Commencement At
A Country College
A time of celebration, inspiration and
socialization for everybody — 100
years ago at Yadkin Coltage.
№/
VIRGINIA G. H( K
To the people of rural northwest
Davidson County in the waning dec¬
ades of the 19th century, the annual
Yadkin College Commencement was a
peak event of the late spring.
They came from up and down the
Yadkin River, regardless of whether
they, or members of their families, had
ever attended classes at the college.
And they came dressed in their finest,
signifying the importance of the occa¬
sion.
Those who gathered on the grounds
were a wide mixture: preachers and
politicians, planters and merchants,
sharecroppers and freed slaves,
housewives and children. They came
across the river by one of three ferries,
or through the shallow valley road by
buggy, or even on foot.
To all. the commencement program
was a beacon that drew them for a little
while out of the plainness of everyday
life in the Reconstruction South.
a threefold appeal. It was part educa¬
tional. part political, part social. There
was always a prominent speaker who
gave what was billed as a literary
address. Also, there was student ora¬
tory. mixed with the hawking of re¬
freshments. a brass band, and box
suppers — all topped off bvan evening
of fellowship.
The college consisted of a single
two-story building constructed in 1855
of brick handmade by slaves on Henry
W'alser’s plantation. Except for the
year 188? when the college abandoned
dotted with flowering shrubs. Beyond
were fertile farmlands and a forest of
hickory trees.
After the college was established, it
announced in its catalog the merits of
the location:
A village presents fewer causes
of diversion from study, fewer
temptations to extravagance,
and. a thing which is of the
greatest importance, fewer
temptations to dissipation.
Yadkin College had five successful
years before the Civil War forced it to
close in 1861. However, by the I870’s
it was a flourishing degree-granting in¬
stitution. Some called it one of the
most outstanding in the state.
Commencement was Festive
For Davidson County citizens,
commencement at Yadkin College had
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The commencement onnouncemcnt tor 1876.
(courtesy The North Corolino Collection, Chopel
Hill)
Land and Cash
Yadkin College, founded by Henry
Walscr and the Methodist Protestant
Church, had opened its doors for the
first time in October of 1 856. The gov¬
erning body of the church, newly sepa¬
rated from the Methodist Episcopal
Church, had recognized the need for
higher education for prospective
ministers and for laymen as well and
had long discussed the establishment
of a college. With Walser’s offer of
land and cash, the intention became a
reality.
The church conference considered
Walscr's site, which was about nine
miles north of Lexington, an ideal one.
It was on the edge of a quiet commu¬
nity located where the Yadkin River
makes a deep westward bend. There
were a few commercial establish¬
ments. but mostly the area consisted of
aeluster of spacious, two-story homes
surrounded by lawns and terraces
Photogroph of the 1 856 Yodkin College Building, still owned by the Greene fomily which uied it os
о
toboceo
factory offer 1881. Beneath the itucco ore brick» hondmode by the stores of Henry Wolser, whose donation
of lond and building fundi mode the college possible, (photo by Do»id W. Fick)
THE STATE, JUNC 1984
11
