The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1884-06-07
THE BANNER COUNTY.
How the People of Lenoir Make Their
Schools ProsperOUs---La La Grange Coll
ieSiate Institute.
spectM Correspondence Of The Guontcle.

Schools ProsperOEs---L Grange Coll
iegiate Institute.
Special Correspondence of The Chronicle.
LA GRANGE, \. c., May 31.-The peo-
pie are king. Long live the people And
when the people of any community take
problem in hand it is quickly solved :;
and the building of schools in Lenoir
county has proved it. In the good old
time the Weather class here, as else
where, was educated and cultivated, of
course; but in these better new times, when
there are fewer rich and fewer poor the
richer are moM broadly educated than
the rich used to be- and the children of the
educated and Of the uneducated alike
now work and grow in the self-sam
school rooms In these better new times,
too, the county has its own schools-com-
mon schools and High schOOls-whcre it
had neither before; and so many and so
fOurlshlng are they that LenOir claims to
be the foremost county IN the State IN ed
ucational work. And prime praise is due
to the awakened and progressive people.
For proof of this one need see nothing
else than the recent commencement eXer-
clses of the La Grange Collegiate Institute,
which We're held on Thursday and Friday.
All the people of the village, all the peo-
pie Of the surrounding country, and num-
bers of visitors from Wayne, Wilson and
Greene assembled (and it is their annual
custom) to show their appreciation of the
institution and their interest in the good
work it is doing. They make it great
holiday. They leave their daily work once
a year to celebrate the new labor of the
new time, and to congratulate one an
other on the advantages their children
have.
If every community in North Carolina
were as loyal to its teachers as these people,
what new additions of strength and power
our teachers would have
Yet Lenoir county and La Grange have
no peculiar advantages that other COM
munities do not have. The village itself
is not different from hundreds of other
quiet and pretty villages that have no
such schOOls-not different, at least ex-
cept III the enthusiasm of the people for
educational advancement. When the peO-
pie are III such humOr, good scholars are,
OF course, a necessary consequence.
For the last two or three years, there
fore, the graduating classes Of the Uni
yerslty have sent one or two of their best
men here to do the work. Mr.. James
Joyner, a grandson of the late Mr. Coun-
ell Wooten, of Lenoir, and nephew of the
present Mr. Council Wooten, with the
assistance of Mr.. Rouse, took hold on
suits outran eterybodys expectations.
Last year Mr.. H. Horace Williams, of the
University class of 49, assisted by Mr.
F. NJ. Skinner, Miss Addie NJ Kirkpat-
rick and Miss Louise NJ. Daniel, continued
and enlarged the work, and now it is a
permanently established institution which
has outgrown the largest hopes of its
founders During the last academic year
there were 125 pupils (male and female),
a large number of whom were bOarders.
The graduates of the Institute have taken
uncommonly high rank at our colleges
at the University and at Peace Institute
in particular Next year Mr. SINNERS
place in the faculty will be supplied by
Mr. B. F. White, of the class of '84 of the
University.
The Commencement exercises were not
a mere holiday show, but were so arranged
as to give evidence of the thoroughness
of the work. The report of the princi-
pal showed that a very large number of
pupils were required to spend another year
in the same classes.
Mr. Williams is as modest and as con-
scientious teacher as there is in North
Carolina. The specimen examination
papers printed in his catalogue are models.
the annual address, consisted of sym
postum, by four young ladies who read
their essayS-MisseS Sarah L. Etheridge.
Myrtle E. Pope, IS. Lillian NJ. Dillon and
Lille E. Rouse; and debate by Messrs.
Kirby E. Sutton and Fl. F. Murphy, rs.
Messrs. ]. r. Tingle and E. G. King. The
question was the practical and pertinent
ne-''Ought the General Government to
Aid Common School Education?" The
audience decided in favor of the debaters
on the negative.
Next week the famous Dayis High
School, which Captain Davis by rare
good management and by his excellent
corps of teachers and the good work they
do has built into a permanent and pros
porous military academy in four years,
has its closing exercises. Capt. Davis has
about one hundred cadets, from about ten
counties in this State, and from four other
States.
These two schools have brought to La
Grange this year nearly $50 boarding pu-
pills