Blackstone College - Acorn Yearbook (Blackstone, VA)

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Blackstone—Past and Future LAC KSTONE has a history. Like every living thing the College has a background, its roots run way hack into the past. About thirty years ago there came into the minds of a small group of men in the vicinity of the town of Blackstone a vision and a dream of a school for the higher education of the women of our State and other Southern States. It was only a dream, but as every great and worthy undertaking has first started as a dream in the mind of some seer, so this dream began rapidly to take on shape. It was partly realized when some acres were purchased, a small building erected, and a young ambitious minister bv the name of fames Cannon, Jr., was selected as the first principal. The first session began in the year 1894 with twenty-nine hoarders. It is hard to realize that Blackstone College, great and influential as she has since grown to be, had a beginning so inconspicuous. But her history is romantic. Under the energetic leadership of Cannon and Adams there was soon no school in the State doing mo re for voung womanhood than Blackstone Female Institute. Daughters began coming from every direction, and before long there could he round in almost every church and community one or more “Blackstone Girls, who were engaged promi¬ nently in the religious life of the community, and who were making a definite contribution to the home and to the church. What a record ! What a history! It would take many pages to tell the whole story of the sacrifice on the part of the officers and teachers that was put into the erection of the building, into the enlargement of the student body, into the building of the Blackstone spirit. The dream for the higher education of women was finally realized when the Institute became, under the laws of the Commonwealth, a College for young women. And when the work was at its highest and best, there came the fires; Not one hut two! And it seemed as if the dream and the vision of many years was finally to go up in smoke and fail to he realized. This was not for long, however. For out of the ashes of the old, there soon began to rise the walls of a new and better Blackstone, until to-day we have an equip¬ ment and a student body of which every friend of the College may feel justly proud. But the future of Blackstone! W ho can tell. ' Who has the eye to behold this dream in all its completeness? What prophet is so hold as to place limits and boundaries, and who would rise up and say to such a spirit “Thus far and no farther?” Can any one measure the far-reaching significance of the countless influences that have emanated from her walls? What of Christian idealism, of Christian character, of high resolve and purpose she shall through 6

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Dedication That we may express our deepest REGARD FOR ONE WHOSE HAPPY SMILE AND SYMPATHETIC UNDERSTANDING OF STUDENT PROBLEMS AND FINE COMPAN¬ IONSHIP IN WORK AND PLAY ARE AN EMBODIMENT OF THE TRUE SPIRIT OF A Southern Gentleman We Dedicate This 1926 “ACORN” TO MR. VV. B. GATES 5

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future years inspire in the hearts and lives of the many young women who shall pass in and out of her doors! It would he a bold prophet indeed, who would attempt to measure in words what the Blackstone influence is to be and where that influence is to end. Blackstone ' s future lies in the hands of her friends. The Board of Trustees, the Alumnae, the Faculty, and the student body must each make their contribution. But we believe that the future of our beloved Alma Mater is to be finally determined and measured by us and by the many other girls who live within her walls, who share her gracious privileges, and who go out as graduates of the Old College. A great responsibility rests upon us who have been to Blackstone. We have been great receivers, we must be large givers. We have been beneficiaries, we must become benefactors. Blackstone is a spirit ! A College does not consist of materials alone, of brick and mortar, of porphyry and stone. Curricula and endowments and faculties do ' not make a college. Blackstone is a spirit! We find here the spirit of goodwill, the spirit of service, the spirit of heroism, the spirit of unselfishness, the spirit of ministry. And we must take this spirit with us into life, and translate it into such terms as a needy world about us can understand and appreciate. Our obligation is to dedicate our lives to this task of disseminating the Blackstone spirit wherever we may go. To carry it into our homes, into our community, into our churches. Thus will the spirit of Blackstone become immortal, eternal! THIS IS THE FUTURE OF BLACKSTONE! 11. P. Myers, President. 7