In order to give many worthy students an opportunity to secure an education by working at some trade or industry during the day and studying at night, we opened in the fall of 1883 our first night school. The night school was opened with one teacher and one student. From this small beginning the night school has increased, until at this writing there are four hundred and fifty students. By working in the day and going to school at night, the night students earn money with which to pay their expenses the next year in day school, and if they bring a good supply of clothing they can earn enough, together with what they earn during vacation, to keep them in school two or three years after they enter day school.
I cannot better indicate the constant growth of the school than by giving a description of our seventh anniversary, which took place May 31, 1888. There were more than 2,000 people present, in spite of rain that came in showers. During the morning, from 9:30 to 12, the regular work of the entire school was carried on in the various departments, which were open for inspection. In addition to the regular work, products of the shops and farm were exhibited. The course of study then extended over four years, with two preparatory classes. It included the English branches for the literary part, with instruction in one or more of the following industries throughout: Blacksmithing, carpentry, brick-masonry, brick making, plastering, farming, stock, poultry and bee-raising, saw-milling, wheelwrighting, printing, mattress and cabinet making, sewing, cutting and fitting, washing and ironing, cooking, and general housekeeping. From these various departments the following articles were exhibited: At the blacksmith and wheelwright shop were seen two one-horse wagons, plow stock, small tools, express wagon body, wheelbarrow, spring wagon seat and various other articles. In the carpenter shop there were wardrobes, a center and a leaf table, wash stands, book cases, bedsteads, wash boards, picture frames, chairs, paneling, moulding, laths, etc. In the printing office there was an exhibit of the general work of the office,—such as blanks, checks, catalogues, promissory notes, diploma blanks, minutes of associations and conventions, annual reports, bill and letter heads, envelopes, circulars, handbills, invitations, business cards, certificates, etc., with samples of the two monthly papers which were then printed at the institution, the “Southern Letter” and “The Gleaner.” From the farm and poultry yard, there were vegetables, hogs, cattle, chickens, turkeys, guineas, geese, a peacock, eggs, bees and honey. Mattress and chair making were features that had been added to the industries that year and were especially satisfactory. The mattresses exhibited compared favorably with those made anywhere. In the laundry there was a tastefully arranged exhibit of laundried bedding, dresses, collars and cuffs, shirts, ladies’ and gentlemen’s underwear, table linen and towels. The sewing room showed samples of all kinds of ladies’, gentlemen’s and children’s clothing, with laces, mats, tidies, etc. At the brickyard there was a kiln of 120,000 bricks ready for burning. About the saw mill there were stacks of its products. The cooking class had a tempting display of its work in cakes, jellies, bread, yeast, meats and a roast pig.
Among the first things seen by a visitor coming to the school from any direction was a large new brick building—Armstrong Hall. This building was almost entirely the product of student labor, under the supervision of Mr. Brown, instructor in carpentry at that time, who also planned the building. The school then had three large and comfortable buildings. Porter Hall contained recitation rooms, offices, library and reading room, chapel and dormitories for boys, with the school laundry in the basement. Alabama Hall, with a large frame annex built that year, was used for girls’ dormitories, and contained, in addition, teachers’ and students’ parlors and dining rooms and kitchen. Armstrong Hall contained young men’s dormitories, reading and sitting rooms, bath room, printing office and two recitation rooms. In addition, there were several cottages on the grounds, while a new one and a large barn, the latter to cost, perhaps $2,000, were in process of erection.
In the early years of the school, the anniversary exercises were held in the school chapel, which was the small chapel in Porter Hall, but from year to year the influx of patrons and friends from far and near had so increased that the chapel would no longer hold a fifth of them. That year the vast audience of 2,000, including the 400 students, was assembled in a rude pavilion built of rough timber and partly covered by the wide spreading branches of some mulberry trees. Here, after partaking of a substantial dinner furnished by the school and friends, students and visitors assembled. A long procession was formed of students, teachers and graduates, which marched from Alabama Hall to the pavilion to music furnished by the school band, and there the exercises of the seventh anniversary were held.
There were ten members of the graduating class of that year as follows: Andrew J. Wilborn, Valedictorian, Tuskegee, Ala.; Letitia B. Adams, Tuskegee, Ala.; Caroline Smith, Tuskegee, Ala.; Shadrach R. Marshall, Talbotton, Ga.; Philip P. Wright, LaFayette, Ala.; William H. Clark, Brunswick, Ga.; Eugenia Lyman, Opelika, Ala.; Sarah L. Hunt, Salutatorian, Sparta, Ga.; George W. Lovejoy, Olustee Creek, Ala.; Nicholas E. Abercrombie, Montgomery, Ala.
The total enrollment for the year was 400. The school farm then contained 540 acres of farm and timber land. The saw mill had furnished most of the lumber for the buildings and other carpenter work done that year, and for that purpose saw logs had been cut from the school land. The school property was then worth about $80,000. The income for the year had been $26,755.73. This amount about covered the expenses. Including the ten mentioned above, the school then had forty-two graduates. During the year previous all the graduates had been engaged in teaching for some part of the year. All the members of that year’s class were Christians. They went out as teachers of various kinds in the state of Alabama. The young women had a knowledge of washing, ironing, cooking, sewing and general housekeeping in addition to their intellectual attainments. One of the six young men was a shoemaker, one a carpenter, one had considerable knowledge of the printer’s trade and one was an excellent plasterer. The annual address at that commencement was delivered by Hon. John R. Lynch, of Mississippi, and for eloquence, practical thought and helpful information could hardly have been surpassed. There was a number of Tuskegee’s best white citizens present, while the colored citizens came out en masse to witness the exercises that launched into life three youths from their own town. Montgomery was represented by one of her military companies, the “Capital City Guards,” and 124 of her best citizens, for whose accommodation special trains were sent out.
In order to emphasize the fact that people at Tuskegee during its early history were not idle, I give the daily program which was in effect in January, 1886: 5 a. m., rising bell; 5:50 a. m., warning breakfast bell; 6 a. m., breakfast bell; 6:20 a. m., breakfast over; 6:20 to 6:50 a. m., rooms are cleaned; 6:50, work bell; 7:30, morning study hour; 8:20, morning school bell; 8:25, inspection of young men’s toilet in ranks; 8:40, devotional exercises in chapel; 8:55, “5 minutes” with the daily news; 9 a. m., class work begins; 12, class work closes; 12:15 p. m., dinner; 1 p. m., work bell; 1:30 p. m., class work begins; 3:30 p. m., class work ends; 5:30 p. m., bell to “knock off” work; 6 p. m., supper; 7:10 p. m., evening prayers; 7:30 p. m., evening study hours; 8:45 p.m., evening study hour closes; 9:20 p. m., warning retiring bell; 9:30 p. m., retiring bell.
Although the period of the school’s history about which I have written in this chapter was one of constant and substantial growth, it nevertheless was during this period that the school sustained a great loss, as well as I a great personal bereavement, in the death of my beloved and faithful wife, Olivia Davidson Washington. In May, 1889, after four years of married life, she succumbed to the overtaxing duties of mother and assistant principal of the school and passed away. Her remains were laid to rest amid the tears of teachers and students. “Her words of caution, advice, sympathy and encouragement were given with a judgment that rarely made an error. Her life was so full of deeds, lessons and suggestions that she will live on to bless and help the institution which she helped found as long as it is a seat of learning.”
Two wide-awake boys, Baker Taliaferro and Ernest Davidson, were born to us, who were then too young to know their loss. They are now 12 and 10 years of age respectively; and they, with my daughter Portia, are a source of much comfort and joy to me at present.
Miss Davidson came to the school almost from the very beginning, she being the next person to come after myself. I have spoken in other places of the great assistance she was in helping to build up the school in its early days. As an estimate of her worth and character, I beg to quote the words of the Rev. R. C. Bedford, a friend who knew her worth and her great help to me and to Tuskegee. Commenting upon her death Mr. Bedford said: