Greensboro College - Echo Yearbook (Greensboro, NC)

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Mrs. I aura Crump Patrick. THE tim : has been long, and yet it seems short, in review of the transit of the Greensboro Female College of 1846, and the present College of 1903. This lapse of years forces its truth upon me, as my thoughts attempt to guide my pen in saying something in obedience to your request to furnish an item for you first College Annual. I am most happy to voice some. thing of the early days of the institution, and most grate- ful for being spared to link the annals of our College in these far separated years, and I greet you with warm con- gratulations for the revived and growing interest that is keeping fresh the annals of our beloved Alma Mater. One feels that she is in Dreamland to recall the facts and events of the beginning of a long life, now nearly spent. A mist encircles my memory, and I must brush away all that has come to me in the years enfolded in the fifty-five since I launched forth a graduate of Greensboro Female College, at its first commencement in 1848. Well do I remember when the pioneers for the higher education for the women of the South first agitated the minds and inspired the movement of the Methodist Conference, to locate and establish this Female College at Greensboro. It was early in the forties that Rip Van Winkle began to stir in his slumbers at the touch of these good Christian well-wishers, who went forth with the wonderful pluck and energy which characterized them, as agents to solicit funds throughout the bounds of the then large Conference, that now forms the two — the North Carolina and the Virginia. No steam cars then from town to town, but each day ' s journey was from place to place on horseback. No man of this day, with easy-going facilities provided at every turn, knows any- thing of the endurance in the line of travel, as did the patient circuit-rider of the Methodist Church of that day. My uncle. Dr. I. J. M. Lindsay, a resident of Greensboro, was president of the board of trustees, and greatly interested in the work, and through him I was brought in contact with every detail of the enterprise, from the origin of the first movement until the completion of the building. The foundation laid and the walls up, the external completings and the finishing touches of the interior were eagerly watched in my girlhood glee, look- ing forward with interest to the career of a college life. Thus you see, my connection with the institution was in advance of its opening in August, 1846, at which time I entered, one of the first pupils. The picture is more vivid before me than I can describe. The situation of that handsome brick building, perched on its eminence in the midst of a broomsedge field, on either side deep-washed gulleys, and the dismal ravine, with thick undergrowth, separating it from any proxim- ity to the town. The big road then wended its way 23

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mniEic Officers- President Mrs. lyucy A. Cuninggitn . . Greensboro, N. C. First Vice-President Miss Mary L. Hendren New Bern, N. C. Second Vice-President Mrs. Carrie Caldwell Buford Henderson, N. C. Third Vice-President Mrs. R. R. Cotten Bruce, N. C. Associate Third Vice-President Mrs. W. H. Branson Durham, N. C. Recording Secretary . Miss Nannie Lee Smith Greensboro, N. C. Corresponding Secretary Miss Mabel Chadwick Beaufort, N. C. Treasurer Mrs. E. L,. Sides Greensboro, N. C. THE Association was organized for the purpose of improving the social advantages incident to an annual gathering of hundreds of former school- mates and friends, and in order that the strength of a thorough organization might become available for the pro- motion of the general interests of the institution. This Association has for some years been trying to raise the sum of three thousand dollars ($3,000) to be known as The Eucy McGee Fund, in loving memorj of Eucy McGee Jones, wife of Dr. Turner M. Jones, who for thirty-six years was the efficient president of Greens- boro Female College. The object for which the fund is intended is that it may be a permanent endowment for the use of needy students. The annual income of one hundred and eighty dollars ($180) is to be divided into three scholarships of sixty ($60) each and to be loaned to worthy students of limited means. The committee has in hand more than two thousand dollars ($2,000), the in- come from which has been aiding students for several years past. The Association is very anxious to complete the fund, and will be glad to receive contributions at any time. 22 ■K ' W ' WWWWOTTONWraNWNiSSi

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over the hills, and the stage-coaches brought the new girls in a more circuitous route, and very different from the well-laid streets and avenues of to-day. In comparison, too, the wide surroundings of then, and the miniature outfit for a college, is a picture that shows that even the present well-equipped Greensboro Female College, with all of its improvements once had a begin- ning. I have no record of the number or names of the pupils of the first year, and can mention only my own class, who formed the Junior Class for 1846. This class had each the best advantage of private schools taught by ' ' imported teachers from Northern States. Teac hers were not then found among the women of our Southland, and the establishment of Greensboro Female College marked the era for the education of Southern teachers. Of our class were : Sarah E. Smith, Chatham, N. C. ; Nannie E. Morris, Greensboro, N. C; Bettie M. Jones, Edenton, N C; Sarah Ballou, Halifax, Va.; Henrietta Crump, Greens- boro, N. C; Laura A. Crump, Greensboro, N. C. These formed the graduating class of 1848. Sarah E. Smith was valedictorian. I would be glad to give the subject of essays by each of the others, but I only remem- ber my own, ' ' Laughter and Tears, and I wish I could reproduce it now for your Annual ; but like many other things, it is buried with the archives of the past. At that time I knew how to moralize on Laughter, and since then, I have learned the meaning of Tears. My mind teems with pleasant memories of that first commencement, and I love to go back through the vista of years and look again into the happy faces of my be- loved associates and classmates, as we joined hands and hearts in that last good-bye of our college life, and stood on the threshold of What Now? and the new depart- ment of life before us. No meeting of the Alumnae can ever collect the members of that class together again. Before that summer had ended the blessed angels came for the gentle and loved Nannie E. Morris, who died at her home in Greensboro. At intervals, other years have recorded the number of that class one less, and in succession they have reached the haven of rest, and now, leaving only the name of her whom your first College Annual honors. Thanks for the tribute to my gray hairs, and happy am I to bid God-speed to younger hearts, who are so watch- fully holding the interest of our honored and loved Alma Mater. 24