ACHIEVING ONE'S IDEAL.
The six years following Mrs. Carr's connection with the University of the State of Missouri, might be characterized as the time of preparation, struggle and victory; preparation in the definite formulation of plans for her last educational experience; struggle to find the suitable place and the requisite means for the establishment of her college, and the victory of final achievement. This period extends from 1888 to 1894.
As we have seen, it was Mr. Carr's earnest desire for his wife to take a long rest, on his acceptance of the church at Springfield; and no attentive reader of Mrs. Carr's life can doubt the need of rest at this time—a rest which, in her case, meant keeping house—the every-day work of many women.
While she rests, this biography may also rest, in the respect of dealing with events, since the occurrences in the simple life are most enjoyed in proportion as they make dull reading, and the days at Springfield were happy days.
To illustrate Mrs. Carr's force of character it may be related that one day when her finger was cut off, she found the dismembered part in the folding door, quickly fastened the end back in place, and held it there till help could be summoned.
A brief note from the Ladies Aid Society of Sheldon, Missouri, asking if Mrs. Carr can come to deliver a lecture in their interests, must be taken as an example of countless others of a similar nature. The following statement from the President of the Missouri University, fitly serves as a transition from former experiences, to the new phase of Mrs. Carr's career. It is addressed to her:
"During my administration of the Missouri University for thirteen years, you occupied faithfully and efficiently and acceptably the position of Lady Principal, for eight or ten years. This position you resigned of your own choice. It was not done at the advice, or the instance, of either the Board or the President of the institution. You had always done considerable teaching, as well as serving as Principal, and it was always my understanding that it was not your pleasure to hold the position apart from teaching; and as the care had so grown as to make that overburdensome, when you withdrew, a successor was appointed who has never done any teaching. As a matter of fact, when you resigned, I did not fully understand your reason for doing so. Allow me to express my appreciation for your great worth as an educator, and to assure you of my earnest hope that your enterprise at Sherman will more than realize your purposes and expectations."
This letter from Dr. S. S. Laws was written in 1891, which brings us rather prematurely to the subject of "Sherman." The reader will find that in the course of events, all interests will presently center in that Texas city; but, as we have said, Mrs. Carr is now resting (1888-9) and the biography, as a chronicle of events, rests with her.
But while household cares engage her time, her mind is ever active with that great idea of her life which has attended her since childhood days, and which we are, in the course of time, to find bringing her to the highest fulfillment of her powers. We have seen how that tireless nature has fought its way from battlefield to battlefield, ever progressing in its educational career. It is not clearly defined to her judgment how, or where, she is to take the final stand in her work of improving the greatest number of girls in the most effective way, yet, by following the clews given in the following letters, we may trace out her course to its final destination.
But if Mrs. Carr has temporarily entered into what we may call—as distinguished from other years—her period of rest, the following clipping from a newspaper dated, May, 1889, will indicate that Mr. Carr has been far otherwise engaged:
"Sunday night, O. A. Carr stated to his congregation that he had a secret of several months' standing which he was agonizing to disclose. The long cherished hope of his congregation, and indeed of the North Town disciples was about to be realized—the erection of a church building in North Springfield. He said the money is already raised and the building will begin as soon as specifications are determined upon. He stated that the disciples of Christ with whom he had been meeting in the Good Templars' Hall, for nearly two years, would begin, next Sunday, regular church work preparatory to entering their new church home in the near future. With the dawning light of the permanent prosperity of the church of North Springfield filling their hearts, the congregation was dismissed, and the scene of rejoicing that followed cannot be described."
Mrs. Carr in commenting upon this news, adds, "North Springfield has a population of about 10,000, and a struggling little band of Christians have been praying and working for the above happy consummation, for years."
This brief news-item reveals, to those who have built churches, years of labor, anxiety, and suffering. In the meantime, the quest for a suitable college opening is never relinquished. Now that the church is built, one is freer to look about. Mr. Carr, having served three years at Springfield, Mo., is invited to come to Arkansas and examine the field.
"The brethren will help support and establish a college here," writes G. W. Hudspeth. "I would like to have it at Little Rock, but do not know that she would offer as much encouragement as a smaller town with no college. I have about 400 lots in a railroad town of which I will give sufficient grounds for a college building; and allow the other lots sold, and donate one-third of the proceeds to the support of the college."
In December of the same year—1890—Mr. Carr writes from Bates City to Mrs. Carr: "It seems to me that the Sherman proposition is the best that has been made you, and I want you to see your way clear, and at the same time I want you to act on your own judgment. You say you will accept the terms, if they suit. I hope you will have some word of cheer to send before long. Do not be gloomy and downcast."
A few days after, the following from J. W. McGarvey is written to Mr. Carr, showing that the terms of Sherman were far from persuasive: "Your letter surprises me, for I thought that you and Sister Carr had already moved to Sherman, Texas, and were at work there. The Broadway Church has engaged Brother Bartholomew to preach one year, and superintend the erection of a new house of worship, after which he returns to St. Louis to build a new house there. I hope the school at Sherman has not gone amiss, and that it will not be affected by the college boom at Dallas."
Mrs. Carr, in explaining why Sherman was chosen as the site for her important venture, wrote: "After a long and arduous term of labor as Adjunct Professor and Principal of the Ladies Department in Missouri State University my nervous system broke down, and I am compelled to suspend my work. Mr. Carr accepted a call to preach at Springfield, Mo., believing the altitude would conduce to the restoration of my health. Breathing the ozone of the Ozarks, I was soon a new creature, and I determined to resume my professional labors. The thought, like an inspiration, came to me, 'Build a college for girls, consecrate your life to it, and leave it as a bequest to the Church.' I told Mr. Carr of my heart's desire, and after prayerful consideration, we resolved to devote our united lives to the work. I visited a number of towns and cities in Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky, seeking a suitable location. After I had spent a year thus, Mr. Carr went to Sherman, Texas, to conduct a series of meetings, and some of the prominent citizens, having learned what we purposed, expressed a desire to have the college located at Sherman. A proposition was submitted, which Mr. Carr forwarded me at Springfield, advising me to come and look into the matter. I came, amused at the idea of locating our life-work in Texas; but I was then ignorant of her marvelous developments, and of her still more marvelous undeveloped resources. I visited a number of her splendid towns, and ascertained that in the wide territory of the State, the Church of Christ owned no college exclusively for girls."
It would be a brief story to say that Sherman was finally selected and the college built there; but how, in that case, could the reader gain a knowledge of the almost insuperable difficulties overcome? It is by such a knowledge that we gain the clearest view of Mrs. Carr's character. She was, no doubt, often despondent, but she never relinquished her determination; nor did her zeal cause her to act too hastily. Although Sherman now appeared desirable, no stone must be left unturned to discover if there were towns more promising.
January 18, 1891, we find President J. W. Ellis writing from Plattsburg College, Missouri, to Mr. Carr: "I wrote you a hasty note on receipt of your last. If you had carried the letter a little longer in your pocket, you might have weakened it so it might not have got here! In regard to Sister Carr's quest—Plattsburg College is now prosperous and has been for eleven years. I would be willing to sell it at a nominal price, to get rest from the long-continued service of a teacher and his wife. I see no reason why Sister Carr could not continue the flourishing condition of the school. Campus, four acres, unencumbered, non-taxable."
February 12, 1891, Wm. Frazier wrote Mr. Carr from Calusa, California: "At the suggestion of Brethren J. C. Keith and W. P. Dorsey, I address you this note to say: For some 14 years, Brother Keith has been President of Pierce Christian College; lately he sent in his resignation; we will have to supply his place. I feel at liberty to ask if you will be open for engagement next session, beginning September 1st. I am President of the Board of Trustees, and the Board looks to me to attend to these matters. The church at College City will be without a preacher in June; so the President of the college will most likely be called to preach for the church. I ought to have said that Brother Keith's health has been poor for three years, and his physicians advise a change and rest."
O. A. Carr, in forwarding this letter to his wife, adds, "The above received to-day. I answered by saying, 'Send on your proposition, I will consider it.' Why not get an appointment to lecture at Galveston? You could easily run down there from Sherman, and see the place."
Mr. Carr to Mrs. Carr, March 2nd: "I have just written to Brother Keith in full asking all the questions you suggested, and several besides. I told him we would come, and I could begin preaching for the church right away. I asked him to send you a catalogue at Sherman. It may be that the California plan is better than the Texas one. I have but one objection, which I waive for your sake—I will be so far away from my kin, and the friends of early days. Besides, you know I prefer preaching to teaching; but I suppose I could do both at College City, after a fashion. So Brother Capp is to be at Springfield! Well, I would rather have him succeed me than any one else, for the good of the church. Address me at Omaha."
L. B. Wilkes, at Stockton, California, to O. A. Carr: "I wrote to Brother Frazier. The place at College City is yours, it seems, if you want it. You had better have them as a Board, send an official letter, saying just what terms they mean to propose. If there's anything I can do, I am ready."
Wm. Frazier to L. B. Wilkes, March 16th: "I have written to Sister Carr, making Brother Carr an offer to take our college, and am now anxiously awaiting an answer. What a grand service you could be to us, Brother Wilkes, if you could write to Brother Carr and induce him to come and see our college."
Instead of quoting further, the Pierce College incident may be summed up as follows: The Executive Board called Mr. and Mrs. Carr to Pierce Christian College of California. The call was accepted. Mrs. Carr gave up the Sherman idea; all property at their death was to go to Pierce Christian College; an accident policy in favor of the college was arranged. She accordingly wired to College City that she would be there by the 30th; sold the ponies and carriage and the household goods at a sacrifice of about $1,000 (Mr. Carr was then in Nebraska), and was in due time joined by her husband.
The ticket agent secured their tickets. They were on the eve of departure when a message from the President of the Board called off the agreement. Opposition had arisen on the grounds that Mr. Carr did not, in some of his opinions, accord with all of those on the Board.
Mr. Carr, under the blow of this disappointment, wrote to Mr. Frazier as follows: "Your reasons for withdrawing your offer are as great a surprise to me as was the telegram announcing the fact. I stand where Brothers Wilkes, Keith, Graham, McGarvey and Grubbs stand. I emphatically encourage and practice progression heavenward. I will not desert the cause of Christ for the fashion of the giddy world. Having no children, Mrs. Carr has been planning for several years to locate in a college which, at my death, would receive our money. We had decided upon Pierce Christian College. I tell you this that you may know how completely you have upset our plans."
The foregoing is introduced into this biography merely by way of illustrating the difficulties with which the Carrs were forced to contend, before the final victory.
Thus is the California incident closed. The Carrs once more find themselves beset by uncertainties. Mr. Carr writes to their Springfield friend, Mrs. Weaver, showing how one pauses irresolutely before various openings:
"I have been preaching at Council Bluffs, of late. I haven't yet decided where I shall labor. I am waiting to hear from different points, and then we'll go somewhere. President J. W. Ellis of Plattsburg, Mo., offers us his college. I don't know about it. There is no offer so good as Sherman, I think. Tell Miss Kate to write to me in shorthand if she likes. I leave the other side of this sheet for Mattie to say her say."
Mrs. Carr adds: "It is good of you to say my room is waiting for me. I shall never forget your kindness, coming just when it was most needed. I do try to be cheerful and hopeful. We have the comfort that we have tried all along to do our duty, to the best of our ability. I believe the Lord has a bright day in store for us, by and by, if we will only be patient and stand for the right."
June 23rd, F. W. Smith wrote to Mrs. Carr answering her questions regarding the Tennessee Female College at Franklin. He hesitates to advise her to accept it, but believes she could make of it a success, and assures her of his hearty support should she undertake the work there.
About the same time, W. J. Loos writes to Mr. Carr from Louisville: "We have your article from the Guide; had just received a note from Mrs. Carr covering the same ground. I will keep an eye on the field, and if I see any favorable opening, will let you know. I think you ought to appear more frequently in the Guide."
In 1891, the Carrs are thinking of going to Kentucky with their enterprise. In September, Mr. Carr writes to Mrs. Carr from "Brother McGarvey's study": "Brother Bartholomew says he will prepare you a prospective so that a cut can be made from it, of the college building, if you will give him the idea as to size, etc., and that it can be done in three or four days. For his work, he will charge nothing, but he will have to pay the man who does the drawing for the cut, and the cut will cost about $15." Tentative diagrams at this time, show that Mrs. Carr was making her own designs, arranging the rooms of her college—wherever it was to be—to suit her own ideas. It is no easy matter to make the cut of our college before there is any college. Still it must be done, to bring the scheme tangibly before the public, and one's imagination must become fixed in steel.
September 9th, Mrs. Carr writes Mrs. Weaver from Omaha: "I hope to be with you next week. I shall be in Springfield only a few days, I presume. Then I shall go on to Sherman, to begin the College enterprise. My love to Tillie." (Tillie was Mrs. Weaver's little daughter.) "Tell the dear child to have a dozen kisses ready for me."
Affairs seem to be crystalizing in and about Sherman, Texas. A site is provisionally chosen for the proposed college, "on a beautiful elevation," says Mrs. Carr, "in her eastern suburb, overlooking an immense circuit of country, as charming as the bluegrass region of our native State."
A mass meeting of the citizens of Sherman was called, which Mrs. Carr addresses in the interests of the enterprise. The arguments she produces appear to cover all the ground in sight, and all probable contingencies of the future. She says:
"If another girls college be established in Sherman, it will bring among you many more girls. They, in boarding-school vocabulary, will 'get awful hungry,' and must be fed. Our grocers will have to order a large supply of boarding-school staples, and our meat markets will have to multiply their sirloin roasts and porterhouse steaks. These girls will have boxes of roast turkey and French candies smuggled to them by sympathetic mamas, and nature in her mercy, will send a wave of nausea, and a cry will go up for our Homeopathic M. D. with his pleasant little pills, or for our old school dignified Regular with his calomel and quinine, or for our cautious Eclectic with his 'best' from all schools, and each will add to his list of patients, and our druggists will multiply their prescriptions, and their profits. These girls will delight in pretty dresses and becoming hats—." And so the dry goods stores will have their innings, and the milliners. Hope is next held out to the bookstores, the music supply companies, the opera house, the street car lines, etc.
Perhaps it is not so apparent what advantage the new college may be to those institutions already established in the city. But Mrs. Carr promptly takes up this point, and elucidates it with faultless logic:
"For example, Miss Smith, who is a member of the Christian Church, comes from Galveston, and attends the Christian College of Sherman. She is pleased with the school and delighted with our town. When she returns home, at the close of her session she tells her intimate Baptist friend, Miss Jones, and her intimate Methodist friend, Miss Brown, what a delightful place Sherman is, and how 'jolly' it would be for all to go to school in the same town, etc. What is the result? The following September Sherman Institute opens its doors to Miss Jones, and North Texas Female College welcomes Miss Brown. But that is not all. Miss Jones of Galveston has a brother who must be sent to college, and, with the true impulse of an affectionate sister, she says, 'Oh, brother Jimmie, get papa to send you to Austin College, or Mahan's Commercial College; and you can come to see me every Saturday.' Therefore, all the Baptists and Methodists of Sherman ought to encourage our enterprise to the extent of their financial ability."
Mrs. Carr proceeds to point out how the building of her college will give employment to carpenters, brick masons, carters, etc., how it will help fill the purses of the dealers in hardware and furniture, and carpets, and coal, etc., until most of the industries known to man are shown to be directly concerned.
"What I have said has been chiefly from a financial standpoint," she concludes, "but I know you love Sherman for Sherman's sake, and glory in her educational and religious progress. I believe you have the gallant Southern pride, and the intensely earnest desire for the education of women, to prompt at least one hundred and fifty of you to contribute to this enterprise at least $200 each, especially when you get in return a good-sized lot in one of the most beautiful suburbs of one of Texas' most beautiful cities."
So the success of the enterprise is to depend, it seems, upon the sale of college-lots—an old story, and usually, a sad one! We shall see how it succeeds in this instance.
In the meantime, Mrs. A. M. Laws, wife of the President of Missouri University, writes to Mrs. Carr, January 16, 1892: "I am glad you feel so much encouragement in your new enterprise. If there is such a thing as a fire-proof building, you ought to build fire-proof. I suppose you have heard of the calamity that has befallen our University. It is all in ruins. Last Saturday night a fire destroyed the entire building with its contents. Only the museum specimens, and law library, were saved, and not all of that. But already steps have been taken to rebuild and on a grander scale than before. In the meantime the classes are meeting in various places, all over town. All the portraits and statuary are gone to ashes. Mr. Laws' large oil portrait, and two other crayon portraits of him in the society halls, and one of myself, are destroyed. We will be glad to hear of your success in the new enterprise. Mr. Laws joins me in love and best wishes for a new year."
At last, O. A. Carr comes back from holding meetings in Kentucky, and joins his wife at Sherman. Mrs. Carr, on February 2nd, writes to her Springfield friend, Mrs. Weaver: "I need not attempt to tell you how happy I am to be with my husband once more. He says it is almost like being married over. Nothing but the good work we are trying to accomplish could have persuaded me to stay away from him so long. I have been hard at work all winter, and have got the College enterprise into good shape, and it bids fair to be a splendid success. If we can only stem the tide of our financial troubles a year longer, I think we shall be safe. We think we can get the college in operation by September, 1893. If Brother Porterfield will keep our house until then, or sell it for us, or if we can get the Omaha property off at half-cost price, we will be safe. I believe the Lord will put it into the hearts of our friends to stand by us. When the college is up, we shall be able to return their kindness tenfold. How happy we shall be, when the college is built, and we have you and our dear little Tillie with us every winter! Pray without ceasing, dear Sister Weaver, that the college may be built, for we are so anxious to do a good work, and we want to work together, the remainder of our lives. The Reid case at Omaha will retard the college enterprise, for I will have to go there in April; but we trust in the Lord, since the work we are doing is for His Cause, and we believe He will give us success in His own good time.
"We shall be hard pressed, for we are borrowing money, and indeed will be borrowing until the college is up, but after that, we hope to have plenty to live on and give to the Lord. Mr. Carr and I have keenly felt our financial embarrassment, but remember we have told no one but you just how great is that embarrassment; keep it locked up in your own heart. Keep your health and strength for Tillie. She is the special charge God has given you. Keep your energy for her. Is she taking music lessons—or do you think she is still too young? Bless her heart! how I wish I could kiss her this minute! Tell Brother Capp to bring you each Homiletic Review, after he has read it."
About this time, J. W. McGarvey, President of the Bible College of Kentucky University, wrote: "It gives me great pleasure to learn that Brother and Sister Carr have undertaken, in connection with the brethren of Sherman, to establish a female college of high grade in that city. Their removal to Texas will not only promote the educational interests of that State,—for which work, Sister Carr has eminent qualifications and experience,—but it will add very materially to its evangelizing force. Brother Carr has had a great deal of successful experience as an evangelist, and his skill in organizing churches for effective work is not inferior to his presentation of the Gospel. I wish them abundant success in their undertakings, not for their own sakes merely, but for the sake of the cause of truth."
Mrs. Carr's reference to money stringency may be explained by the fact that the payment of college lots did not fall due until the college building was actually begun. As our story advances, the reader must imagine the hundreds of attempts to find buyers for the lots, the hundreds of rebuffs, excuses, refusals, which cannot find place in this work, lest it sink under melancholy monotony.
April 4th, Mrs. Carr wrote from Farmington, Texas, "I don't want to write to you, I want to talk to you, face to face. Tell little Tillie to help you pray for our success in the college enterprise. Sherman takes 150 lots; and if we can sell 100 additional outside of Sherman; the thing is a success. May our Heavenly Father be with us, and speed the work of our hearts. If our Springfield property could be sold, it would be such a help. Tell Brother Capp if he can sell ten lots for us, we will thoroughly educate one of his daughters, board and all, free of charge. Several preachers here, and one in Kentucky, have undertaken this, and I believe they will succeed. If he will undertake this, let me know at once, and I will send him map of lots, picture of building, and all necessary information."
To this letter Mr. Carr adds a postscript: "We are in Grayson County, in the interests of the college. Mattie has lain down to read, after we had a talk about you, of the time which we hope will come, when, the college built, we shall have a home, and you and Tillie with us in the Sunny South. I had a visit from Brother J. D. McClure and his son-in-law from Iowa—where I had a vacation on leaving Springfield. I wish you could know these people. They are the right kind. He wrote before coming, 'I shall be as proud to see you as if you were my own brother.' You may be sure I was proud to see these true men and to introduce them to Mattie. They are booked for five lots in the college enterprise. Remember our address is Sherman, Texas, and letters will be forwarded us, wherever we may be."
On October 10th, the following from the Sherman Soliciting Committee to Mrs. Carr, suggests some of her difficulties: "After a full discussion of the matter, the Soliciting Committee decides that it would be inopportune to try to sell the remainder of the College Park lots. It is thought best to defer this until after the November election; and, in fact, the opinion prevails among the majority of the Committee that it would be better, if possible, for you to finish selling your 100 lots, return to Sherman, report that you have carried out your part of the agreement, and that if Sherman does not come up to her part of the agreement, that you will proceed to go elsewhere with the college."
Mr. Carr to Mrs. Carr, January 13, 1893: "What a surprise to receive your card announcing that you are in Kansas City and will go to Springfield before returning to Sherman! Still it's all right, if you can sell the lots. I have had a fearful time, I sold only three at Clarksville. We will have to take off the names of —— and ——, who say they cannot take their lots! All in all, I have sold 90 lots. Dear me! I have done my best, and have lost a great deal of time—rain and mud. I think we can close it up in about two weeks when you come. Sell all the lots you can, but do not delay, do not waste time. I don't believe any lots could be sold in Paris or Bonham. I tried faithfully. Joshua Burdette, son of Geo. Burdette of Clarksville, Texas, lives at Eufaula, Indian Territory. He is a member of the church and is making money; you might sell him a lot. Tell those Springfield preachers Jimmie Pinkerton" (son of our old favorite professor and doctor) "and John Hardin and Tom Capp, I say for them to put their names on your list for a lot each."
In short, one thinks of little but lots, these days; one dreams of lots; one writes always, speaks always, of lots. People must learn that these lots are for sale, they must be persuaded that the purchase of them is for individual good, for educational enlargement, for the advancement of spiritual interests. The Carrs believe all this. Will others believe?
Fortunately others are found to enter heartily into the project.[18] But, as one might naturally expect, there is great opposition, which one always finds as the shadow to bright deeds. It would seem that no light can shine in the world without casting the shadow of opposing forces upon the ground. There are some who treat the Carrs with rude incivility; will buy no lots, and will, if possible, persuade others from buying.
On one occasion, Mrs. Carr was obliged to walk to the station from a distant farm-house—do you know those muddy Texas roads in the "Black Lands?"—because the farmer is opposed to buying the college lots; he watches her grimly as she makes her way along the difficult road, with no intention of offering his horses. We have before us letters written to Mrs. Carr by members of the church in good fellowship—men of recognized standing in their communities, and who, without doubt believe themselves to be excellent Christians. But alas! these letters, in refusing to buy the college lots, are not, as it would appear, the letters of gentlemen, so we must pass them by.
These were in truth times of pressing need. Mrs. Carr often found it best to walk that she might save the expense of a cab. The Carrs had just suffered a loss of $12,000 in property at Omaha. Often Mr. Carr was obliged to go hungry in his expeditions of lot-selling, and on his way to hold meetings. There were taxes to be paid on vacant property, interest to be found that borrowed money demanded, while traveling expenses were necessarily large.
"Will you please tell me where I can get a meal for twenty-five cents?" Mr. Carr inquired of a stranger in a town whither he had gone to lecture.
The man indicated a restaurant. Mr. Carr went away, but soon returned to the stranger, saying,
"Will you be so kind as to tell me where I could get the quarter?"
"Yes," was the glum response; "at the bank."
"And," said Mr. Carr, when referring to the incident, with a twinkle in his gray eye, "he wouldn't even promise to come to hear me lecture."
In the meantime Mrs. Carr was also traveling, in the prospects of her future college. "Wherever she went," one writes, "she carried good cheer and a blessing to that home. There she would give instruction, impart advice, there she would help with the sewing, and, with pleasure, would teach and care for the children."
But the thought that she should be thus financially embarrassed and placed in a dependent position, was most distressing to Mr. Carr. Yet there was no help for it, until the lots should have been sold. We do not dwell upon these days of heartache and suffering, to inspire remorse in the breast of anyone who offered obstacles to the great enterprise. We would, instead, pay a tribute to those who gave a welcome; who cheered up the way; who, instead of doubting the outcome, hoped for the best; who, instead of waiting for ultimate success, helped in time of need. It is he who smiles at his open door, who joins his song to that of the singer along life's highroad, and reaches out his hand to help, and waves to the departing traveler his confidence of victory,—he it is, who finds the world growing better. For the world is always growing better for him who makes it better for others. Those who helped the Carrs with friendship, and with a participation in their college-plans, cannot be named in this book; but we should like to think that those still living might read these lines, and each take them to himself.
January 30, 1893, Mr. and Mrs. Carr issued this typewritten manifesto to subscribers for lots:
"When you purchased one of the Christian College lots, we promised you that you would not be called on for the first payment before September, 1892. Because of Mrs. Carr's protracted suspension of the work, on account of sickness, the sale of lots has been, of course, retarded. We shall be ready, however, for the distribution of lots by March 1st, 1893, and write to you at this early date, that you may have ample time to arrange for making at that date the FIRST PAYMENT ($100). Please make your draft of $100 payable to Hon. T. J. Brown and Judge H. O. Head, Trustees, Sherman, Texas, who will make you a deed to your lot. If you desire to pay all cash, and it will be best of course, if you can, send the draft for $200 (the full amount) payable to the said Trustees. We shall begin the college building by the middle of next March, and open the first session in September, 1893."
But if the reader supposes that all now glides smoothly forward, let him read this of May 20th: "The distribution of the Christian College lots has been unavoidably postponed until the first of July next, when it WILL POSITIVELY TAKE PLACE in the court house in Sherman, Texas, at 2 o'clock p. m.
O. A. Carr,
M. F. Carr."
At last the ground is broken for the foundation of the college building, and Mrs. Carr proudly walks behind the plow, and guides it in the making of one long furrow. Can you not see her marching thus, grasping the handles with all her strength, her eyes aglow with the realization that she is digging deeper than a foundation of stone?
O. A. Bartholomew is called upon to undertake the construction of the building, July 27th. He shows hesitation and remarks—while our heads nod mechanically, Ah, how true! "I do not know what to say. The churches for which I have made the completest plans, have found the most fault. Especially, if I did not charge them much!" And we who have never built churches, yet feel like crying, Ah, yes, how true!
Let us pass over the months of sleepless nights, of anxious days. There was one matter that brought great hindrance to the scheme. It was currently reported that the college was merely a private enterprise of the Carrs, like any other private school; and the Carrs would reap all its advantages and profits: and that the claim that it was deeded to the church was a specious pretense made in order to induce people to buy lots. These charges were made, not by the enemies of education and Christianity, not by unfriendly denominations, but by the members of the Christian church; in other words, by the very body to whom the college was deeded, to be theirs forever.
This accusation had its staunch adherents, men who for years were ready to argue warmly, if not dispassionately, in its support. The fact that it could have been disproved by simply glancing at the records, seems to have lessened none of its force. It wrought much delay in selling the lots, and, after the college was built, it served to lessen the attendance. Carr-Burdette College was, indeed, a free and loving gift,—given, one might almost say, in spite of the reluctance of the beneficiary, and held in his possession while he disclaimed its ownership.
It is not our wish to lessen the patient helpfulness of many of the members of the church. Had the Carrs worked themselves to death they could not have disposed of the lots, had not people been found to buy them. People there were found, as we have seen, who co-operated with the Carrs to the extent of their ability, and many of these were among the most illustrious of the Texan brotherhood. But for years, one might find at a general convention, the spirit of suspicion and hostility to Carr-Burdette College—as "Christian College" was finally named, and, at important committee meetings, it would be plainly declared that the college was a private enterprise and did not belong to the church.
But we will never get our college up at this rate. Let us pass on to the winter of 1893, which takes O. A. Carr once more to Kentucky. Who would ever have thought that the Kentucky boy of May's Lick, chalking his problems on his father's barn-door, would, at a later day, be going up and down his native State, selling college lots, and looking out for prospective pupils of his own? These pupils are for next year. The day for laying the corner-stone of the college, is to dawn while Mr. Carr is far away from Sherman.
On December 26th, Mrs. Carr writes to him: "I hope you will have a happy time with your kindred. I am very lonely without you; but it must be thus, until those twenty lots are sold. Necessity is a stern tyrant. But we have borne thus far, and we can bear a little longer. How happy we'll be, when we can be at home together all the time! The corner-stone will be laid New Year's Day at 3 p. m. I am dispatching you tonight to have your message in your own hand writing, to be read on the occasion, and it will be deposited in the bowl of the corner-stone. It is too bad you can't be here. This sacrifice should make a heart-appealing chapter in my book. Have your speech here without fail, in your own hand writing. Your message in your letter to me is beautiful, and I'll read that if necessary, but there are other things in that letter I don't want to go into the corner-stone. Suppose you send a dispatch, for fear your speech will not come in time. Do this at once. I send this to Maysville, and a copy to Carmel. A merry Christmas to all! How I wish I were with you!"
As to the "book" referred to, that, of course, is the "History of Carr-Burdette College;" the book which Mrs. Carr intends to write—after the college is built, of course; a book which will tell of almost superhuman struggles, of cruel sacrifices and, thank God! of words of love and cheer, and of final peace "in our home, where we shall live together." But the book was never written. Here and there among groups of old letters we find a document superscribed "Important," or, "For the Book"—and we know Mrs. Carr wrote that, with her mind upon some future day, when she would have time—time in her old age, the heat of battle dying away, and the calm of memory softening the past—a time that never came, else this book would have had no being.
January 10, 1894, Mr. Carr to Mrs. Carr: "I go to hold a meeting at Vanceburg, Kentucky. I am sorry I could not be at Sherman when the corner-stone was laid. Of course, it was laid right side up, with care; and as my wife is to see to it, I'm sure it will be well done. But it is too bad that I have to be away, causing you to work yourself down, and get sick. I am devoutly thankful to Sister Hildebrand for her care of you. Tell her she shall have her reward, by and by! I suppose the corner-stone was laid on the 7th—" sickness having made New Year's Day impossible. "I do hope you will excuse me for not sending a message worthy of the occasion. I wonder what you did with my poetry? If you planted it in the rock, I will have to get up something else for your Book. Look here! What did you think of that poetry? Perhaps there has been another delay of corner-stone ceremonies,—pshaw! if I could get into the spirit of it, I could write something, but I am so unsettled and so put out from not doing anything, that I can scarcely write a letter, to say nothing of writing what is to be left as a monument!"
The following, from Mr. Carr, January 24th, is a fitting trumpet-note with which to close the discords and harmonies of the college-overture: "I received a paper to-day—Picture of college is fine. Hurrah! Your address is grand—Just the thing! You are doing fine work."
CHAPTER XVIII.
That was, without a doubt, the proudest day in Mrs. Carr's life when she faced the expectant multitude, on the day of the corner-stone ceremonies, and told in simple words, the story of her striving and achievement. It was, in truth, the day most significant in her history.
She could cast her eyes over that plowed field, and in fancy see rising before her, the outlines of the college which she had designed as her monument. The money was all raised; never was Carr-Burdette to rest under the shadow of mortgage, or suspend payments.
Fresh in the minds of her audience were many instances of plans for the selling of lots to erect college buildings,—plans that had resulted in forced sales, spasmodic flickerings of uncertain life, and humiliating defeat. She and her husband had accomplished what well-organized boards and influential committees with fleet financial agents, had not been able to consummate. They had accomplished this, not because Texas felt a great educational want,—a vacuum in the intellectual thermometer,—but in spite of the fact that many Texans believed they had schools a-plenty. This they had accomplished, although misunderstood and misrepresented by different factions; although it was persistently denied that the property belonged to the church; and although the State papers, on more than one occasion, refused to print an advertisement of the enterprise.
Mrs. Carr did not rehearse these difficulties, save in general and mild terms. A record of her sad experiences was placed by her own hand in the dark recess of the corner-stone; but we, who are unable to hide our record in so sacred a receptacle, must be content to lay it before the public eye, with all good-will, and, we trust, all fairness. In her address, that January day of 1894, Mrs. Carr said:
"To sell 250 lots at $200 each and to collect the money, was the work to be accomplished in order to secure the college—a work that demanded enormous courage and indomitable will power and persistence. We struck out the word "fail," and all its derivatives from our vocabulary, and addressed ourselves to the task. We traveled in five different States; and, amid the distraction of the most intense political excitement and under the pressure of the severest financial crisis the country has ever experienced since 1873, we completed the sale of the lots after nearly two long years of labor, worry and anxiety inexpressible. The way has been long and hard, but you have been kind to us and God has been with us. The corner-stone of our life-work is laid to-day; we behold the consummation of our heart's desire, and we feel generous towards all and profoundly grateful to our Heavenly Father for the many and devoted friends that He has given us to cheer us by their kind words and deeds when our burden seemed ofttimes greater than we could bear. The sacrifice that we have made and the trials and humiliations that we have endured are too sacred to be told, even in this paper that shall be hid in the silence and darkness of the corner-stone, whose peace the cyclonic onrush of the Twentieth Century may never disturb. They are known only to our own hearts and to God. But we count them all joy and would endure tenfold more if need be, because we believe that for the Christian girls who shall be educated here from generation to generation there shall work out a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. We are building, not for ourselves, but for coming generations of girls. This thought has been from the beginning our inspiration and our strength; and it is useless to say that to donate this college to the Church of Christ in Texas for the education of the daughters of the South is the supremest happiness of our united lives. It is the child of our adoption, and to its interests we consecrate the best energies of our remaining years. Of all the glad New Years this is to me the gladdest. The only thing that disturbs the fitness and happiness of the hour is the unavoidable absence in Kentucky of my husband, who has labored so long and so faithfully under circumstances the most painful to "humor his wife (as he expresses it) in helping her to bring to a successful issue the pet scheme of her life." But a gladder time is yet before us—the Jubilee Opening next September, 1894, of the completed college—when it shall be lighted by the faces of happy girls, and when Mr. Carr will participate in person as well as in spirit, and nothing will be lacking to perfect our joy in the crowning work of our lives. And best of all, the years of blessed work that shall follow! Oh, I pray that our Heavenly Father may give us health and strength, and length of days, and that the fruits of our labors may be abundant; so
'That when our summons comes to join The innumerable caravan that moves To that mysterious realm where each shall take His chamber in the silent halls of death, We go, not like the quarry-slave at night, Scourged to his dungeon; but, sustained and soothed By an unfaltering trust, approach our grave Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him and lies down to pleasant dreams.'"
But was the work now ended? It was only about to begin; all else had been preparation. But how different to work in uncertainty, and to work in confidence!
There were the catalogues to be thought of, and notices in the papers to be judiciously given out, and furniture to be bought, and trees, and shrubbery, and pianos, and charts, and all things else needful to college life. Above all, there is the building itself to be erected.
And, of course, many who have subscribed for lots do not want to pay for them, when paytime comes due,—and are indignant at being held to their bond, and say bitter things, and spread unkind rumors. And some have to be excused from paying interest, else they will pay nothing; and some move away, one knows not whither!
"Mrs. O. A. Carr is in the city," says a daily paper. "Carr-Burdette Christian College at Sherman will open in September. The college has been donated to the Christian churches in the State, but will be open to all denominations. Mr. and Mrs. Carr are doing much for the educational interests of Texas, and their philanthropic devotion to this interest sets an example which we hope will be emulated."
"The College is Built at Last."—Carr-Burdette.
Mrs. Carr clips the foregoing and sends it to the Gospel Advocate, hoping they will reproduce all, or a part, of the "local".
"My dear Sister," says the Gospel Advocate—it is in August of the corner-stone year, "it is our settled policy not to advertise one school more than another. We do not see any reason why we should advertise the Carr-Burdette College any more than the Add Rann College. There are a number of good schools controlled by the brethren, to whom we have never given free advertisement. Yours truly and fraternally—" Very fraternally, without doubt. So Mrs. Carr may be in our city as often as she pleases, and she and her husband do all they can, for a dozen colleges, but we mustn't mention the fact; such is our policy!
John A. Brooks, pastor of the Christian church at Memphis, writes to Mr. and Mrs. Carr: "I am pleased to see that you are about to open a female school in Sherman. I know your education and character are such as to commend you to the public as most competent teachers. Most heartily I wish you both a successful voyage on the sea of life."
This from Palestine, Texas, July 13th, to Mrs. Carr, is a voice from the camp of misconception: "I have read your letter with much interest. I accord to you the purest and best motives in your work, and believe you to be a noble woman. But it is reported, on good authority, that you and Brother Carr are not in sympathy with our work in Texas, the United States and abroad. I shall not enter the lists against you and your work, however—I shall attend to my own business, which will keep me busy enough * * * Fraternally yours—"
That word "Fraternally," which we find closing so many bitter and discourteous letters, seems to be used as a parting blow. They all write "Fraternally"—that stereotyped phrase of a stereotyped brotherhood! But the present biographer feels indeed fraternally toward these indignant and suspicious and mistaken letter-writers, and shall prove it by reproducing none of their letters.
For these writers who were so warmly "fraternal" did not understand, and seemingly would not understand, that the Carrs had deeded the college and the extensive grounds to the Church; that the Carrs furnished the buildings throughout, at their own expense, to present them to the Church fully and beautifully equipped; that the Carrs had insured, and would keep insured, the buildings, not for themselves, but for the Church; that they did not, and never would, receive a penny of money-contributions from anyone; and that this Carr-Burdette College, this monument to Mrs. Carr, was given to the Church as the most priceless gift in her possession, to the cause dearest to her heart.
In the meantime, college-work did not wholly absorb the life of this busy woman. Here comes a letter from the Christian Woman's Board of Missions in Missouri; the state-secretary, at this time, is Mrs. Elizabeth Bantz. Mrs. Bantz writes:
"This year marks the twenty-fifth year of the C. W. B. M. in Missouri—1894. My board has authorized me to issue an historical sketch of the work. We are publishing the faces of many of those who served us officially. We want your picture for this book. Please, my dear sister, send me a half-tone cut, as soon as possible."
Mrs. A. B. Jones of Liberty, Mo., seconds the request: "I have been asked to write an historical sketch of our C. W. B. M. for a book which our state secretary is preparing for our 25th anniversary. We want our state officers from the time of our organization. Will you kindly send a photo, or cut, to Mrs. Bantz at St. Louis? I would be so glad to have a picture of yourself and Brother Carr. Both of you are lovingly remembered by us."
Now that the college is built at last, and Mr. and Mrs. Carr have assumed its management, the story of their lives enters the peaceful channel of daily service together.
A few events of distinction stand out from among the minor affairs of fourteen years. The incessant work in the school room, the canvassing tours during vacations,—involving lectures with the stereopticon,—the correspondence with new pupils, old pupils and prospective pupils, the worrying over misunderstandings and misrepresentations; the struggle against prejudice, and jealousy; the sweet companionship with each other, and with congenial friends—all this is the story of daily living, that does not belong to the world of books.
Let the reader imagine the interlinked events of these fourteen years—the fourteen years that followed the accomplishment of Mrs. Carr's life-work. The honors bestowed upon her and her girls at the Confederate Reunion at New Orleans, and at the World's Fair at St. Louis, may be found fully described in the great daily papers of those days. The mass of printed programs that lie before me tell of brilliant success before the footlights—and hint at long hours of nerve-racking rehearsals. And here are confessions of school-girls who have done wrong, and who ask to be forgiven; and other letters which wound cruelly and do not ask for pardon. But shall we not forgive all? And how can we forgive, if we do not forget?
Upon my table lies documents from disobedient pupils of Carr-Burdette College, ungrateful pupils, narrow-minded pupils, and parents naturally championing the cause of their daughters—in which, all these stand self-accused. Here is one who has discovered how unjust were charges she had made against the Carrs—but not until she had spread those reports to willing ears. And here is one who asks with tears that she may be forgiven; but who laments that the harm she has done can never be overcome.
But what of it all, now! I should not mention these things if it were not for this: that the evil reports live in some minds and, no doubt, are handed down to strangers. Here are the refutations to several such reports, but we push them aside. Can falsehood wound beyond the grave?
Nor would we expose anyone to shame by bringing her name upon the printed page, with quotations of her own rash words. There is no punishment for a malicious nature so terrible as the vengeance of its own malice which reacts upon itself, dwarfing, embittering, deadening the higher capabilities of the soul that harbors it. He who took the snake to his warm hearth to nourish it to life, is not he who suffers from the ingratitude of a friend, but rather he who admits hate to warm it in his own bosom; for it wounds him, first of all.
Fourteen years of labor in the work Mrs. Carr loved best, amid surroundings best adapted to call forth one's greatest capabilities, and then—the last journey. The school year of 1907-8 had opened prosperously. September passed, and in the warmth of its haze, and in the tender blue of its Texan sky, there was no hint that its sister-month would bring the chill of death.
It was on the thirty-first of October that there came the summons of which she had spoken in her dedicatory speech. Not, indeed, as a quarry slave, scourged to his dungeon, did she go to meet that call, but rather as one who had followed her Lord across the seas, who had dwelt with him in many lands, and who was now to abide with Him forever.
He who was left behind, dwells in the lofty halls her wisdom and her love fashioned out of brick and stone. The great work of her life is continued by President O. A. Carr, and when one visits that "College Beautiful," that "College Home," tapestries and statuary, pictures and mosaics, engravings and flowers—all seem instinct with the presence of Mrs. Carr.
One passes through spacious reception-rooms and ample halls, into parlors of refined and exquisite workmanship. Yonder is the winding stairway, with its "Cosy Nook" behind the ferns. Here is the library with its cheerful hearth. Nothing is to be seen to suggest Latin and Geometry! It is, first of all, a home for young ladies.
But when we are shown the mystic way that leads to schoolrooms, we find them stript, as it were, for service. Here is little or no adornment. They are placed before us in stern reality—desk and blackboard and floor—with no pretense that knowledge walks on velvet carpets. In this wing, we find ourselves indeed in a school; and we feel instinctively that if we do not immediately fall to, at some difficult textbook, we have no business here, and should be sent home to our parents.
And that is just what Mrs. Carr would have done for us. Education had always for her, meant something serious, something life-long, something to become an integral part of one's character. First, Carr-Burdette College is to be a home in which young ladies are to be taught conduct and hygiene; but it is a College Home, where study is not play, any more than play is study. We cannot determine where we feel Mrs. Carr's influence stronger—whether in these unadorned schoolrooms, or in the luxurious parlors. Taken together, they typify the extremes of her character. She sought to build in every soul that came under her moulding touch, the firm foundation of eternal truth; and upon this foundation to erect a structure traced with all the beauty of eternal love.
"He Who was Left Behind."
THE END
APPENDIX.
By O. A. Carr.
(Page 31.)
Our mother made our clothes from the same piece, which, for many years, was her own weaving; and our resemblance was such in childhood that many thought we were twins. For sixteen years we were together day and night—in the field, in the school-room, in the home. "Bud and Ol.," our familiar names, were pronounced together, and the presence of one suggested the other. Our separation came when I said good-by to go to Kentucky University, and then to the other side of the earth. I can even now recall my feelings when I would go into Fitzroy Gardens, Melbourne, Australia, where, alone, I would read Owen's letters over and over. Though himself not a preacher, he came as near as any one I ever knew to an identification of his life with the lives of those who preach the word.
After my return from Australia it was our happiness to go together to a church composed of many whom I baptized when I began preaching forty-five years ago, some of them our relatives. The building was within a mile of where we were born, and near the site of the first school-house we ever entered. There were the boys and girls with whom we played in childhood, heads of families now. Such an audience was an inspiration to me, and especially the presence of "Bud." I ever felt that I could preach better when he was hearing. We went over the familiar roads planning a meeting to be held when the weather would permit, and I thought this happiness would be mine, but alas! there came the telegram: "Bud is very sick, come at once." We all came to him, except one brother who was far away. There were the chairs my mother used, my father's desk, the little chair in which I sat in earliest childhood, and the pictures on the wall of those whom my brother loved. There, amid all to remind me of early days, I took my seat beside him with the sad duty on me to report to the physician his pulse and fever day and night. What was revealed by his tearful eyes fixed upon us can never be put in a book; but when the physician told him he must die, he simply said "I am ready."
With the exception of a short sojourn in Missouri and Illinois Owen spent his life in Kentucky, at May's Lick, also at Lexington, Maysville and Mt. Carmel. The call for a young man who neither blasphemed nor drank secured for him his first business engagement at Lexington. He was engaged in Maysville many years, and he spent his earnings in helping our afflicted parents; and from the needy he never turned away. After the death of father and mother, Owen made his home with his sister, Mary E. Goddard, near Mt. Carmel, whence he was called to go up higher, Thursday, January 14, 1902.
Owen Carr was a Christian. His life was very quiet, but useful. His faith was simple, his convictions were strong and he was true to them. To maintain what he held to be truth I believe he would have laid down his life. Yes, he did this in effect, toiling for the good of others, bearing heavy burdens of suffering, fulfilling his mission to the family, in the community, in the church. How can I speak his praise? Does he know, now, how we all loved him? No words could ever tell it.
A companion wrote: "Though our association was not long at any one time, yet he was so transparent and companionable that in a short time I knew Owen Carr well. He was one of the few men in the world that I really loved ardently; and I have his obituary on the 'Treasure page' of my little scrap book. He was the divinest and sweetest impersonation of unostentatious unselfishness and of transparent honesty and integrity that I ever knew among men.
J. H. M."