Golden Days: Reminiscences of Alumnae, Mississippi State College for Women

Introduction

"In navy blue we gave loud cheers For Dr. Fant; I hear them plain As autumn fades and winter nears. But each with hope and vision clears The path for others in the chain; We come to toast the shining years As autumn fades and winter nears." RUTH MCCOY HARRIS, MISSISSIPPI STATE COLLEGE FOR WOMEN, CLASS OF 1927 "The memory is a living thing—it too is in transit. But during its moment, all that is remembered joins, and lives—the old and the young, the past and the present, the living and the dead." EUDORA WELTY, MISSISSIPPI STATE COLLEGE FOR WOMEN, 1925-27 tt/HEN IT OPENED ITS DOORS TO ABOUT 350 STUDENTS IN 1885, the Mississippi Industrial Institute and College for White Girls (later Mississippi State College for Women and now Mississippi Universityfor Women) was the first state-supported college for women in the United States. Those who find it difficult to believe that Mississippi would be the first in any type of educational achievement would also probably be surprised to learn that this public institution was the extension of a private college for women, the Columbus Female Institute, financially maintained continuously since 1847 by a group of stockholders who believed that Columbus girls and women needed more than a finishing school education. But localized private higher education for women was too narrow for Mississippi's needs. For very practical reasons, ix Introduction the all-male Mississippi legislature voted in 1884 to expend some of its limited appropriations on a state-supported college for women. As Representative Wiley Nash said in his persuasive speech supporting the bill, "This institute, if established, will be a Godsend, a blessing to the poor girls of the State. . . . The poor farmers of Mississippi can send their daughters; and here they can gain a good practical education. . . . Can wenot do something for the poor girls of Mississippi so that they will be enabled by their honest effort and industry to begin with some prospect of success the great battle of life?"1 As Nash and his colleagues knew, Mississippi faced dire economic straits. Although the state was already paying for public higher education for white men and African American men and women, thousands morewomen had noway of earning a living or supporting themselves other than through dependence on fathers, brothers, or husbands. The II & C wascreated and survivedbecause it wasa unique educational hybrid of liberal arts college and vocational or professional school. In the middle of economic crisis, Mississippi had the foresight to recognize that women needed to learn not only to think for themselves but also to support themselves. The II & C's first president, Richard Watson Jones (1837—1914), who also taught physics and chemistry, headed an otherwise all-female faculty, women who influenced the political and educational life of Mississippians for many decades. Pauline Vandegraaff Orr (1861-1955), Mistress of English; Mary J. S. Callaway (1836-1907), Mistress of Mathematics; Ruth Roudebush (1862-1949), Mistress of Bookkeeping and Penmanship; and Sallie McLaurin (1848—1922), Mistress of Industrial and Decorative Arts, became powerful mentors for the young II & C graduates, who went on to teach, to attend graduate school, or to find places in the business world as bookkeepers or telegraphers. Many were active in the state and national women's suffrage movement, and Orr in particular urged her students to press for the vote for women. In fact, after retiring from teaching in 1913, Orr became a full-time suffragist, serving aspresident of the state association i. Qtd. in Bridget Pieschel and Stephen Pieschel, Loyal Daughters: One Hundred Years at Mississippi University for Women Qackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1984), 6. & x Introduction and speaking the length of the eastern seaboard, using her connections with former students and faculty to further the cause. Other earlyfaculty membersbecamehousehold namesinMississippi because of their innovative teaching and their passion for their disciplines . Emma Ody Pohl, a legendary physical education teacher at the II & C/MSCW from 1907 until 1955, brought mandatory physical education courses to allstudents and created some of the most distinctive campus traditions, including the Junior-Freshman Wedding and the Zouave marching drill. Weenona Poindexter, music faculty member from 1894 until 1945, established the diploma in music and began decades of highly successful lyceum concerts by personally guaranteeing the funding for a 1905 performanceon campus by renowned pianist IgnacyJan Paderewski. Mabel Ward, hired in 1903 by President Andrew Kincannon, was one of the first home economics...