State

Old Yadkin College Only one* old building is leff standing, but during that ora following I ho Hair Kotwoon t lie* Sfaifos. Yadkin was one of the Slate's outstanding «‘durational institutions. ERE lies Yadkin C *olloKe. Rut no mere epitaph will dis- |K»se of tin* history of this once important . . I; not so long a> there stands on tin* hill overlooking tin* town of Lexington ini old stone building, erected in 1S55. This structure re- inains ns :i silent witness to the first efforts of the Methodist 1‘rotestnnt Church to establish a school in this State. The town of Yadkin College, surely something of a ghost town, lies in one of those innumerable licnds of the Yadkin River, about ten miles west of b*xington, in Davidson County. Once a village of more than a hundred houses, today it has only one store, several dwelling houses, and a post olliee which the federal government would have closed long ago had it not been for the vigilance of the district's representative in Congress. The town lias lost its college, its prominent citizens, its many stores, its three tobacco factories. The old college building still the focal point for visitors and tradition is the most important tiling in the area, and i< visited yearly by thousands of people. The lack of a railroad and the By IIAItltY Z. TUCKER drift of population to industrial ren¬ ters just about ruined the town of Yadkin College; but death was never exactly apparent until the town was denied a place on one of the State s main highways. It was then that Yadkin College died hard. Rut no ono ran say that Yadkin College existed in vain. It received support not only from the thrifty people who lived ill that section of the State, but from other sections of North Carolina as well. Among its graduates an- numbered some of the outstanding citizens of North Caro¬ lina. There are many hundreds of people, living today, whose fathers or grandfathers obtained their «-du¬ ration at Old Yadkin. Yadkin College was chartered as a town ly the legislature of 1JS.*»5, and the usual interdiction concerning the manufacture and sale of intoxi- ealing liquors was made. The college records, if they have been kept, have long since I ecu buried in the arcbivc* of High Point College, a modern institution which developed from the initial eollegi* of the Methodist Protest a lit deiioniinat ion. Ill 1 S»;i there were eighty hoard¬ ing students besides those living ill the community. Out of the eighty 'indents, sixty volunteered for serv¬ ice in the Confederate Army. Then, for six years, there was no school. During the war tile college building was tued as a tobacco storage house. In IsTJ the Rev. Shadrack Simp¬ son was made president and the . . I Is-gan its years of best work. For ten years lie taught in the little stone building which still stands, and then a modern three-story structure was erected. This building wa- designed by Rent Icy Owen, and was built of hriek made in the «mniiiiuuity. Professor Simpson resigned for a professorship in Western Maryland College, another Methodist Protestant institution, and was succeeded by Pro¬ fessor Morgan, who was in charge until lie left for Japan as a mission¬ ary. From ISM* to I .Mis Professor Holmes had charge of the school, after which lie entered the pastorate. From I M*s to 1021 Yadkin College ( Conliiiiieil on /туе hvt nly-hco)