NOTE 1
(Chapter VI, page [159])
The Hospital was the result of the devoted work of the Rev. Dr. and Mrs. Hunter, the latter making this her special charge, raising most of the funds, and keeping them separate from those of the School.
The earlier Principals of the School itself each performed distinctive services which won the affection and gratitude of the Church in North Carolina. The Rev. Dr. J. Brinton Smith founded the school in his five years of service from 1867 to 1872. The Rev. Dr. John E. C. Smede nourished it through the most difficult reconstruction period, 1872 to 1884, when tension was high, and when sympathy between North and South and White and Black was at its lowest ebb. The Rev. Dr. Robert B. Sutton, 1884-1891, succeeded to an atmosphere of relaxed weariness following the long drawn-out controversies over the “race question,” when support was most difficult, the more so because the Church had no settled policy of school work for the Negroes. Each had a task requiring all his fine ability.
It is no reflection on others (for comparison is impossible where the times and tasks were so distinct) to say that the Rev. Dr. Hunter’s great contribution was the complete reorganization of the educational ideal of St. Augustine’s, and its refounding on the devoted and heroic labors of his predecessors. Dr. Hunter’s 25 years of service contributed most powerfully to the movement which made the Church Institute possible, as well as to the present strong growth toward a solid foundation for the Christian education of the Negroes. He became Dr. Sutton’s assistant, when the “modern period” began. Old things were passing away, and the new had yet to be fashioned. The modern educational system was just beginning to be realized in the South. Dr. Hunter brought youth, vigor and ability to the task not only of justifying the wisdom of the fathers but of fulfilling the office of the wise steward in bringing forth old and new treasures to enrich the present and the future. He was ably seconded by Mrs. Hunter, and by his assistant who is now Bishop Delany.
The Rev. Edgar H. Goold, for four years Dr. Hunter’s assistant, is now the Principal. He is a graduate of Amherst College and of the General Theological Seminary.