The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1937-10-21
Prominent Local Attorney Also
Stresses Trend In Education
Today.

Today.
Editors note: The following ad-
dress was delivered by Attorney
w. B. Austin, of Jefferson, at the
annual Homecoming exercises of
the Appalachian State Teachers
College held in Boone recently.
Many local students and former
graduates who heard the address
were so impressed with it that they
requested The Skyland Post to
publish IT'D
MIR. Chairman, Fellow Alumni,
Ladies, and Gentlemen:
It must be with feeling of pride
and gratitude that we have as
sembled together this morning for
the purpose of celegrating our home
coming. am sure that no return
ing alumni could have failed to have
noted the phenomenal physical
growth which our Alma Mater has
made since we were students. Its
educational growth has been even
more marked. This growth is espec-
tally impressive to those Of us who
were students here fifteen years or
more ago. It was then that we
came here in small numbers on
horseback or in wagons over noun
tain trails at speed of three or
four miles per, hour in order that
we might attend high school. Many
of us came from counties which at
that time had no high school and it
was necessary for us to leave our
native counties in order to obtain
high school education. Prior to
that time educational advantages
had been limited only to the
wealthy, or to those who were finan-
cially able to attend private
schools, and to a few of the more
ambitious, whose will power was
such that the lack of opportunity
was not a encouragement. There
was no provision for the training
of teachers, and as result in our
section of the state there were
neither schools nor teachers. The
blind could not lead the blind.
Fortunately this county had two
young men who had no wealth but
who did have ambition, character,
and will power sufficient to enable
them to overcome the difficulties
and break down the barrier and
who did obtain an education, and
who had come hack home and
founded a school known then as
the Watauga Academy. 1t is need
less for me to refer to the name"
of these beloved brothers, They had
a dream that dream was
to give to the boys and girls of this
mountain section an opportunity to
develop the best there was in them
and to make out of life the great
est possible success. They realized
that the first essential need was
teachers; that the boys and girls of
this section could never be educat-
ed until they first had teachers.
They dreamed and planned togeth-
er, and while Professor, Dougherty
remained at home to carry on the
necessary work of the class room
and to plant roses where only
thorns formerly grew Professor
Blan slipped off down to Raleigh
and with the help Of Captain Low
ill, Governor Will NeWland, Clyde
Hoey and few other great leaders
induced the Legislature of North
Carolina to appropriate Fifteen
Hundred Dollars for the purpose Of
establishing in Boone training
school for the training of teachers
for these mountain counties, and in
1908 the Appalachian Training
School was established. This was
a beginning. The beginning of a
new era fer this section and for the
state Students came not only from
the mountains but from every sec
ton of the state and then from
other states. Buildings were built,
new courses of study were added,
and then came good roads, and with
the building of good roads the train
ing school as if by magic became a
normal and in 1929 became a col
lege. The town of Boone became
the city of Boone, building after
building had to be added for the
student body increased faster than
accommodations could be provided.
From a beginning of few hundred
dollars this educational plant has