Guilford College - Quaker Yearbook (Greensboro, NC)

Page 23 text:

THE ( U AK.E FL |[ History of Guilford College The Friends arose in England about the micfdle of the seventeenth century, and they were one of many protests in that turbulent and riotous age against formalism and dead- ening effect of a purely ritualistic worship, and they formed a part of the forward move- ment known as the English Reformation. They were among the earliest religious bodies to organize in North Carolina. Their records of annual meetings embrace a period of two hundred and seventeen years. An English Friend, John Archdale, was Governor of the Colony of North and South Caro- Ima m 1696-16%. George Fox, the founder of the Friends Church, spent a short time m North Carolina in 1672 and was received by the colonial officials with great cordiality. We find among the Friends of our State that attention was given, in the early days of the yearly meeting, to the problem of education. In 1833 a definite proposition to found a Boarding School was before the yearly meeting. The eloquent Jeremiah Hubbard pleaded for the cause, and the distinguished preacher, Nathan Hunt, gave the subject his whole-hearted support. His appeals in behalf of a central school, made in New England and in other yearly meetings, aroused a deep interest in the cause. Notably was this so m the case of George Howland, of New Bedford, Mass., who in 1833 contributed liberally towards the building of Founders Hall. On the 1st of August, 1837, the school was opened, there being present the first term fifty students, twenty-five boys and twenty-five girls, and the institution has been in con- tinuous operation since that date. In the beginning the purpose was to put in charge teachers of marked scholarship and firmness of character. During the fifty-two years which was the limit of the existence of the Boarding School, there were in the faculty both as principals and assistants several men and women who won distinction as teachers and eminence in scholarship. Among these Dr. Nereus Men- denhall, Pendleton R. King, Professor A. Marshall Elliott and Mary E. Harris deserve mention. The first named taught nine years in the school, and his marked ability as a teacher and his great depth as well as breadth of scholarship made a lasting impression on students and on the public mind. A. Marshall Elliott became an authority m the