Friends of the Restoration
Chronicling the lives of those who have impacted the Restoration Movement
FHU Documents Online
August/28/2009 12:12 Filed in: Freed-Hardeman
Pictured is the Essary Springs bell as it was used Wednesday, August 26, on the 141st opening day of school at Freed-Hardeman.
For those who are doing research on the history of Freed-Hardeman University, here is some exciting news from Erin Adams, University Archivist:
"Thanks to the generosity of Richard Saunders and the University of Tennessee at Martin's Paul Meek Library, the oldest catalogues in the Archives have been digitized and made available for research through our website: http://www.fhu.edu/library/Archives/Collections. Listed under the appropriate predecessor, a pdf of each catalogue will provide researchers with full access to documents that are growing too fragile to handle as frequently as they are requested. Currently, they are not searchable, but we hope to make the catalogues and yearbooks (which is our next project) so in the coming months. Due to the time it takes to convert files and manage quality control, there are a very few catalogues that have not found their way to the website, but will be there soon. (Catalogues created by Freed-Hardeman University have not yet been scanned.) Please contact me for these files if they are required. It is hoped that these easy-to-use documents will relieve a burden off of several different offices on campus and represent a new step forward in meeting the needs of our University's constituents."
For those who are doing research on the history of Freed-Hardeman University, here is some exciting news from Erin Adams, University Archivist:
"Thanks to the generosity of Richard Saunders and the University of Tennessee at Martin's Paul Meek Library, the oldest catalogues in the Archives have been digitized and made available for research through our website: http://www.fhu.edu/library/Archives/Collections. Listed under the appropriate predecessor, a pdf of each catalogue will provide researchers with full access to documents that are growing too fragile to handle as frequently as they are requested. Currently, they are not searchable, but we hope to make the catalogues and yearbooks (which is our next project) so in the coming months. Due to the time it takes to convert files and manage quality control, there are a very few catalogues that have not found their way to the website, but will be there soon. (Catalogues created by Freed-Hardeman University have not yet been scanned.) Please contact me for these files if they are required. It is hoped that these easy-to-use documents will relieve a burden off of several different offices on campus and represent a new step forward in meeting the needs of our University's constituents."
1936 Science Building at FHC
August/19/2009 12:14 Filed in: Freed-Hardeman
(Photo was taken in 1942).
"Because our science department outgrew its quarters we had to have a new science building. A splendid two-story, brick-veneered structure, well equipped in every way, was erected. It is all paid for but $325, which we expect to take care of in a few months. Altogether, we have paid out several thousand dollars on this building, on interest and principal, and thus reduced our indebtedness to $11,691.64."
--- N. B. Hardeman, Gospel Advocate, January 16, 1936, 61.
An addition was made to the building in the 1950s. The building is being torn down (August 2009).
Essary Springs Bell at FHU
August/13/2009 12:16 Filed in: Freed-Hardeman
The bell A. G. Freed began using in his school at Essary Springs, TN in 1889 is now at FHU. After some cleaning, new paint, and oiling, it will be used on the opening day of school this year.
Essary Springs Bell Has a New Home
August/11/2009 12:17 Filed in: Freed-Hardeman
Representatives of Freed-Hardeman University are going Tuesday, August 11, 2009, to retrieve the bell from the Essary Springs church building. Plans are to use it each year in August at the beginning of the school year in the "Tolling of the Bell" ceremonies. It is believed that this is the same bell that was used in 1889 by A. G. Freed in his new school at Essary Springs, TN which was called Southern Tennessee Normal College.
The photo above was probably taken in 1933 after the original school building was "chopped." Both ends of the building were removed and some time later an auditorium was added at the rear of the building. The original building had a basement.
Here are some dimensions of the bell. It is a 26 inch bell manufactured by the C. S. Bell Co., Hillsboro, Ohio. The bell measures 26 inches at the bottom of the bell. The bell is marked with a 26 which probably indicates the size of the bell. The bell is 18 inches tall not including the yoke. The yoke holding the bell and wheel is 34 inches wide. From the top of the yoke to the bottom of the bell is 34 inches. The diameter of the wheel is 27 inches. The clapper is four inches across at the bottom and 18 inches in length. The bell appears to be about two inches thick. Also, there appears to be no date on the bell at Essary Springs. It is believed the bell weighs about four hundred pounds.
Here is some history of Essary Springs and Southern Tennessee Normal College.
"On September 16, 1889, Arvy Glenn Freed, an alumnus of Valparaiso University in Indiana, became the first president of Southern Tennessee Normal College at Essary Springs, Tennessee, about 60 miles south of here [Henderson]. Enrollment grew from 72 the first year to 450 by 1893." (Sam Hester).
Freed taught in this school from 1889 to 1895, then he came to Henderson to become president of West Tennessee Christian College which was renamed the next year, Georgie Robertson Christian College.
Grace Roland, in her book Walking Down Memory's Lane, wrote, "After he [Freed] left, some others including Dr. Bishop, kept the school going for a few years, then I. N. Roland [C. P. Roland's father] returned to take charge of it in 1903. The school grew rapidly under his supervision and since it was principally a teacher-training school, there were hundreds of young men and women that received their training there.... Mr. Roland was a student of Bro. Freed and was very thorough in his work" (40-41).
Sister Roland continues, "Everybody used the school building for church services because there were no church buildings. Today there is one small store, no post office, no school since consolidation of schools. However, there are two small church buildings, a Baptist and a Church of Christ building. The Baptist church house is on the site of the old "hotel" just above the spring and the Church of Christ building is a renovated part of the school building with some additions. I have described the "hotel" elsewhere. When it was completed, the school building was rather imposing for the time--1889--the location and was in fair shape when we lived there. I shall try to get a picture of it in this story. A. G. Freed and D. S. Nelms worked with the patrons of the community to raise funds to erect the building and equip it. The Nelms families were very much involved. C. P. Roland's greatgrandfather, William Nelms, built the largest boarding house near the spring. It was known as "The Hotel." Young women lived there while attending school. C. P.'s mother, Maggie Nelms, and Cora Belle Baynham who later became Mrs. A. G. Freed, roomed together one session in this building. Several of the Nelms families owned nice homes and farms near the village and others of them moved there for the advantages of the school and to help take care of boarding students·, which numbered over four hundred much of the time. D.S. Nelms lived in one of the finest homes about two finest homes about two miles west of the village. This house was a kind of antebellum type which much like the ones in Southern Mississippi. Brother Freed boarded there and wa lked to and fro from school daily~ a distance of two and a half miles" (48-49).
In describing the Essary Springs school building, sister Roland wrote, "The school building was built on a hillside just above a deep ravine. The front end was on the level of the ground but the back was high enough with just a little excavating, that there were classrooms below the auditorium. The auditorium was a large room lighted with three beautiful chandeliers and wall lamps with reflectors every fifteen feet around the walls. These wall lamps and also the chandeliers used kerosene as fuel for lights. When the building was razed, C. P. and I salvaged one of these wall lamps and have it in the Historical Collection here at Freed-Hardeman College. We found no trace of those crystal chandeliers and we suspected antique dealers of swiping them ahead of us" (49).
The school building later (maybe 1913) was used as a public school. Leon Isom, Jr., a member at the New Hope church of Christ, attend school there in 1937-40. His father, Leon Isom, Sr., helped renovate the building and install the bell in a new bell tower in 1933-34.
E. C. McDougle
August/08/2009 12:34 Filed in: Recent Finds
E. C. McDougle served for five years at Georgia Robertson Christian College as Co-President with A. G. Freed and later as President. When the school closed in 1907, he reportedly moved all the contents to Kentucky. He was born in Meigs County, Ohio, on the 16 March, 1867 and he died 11 Feb 1958 in Richmond, Madison Co., KY. He is buried in Richmond Cemetery, Richmond, Madison County, Kentucky, USA. The grave is located in Section O Lot 33. There is an extended bio at http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=mcdougle&GSfn=earnest&GSmn=c&GSbyrel=in&GSdyrel=in&GSob=n&GRid=40286506& along with credit for the photos.
Pocahontas Bell
August/05/2009 12:35 Filed in: West Tennessee
In 1964, C. P. Roland wrote: "The church of Christ in Pocahontas, Tennessee had its beginning almost a century ago when T. B. Larimore held the first meeting there in 1872. A tornado destroyed their first building. The second building was started in 1907 and not fully complete when J. D. Tant came for a gospel meeting in 1908. Brother Tant arrived on Friday prior to the meeting and helped place the bell in the belfry. Seeing that the inside of the building was still unpainted, he told them he would "whitewash" it with the gospel. The large bell was donated by Ben Carr, father-in-law of W. H. Owen, recently deceased, of McMinnville, Tenn."
C. P. Roland, Gospel Advocate, Feb. 6, 1964, p. 92
The photo taken 3 Aug 2009 is of the bell at Pocahontas which is 36 inches wide at the bottom. It was made by the C. S. Bell Company in Hillsboro, Ohio. The inside of the bell has the numbers 5 2 08 which indicates it was molded May 2, 1908.
For the Gospel Advocate article by brother Roland in its entirety, go to http://churchofchrist-newhope.com/HardemanCo/Pocahontas/Pocahontas.html