Doors to the Past

Barboursville

The County Court; George Grobe, Thomas Bias, and George Hackworth, found out 
they could not legally give the property away, but if a stock company was 
formed they would put the price at one thousand dollars and deed it and 
take a lien for the purchase money. E. W. Blume, Henry Poteet, Henry 
Stowasser, Charles H. Miller, and Fredrick Miller or his son Will, each 
took two hundred dollars stock. The deed was made and a lien taken which 
was paid and released at the close of 1888. This Institution was turned 
over by the Stock Holders as a Conference School to the M. E. Church 
South, until 1901. The Institution was known as Barboursville College. In 
consideration of the liberality of Morris Harvey. The trustees changed the 
name to Morris Harvey College, the building and grounds have been greatly 
improved and beautified and the faculty increased. Rev. T. S. Wade was the 
first president and Rev. G. W. Hampton vice president. 
 
It must not be thought that because our mothers and grandmothers brought 
the products of the farm to the stores to trade for other goods that they 
did not have any fine clothes. On extra occasions their silks would stand 
alone and when our sisters came out in their imported organdies and 
Empress Cloth dresses covered with a hand made silk or lace shawl that 
touched the ground they would get a beau in about fifteen minutes. Flax, 
hemp, and cotton were raised on every farm as part of the crops and had to 
be worked up. 
 
Barboursville has kept up in the march of progress; she has grown until we 
reach from hill to hill. After being scored we feel proud of our score; 
perfect in transportation; perfect in our boys who have made prominent 
men. Sometimes we imagine we see the original owners of this land, John 
Samuels, and William Merritt walking over our town and looking over the 
improvement we have made and hear them say what fools we were to give this 
valuable property away. 
 
I cannot close this history without saying something about our old time 
colored people. In making this state we took from Virginia more than half 
her territory, but we only inherited four per cent of the slaves. I never 
witnessed any of the cruelties Harriett Beecher Stowe tells us about in 
Uncle Tom's Cabin. The slaves were respected and honored by all regardless 
of the station they occupied in life. They received their freedom with 
full honor; they helped to carve this country out of a wilderness and no 
man can say aught against them. I call to mind a negro man my father 

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Templates in Time