COLLEGES ESTABLISHED not then successful. The necessary subscriptions were not obtained. Robert H. Morrison, who had in 1826 established at Fayetteville the first religious newspaper published in the State, was much interested that the Presbyterians should start a school. And he was a believer in the principle of a manual labor school and saw the practical bearing of such a movement, that it would be interesting to the Presbyterian farmers, and at length, in 1835, at the instance of Rev. James E. Morrison, his cousin, the Presbyterians of Concord, Bethel and Morganton resolved to establish a manual labor seminary, and to call it Davidson College. On March 1, 1837, the institution was opened, Rev. R. H. Morrison, D.D., being its president. Dr. Morrison was easily one of the first men of his generation. Stonewall Jackson, General D. H. Hill, Gen. Rufus Barringer and Judge Avery were fortunate in marrying his daughters. Davidson 409 In 1833, the Wake Forest Institute, a manual labor school, was opened in Wake County, and at the Baptist State Con- Wake Forest vention that November, a board of five trustees was appointed, and in 1835 Judge Gaston delivered the address before the two literary societies. In 1839 it was called Wake Forest College. The manual labor feature was soon dropped. Its first president was Rev. Samuel Wait, D.D., who was indeed the father of the institution. In 1839 Brantley York opened a school in the neighborhood of Hopewell and Springfield, called the Union Institute and then the Normal College. In 1841 Braxton Craven was employed as a teacher. The next year he became the principal, and from that grew Trinity College under the Trinity patronage of the Methodists. And this was the beginning of the great institution of that name. Of Braxton Craven it may be said that perhaps no other educator of this State left a finer and better impress on a considerable number of students than he did. It will be observed that "manual labor schools" were in the public mind; indeed they seem to have been favorably regarded at that period when public education was in its infancy. In Washington City, Congress incorporated two institutions of that character. Military schools St. Marys Female academies About 1829, Captain Partridge, who had long conducted. a famous military school in Connecticut, visited North Carolina and determined to establish two schools similar to his own in the State. Mr. D. H. Bingham opened the first of these schools at Littleton; but, after moving it to Oxford, finally located it in Raleigh, occupying the former residence of Chief Justice Taylor. The other was located at Fayetteville. This Major Bingham built the Experimental Railroad at Raleigh, in 1833, but later became the construction engineer of a railroad in Alabama. The Episcopalians started a boys' school at Raleigh under the general supervision of Bishop Ravenscroft in 1824, the principal being Mr. George W. Freeman (afterwards Bishop Freeman). This school was continued, perhaps with some interruption, for a decade. In 1834 it was under the direction of Joseph G. Coggswell, who afterwards was the librarian of the Astor Library of New York. Later, the school was under the famous Dr. Moses A. Curtis, and Dr. Adam Empie. It was located on the grounds known as "St. Mary's," and the two old stone buildings still in use were then erected and occupied. In 1840 it was discontinued as a male school; but after some years was reopened as a female school under Dr. Aldert Smedes, and has ever since been a noted female seminary. The Greensboro Female Academy had been started in 1829 as a department of the Greensboro Academy; and now the Edgeworth School was opened at Greensboro, that was destined to exert a most beneficial influence over that section of the State, as the female schools at Murfreesboro, Warrenton, Halifax, Pittsboro, Louisburg, New Bern, Wilmington, Fayetteville, Raleigh and elsewhere were similarly exerting in their respective communities. Indeed, in nearly every county was a school of merit. At Greensboro in 1821 Jonathan Worth was a teacher, and in Caswell, Bartlett Yancey had been a teacher. Among the teachers who left their impress on many families in the western counties was one who called himself Peter S. Ney, and it was currently believed that he was Marshal Ney. He evidently had the training of a soldier. He came to this State in 1819, and taught school in Iredell WOODEN TRACK RAILROADS County and elsewhere till his death in 1846. He was, says Judge Murphey, "a well-educated, intelligent Scotchman." His son who died at Indiana about 1912, when over a hundred years of age, bore the name of Neyman. He caused to be inscribed on his tombstone: "Son of Marshal Ney of North Carolina." For nearly a generation, this "Marshal Ney" taught many of the boys of the better class in the western part of the State. While, therefore, education had not been furnished to the poor children of the State, it must not be forgotten that in other states the same conditions then prevailed; and that illiterates among our people had their counterpart in every other state of the Union. Nor was there any other state with a white population no larger than that of North Carolina that had so many pupils at school in 1850. Railroads As the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad and the Raleigh and Gaston Railroad were being constructed, each from its terminal, stage coaches were used to fill the gap, but finally early in 1840 both were completed. The first train ran through from Weldon to Wilmington on March 7, 1840. The construction was begun in October, 1836, Governor Dudley being the president, but when elected Governor he retired and General James Owen became president. The chief engineer was Walter Gwynn with Matthew T. Goldsborough of Maryland in charge of the southern division and Francis N. Barbasin of the northern half. The last spike was driven near Waynesboro, and the point became the town of Goldsboro. The road like all others of that date was laid with wooden rails, on which were fastened plate iron, two inches wide and about half an inch thick. At the time this company was chartered, the railroads, being in their infancy, were considered as having the nature of turnpikes; and the provision was made in the charters that others could run their own vehicles or carriages over them as turnpikes. The companies were authorized to establish toll gates and charge tolls 411 |