The Denver star., 1915-01-09
HISTORICAL BOOK
At WILBERF0RCE
Bears Names Of Eariy Denors.
to tho School
FOUNDRY MRS. ELIzATAYLoR

Rich Trophy Which Tells How the
Rev. Mansfield French Struggled to
Secure Educational Advantages For
the ceiered People 10 Valued Very
Highly by President Scarborough.
WilberfOrce, o. President W. S.
Scarborough Of Wilberforce university
has recently become the pleased reci-
pient OF the first subscription book
used in the interest Of Wherefore
university nearly sixty years ago. Its
preface reads. subscriptions to pur-
chase Tawawa Springs for an Ohio AZ
rican university" 1t was sent him by
Mrs. Eliza NJ. French Taylor Of South
Orange, n j.. the daughter of Rev.
Mansfield French. president of Xenia
Female college in the early fifties OF
the last century. Mrs. Taylor was also
teacher there. and her recollectiOns
of her father and the beginning Of the
work for Wilberforce are not only of
great interest. but of historical value.
to the school named after the famous
English philanthropist and aboiitionist
At that day. when many people
were much displeased at the presence
of the school," the most sanguine sup
porters of the project could not have
imagined the institution which has
reached such splendid proportions and
recently developed SO rapidly under
the judicious and vigorous administra-
ton of its present president. whose
five years Of management have placed
it in the forefront Of Negro schools.
These subscriptions go back to July.
1850. when Rev. Mr.. French set ont to
plead the cause Of Negro education.
The little school which Bishop Payne
some nine years before had been in
strumental in getting the A. NJ E.
church to establish for this purpose
near Columbus was showing already
the awakening OF the race to the same
end.
BY mere chance Tawawa Springs
was chosen for this school. The sum.
mer resort which had been established
Mt the old Sha awnee Indian springs. Ia
wawa-"Sweet Water'-had failed for
the want of sufficient attraction. 1t
was shut up with all the fine furnish
ingy xtlll ths.re when q chance ride by
the property with hi. ~ife caused Rev.
Mansfield French to cxclaim. what n
grand place for a school for colored
people!" an iden that could only have
entered the head of Birncy abolition
ist. As his daughter ssvs. the idea.
once formed. persisted. and he soon set
about its accomplishment"
The subscription book. with its well
worn binding and with the old paddock
upon Its edges still, speaks eloQuenhy
OF the effort put forth. Rev. Mr..
French travelled on his mission all
through the west of that day where
the Methodist church held conferences
and also through New York. Pennsyl-
vania and New England. The hun
ireds OF pages hold subscriptions from
2o cents to thousands of dollars. long
lists telling OF deep sympathy. self de-
NAL and great generosity"
Among those whose faith was backed
by generous gifts Chief Justice Chase's
name Is found. and again and again
that OF Lee Clafiin'' dots the pages
when needs must have pressed sorely,
with sums opposite from fifty to thou
sands OF d0llars-<1OOOO in all. Who
WAS he? No less personage than the
revcred father Of former Governor VIII
liam Claim OF Massachusetts. With
Mrs. Taylor. one can say, ut makes
my heart burn when see these lists"
Wilberfore has many friends.
1t II Que this flrst tireiess worker
Rev Mans6eld Erench-whose name
so frequently occurs in Bishop Payne's
diaries Of the period. to say that he
No. ne
project which was carried on under
the auspices OF the Methodist church
and to add that before his evident
purity Of motive. his ardent devotion.
sound reasoning and his appeal to the
most devout and human in every soul
: he saw hearts melt, pocketbooks emp
tied. tho victory Won"
Mansfield French worked for the
slaves and the freed men all through
the civil war. He took down to Port
Royal the first company Of teachers
from Boston. He was made 'superin-
tendent Of missions and marriage rela-
tions" BY the government He helped
to organize the flrst colored regiment
drew up the first draft Of the freed
mems bureau bill. was sent twenty
seven times to Washington with pri-
vate dispatches and WAS accorded i'm
mediate access to President Lincoln at
all times. General Clinton b. Fisk
said at his funeral in 1875 that Presi-
dent IAncoln told him that all the ad-
visers he had in the darkest days Of
the war he had none he valued more
than Mansfield French.
Gdwoaters Meet st Union University.
The ninth annual conference OF the
principals Of the high schools. acade-
mics and graded public schools Of vir-