendered unnecessary, when there would be more time and strength
to meet the demands of the work at their doors.
Can there be a greater privilege than to use the money the Lord has
sent them than bringing into the fold some of His stray lambs? "For
I was an hungered and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty and ye gave me
drink; I was a stranger and ye took me in; I was naked and ye clothed
me; I was sick and ye visited me; I was in prison and ye came unto me."
Who will open the door of knowledge to these minds, held in the
bondage of ignorance; who will help to feed the souls hungering and
thirsting for the bread of life; who will aid them in their attempt to
clothe these rude, untrained spirits in the garments of refinement and
culture, in which even they may stand arrayed? "Inasmuch as ye have
done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done unto me."
THE REED ORPHAN HOME.
The Reed Orphan Home, at Covington, Ga., was founded by Mrs. Dinah P.
Pace, who was graduated from Atlanta University, Atlanta, Ga., in 1883.
During this year (1883) Mrs. Pace went to Covington to teach for a
few months only, but while there she became greatly interested in the
work of uplifting her race. Her labors did not end with the routine
of ordinary school duties, for she visited the homes and assisted in
caring for the little ones of the families, very few of which did not
greatly need her services. Her interest in both mother and children
soon caused her to take under her roof several children who were left
orphans.
The institution has grown considerably during the last few years. The
work is quietly carried on without attracting any great amount of
notice from other towns or cities. With the aid of Northern benefactors
and a few friends of the neighborhood, several buildings have been
erected, but these are fast becoming insufficient, owing to the rapid
growth of the school.
Mrs. Pace is assisted by three other teachers, who are also either
graduates or under-graduates of Atlanta University.
[Illustration: MRS. DINAH P. PACE.]
The children of the "family" spend their vacation in the country,
taking care of a farm upon which many articles of food for the winter
are produced. As far as the means at hand permits, the children are
being trained industrially, as well as intellectually. The work is not
confined to any one denomination; It is entirely unsectarian. Especial
effort is being made to prepare those under her charge for the higher
duties of life, both as citizens and Christians. Like most institutions
of this character, the "Reed Home" is greatly in need of means. It is
to be hoped, however, that a brighter future awaits it, and that the
noble work may be abundantly prospered. No one can realize what it is
to care for a large number of children, bestowing upon each a mother's
affection--none can know but those who have undertaken such a labor of
love.
THE A. & M. COLLEGE, GREENSBORO, N. C.
The A. & M. College, at Greensboro, N. C., is a State school for the
education of the colored youth of North Carolina. The buildings and
appointments are the best of any school in the South, except Fisk
University. While the main object at this institution is to prepare
teachers for the State, they have a splendid industrial department. In
the machine shop a young man made a perfect steam engine, which was the
first made by a colored man in the State. Another student made in the
wood shop a valuable office desk and another a handsome pulpit. I think
I can safely say that the wood shop and machine shop have the best set
of tools and machinery I have seen anywhere. Prof. Jas. B. Dudley, A.
M., who is president of this school, is a native of Wilmington, N. C.
He received his education at the public schools of Wilmington, and he
also attended the Institute for colored youths at Philadelphia, Pa.,
and Shaw University at Raleigh, N. C. Prof. Dudley began teaching in
the public schools of his native State in 1876, and has been thus
engaged ever since. As president of the State College he has improved
the condition of the school and also increased the attendance very
much. He has been prominent in the literary world as a writer for both
papers and magazines.
[Illustration: PROF. JAS. B. DUDLEY, A. M.]
THE GEORGIA STATE INDUSTRIAL COLLEGE.
The Georgia State Industrial College is a State institution, the only
one of its kind in Georgia for colored youths. It is endowed by the
General Government and supported by the State. The grounds contain
about eighty-six acres, consisting of thirty-five acres in the campus
and fifty-one acres in the college farm. The campus, shaded by tall
live-oaks, festooned by pretty pendant moss, is, for natural scenery,
the most attractive in the State. The location is perfectly healthful.
The college farm is separated from the campus only by the railroad, by
which passengers are conveyed from the city to their grounds. There
are at present the following buildings on the grounds: Dormitory, two
school buildings, chapel, farm house, blacksmith shop, wheelwright and
carpenter shops and four cottages for the professors.
The courses at present established are the industrial, sub-normal and
collegiate.
Richard R. Wright, A. M., LL. D., who is president of the Georgia
State College, was born of slave parents, and is a very remarkable
man, and one of the best-educated men of his race, and one of the most
prominent educators in the country. I was very much impressed with the
most excellent work at the State school, both in the class-room and
workshop. There is no doubt but a great work is being done for the
colored youth through Prof. Wright's very able efforts.
[Illustration: PROF. RICHARD R. WRIGHT, A. M., L.L. D.]
In the late war with Spain Mr. Wright was appointed as one of the
regular paymasters, and did the work with great credit to himself and
his race. He has been something of a political leader in the State
of Georgia; but his greatest work has been as an educator. In 1878
he called the first convention of colored teachers ever assembled in
Georgia, and for three years was president of that convention. Mr.
Wright is the founder of the Ware High School at Augusta, Ga., the
first high school for colored youths, and the only one supported by
city funds in the State.
STATE NORMAL SCHOOL.
[Illustration: PROF. S. G. ATKINS, A. M.]
The Slater Industrial Academy was incorporated September 28, 1892. The
State Normal School was established March 13, 1895; the Legislature
appropriating $1,000 per annum for its maintenance. This institution is
located at Winston-Salem, N. C.; Prof. S. G. Atkins, A. M., Principal.
The Governor of North Carolina has the following to say for him:
STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA,
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,
RALEIGH, June 21, 1894.
Prof. S. G. Atkins is a distinguished educator, and a man of great
moral worth and fine intellectual capacity.
He is deeply interested in the moral, intellectual and material
advancement of his race, and his untiring efforts in this direction
should have the recognition and support of all who desire the
improvement of their fellow-beings.
His high standing in this State is beyond question, and entitles his
claims to your earnest consideration, and I trust that you will lend
him what assistance you can.
Prof. Atkins has been an earnest worker in the field of education, and
his example and personal endeavors have exerted a beneficial influence
on the fortunes of his race. I take pleasure in endorsing him. I have
the honor to be,
Very respectfully yours,
ELIAS CARR, Governor N. C.
Mr. Atkins may feel proud of the high praise given him by the Governor.
His school opened in a small building, 20 × 40, with one teacher and 25
pupils. The school now has twelve teachers and last session enrolled
250 pupils in all departments, and has property valued at $25,000.
This institution is founded on the idea that intellectual development
and industrial training should go hand in hand.
The departments of instruction may be denominated as follows: 1.
Industrial. 2. Literary. 3. Musical. The literary department has in
view chiefly the preparing of teachers for the public schools of the
State.
Both races have contributed help, and especially white men of means in
Winston-Salem.
DELAWARE STATE COLLEGE.
_Established in 1891._
The State of Delaware has at last been aroused to a sense of its duty
toward the education of the Negro, and in 1891 the Legislature of
Delaware gave $8,000, and in 1893 $1,000. The first $8,000 was for
buildings. The school is located two miles north of Dover, the State
Capital, on the Loockerman farm, a tract of about one hundred acres.
A workshop has been erected and fitted with tools and machinery for
teaching the industrial arts. Rev. W. C. Jason, A. M., D. D., a very
able young colored man, has been elected president of this State
Institution. Mr. Jason is a graduate of Drew Theological Seminary.
Professor Lorenzo D. Hileland has charge of the departments of
Mathematics and Physics, also is superintendent of industrial work.
This Institution is the most northern State School now in operation for
the education of the race.