State

The old b«idge on Highwoy 16 (v»eit of Charlotte) hoi been rcploecd, and people were ***|"*9 'here thot do». The fishing is not really very good in the lake. The village of Riverbend exists solely to serve the plant. The same families have been there for genera¬ tions. It is worthy of note that a Mr. George Craig, who was a plant su¬ perintendent. was the father of two lovely girls, one of whom married a state senator, and the other. Anne Craig Barnes, went on to be the chairman of the county commission¬ ers of her now home county of Orange, and is presently a state rep¬ resentative. Running up river. I saw what ap¬ peared to be the same black faces and the same cane poles of the catfish anglers of years ago. The fishing is not really very good, although it looks as though there should be a bass under every bush. Once in a while, somebody hangs a striper which has grown up in the river from a fingerling stocked by the wildlife folks. ,A good portion of the cast bank of the river is now a wildlife preserve for the protection of wa¬ terfowl. and nearby some of us have established Catawba Waterfowl, a lit¬ tle refuge where three hundred or more Canada geese come in each year. Nesting boxes keep some of the Canadas from migrating, and on occa¬ sion. there are fifty to sixty goslings which find their way from the refuge pond to the river and. I hope, help propagate this wonderful bird. It is not an unusual sight, and always lifts my heart, when I see fifty or sixty Canada geese flying over the metropolitan area of Charlotte. It has been se¬ venty-five years or more since there was any deei population in North Mecklenburg. In the past ten years, however, there has been such a prolif¬ eration along the river that deer cros¬ sing signs are on the roads, and an 10 open season had to be declared to thin the herd. One resident of Riverbend told me that he looked out his window last winter and saw seven deer stand¬ ing in his front yard. Truly, this jewel of a lake, nestled among some 500.000 North Carolin¬ ians. its crystal waters running be- On a spring day in I884. Miss Emily C. Prudden. a deaf, middle-aged. New England spinster, boarded a buggy in Gastonia, destined for the health re¬ sort at All Healing Springs. Despite her disability, the conservatively- dressed woman wasn't traveling there to be cured by the mineral waters which supposedly healed everything from scrufula to diabetes. She was riding toward an important business appointment with the hotel owners. This meeting with the Francis Gar¬ retts. concerning fifty acres they had offered for establishing a girl's school, reshaped Miss Prudden's life. Her hopes and plans of that day for begin¬ ning one school evolved into a thirty year career of founding fifteen schools in the Carolinas. including Pfeiffer College. When she appeared at their office, the Garrett's first impression of Miss Prudden was probably similar to that of Dr. J. W. Garson. a Gastonia minister, who described her: "A woman of impressive appearance, of fine Christian character, very deaf, but evidently a woman of executive ability and vision." ( Gastonia Gazette. June 1 8. 1 954) As the inter¬ view progressed, the resort owners would have agreed with Mary Wood¬ ruffs childhood memories of Miss Prudden being "a very dedicated per¬ son. very quiet because of her handi¬ cap. but with a radiant smile.” (Floyd. Life am! Work of Emily C. Prudden. p. 2) Her Own Money In addition to her favorable de¬ meanor. Miss Prudden possessed the most important factor for establishing tween the Marshall Nuclear Plant at the Lake Norman dam on the north, and the little dam below Mountain Is¬ land to the south, is the tic that binds between modem day and a half cen¬ tury ago when I first worked the river. P. S. Please don't come to investi¬ gate. I don’t really want to share it. a school, money. Her willingness to initially finance this institution and all her others was crucial to their suc¬ cess. Building materials, construc¬ tion. furniture, books and teacher’s salaries were within her annual in¬ come of roughly $500.00. (This amount seems impossibly small, but in 1 880 the average non-farm worker's yearly earnings were $386. (Ю from which he provided for a family of 5.) t Historical Statistics, of U.S.. I975. p. I65.) Although she could afford the first year's expenses, she assured money for their future by pre-arranging ben¬ efactors for each school. Individuals or organizations, such as the Ameri¬ can Missionary Association, agreed to contribute to and to assume full re¬ sponsibility of her mission schools after several years. Judge Jones of Minneapolis. Minnesota, was the donor to Jones Seminary, later called l.inwood College, which was built on the Garrett’s land. After Miss Prudden left their hotel, the Garretts probably wondered why this lady had exchanged a secure, re¬ spected position in New England fora strenuous life in rural North Carolina. If it had been I983 instead of I884. Miss Prudden's late-blooming career would have been better understood. Now she would be viewed as one of many middle-aged women who fulfill themselves by professions after the demands of family decrease. Miss Prudden's hopes for "entering ways of large endeavor” were pushed aside by deafness as a teenager. A few years later the responsibility of caring for her sister's orphans replaced any THE STATE. Манси 19в« An Invincible Schoolmarm The little-kn€>wn story of .Miss Emily Prudden. ulio formed fifteen institu¬ tions in the Carolinas. tty CllltlSTIXE L. THOMSON