Successful Opening Fuels NTNBC Optimism

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Sixth in a Series Exploring the History of Freed-Hardeman University

National Teachers Normal and Business College, under the direction of President A.G. Freed and Vice President N.B. Hardeman, opened in September 1908 for its first term. Other than the notable absence of furniture for the classrooms, the opening had few glitches.
With classes for kindergartners through college, all offered in the same building, enrollment for the first year peaked at 450 students. Encouraged by the good opening, Freed order 25,000 copies of the next year’s catalog and made plans to hire additional faculty.
By the second year, 1909-1910, 80 percent of the students came from out of town. Typically, they came on one of the four daily trains servicing Henderson. In September, some trains were full of students. New terms brought more new students.
Since NTNBC had no dormitories, students boarded with local families, and as advocates had said, bolstered the town’s economy. Families received daily grocery deliveries from local stores via horse-drawn hackneys navigating Henderson’s dirt, or mud, depending upon the season, streets. They delivered enough food to keep three local stores profitable. The boarding houses were not equipped with electric lights or central heat and air. However, many of them did have pianos and some of the female students took piano lessons at the college.
The experiences of Clifford Paul (C.P.) Roland, who enrolled at NTNBC in 1910, were likely that of many students. Roland came to Henderson from Essary Springs. He had boarded a morning train in Pocahontas, Tenn., gone “to Corinth, Miss., switched to a northbound train on the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad and arrived in Henderson that afternoon at 4:30 p.m.” For comparative purposes, Henderson is approximately 36 miles from Pocahontas. Today’s traveler could drive the distance in less than an hour.
When Roland arrived at the Henderson train station, he got off the train and walked to a boarding house on Main Street adjacent to the railroad overpass. At the boarding house, Roland began each day by “shaking the coal grate, putting in kindling and starting a fire to warm the room he shared with two other male students.”
Information and quoted material are drawn from Dr. Greg Massey’s forthcoming book, “By the Grace of God: The Story of Freed-Hardeman University,” which will be published and available for purchase from the university in Spring 2020.

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