The Huntsville School by William C. White

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 13, 1909

The Huntsville School

By William C. White

WITH Elder C. F. McVagh I spent Sabbath, January 30, at the Oakwood Manual Training-school for colored students, near Huntsville, Ala. This is the school usually known as the Huntsville school.

Shortly after the beginning of the Sabbath, Friday night, the students and teachers all assembled in the commodious chapel in the study hall. There were about one hundred persons present,—eighty-five students and fifteen or more teachers and visitors. After I had given a short Scripture lesson, there was an experience meeting held, in which nearly all took part. The testimonies borne gave evidence of conflicts endured and victories gained.

Among the students there were a few whom I had met in former years, but only a few. Many of those who were there two years ago are out in the field, and those now in attendance have been gathered in recently.

After the meeting I spoke to each student, and learned from which State each one came, and in some cases the field of labor held in view. Nearly all the Southern States were well represented, and quite equally. Florida and Texas have as many workers in training as some of the States nearer by.

Sabbath was a day of many blessings. The two services were well attended; and in the afternoon the practical discourse from Elder McVagh was followed by another experience meeting.

After the Sabbath the brethren took lanterns, and showed us the improvements that had been made on the place during 1908. First we visited the boys' hall. This was enclosed and partly finished a year ago; since then it has been completed and furnished, and is occupied by about thirty-six students. Its utmost capacity is forty-two. It was built by the students, and cost less than four thousand dollars complete.

We next visited the new cannery. It is a model of simplicity and economy, and yet solidly built, convenient, and clean.

The sweet-potato house is near the cannery, and is built to hold one thousand bushels. It keeps the potatoes in an even temperature, which is favorable to their preservation. On the ground floor there were about three hundred bushels of excellent sweet potatoes, which in January were worth one dollar a bushel; also large heaps of seed potatoes. In the loft of the potato house were wagon-loads of canned tomatoes, and half a car-load of empty cans, ready for use next year.

I asked Brother Boyd, the farm manager, how he would dispose of these products, and was told that the best prices could be obtained in the spring, but that the school itself was consuming large quantities, and that its needs must be considered first. The students are credited only about seven cents an hour for labor, and therefore the boarding club was charged only fifty cents a bushel for potatoes.

Next we visited the horse barns, the dairy, and the new silo. In the horse barns we saw a fine lot of colts, and in the dairy a large number of young cattle. In the silo there were still about twelve tons of ensilage.

By the ordinary methods of farming, where corn and cotton are raised and

sold off the place, the land is constantly impoverished; but by the scientific methods advocated by Brother Boyd—recently made possible of being carried out, by the liberalities of our people—the productiveness of the place can be greatly improved. Very little cotton will be grown. A large tract will be devoted to the raising of hay and corn, which will be consumed on the place. And the very best of the land will be fertilized, and devoted to the growing of sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and other vegetables for the market and for the cannery.

Last summer there was a long drought, and only the early crops did well. Yet the success of the early planting was sufficient to enable the school to show a gain of three hundred dollars in its workings, and to encourage the farm manager and the students to undertake larger planting this year.

The Sanitarium

The most noticeable improvement undertaken during 1908 was the eighteen-room sanitarium, beautifully located between the study hall and the cedar grove. It is on a gentle slope facing the south, and overlooks the garden grounds of the farm. The building is not large, but it is well planned and well built. We found it enclosed and plastered, and ready for finishing. The treatment-rooms are in the basement, also the furnace and storerooms. The ground floor has the doctor's offices, the parlor, dining-room, kitchen, and one room for patients. In the second story there are seven or eight rooms for patients.

As I saw the progress made toward sanitarium work in connection with this school, I recalled the following Testimony, given some years ago, regarding this work:—

“Medical Missionary Work

“In no place is there greater need of genuine gospel medical missionary work than among the colored people in the South. Had such a work been done for them immediately after the proclamation of freedom, their condition to-day would have been very different. Medical missionary work must be carried forward for the colored people. Sanitariums and treatment-rooms should be established in many places. These will open doors for the entrance of Bible truth.”

“This work will require devoted men and means, and much wise planning. Years ago we should have been training colored men and women to care for the sick. Plans should now be made to do a quick work. Let promising colored youth—young men and young women of good Christian character—be given a thorough training for this line of service. . . . Huntsville has been especially pointed out as a school in connection with which there should be facilities for thoroughly training consecrated colored youth who desire to become competent nurses and hygienic cooks. . . .”

“Redeeming the Time

“Let us now arise, and redeem the time. Everything in the universe calls upon those who know the truth to consecrate themselves unreservedly to the proclamation of the truth as it has been made known to them in the third angel's message. That which we see of the needs of the millions of colored people in the South, calls us to our duty. We are not to become dispirited and disheartened over the outlook. The Lord lives and reigns. And he expects us to do our part by training for service and by sustaining in the field those who are best fitted to labor for the colored people.”

“The workers in the school at Huntsville are to have our tender sympathy and our practical aid. Do not let them suffer for the lack of facilities, for they are trying to educate the colored people. This school is in positive need of our care and our donations.”

Waiting

The work on the sanitarium building was at a standstill when I was there, waiting for funds to finish and furnish it.

There are among us faithful colored preachers who have broken down in health by their arduous labors and privations who need the advantages of the sanitarium.

There are teachers, worn and sick, because of privations and hard work in our mission schools, who need treatment at this institution.

There are scores of well-to-do invalids among the colored people generally, who know the advantages of sanitarium methods, and are waiting for the opening of places where they will be welcome.

There are scores of young men and women waiting for the work and training which our sanitariums for the colored people will provide for them.

There are hundreds of those who have given of their means for the establishment of the Huntsville Sanitarium, who desire to see it finished, furnished, and opened for service.

All these are waiting, waiting, waiting for a call and a response that will complete the unfinished work, and open the institution, and support the enterprise until it gets upon a solid working basis.

W. C. WHITE.