Lenoir Rhyne College - Hacawa Yearbook (Hickory, NC)

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2)e6icaUon I ' Cistor A gloomy pall possessed the hearts of the dear ones of Lucretia Bowers Fritz in the wintry Spring of ' 69. Her health was poor and a maternal hour was drawing near. On the second of February she went down into the valley of the shadow of death and gave to the world a son, lin- gered in the vale seven days, and then passed calmly and peacefully out through death ' s dark door mto the pearly gates of Eternal Love. Thinking the child dead at birth, skilled phy- sicians and loving hands bent all their energy to save the mother. After her needs were attended, the child received their services, when, to the sur- prise of all, a bubble arose from the basin in which the child was placed. He lived, and some days later was carried on a pillow to the home of an uncle eight miles away. So frnil and delicate was he that the journey was made on foot. Several times he was thought to be dying on the trip. One can scarcely believe that the lusty and vigorous President of Lenoir College was once this tmy and delicate child. But it is true. Robert Lindsay Fritz, son of William and Lucretia Fritz, was born on the second of February, 1 869, near Holly Grove, Davidson county. North Carolina. Seven days later he lost his mother and a mother ' s love, and was reared in the home of his grand- parents, Mr. and Mrs. William Bowers, near Lake, North Carolina. At the age of five he was put in school, but at the close of the session he knew no more in his books than he did when he first started, failing to learn the alphabet, even. But in the second winter circumstances changed. A new school-house had been erected and a new teacher employed. In these new surroundings he quickly showed his men- tal strength. On the first day he mastered his let- ters and took leading rank in all his work. At the age of fourteen, with little more than three months schooling each year, he had mastered the common school course and was taking algebra in advance. This fact made it difficult for the district committee- men to secure a teacher for the term of his fifteenth year, due to the fact that his advanced studies ter- rified the average teacher of that section at that time. After searching long and to no avail some- one suggested the idea of having this boy teach the school himself. Acting on the suggestion they at once looked him up and prevailed upon him to stand the examination and undertake the work. He left the woods where he was chopping and sought the Superintendent of Public Instruction at once. He stood the test, obtained a second grade certifi- cate, and spent the winter of his fifteenth year teach- ing his first school and has remained in the school teacher ' s chair almost every year since. About this time Rev. W. P. Cline became pastor of the Holly Grove Parish. He saw the possibil- ities of a good school in that section, and realized the good it would accomplish. In the Fall of 1 894 he opened Holly Grove Academy and successfully operated it for a number of years, doing a service for that community which will never be fully tabu- lated or accurately known. Into this school came Robert hritz at the close of his school term in the spring of 1885. He remained a pupil and tutor until he left the Academy to enter Roanoke College in the spring of I 888, entering the Sophomore class one-half advanced. In the fall of I 889 he yielded to the wishes of friends and entered the newly or- ganized college at Conover. Here he remained regularly and finished the course in 1891 — tnc year in which the rupture came and the College was moved from Conover to Hickory. This rupt- ure broke up the commencement for that year and President Fritz did not get his diploma until the commencement in I 892. On the removal of the college from Conover, he cast his lot with the Hickory school, helped clear the thicket where Lenoir College now stands, and did regular work as a teacher in the session of I 89 I - ' 92. In the fall of 1892 he entered John Hopkins University and specialized in Mathemat- ics, Physics, and Astronomy. He returned to Lenoir College in the fall of 1893 and taught regularly for three years. In the summer of I 896 he received and accepted a call to the newly or- ganized Elizabeth College, Charlotte, North Caro-