School History of North Carolina : from 1584 to the present time

by John W. Moore

THE COLLEGES AND SCHOOLS.

A. D. 1880.

As was intended by the men who framed the Constitution of North Carolina at Halifax in 1776, the University of the State has long held the leadership of such institutions in the Commonwealth. The unfortunate and inexcusable interference of politicians with its management during the years of reconstruction only resulted in its temporary eclipse. The public refused it patronage when the new managers had installed a strange faculty in the seats of Governor Swain and his long honored coadjutors; but since the restoration of the ancient order of things, prosperity has returned both to the University and the beautiful village in which it is situated.

2. Many useful reforms have been accomplished in its curriculum and management. Perhaps never before was seen each devotion to study and compliance with the rules on the part of the students. The President, Dr. Kemp P. Battle, had been much identified with the institution, before assuming charge of its fortunes. His learning, combined with public experience, made him a wise ruler of the literary community over which he was called to preside; and the excellence of the new faculty is becoming every day more evident in the scholarship and bearing of the young men who are sent out from its halls.

3. Wake Forest College is the oldest of the sectarian colleges of the State, and has long vindicated its usefulness among the Baptist churches. Its first intended end was the education of young men for the ministry, but this has been largely augmented by the successes of its graduates in every other branch of human usefulness in our midst. The councils of the State, and the learned professions, have been greatly illustrated by men who laid the foundations of their success by diligent application to their duties while attending as students at Wake Forest.

4. In the recent death of Rev. Dr. W. M. Wingate, the institution lost a president who had given long and signal service; but, in his successor, Rev. Dr. T. H. Pritchard, perhaps even higher executive qualities are seen. Wake Forest catalogue has latterly contained about two hundred names of students, and, through the munificence of certain friends, the college has received handsome additions to the buildings and appliances.

5. Davidson College has also immensely developed in the last few years. Not only in increased patronage, but in the grade of scholarship a great advance has been achieved, so that few institutions in America afford higher and more thorough instruction than is now enjoyed by the young men who avail themselves of the advantages here offered.

6. The same things may be said of Trinity College, under the direction of Rev. Dr. B. Craven. The pulpits of the Methodist churches in North Carolina have long borne evidence of the literary and moral excellence imparted to the graduates, and in many respects the whole State has been benefited and elevated by contact with such men.

7. The female seminaries at Salem, Greensboro, Raleigh, Murfreesboro, Thomasville, Wilson, Kittrell, Oxford and Louisburg have also prospered in this era of general advancement among the North Carolina schools. Large numbers of young ladies from other States are sent to them for education, and, in the noble emulation thus evolved, admirable instruction is obtained.

8. Among preparatory schools, that of Major Robert Bingham, at Mebaneville, in Alamance county, is, by common consent, supreme in North Carolina, and perhaps in the South, not only in number of students, but in the excellence of tuition, discipline and drill. On the catalogue of this institution will be found the names of young men from almost every State in the Union, and even some foreign countries are represented.