The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-08-13
MISS SALLIE ANN JONES.
A Born Teacher Who WilIed Her Es-
tate to an Orphan Asylum.

L have your request to contribute a
sketch of some great North Carolina
teachers whom 1 have known. for pub
LEGATION in the educational edition of
your paper to be issued on the 18th
inst. In the attempt to comply with
your request, T. will as briefly as pos
sible, present your readers, one per-
haps unknown to fame and yet one,
who, if judged by her true and high
apprehension of the responsibility of
a teacher, her faithful and diligent
discharge of those responsibilities of
a teacher, her long and arduous SER
vice as an educator and her remark
able success in impreSSing those who
came under her influence with a prop
er appreciation of the value of moral
and intellectual culture, would, [
think, be deemed worthy a place by
the side of those who occupy the most
exalted positions in the Pantheon of
North Cardinals truest and worthiest
sons and daughters.
About siXty-five years ago, or to be
exact, 1888, Miss Sallie Ann Jones,
twenty years, opened a primary
school in an upper room of the resi-
dence of Miss Annie Evans of blessed
memory in the good old town of
Greenville. Her school soon out-grew
the capacity of that room and was re-
moved to the old Masonic Lodge,
thence on to the Greenville Academy,
whose halls had been honored by the
presence and services of such teach
ers as Fleetwood, Lovejoy, Henry
Dimmock, Judge E. j. Warren, DR..
c. j. O'Hagan, David r. Wallace, Mr..
James Murray and others.
4. For more than a quarter of a CEN
fury this primary school was an abid-
ing institution in that town, attract
ing by it's well earned reputation u
large patronage from Pitt and the ad-
joining counties, and few indeed were
the boys and girls of that section and
period who did not share it's advan-/
tages. 1t was strictly held to its ORR
ginal basis, never transgressing in it's
curriculum, the elementary branches
OF Engllsh-theSe were taught, how
ever, with precision and thorough
ness never eXcelled elsewhere.
Miss Jones was a lady of rare intel
ligence. Her mind had been deVel-
oped and cultivated by study and by
careful and judicious reading; she had
a genius for teaching and was devoted
to it as life work; she knew how to
excite and sustain in the minds of her
pupils, an interest in their studies, and
possessed to an eminent degree an
aptitude for imparting instruction:
she was thoroughly systematic in all
things, and proverbially prompt; and
best of all, scorned any refuge that
might serve as an excuse for an evas-
ion of duty. 1t follows from the
above, that the discipline in her
school must have been nearly perfect.
She won by her gentle and sympathet-
ic bearing towards her pupils their
confidence and esteem, and yet with
her uniform consciousness she was
memorable in the maintenance of dis
cipline; her rules were to be Obeyed.
Upon the table at which she sat laid
the insignia of authOrity-the dread
instrument of retribution-the stu
dious and Obedient regarding it with a
humorous complacency, while to- the
disobedient and DELINQUENT, it was an
object of terror. There are two ven
cradle and most estimable ladies liV-
ing to day in the good city of Raleigh,
one of whom can testify to the truth
of the above statement; the other, if
not from personal experience, can, as
an eye witness confirm the testimony
[ recall quite a number
to distinction in life, a few to en-
inence, and scores of her girls who
have graced the most polished circles
of society, from whose homes sons and
daughters nave gone forth, who
are today the benefactors and
ornaments of the communities
in which they live. 1t was
she who guided their youthful feet in
the paths of virtue and learning, and
it is through them, that the gracious
influence of her life is going out and on
in ever widening circles.
In the course of her useful career
she accumulated quite nice little es-
tate, which dying, she bequeathed to