Women of distinction/Chapter 22

CHAPTER XXII.

SCOTIA SEMINARY.

(CONCORD, N. C.).

This school is under the control of the Board for Freedmen of Northern Presbyterian Church. It is the outgrowth of a parochial school established by Rev. Luke Borland and his wife, in 1865 or 1866, who deserve great credit for the zeal and perseverance with which they clung to their work through trying times. In 1870 the school was incorporated by the State as a seminary' under its present name, having that year twelve boarding pupils in a little plank house 16x24 feet. In 1876 it sent out its first graduating class of nine members. During the same year the first brick building was erected. At present the accommodations consist of "Scotia" and "Faith Hall," both four-story brick buildings, containing chapel, class-rooms, dormitories for teachers and about 275 students (these buildings are heated with steam and are lighted by electricity). Music Hall for the department of music, and the church building used by the students and the congregation.

The property is valued at $60,000. Scotia is exclusively for girls and aims to combine, in the most effective way, industry with the culture of the mind and heart. It does not admit students of the lowest grades. Its work is in the two departments: (1) Grammar, (2) Normal and Scientific. From the beginning something like 2,500 persons have been enrolled, and about 300 have graduated from one or both courses of study. The number enrolled during the last year was 261, of whom 253 were boarders from ten different States. Rev. Dr. Dorland and wife remained in charge until the fall of 1886, when, on account of advancing years, they were relieved, having made their indelible impress upon the Church and the colored people.

Rev. Dr. D. J. Satterfield and wife took up the work where their predecessors had left off. The present faculty is composed of the president and principal (Dr. D. J. Satterfield and wife), with eleven lady teachers and two assistants.

While seeking to develop a high type of womanhood in its students Scotia has two special lines of work; (i). The training of teachers for our own schools. For this some technical instruction is given, but the main point of concentration is the preparatory and grammar departments, where the drill is made as thorough as possible. (2). Still more stress is laid upon the training of home-makers. The entire industrial system has this end in view—to prepare the student to be an ideal housekeeper; while the students also associate with the teachers, who are of high culture and refinement and piety, with the view to add to their culture of heart, without which the best housekeeper can never make an ideal home. It is in this way the friends of Scotia account for the fact that their graduates have not become conspicuous social leaders or in public life. As queens of the home many of them have done well. Many of the graduates of Scotia are the faithful wives of noted presidents and professors in many of our best colleges and universities.