V"
Contributions of Chowan s First Graduate Reviewed
Mrs. Edwin C. Brown of Murfreesboro, whose husband is a member of
Chowan College’s Board of Advisors, delivered the annual Founder’s Day
Address to the student body, faculty and administration recently. It was
based on the life and contributions of Miss Eunice McDowell, daughter of
the first president of Chowan College, whose “whole life from infancy to
maturity must have been interwoven with the very early life of Chowan
College”.
“Her father was a man of great ability—a man of vision. It was be
cause of his foresight that a land
scape architect was secured and the
campus was laid off in drives and
walks. He realized that beauty, of
whatever kind, is cultural. This cam
pus layout was completed in 1859, the
year Miss Eunice was born. In later
years it gave Miss Eunice great
pleasure to tell us that the landscape
plan was in the form of a man’s
swallow-tail coat; perhaps you will
understand better if I say tails, or
cutaway, but she would say with a
twinkle in her eye: “I guess the girls
just had to have aman around.” If
by chance, you look closely at an
original print of the campus, you will
see the shoulders and form of the
Chowan male. The walks were the
seams of the waistcoat, and the sum
mer houses were buttons on the back
of the swallow-tail coat.”
Miss McDowell
Mrs. Brown told of Miss McDowell,
who was born in the Columns Build
ing, and went through days of hard
ship and danger with her family
during the Civil War and Reconstruc
tion, serving as “lady principal” and
also as professor of Bible and Latin
and as Chowan’s librarian. Of the
McDowell family, Mrs. Brown said,
“This family, and this instilfxtion
stood fast to its purpose to discharge
its duties to young women and to the
community.” As librarian, Miss Eu
nice McDowell successfully cam
paigned to shelve enough volumes to
gain accreditation for Chowan as a
four year college.
“In 1923, THE CHOWANOKA was
dedicated to Miss E u n i c e,” Mrs.
Brown went on to explain. “The dedi
cation reads:
“She can so inform
The mind that is within us, so
impress
With quietness and beauty, and so
feed
With lofty thoughts, that neither
evil tongues,
Rash judgements, nor the sneers
of selfish men.
Nor greetings where no kindness
is, nor all
The dreary intercourse of daily life.
Shall e’er prevail against us, or
disturb
Our cheerful faith, that all which
we behold
Is full of blessings.”
“The fact that she was the ‘con
fidante of many girls in their love
affairs’ may have been the reason
that the first football game was held
at Chowan College between Roanoke
Rapids and Franklin, Va., high
schools on November 14, 1924. It
would appear that Miss McDowell
understo^ that girls needed male
companionship for a fuller under
standing for the preparation for life,
MISS EUNICE McDOWELL
. . . Chowan’s First Graduate
and was in favor of bring boys back
to campus, if only for a day.”
“During a difiicult period in the
life of the college, when the doors
were about to close. Miss McDowell
was convienced that Chowan would
not die. She said, ‘Let us have faith,
and show it by our work. God is
not going to let Chouxm die.’ She
was a woman of conviction, of
strong faith and belief.”
“It was not until 1930 that I became
personally acquainted with Miss Eu
nice McDowell. I found myself in the
presence of a distinguished woman,
now 71 years of age, whose figure
was rather portly. Her hair was al
most white and she was wearing a
full length plain black silk dress with
long sleeves and small touches of
white lace at collars and cuffs, with
a brooch for oranment. She wore
neat, black soft leather shoes and
black hosiery. Her eyes were blue
and twinkled with life and perception,
yet there was a remarkable sterness
as well as warmth and tenderness
that only knowledge, experience and
action can give to one’s countenance.
It is strange that a long black silk
dress with touches of lace at the col
lar and cuffs was such a striking part
of Miss McDowell. How odd I would
have felt in the same outfit, but per
haps in my youth it would have been
rather fetching. So it is today that
while clothes are more universal in
style, I can imagine how odd and ri
diculous I would appear in some of
the clothes of young women today,
but how fetching many young women
can look. It is really a sense of living
in your own day and generation -
choosing the best it may offer in
apparrel and knowledge and then
moving step by step to maturity.”
Similar Experience
“Her first consideration for me was
that I might not be lonesome, be
cause we shared a similar experience.
She told me that she attended school
at Bryn Mawr and that she was the
only southern girl in the school, ad
mitting that she must have experi
enced some loneliness and misgiv
ings. As I was the only Yankee in a
southern school, she was quick to
make me feel wanted in her college.”
‘‘Busy each day, working in her
beloved library, helping in the gi
gantic task of being the first person
to catalogue its volumes, unth many
of these valuable books being from
her own private collection, she in
troduced the Dewey Decimal Sys
tem into our library. The basis of
scholarship for a college rests
upon the library and its resources.
It was Miss Eunice’s constant and
tireless efforts to secure funds and
valuable volumes from private col
lections that kept the rating of our
library and college very high, even
in 1936.
“Her contribution to the Alumni
Association from 1920 to 1932 in bring
ing the records of former students
up to date was a challenging and
often frustrating job, because, after
all, girls do change their names when
they marry.”
“Miss McDowell would have mo
ments of reminiscing, when she
would tell about the time when the
school might be given to Wake
Forest, and how she sewed the deed
to Chowan College property in her
petticoat and walked to her sister’s
home until the crisis was over. No
deed, no property.”
“Of course, when we recall that
she was a careful guardian over the
deportment of “her girls,” we re
member that she was concerned about
how they were dressed when they
walked downtown in the late after
noon. As she sat on a bench in the
hall about 3:00 p. m., under careful
scrutiny were petticoats hanging be
low dresses, hose and whether or not
you could see through your dress as
you marched through the big doors.
Oh, yes, many times you had to ad
just a hemline, go back and add
another petticoat, promise not to talk
to boys. My goodness, what would
she say about the Mod look or the
mini-skirt, and instead of swinging on
a gate, talking to your date, hanging
on to him and holding hands, yet, she
surely helped my love affair and I
married while she was here in 1932.
“Spiritual qualities were always
evident as she talked in her quiet,
sincere manner in chapel, relating
stories and shaping ideals of life
that were compatible to the form
ing of Christian family life. The
life of Chowan College might well
be expressed in a question she ask
ed of herself: ‘Suppose, apart from
the teachings of father and mother,
the influences of my college courses
were eliminated from my life,
would that life be much unlike what
»■ I
MRS. EDWIN P. BROWN
. . . Founder’s Day Speaker
it is now? Then, there passed before
me the faces of teachers and some
schoolmates, whose lives and
teachings I had always remember
ed as potent factors for me in
right thinking and living.”
“Her life expressed the continued
searched for knowledge. She did not
need a “pill” or L. S. D. to send her
into a state of outer-world fantasy.
She brought into her mind “creative
imagination” by work and study. I
think we must admit that only by
diligence, patience and hard work
can we achieve success in life. This
was Miss Eunice’s goal.”
Patience - Confidence
“There could never have been a
“lost generation” in the mind and
heart of Miss McDowell. She demon
strated patience and confidence in
accepting opportunities available, in
her day and generation. She believed
that in the development of the mind
there must also be a development of
the spiritual life. In pursuit of know
ledge, combining mind and spirit,
one could overcome indifference,
restlessness, and lack of aim and
purpose of any person living in any
era. As she faced moments of great
adversity in the life of this college,
she showed great moments of cour
age. She never faltered as she con
tinued to move forward in teaching
and the development of the character
of her gifts.”
“She would not be too overwhelmed
by the chances in our world today,
either aboard or on the Chowan Col
lege campus, with its 1200 students,
many automobiles, great dormitories,
plus the fact that it is co-educational
(1931). I hardly think that she would
be overly concerned at the new
buildings and the changing of the
man’s waistcoat on the campus
landscape plan. But, I know that she
would be eternally grateful that it
has remained a denominational col
lege under the care of the Baptist
people, for her strong concern was
for Christian education. She would be
pleased at the fine faculty and the
(Continued on Page Twelve)
For November, 1966
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