Oakwood University - Acorn Yearbook (Huntsville, AL)

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. . , - , .... SPEAK Ready for work 1909 P on a mission of seeking a location of such a school. After examining numerous prospective sites in the South, they finally purchased a plantation of 358 acres about five miles northwest of Huntsville, Alabama. It was now 1895. A good valley, healthful climate, central location, good railroads, and a liberal minded people were the inducements for this location. S. M. Jacobs was the central personality about whom the happenings of those early years clustered. He was a thorough hardworking, likable manager, farmer, and school teacher. He proceeded cautiously and conscientiously to make friends for the school among both white and colored. Being industrious, he gathered about him a group of earnest, industrious students. They produced good crops on the land. It was not until March 23, 1907, that I came to Oakwood with my wife and twofyear old boy. We had previously come South in July, 1904. At the time the property was purchased for the Madison School by Professors Sutherland and Magan. The Morning Star was moored into the Cumberland River at Nashville. It was our privilege, with other workers, to have a ride on this boat around the bend in the river from Nashville to the Orphanage Faculty of 1917, Professor Beardsley visiting newly purchased land for the Madison School. This was the last trip the boat ever made. It was soon dismantled. We later moved its boiler to Oakwood to use at the sawmill. Oakwood was twelve years old when we arrived. We found about 70 students in attendance. W. H. Williams had become business manager. Brother Jacobs had been away four years. The farm hadn't been doing well, and the old chapel had burned. But the students were having some good, thorough class work with Professor W. J. Blake as principal. F. W. Halladay was now preceptor. Mrs. Boyd was matron. We united our efforts to build up a stronger work. The conference had Brother Jacobs come over from Graysville for a week to give us the benefit of his experience in handling the work. His timely counsel was much appreciated. Elder Irwin came frequently, spendf ing from one to three weeks at a time. We built a cannery at Oakwood to save and preserve things. We also built a sweet potato house, where were kept large quantities of potatoes. We made sorghum, produced plenty of peanuts, and had extensive gardens. We tried in every way to make the institution serve its own needs, as far as possible, however, we met with some failures. We had our ups and downs but usually more Nupsl' than downs .

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PICNEE S F. W. Halladayfs astronomy class 1917 Graduating class of 1917 I Early Experiences at Gakwoocl They called them the gay old nineties . Nevertheless, the last decade of the last century was freighted with many movements of far reaching and serious purposes. Not least among them was the construction of the little missionary steamer, Morning Star. The servant of the Lord, Mrs. E. G. White, had borne a deep burden for the colored people of the South since emancipation days. But how to reach them through the almost forbidding situations of those years was the problem. This same burden was picked up by Mrs. Whites son, Elder E. White, who conceived the idea of using a little steamboat with a chapel on its deck from which to preach the gospel of the Three Angels' Messages. To this day, we think of it as a very unique and practical plan, for we had no colored ministers of those years, and for a white minister to find meeting places for colored people in a strange and hostile land was almost unthinkable. Elder White, with the help of friends, built his boat at Allegan, Michigan, floated it down the river to Lake Michigan, had it towed across to Chicago, took it through the Chicago drainage canal and down the Illinois River to the Mississippi. As it stopped at Cttawa, Illinois, a young man became interested, joined the crew, and soon became its engineer. This young man was E. W. Halladay. For several years this floating movable chapel tied up at villages, large plantations, and towns along the lower Mississippi and its tributaries. Its work met with furious opposition in places, and members of its crew could repeat some very stirring experiences passed through by these white messengers to the Children of the Night, but nevertheless churches sprang up and little schools were established. The chains of ignorance and superstition began to give way and school books and Bibles were carried into backward regions, The Entrance of Thy Word Giveth Light. At one time we operated about thirty little mission schools taught by colored teachers who had qualified in a way for the work of teaching. But for more efficient work, a training school had to be established. And so, we now turn to another event in the last decade of the other century. Two ,men, Elder C. A. Olsen, President of the General Conference of Seventhfday Adventists and G. A. Irwin, soon to be president of the General Conference, set about Departing for the canvassing jield I

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N9 1' ww ips Professor Boydls Old Testament History class 1917 In the summer of 1907, we built the cement block chapel. Those were the days of wagons and harness, wood stoves, oil lamps, lanterns, and wheel barrowsvyes, wheel barrows. We had a fine group of exceptional students. They worked hard and studied diligently. They took a deep interest in building up the school and extending its interests and influence. They were devoted to their teachers and loyal to the institution. We added to the school curriculum from time to time. It was but little more than an eighth grade school in 1907. By 1918, the first two students finished our Junior College course. We conducted summer normal sessions for our church school teachers and colporteur institutes for our book workers near the close of each school year. We published Gospel Herald. We purchased the Ford land, the 618 acres immediately across the road from the campus. After months of negotiating I was a happy man when Elder W. T. Knox, Treasurer of the General Conference, placed a draft in my hand for 524,500 with which to close the transaction. We added some rare personages to our faculty. Among them I would mention Elder H. jeys and later his son, George, both with fertile minds Hlled with original ideas, the diligent Mae Hollingsworth and Etta Reederg the practical Dr. Iviartinson and his wife Stella, Cecil Corkham with a frail body but strong mind, and Isabel Cartright Cunningham, whose faithful devotion to the institution has been well known these many years. Now I have written you about the days of small things. More than a quarter century of achievement has brought its greatnessjsince I saw the place. May I plead with you, despise not the day of small things. It was July 18, 1918, when the writer took his def parture to blaze another slightly dim educational path into Valiant corps of boolqmeri i' gf at w . fi if s ,.., il A XA Ax Q My 6 MN-, l i iii 1 I 'si l il? Q gp 5 JH Jia- l l Fail . . y wg p g,AV If N Q. ,.... L, . .......f:...-uu..mn'- -.-.... kg Mitsical ensemble Central America and the West Indies. But Oakwood is the pet project of my career. When I was a boy, a great statesman in closing an address to the Congress said, My country, may she ever be in the right, but right or wrong, my country. May I indulge by partly using the same language: 4'My Oakwood, may she ever be in the right but right or wrong, my Oakwood. May the great God grant that the spirit of this same institutional patriotism may characterize the life and motive of every teacher and student that connects with that good work. C. J. Born Vista, California, March, 1946 1 It was in the summer of 1920. Professor W. E. Howel was Secretary of Education in the General Conference3 Elder J. L. McElhany, now of the General Conference, was President of the Southern Union, and Professor I. Beardsley, President ofO. J. C. These three men endeavored to solicit my interest in transferring from the position of Educational Superintendent in the Michigan Conference, to the needy Southland, for the purpose of organizing and establishing the teacherftraining work on a more sub' stantial basis. September of that year found me on the beautiful campus of Oakwood. The early impressions of the massive grand old oaks and the profusion of flowering shrubs never faded. More than once, to my sorrow, did I then learn, that what looked like solid turf, when stepped upon, let the individual down into the red clay almost to the top of high shoes, which were then the fashion. The cotton fields, with the big, fluffy white bolls were fascinating to one not accustomed to such a scene. The shagbark hickory nuts were delicious. The towering cedars were proving a boon to the school when turned into those gorgeous and expensive cedar chests. Professor Corlqirnfs class in Modern History 1917