Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1912-11-09


About this time he msrried Janet
Woodrow, daughter of the Presbyter-
Ian minister at Chillicothe, Ohio She
has been described as remarkably
pretty and charming woman. She
was born in Carlisle, England, but
her father came TO America when she
was but few years old.
4 Woodrow Wilson was born in Staun-
ton, Virginia, IN 1856. II was during
Christmas week and the cheer of that
\ occasion has never left him He will
I be the eightht occupant OF the White
/ House from the old dominion.
About two years after Woodrow
I Wilson's birth his father accepted a
/ call TO the pastorate Of the Presby-
! terrain church OF Augusta, Georgia.
/ This was at that time one Of the most
influential congregations in the South
4 and the elder Wilson remained as its
pastor throughout the Civil War. He
/ was recognized as one Of the leading
/ divines OF the South.
4 Woodrow was only FIVE years old
7
/ Ia was not the scene OF actual con-
I aict the boy knew little about what
I was going on. He was also shielded
/ from the stormy passions and violent
I prejudices Of the war, and grew up
into manhood unwarped by sectional
( hate.
4 The elder Wilson did not force the
education of his son. He took him on
/ journeys about the city, visiting fac
tories and explaining to him how
! cloth is made fIe also read to him
by the hour. But the boy himself
did not learn to read until long after
{ the average children are supposed to
I read. This is rather remarkable
+ when one thinks Of the omniverous
/ appetite for books the President elect
has always had. But when he did
( learn to read he more than made up
for lost time He is, at present, one
I of the most widely read men in this
/ or any other country.
/ In the autumn of 1870 the Wilson's
moved to Columbia, S. c., and three
years later Woodrow, who was then
! seventeen, began his scholastic ca
reer at Dividson College, while this
institution was rather obscure as
compared with the great colleges Of
! the North, the elder Wilson deliberat-
/ ely selected Davidson as the starting
point for his sons college work, be-
cause of the superior character of its
faculty. Davidson is still flourishing
and is now well equipped but at the
( time Woodrow Wilson attend there
ii was rather primitive, The boys
took their own wood and brought
water from the old pump. About the
only record young Wilson seems to
have made at Davidson was the abil
ity to dress, cross the campus and
get into his seat at the chapel quick
er than any one else. He is said to
have accomplished the feat on sew
eral occasions before the chapel bell
stopped ringing.
He is rendered at Davidson as
pleasant hammered, engaging young
man who did not seem to very much
interested in out of door sports,
which at that time consisted of base
ball and shiny He lid play base
ball on the college nine for time
but his record perhaps would not ex-
cite the envy of Ty Cobb. There is
a tradition which has it that on one
occasion, the captain of the team be-
coming vexed over Wilson's listless
manner of play during a holly con-
tested game said: Wilson, you
would make a dandy player if you
were not 50 damned lazy
Wilson was at Davidson but one
year, The following year he remain
ed at home, the elder Wilson in the
meantime having moved to Whining
ton. This year he spent in prepare
ton for entrance into a northern uni
versity. and entertaining his younger
brother
In September, 1875, Woodrow Will
son entered freshman class at Prince
ton. There were 1873 soung men in
the class. Before the war Princeton
had been the most favored northern
college by the young men of the
south but after the war their num-
bers began to fall off and at the time
Woodrow Wilson enrolled but very
few of the students hailed from the
south of the Mason and Dixon line,
The next President is man who
instinctively balks at doing things
simply because they have been done
before. From his earliest youth he
has insisted upon his own personality
and individuality. At the time he
entered Princeton that institution was
Just one of the educational mills.
Young Wilson refused TO sit snugly in
the groove and be ground out.
He had not been at Princeton long
before he found out just what he
wanted to do And that thing was to
be a public man to devote his life to
the service of his country.
This determination came with a
thrill upon reading In an English
magazine a series of articles on the
British Parliament presenting the