Category Archives: Education

Education, Enslaved People, Maternal Kin, North Carolina, Other Documents, Uncategorized

Henry W. McNeely, teacher.

I knew from oral history and the 1870 census that my great-great-great-grandfather Henry W. McNeely was a teacher during Reconstruction. Born in 1841 to John W. McNeely, a white slaveowner, and Lucinda McNeely, the woman he enslaved, Henry presumably learned to read and write during slavery.

The document above is extracted from “List of School Teachers & School-buildings North Carolina” compiled by a Freedmen’s Bureau official. Miranda was a community on present-day Millbridge Road in Rowan County, southwest of Salisbury and just a few miles northwest of China Grove. Henry’s home was closer to Mount Ulla, a few miles northwest of Miranda. Another document in this dataset notes that H.W. McNeely taught 138 students in one building under the patronage of the Friends Freedmen’s Association.

Roll 028, Monthly and Other School Reports North Carolina July 1868-Dec 1870, Records of the Education Division, Headquarters Records, U.S. Freedmen’s Bureau Records 1865-1878, http://www.ancestry.com.

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Education, Maternal Kin, Newspaper Articles, North Carolina

Nurse Colvert graduates.

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Charlotte Observer, 21 July 1915.

“Good Samaritan Hospital was the first private hospital in North Carolina built exclusively for the treatment of Charlotte’s black citizens, and is one of the oldest of its kind in the United States. Located in Charlotte’s Third Ward neighborhood between Mint and Graham streets, it was built in 1891 with funds raised by St. Peter’s Episcopal Church and its parishioners. … In 1903, a School of Nursing was established in the hospital to train black women, and graduated hundreds of young nurses over the next fifty years.”

My great-grandfather’s sister, Henrietta R. Colvert, began her nursing education at Saint Agnes Hospital in Raleigh, but finished closer to home at Good Samaritan.

[Sidenote: the hospital’s site now lies under Bank of America Stadium, home of the Carolina Panthers.]

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Education, Newspaper Articles, North Carolina, Paternal Kin, Photographs

The class of ’52.

Sixty-five years later …

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Wilson Daily Times, 29 May 1952.

When I was home earlier this month, my dad and I did a count. About one-third of his graduating class of 75 has lived to see this anniversary. The Class of 1952 included parents of several of my close childhood friends. Though none of us attended, we were blessed to grow up under the Darden umbrella.

Best wishes to the ’52 Trojans! May you celebrate many more!

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Education, Maternal Kin, Newspaper Articles, Virginia

The Allens make the honor roll.

5 9 1911

The Daily Press, 9 May 1911.

11 10 1912

The Daily Press, 10 November 1912.

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The Daily Press, 10 December 1939.

My great-uncle J. Maxwell Allen, great-aunt Marion Allen Lomans, and first cousin once removed J. Maxwell Allen Jr. excelled in their elementary school studies at John Marshall School in Newport News, Virginia. John Marshall opened in 1896.

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Education, Other Documents, Paternal Kin

Honor graduate.

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From “The American Negro in College 1943-44,” The Crisis: A Record of the Darker Races, volume 51, number 8 (August 1944).

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Macy Oveta Aldridge was born 20 January 1923 in Dudley, Wayne County, to John J. and Ora Bell Mozingo Aldridge. She attended Wayne County public schools, then received an undergraduate degree from Georgia State College (now Savannah State University.) After her honorable discharge in 1946, she resumed her education at the University of Pennsylvania and Glassboro State College. Cousin Macy worked as a laboratory technician for the United States Army Medical Corps and then as a teacher. She married Clay J. Claiborne and was mother of three sons. Macy Claiborne died 12 October 1999 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

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Macy Aldridge Claiborne.

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Education, Maternal Kin, Photographs, Virginia

Dorothy Whirley, Class of ’48.

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1948 yearbook, Frederick Douglass Senior High School, Upper Marlboro, Maryland.

Senior Dorothy L. Whirley listed “no discrimination” as the characteristic of a true democracy, “stocking runs” as her pet peeve, and “to become successful” as her plan after  graduation. Dorothy, the daughter of Matilda Whirley and McKinley Steward, was born in Charles City County, Virginia, in December 1929. Her grandmother was Emma Allen Whirley (1879-after 1930), daughter of Graham and Mary Brown Allen.

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Education, Maternal Kin, Other Documents

Candidates for degree of Bachelor of Laws.

Tailored to women from working-class families, Portia Law School was founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1908.  Sensitive to the financial and time pressures these women faced, it offered part-time enrollment as well as the high school and college-level courses required to prepare students for legal studies. During the Great Depression, Portia Law School began opening up its programs to male students. The candidates for the Bachelor of Laws in the Class of 1932, however, were all female. And cousin Evelyn C. Kiner was one.

Portia Law School

Portia Law School 2

Portia Law School continues today as New England School of Law.

Many thanks to Peggy King Jorde and Peggy King Jorde Archive for sharing this document.

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Education, North Carolina, Paternal Kin

State Colored Normal School student.

I stumbled upon this catalog last night as I was researching for afamwilsonnc.com. As I scanned the list of students, I was stunned to see W.S. Hagans of Fremont, Wayne County. This is William S. Hagans, son of Napoleon and Appie Ward Hagans, and first cousin to my great-great-grandmother Louvicey Artis Aldridge (1865-1927.) William graduated from Howard University’s preparatory division in 1889 and went on to obtain bachelor’s and a law degree from Howard. Apparently, however, he spent at least a year of high school in Fayetteville, a little closer to home. A few months ago, I would have immediately picked up the phone to share this new information with my cousin Bill, William’s grandson. Bill is gone though, so I’ll just have to imagine his warm laugh and exclamations of surprise.

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Catalogue found here.

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