History of the American Negro: West Virginia Edition

Henry Jackson Trice

234 history american negro without a break for 24 years. In the early history of the organization she had to do much of the missionary work of the Woman’s Convention on account of the lack of trained leaders. The work has taken her into every part of the state and there is not a colored woman in West Virginia who is better known that Mrs. Thompson. Under her administration the organization has grown from a membership of less than one hundred to more than fifteen hundred. There has been an even greater growth in finances. Mrs. Thompson is identified with the Woman’s Improvement League. Speaking of her early struggles for an education she says,“My parents were very poor, could hardly send me to the free schools. I was a very apt pupil in country school and a man by the name of Captain C. S. Schaeffer, of the Freedman’s Bureau, visited our school one day and “heard” our lessons. At that time I remembered everything I learned. I could spell every word, foreign and otherwise, in the spelling book. I could repeat every poem from memory that I read. This gentleman told my father that there was nothing else in the public school for me to learn. The public school course at that time was not as full, nor advanced as at present. After some persuasion I went to Christiansburg, Va., and entered its Normal Institute for colored boys and girls. This school was founded and maintained by the Friends or Quakers of Philadelphia with a little help from the county. Before I finished the course there, through the influence of a friend I was set to Wayland Seminary, Washington, D. C., where Mrs. Mary Luther, of Watchmocket, paid my tuition for three years. I worked during the six years in school, not having presentable clothing at all times. In 1880 I graduated with honor.” Henry Jackson Trice There is something wholesome and helpful in the atmosphere of a university or college town, even to the fellow who is not permitted henry jackson trice 236 history american negro to attend the institution. This is illustrated by the life and work of Dr. Henry Jackson Trice, a successful physician of Clarksburg, W. Va., who was born and reared at Chapel Hill, the seat of North Carolina University in Orange County. He was ambitious to win success and to be of some service in the world almost from childhood. That feeling grew up within him during the years and must have come from his local environment. The date of his birth was November,1883.His parents were George W. and Lucy (Morgan) Trice. Dr. Trice married on June 1, 1921, Miss Louise Hester, of Clarksville , Tenn. Mrs. Trice was educated at Walden University, Nashville, and was before her marriage an accomplished teacher. Young Trice laid the foundation of his education in the local public schools. The boy lost his mother at an early age; the father assisted what he could with his education, but he was largely self-supporting. He did his high school and college work at Walden University, Nashville , Tenn., after which he matriculated at Meharry Medical College, where he won his M.D. degree in 1915. He was active in college athletics , both base ball and foot ball. Following his graduation in 1915 he began the practice at Clarksville , Tenn., where he remained till the spring of 1921. At that time he came to Clarksburg, W. Va., where he is now firmly established in his professional work. He is active in the various organizations of the race, professional, social and religious. He belongs to the Masons and Pythians, for both of which he is local examiner. In politics he is a Republican, in religion a Baptist. He is a member of the State Medical and Dental Association, also the National Medical Association. He is examiner for the Supreme Life and Casualty Insurance Company, and for the National Benefit Life Insurance Company. His favorite reading is history. Knowing that ignorance cannot compete with intelligence , he is of the opinion that the greatest need of the race is higher education. ...