The Colorado statesman., 1915-04-17
AFRO-AMER|CAN CU[L|NCS

There died in Montgomery a short
Line ago a Scotchman who did a
E"ble work in the education of the
Negro race in Alabama, and his pass
Ing has made a vacancy that will not
DE easy to fill. His name was w. B.
Paterson; his fame was purely local,
Tor he did not make the big noise, and
because he was white man conduct
ing Negro school he did not get the
notoriety that has been such factor
IN the upbuilding of the noted Negro
educators of the South.
Professor Paterson drifted in Ala
bama about 1870, looking for work. He
was homeless and friendless, afflicted
with an incurable deafness that made
social intercourse an impossibility
with him. He had tramped from New
York to Omaha and then back East
looking for work, but could find none.
BY trade he was a gardener His
forebears before him had been gar
deners on the estate of a Scotch
Laird Albemarle. or some such name.
and he had learned their trade. He
got job at Marion. on a plantation.
digging bitches and doing ordinary
farm work along with the Negroes,
and this proximity taught him the
exact condition of the Negroes intel
ligence and educational advancement.
Out of it came a Negro school that
grew until it became a state normal
with large patronage. The planta-
30 IL
a fancy to him and helped him on
with the first school, and with this en-
enlargement he built up an establish
ment that was too large for Marion.
The Scotch gardener had his eye on
the state capital, and he made his
plans to move his school there.
When it became known in Mont
gomery that a white man was going
to move a Negro school to that city,
a mass meeting of the citizens was
held and speeches were made, as Pro-
fessor Paterson often afterward said
they almost tarred and feathered
him" This latter was in figurative
sense only. Nothing daunted, the
schoolmaster moved his school to
Montgomery, and went quietly about
his business He conducted an order,
ly institution; he taught the Negroes
domestic science. manual training
trades, the dignity of labor, the value
of keeping in the place the white
people of the South said the Negro
must keep. There was no social equal
ity of the races there, and never in
the more than forty years of the life
of the school under Professor Pater
son was there so much as an intima
ton that he taught such or practiced
it. The Negroes had great and grave
reverence for him, that was almost
patriarchal in it's simplicity.
Montgomery quieted down after the
school was settled, and in few years
began to look upon it as an asset and
on Professor Paterson as a public
benefactor. Year by year he increased
the membership of his school, and in
order to make it self-sustaining and to
make it possible for the students to
pay their way through, he placed them
In the homes of Montgomery as serv'
ants, fixing the school hours so that
they could do their domestic work
and carry on their studies too. His
training made itself felt for the serv'
ants in Montgomery. and they were
in demand. Montgomery is now full
of them, and they all command high
wages because they can earn them
That in itself is tribute enough for
the school and for the memory of this
good man.
OF the thousands that went through
this school, some were found to pos
Christ church. Providence, was the
fret effort of the late Rev DR. Crum