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Walter Lee Colson
- West Virginia University Press
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46 history american negro before her marriage a teacher. She passed away in 1906. On June 10, 1908, Prof. Coleman married Miss Leveria Holley of Martinsburg, W. Va. There are two children of this union: Charles Lewis & James Dunlap Coleman, Jr. In politics he is a Republican and among the secret orders is a Prince Hall Mason. All his life he has been an intelligent observer of conditions and for more than a quarter of a century has sought to lead his people in the paths of right thinking and living. He comes to the present with no bitterness or resentment, and for the future only asks that he and his people be permitted to live and move and work in an atmosphere that is Christian. Walter Lee Colson Year after year the Old North State has sent forth her sons to enrich the business and professional life of other States, till now they are to be found in every state in the Union. West Virginia is no exception , and some of her most successful men of both races are natives of North Carolina. One of these, Dr. Walter Lee Colson, was born on the farm in Anson County, on May 17, 1885. His father Jere Colson was a farmer and passed away in 1908. His mother, who still lives (1922) was, before her marriage, Tabitha Lilly. Young Colson pursued his elementary studies in the public schools of Anson County, and as a boy engaged in the sports and did the work on the farm which a boy in the South usually does. Rather early in life he came under the inspiration of his parents’ ambitions for an education. Of course, the way was not easy, but the boy was never afraid to work. He spent one year at the celebrated Congregational School at Bricks, near Enfield, N. C., after which he attended Kittrell College four years. When ready for his dental course he matriculated at Howard University and won his D. D. S. degree walter lee colson [3.226.254.255] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 09:30 GMT) 48 history american negro from that institution in 1911. He had earned the money for his course largely by work on the boats out of New York during summer vacations . Following his graduation, he practiced for eleven months at Wilmington and went from there to Clarksburg, W. Va., for a year. At the end of that time he moved to Keystone, where he has since resided and has built a practice that would be a credit to a man twice his age. In politics Dr. Colson is a Republican and is vice-president of the local Republican organization. He is an active member and a trustee of the A. M. E. Church. He is a member of the local Flat Top and the State and National Medical and Dental Societies. Familiar with conditions in the city and in the rural districts, Dr. Colson believes that the greatest single need of the race as a whole is education. He has property interests in both North Carolina and in West Virginia. Austin Wingate Curtis The old rule-of-thumb farming, which was marked by drudgery and waste, is giving way to the new agriculture in which intelligence and efficiency count just as they do in other lines of business. In other words, farming is gradually becoming scientific. The chemistry of the soil, seed selection, crop rotation, fertilization, the crossing and breeding up of farm animals and the conservation of what was formerly waste all open up new and interesting fields of endeavor. The schools were slow to incorporate this line of work in their curricula , but now nearly every state has either its college of agriculture or an agricultural department in one or more of its state schools. At the West Virginia Collegiate Institute the Agricultural department is under the direction of Prof. Austin Wingate Curtis. Already we have had occasion to note in these pages the large number of successful professional and business men of the race who claim the Old North State as the land of their nativity—Tar Heels, they are sometimes ...