UNITED PRESBYTERIAN SCHOOLS, BOYDTON INSTITUTE, AND CHRISTIANSBURG
INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTE.
In this chapter I wish to mention the school-work done for the race
by the United Presbyterian Church. This matter should have appeared
with the other Presbyterian work, but for the fact that I was unable
to secure the data when the first edition was published. I shall also
mention in this chapter some other school-work that came too late.
KNOXVILLE COLLEGE.
Knoxville College is located at Knoxville, Tenn., and is under the
control of the Board of Missions to the Freedmen of the United
Presbyterian Church of North America. By arrangement with the
University of Tennessee the college is also the industrial department
of the university for colored students. For this purpose the university
has added largely to the equipment of the agricultural department and
mechanical department, provides for the salaries of the professors of
these departments, and sets aside $600 annually to pay for the labor of
students in these departments. Thus they are enabled to earn somewhat
of their expenses, and especially is each one taught a trade. Aside
from the funds received from the university as indicated above, the
college is supported by voluntary contributions of the church.
The faculty of the college, including matrons and instructors in the
industrial department, numbers twenty-five. The president of the
college is Rev. R. W. McGranahan, D. D., who has been in that position
since 1899, succeeding at that time Dr. J. S. McCulloch, who had served
the institution as president for twenty-two years.
Knoxville stands for the most thorough training possible in an
intellectual way, and at the same time provides for the most helpful
industrial training. It is in hearty sympathy with all efforts to
teach the trades to the colored people, and is maintaining a thorough
industrial department for that purpose. At the same time the literary
standard is not lowered one whit, but is being constantly elevated.
The courses of study offered are classical, scientific, theological,
normal and common school. The industrial department offers training
in agriculture, carpentering, electrical work, printing, sewing and
housework.
The college occupies a commanding site on one of the hills made
historic by the siege of Knoxville during the Civil War. The buildings
consist of a recitation hall, McCulloch Hall (boys' dormitory),
Elnathan Hall (girls' dormitory), boys' home, girls' home, mechanical
building, heating plant, president's cottage and barn. Its property is
valued at $110,000.
The work the college is doing is best seen in the lives of those who
have gone out from it. The profession of teaching claims the larger
number; but these, for the most part, do not confine their efforts to
one profession, but teach, both by example and precept, some manual
art--farming, sewing, printing, or some other useful occupation.
NORFOLK MISSION COLLEGE.
Located at Norfolk, Virginia, is under the management of the United
Presbyterian Church. Rev. Wm. M'Kirahan, is Principal at this time, and
has under him an able body of teachers. The teachers employed are both
white and colored.
The wisdom of the Board of Freedmen's Missions of the United
Presbyterian Church in the location of one of its Schools in Norfolk
is easy of vindication. In behalf of the Mission College appeal may
confidently be made both to its supporters in the North and its patrons
in the South. Nearly ten thousand colored children of school age have
their homes within a radius of four miles of its walls. Two-thirds of
these are not in any school.
A good Normal course is given there, and an Industrial training is
given in sewing, garment-making and fancy work for girls.
Boys are taught the trade of printing. That department gives employment
to 28 pupils for a short time each day. The training given here
includes the application of the rules of grammar and rhetoric as well
as instruction in composition and press-work. Several of the boys who
spent some time in this department are now employed as compositors on
one of the city papers.
The graduates of the Mission College number one hundred and
thirty-four. Nearly all are usefully employed. More than half are
teachers. A good number are in colleges and professional schools
receiving further preparation for life's work.
THYNE INSTITUTE.
Thyne Institute is located at Chase City, Va., on the Richmond and
Danville Railroad. The location is one of the most beautiful in South
Side Virginia.
The buildings are four in number, and are fitted up in modern style.
Every appliance necessary for successful school-work has been provided.
The aim of the officers of the Institute is to educate the students
along lines tending to fit them for life's work in the home, in
society, as teachers in the public schools, and as religious
instructors. The moral, mental, and industrial are united.
Rev. J. M. Moore, A.M., Ph.D., is Principal, with an able body
of teachers. The course taught there is Normal, and they have a
fine Industrial Home for girls, where they are taught all kinds of
housework. The school is under the control of the United Presbyterian
Church.
HENDERSON NORMAL INSTITUTE.
The Henderson Normal Institute, located at Henderson, N. C., is a
school established and conducted to afford the colored people an
opportunity of obtaining a good education. It is a part of the
missionary work of the United Presbyterian Church, which has always
taken a deep interest in the welfare of the colored race. Having
opposed slavery as a principle, it was natural that as soon as slavery
was abolished, this church should show its interest in the future of
the freedmen by doing what it could for their moral and intellectual
development. The members of the church in the North have given freely
of their means to support the work and to afford the colored people an
opportunity of rising and enjoying the blessings and advantages which
God has opened to all in this free land. The United Presbyterian Church
gives each year nearly $50,000 in money, besides many contributions in
other forms, to carry on the work it has undertaken for the colored
people.
Rev. C. L. McCracken, A.M., is Principal, and is assisted by able
teachers.
The course of study embraces the ordinary English branches from the
primary to the high school and normal grade.
For four years a sewing department has been maintained in connection
with the school. The purpose of this department is to teach all the
girls in the school to do plain sewing, and to cut and make their own
garments. A competent teacher gives her whole time to this department,
and from 120 to 150 girls, in six classes, receive instruction nearly
one hour each day. During the year many hundred garments are made, and
these are sold to the pupils for less than the cost of the materials.
An industrial department has been added for the boys. The colored
people are making rapid progress in knowledge, and taking a more
intelligent interest in business and politics. In consequence they
are beginning to publish their own papers; and each year the papers
published by them and in their interest will increase.
In addition to the schools just mentioned, the United Presbyterian
Church has some smaller schools in other parts of the South, as follows:
At Blue Stone, Va., with an attendance of about 200 pupils. One at
Athens, Tenn., with nearly 200 pupils, and at Miller's Ferry, N. C.,
of over 200 students. One at Prairie Bluff, Ala., of about 200, and
at Camden, Ala., of 200. One at Canton Bend, Ala., of 50, and one at
Summerfield, Ala., of nearly 200.
The data given regarding these schools will enable my readers to see
that the United Presbyterian Church is doing its share in educating the
colored people.
BOYDTON INSTITUTE.
The institute is located in a beautiful grove of oaks, a mile from
Boydton, Mecklenburg County, Va. The Atlantic and Danville Railroad
passes through the town of Boydton. President, Mrs. Lucretia A. Cullis,
Boston, Mass.; Principal, Rev. D. F. Lamson; Associate Principal, Mrs.
H. B. Sharpe; Treasurer, Miss Mary H. Ware.
In 1878, the "Randolph Macon" property, consisting of a four-story
brick college building, steward's house, and about 425 acres of land,
was purchased by Dr. Charles Cullis, of Boston, Mass., with funds
donated for the purpose. It was regularly incorporated as a branch of
the "Faith Work," and a school for colored people immediately opened.
The college building has a chapel, school-rooms, and library, with
sleeping-rooms for more than one hundred students. The dormitories have
fire-places, which enable the students to be comfortable in the coldest
weather.
This institute is intended for the education of colored young men and
women, who wish to fit themselves for usefulness among their own people.
In addition to the common English branches, provision is made for
classes in English Literature, Rhetoric, Civil Government, and the
Theory and Practice of Teaching. The principal also gives instruction
in Bible History and Interpretation, in Theology and in Evangelistic
and Pastoral work. Special attention will be given to the needs of
post-graduates and of ministers.
CHRISTIANSBURG INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTE, CAMBRIA, VA.
CHARLES L. MARSHALL, PRINCIPAL.
The Christiansburg Industrial Institute, at Cambria, Va., is supported
by the Friends' Freedmen Association of Philadelphia, and is situated
in the southwestern part of Virginia, in the town of Cambria, on the
Norfolk and Western Railroad. The location is healthful and quiet.
For the sake of pure, moral and religious training, which is so much
needed by both boys and girls, the boarding department has been
established. Students living at a distance can secure board, room
furnished, fuel and lights, for $7.50 per month.
The design of this institution is to send out young men and women well
qualified for the great work of life; young men and women who will
lead the way to the highest usefulness. To send forth such a class of
students it will be necessary to train their heads as well as their
hearts, and their hands as well as their heads.
We are certain that at this institute a good English course of study
and the most needed industries can be carried on without conflict, and
to a very great advantage to all who may attend the school.
The prime object of this institution, aside from the literary training,
is to put within the hands of each young man and woman some industry by
which they will be able to secure a livelihood in the world.
It will be modeled after the Tuskegee Industrial Institute at Tuskegee,
Ala., and the Friends are advancing every effort to put it practically
on the same basis.
There are no industries from which can be obtained such profitable and
immediate results as those of scientific agriculture, stock-raising,
fruit-growing, mattress-making, carpentry, wheelwrighting,
blacksmithing, dressmaking, printing, and methodical cooking and
housekeeping.
The Friends' Freedmen Association of Philadelphia have placed the
Christiansburg Industrial Institute for the coming year under the
supervision of the officers of the Tuskegee Industrial Institute,
Tuskegee, Ala., which gives Booker T. Washington a general oversight of
that work.