LD 
 393 
 .M 
 1875 
 
 , 393 b.a 1873 
 
 ;6N DIEGO 
 
 fill,ev«,a 
 
 III 
 
 
 
 

 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
 SAN DIEGO
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALiFORNIA, SAN DIEGG 
 LA JOLU, CALIFORNIA 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CAuirORNiA ^^N ,^-,ViP„ 
 
 3 1822 01164 7492 

 
 Berea College, Ky. 
 
 An Interesting fj 
 
 NTERESTING TTISTORY. 
 
 lif^fftoriaS} si rjf£ T'ltuiDnjvTjAL committes. 
 
 1875. 
 
 * ■* 
 
 CINCINNATI: 
 
 EfaB 8u««( Printing Cooopany, 178 aiid 178 fDm Street. 
 
 IBTft.
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by 
 E. H. FAIRCHILD, 
 
 In the OflSce of the Librarian of Congress, Waahington, D. C. 
 
 Stereotyped by Ogden, Campbeli. & Co., Cincinnati.
 
 Berea College. 
 
 ITS LOCATION 
 
 Many persons have examiued the maps for the 
 location of Berea, but have failed to find it. 
 Berea is a small village of about five hundred 
 inhabitants, considerably scattered, and of some- 
 what recent growth ; and the inhabitants are 
 none of them wealthy, and many of them poor. 
 There are not more than a dozen good houses in 
 the village. If these reasons do not sufiiciently 
 account for the absence of Berea from recent 
 maps of Kentucky, the same reason which has 
 hitherto excluded the College from the State 
 School Superintendent's Annual Report may bo 
 added. 
 
 Berea College is near the center of the State, 
 in the southern part of Madison County, one of 
 the most populous counties of the State. From 
 Cincinnati it is reached by the Kentucky Central 
 liuilroad to Lexington one hundred miles, thence 
 
 (3)
 
 4 BEREA COLLEGE, KT. 
 
 by Stage to Richmond twenty-six miles, thence 
 by hack to Berea fourteen miles. From Louis- 
 ville it is about one hundred and fifty miles by 
 the Eichmond Branch of the Louisville and 
 ^Nashville Railroad. Our nearest depot is Paint 
 Lick, eight miles distant. We leave here at five 
 o'clock A. M., and reach Cleveland, Chicago or 
 Pittsburg, t'«l« Louisville and Cincinnati, the next 
 mornins:. A macadamized road connects Berea 
 with Richmond, and thence with all the large 
 towns of the State. Kentucky excels most, if 
 not all, other States in macadamized roads. Its 
 common roads are generally very poor. It is 
 not an uncommon thing for county roads to be 
 obstructed by farm gates as often as once in a 
 mile or two. But the gates are so constructed 
 that a horseback rider can open them without 
 
 alighting. 
 
 IS IT WELL LOCATED? 
 
 Berea ridge is about two miles long, of ir- 
 regular shape, sometimes narrow and sometimes 
 wide, and sometimes branching, and elevated 
 about fifty feet above the surrounding coun- 
 try. The College grounds are about the center 
 of the ridge, and on its widest part. Toward 
 the south and east we look out upon a moun- 
 tainous region, broken into more than a dozen 
 distinct knobs from four hundred to eight hun-
 
 ITS LOCATION. 
 
 dred feet hiorli. aud from one mile to six miles 
 distant. Each has its distinct name, and all are 
 favorite resorts of companies seeking exercise 
 and pleasure. To the north and west lie the 
 rich, undulating blue grass lauds, famous every- 
 where for their hemp, pastures, cattle, horses 
 and masrniiieentlv formed men. These lands 
 come within a mile of Berea, and spread out 
 from sixty to eighty miles to the north and 
 west. 
 
 The autumn scenery viewed from the observa- 
 tory of the Ladies' Hall is exquisitely beautiful. 
 It is hardlv surpassed bv anv scenerv on the 
 Hudson River. The air is perfectly pure, every 
 lot is easily drained, the water is soft and gener- 
 ally good, and is obtained by digging about lif- 
 teen feet. The climate is delightful, especially 
 from April to December. There are, of course, 
 stormv, windv davs, and lons". hot days in the 
 summer; but I have never experienced a day 
 more oppressively hot here than in Chicago. The 
 nights are always comfortable when the days are 
 hottest. 
 
 The soil is not rich, but vrith proper culture 
 is very good for gardens and fruit. This season, 
 for the first time in forty years or more, nearly 
 all fruit is destroyed by freezing blasts in April, 
 from the ice and snow of the Xorth.
 
 6 BEBEA COLLEGE, KT. 
 
 But the location is well chosen for a more im- 
 portant reason. It is on the line of separation 
 between two classes of people, as unlike each 
 other in their physical development, their habits 
 of life, and their views of society, as if they 
 belonged to distinct races. And when we see 
 them, on the morning of our Annual Com- 
 mencement, pouring in by hundreds, the rich in 
 their carriages from the plains, and the poor 
 from the mountains on horses and mules, and, 
 meeting on this common ground, we feel that 
 the place was selected by Him Avho is " the Maker 
 of them all." And when we look upon the 
 crowd of two thousand people, white and col- 
 ored, rich and poor, learned and ignorant, min- 
 gling without distinction and with perfect order, 
 listening to speakers and singers of all shades of 
 complexion, the words on the College seal seem 
 wonderfully appropriate': "God hath made of 
 one blood all nations of men." Twenty miles 
 from this line, on either side, such a company 
 could not be gathered. 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE COLLEGE— MR. FEE. 
 
 Rev. John G. Fee was born in Bracken County, 
 Kentucky, in 1816. His father, a farmer, was a 
 member of the Presbyterian Church, and the 
 owner of thirteen slaves. John early embraced
 
 ITS OBIGIN. 7 
 
 religion, and commenced preparation for the 
 ministry. He entered College at Augusta, Ken- 
 tucky, studied two years at Oxford, Ohio, and 
 graduated at Augusta. His theological course 
 was taken at Lane Seminary, Ohio; where, after 
 much discussion, with earnest prayer for light, 
 terrible mental struggles and many tears, he be- 
 came convinced of the great evil and sinfulness 
 of American slavery. With a full sense of the 
 obloquy and danger he must meet, he conse- 
 crated himself to preach the gospel of impartial 
 love in his native State. 
 
 He first labored several months with his pa- 
 rents; but failing to persuade them to liberate 
 their slaves, with great sadness he relinquished 
 the effort, and carried the gospel to others. His 
 father, a severe man, disowned and disinherited 
 him, giving him one dollar in his will. His 
 mother wept over her deluded son. He contin- 
 ued to visit his parents, though twice the door 
 was shut against him. Afterward he was in- 
 vited in. Learning that his father was about to 
 sell a female slave, wife of a slave man of the 
 family, and a member of the same church with 
 her master, he bought her at the price demanded, 
 and liberated her. His father was very angry 
 because he would not sell her back. 
 
 Before he became an abolitionist his father
 
 8 BBREA COLLEGE, KT . 
 
 had given him a farm, in Indiana, which he sold 
 for two thousand four hundred dollars, and 
 spent the whole in buying this slave, in publish- 
 ing an antislavery manual, and in self-support. 
 His people, in Lewis County, promised him one 
 hundred dollars for preaching, but being offended 
 by an antislavery sermon, very mild and gentle, 
 paid him but twenty-five dollars. For two years 
 he received two hundred dollars annually from 
 the American Home Missionary Society. But 
 finding that this society was aiding fifty-two 
 slaveholding churches, he felt that he could not 
 conscientiously solicit contributions for it, and 
 hence must decline to receive its support. 
 
 On joining the Presbytery he made a full 
 statement of his antislavery convictions. As 
 these convictions ripened, his antislavery efforts 
 multiplied. His church, in Lewis County, passed 
 resolutions denouncing slavery as sinful, and re- 
 fusing fellowship with slaveholders. The Synod 
 reviewed this action, and censured Mr. Fee for 
 disturbing the peace of Zion, and introducing a 
 test of membership not known to the Constitu- 
 tion of the Presbyterian Church. Assured by 
 the Presbytery that "repentance on their part 
 was hopeless," after fully stating his views, he 
 withdrew, and received a qualified letter of dis- 
 mission. The publication of these facts in the
 
 ITS ORIGIN. 9 
 
 New York Evangelist brought him to the notice 
 of the American Missionary Association, and its 
 aid was offered him. From tiiat time to this, a 
 period of twenty-six years, he has been supported 
 wholly or chiefly b}' that society. 
 
 In Lewis and Bracken Counties he labored 
 eight years, and organized three antislavery 
 churches. At the request of Cassius M. Clay he 
 sent a box of the antislavery manuals, which 
 were scattered through Madison County. The 
 result was, the people invited him here, where, 
 after preaching nine sermons, he organized a 
 church which refused fellowship with slavehold- 
 ers, and after one year he became its pastor. 
 This relation he has now sustained twenty years. 
 There was little to encourage when he came. 
 The place was a wilderness. It was inviting 
 chiefly because it was central. 
 
 The same reasons which led to the organiza- 
 tion of antislavery churches demanded an anti- 
 slavery school. This was organized in 1855. 
 
 Its first teacher was Wm. E. Lincoln, who 
 came from England to pursue his studies in 
 Oberlin College. He was one of the Wellington 
 rescuers, and has since been a preacher in Ohio, 
 and is now in the State of New York. Its next 
 teacher was Otis B. Waters, also a student of
 
 THE OLD GLADE MEETING-HOUSE.
 
 ITS ORIGIN. 11 
 
 Oberlin College. Ho has for several years been 
 a professor in Benzouia College, Michigan. 
 
 In 185G Mr. Fee experienced a series of mobs 
 in this resrion. lie had before this been mobbed 
 in Lewis, Mason and Bracken Counties. The 
 first of this series was at Dripping Springs, the 
 next near Mt. Vernon, the third, and most vio- 
 lent, was near Texas, in Madison County. Mr. 
 Fee was preaching on the subject of Christian 
 union, and was accompanied by Robert Jones, a 
 native of the county, who was acting as a col- 
 porteur of the American Missionary Association. 
 lie was also sustained by the two Messrs. Field 
 and Mr. Marsh. There was apprehension of dan- 
 ger, and Mr. Fee had been consulted as to the 
 propriety of carrying guns. He said : " l^o ; if 
 I am disturbed I will appeal to the courts." He 
 believed in the right of self-defense, but opposed 
 the practice of carrying arms, and believed they 
 were oftener a source of danger than a means of 
 safety. 
 
 The sermon had commenced when a mob of 
 sixty men, with pistols and guns, surrounded the 
 house. One came in and said to Mr. Fee : " There 
 are men here who wish you to stop and come 
 out." lie replied: "I am engaged in the exer- 
 cise of a constitutional right and a religious duty; 
 please do not interrupt," and preached on. The
 
 12 BEREA COLLEGE, KT. 
 
 man went out and soon two others returned and 
 demanded that he come out. He preached on. 
 They seized him and dragged him out, no resist- 
 ance being made. A man with a rope swore 
 they would hang him to the first tree, unless he 
 would promise to leave the county and never 
 return. He replied : " I am in your hands. I 
 would not harm you ; if you harm me, the re- 
 sponsibility is with you. I can make no pledge ; 
 duty to God and my country forbid." They 
 swore they would duck him in the Kentucky 
 River as long as life was in him, unless he would 
 promise to leave the county. He said : " I am 
 a native of the State. I believe slavery is wrong. 
 I am acting for the good of my country and all 
 her people. You will know my motives at the 
 judgment." He had proceeded but a few mo- 
 ments when one exclaimed : " We didn't come to 
 hear a sermon; let us do our work." They 
 stripped Robert Jones naked, bent him down, 
 and gave him thirty-three lashes with three syca- 
 more rods. He was so injured that he could not 
 walk the next day. But he made no pledges 
 and did not leave. They said to Mr. Fee : " We 
 will give you five hundred lashes if you do not 
 leave the county and promise never to return." 
 He knelt down and said : " I will take my sufifer- 
 ing; I can make no pledges." The whip was
 
 ITS ORIGIN. 13 
 
 raised above him, but one cried : •• Don't strike." 
 The man with the whip replied : •' I feel that I 
 ought to, but I don't like to go against my party. 
 Get up and go home " — with an oath. 
 
 ^ith Jones on his horse behind him. and a 
 guard in front and rear, he rode three miles when 
 the mob left them. Thev went into the wood, 
 read the fourth chapter of Acts, and prayed. 
 That night he preached in the house of Mr. 
 Jones' cousin, and both the man and his wife 
 covenanted to be the Lord's. 
 
 The Berea Church became terribly alarmed 
 and advised Mr. Fee to leave the State. For four 
 weeks no man but Ham. Rawlings entered his 
 yard: none but women attended church. That 
 brave man, Gassius M. Clav. thousrh still friendlv 
 to Mr. Fee, notwithstanding their difference on 
 the higher law question (Mr. Fee holding that a 
 law confessedlv contrary to the law of God ousfht 
 not to be enforced), advised him to leave. But 
 he continued his labors. Mr. Waters continued 
 his school, and the excitement sfraduallv died 
 awav. In the meantime two lawvers had been 
 engaged to prosecute in behalf of Jones. The 
 mob met in Richmond and swore they would 
 give five hundred laches to any lawyer who 
 would prosecute the case. The grand jury never 
 inquired into it. Thirt-eeu months after the mob
 
 14 BEREA COLLEGE, KY. 
 
 Prof. Rogers closed a session of the school with 
 ninety-six pupils and an exhibition, at which 
 there w^ere five hundred in attendance. 
 
 Four of the principal leaders of the mob soon 
 came to violent deaths. So it was with all the 
 mobs. Several of the most active in them soon 
 died by violence. It became a common saying 
 among them : " Old master is against us." 
 
 PROF. ROGERS 
 
 Is a native of Cornwall, Connecticut. lie pre- 
 pared for College at Williams Academy, gradu- 
 ated at Oberlin, taught two or three years in 
 New York City, and took his theological course 
 at Oberlin. Being about to return west from a 
 visit to New York, he was requested to take a 
 company of orphans to Roseville, Illinois. He 
 preached on Sunday, and on Monday was re- 
 quested to remain. From this pleasant field, 
 with numerous friends, and nine hundred dollars 
 a year, he heard the call from Kentucky, and in 
 1858 came to the work in Berea, under the com- 
 mission of the American Missionary Association, 
 at a salary of four hundred dollars, walking 
 eighty miles of the distance from Maysville. In 
 a rude school-house, with a single un]_)lastered 
 room, without desks or the most common con- 
 venieuces, be opened a select school with fifteen
 
 ITS ORIGIN. 15 
 
 pupils. With an energy, enthusiasm, buoyancy, 
 skill and love not wholly his own, he addressed 
 himself to the work. Desks were supplied, 
 maps and charts graced the walls, music and 
 lectures were introduced. The young people 
 were charmed; visitors from many miles away 
 frequented the school, and before the close of 
 the term a hundred names were enrolled. Mrs. 
 Rogers, a charming little woman from Philadel- 
 phia, leaving her babe during school hours with 
 a nurse, went to the aid of her husband and 
 added greatly to the enthusiasm. 
 
 The interest culminated in the exhibition at 
 the close of the term. Teachers, pupils, and the 
 whole community gave themselves heartily to 
 preparation for the anticipated event. The peo- 
 ple, proud of their school, and the wonderful 
 attainments of their children, and hopeful as to 
 tlie future prosperit}' of their place, volunteered 
 a public dinner to all who should attend. The 
 exercises were held under a sylvan bower, con- 
 structed with exquisite taste. The pillars were 
 grand old oaks, festooned with flowers. The light 
 was subdued by the thick matting of leaves, and 
 the joyous faces of a hundred pupils upon the 
 extensive platform spread a charm over the 
 whole audience, the largest ever assembled iu 
 the settlement; though "the glades" at the foot
 
 16 BEREA COLLEGE, KY. 
 
 of the ridge had long been a place of public 
 gatherings for horse races and political speeches. 
 The hand of the Lord was manifestly in it. The 
 closing speaker, a leading pupil, in reviewing 
 the term and pronouncing his valedictory, was 
 completely overcome with emotion, and for some 
 moments the audience were in tears. 
 
 Brief, but enthusiastic speeches by gentlemen 
 from a distance followed; and an ex-legislator 
 from an adjoining county privately remarked: 
 "If this school goes on, Kentucky is bound to 
 become a free State ; but I am going to hold on 
 to my niggers as long as I can." After dinner 
 a subscription was raised without difficulty to 
 build an addition to the school-house, which 
 still stands and is used for a district school. 
 
 This charming day, at the close of June, 1858, 
 may perhaps, more than any other, be regarded 
 as the natal day of Berea College ; although not 
 till the September following was any attempt 
 made to organize a Board of Trustees, and not 
 till a long time after was the organization com- 
 pleted and the school placed under its care. 
 
 The second term of the school was opened in 
 September, and two additional teachers were em- 
 ployed, Mr. John G. Hanson and his wife, who 
 brought to the work hearty enthusiasm, patient 
 effort and full faith in the enterprise. A hundred
 
 
 THE FIRST COLLEGE BUILDING.
 
 18 BEREA COLLEGE, KY. 
 
 pupils were gathered, not a few of them young 
 men of line abilities, some of whom have since 
 exercised no small influence as teachers and pro- 
 fessional men, and some have given their blood 
 for their country. Though an antislavery spirit 
 pervaded the school and the place, and the teach- 
 ers expressed their sentiments with entire free- 
 dom and boldness, yet such was the reputation 
 of the school and such the joyous atmosphere 
 that pervaded it, that many young people from 
 slaveholding families were attracted to it, and 
 not a few became insensibly enamored with the 
 love of liberty. 
 
 During this term, in the Young Men's Literary 
 Society, the question was long and earnestly 
 discussed, whether, if a colored person should 
 apply for admission to the school, he should be 
 rejected. This was the first public discussion ot 
 this question. It had previously been discussed 
 and settled, as will appear, at a meeting held for 
 the organization of a College Board of Trustees. 
 Happily the question was not embarrassed by 
 legal considerations, for there was no law of 
 Kentucky forbidding education to free colored 
 persons, or even to a slave, with his master's 
 consent. As this was a question afiecting the 
 whole community, it became a topic of general 
 interest. The opinion of all the teachers, as
 
 ITS ORIGIX. 19 
 
 • 
 
 well as of him who was the father of the com- 
 munity, was decided and uniform, and may be 
 expressed in a single declaration of the Princi- 
 pal of the school : " If any one made in God's 
 image comes to get knowledge which will en- 
 able him to understand the revelation of God in 
 Jesus Christ, he can not be rejected." This sen- 
 timent was not acceptable to the slaveholding 
 families that patronized the school ; and though 
 none of the pupils left before the close of the 
 term, the opposition became so great during the 
 vacation, that few returned at the opening of 
 the third term. But the school went on under 
 the original teachers. Increased difficulties only 
 inspired to greater efforts. The work they be- 
 lieved was of God and could not fail. 
 
 With the opening of the fourth term, in the 
 fall of 1859, came additional encouragemeut. 
 The affection of the former pupils had not 
 ceased ; the resolute perseverance, the manifest 
 faith and cheerful hope of those, who, according 
 to ordinary calculations, should have been dis- 
 couraged, impressed the people that perhaps a 
 divine power was sustaining them, and they 
 might succeed. But before the close of the 
 term aa event occurred in Virginia which shook 
 the very foundations of the school, though it 
 did not destroy them. Before describing the
 
 20 BEREA COLLEGE, KY. 
 
 effects of the John Brown raid, as felt in Berea, 
 we will return and take up a thread that was 
 dropped. 
 
 TnE COLLEGE CriARTER AND CONSTI- 
 
 TUTIO:^^. 
 
 The first effort made to form a constitution 
 for the College of which Berea school was re- 
 garded the embryo, was made on the seventh of 
 September, 1858, when several gentlemen met 
 for that purpose at Mr. Fee's residence, and ap- 
 pointed him Chairman of the meeting, J. G. 
 Uanson, Secretary, and Mr. Rogers Chairman of 
 a Committee to draw up the proposed constitu- 
 tion. At that meeting a constitution was re- 
 ported, discussed and agreed upon, and signed 
 by those present. In order to secure the co- 
 operation of gentlemen who could not be pres- 
 ent, the meeting adjourned to meet in December. 
 The meeting was held, and several subsequent 
 meetings, but it was not till the following July 
 that the present constitution, essentially the same 
 OS the first, was adopted. At this meeting, after 
 much prayer, three topics of inquiry were con- 
 Bidered. First: "Is there a demand for a per- 
 manent College of such a character as we have 
 in view here?" Secondly: "Are wo the men 
 called of God to carry it forwaixl?" Thirdly:
 
 CHARTER AND CONSTITUTION. 21 
 
 "Is it to be for God, and for him alone?" By 
 the third topic of inquiry it was tlie desire of 
 those making it to examine themselves and see 
 if, 80 far as their knowledge extended, they could 
 give up all sellish motives in going forward with 
 the work. Undoubtedly, however honest they 
 were, Infinite Wisdom saw in their hearts that 
 which when developed would call for great hu- 
 miliation on their part and mercy on his; but 
 He who accepts the earnest desire to do His will, 
 did not despise their weakness or ignorance of 
 themselves, of which they have had occasion 
 Biuce then to learn not a little. 
 
 After days of discussion upon various points, 
 almost all of them pertaining to the Christian 
 character of the school, a constitution and by- 
 laws were adopted. Two of the by-laws will 
 sufficiently indicate the wishes of those who 
 were planning for the future of the Institution: 
 
 " This College shall be under an influence 
 strictly Christian, and, as such, opposed to sec- 
 tarianism, slaveholding, caste, and every other 
 wrong institution or practice," 
 
 "The object of this College shall be to furnish 
 the facilities for a thorough education to all per- 
 sons of good moral character, at the least possi- 
 ble expense to the same, and all the inducements 
 and facilities for manual labor which can reason-
 
 22 BEREA COLLEGE, KY. 
 
 ably be supplied by the Board of Trustees shall 
 be offered to its students." 
 
 This constitution was signed by Rev. John Gt. 
 Fee, Rev. J. S. Davis, Rev. Geo. Candee, John 
 Smith, Wm. Stapp, T. J. Renfro, John Gr. Han- 
 son and Rev. J. A. R. Rogers, and four other 
 gentlemen were invited to unite with them in 
 taking steps to obtain a charter under a general 
 law of the State. Many difficulties arose in ob- 
 taining suitable co-operation and completing the 
 preliminary steps for obtaining a charter. Mean- 
 while a tract of land, which was felt to be the 
 most desirable for the College ground, was offered 
 for sale. Four of the trustees, on their own re- 
 sponsibility, purchased the tract, containing more 
 than a hundred acres, for one thousand eight 
 hundred dollars, and Mr. Fee was asked to go 
 East to obtain funds for securing the same for 
 the College. It was while he was absent that 
 the John Brown raid occurred, which had so 
 potent an influence upon the future of the Berea 
 school. 
 
 Before this raid, as has been already stated, 
 Berea had become an object of suspicion and 
 hatred. Any power for liberty was regarded 
 with great jealousy, and if it was in the form 
 of a school giving promise of becoming import- 
 ant, it was generally felt that it must be put
 
 CHARTER AND CONSTITUTION. 23 
 
 down. Yet in Kentucky there was enough of 
 the old traditional love of free speech and fair 
 play to prevent any acts of violence against a 
 school intrenched in the hearts of many, and 
 with which no fault could be found, save that it 
 was exerting an influence in favor of freedom. 
 But when John Brown made his raid, it was 
 felt by some that an opportunity had arisen for 
 the suppression of the school. All iSTorthern 
 men were regarded as dangerous, and especially 
 those who openly and fearlessly opposed slavery. 
 Who knew but that John Brown's band was 
 onlv one of a hundred others scattered through 
 the South for the purpose of stirring up insur- 
 rection among the slaves? It was urged that 
 there were many strong, if not decisive, proofs 
 that the colony at Berea was one whose ultimate 
 aim was violence. A number of families were 
 moving into Berea, and some men had left their 
 families behind. Then what should bring them 
 to such a place as Berea, where the soil was re- 
 garded as too poor to enable men to get a com- 
 fortable living, but some sinister motive? Again 
 it was said that the location of Berea, at the base 
 of the foot-hills of the Cumberland Mountains, 
 wa^perfect in a strategic point of view, and that 
 it was by no means certain that the Bereans 
 could not exercise a controlling influence over
 
 24 BEKEA COLLEGE, KY. 
 
 the mountain men. By reason of such declara- 
 tions, and abundant false rumors, and the real 
 fear produced throughout the South by the John 
 Brown raid, many were really alarmed. Women 
 told their husbands that they could not sleep at 
 night, and that the Bereans must be driven out 
 of the State. It was announced in one of the 
 papers that a box of Sharpe's rifles had been in- 
 tercepted on the way to Berea. In view of this 
 fact it was thought prudent by some gentlemen 
 in Richmond to examine several heavy boxes 
 containing the household goods of Rev. John 
 Boughton, who had moved to Berea. Accord- 
 ingly, at night, they carefully examined some of 
 the most suspicious-looking boxes in one of the 
 warehouses. At first all seemed to be right, and 
 the boxes to contain nothing but the usual family 
 .goods; finally, however, some trepidation may 
 have been produced by the discovery of what 
 was declared to be an "infernal machine," which 
 turned out to be a large set of Yankee candle- 
 molds. In consequence of this state of things, 
 several organized eftorts were made to suppress 
 the school, and drive those who were directinsr 
 it out of the St^ate. The first and second eflTorts 
 for uniting the people of Madison County ^s a 
 whole for this despicable work proved abortive. 
 At length a new wave of terror having swept
 
 CHARTER AND CONSTITUTION. 25 
 
 over the State, and the people having become 
 more intensely excited by virulent and false 
 statements in the newspapers of the county and 
 other parts of the State, a mass meeting was held 
 at the Court House in Richmond, violent speeches 
 were made, and a committee of sixty -five, com- 
 posed of the wealthiest and " most respectable " 
 citizens of the county, was appointed, to secure 
 the removal from the State, peacefully if possi- 
 ble, within ten days, of Rev. John G. Fee and 
 Rev. J. A. R. Rogers, and such others as the 
 committee should think necessary for the public 
 quiet and safety. A long address to the people 
 of the county and community at large was 
 adopted by the meeting. In this address it was 
 set forth that liberty and slavery could not dwell 
 together, that in a slave State men advocating 
 liberty were a dangerous element, and that, as 
 self-preservation was the first law of nations as 
 well as individuals, and that, as it was a settled 
 matter that Kentucky was to remain a slave 
 State, it was essential to the peace of the com- 
 monwealth that the school at Berea should be 
 suppressed, and those who were its originators 
 and supporters should be driven from the State ; 
 and that, although this could not be done by 
 law, necessity was higher than all law. It was 
 the old doctrine of Caiaphas, truer than he knew,
 
 26 BEREA COLLEGE, KY. 
 
 that the few must suffer for the good of the 
 many. Assuming that it was right and just 
 that Kentucky should be perpetually a slave 
 State, the argument would have some force. But 
 at this declaration " He who sitteth in the heav- 
 ens did laugh.'"' Always, just as wickedness 
 secures its ends, suddenly they fail. 
 
 Meanwhile the people of Berea were having 
 additional experiences in their life of trial. The 
 ai-r was dark with threats. It did not sound 
 pleasantly in the ears of a delicate woman to be 
 told that her husband was to be hung to a limb 
 before the school-room door. The Principal of 
 the school wrote to the press denying the asser- 
 tions in regard to the Bereans, and correcting 
 the false report of Mr. Fee's speech in Brooklyn, 
 but could not get a hearing. So abundant were 
 the threats against Mr. Fee that he was advised 
 not to return to the State. With characteristic 
 courage he determined to come, but was provi- 
 dentially hindered by an accident in Cincinnati. 
 The people of Berea gathered together every 
 night to pray for God's protection and guidance, 
 and most marvelously were the Scriptures opened 
 to their understanding. They could now easily 
 see why Luther felt that he could not have lived 
 but for the Hundred and eighteenth Psalm. The 
 Thirty-seventh Psalm seemed written especially
 
 THE MOB. 27 
 
 for them, and not only calmed their fears, but 
 cheered their hearts. 
 
 At length, after several days of expectation, 
 the mob, the "organized gentlemen," appeared. 
 On the twenty-third of December, 1859, while 
 Mr, Rogers' family were at dinner in the cottage 
 which he had just erected in the woods adjoin- 
 ing the grounds selected for the College, and not 
 yet surrounded by a fence, it was hastily an- 
 nounced that the men had come. He stepped 
 to the front door, and there sixty horsemen, 
 more or less, completely armed, were forming 
 themselves in wedge shape before the house. He 
 stepped out of the door, and at once the leader 
 of the band came up and delivered to him a 
 document, demanding in the name of the com- 
 mittee that he should leave the county within 
 ten days. He attempted to reason with the 
 leader, and told him that if he had violated any 
 law of the State, he was willing to abide the 
 consequences, that he was quietly laboring for 
 the good of the community and the support of 
 his family, and that in the exercise of his rights 
 he must not be disturbed. A disturbance arose 
 in the crowd, and the whole company then 
 wheeled and went to ten other families, most of 
 them native Kentuckians, and left a similar doc- 
 ument. Everything was done in as orderly and 
 unobjectionable a manner as possible.
 
 28 BEREA COLLEGE, KT. 
 
 Those warned to leave the State, and others 
 most interested, met for prayer and deliberation. 
 Some thought that when persecuted in one city 
 it was duty to flee to another, and that it was 
 pUiinly the part of wisdom for those who must 
 cope with the mass of the people if they re- 
 mained, to go quietly away. Others counseled 
 to remain till forcibly removed. No decision was 
 reached. On the following day it was decided to 
 appeal to the Governor of the State for protec- 
 tion, though with scarcely a ray of hope that it 
 would be of any avail. As the petition sets forth 
 briefly the facts of the case, it is given entire : — 
 
 To His Excellency^ the Governor of the State of Kentucky : 
 "We, the undersigned, loyal citizens and residents of 
 the State of Kentucky and County of Madison, do re- 
 spectfully call your attention to the following facts : 
 
 1. We have come from various parts of this and ad- 
 joining States to this county, with the intention of mak- 
 ing it our home, have supported ourselves and families 
 by honest industry, and endeavored to promote the in- 
 terests of religion and education. 
 
 2. It is a principle with us to " submit to every ordi- 
 nance of man for the Lord's sake, unto governors as 
 unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of 
 evil-doers and the praise of them that do well," and in 
 accordance with this principle we have been obedient in 
 all respects to the laws of this State.
 
 THE PETITION. 29 
 
 3. Within a few weeks evil and false reports have been 
 put into circulation, imputing to us motives, words and 
 conduct calculated to inflame the public mind, which 
 imputations are utterly false and groundless. These im- 
 putations we have publicly denied, and offered every 
 facility for the fullest investigation, which we have earn- 
 estly but vainly sought. 
 
 4. On Friday, the twenty-third inst., a company of 
 eixty-two men, claiming to have been appointed by a 
 meeting of the citizens of our county, without any 
 shadow of legal authority, and in violation of the con- 
 stitution and laws of the State and United States, called 
 at our respective residences and places of business, and 
 notified us to leave the county and State, and be without 
 this county and State within ten days, and handed us 
 the accompanying document, in which you will see that 
 unless the said order be promptly complied with, there 
 is expressed a fixed determination to remove us by force. 
 
 In view of these facts, which we . can substantiate by 
 the fullest evidence, we respectfully pray that you, in the 
 exercise of the power vested in you by the constitution, 
 and made your duty to use, do protect us in our rights 
 as loyal citizens of the State of Kentucky. 
 
 J. A. R. Rogers, Savinglehurst Life, 
 J. G. Han.son, John Smith, 
 
 I. D Reed, E. T. Hayes, 
 
 Jas. S. Davis, Chas. E. Griffin, 
 
 John F. Boughton, A. G. W. Parker, 
 
 W. H. TORRY. 
 
 Berea, Madison County, Ky., December 24, 1859.
 
 30 BEREA COLLEGE, KY. 
 
 The petition was taken by two of their num- 
 ber to Governor Masroffin, who received them 
 courteously, but replied that the public mind 
 was deeply moved by the events in Virginia, and 
 that he could not engage to protect them from 
 their fellow-citizens, who had resolved that they 
 must go. 
 
 At last it bec^ne plain to all that they must 
 leave the State for the present, but with the sure 
 expectation of returning again in due time. So 
 confident were some of them made, by the Spirit 
 of God, in regard to their return, that they 
 doubted it scarcely more than the rising of the 
 morrow's sun. They believed in God and his 
 righteousness, and his love of the poor and op- 
 pressed, and clearly foresaw that such conduct 
 would only hasten the day of freedom. They 
 plainly declared to friends and foes that they 
 were going away, but that they should return 
 again. They had no disposition to sell their 
 homes. They counted them worth not a dollar 
 less than before the troubles in Virginia. Sore 
 were the partings between those who left and 
 those who remained. 
 
 The whole community gathered as the exiles 
 left, and under the broad sky, with bared heads 
 and trusting hearts, they were committed to the 
 care of Almighty God by Rev George Candee.
 
 THE DEPARTURE. 31 
 
 who had come from his home in Jackson County 
 to cheer with his undaunted faith those who 
 were about to leave. The ten families which left 
 numbered about forty persons, and were merci- 
 fully guided by the God of all grace and wisdom. 
 
 They went in various directions, and engaged 
 in such work as came to hand, making no per- 
 manent engagements, but waiting the call of God 
 to return to their former homes. Soon the war 
 broke out, and the exiles plainly saw that, if 
 they had been permitted to remain in Berea, the 
 school must have been suspended. 
 
 Mr. Fee met his retiring friends in Cincinnati 
 and fully approved their course, but was not yet 
 convinced of the necessity of his leaving hia 
 native State. He went over to Bracken County 
 to fultill an appointment, though Mr. Mallet, a 
 teacher from Oberlin, had recently been mobbed 
 there, and Mr. Davis, a preacher, also from Ober- 
 lin, had been mobbed in Lewis County. A 
 county meeting was called, about eight hundred 
 attended, and a committee of sixty-two warned 
 him and others to leave. He made no promises 
 but to do what should geem to be duty. All 
 friends advised him to leave the State. A day 
 of fasting and prayer was observed. His decis- 
 ion was tliat he had no right seriously to imperil 
 his friends against their will, and he left.
 
 32 BEREA COLLEGE, KY. 
 
 After some months he brought the corpse of 
 his little boy to the cemetery of the Free Church 
 of Christ in Bracken, and left with the impres- 
 sion that he ous-ht to return to the State. He 
 came with grave-stones for the little mound, and 
 a mob took him from the omnibus; but they 
 soon released him, and he preached the next 
 Sabbath. 
 
 One of the prominent trustees of Berea Col- 
 lege, and for a short time a teacher, was 
 
 JOHN G. HANSON, 
 
 A native of Bracken County, Kentucky. About 
 the first of March, 1860, he returned to Berea 
 for the purpose of sawing some three hundred 
 logs left at his mill, and of selling the mill, un- 
 less he found the way open for his remaining. 
 The next Monday being county-court day, the 
 Mob Committee convened and agreed to meet at 
 the Glade Meeting House on Saturday, for the 
 removal of Mr. Hanson. Only thirty-five met, 
 and with a few speeches and much whisky they 
 dispersed, two of them going to the mill and 
 carrying off an iron eagle, an ornament on the 
 mill, which was returned to its place the next 
 day. It was then thought the mob spirit had 
 nearly died out. But as events proved it was 
 passing from the original " sixty-five sensible
 
 JOHN G. HANSON. 33 
 
 and discreet men " to those sunk so low in vice 
 and pollution as to seem " condemned already." 
 Even C. M. Clay advised Mr. Hanson's friends 
 not to stand by him. Monday morning twenty- 
 five armed men searched his boarding-place, and 
 swore they would search every house in the 
 neighborhood, but they would have him and he 
 "should hang." But he had escaped to the 
 woods without being seen, and at night he trav- 
 eled twenty miles afoot into Jackson County, 
 where for a week he hid in cliffs and caves in 
 the daytime, and at night went to a friend's 
 house for food and lodging. The mob went from 
 house to house, threatening to shoot people un- 
 less they would tell where Mr. Hanson was. As 
 they approached the house of George "West, his 
 daughter, a young woman, fastened the door, 
 and they broke it down upon her and walked 
 over it while she lay under it. They rushed to 
 her father, who sat in his bed propped up with 
 pillows, being low with consumption, and, put- 
 ting their pistols to his breast, demanded where 
 Hanson was. In the meantime the daughter, a 
 motherless orphan, had extricated herself from 
 the door, and one of the ruffians thrust his pis- 
 tol against her breast and pressed her back 
 against a cupboard, cursing her for shutting the 
 door against them. Vile language was addressed
 
 34 BEREA COLLEGE, KT. 
 
 to a younger sister. In Rock Castle County they 
 broke down the door of Mr. Burdett's house, and, 
 putting their pistols to the breasts of his wife 
 and daughters, threatened to shoot if they did 
 not reveal the hiding-place of Mr. Hanson. This 
 they repeated again and again ; but as he could 
 nowhere be found, they returned to Berea. On 
 their way they met a company of Berea men 
 going to Mr. West's, having heard of his ill 
 treatment. Both parties cried out : " Don't 
 shoot!" The mob fired about thirty shots, by 
 the order of Colonel Mundy, and the Berea men 
 returned two. None were seriously injured. 
 Having accomplished nothing they returned to 
 Richmond for recruits. A cannon was secured 
 from Lexington, and the next day they returned 
 to Berea, two hundred and nineteen strong. 
 Finding no Berea men at home they went to 
 Mr. Hanson's mill, tore oif the roof, pulled 
 down the smoke stack, broke every wheel, 
 ruined the boiler, and left all a complete wreck. 
 They unroofed a neighbor's smoke house, tore a 
 log from the wall of his dwelling, pulled his 
 chimney down and shot many of his chickens. 
 Then, leaving the names of fifteen men, who 
 they said must leave in fifteen days, they re- 
 turned to Richmond, and, as an eye-witness 
 asserts, the circuit court adjourned to hear their
 
 JOHN G. HANSON. 35 
 
 report. Such a state of society had slavery pro- 
 duced. 
 
 Many in Jackson County urged Mr. Hanson 
 to remain with them, and pledged their lives, 
 their property and their sacred honor in defense 
 of his rights. But not willing to bring on a 
 conflict between the two counties, and knowing 
 that his life was in constant danger, he deter- 
 mined to leave the State. On the third of April 
 he left the mountain fastnesses, and, walking all 
 that night, he passed his beloved home and his 
 mill in ruins. The next day, having passed the 
 small town of Kirksville, he was pursued by 
 two of the original committee of " sixty-five sen- 
 sible and discreet men." They searched him for 
 "fighting tools," as they said; but he assured 
 them he never carried any, and had no wish to 
 hurt any man, and was then going out of the 
 State. They told him they were in honor bound 
 to deliver him in Richmond. A brother of one 
 of the committee told him he must now go to 
 Richmond and "pull rope." And they started 
 slowly on, the committee riding and he walking 
 in front. But they know that to take him to 
 Richmond was to murder him, and they began 
 to shrink from such a crime. One proposed to 
 let him go, and got off his horse and requested 
 him to ride. Finally, after a long consultation,
 
 36 BEREA COLLEGE, KT 
 
 they told him they had been deceived in him, 
 that they did not wisli to see a hair of his head 
 hurt, that a reward of one hundred dollars was 
 offered for his delivery in Richmond, but they 
 would not deliver him. They advised him to 
 endeavor to escape, and gave him directions for 
 his safety. Leaving them he crossed Kentucky 
 Eiver, on his way to the Kentucky Central Rail- 
 road at Nicholasville. He found he was pursued 
 and lay in the fields all night, and barely escaped 
 being retaken. He desired to find some " Charter 
 Oak" in which to conceal the archives of the 
 young Institution, which he bore with him, being 
 still its Secretary, as he continued to be fourteen 
 years. He spent the most of the night and the 
 next day on the Cedar Bluflfe of Hickman Creek, 
 near where Camp Nelson was afterward located. 
 The next night he passed iS^icholasville, at early 
 dawn passed between Lexington and Ashland, 
 and reached Paris in time for the cars, which he 
 took to Falmouth. Thence he walked nine 
 miles, and slept in a house the first time for a 
 week. A weary walk of fourteen miles brought 
 him to his father's house, thankful for God's pro- 
 tection and for warm and true hearts to cheer him. 
 Mr. Hanson closes his narrative, of which this 
 is an abstract, with the following expression of 
 his feelings ;
 
 JOHN G, HANSON. 37 
 
 " When I reflect what my course of life and 
 iiy labors have been, what I had at heart and 
 wished to do for my countrymen in Kentucky, 
 nd think of what I have received at their 
 ands, it makes me weep and love them more; 
 8 they show by their madness that ' they know 
 ot what they do,' and are tending fast to eternal 
 Drrows. In the course that I have followed I 
 ave nothing that I regret. Trusting in God I 
 ball still labor that so good a land, tilled with 
 lany generous spirits, and many wailing slaves, 
 liall yet be free." 
 
 Mr. Hanson returned at the close of the war, 
 nd found that justice, which had "stood afar 
 ft',' was coming nigh. He recovered a portion 
 f his loss, rebuilt his shattered mill, and, with 
 ae aid of his brother, erected another, and also 
 planing mill. But not one-fourth the damage 
 one him has been made good, and he has been 
 Dnstantly embarrassed. He is still a trustee of 
 le College and a member of the Prudential 
 lommittee. 
 
 In 1862 Mr. Fee made another effort to return 
 ) the State. He sent his family forward to 
 lerea, but in attempting to join them was 
 :opped by the battle of Richmond, and for ten 
 ^eeks no communication passed between them. 
 
 That year he was mobbed in Augusta, where
 
 38 BEREA COLLEGE, KY 
 
 he graduated. He was taken into the office of 
 his cousin, and, after being threatened with 
 death if he should ever return, was put across 
 the Ohio River at midnight. Two skiff loads of 
 ruffians followed, swearing they would whip him 
 like hell ; but on landing in the darkness they 
 failed to find him. Four of the leaders of this 
 mob died sudden and violent deaths. 
 
 Five weeks later he returned to Bracken 
 County, and was mobbed while waiting for the 
 stage at the house of a Presbyterian minister in 
 an adjoining county. He was committed to five 
 men to be taken to Augusta. But a friend 
 joined the company and adroitly diverted them 
 to Maysville, where he crossed the river. Being 
 assured by friends that he could not travel in 
 Kentuck}', he turned aside to a village in Ohio, 
 sent for his family and remained some ten 
 months, then returned to Berea, where his wife, 
 aided by his oldest son, opened a school. 
 
 Till the close of the war much of his time 
 was spent in Camp Nelson, a natural fortress, 
 with sublime scenery and a rich soil, almost en- 
 circled by the high and rugged banks of the 
 Kentucky River, nineteen miles south of Lex- 
 ington and thirty-six from Berea. Here he 
 aided in establishing schools for colored soldiers 
 and their women and children, and here had a
 
 JOHN G. FEE. 39 
 
 little of Ms peculiar experience. Among seven 
 white teachers a single bright, genteel quadroon 
 was introduced, and five of the seven refused to 
 eat with her. He was advised to remove her, 
 but refused. The average Kentuckian would 
 Bay: "The five did just right." Bereans would 
 say: "They did just wrong." At Camp Nelson 
 there is still a large colored settlement, the most 
 moral, harmonious and hopeful in the State. The 
 school still continues, and is at present under the 
 superintendence of Howard S. Fee, a graduate 
 of Berea College. 
 
 This brief account of the persecutions and 
 hardships of those days of trial needs to be 
 filled up by the reader's imagination ; and there 
 is little danger that they will overdo the matter. 
 The thrilling stories of our sisters, with which, 
 hour after hour, they enchain the wives of us 
 who were not actors in those scenes, would form 
 an interesting chapter of annoyances, and dan- 
 gers, and marvelous deliverances, of midnight 
 watchings, and fears, and prayers, of cheerful 
 courage, and faith, and hopes delayed, of the 
 self-sacrificing adherence and protection of some, 
 and the contemptuous scorn and perfidy of others, 
 which it would be easy to write; but our object 
 is not a story, but a plain, historical account of 
 Berea College.
 
 40 BEREA COLLEGE, KY. 
 
 REOPENmG OF THE SCHOOL. 
 
 In 1865 the school was reopened. Prof. Rog- 
 ers and family returned, and W. W. Wheeler 
 and wife came from Camp I^elson, as assistants. 
 A charter for a College was obtained under a 
 general law of the State, the Board of Trustees 
 was reorganized, other land was purchased, stu- 
 dents came in to the number of seventy-five or 
 more, and everything seemed promising; when 
 a new question arose, or rather an old question 
 in a practical form. Before the war, when it was 
 decided to " furnish facilities for education to all 
 persons of good moral character," three of the 
 trustees had resigned ; for all persons included 
 colored persons. And the discussion of the 
 question, whether, if a colored person should ask 
 for admission to the school, he should be rejected, 
 had greatly diminished the number of pupils. 
 iSTow the question took a practical shape. Three 
 colored youths asked admission. This raised no 
 difiicult question. But one decision was possible 
 to such men ; and that was already made. They 
 were "persons o^ good moral character," and 
 must be admitted. But it was manifest that a 
 tempest of opposition would follow, mobs might 
 rally again, and the school might be broken up. 
 Though duty was plain, the consequence might
 
 REOPENING OP THE SCHOOL. 41 
 
 be like a crucifixion. The morning that those 
 three harmless youths walked in, half the school 
 walked out. The whole country was excited, 
 and, but for the discipline of the war, and the 
 awe produced by the triumph of liberty over 
 slavery, and the abolitionists of Berea over their 
 enemies, doubtless another expulsion would have 
 been chronicled. Rumors of raids came from 
 far, and rowdyism sometimes disgraced itself 
 very near. Pistols were discharged by drunken 
 idiots racing through the streets, and occasionally 
 were fired into the buildings. But the opposi- 
 tion generally confined itself to exhibitions of 
 disgust, and published declarations that "Berea 
 is a stench in the nostrils of all true Kentuck- 
 ians" — delicate words recently published by the 
 State Superintendent of Public Schools, and by 
 our own county paper. But this, we trust, we 
 shall have grace to endure, so long as we know 
 of but one school more patronized by Kentuck- 
 ians than this, and those, too, the truest Keu- 
 tuckians that Kentucky can claim. The vacancy 
 made by the white deserters was soon filled with 
 colored recruits, and eventually nearly all that 
 left returned and became fast friends of Berea. 
 At no time have the colored exceeded three-fifths 
 of the school, and the present year, when the 
 attendance was largest, there were two more
 
 42 BEREA COLLEGE, KY. 
 
 white than colored. And the evils which the 
 wise ones knew would result from this union 
 have never occurred. The most serious collision 
 which the writer remembers to have occurred be- 
 tween the races was where an uncultured white 
 girl complained that a colored girl called her 
 " poor white trash," and the colored girl replied 
 that she did not do it till she called her " nigger." 
 The controversy was settled without great diffi- 
 culty. There is no school in the State easier 
 governed than this. The question whether the 
 colored pupils are not necessarily a drag upon 
 the classes would never be asked by one who 
 had any fair criterion by which to judge. Pu- 
 pils who have had the best school advantages 
 from their infancy, ceteris paribus^ will surpass 
 those who learn their alphabet at fifteen or 
 eighteen. This is the chief source of inequality 
 among our students. The certain amalgamation 
 which was to follow is all in the future. What 
 dangers await us in this respect we know not ; 
 but of this we feel sure, that any alliances which 
 may possibly result from the social relations es- 
 tablished here will be a blessing compared with 
 the disgusting concubinage which abounded in 
 the days of slavery, and is so very common still 
 that it excludes no one from honorable positions 
 or genteel society. "We feel sure also that free-
 
 SOCIAL RELATIONS. 43 
 
 dom, education and equality will tend, not to 
 promote, but to cure all social evils. All history- 
 proves that the beautiful women in the lower 
 walks of life are a prey to lustful men who look 
 down upon them from a more elevated position. 
 Aside from pure religion we know of no so sure 
 protection for them as social elevation, which 
 carries with it self-respect and commands the 
 respect of others. But all such reasoning aside, 
 we know it can not be dangerous to love our 
 neighbors as ourselves, and do to others as we 
 would that they should do to us. The influence 
 which has kept the colored population in a de- 
 graded condition, and still seeks to keep them 
 there, is not love and justice, but lust and op- 
 pression. For more than forty years some of us 
 have heard this amalgamation alarm, but it sel- 
 dom came from those who " remembered them 
 that were in bonds as bound with them;" but 
 was always loudest, as it still is, from those who 
 have the least care what becomes of either white 
 or colored people, so that their own selfish lives 
 are not interrupted. 
 
 We know that many good people have their 
 honest fears on this subject, and we shall always 
 be thankful for their advice and prayers in dis- 
 charging our most difficult and delicate respon- 
 sibilities.
 
 44 BEREA COLLEGE, KY. 
 
 Many of our friends desire to know precisely 
 what relations our white and colored pupils sus- 
 tain to each other, and it is our desire that they 
 should know. 
 
 Our school regulations make no distinction 
 whatever on account of color. They recite in 
 the same classes, eat at the same tables, room in 
 the same buildings, attend the same meetings, 
 and meet in all general social gatherings. It is 
 no uncommon thing on such occasions as Thanks- 
 giving and Christmas to see three hundred per- 
 sons — teachers, pupils and citizens — mingling in 
 the most perfect social equality, without the 
 least friction, or the least sense of impropriety. 
 Do persons of different races and sexes attend 
 each other to and from literary lectures and 
 social assemblies? There is no rule against it, 
 and sometimes they do. If we saw that the 
 parties were in danger of exposing themselves 
 to violence, or special suspicion of improper 
 motives, or were disposed to make an offensive 
 display of themselves, we should interfere to 
 prevent it. If such parties should become es- 
 pecially intimate, and appear to be contempla- 
 ting a life union, being, as teachers, to a great 
 extent, in loco parentis^ we should remind them 
 of the contempt and ostracism society would 
 visit upon them, and if thought necessary com-
 
 SOCIAL RELATIONS. 45 
 
 municate with their parents. But even such an 
 alliance, if conducted in other respects with 
 propriety and discretion, would not disturb their 
 relations to the school. Their own judgment, 
 and the social influences bearing upon them, are 
 their best and only necessary protection against 
 an imprudent decision. 
 
 We are often asked how our white pupils en- 
 dure this condition of things. They come with 
 a perfect knowledge of the character of the 
 school, and with their minds prepared to endure 
 it ; and, having remained a week or two, they 
 find there is nothing to endure. The difference 
 between a colored person's sitting at the table 
 and standing by it is too slight to be disturbed 
 about; and the difference between lifting at the 
 same log and working at the same problem is 
 hardly discoverable. They never did shrink 
 from contiguity with colored people and why 
 should they now ? The trouble is at the other 
 end of the line and not here. A prominent gen- 
 tleman, a democrat and ex-rebel, a preacher and 
 distinguished educator, living sixty miles dis- 
 tant, met one of our professors at a Sabbath- 
 school convention, and the president at a teach- 
 ers' institute, a white student at another institute, 
 and a colored student as a teacher in his county, 
 and became convinced that Berea College was
 
 46 BEREA COLLEGE, KT 
 
 the best school for his own son. With a great 
 struggle, himself, and wife, and son overcame 
 their own prejudices, and concluded to bear the 
 contempt of their neighbors. The father in- 
 formed a Democratic, Christian brother that he 
 had concluded to send his son to Berea, and he 
 at once replied: "You had better take him out 
 and shoot him!" On their way here they 
 avoided the houses of old friends, to escape un- 
 pleasant talk. Their trouble was not here. 
 Many of their neighbors have also availed them- 
 selves of the same advantages, and the trouble is 
 greatly diminished there. 
 
 Four nice young ladies came one hundred and 
 twenty miles to attend the school, but said they 
 were obliged to fight their way here, and that 
 we had no idea what opposition they had to 
 contend with. One of them received a letter 
 from a young friend informing her that if she 
 <;ame home at the close of the first term she 
 would probably be received into society again, 
 but she could never occupy the place she for- 
 merly did. She thanked him for his interest in 
 her welfare, and assured him that her true friends 
 would not forsake her, and told him that proba- 
 bly some of her friends needed to be tried. An- 
 other was told that she must not expect to be 
 employed as a teacher in that county; but she
 
 SOCIAL RELATIONS. 47 
 
 Boon obtained one of the best schools, and all 
 feel so little damaged that they are very anxious 
 to return. 
 
 A lady came here to reside for the sake of 
 educating her son, but not till her friends had 
 secured a promise that the daughter should 
 never attend the school. What compromise has 
 been made I am not aware, but the daughter is 
 DOW attending and enjoys it very much. It is a 
 moral discipline for a white Kentuckian to at- 
 tend Berea College, which is often more valuable 
 than the knowledge obtained. 
 
 "We are often advised by our Kentucky visi- 
 tors that a single change would add greatly to 
 the usefulness and prosperity of our school. If 
 we would just separate the blacks by them- 
 selves, and instruct them as we do now, only in 
 separate buildings, we would be crowded with 
 students, and money would flow in upon us 
 abundantly. It seems as if we were standing in 
 our own light. We reply that this would double 
 the expenses of the school, and the two depart- 
 ments might as well be in diflferent towns ; also 
 it would defeat one of the chief objects of the 
 Bchool, to eradicate prejudice and caste; also 
 we ask, what other school in the State has been 
 enabled by its friends to furnish as good build- 
 ings and as good an education as we, at as low
 
 48 BEREA COLLEGE, KY 
 
 a rate ? Also we inform them that money enough 
 could not be offered to induce us to make such 
 a change. 
 
 On the general question of admitting persons 
 of good moral character, without regard to race 
 or color, the school has maintained a uniform 
 position; but as to the application of the general 
 principle, in particular cases, difficult questions 
 have arisen, and considerable diversity of views 
 has existed. It is not without much discussion, 
 and serious misgivings on the part of some, that 
 we have reached all the practical principles here 
 explained in detail. So far as appears there is 
 perfect harmonj^ among us at present, and for 
 two years or more there has been no discussion 
 on these subjects. 
 
 TEMPORARY BUILDINGS. 
 
 A large influx of students in 1866-7 necessi- 
 tated the furnishing of room. Two buildings, 
 suitable for stores, were erected. One was used 
 for a boarding hall, the upper story and the attic 
 being divided into rooms for young ladies and 
 lady teachers, and the other for a store and 
 dwelling. 
 
 Two nice but cheap little cottages Avere 
 erected for dormitories for young men, and 
 three box houses, about fifteen by thirty, of
 
 50 BEREA COLLEGE, KY. 
 
 roiig-b plank, with outside stairways to the attics 
 for the same purpose. Another building of sim- 
 ilar construction, thirty-two by sixty-four, was 
 divided into three school-rooms, a hall and a 
 3hapel. The whole building is used as a chapel 
 now. It is whitewashed and tolerably comforta- 
 ble in the summer, but cold in the winter. 
 
 These buildings, from top to bottom, were filled 
 with students, some occupying attics where they 
 could hardly stand erect, when President E. H. 
 Fairchild came, in the spring of 1869. He was 
 called at the meeting of the trustees in July, 1868. 
 
 PRESIDENT FAIRCHILD. 
 
 He is a native of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, 
 but was reared in jSTorthern Ohio. He and his 
 brother James, now President of Oberlin Col- 
 lege, constituted the first Freshman Class of that 
 institution. Their father was a farmer of mod- 
 erate means, yet was able, with great economy, 
 and the hearty co-operation of all the family, to 
 send three sons and two daughters through the 
 entire college course at Oberlin; and another 
 daughter through the ladies' course; and the 
 sons through the theological department. Ed- 
 ward Henry, the President of Berea College, at 
 the early age of sixteen, while a student at the 
 Elyria High School, under the supervision of
 
 62 BEREA COLLEGE, KY. 
 
 John Monteith, became greatly interested in the 
 antishivery movement, which was beginning to 
 stir the hearts of a few in many parts of the 
 country. At the close of six months' discussion 
 of the subject in the school, he, with a school- 
 mate, prepared a colloquy for the public exhibi- 
 tion held in the Court House, in which they 
 represented a slave trader, a planter, a driver, a 
 slave pen in hearing, but not in sight, its keeper, 
 an abolitionist, a slave sold, whipped and liber- 
 ated, with hot blood and high words, and a show 
 of weapons. The whole county was excited by 
 it. At Oberlin he participated in the long and 
 earnest discussion of the question of admitting 
 colored students. He was present when the pro- 
 testing students from Lane, with President Ma- 
 han and Prof. Morgan, were welcomed, and 
 listened to the twenty-one lectures of Theodore 
 Weld, delivered soon after. At twenty-one, 
 when good material was not abundant, he was 
 commissioned as an antislavery lecturer by the 
 American Antislavery Society, and sent three 
 months to Northern Pennsylvania. At twenty- 
 two he was engaged for four months, as teacher 
 of a large colored school at the foot of "Western 
 Row in Cincinnati, receiving his expenses for 
 his salary. At twenty-three he was employed 
 three months by the Ohio Antislavery Society.
 
 PRESIDENT FAIRCHILD. 53 
 
 In these various labors for the oppressed he re- 
 ceived his share of attention from mobs, and 
 cold shoulder from preachers ; and once, at 
 Columbus in Pennsylvania, after speaking an 
 hour amid a din of horns, tin pans, swearing, 
 screeching, singing,and flying raissiles,was driven 
 from the house by burning brimstone. At twen- 
 ty-six, having finished his theological studies, 
 and taken for his companion the maid whom his 
 heart selected when he was fifteen, he was called 
 to preach to the First Congregational Church of 
 Cleveland. Having continued in the ministry 
 twelve years, in various places, he was appointed 
 Principal of the Preparatory Department of Ober- 
 lin College, and held that position sixteen years, 
 having supervision of five hundred young men 
 and over forty teachers each year. The last two 
 years he acted as financial agent of the college 
 and raised eighty thousand dollars. This work 
 called the attention of incipient institutions to 
 him, and, while desired at Oberlin, he received 
 three appointments, almost simultaneously, from 
 three colleges, remote from each other, all of 
 them desirable, and a visit from a fourth. He 
 accepted the call to Berea, after a visit to the 
 place, and entered upon the work in April, 1869. 
 This year Howard Hall was erected by the 
 Freedmen's Bureau, at a cost of eighteen thou-
 
 54 BEREA COLLEGE, KY. 
 
 sand dollars. It is a very fine three-story wood 
 building, forty by eighty, with a tin roof, and 
 presents a much better appearance than its pic- 
 ture. 
 
 It is a dormitory for young men, and embraces 
 a reading room and two nice society rooms. 
 
 LADIES' HALL. 
 In 1870-71 our accommodations for young 
 ladies were found much too strait for them. Nine 
 were sent into the attic, which was one large 
 room, with a window in each end. There was 
 no room for further development, and such ac- 
 commodations as we had were of a very inferior 
 style. The dining room was also used for com- 
 mon sitting room and parlor. A new building 
 was a necessity ; but whether to erect a tempo- 
 rary or a permanent edifice was an important 
 question. After consulting friends on whom we 
 must largely depend for the means, it was de- 
 termined to erect such a building as would meet 
 our wants for many years, not with the expecta- 
 tion of filling it immediately, but, as we hoped, 
 in a few years. The Ladies' Hall at Oberlin was 
 taken as a pattern, and its excellencies were, if 
 possible, improved, and its defects remedied. It 
 is one of the most perfect buildings of its kind 
 to be found in the country. It is of brick, three
 
 56 BEEEA COLLEGE, KY. 
 
 stories high, above a superior basement, having 
 two fronts of one hundred and twenty feet each, 
 and a roof of slate and tin. The 'first story em- 
 braces a reception room, office, parlor, assembly 
 room, society room, reading room, dressing room, 
 a large dining room, an upper kitchen with a 
 china closet and variety room, and the steward's 
 rooms. The basement, which on one side is en- 
 tirely above ground, embraces, besides furnaces 
 and wood rooms and cellar rooms, a superb 
 kitchen, with a meal room and the cook's living 
 room adjoining, and dumb waiters, a porter's 
 room contiguous to the elevator and the fur- 
 naces, a wash room and ironing room, and a 
 railroad for carrying trunks to the elevator and 
 wood to every place where it is needed. The 
 two upper stories furnish rooms for ninety ladies, 
 with water tanks, water closets and bath rooms 
 on both floors. The first story and the corridors 
 are heated by three superior furnaces, and the 
 rooms in the two upper stories with stoves. 
 Every room has a ventilator and a transom, and 
 every lady's room a closet. The whole is fin- 
 ished with butternut and chestnut, and varnished. 
 The garret is one large room, with a smooth, 
 nice floor over the whole, an excellent place for 
 exercise or for drying clothes in stormy weather. 
 A door from the wash room opens to the eleva-
 
 PRESIDENT FAIRCHILD. 57 
 
 tor. Besides the tanks in the building, there are 
 three large cisterns and a large well outside. 
 There is also a forcing pump to send water from 
 the well, which never fails, to the tanks above. 
 This building is surrounded with six acres of 
 ground, embracing a large grove of forest trees 
 at one side, coming up to the street, in which, 
 by permission, young gentlemen may meet the 
 ladies for croquet. In the rear of this grove is 
 a vineyard, and in the rear of the vineyard a 
 garden. There is also a fine grove in the rear, 
 for ladies alone. The front yard is graded and 
 covered with grass, dotted with evergreens, and 
 furnished with permanent walks of slate and 
 gravel. On the two fronts is a beautiful and 
 substantial picket fence. The cost of the whole, 
 including the ground and a substantial barn, 
 was fifty-six thousand dollars. 
 
 All other College buildings, including Howard 
 Hall, Recitation Hall, which is a transformation 
 of the second boarding hall, Ofiice Building, 
 Grammar School, a very good building, Inter- 
 mediate School, very poor, and the Chapel, are 
 situated in the College Campus, consisting of 
 two large and beautiful groves of forest trees, 
 embracing about twenty-five acres. The larger 
 grove, in which the buildings are, is on the high 
 land, and the other in the plain, fifty feet below.
 
 58 BEREA OOLLBOB, KT. 
 
 FINANCE. 
 Besides the buildings, which are estimated at 
 seventy-five thousand dollars, the College owns 
 three hundred and fifty acres of land, not in- 
 cluding the grounds about the buildings, worth 
 about fifteen thousand dollars. Much of this 
 land lies on the best streets of the village, and is 
 laid out into lots, averaging about one hundred 
 feet by three hundred, which are held at one 
 hundred dollars a lot. It owns also about 
 twenty-five good business lots, twenty-five feet 
 by one hundred and twenty-five, held at 
 one hundred dollars to one hundred and fifty 
 dollars a lot. The College has the begin- 
 ning of an endowment, thirty-four thousand 
 dollars, which has been secured with little effort. 
 The effort in this direction has just commenced. 
 A portion of this endowment has been borrowed 
 by the College, with the consent of the donors, 
 and secured by a lien upon its land. On another 
 portion interest is paid to the donor, an aged 
 man, during his lifetime. Only nineteen thou- 
 sand dollars bring an income to the College. 
 Our debts to individuals and banks are about 
 twelve thousand dollars. We know of subscrip- 
 tions and bequests sufficient to pay them, but 
 they are not available for that purpose at pres- 
 ent. Our current expenses are about ten thou-
 
 DEPARTMENTS OF THE COLLEOE. 59 
 
 sand dollars, and our income four thousand dol- 
 lars. The balance is made up by benevolent 
 contributions. Many of our students are ad- 
 mitted free of tuition, on account of funds con- 
 tributed for that object; hence our income from 
 that source is very small ; tuition is only nominal, 
 being but seven dollars and a half to ten dollars 
 and a half a year. It will probably be entirely 
 relinquished when a sufficient endowment is se- 
 cured. 
 
 DEPARTMENTS OF THE COLLEGE. 
 
 The constituency of the College is such as to 
 compel the keeping up of all grades of schools 
 from the primary to the college proper. It is 
 especially a school for the poor, and for those 
 who have had little or no opportunity for educa- 
 tion. It keeps up primary, intermediate and 
 grammar schools; and divides the superior por- 
 tion of the school into college, literary, normal 
 and preparatory departments, with about the 
 usual courses of study in the several depart- 
 ments. A year each, of French and German, is 
 required in the College course. The literary 
 course is the same as is usually styled the ladies' 
 course. It is designed not only for ladies, but 
 for gentlemen, who desire a thorough English 
 education without Greek, and with only the
 
 60 BEREA COLLEGE, KT. 
 
 amount of Latin required for entering college. 
 The normal course is what its name implies. 
 No department of the Institution is of greater 
 importance than this. Kentucky has no greater 
 need than a large reinforcement of competent, 
 native school teachers, both white and colored. 
 There is no great demand for foreign teachers. 
 The native born will generally be preferred, and 
 they are sufficiently numerous to meet all de- 
 mands. They simply need better qualifications; 
 and, from the number of actual teachers who 
 have recently come to this school, we judge the 
 prospect for improvement is encouraging. 
 
 GRADUATES. 
 
 The first College Class entered in 1869, and 
 graduated in 1873. It consisted of three white 
 young men, all natives of Kentucky. One of 
 them died within a year, one is teaching a high 
 school in Illinois, and the other is a theological 
 student, now traveling for his health, with a 
 good prospect of recovery. The next year there 
 were four graduates, two white and two colored, 
 three of them Keutuckians by birth. One of 
 them is principal of a large colored school and 
 assistant editor of the American Citizen, one is 
 principal of the colored high school at Camp 
 Kelson, one has been teaching a country school,
 
 PROFESSORS AND TEACHERS. 61 
 
 and the other is tutor in Doane College, Nebraska. 
 There were three graduates in 1875, one of them 
 colored. But one, a white lady, has finished the 
 literary course, and one ladj^ the normal course. 
 Graduates are few in Kentucky, and will con- 
 tinue to be till common school education is ad- 
 vanced far beyond its present condition. In 
 communities where one-fourth of the adult pop- 
 ulation can not read, and another fourth can 
 read but poorly, few can be found who will see 
 the propriety of spending six years in school, 
 after having acquired a better education than a 
 majority of their teachers have. 
 
 PROFESSORS AND TEACHERS. 
 
 The President is Professor of Mental and 
 Moral Philosophy and Financial Secretary. 
 
 Rev. J. A. R. Rogers, Professor of Greek and 
 Associate Pastor. 
 
 Prof. Geo. McMillan, a native of Ireland, a 
 graduate of Oberlin College and for fifteen years 
 Professor of Latin in Hillsdale College, Michi- 
 gan, has the chair of Latin. 
 
 Mr. L. V. Dodge, of Ohio, a graduate of Hills- 
 dale College, Principal of the Normal School at 
 Geneva, Ohio, after teaching six months at Berea, 
 was chosen Professor of Mathematics. He will
 
 62 BEEEA COLLEGE, KT. 
 
 enter upon his work in September. He was 
 offered a professorship at Hillsdale. 
 
 Rev. C. G. Fairchild, sou of the President, two 
 years connected with the State Kormal School 
 at Trenton, New Jersey, and two years financial 
 agent of Berea College, is appointed Professor of 
 Natural History, with the understanding that he 
 is to teach one term in the year and devote the 
 rest of his time to the finances of the College. 
 He is at present in England, and there has been 
 no time to hear of his acceptance. 
 
 Rev. J. G. Fee, who is pastor of the church, 
 is also Lecturer on Evidences of Christianity 
 and Biblical Literature. 
 
 Mr, H. R. Chittenden, of Michigan, a gradu- 
 ate of Oberlin College, is Principal of the Pre- 
 paratory Department. 
 
 The salary of a Professor is twelve hundred 
 dollars, the President's fifteen hundred. 
 
 Of the ladies employed at present Miss Sara 
 Ferguson, of Pennsylvania, a graduate of the 
 Ladies' Department of Oberlin College, is Acting 
 Principal of the Ladies' Department. 
 
 Miss Kate Gilbert, of Massachusetts, a teacher 
 of much experience, both in her native State 
 and among the Freedmen, is teacher of Higher 
 English Branches. 
 
 Mies Alice Warren, of Vermont, graduate of
 
 PROFESSORS AND TEACHERS. 63 
 
 a female seminary iu that State, and for two 
 years teacher in the high school at Moline, Illi- 
 nois, has charge of the Grammar School. 
 
 Miss Elizabeth Gregg, of Kentucky, a gradu- 
 ate of the Ladies' Department of Oberlin College, 
 has the Intermediate School. 
 
 Miss Alice E. Peck, of 'New York, an Oberlin 
 student, and an experienced teacher, has charge 
 of the Primary School. 
 
 The salaries of these teachers are from two 
 hundred and seventy-five dollars to three hun- 
 dred and fifty dollars, with their board. 
 
 We have also teachers of music, vocal and 
 instrumental; also of penmanship and book- 
 keeping ; but commonly they have been students, 
 or otherwise employed, and are not mentioned. 
 
 For the number of students, which has varied 
 from two hundred and fifty to three hundred a 
 year, this teaching force seems large. Twice as 
 many pupils would require no more teachers. 
 But for the number of classes, and branches of 
 study taught, it is not large. All are fully 
 occupied. 
 
 These minute details can hardly be interesting 
 to the general reader, but to our donors, for 
 whom this book is especially designed, they are 
 due, whether interesting or not.
 
 64 BEEEA COLLEGE, KY. 
 
 BOARD OF TRUSTEES. 
 
 Rev. John G. Fee, President of the Board. 
 
 Rev. E. H. Fairchild, Vice-President. 
 
 Rev. J. A. R. Rogers, Secretary. 
 
 John G. Hanson. 
 
 Morgan Burdett, farmer of Berea. 
 
 Elisha Harrison, farmer of Berea. 
 
 Rev. Gabriel Burdett, pastor at Camp Nelson. 
 
 W. W. Wheeler, Indian Superintendent, Wis- 
 consin. 
 
 Arthur J. Hanson, merchant of Berea. 
 
 S. J. Marshall, physician, removed to Ohio. 
 
 Rev. E. M. Cravath, Secretary American Mis- 
 sionary Association. 
 
 Rev. Geo. Candee, preacher, Peru, Massachusetts. 
 
 Wm. Hart, Treasurer and Steward, Berea. 
 
 THE FOLLOWING WERE RECENTLY ELECTED 
 
 Rev. J. H. Heywood, Louisville. 
 
 Rev. J. E. Roy, Secretary Home Mission Society, 
 
 Chicago. 
 Peter H. Clark, Superintendent Colored Schools, 
 
 Cincinnati 
 
 Ten of these, it will be seen, are residents of 
 Kentucky, and three have removed from Ken- 
 tucky since their election.
 
 FORMER TEACHERS AND OFFICERS. 65 
 
 FOEMER TEACHERS AND OFFICERS. 
 
 At this point we have concluded, though not 
 without hesitation, to give a briefly descriptive 
 list of all the teachers and other oflicers, not 
 already mentioned, who have had part in this 
 work. I do this for the gratification of those 
 who have known them personally and by repu- 
 tation here, at the risk of being a little tedious 
 to those who care more for the facts bearing on 
 the present and prospective influence of Berea 
 College. I commence with the ladies and follow 
 very nearly the order of their services. 
 
 Jennie Donaldson, teacher, of the family of 
 Donaldsons, near Cincinnati. They are a wealthy 
 family from England, and were abolitionists, and 
 special friends of the Lane Seminary dissidents, 
 in 1834. She is still living in Southern Ohio. 
 
 Mrs. Blaisdell, a relative of Miss Donald- 
 son, from Yellow Springs, Ohio, was employed 
 as matron. 
 
 Louisa Kaiser, teacher, of Gnadenhutten, Ohio, 
 graduate of the Ladies' Department of Oberlin 
 College, now wife of Dr. S. F. Marshall, of 
 Southern Ohio. 
 
 Eliza M. Snedaker, teacher, still living at her 
 home in Adams County, Ohio. 
 
 Hattie Pratt, teacher, graduate of the Ladies'
 
 66 BEREA COLLEGE, KT. 
 
 Department of Oberlin College, now wife of Rev. 
 C. C. Starbuck, of Nebraska. 
 
 E. Ada Cleghorn, teacher, graduate of the 
 Ladies' Department of Oberlin College, now 
 missionary in China. 
 
 Charlotte M. Blake, matron, from Wisconsin, 
 now in Peoria, Illinois. 
 
 Mrs. Duncan, Acting Principal Ladies' De- 
 partment, formerly a teacher and city missionary 
 of Louisville, Kentucky. 
 
 Mrs. Frances E. Woodrow, Acting Principal 
 Ladies' Department, formerly from Trumbull 
 County, Ohio, a graduate of the Ladies' Depart- 
 ment of Oberlin College, then a teacher in San- 
 dusky High School, then teacher and Principal 
 Ladies' Department of Ripon College, Wiscon- 
 sin, now wife of J. K. Newton, teacher of Mod- 
 ern Languages in Oberlin College. 
 
 Mrs. S. W. Hart, matron, a native of New 
 York City, wife of the present Treasurer. They 
 were old-time abolitionists of Woodstock, Illi- 
 nois. He was born in Vermont, but spent most 
 of his life in Illinois. During the war, at his 
 own request, he was commissioned by President 
 Lincoln to aid in organizing colored regiments. 
 While connected with the Quarter Master's De- 
 partment at Camp Nelson he became acquainted
 
 FORMER OFFICERS AND TEACHERS. 67 
 
 with Mr. Fee. She died among her friends, at 
 Jamestown, New York, in 1872. 
 
 Rhoda J. Lyon, teacher and Acting Principal 
 Ladies' Department, formerly a student at Ober- 
 lin, then a teacher in Ohio, then among the 
 Freedmen in Georgia and Alabama, now wife of 
 Geo. L. Pigg, A. B., of Berea, teacher in Illinois. 
 
 Elizabeth Hulsart, teacher, from Romeo, Mich- 
 igan, a teacher among the Freedmen, both be- 
 fore and since her two years' service here. 
 
 Saphronia Hall, teacher, from Dover, Ohio, 
 daughter of a missionary among the Freedmen 
 in Jamaica, and student in Oberlin College. 
 
 Eliza Burdett, teacher, a native of Kentucky, 
 graduate of the Normal Department of Berea 
 College, now teacher of the public school in 
 Berea. 
 
 Mrs. J. H. Clark, Principal Ladies' Depart- 
 ment, from Painesville, Ohio, formerly from 
 Massachusetts, sister of Rev. Dr. Chamberlin, of 
 Chicago, and Governor Chamberlin, of South 
 Carolina, an experienced teacher. She retained 
 the office two years and resigned in 1874. 
 
 Charlotte White, Assistant Principal, a niece 
 of Mrs. Clark, from Massachusetts, a student at 
 Mt. Holyoke Seminary. She retained her office 
 a year, then remained a year as a pupil. She is 
 now a teacher in Massachusetts.
 
 68 BEREA COLLEGE, KY. 
 
 J. L. Barber, of Woodstock, Illinois, Steward 
 and Mechanic. He had formerly kept the 
 Boarding Hall at Lane Seminary, and had had 
 considerable experience as Superintendent of 
 Sunday-schools. 
 
 Henry F. Clark, graduate of Oberlin College, 
 of Painesville, Ohio, became Professor of Latin 
 in 1868. He was after three years excused a 
 year to complete his theological studies, and 
 after another year resigned. He was very active 
 while here in the general Sunday-school work. 
 He is now a professor in Oberlin College, where 
 his abilities as a teacher became known, while 
 away from Berea College on leave of absence. 
 
 J. H. Clark, husband of the Lady Principal, 
 and father of the Professor, superintended the 
 building of the Ladies' Hall, and for a short 
 time was Acting Treasurer. 
 
 C. A. Richardson, teacher of English, from 
 East Cleveland, a graduate of Oberlin College, 
 now a Congregational preacher. 
 
 A. A. Wright, a graduate of Oberlin College, 
 for several years a teacher at Cleveland Heights, 
 was elected Instructor in Mathematics and Nat- 
 ural Sciences, then Professor of Chemistry and 
 Natural Science. He was excused a year to 
 qualify himself more perfectly for his professor- 
 ship, and received an effectual call from Oberlin.
 
 FORMER OFFICERS AND TEACHERS, 69 
 
 Rev. C. C. Starbuck, a graduate of Oberlin 
 College, and for many years a missionary among 
 the Freedmen of Jamaica, was employed one 
 year as Instructor in Latin and History. 
 
 Joel F. Vaile, of Kokomo, Indiana, a gradu- 
 ate of Oberlin College, was one year Acting 
 Professor of Mathematics and iJs'atural Science, 
 and was desired for a permanent professor, but 
 previous engagements forbade. He is now prac- 
 ticing law in Indiana. 
 
 Rev. A. B. Pratt, Treasurer and Trustee, for- 
 merly a Congregational preacher in Michigan, 
 now in I^ebraska. 
 
 "VVm. X. Embree, brother of Mrs. Rogers, and 
 son-in-law of Mr. Fee, a merchant in Berea, was 
 a Trustee, and, for a time. Assistant Treasurer. 
 He is now in business in Kansas. 
 
 We are glad to give all these names a place in 
 our little book. We shall always count them 
 among our true friends, and gratefull}' cherish 
 their memory. 
 
 The fact that so large a proportion of these 
 teachers were from Oberlin is no indication that 
 Oberlin has had any responsibility in the found- 
 ing and furnishing of Berea, but only that Ober- 
 lin gives practical lessons in human brotherhood, 
 one of the chief studies in every course in this 
 Institution; and a current havina: been formed
 
 70 BEREA COLLEGE, KT. 
 
 from that school to this, it was easy for it to 
 widen and deepen. 
 
 ITS CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 
 
 The inquiry is often made : " To what religious 
 denomination does Berea College belong?" It 
 belongs to every Church which has living faith 
 in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior from sin, 
 and is seeking to save the lost through him. 
 Whatever their peculiar views and practices 
 may be, if this is their faith and work, we are 
 heartily with them. They can not be so far 
 astray in anything that we need to have a con- 
 troversy witli them. We will counsel them as 
 brethren if we think they err, but we will not 
 exclude them from our fellowship, nor be ex- 
 cluded by them if we can avoid it. 
 
 Our church is called: "The Church at Berea," 
 which is the common style of the New Testa- 
 ment. It holds all the doctrines on which the 
 great mass of the Protestant churches unite, and 
 tolerates every phase of opinion and practice not 
 inconsistent with true Christian character. In 
 its government all members of the church have 
 a vote. 
 
 Its pastor. Rev. J. G. Fee, was originally a 
 Presbyterian. In 1852 he embraced the doctrine 
 of immersion and still adheres to it; but he
 
 ITS CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 71 
 
 earnestly insists that every true Christian is en- 
 titled to a place in the church, whatever his 
 views may be as to the mode and subjects of bap- 
 tism. While he conscientiously administers 
 only immersion, he as conscientiously yields to 
 his brethren in the church the privilege of other 
 modes and of infant baptism. 
 
 Anti-sectarianism is and always has been a 
 fundamental principle of Berea College and 
 church. In the days of slavery the church re- 
 fused to fellowship slaveholders and slaveholding 
 churches, because it believed they were destitute 
 of Christian character. 
 
 It is to advance pure and undeiiled religion 
 that Berea College exists. It belongs wholly to 
 Christ, and seeks to educate all its pupils for his 
 service. It has no interest in promoting educa- 
 tion to be enlisted against Christianity. We 
 have occasion often to mourn our want of success, 
 but we regard it as our first and chief duty to 
 lead our pupils to the Savior of sinners. We 
 have occasion also to rejoice that our labors in 
 this respect are not in vain. A large majority of 
 our adult pupils, we hope, are Christians; and all 
 but one of our graduates are professors of relig- 
 ion. He several times covenanted to be the 
 Lord's, but never seemed established. He has 
 gone to his account.
 
 72 BEREA COLLEGE, KT. 
 
 POLITICS. 
 
 Berea College not only has a religious, it has 
 a political character. It is political because it is 
 religious. The Christianity it teaches does not 
 permit men to ignore their obligations to main- 
 tain, so far as they have the power, a righteous 
 government. We pray for guidance and suc- 
 cess in politics the same as in education and 
 religion. Our political principle is : " Thou shalt 
 love thy neighbor as thyself." We are not parti- 
 sans. We would not be blind to the faults, nor 
 submit to the dictation of any party. We be- 
 lieve in equal civil rights to all citizens ; and we 
 stand ready to co-operate with that party through 
 which we can most effectually promote that 
 principle. Which that party has been since the 
 opening of the war we have had no difficulty in 
 deciding. 
 
 MISSION OF BEREA COLLEGIE. 
 
 The work of all Christian colleges is in gen- 
 eral the same — to promote education, religion 
 and general civilization; to do this by furnishing 
 Christian teachers, preachers and cultured busi- 
 ness men to instruct and lead the people. Any 
 such college, well sustained, is an incalculable 
 blessing to any community. 
 
 But some colleges have a peculiar reeponsibil-
 
 THE COLORED PEOPLE. 73 
 
 ity. In the providence of God, or by some 
 special teaching of his Spirit, some great doc- 
 trine, or principle, or reform, seems especially 
 intrusted to their keeping and promotion. If 
 this is not, in some measure, true of Berea Col- 
 lege, we are utterly in the dark as to wants of 
 the country. 
 
 This College sustains peculiar relation to two 
 classes of people, who constitute two-thirds of 
 the population of the State — the colored people 
 and the mountain people. 
 
 THE COLORED PEOPLE 
 
 Believe that they owe their freedom to the self- 
 denying labors of such men as Mr. Fee, President 
 Fairchild, Prof. Rogers, and that class of men 
 throughout the country who are sustaining Berea 
 College. They know we are their friends and that 
 we will not deceive them. They believe in our 
 political principles, and though they find it diffi- 
 cult in their modesty to associate with white 
 people on terms of equality, they believe in the 
 principle, and rejoice to see it wrought out. 
 They have their own church relations and modes 
 of worship, and are attached to them like other 
 people, and will not easily fall in with any ideas 
 or modes that are new to them. Yet we are 
 welcome always to all their religious gatherings,
 
 74 BEREA COLLEGE, KT. 
 
 and they rejoice to hear the counsels we have to 
 give. Like all uneducated people, they will 
 very gradually learn to appreciate the importance 
 of education. They will not- rush into every- 
 thing good more than other people. But it was 
 never the privilege of any Cliristian laborers 
 to work for a more grateful, impressible and 
 confiding people. 
 
 God has laid upon us special responsibilities 
 in regard to them. Till within two years the 
 State has made no provisions whatever for their 
 education, and the provisions now made are en- 
 tirely inadequate. 
 
 They have no share of the general school 
 fund. The white people will not submit to be 
 taxed for their education. There is no general 
 desire for their education. No conventions are 
 held, no general subscriptions are made or so- 
 licited to promote it. They have a special com- 
 mon school law, which denies them the right to 
 vote in school matters. The county school com- 
 missioner, a white man, has the sole responsi- 
 bility of organizing the county into districts 
 and appointing colored trustees. If he is in- 
 different or reluctant it will not be done. The 
 fund provided by the law has thus far amounted 
 to only fifty cents a scholar for the year. This 
 furnishes, in a district of fifty scholars, only
 
 THE COLORED PEOPLE. 75 
 
 twenty-live dollars to keep up the school a year. 
 White districts receive one dollar and ninety 
 cents a scholar. It is a question whether this 
 school law is of any benefit whatever to the col- 
 ored people. It produces great dissatisfaction, 
 as it ought to, and the money it furnishes hardly 
 compensates for the trouble it makes. Two 
 other features of the law exhibit the spirit 
 which dictated it. A colored school-house in 
 the country must not be within a mile of a white 
 school, nor in towns within six hundred feet. 
 Also it is unlawful for a colored child to attend 
 a white school, or for a white child to attend a 
 colored school. This law is a fair indication of 
 the interest of the people of the State in the 
 education of the colored people. To the honor 
 of the city of Louisville it should be said that 
 within two years much zeal has been exhibited 
 in the establishment of colored schools. They 
 have erected two large and commodious school 
 buildings, which are filled with pupils, and teach- 
 ers are well paid. A third large school is taught 
 in a less commodious building, and a fourth in 
 the large building erected by the Freedmen's 
 Bureau. The colored people have not their 
 equal share in the management of the school, as 
 they ought to have, but they are allowed a Visit- 
 ing Committee.
 
 76 BEREA COLLEGE, KT. 
 
 Lexington also has made a good beginning 
 within a year, and has maintained eleven teach- 
 ers, who have had less than half the pay of 
 white teachers. Six of these teachers are stu- 
 dents of Berea College, as are a- large proportion, 
 perhaps a majority, of the colored school teach- 
 ers in the State. Other towns probably have 
 done something for colored schools, but if so it 
 is very recently. 
 
 With such a law, and with the public interest 
 it indicates, it is manifest that the colored peo- 
 ple will be but poorly provided with schools, un- 
 less aid comes from some other quarter. In a 
 few places they are able to support their own 
 schools, but the most of them are very poor. 
 Ten years ago they were, with few exceptions, 
 entirely destitute of property. They had no 
 homes, no lauds, no stock of any kind, no edu- 
 cation, no experience in business, no school- 
 houses, few churches and no teachers. They 
 were in the midst of a people who looked upon 
 them as their property, of which they had been 
 wickedly robbed. They had always declared 
 that the negro could not take care of himself, 
 and were disposed to make their declarations 
 good. Before the courts they could neither tes- 
 tify, plead, nor judge, but were entirely at the 
 mercy of men who had always held it to be
 
 THE COLORED PEOPLE. 77 
 
 right to compel negroes to work for whatever 
 they were disposed to give. It is not strange 
 that a people so circumstanced are not yet able 
 to sustain their own schools. Nor is it strange 
 that some of them are not able to see, as many 
 wiser people are not, why, having paid taxes 
 like white people, and even a dollar poll tax 
 more, they should not have free schools as well. 
 These poor people are on our hearts and hands 
 continually. We meet very few who give any 
 indications of caring for them as we feel we 
 must. A few noble men and women there are 
 in the State who see and deeply feel their wants, 
 and will do to the extent of their ability. There 
 were always such, and the number has not 
 greatly increased. In proof of this statement 
 we mention the fact that year after year the 
 State Sundav-school Convention has called to- 
 gether the warmest-hearted Christians of the 
 State, and never till this year has a single inquiry 
 been made concerning the wants of that most 
 needy, most accessible and most impressible peo- 
 ple constituting one-third of the population of 
 the State. And this year it was not in the pro- 
 gramme, but was introduced by the special re- 
 quest of a most noble Christian gentleman, who 
 superintends a large colored Sunday-school in 
 Lexington, and takes with him his wife and a
 
 78 BERBA COLLEGE, KY. 
 
 respectable number of white teachers. There 
 has recently started a similar eftbrt in Paris, and 
 another in Nicholasville, and there is great rea- 
 son to hope that the lires thus kindled will 
 spread till they envelope the State. 
 
 It devolves on Berea College, more than on 
 any other power, to furnish this people with 
 teachers. But this is not all. We feel that we 
 must do something to aid feeble districts in the 
 support of their teachers; and we have already 
 promised, or rather a committee appointed by 
 the Faculty has promised, between twenty and 
 thirty teachers, that, having secured all they 
 can from the people in addition to the State 
 fund, they may look to us for aid in providing 
 for them a moderate compensation. But we re- 
 quire that the schools shall be free, so that no 
 child shall be excluded on account of poverty. 
 For this aid we have appealed to the benevolent 
 of this State and the North. 
 
 Last year many of our best teachers spent 
 their long vacations in other labor, because the 
 schools that needed them were not able to pay. 
 Twenty or thirty dollars will be sufficient to 
 help out such a school. 
 
 But this is only a limited and temporary effort. 
 The great work of Berea looks to a vast and 
 fundamental change in the views, tastes, feelings
 
 THE COLORED PEOPLE. 79 
 
 and customs of society. White and colored 
 people must be perfectly equal before the law. 
 They must have the same civil rights, and be 
 protected alike in the enjoyment of them. We 
 can have no permanent peace, nor, what is more 
 important, any exalted sense of honor and vir- 
 tue, till this is efi'ectually secured; and it never 
 can be secured till the race prejudice, the caste 
 feeling, the spirit of domination is eradicated. 
 It seems astonishing that a white man can pros- 
 ecute a colored man before a jury exclusively 
 white, and therefore prejudiced, and see nothing 
 dishonorable in it. Yet so it is all over Ken- 
 tucky. A colored man has never been known 
 to sit upon a jury in the State; the laws forbid 
 it; and the Governor says the people will never 
 tolerate it. Yet few see anything unjust or dis- 
 honorable in it, or any cause of complaint on 
 the part of the colored people; and the colored 
 people themselves do not feel it as they would if 
 long oppression had not trained them to it. 
 White people feel in their place, controlling 
 negroes, and it is a mercy that the colored peo- 
 ple are able to endure it so well. 
 
 Colored people are taxed on their property 
 the same as white people, and pay a dollar more 
 of poll tax; but the governing masses of the 
 State see no impropriety in it, or, if they do,
 
 80 BEREA COLLEGE, KY. 
 
 they have not sufficient honor to protest against 
 it. They say it is for the benelit of the colored 
 people ; it goes to the support of their schools. 
 Yet the}^ receive for their schools only about 
 one-fourth as much per scholar as poor white 
 people do; and the feeling seems to be that 
 even this is more than could reasonably be ex- 
 pected. Few feel disgraced by the publication 
 of such laws; few see any impropriety in charg- 
 ing colored women the same fare as others and 
 then compelling them to ride in the smoking 
 car; or, if they see it, they have not the honor 
 to object to the injustice. Very few are able to 
 see the ridiculous absurdity of taking colored 
 servants into the ladies' car, and excluding 
 those who are not servants. The prevailing 
 idea or feeling is that all colored people should 
 take the position of servants ; that they are out 
 of their place when appearing anywhere as the 
 equals of white people. The}' must not eat in 
 the same restaurants; nor shave in the same 
 shops; nor sit in the same churches, unless dis- 
 tinctly separated; nor stop at the same hotels; 
 nor attend the same schools. 
 
 These distinctions are kept up, not because 
 colored people are personally disagreeable to the 
 white people. There is little such feeling at the 
 South. Not because of their immorality; for as
 
 THE COLORED PEOPLE. 81 
 
 servants they are admitted everywhere. It is sim- 
 ply a caste feeling, a prejudice of position. This 
 feeling controls legislation, it blinds judges and 
 juries, it corrupts executive officers, it biases 
 witnesses. Against this prejudice, or feeling, or 
 taste, or caste, whatever it may be called, Berea 
 College has thoroughly committed itself, and 
 fulfills one of its most important missions in 
 mitigating and removing it. 
 
 This it seeks to do through its students, who 
 carry the principles and feelings here imbibed 
 to all parts of the country ; by the constant ex- 
 hibition of perfect equality and perfect harmony 
 to all visitors, and especially to thousands at our 
 annual commencements; by lectures, addresses 
 and sermons of professors and advanced students, 
 to colored, and white, and mixed audiences, 
 gathered for religious, political, or educational 
 purposes; and through the medium of a weekly 
 paper published at Lexington, and jointly edited 
 by colored men at Lexington and professors at 
 Berea. What these influences are accomplish- 
 ing let a beholder and not an actor answer. 
 Prof. A. P. Peabody, of Harvard, closes his 
 very able article in the Unitarian Revievj, on 
 the Coeducation of the Races, with the follow- 
 ing paragraph : —
 
 82 BEREA COLLEGE, KT. 
 
 Of all the experiments in coeducation that have been 
 instituted, we regard Berea College, in Kentucky, as the 
 most important in its sphere of influence and in its 
 prophecy of enduring benefit to the colored race. It 
 has carried the war into the enemy's camp, and has 
 brought its whole Christian panoply and armament into 
 the immediate encounter with the surviving spirit of 
 slavery ~a spirit mnde all the more virulent by the de- 
 strnctioii oj' its body. At other institutions black stu- 
 dents are admitted to an equality with the white; at 
 Berea white students are admitted to an equality with 
 the black' The trustees and professors at Berea can 
 not invite their white neighbors to unite with them in 
 throwing the doors of their Institution wide open to all 
 that choose to come. They must first gather their little 
 flock of black pupils, with a very few white youths from 
 their own or friendly families, and then they must make 
 their light shine bright enough and far enough to win 
 the regard and confidence of a distrustful and scornful 
 public, and to demonstrate to that unwilling public that 
 it is for their own and their children's interest that they 
 patronize this Institution. This has been effected. The 
 College has shown its large educational capacity. Its 
 public exercises have been attended in successive years 
 by persons of established reputation as educationists and 
 literary men, and have received their unqualified com- 
 mendation and praise. There is, for many miles around, 
 no institution of learning that does nearly so much or so 
 well for its pupils. The consequence is that those at 
 first vehemently opposed to it are fast falling into the
 
 THE COLORED PEOPLE. 83 
 
 ranks of neutrals or friends. Many who deemed it a 
 nuisance have already sent their children to it. Its ster- 
 ling value as a seminary of education is now recognized 
 on all hands. But it is of much more worth for its si- 
 lent, yet most efficient, propagandism of the due rela- 
 tion between the races ; for coeducation includes within 
 itself, or involves as its necessary consequence, equality 
 in all civic and social rights, immunities, duties and ob- 
 ligations. 
 
 Moreover, a State in which white citizens already seek 
 for their children the privilege of coeducation with col- 
 ored youths, can not long retain its hostility to public 
 schools common to both races. The universal establish- 
 ment of such schools in the late slave States is, as we 
 have said, essential to their political and social well- 
 being; and for the advancement of this end Berea Col- 
 lege is now doing more than can be effected by any pos- 
 sible legislation, by any action of political parties, or by 
 the combined influence of press, platform and pulpit. 
 
 For two principal reasons we advocate the co- 
 education of the races. 1. It is impossible to 
 educate both races separately. In the rural dis- 
 tricts it is impossible to maintain two sets of 
 schools. In the cities it may be done, bnt in the 
 country it can not. In hundreds of districts 
 there are very few, from five to twenty-five, col- 
 ored children. They must be admitted to the 
 schools which white children attend, or be left 
 without schools. In other districts the same is
 
 84 BEREA COLLEGE, KT. 
 
 true of white children. 2. The separation fosters 
 a spirit of contempt, and hauglitiness, and domi- 
 neering on the one side, and a sense of debase- 
 ment, and a spirit of sycophancy or surliness on 
 the other, entirely inconsistent with the highest 
 good of either. It is cruel and abusive to teach 
 the colored children from the very beginning 
 that they are only fit for servants of white peo- 
 ple, and are not at all to be tolerated in the same 
 school-room with white children. Such treat- 
 ment will never make them self-respecting, pa- 
 triotic, independent citizens. 
 
 There is nothing, in the absence of coeduca- 
 tion, which can secure the mutual regard, confi- 
 dence and honorable deportment which must 
 exist between these races, if we are to have a 
 peaceful, intelligent and virtuous community. 
 
 We are well aware that in seeking to work 
 sucli a revolution in southern society, we accept 
 a herculean task. We are not greeted with 
 cheers and applause at every step. We have 
 learned to get on without them. We know that 
 God approves, and that many true friends pray 
 for us, and are ready to share the burden. We 
 also know that our cause will triumph. We 
 have seen much greater revolutions both at the 
 North and the South. Forty years ago the 
 whole nation was agitated when a single college
 
 THE MOUNTAIN PEOPLE. 85 
 
 admitted colored students, l^ow very tew col- 
 leges at the Kortli reject them. In common 
 schools the change is hardly less. The South 
 will change more rapidly, for there is little color 
 prejudice to be overcome. If the laws of the 
 State prohibiting coeducation were repealed, 
 many districts would at once adniit the few col- 
 ored children they have. 
 
 THE MOUis'TAm PEOPLE. 
 
 When we speak of this class of people at the 
 North, we soon hear the words : " Poor white 
 trash ! " We wish to say at the outset that they 
 sustain no relation to that miserable class of peo- 
 ple. The "poor white trash" have sustained 
 a miserable existence, by petty jobs and petty 
 pilfering among slaveholders, and were despised 
 by the slaves themselves. Kentucky has had 
 but a small share of them. The mountain peo- 
 ple have been almost entirely separated from 
 slavery and slaveholders, and have had little in- 
 terest in them; and have been, in the main, inde- 
 pendent of them. Had Kentucky been wholly 
 a slaveholding State, it would have been wholly 
 a rebel State. But it was neutral ; not because 
 its individual men were neutral, but because its 
 zealous rebel element was neutralized by a union 
 element just as zealous. The mountain men
 
 86 BEREA COLLEGE, KY. 
 
 were nearly all for the union, and some counties 
 furnished more union soldiei's than they had 
 men liable to military duty. A few mountain 
 men were violent rebels, and a few slaveholders 
 were ready to sacrifice everything for the union. 
 But the grand division was between the moun- 
 tains and the plains; and there is the same di- 
 vision still. The mountain counties are gener- 
 ally republican, some of them almost exclusively 
 so; and the Blue Grass counties are democratic, 
 their white population almost entirely so. Thus, 
 though the mountain people were not abolition- 
 ists, and had no special sympathy with the col- 
 ored people as slaves, there are now several bonds 
 of union between them. They agree in politics, 
 and are working together to overthrow tlie aris- 
 tocratic rebel party; and they are destined to 
 succeed. They are much alike in their style of 
 living. Being generally poor, they are obliged 
 to work for their daily bread, and enjoy but few 
 of the luxuries of life, and look with the same 
 sort of jealousy upon the aristocracy. They 
 have alike been deprived of the advantages of 
 education. One-fourth of the adult population 
 of the mountains can not read. The rich have 
 had little more interest in general education than 
 in the education of their slaves, and the neglect 
 is felt by them in some measure alike. They
 
 THE MOUNTAIN PEOPLE. 87 
 
 feel that they are looked upou with about the 
 same haughty contempt by the shoddy aristocra- 
 cy, and in this respect they have a fellow-feeling. 
 
 It is from the mountain people that the most 
 of our white students come. It is generally a 
 great trial to them to think of associating with 
 colored people. They have their prejudices to 
 overcome. But they find it easier to endure it 
 than to endure the manners of aristocratic stu- 
 dents. Probably no school out of the moun- 
 tains has so large a representation from them as 
 this. Nothing but poverty prevents their com- 
 ing in large numbers. It would be easy to 
 crowd our buildings to overflowing, if we could 
 assure them that they could pay their expenses 
 by manual labor. 
 
 To this people we have access. We are in- 
 vited to their Sunday-school conventions and 
 teachers' institutes; and their churches are open 
 to us when we choose to occupy them. They 
 seek our aid in establishing Sunday-schools, and 
 our students teach many of their day schools. 
 They thankfully receive second-hand libraries 
 furnished through us by i^orthern churches and 
 Sunday-schools. About twenty Sunday-schools 
 were organized in a single year through the in- 
 fluence of these libraries. It is a very simple 
 way of accomplishing much good.
 
 88 BEREA COLLEGE, KY. 
 
 As the State common-scliool system improves, 
 these mountain people will improve, and their 
 political power will increase. There are among 
 them men of property, and education, and moral 
 power ; and such men often come from fifty to a 
 hundred miles on horseback to attend our com- 
 mencements, and carry back reports of what 
 they have seen. Often they come with their 
 prejudices and return without them, or greatly 
 modified. 
 
 There is not a more needy or important field 
 of labor than these mountains, and the only limit 
 to the labor we can perform in it is the limit of 
 our numbers, time and strength. The majority 
 of the people live in log houses, and probably 
 half of them in houses without glass windows. 
 Their school-houses very commonly have no 
 windows, and often no doors, and sometimes no 
 floors. In traveling through six counties the 
 writer saw but one painted and plastered school- 
 house. Where they have churches they usually 
 have preaching about once a mouth, and their 
 preachers receive little or no compensation. 
 They are commonly laboring men ; and nothing 
 is more common than to hear them assure their 
 hearers that they are not indebted to their " book 
 learning," b\it to the Spirit for their sermons. 
 These people are not to be suddenly transformed
 
 THE MOUNTAIN PEOPLE. 89 
 
 to an intelligent, industrious, cultured people. 
 Half their schools are taught but three months 
 in the year, with few books, no maps, and no 
 blackboards, and by teachers poorly qualified to 
 give oral instruction. They generally have no 
 libraries and take no papers. Those who are 
 able to read, read but very little. Frequently 
 but one paper, and sometimes not one, is taken 
 in a school district. The most hopeful means of 
 doing them good is to induce man}' of their 
 most promising young men and women to go to 
 some good school and fit themselves for teachers. 
 This is the field of Berea College. We have 
 had students from ten difierent States at a time, 
 but our great work is among the poor people of 
 Kentucky. Young men have walked sixty 
 miles to get here, and sometimes without a dol- 
 lar, hoping here to find work to pay their way. 
 Two young men came sixty-five miles with a 
 pair of two-year-old calves before a cart to haul 
 their baggage, and a boy to drive the team back. 
 A young mountain woman met the President in 
 the street, and said: "Is this Mr. Fairchild? I 
 want to go to school ; I have no money ; I am 
 an orphan; I can not read; I have three uncles 
 who might help me, but they think I had better 
 stay in the mountains and work, but I want to 
 know something as well as other folks." " Well,"
 
 90 BEREA COLLEGE, KY. 
 
 8ays the President, " are you willing to work for 
 your board? " " Oli yes, I am willing to do any- 
 thing I can. I am not much used to house work, 
 as they do it here ; but I can hoe corn as well as 
 anybody." "How many hours do you think 
 you should work in a day for jonr board?" "I 
 don't know; you know better than I do." "Do 
 you think five hours?" "That looks like a 
 right smart time ; but I am willing to do any- 
 thing you say." "How much do you get a week 
 for your work ? " "A dollar a week." "How 
 long do you work? Ten hours?" "Oh yes; I 
 work from sun up to sun down, and more too." 
 "Well, if you work ten hours, and half of that 
 time for your board, that would leave five hours 
 a day a whole week for a dollar. Kow, if you 
 had the money to pay you could not get your 
 board, and room, and washing, and fuel, and 
 lights, for less than two dollars and a half a 
 week. So you see that if you work five hours a 
 day for your board, you will get more than 
 twice as much for your work as you do when 
 you work in the mountains for a dollar a week." 
 "Well, I am willing to work five hours and more, 
 if you say so." " Now I advise you to go to Mrs. 
 H., and tell your story to her, and tell her you 
 will work five hours a day for your board, Sun- 
 days as well as other days, if it is necessary, and
 
 THE MOUNTAIN PEOPLE. 91 
 
 do just as well as you can. We will give you 
 your tuition, and I will contrive to get you a 
 book." She was very thankful, had good suc- 
 cess, and near the close of the first quarter the 
 President asked her how she was getting on. 
 She says: "I don't know, but I think right 
 smart. I have read all the first reader but four 
 pages, and I can read every word. I didn't 
 know my letters when I began." She continued 
 three terms, and was obliged to leave to earn 
 money. Another year will make her a school 
 teacher. 
 
 Another mountain girl was so impressed at 
 commencement that she told her mother she 
 must go to school. She said if she had five hun- 
 dred dollars she would give it all to be able to 
 read such essays as some of those young ladies 
 read. Her parents had no money, and depended 
 on her to make their "crop." But she found a 
 place to work for her board, and in emergencies 
 went home to help about the crop, and with 
 great perseverance and determination she was 
 enabled in two years to teach school ; and a year 
 ago, though her studies are by no means com- 
 plete, the Mountain Eclio^ in giving an account 
 of a teachers' institute, reported her as having 
 read two essays, for which she received votes of 
 thanks; and made a statement as to her mode of
 
 92 BEREA COLLEGE, KY 
 
 managing a school, which was highly compli- 
 mented. We must not multiply individual 
 cases, interesting as they are to us. " The poor 
 have the gospel preached to them." 
 
 The mission of Berea College also embraces 
 eiForts, through its professors, to promote Chris- 
 tian union and vital piety. A State association 
 has been organized, called : " The State Associ- 
 ation of Christian Ministers and Churches of 
 Kentucky," which holds meetings semi-annually, 
 and has published resolutions and an address on 
 the subject of Christian Union, which have 
 called forth favorable comments from individu- 
 als in several States. The association is small, 
 but we hope not useless. 
 
 Our great desire is to aid in elevating the 
 standard of holy living; to promote Christian 
 activity, through Sunday-schools and prayer- 
 meetings ; to encourage family prayer and more 
 regard for the Sabbath ; to promote temperance 
 and abstinence from deadly weapons. Two of 
 the greatest evils of Kentucky are whisky and 
 pistols. Fights are frequent in which somebody 
 is killed, and seldom is there, any investigation 
 by magistrates or grand j uries. Most men drink 
 occasionally and many excessively. Yet there is 
 considerable interest on the subject of temper- 
 ance, and many voting districts (we have no
 
 THE MOUNTAIX PEOPLE, 93 
 
 townships) have voted no license, according to 
 the provisions of the local option law. The 
 Glade District, in which Berea is, voted no li- 
 cense, by a majority of four to one. Many 
 drinking men voted no license. 
 
 The religion of the South is such as might nat- 
 urally be expected to accompany the system of 
 slavery. Christians who practiced and defended 
 slave-holding should not be expected to have very 
 exalted ideas of love to God and man. They 
 probably feel the need of religion as much as 
 any people, and contrive to have it in some 
 form; yet it would not be strange if they should 
 shrink from brino'in£: their lives very near to 
 God in the prayer: "Search me, God, and 
 know my heart, and see if there be any evil way 
 in me." There seems to be much lack of prayer. 
 Family worship is the exception, and by no 
 means the rule in Christian families. A promi- 
 nent Presbyterian preacher, well known in Ken- 
 tucky, had been spending a Sabbath in a village 
 of two thousand inhabitants, where churches 
 are abundant, and the elder, by whom he was 
 entertained, expressed the belief that his family 
 was the only one in the town which kept up a 
 family altar. This was probably a mistake ; yet 
 it is the belief of intelligent preachers, who have
 
 94 BEREA COLLEGE, KY. 
 
 traveled extensively in the State, that very few 
 Christian families maintain family worship. 
 
 Thus far no wave of sorrow for the sin of 
 slavery has spread over the churches, as there 
 surely will, when God pours upon his people, in 
 mighty torrents, " a spirit of grace and supplica- 
 tions ; and they shall look on Ilim whom they 
 have pierced." 
 
 THE KU-KLUX 
 
 Have never paid us a visit. Many rumors of 
 their hostile intentions have reached us, and ru- 
 mors that our College buildings and some of our 
 private houses had been burned, have spread 
 through the country ; but, from what we knew 
 of their operations near us, we did not apprehend 
 anj^ disturbance from them. For a year or two, 
 about 1870 and later, the country was completely 
 under their control. There was no protection 
 for anybody against whom their violence was 
 directed. One night they took possession of 
 Richmond, to the number, as was said, of a hun- 
 dred and fifty or more, took a man from the 
 jail, who had given himself up to the authorities 
 and was awaiting trial, and hung him in the 
 Court House yard; and pinned an order upon 
 his back, directing that he should hang there 
 till four P. M. the next day ; and there he hung.
 
 THE KU-KLUX. 95 
 
 in a village of fifteen hundred inhabitants, where 
 hundreds were passing every hour, till the time 
 appointed, no authority venturing to interfere. 
 It was said that the man was a desperado, and 
 had killed several persons, and deserved to be 
 hung. It may have been so, but it is claimed 
 by others that he had acted in self-defense. The 
 best place to ascertain those facts was in the 
 Court House, by the appointed authorities, and 
 not at midnight, by a band of lawless ruffians. 
 
 One night they took two negroes from the 
 jail, whipped one and hung the other, and ordered 
 that he should hang till eleven A. M., and then 
 be buried on a certain farm near Silver Creek, 
 and the order was obeyed. 
 
 They hung a man one Saturday night within 
 three miles of Berea. It was rumored that he 
 bad participated in a murder during the war, 
 but there was never an investigation. 
 
 To record all the accounts that have reached 
 us of their lawless violence would fill a book. 
 Their object was not robbery, as some have sup- 
 posed; nor, in this region, did it seem to be po- 
 litical; nor was their attention directed espe- 
 cially against the colored people. They had old 
 grudges to avenge, and new misdemeanors to 
 regulate; and it appeared as if many prominent 
 men preferred that method of keeping things in
 
 96 BEREA COLLEGE, KY. 
 
 order. The negroes were constantly in alarm, 
 and white Republicans nearly as much so, for it 
 was understood that neither of those parties was 
 represented in the bands. 
 
 These organizations seem to have disbanded 
 two or three years ago, soon after a large num- 
 ber of them had been arrested by United States 
 authority. Much opposition was made to this 
 interference of the General Grovernment, as was 
 to be expected; but the General Government 
 never performed a more humane or timely deed. 
 The whole State was under the control of the 
 Ku-Klux for years, very many murders were 
 committed, and innumerable deeds of violence; 
 and in some places they are the terror of the 
 people still ; yet if a single member of the Klan 
 was ever punished by the State authorities, it has 
 not come to our knowledge. This is not to be 
 charged altogether to the indifference or collu- 
 sion of State officers. If they were ever so much 
 disposed to punish them, it would be very diffi- 
 cult. They are so numerous and have so many 
 sympathizers that no man likes to expose him- 
 self to their wrath by exposing them. 
 
 ANNOYANCES. 
 
 Those very common annoyances of tramps 
 and burglars we are entirely exempt from; being
 
 ANNOYANCES. 97 
 
 too poor to present a temptation, or too remote 
 from the railroad for their convenience. Our 
 beggars we soon become acquainted with, and 
 have seldom a new case to investigate. Petty 
 pilfering exists to some extent, but is by no 
 means common. President Fairchild declares 
 that for two or three months, while he was build- 
 ing, his furniture was so exposed that many 
 things might easily have been taken ; that they 
 seldom lock their house when all the family 
 leave it, which is commonly several times a week; 
 that their barn is always open ; that tools are ex- 
 posed all over the premises; that their garden is 
 accessible from various directions, and much of 
 it is invisible from the house ; yet in six years 
 not the smallest article has been missed. 
 
 The most serious annoyance of Berea is the 
 riding through the streets of intoxicated men, 
 shouting and occasionally firing their pistols, 
 not careful where the balls may strike. This 
 has greatly diminished, and is chiefly confined 
 to seasons of fairs and exciting elections. 
 
 The disposition to injure Berea seems to have 
 passed away. For several years the inhabitants 
 have felt as safe as the inhabitants of most 
 Northern villages. If we have more armed 
 rowdies, we have less robbers and burglars 
 There is great respect for women in Kentuckj;.
 
 98 BEREA COLLEGE, KT. 
 
 There is probably no place where they are more 
 safe. 
 
 It is exceedingly wonderful, and according to 
 human calculations unaccountable, that during 
 all these years of opposition to Berea and her 
 people, not a hair of any head of any one of 
 them has perished. Any good people, who would 
 like a pleasant Southern home, with unlimited 
 opportunities for usefulness and superior educa- 
 tional advantages, would be foolish to avoid 
 Berea from fear of violence. 
 
 OSTRACISM. 
 
 It is the common lot of most teachers of col- 
 ored schools, and, to some extent, of business 
 men from the North, to be isolated and deprived 
 of all, or nearly all white society. It is not so 
 here. While many people undoubtedly have no 
 desire to cultivate our acquaintance, we have 
 right about us more white Kentucky friends of 
 excellent character, who invite us to their houses, 
 than we have time to visit as we desire. Some 
 of the principal families in Richmond exchange 
 visits with us, and some in Lexington, and some 
 in Louisville, and so in many places through the 
 Blue Grass region we are welcomed, and almost 
 everywhere in the mountains. 
 
 Our business relations with Kentucky people
 
 REGULATIONS. 99 
 
 are as agreeable as could be desired. Our pat- 
 ronage is sought, and credit is offered us to suit 
 our convenience. Banks accommodate us cheer- 
 fully and bountifully, with no other security 
 than our signatures. Of course we pay, or our 
 credit would fail very soon. We have no reason 
 to think that our credit is in the least affected 
 by the fact that most of us are Northern men. 
 
 The reputation of the College as a school is 
 also good. It is perfectly common to hear it 
 called the best school in the State. Of course 
 all such compliments are received with much 
 allowance for carelessness of language, and want 
 of information in regard to the schools of the 
 State; just as when a horse is said to be the best 
 in the county, when three-fourths of the good 
 horses in the county have never been seen. But 
 though as compliments, such expressions will 
 hardly bear criticism; as indications of feeling 
 they are significant. 
 
 REGULATIONS. 
 
 A little book of rules is given to every student 
 on entering the school. It is unnecessary to give 
 quotations from these rules, but a few general 
 statements may be desirable. 
 
 Applicants for admission to the school must 
 bring certificates of good moral character, and
 
 100 BEREA COLLEGE, KY. 
 
 students must maintain such a character, not 
 only while in school, but during their absence in 
 vacation. They are required to abstain entirely 
 from the use of intoxicating drinks, and are not 
 allowed to use tobacco in or about' the College 
 buildings or premises, or in other public places. 
 They are advised to give up tobacco entirely, 
 and the most of them do. They are also pro- 
 hibited from frequenting all places of public re- 
 sort, or absenting themselves from any school 
 duties, or leaving town without permission ; and 
 young men are required to be in their own rooms 
 after ten o'clock at night, and young ladies after 
 half past seven, during the fall and winter, and 
 eight during the spring term. 
 
 No secret societies are allowed in the Institu- 
 tion, and students are not allowed to have any 
 active connection with such societies while in 
 attendance at the school. 
 
 The religious exercises upon which students 
 are required to attend are one preaching service 
 and a Bible class upon the Sabbath, a religious 
 lecture or sermon on Tuesday, and a Bible class 
 on Thursday, and daily prayers, in the morning 
 at their boarding places, and in the evening at 
 the chapel. At all these exercises there is al- 
 most perfect punctuality, and there are no indi- 
 cations that t?iey are felt to be burdensome.
 
 REGULATIONS. 101 
 
 The uniting of the two sexes in the same 
 school is an innovation in Kentucky, and the 
 regulations pertaining to their social intercourse 
 are among the most important. They recite in 
 the same classes when pursuing the same studies, 
 and attend the same religious exercises and scien- 
 tific lectures, but do not belong to the same lit- 
 erary societies, nor do they visit each other's 
 societies except on public occasions. They must 
 not attend each other to and from religious 
 meetings; but may, with special permission, at 
 the regular monthly scientific lectures, and other 
 occasional public literary exercises. They take 
 their meals in the same dining hall and at the 
 same tables, but room in separate buildings, 
 about sixty rods apart, and concealed from each 
 other by a grove of forest trees. They must 
 never call at each other's rooms, except by special 
 permission in case of sickness, on pain of ex- 
 pulsion. Young men, at certain designated 
 hours, may, with special permission, meet young 
 ladies at the public parlors ; general social gath- 
 erings are occasionally permitted; and some- 
 times parties are allowed, with proper supervis- 
 ion, to ride to the mountains ; but single couples 
 are never permitted to ride or walk by them- 
 selves. It is our conviction, after much experi- 
 ence and much investigation, that in a well-
 
 102 BEREA COLLEGE, KY. 
 
 managed school such a union of the sexes as is 
 here described is profitable to both parties, and 
 adds much to the interest and refining influences 
 of all social and religious meetings. The young 
 men have prayer-meetings by themselves, as do 
 the ladies also, and they have a weekly young 
 peoj)le's prayer-meeting in which both unite. 
 The a priori theories, which many hold in op- 
 position to the coeducation of the sexes, are gen- 
 erally dispelled by a little of the proper kind of 
 experience. 
 
 EXPEN'SES. 
 
 It is the desire of the Trustees to bring the 
 advantages of the school, as far as possible, 
 within the reach of all. The charges for room 
 rent, fuel, and incidentals, are barely sufficient 
 to pay expenses and keep the buildings in re- 
 pair. The highest tuition is ten dollars and a 
 half a year, and provision has been made for 
 free tuition to a large number of the needy ; and 
 the probability is that on receiving a sufficient 
 endowment all tuition, except in instrumental 
 music, will be free. Vocal music is now free. 
 Board is nine dollars a month, barely sufficient, 
 with a large number of boarders, to pay the 
 cost. A young lady is furnished with board, a 
 furnished room, fuel, lights and tuition for one 
 hundred dollars a year. This must be paid
 
 DONORS. 103 
 
 quarterly in advance. When paid monthly in 
 advance the expense is a trifle more. The 
 Bpecial arrangement of one hundred dollars a 
 year has not been extended to young men. 
 
 In thus reducing expenses we have not been 
 unmindful of the truth that that which cost 
 nothing is generally esteemed to be worth noth- 
 ing. The price of board alone at the lowest 
 possible rate is entirely beyond the reach of the 
 most of those who would be glad to patronize 
 this school. One hundred dollars a year to the 
 average of our patrons is more than a thousand 
 dollars to the average of those who send their 
 eons and daughters through college. We find 
 it necessary not only to make expenses as low as 
 possible, but to furnish all possible opportunities 
 for students to defray a portion of their expenses 
 by means of manual labor. Some defray half, 
 and some more than half, in this way. Con- 
 tributions to enable promising youth to attend 
 the school, who would otherwise be unable, have 
 been among those most gratefully received. 
 
 DONORS. 
 
 There is a class of men, and women too, of 
 whom we can not speak as we feel, without 
 ofi'ense to them. We are grateful to them every 
 day and cherish their names in our hearts, and
 
 104 BEREA COLLEGE, KY. 
 
 feel like giving them here. But they do not 
 sound a trumpet before them when they give 
 alms, nor do they wish others to do it for them. 
 They are our fellow-workers in this labor of love, 
 no less essential to it than those on the ground; 
 and evince equal faith and interest in it as the 
 work of God. Their motives are not appreciated 
 by a portion of the Southern people. A South 
 Carolina editor, after having been kindly enter- 
 tained, and led through the principal buildings, 
 and shown all that he wished to see, gave, in his 
 paper, a full and flattering account of the school 
 and the buildings, expressing his opposition, of 
 course, to the coeducation of the races, and then 
 pronounced the whole "the work of ITorthern 
 spite." We hope that he, and some others like 
 him, may live to appreciate a class of men whose 
 all-controlling motives are entirely above their 
 conception. Many good men regard it as a work 
 of real but mistaken benevolence. A few look 
 upon it as a wonderful work of Grod, and the 
 number of such is constantly increasing. A few 
 only have sufficiently identified themselves with 
 the work to feel it a privilege to contribute to it. 
 Probably, outside of Berea, the State of Ken- 
 tucky has not contributed over twenty-five hun- 
 dred dollars to this school. About two thousand 
 of this came from Louisville. We have reason
 
 PRESENT WANTS. 105 
 
 to hope for larger contributions from the same 
 source before many months. Among the most 
 liberal contributors to this College, we may 
 properly name two, who have gone to their re- 
 ward, Gerrit Smith and John P. Williston. The 
 former had recently given about six thousand 
 dollars, and the latter had continued his con- 
 tributions for many years. 
 
 PRESENT WA:N^TS. 
 
 Next to provision for current expenses, the 
 first pecuniary want of Berea College is relief 
 from debt, which, though not hazardous, is con- 
 stantly embarrassing. We greatly need a new 
 chapel ; the present is very uncomfortable in 
 winter, and not suitable for such a school. Five 
 thousand dollars, in addition to a fund already 
 on hand for that purpose, would furnish as good 
 a chapel as we need. We also need two addi- 
 tional school-rooms, which would cost about 
 fifteen hundred dollars each. This would make 
 us comfortable for several years. Other build- 
 ings will be needed by and by, when Kentucky 
 IS ready to build them. 
 
 Our library, of two thousand excellent vol- 
 umes, which are much used, needs increasing. 
 Our cabinets of natural history and mineralogy
 
 106 BEREA COLLEGE, KY. 
 
 are still small, and our chemical and philosophical 
 apparatus very meager. 
 
 By vote of the Trustees a special effort will 
 immediately be entered upon to increase our en- 
 dowment. This should not be less than two 
 hundred thousand dollars. It is now thirty-four 
 thousand. But little effort has been made in 
 this direction. We have encouragement from 
 various friends that an appeal to them will not 
 be in vain. To the honor of Christianity, and 
 for the encouragement of those who may follow 
 us, we wish to bear testimony that our efforts in 
 raising money have brought us into contact with 
 many such glorious, warm-hearted men of wealth 
 as we did not suppose the world contained. 
 "While we have met numerous striking illustra- 
 tions of the saying, "It is easier for a camel to 
 go through a needle's eye than for a rich man 
 to enter the kingdom of heaven," we have found 
 not a few rich men to whom the gates are wide 
 open. They have "made to themselves friends 
 of the mammon of unrighteousness, who shall 
 receive them to everlasting habitations." 
 
 Another want of Berea is good Christian in- 
 habitants to surround the school with an atmos- 
 phere of intelligence and Christian love. If 
 there is any place where a life of energy, purity, 
 meekness, love, faith and patience will redound
 
 AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION. 107 
 
 to the glory of God and the salvation of men, it 
 is here. Farmers, mechanics, fruit-growers, 
 dairy-men, if you desire to find a mild climate 
 and a pleasant home, but especially to do good, 
 come and see us. 
 
 Our last, and first, and greatest want, com- 
 pared with which all others dwindle to insignifi- 
 cance, is the blessing of God. Without this we 
 want nothing else, we ask nothing, we can do 
 nothing, we can hope for nothing. If He had 
 not been on our side in many dangers and 
 straits, we should have failed. If He go not 
 with us still, we shall still fail. Reader, please 
 pray for us. 
 
 AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION. 
 
 We can not, without injustice to ourselves and 
 friends, close this narrative without paying our 
 tribute of gratitude to that association, which, 
 almost from the beginning of Mr. Fee's labors 
 in the State, has given its constant support to 
 this work. Though it never exercised any con- 
 trol over Berea College, and can not, with pro- 
 priety, be said to have founded it; yet, but for 
 its pecuniary aid, and its perennial stream of 
 encouragement, counsel, sympathy and cheer in 
 all the days and years of darkness, danger, doubt 
 and fear, who can say that the College would
 
 108 BEREA COLLEGE, KY. 
 
 ever have existed? or that this mission could 
 have been continued? 
 
 And, havina: sustained this intimate relation 
 to the American Missionary Association for so 
 many years, we wish to bear our unqualified tes- 
 timony to the wisdom, the fidelity, the energy 
 and the economy with which it has prosecuted 
 its Southern work. It was in this field with the 
 gospel of freedom when all other organizations 
 working here succumbed to slavery ; it met the 
 first contrabrands with schools and the gospel at 
 the opening of the war; and it has been the 
 principal agency by which the Southern work, 
 the most important of this generation, has been 
 carried on to the present time. We wish its 
 patronage were multiplied many fold. Our es- 
 teem and reverence for that society partake 
 much of the afifection of children for parents, 
 yet we believe we can speak of its work with 
 intelligent impartiality.
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 AA 000 260 957 6