Agnes Scott College - Silhouette Yearbook (Decatur, GA)

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served as bridesmaids. It was a lovely wedding. We left immediately afterward for a honeymoon in the East Boosters of Knowledge The bridegroom at the age of 22 had founded Cabin Craft Industries in Dalton, where the bride ' s father, Henry L. Smith, was already estab- lished in the textile industry. Be- tween them, they have been staunch, longtime contributors to education, serving on the boards of Agnes Scott, Martha Berry College and Columbia Seminary. As dedi- cated as she is to her alma mater, Mrs. Wescott sent 16 nieces and great-nieces through other colleges. I would have loved to see them • at Agnes Scott It is a fine school and has meant so much in my life. But it worked out that they went to other colleges, and that ' s all right Education is what is important My husband, who died six years ago, al- ways said that if you give a person an education, it is the best thing you can do for them. Agnes Scott, which will begin its yearlong centennial celebration this fall, was a mere stripling when Lulu Smith went there. Started by the Presbyterian church in Decatur as an elementary school, it progressed to high school status. In 1889, with 63 girls and four teachers, it be- came Decatur Seminary. A Generous Backer In the aftermath of the Civil War, education in the South was still in disarray, as Agnes Scott grads point out, and women were .not generally held to need much learning. Col. George Washington Scott, founder of Scottdale Mills, now defunct, thought otherwise, and he made a landmark gift to the school — an unheard of $40,000 — on the condition that it be named for his mother. She was an Irish lady who lived in Philadelphia and, oddly enough, she never saw the school named for her. As elementary and high schools, the institution admitted boys; as a college, it took women only, and to this day is proud that it is one of a drastically diminished number of such institutions in the country. (Twenty years ago, there were 350 ■ women ' s colleges in the Uni ted States. Now there are 95.) In its current program of expan- sion, including a magnificent new Woodruff physical activities build- ing, the picturesque, century-old college isn ' t making a pitch for a wide increase of enrollment. It likes the current ratio of one teacher to eight students. Now with a woman president, the distinguished Dr. Ruth Schmidt, Agnes Scott makes much of its capa- ble alumnae — doctors, lawyers, businesswomen, educators and au- thors — who follow in the footsteps of Lulu Smith Westcott.

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