CHAPTER XXVIII.
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.