Berry College: A History

TWO. Sharpening the Focus

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 [First Page] [14], (1) Lines: 0 to 5 ——— 0.0pt PgV ——— Normal Page * PgEnds: Ejec [14], (1) Martha Berry’s passion for educating the economically deprived youth of the rural South developed gradually from the late 1890s through her founding of Sunday schools, day schools, and, in 1902, a boarding school for boys. She established a board of trustees, incorporated the Boys Industrial School, and donated land she had inherited to the school. She established an appreciation for academics, religion, work, and simplicity. The institution awarded its first high-school diploma in 1904 and changed its name to the Berry School in 1908. chapter two Sharpening the Focus Early Sunday and Day Schools In 1904, Martha Berry related her initial contact with the children she would later teach: The poor people of the neighboring hills and piney woods had often appealed to my sympathy, but I had never thought seriously of their condition, or really tried to do anything for them, until one Sunday afternoon in the spring, about six years ago. On this particular Sunday afternoon, I was in a little cabin which I had fitted up as my “den,” enjoying, all alone, the freshness and delight of the spring beauty and blossoms by which I was surrounded. I suddenly became aware of three little faces peering in at me from the window. They were bright faces, and the unspoken longing that I saw in them caused me to throw aside my book, to go forward, and to speak to them. But they were very shy, these three little “poor white” children, and it was only by tempting them with apples that I could coax them to come into the cabin and talk to me. After I had gained their confidence, I remembered that it was Sunday, and I began to tell some Bible stories. They had never heard any of these stories before, and they listened with an almost pathetic eagerness. Their bright faces, their keen interest, and their need of knowledge so touched my heart that I told them to come back again the next Sunday, and to bring all brothers and sisters, and I would tell them more stories out of the Bible.1 In 1953, W. W. Phillips, one of those three boys, recalled a slightly different version of the story. He and two brothers, Tom and Albert Carter, were returning from their regular Sunday afternoon swim in the Oostanaula River when Martha and her two youngest sisters, Frances and Laura, called out for the boys to come over to where the women were standing under some trees in the Berry yard. The 14 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 [15], (2) Lines: 53 to 72 ——— 0.0pt PgVar ——— Normal Page PgEnds: TEX [15], (2) Martha Berry at the Original Cabin, c. 1902. Berrys asked the boys’ names, where they lived, and whethertheyattendedSundayschool.Aftertheboys indicatedthattheydidnot,theBerrysistersledthem to the log cabin and talked to them about the Bible and then asked them to come back the next Sunday and bring others. As Phillips recalled, seven or so children came the next week, and the number soon grew to eighteen and beyond. The log cabin where MarthaBerrymetthechildrenisnowcalledtheOriginalCabin ,andthateventmarksthebeginningofthe Berry Schools and Berry College.2 The gatherings soon grew to include more than thirty people, not just children but also fathers, mothers,andbabies,andthelittlecabincouldbarely hold them all. People sat on chairs as well as boxes, mats, and whatever else was available. Martha Berry continued to tell stories from the Bible and played a small, antiquated melodeon (a reed organ) while leading the group in singing hymns. Because many of the people could not read, Berry would say a line of a hymn before the group would sing it. Berry was interested primarily in the children. She found them eager to learn anything she presented . Many of them proved quite capable and learned quickly. They studied nature while taking walks through the nearby woods, and the children began collecting leaves, plants, and stones to decorate the cabin. Demonstrating under an old microscope the difference...