Meredith College - Oak Leaves Yearbook (Raleigh, NC)

Page 17 text:

OAK LEAVES STAFF

Page 19 text:

The B. F. U. Fff HOUGH the B. F. U. is young in years, the idea out of which it grew ante- i J V dates the Civil War. The Baptists of North Carolina had gone so far as ■ to purchase the lot on which the Agricultural Building now stands as a site for the school. During the season of paralysis which maimed the whole South after the war, this property slipped from their grasp, and for a long time no active steps were taken to renew the enterprise. But the plan was never wholly abandoned, and many prayers were offered that God would give the girls of the State the same advantages which grand old Wake Forest was giving the boys. In 1890 a subscription was begun, to which people of all denominations re- sponded. Sufficient money was contributed to buy the present site, but there every thing stopped again. Without a brick on the ground, without a dollar in the treasury, the building of a house adequate to the end in view seemed an impossi- bility. The business men of the city, as well as the contributors from other sections, began to ask : Where is our money ? Something had to be done, and done immediately. In 1891 a charter for the school was granted by the Legislature. In 1895 the foundation was laid, and then began a long struggle. For four years the Board of Trustees put forth every effort to raise money to carry on the building. Often there were long intervals of inaction for want of funds, and the wiseacres began to shake their heads and call the incomplete pile of brick and mortar the folly of North Carolina Baptists. For several years, Rev. O. L. Stringfield was financial agent, and the final success of the work is largely due to the enthusiasm he inspired throughout the State. At Greenville, in 1897, the fiftieth anniversary of the State Convention, the Woman ' s Building Association was organized. Any woman contributing five dollars, payable one dollar a year, was entitled to membership ; and any one contributing twenty-five dollars, was given the privilege of inscribing a name — her own, or that of any woman she wished to honor — on a tablet on the chapel wall. The money raised by these faithful women aided materially in completing the work. In 1899 the school was opened. The demand for rooms was so great that the Trustees bought, in August before the opening, the Adams ' property, east of the