Spartanburg County, South Carolina - A General Review of the Progress of Education^ in Spartanburg County Continued, 1900

A General Review of the Progress of Education^ in Spartanburg County Continued

The Limestone Springs Female High School was founded in 1846 by Rev. Thomas Curtis, D.D., and his son, Rev. Wm. Curtis, D.D. (See sketches elsewhere in this work.) The substantial and elegant brick building in which said institution was begun was built bv a joint stock company, mostly low-country gentlemen, for hotel purposes, the famous Limestone Spring near by being an attraction, with the Race Paths at the Gaffney place, one mile distant, where the finest horses the country afforded were groomed, exercised and run, and these, together with the close proximity to the mountain region, offered special inducements to establish a popular resort for the summer season ; but a financial failure of the company caused the property to be advertised for sale, which was purchased in the fall of 1845 by the Drs. Curtis. Here was established for the education of females an institution which acquired a wide reputation and liberal patronage, which soon made it one of the most popular schools in the South. The number of pupils amounted sometimes to nearly three hundred, and the roll showed them as representing almost every State in the South. The co-principals brought to this institution the most distinguished talent that could be obtained, and all of the higher branches of literature were taught, including music and the fine arts. In short, the tone of education was set high, care being taken to cultivate the mind to points of refinement and elegance, which was successfully done at this institution, and which was operated for about fifteen years, when the untimely death of the senior principal and the civil war between the States, which came up a few years later, put an end to its existence for a time. Several 3'ears after the war in the same building a school was begun (1874) under the auspices of others, but not with any marked success until the opening of what was afterwards known as the Cooper-Li?nesto7ie Institute^ which had its origin under the following circumstances :

The attention of the Hon. Peter Cooper, of New York, being called to the healthful locality and attractive features around Limestone Springs, he bought the property, including the buildings and two hundred and sixty acres of land. It was his purpose to so model and fashion and beautify that it might become his pleasant and attractive winter resort from the severity of temperature of more northern latitudes. Some members of his family strenuously objected to its use as originally intended by Mr. Cooper, and hence he donated the property to the Spartanburg Baptist Association. From Griffith's " Life of J. G. Landrum," page 221, we gather the following :

" At a meeting of the Association in 1879, information was received through Major Thomas Bomar, to the effect that Hon. Peter Cooper, of New York, had intimated a willingness to donate the celebrated Limestone Springs property ... to some religious or benevolent corporation to be used by them for educational purposes. Mr. Landrum was appointed chairman of a committee to confer with Mr. Cooper, and the final result was that Mr. Cooper donated the property, valued at $22,000, to the Spartanburg Baptist Association, with the provision that it is to be used for purposes of education. The Association was then incorporated bv an act of the legislature, a board of trustees was elected with J. G. Landrum as president, and in the fall of 1881 the famous Limestone Springs Female High School was reopened under the name of ' The Cooper-Limestone Institute for Young Ladies. '

"Mr. Landrum worked indefatigably for this enterprise, and gave it the best energies of his declining years. He was through life an earnest advocate of education. . . . The Cooper-Limestone Institute was the pet of his old age."

The Cooper-Limestone Institute was opened, as stated, in the fall of 1881, under the management of Professors H. P. Griffith and R. O. Sams, co-principals, and was successfully operated by them for a number of years. Subsequently Professor Sams retired from the Institute, leaving Professor Griffith in charge, which he conducted with marked success, notwithstanding many drawbacks, for ten years or more. Under his management the school was liberally patronized and its alumnae are found in the faculties of many schools and colleges of South Carolina and other States.

Upon the death of Rev. J. G. Landrum in January, 1882, Major John Earle Bomar was elected President of the Board of Trustees, who served faithfully and with efficiency for a number of years, when he was succeeded by Captain John H. Montgomery (in 1888), whose management and liberal expenditure of his private as well as other funds collected have placed the institution on safe footing. Besides his last gift of $10,000 in moneys and assumption of bonded indebtedness, he gave at one time $1,000 and $300 to the library of said institution.

stone Institute and investigate its condition and needs reported at the meeting of the Association a year later that some permament arrangement mnst be made as to repairs and for snpplying the bnilding with water, etc. The Association therenpon resolved that the snm of not less than $10,000 be raised for Cooper-Limestone Institute by the Association by January ist, 1899. ^^^^ name of the institution was changed from Cooper-Limestone Institute to Limestone College.

The committee further reported, voicing its own true wishes and expressing the sentiment of the Association, that it would prefer to have the college called Montgomery College, in honor of its generous supporter. Captain John H. Montgomery, but solely in deference to his feelings and judgment suggested the name Limestone College.

It was further provided in said resolutions that said committee be fully authorized and empowered to take all necessary steps in conjunction with the proper officers of the Association of the Cooper- Limestone Institute as might be required by law to effect a transfer of the institution to a board of fifteen trustees, to be held by them in trust for the Baptists of the State. Eight members of the first board to be elected by the Association, and when elected to be empowered to select seven other members of the board from prominent and influential Baptists of the State, said board to be a self-perpetuating body, etc.

Under this new arrangement the trustees during the the present year (1899) liave spent $20,000 on equipments, making it one of the most superbly furnished colleges in the State. The Art Department is fitted up in a stylish and fascinating manner ; a large historical library is being provided, and the trustees have deter-

Tiiined to establish a department of history, to be known -as the Winnie Davis School of History, in which, withont neglecting other branches of the subject, particular attention will be paid to history of the Southern States.

At the head of the institution is Lee Davis Lodge, an A.M. and Ph.D. of Columbian University, assisted by Professor H. P. Griffith, an able and popular instructor, together with other competent teachers in all its departments, and which as a whole compose a strong and experienced faculty.

We would further add, that the location of Limestone College is one of the most beautiful and romantic in the South, which will always command for it a generous support and liberal patronage.

The marvelous growth of the city of Spartanburg up to the beginning of 1889 pointed clearly to the fact that the educational advantages were not amply sufficient to meet the requirements of the rising generations in that city, and a number of her more progressive citizens, appreciating this fact, called a meeting in March of the same year.

The object of said meeting was to inaugurate a movement for the building up of a high grade female school to be located in the city of Spartanburg. Among those who were present at this first meeting were D. E. Converse, Geo. Cofield, C. H. Carlisle, Jos. Walker, Bishop Duncan, D. R. Duncan, H. E- Heinisch, Rev. B. F. Wilson, Rev. W. T. Devieux, Rev. A. Coke Smith, Dr. Geo. R. Dean and W. E. Burnett. Steps were at once taken looking to the formation of a joint stock company for such a college to start with 1,000 shares, at $25 per share. A committee, consisting of D. E. Con- verse, W. B. Burnett, Jos. Walker, John B, Cleveland and Rev. A. C Smith, was appointed to solicit subscriptions. In the course of a few weeks the requisite amount was raised, the beautiful grounds which embraced St. John's College were purchased, and the college was organized under the following Board of Directors : D. E. Converse, Hon. D. R. Duncan, Dr. C. E. Fleming, Col. Joseph Walker, W. S. Manning, Captain J. H. Montgomery, Hon. J. B. Cleveland, N. F. Walker and W. E. Burnett. Mr. Converse was made President and Mr. Manning Secretary and Treasurer of said board.

Rev. B. F. Wilson, A.B., was chosen as President of an able faculty ; the building of Saint John's College was repaired and remodeled and the first session of Converse College (named in honor of Mr. D. E. Converse) began Wednesday, October ist, 1890, under favorable circumstances and with a liberal patronage.

In the course of one or two years, however, the main college building was destroyed by fire, but other buildings were provided and the school only suspended its exercises for a few days. The same public spirit which gave rise to the first movement to erect a college building caused another, a handsomer and more commodious building to be constructed.

The institution, which was chartered by the State of South Carolina in 1889, was incorporated by enactment of the General Assembly of South Carolina in 1896, under the name and style of " Converse College." The following gentlemen are named in said Act : D. Edgar Converse, John B. Cleveland, Joseph Walker, John H. Montgomery, David R. Duncan, Newton F. Walker, William S. Manning, Wilber E. Burnett, Albert H. Twitchell, John Earle Bomar, H. Arthur Ligon and Benjamin F, Wilson.

Converse College has at the present writing (1899) been in operation for nearly ten years, and has continued to grow in patronage and influence from year to year. During the past year the attendance amounted to 452 students from 22 different States, and many applicants were refused for want of room space. The college is well equipped in every sense, and in connection with the buildings is a handsome Conservatory of Music and Concert Hall at a cost of $14,000, and an auditorium which accommodates 2,000 people. The college has purchased and completed its own electric light plant at a cost of $5,000, and an elegant dormitory and gymnasium building, constructed of brick and granite, is in course of erection, which will soon be completed, at a cost of about $12,000. The college plant now represents something like $200,000 ; of this amount the citizens of Spartanburg contributed about $40,000 and Mr. Converse the balance. This does not, however, include the amount bequeathed to the college under the last will and testament of Mr. Converse, which will amount to atleast $100,000 more. The original contributors number about 150 of the citizens of Spartanburg.

Should the college grow in influence and property within the next ten years as it has done in the past, it will have sufflcient equipment to become a university and will continue to rank, as it does now, as one of the foremost institutions of learning in the South.

Rev. Benjamin F. Wilson

President of Converse College, of Spartanburg, was born in Sumter county, S. C, March 20th, 1862. He is a son of Captain Benjamin F. Wilson, of Sumter county, S. C, one of the largest cotton planters in said county. The subject of this sketch was reared on his father's farm until he arrived at the age of seventeen years, receiving the benefit of the common schools of his neighborhood. In the fall of 1880, when eighteen years of age, he entered Davidson College, of North Carolina^ from which he graduated in 1884 as a Bachelor of Arts.

So well did he advance during these years that he re- medals both in his junior and senior years, the former of which was awarded to him as the best representative of the two literary societies of said college, and the latter as the best representative in his own society proper. He was elected the valedictorian of his class during the senior year by the literary society of which he was a member. Having decided to become a minister of the gospel, he entered, in the fall of 1884, the Theo- logical Seminary at Columbia, S. C, in which he spent one year. In the fall of 1885 he entered Princeton Theological Seminary, at Princeton, N. J., from which he graduated in the summer of 1887. During his first year there he took the second scholarship prize in Greek, and during his last year he took the first scholarship prize in Hebrew. In the summer of 1887 he became pastor of the Presbyterian church in Spartanburg. In 1888 he spent the summer in the University of Berlin, Germany, pursuing philosophical and philological studies. For the commencement in '89 he was elected by his ahna mater alumnus orator, and during the same year was elected pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Richmond, Ky., and also, at the same time, to the chair of Christian Apologetics of the Central University of Richmond, Ky., both of which he declined. In the winter of 1889 he was elected president of the Converse College, which position he now holds, having presided over the institution with distinguished ability, as has been shown by its continued upgrowth, equipment and prosperity from year to year. Mr. Wilson is a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. He is yet young and talented ; and the achievements which he has already attained by his connection with Converse College are such as to foreshadow for him a continued useful and brilliant career.

He was joined in marriage, July 30th, 1890, to Mrs. Sallie Foster, widow of J. Adolphus Foster, and daughter of J. C. Farrer, a resident of Union county. By this marriage he has several children.

Dexter Edgar Converse

October 5th, 1899. His father was Orlin Converse, also a native of the same State. His grandfather was Paine Converse, a farmer of Massachusetts, and direct descendant of Edward Converse, who came from Eng- land to America with Governor Winthrop in 1620. His mother was Louisa Twitchell, a native of Massachusetts, and daughter of Peter Twitchell. She died in 1888.

deprived by death of a father's care, and was placed in the care of an uncle in Canada, where he was reared and educated. This uncle was, like his father, a woolen manufacturer, and it was from him that the subject of this sketch received his first lessons in this line of business, which he conducted to the end of his life with marvelous success. In 1850, after reaching his ^-ears of maturity, he went to Cohoes, N. Y., where he was employed in a cotton mill for five years, and thus obtained a good knowledge of that business in all its branches.

In 1855 he came South, and, after a brief connection with a cotton mill at Lincolnton, N. C, he removed to the present county of Spartanburg, and was employed in a cotton mill at Bivingsville, now known as Glendale, of which he soon acquired a proprietary interest, and at the time of his death owned a controlling interest in the stock. At the beginning of the war he enlisted as a private in Company I, 13th Regiment, S. C. V. His captain was D. R. Duncan. There was, however, such need of accomplished manufacturers that the Confederate government detailed him to return -home and conduct the business of cotton manufacturing, requiring of his company one-third of the product of their mill, which was carried out in good faith.

After the close of the war the old factory building at Bivingsville was removed and a fine new establishment was built, the business of which grew steadily as the ravages of war disappeared. The name of Bivingsville w^as changed to Glendale, and Mr. Converse was made president of the new mills. In 1880, in connection with business associates, he purchased the water privilege and site of the old South Carolina Iron Works on Pacolet River, Spartanburg county, and here three new mills have been erected, known as Clifton Nos. i, 2 and 3. The total capacity of these, with Glendale Mills, at this writing ( 1899), amonnts to 3,768 looms and 118,072 spindles. Of the Clifton Manufacturing Company Mr. Converse was president and business manager from its organization to the time of his death. He was a director in various other cotton mills and in several of the banks at Spartanburg. He was a trustee of the South Carolina Institute for the deaf, dumb and blind, at Cedar Spring, and, as already stated, the founder of Converse College for the education of young women, which will always rank among the foremost institutions of our country and which has added imperishable honor to his name and character. This institution was the pride of his heart, and will endure for all time as a monument to his memory as lasting as can be carved from stone. By his last will and testament he bequeathed one third of his magnificent estate, amounting to some $600,000, to Converse College, and just before his death made known in writing his purpose in founding said college, which reads as follows :

" It is my opinion that the well-being of any country depends upon the culture of the women, and I have done what I could to found a college that would provide for women thorough and liberal culture, so that for them the highest motives may become clear purposes and fixed habits of life ; and I desire that the instruction and influence of Converse College be always such that the students may be enabled to see clearly, to decide wisely and act justly ; and that they may learn to love God and humanity and be faithful to truth and duty, so that their influence may be characterized by purity and power.

" It is also my desire and hope that Converse College may always be truly religious but never denominational. I believe that religion is essential to all that is purest and best in life here and hereafter. I wish the college to be really, but liberally and tolerantly, Christian ; for I believe that the revelation of God in Christ is for salvation, and I commend and commit the college to the love and guidance of God and to the care, sympathy and fidelity of my fellow men."

In character Mr. Converse was benevolent and liberal in his contributions to all worthy objects which came before him. He was temperate, pure and upright, with lofty ideas for the elevation of humanity ; but his excellent traits of character can be better summed up in the address of Dr. Jas. H. Carlisle on the occasion of his funeral obsequies, who spoke the following words :

" Perhaps my acquaintance with our deceased friend dates fiirther back than that of almost any one else who speaks to-day. More than forty years ago I used to meet him at the religious occasions which he loved to encourage among his people, near his home. During the great war I saw him in his office, where needy women, the wives and widows of soldiers, had learned to go for help. He was old enough to bear his share in the burdens and dangers of the war. He was not too old to adjust himself to new and strange conditions when peace returned. While some of our citizens were eloquently abusing his native section and others were sitting down in sullen despair, he threw himself with all his energies into needed and honorable work, to help in rebuilding the shattered fortunes of our people. He depended for his success only on skill, prudence, patience and integrity. We suppose it never occurred to him that money might be sought in gambling speculations. He must have been endued to an unusual degree with the rare qualities to gain wealth honorably, and the still rarer qualities to use it wisely and imselfishly. A few years ago, in this growing city, a critical opportunity occurred to take a- signal step forward in the most important fields of education. The place, the time, called for the man. Thrown in early life upon the care of a widowed mother, his own fine character a tribute of her worth, and having been privileged, in her case, to ' rock the cradle of reposing age,' our friend was well prepared to put a high estimate on female influence and character. Quietly, without pretense of show, he came forward and met the grand grandly. A man of few words, of unusual modesty, whose ' virtues were rather felt than seen,' it almost seemed easier for him to sign a large check for the college than to take his place on the platform on Commencement day and receive the congratulations of his friends. He took all the precautions that the education imparted to young women here should be safe, moral and religious. Perhaps no surer means could be taken by any man to embalm his money and give it earthly continuance.

" The orphan stranger came among us without means. He has given to his adopted State an offering such as very few of her own sons, with ancestral wealth, have laid upon her altar."

The Education Of The Deaf And The Blind

Cedar Spring, situated four miles south of Spartanburg, is a place of historic and educational interest. It was near here that two memorable engagfements took place during the Revolution - one on the 12th day of July, 1780, and the other on the 7th day of August of the same year. The first of these was fought near the Cedar Spring (known in the annals of Revolutionary history as Green Sprino-\ and the other mainly at the old Thomson place, uearGlendale (R. R.) Station, known in history as the second battle of Cedar Spring, or Wofford's Iron Works. In another volume we have eiven an extended acconnt of both of these battles.* To the mind of the present generation it at once snggests the home of the Sonth Carolina Institntion for the Deaf and the Blind. However, it mnst not be forgotten that the educational interest of the place dates back further than the establishment of the above mentioned institution.

In 1824 the Word Academy was erected in the grove near the spring. This school was well attended. Rev. Porter, a Presbyterian minister, was the first teacher, the school being what was then termed a " Latin school. ' ' Colonel E. C. Leitner, George Packer, a Mr. Dye, Roland Burdette, Mr. Sims, James Smith and Mrs. Betsy Mc- Clintock were some of Rev. Porter's successors. Col. H. H. Thomson, Madison Thomson, Joel Foster, Barhani B. Foster, Mike Whetstone, Charles White, Calvin White, Javan Barnett, David Zimmerman, Colonel Joseph Walker, and many other well-known men of that day attended this academy.

About the same date that the ffbove named academy was established, a number of summer residents erected a school building southwest of the present building of the School for the Deaf and Blind, and secured the services of Mr. Scarborough to open there an academy for girls. Both of these schools were among the best in Spartanburg District at that date.

In 1849, Rev. N. P. Walker, having become interested in the education of the deaf, bought the hotel buildingnear the spring, and there established a private school for the deaf. On the 22d of January of that year he had a class of five deaf children in his school for speaking and hearing children. The names of these were John M. Hughston, E. Melton Hughston, E. Jane Hughston,

Before the opening of this school Mr. Walker had attended for a few months a school at the Cave Spring (Georgia) School for the Deaf, in which he had prepared himself for this special work. It was not long until this school had the cordial patronage of the State, and finally, in 1857, became a State institution. The State erected, in 1857-59, ^^^ present (1900) buildings.

The founder of the South Carolina Institution for the Deaf and the Blind, and also his son, his successor, deserve more than passing recognition and casual mention.

Rev. Newton Pinckney Walker

was born in Spartanburg county, S. C, November 29th^ 1816, He, like others who have achieved success, was born poor, and was beset in his boyhood days by all the drawbacks inseparable from his adverse surroundings. There were struggles, to be made, there were peculiar difficulties in the way of his success that he had to overcome ; but the faithful love and labor in the great cause for afflicted humanity has had its reward, for to-day the Institution for the Deaf and Blind stands as a monumental record of his triumph. His wife had some deaf relatives, and becoming interested in these, he determined to make an effort to do something for the amelioration of their condition. Hence he visited, as already stated, the then little school for the deaf, located at Cave Spring, Ga., in a log cabin, to familiarize himself with the methods of instructing the deaf, to enable him to perform a great work which was before him. But few men in so short a time have accomplished a more humane and a more Christian work.

graduate of the New York School for the Deaf, was employed by Mr. Walker as his first assistant teacher. In 1855 he secured the services of Professor James S. Henderson, a graduate of the Tennessee School for the Blind, and opened a department for the blind with Professor Henderson as Principal. Professor J. M. Hughston, who

Rev. N. P. Walker, the founder of the school, died in 1 86 1. His son. Prof. Newton F. Walker, succeeded his father in the management of the institution. Among the many beautiful tributes to the noble work of this father and son may be read the account given.

''Rev. N. P. Walker was preeminently a self-made man, a pioneer in the education of the deaf, a close student, clear but advanced in his religious views, and a true philanthropist. In his Annual Report of the institution at the time it was being changed from an individual enterprise to a State school, he says : ' This day, with a soul swelled in thankfulness to Heaven's God, I point you, my countrymen, to this institution as an offering of my life to the State which gave me birth.'

"Professor Newton F. Walker, eldest son of Rev. N. P. Walker, is the present superintendent of the South Carolina Institution for the education of the deaf and

"blind. Ha\ing filled in snccession every office in said institntion, from clerk in the office to that of snperintendent, he is eminently qualified for the work, as is evidenced by his successful management of the school in all its details.

" This school might well be termed the Walker School, being founded by the present superintendent and principally under the management of the subject of this sketch since the death of its founder. Few schools of its kind have encountered so man}' and so great difficulties, but Professor Walker has by his good sense and judgment overcome them, and to-day may be congratulated in that he presents his State an institution of which she may well be proud. As his "father left him as a legacy to the educational interests of the deaf and blind of South Carolina, so he has fitted two sons for the same work, and promises in them to leave a legacy to the educational interests of the deaf of the United States.

the eldest son of Professor N. F Walker, after graduating from the South Carolina University with the degree of A. B., in 1887, accepted an offer to become a teacher in the ^Missouri School for the Deaf, and by close application to his work, has risen to the head of his profession as a teacher of the highest class in that institution.

the second son of Professor N. F. Walker, since his graduation from the South Carolina University, with the degree of A.B., in 1889, has been teaching in the Texas School for the Deaf (Austin), and bids fair to make his mark in his chosen profession."

The South Carolina Institution for the Deaf and the Blind has become the pride of the State, receiving yearly by the legislature an appropriation, which is done in a spirit of most cheerful benefaction. " The thorough work that is being done by the institution from year to year in opening sources of enjoyment to the deaf and blind, and in preparing numbers of these unfortunates for useful and happy lives, is appreciated by the people everywhere. The gifted. God-fearing founder builded more wisely than he dreained."

The public school system and the facilities provided for public school education have all the while been on the increase since the system was first organized in 1870.

According to the last annual report (1898) of Mr. B. B. Chapman, County Superintendent of Education for Spartanburg county (exclusive of that portion of said county cut off into Cherokee county), we find the following statement :

* The present graded school building on Magnolia street is the first building erected specifically for graded school purposes in the State outside of Charleston.

The Gaffney High School has been in successful operation for twenty years or more, under Professors Wm. S. Mc Arthur, R. M. Sams and others. The academy at the same place, taught by Professors Dargan, Surratt and others, has also had the reputation of being a good school.

The Legislature of South Carolina has from time to time amended the school law by eliminating objectionable features and inserting others adapted to the needs of the people.

There is now a public school within easy reach of every family in Spartanburg county, with a constantly increasing number of commodious schoolhouses of modern build, and supplied with modern and improved school apparatus.

The standard of common school education has been greatly raised ; a higher standard is required of teachers, until now many of the public schools give the pupils not only a practical business education, but prepare them for the freshman class in college.

The average length of session for the whole county is about five months, and quite a number of schools are supplementing by local tax and run nine months in the year.

Mr. Cliapman was first elected School Commissioner for Spartanburg county in 1876. In 1877 his first annual report shows that there were enrolled in the schools of the county 6,543 pupils. The report for 1898 shows a gain of 8,264 over said report. The report for the present year (1900) will exceed that by at least 1,000, making a grand total of about 16,000 children enrolled in the public schools.

The annual report of taxable property for school purposes for 1898 shows an increase over the report for 1897 of over $5,000,000. With the continued increase of taxable property, with the rapid upbuilding and growth of our educational institutions, and the general interest which is now being manifested in the cause of education, we are scarcely able to grasp what is destined to be the future greatness and importance of Spartanburof countv.