Meredith College
It has had a most interesting career under
the leadership of some of the greatest eiln-
cators the State ever has produced.
THOMAS MEREDITH was the
father of the Baptist educational
work in Carolina, and it is there¬
fore but fitting that my subject bear
bis honored name. But the education
of Baptist womanhood originated in
another brain. Charles D. Mclvcr said
that when you educate a man you edu¬
cate an individual, but that when you
educate a woman you educate an en¬
tire family, which, to my mind, is
the greatest idea ever conceived in the
brain of a Carolinian.
Some such idea must have lurked
in the brain of Col. L. L. Polk, a man
little heard of today but who was in
his generation a tower of strength ns
a far-sighted social, industrial, politi¬
cal and educational lender. He was a
most remarkable man. He was a Lieu¬
tenant in the Civil War. serving in the
famous regiment in which Vance was
Colonel ; the regiment which sustained
the largest loss of any in either the
Union or Confederate armies, losing
more than eighty-eight per cent of its
strength in the one battle of Gettys¬
burg. Polk, though wounded, lived
through it and came out of the army
with one idea, which he followed
through life with all the devotion that
inflamed the soul of Sir Galahad when
he sought the Holy Grail — the amelio¬
ration of the sad plight of the South¬
ern farmer. He succeeded in securing
the establishment of a Department of
Agriculture and became its first Com¬
missioner; he founded the Progressive
Farmer, and was for many years its
By R. C. LAWRENCE
editor; he organized the Farmers Al¬
liance. and rapidly rose to become Na¬
tional President of that great order.
Being unable to secure from the
Democratic party the reforms he de¬
manded, he was one of the lenders in
the movement which established the
Populist party, and he would un¬
doubtedly have been its first Presi¬
dential nominee if be bad lived until
its national convention met.
These works, however, but repre¬
sent his contribution to time. His
greatest work was done for eternitv,
for bis was a potent voice in the estab¬
lishment of State College, an institu¬
tion founded when Polk held the reins
of political power, which he earnestly
advocated and which could not have
been established without his consent.
He was also a Baptist and so promi¬
nent in the councils of his church that
he was elected as the President of its
State Convention. While so servine he
sponsored a resolution appointing a
committee to consider the establish¬
ment of a Baptist College for women,
and he became the chairman of that
committee, filing n report favoring the
establishment of such an institution.
He died before the seed planted by
him bore any fruit, but here was the
genesis of the movement.
In 1S91 a charter was secured from
the General Assembly under the im¬
posing title Baptist Female Univer¬
sity, and an institution which exist¬
ed but on paper came into existence.
O. L. Stringfield, country pastor and
academy head, was selected as the
financial agent for the infant institu¬
tion, and be led the movement much as
Moses led the children of Israel: for
from the mountains to the sen bis pa¬
tient but persistent voice was heard
ploadine the cause to which he was
committed. He was as persistent in his
efforts ns was the patriarch Jacob
when he wrestled with the angel, not
losing him until he had the coveted
promise. And Stringfield would allow
no one to escape him without at least
some gift; if not in money, then “in
kind.” On a portion of a citv block,
within a block of the State Capitol, the
institution was finally located, a build¬
ing erected and .1. C. Blnsingame was
called to the Presidential chair.
With Stringfield should be named
the great Baptist layman. Wesley N.
•Tones, brother-in-law of United States
Senator Bailey, for to no one is Mere¬
dith indebted more than to him. From
it« inception to his death he served ns
chairman of its Board of Trustees.
With him his church was his true vo¬
cation; the practice of law but a
means of livelihood, and lie gave to the
Baptist educational work, and to the
First Baptist Church, his “last full
measure of devotion.” For many years
he was
я
member of the Board of
(Conlinued on page twenty-seven)
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