The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-04-05


a s,. period ,s of ] s'sr,@ ing
,reasing returns. I refer to TINS
period especially its story
in documentary form mas rs
.ent2v been told by Mr.. Charles -.
coon. of Wilson. and puollsheo ~
the North Carolina Hlstorlcal ON
mission The enthusiasm for schoois'
uhiIa Great TO-DAY, still exceeds the
WILLINGNESS of the public to pay the
price. but. during the period referred
to above. there was no pubilc enthu-
sj3sn for education, and niue VII
incness anywhere on the part OF the
public to pay the price. Inc nrSt IA
TimatiOn of any great aW Watching oa'hs
when the Federal government turned
over to the State its part of the FUNDS
Withdrawn from the Federal treasury.
Mr.. Coon. in collecting TINS inIor-
nation. has done the state a Sreal
service. No man a controNert II,
We max wish to tell to the world a
better story. We may be touched
and orr pride wounded when we read
that as late as 1885 it cost p~ractcally
as much money to enact the laws
as ii did to execute them. Educa-
ton and internal improvements came
before the Legislature. and our IN
tereSt is excited, but we lose hearl
in the next chapter when we read n a
the public treasury was SO closely
guarded that not a dollar could be
enticed away except to pay the cost
of the legislature to pass laws that
carried the least Appropriation. But
let me add here hat North Carolina
was not alone in this respect; for not
a single State in the Union at that
time. really believed in public edu-
cation as We know it today.
Mr.. Coon has gone to original
sources, to newspaper files. and to I'M
published proceedings OF the General
Assembly. Much Of the material
herein brought together has never be-
fore been published, or if published
has remained inaccessible to all but
d few. Whenever a bill was pre-
scented looking to public education,
whether in a local or a general way:
MI. Coon has traced it to its final
resting place, and the documents are
presented as they were written. mis-
takes and all
There were always to be found in
the State men who believed in public
education and in internal improve
ments. This is quite evident as in
the case of James Wainwright, who
in his Will in 1744, promised that the
yearly rents and profits of all the
town land and houses in Beaufort
Town, belonging unto me with the
other lam adjoining thereto shall
be applied for the encouragement
OF a sober, decent qualified man to
teach a school," several years later,
IN 1895, James Innis, of Cape Fear,
left a large part of his estate For the
Use of a Free School for the benefit
of the youth" in New Hanver county.
Rev. John Alexander. in 1895, pro-
Nded in his Will hat in case his
daughters should die withou heirs,
n = q p ajp i rnrnrt ic 70 No
wholly converted to educating the
poor children within the counties Of
Hereford and BERTHE"
Next we find towns or favored
communities asking the State for as
~s1stance, as in the case of Warrenton
academy in 1898, and New Bern
Academy in 1901. In the former in
stance the school house was dilapi-
dated, in he latter it was burnt: but
IN each case the petition was denied
on The grounds that 1t would be i'm
proper to grant their prayers
The next move was for the purpose
on encouraging the establishment of
academies The first plan, in 1902,
called for a central military academy;
.he next, in 1903, s~eminaries of learn
ing IN each district in this State;
ana he third, in the same year. for
me establishment of an academy in
each county in his State, 10 be called
the Academy Of Sciences of the coun-
~ OF ........' but each met the
hSual fate-"read the second time INC
rejected In 1922 attempts were
made without success to have certain
taxes raised on the sale of auctions
applied to the needs of seminaries
IN the community.
from this period until the estab-
.islInent of a public school system
IN 1870. there could be found here
anu there, q man, OR a group of
men, who were always active. Some
tlmes he was an editor, a school
teacher, a lawyer, a farmer and some
lines a group Of public men. Mr..
loon gives their u~tterances whether
round IN newspapers. old
OF legislative files. The governor as