Lincoln Memorial University and the Shaping of Appalachia

Chapter 4. Stooksbury’s School

chapter 4 stooksBUry’s schooL i haven’t much chance to go to school here i’m eager for an education and have troubled about an education a great deal. —Ola Good, of Difficult, Tennessee, April 19, 1909 i hope to emerge from the drowsiness of ignorance, and awake in the glories of an education. —Grover Day, of Sand Lick, West Virginia, January 19, 1909 The idea of lincoln Memorial University is to teach young men and women not only to know but to do things. —William L. Stooksbury, undated The new president took charge of lincoln Memorial University on June 1, 1904, and began a period of consolidation and expansion. William l. stooksbury had solid academic credentials and was “full of youth and energy,” as Howard put it. A visitor to the campus described stooksbury as “tall, lean, steely of frame, humorous of mouth, unafraid of eye.” To Jesse H. Moore, who began a long teaching career at lincoln Memorial University in 1905, the new president “was a positive man, quick in his decisions, keen in insight, and prompt to act.” Moore particularly admired stooksbury’s ability to inspire and discipline the students. He ran a tight ship and constantly had his eye on future growth and development.1 By the fall of 1904, stooksbury reported an increase in enrollment, even though he did not hesitate to expel students for just cause. The faculty, with stooksbury’s blessing, warned several students, on october 24, that they faced expulsion for bad behavior. four days later, two other pupils who were considered “guilty of conduct unbecoming students of the university” were expelled by a unanimous vote of the faculty.2 stooksbury retained the basic organization of the school, which Howard himself had established. The industrial Department managed the student work assignments and contained some programs in business training and basket and mattress making, but the department never emerged as a degree-granting element stooksbury’s school 68 on campus. The normal Department was the most important, training teachers for the local elementary and secondary schools. About fifty students from this department went out every year to teach for short terms in the local institutions, coming back to take more courses until they completed their bachelor’s degrees. The Collegiate Department offered the traditional curriculum, with required courses in history, English, and languages, all designed to prepare the student for further study elsewhere. The Musical and Commercial Departments were yet in their infancy. lincoln Memorial University was “co-educational, non-sectional, non-sectarian, but Christian,” as stooksbury carefully pointed out.3 The majority of students continued to be in the primary and secondary levels at Harrow Hall rather than taking classes on the four seasons property. stooksbury worried about how “to separate the college from the grades” but considered it possible at some point in the near future. in the meanwhile, he supervised the students with a benign authoritarianism. stooksbury forbade the use of tobacco, liquor, and “profane language.” “laziness and deception will not be tolerated for a single day in this institution,” he proclaimed in the catalog. “We do not wish to aid in any way those who are ungrateful, and most surely we do not wish to educate them at the expense of benevolent friends.” stooksbury warned anyone who was “out to beat his way” through college that lincoln Memorial University was not the place to do so.4 stooksbury assured parents that their sons “will not learn to be drunkards, card-players or gamblers,” and that their daughters “will not be buggy driving at night, nor attend the dance hall nor the euchre party.” The president wanted lincoln Memorial University to “throw around its students the strong arm of William l. stooksbury, university president, 1904–10. UA-lMU. 69 stooksbury’s school moral and religious life.” Girls were not permitted to spend the night off campus, but they could visit relatives who lived nearby on saturdays. stooksbury refused when a father asked permission for his daughter to break this rule because “sometimes undesirable young men would insist on paying attentions to the young ladies ” if they stayed in town. “i take it for granted,” stooksbury wrote the parent, “that you expect us as teachers and managers of the school to look after the girls in every respect as a parent would.” stooksbury conducted roll call at breakfast and dinner to ensure that students were not absent without...