H. O. Murfee, Marion College, and the General Education Board (GEB)

Hobson Owen Murfee, the second president of MMI/MI, c. 1905. (Credit: MMI Archives)



In March, 1910, Hobson Owen Murfee, president of Marion Institute, sent the General Education Board (GEB) in New York City, a 10-page epistle requesting funding for MMI’s endowment. Initially, he hoped to gain some $100,000 from the GEB to establish an endowment foundation for the Institute. A non-sectarian institution, Marion received neither church nor state funding. H. O. Murfee’s dream of creating an “Eton of the South” in Marion was well underway, and Marion Institute (the “military” had been dropped from the name) was fast becoming Marion College, an institution which was initially modeled on Eton College and other great public (private) secondary boarding schools in England, but one which enhanced its secondary nature rather than its collegiate.

Eton College, Windsor. Founded in 1440, additions to Eton’s list of distinguished graduates include Princes William and Harry, both now Old Etonians. (Credit: http://www.ridge.co.uk/sectors_and_projects/education/eton_college.aspx)



The GEB denied Murfee’s request for endowment funding precisely because Marion Institute/Marion College personified a secondary institution and not a collegiate one. Also, funding could only be provided for endowment – present incurred debts (Murfee had some $9,000 in debts already) could not be paid by GEB funding, including the John D. Rockefeller Fund.

Correspondence between Murfee and members of the General Education Board ran for nearly a decade, beginning as early as 1902! Murfee kept trying to convince the GEB that he had amended his original plan, and that he was now transforming the Institute into a full-fledged college, one which would be patterned after the Ivy League colleges and universities. However, MI’s reputation as a strong college preparatory school was difficult to overcome.

Murfee’s 1910 application to the GEB included these statistics as to the number of teachers, students, and graduates since MMI/MI’s founding in 1887, through 1909. (Credit: MMI Archives)



H. O. Murfee canvassed Alabama trying to raise some $100,000 from within the state. The good people of Marion reportedly contributed some $10,000 to this effort, but I have yet to locate a listing of donors. One man from Russellville, Alabama, gave $5,000 in the name of his late son, who was a MI student.

In short, H. O. Murfee’s dream was well underway, but his plans to expand and improve the physical plant alone were incurring numerous debts. The long sought-after monies for the endowment – vital to insure the stability of Marion College – was just not forthcoming in the amounts needed to stabilize the institution.

In the end, the outbreak of World War I, mobilization, and the return to military training at the Institute, signaled the demise of H. O. Murfee’s dream of an “Eton of the South.” After so many years of hard work and sacrifice pursuing his goal, Hobson Owen Murfee must have been crushed by its failure.

A Unique Howard College/MMI History

Howard College During the Civil War and Reconstruction, 1860-1873, by James Dean Lancaster, Jr., M.A. Thesis in History, Samford University, 1974.

This master’s thesis by James Dean Lancaster, Jr. - which is housed in the Samford University Library - is an excellent source of material about the history of Howard College in Marion, Alabama, during the Civil War and Reconstruction.
It also serves as a precursor to the founding of Marion Military Institute in 1887.

A native of Gadsden, Alabama, where he graduated from Gadsden High School, Mr. Lancaster is a free-lance entertainment and travel writer who lives in Branson, Missouri. A 1972 graduate of Samford University (A.B. in history and biology), he completed the M.A. degree in history there in 1975. Eminent historian, Dr. Wayne Flynt, served as Lancaster’s research supervisor.

This drawing (by Daniel Fate Brooks) from the thesis depicts The Chapel at Howard College/MMI, flanked on the left by Henry Talbird, the president who led Howard College through the Antebellum years to the Civil War; center: a Howard College student in uniform, 1873; and, on the right, President J. L. M. Curry, who tried to revive Howard after the war and bring it through the Reconstruction period. COL James T. Murfee, who served as president from 1871 until Howard moved to Birmingham in 1887, initiated the military system of discipline, uniforms, and drill. Murfee founded and served as the first president of Marion Military Institute beginning in 1887, utilizing the old Howard College campus in Marion, Alabama.



Painting of James Thomas Murfee in the Samford University Library. (Credit: Bill Mathews, MMI H’60, J ’62)



The title page from the thesis.



The thesis is divided into two parts: “Howard College During Antebellum Times and the Civil War, 1860-1865”; and “Howard College during Reconstruction, 1865-1873.” The “Table of Contents” is illustrative. Descriptive appendices and a strong bibliography complete this effort.

The “Table of Contents.”



From the author’s abstract:
“The years 1860 to 1873 were years of growth, turbulence, and transition for a small Baptist institution, Howard College. This was a period of adjustment which tried the patience of Howard and her presidents, faculty, trustees, and students.”

Finally: “Howard College during this fourteen-year period managed to survive a war and the ordeal of Reconstruction. It survived these trials as well as internal problems such as finances, lack of enough students, and even at times, a lack of leadership, to become the university [Samford University] it is today.”

Credits: Samford University Library, Birmingham, AL; James Dean Lancaster, Jr., author, Branson, MO; Daniel Fate Brooks, artist; and to Gail Barton and Jennifer Taylor of the Samford University Library/Special Collections staff.

In my opinion, this master’s thesis is worthy of publication.

Images From Around Town

The Lincoln School in 1872. (Credit: Samford University Special Collections)



A colored postcard of the then three-story Marion Female Seminary (founded 1836), late 19th or early 20th Centuries. (Credit: Perry County Historical and Preservation Society)



Another postcard view of the three-story Marion Female Seminary. (Credit: Perry County Historical and Preservation Society)



A great image of students at the Marion Female Seminary, c. late 19th Century. Note the bearded gentleman (Headmaster?) in the center of the group, and the little boys in the very front. (Credit: Perry County Historical and Preservation Society)



Nicola Marschall, a Prussian-born art, music, and languages teacher at the Marion Female Seminary, is credited with designing the first official Confederate flag and the first Confederate uniform. (Credit: Alabama Department of Archives and History)



A colored postcard of The Chapel at Marion Institute, c. early 20th Century.



March 1, 1965, Marion, Alabama: Walking behind the hearse carrying the casket of Jimmie Lee Jackson are four noted Civil Rights leaders. Left to Right: John Lewis (who lead the march with Hosea Williams in Selma on “Bloody Sunday”); Dr. Ralph Abernathy, Dr. King’s most trusted lieutenant; Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; and Andrew Young, another of King’s lieutenants. Dr. King and Andrew Young both married Marion women – King married Coretta Scott, and Young married Jean Childs. (Credit: www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18574158/)

From Where I’m Sitting, I Can’t See the Top of the Empire State Building.”

On the foggy morning of Saturday, July 28, 1945, at 9:49 AM, a U. S. Army B-25D Mitchell Bomber, flown by ace fighter pilot LTC William F. Smith, MMI ’38, USMA ’42, plowed into the Empire State Building in New York City. Smith and his two crew members and 11 civilians in the building were killed. The accident was a strange precursor to the events of 9/11 involving the World Trade Center in New York City.

LTC William Franklin Smith, Jr., MMI ’38, USMA ’42. His MMI nickname was “Liver Lips.” (Credit: http://www.brightok.net/)

A native of Latham, Alabama, William Franklin Smith, Jr. (1918-1945), graduated from Marion Military Institute with the A.A. degree in 1938. His nickname at MMI was “Liver Lips!” Smith entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, became an All-American lacrosse player, and graduated in the Class of 1942. Trained to be an Army fighter pilot, Smith served in the European Theatre during World War II for two years, amassing over a thousand hours of flight time including 34 combat missions, and winning two Distinguish Flying Crosses, four Air Medals, and the French Croix de Guerre.

1944: LTC Smith commanding the 750th Squadron, 457th Bombardment Group during World War II. (Credit: http://www.457bombgroup.org/)



This particular flight originated in New Bedford, MA, and attempts to land at LaGuardia Airport in New York City were unsuccessful due to a blanket of dense fog and clouds which had socked the city in. Diverted to the Newark, NJ, airport, the tower at LaGuardia radioed LTC Smith that the ceiling was near zero and that forward visibility was limited to three miles only. The air traffic controller added: “From where I’m sitting, I can’t see the top of the Empire State Building.”

A B-25D Mitchell Bomber like the one LTC Smith was flying on that fateful day. (Credit: Jennifer Rosenberg, The American Dream)



At 9:48AM, witnesses on the ground saw Smith’s bomber barely miss Rockefeller Center, flying at about 500 feet. Then, the plane banked sharply and disappeared into the fog. Officials believe that LTC Smith had found a break in the clouds, that he saw a curved river ahead which he thought was the East River (it was actually the Hudson River), and that he then descended to 225 mph thinking that he was approaching the Newark Airport. Instead, he was on a course straight for the Empire State Building! Smith tried too late to veer away, and struck the 78th and 79th floors of the 102-story building’s north end. The impact – at the 913 foot level – tore an 18 x 20 foot gash in the building, and ignited a blazing inferno. In all, 14 people - Smith and his two crew members and 11 people working in the offices affected – were killed, and 26 others received severe wounds or burns. Material damages ran more than one million dollars.

LTC Smith was 27 years-old.

The burning Empire State Building and the gaping hole in its north side. (Credit: http://www.aerospaceweb.org/)



The building in flames from another vantage point. (Credit: http://www.aerospaceweb.org/)



The Army attempted to pay restitution to the victims of the crash into the Empire State Building, then the world’s tallest building. Some people accepted money, but a major lawsuit was initiated that resulted in landmark legislation for the nation. The Federal Tort Claims Act of 1946, allowed Americans – for the first time – to sue the Federal government.

Black History Month: Lincoln School of Marion, Alabama (1867-1970)

Lincoln Normal School (Lincoln School) here in Marion, Alabama, operated from 1867 until 1970, when it was closed due to school consolidation following court-ordered desegregation in Marion and Perry County.

The school was incorporated in 1867 as “The Lincoln School of Marion” by recently-freed African Americans in Marion and Perry County. The school later entered into an agreement (1868) with the American Missionary Association (A.M.A.), which was affiliated with the Congregational Church. The associated Lincoln Normal University for Teachers, a state venture by 1874, moved to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1887, and later became Alabama State University. The primary department of the school eventually went public and became state by about 1960.

Every successful institution has at least someone who came, led, and sacrificed everything – including their lives - for the benefit of the institution. That someone for the Lincoln School appears to have been Mary E. Phillips (later, Thompson), a Pennsylvanian, who came as Lincoln’s sixth principal in 1896, and who stayed and served under the most trying circumstances until her death in 1927. Phillips Memorial Auditorium was dedicated in her honor in 1939.

Mary Elizabeth Phillips Thompson (1855-1927), a member of the Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame at Judson College. (Credit: Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame)



Phillips Memorial Auditorium was dedicated in 1939 in honor of Mary E. Phillips (Thompson), who served Lincoln School from 1896 until her death in 1927. (Credit: The City of Marion, Alabama)



The Lincoln School, which was accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, was noted for its high percentage of graduates over the years, and for the remarkable number of its alumni who went on to complete advanced degrees, including a goodly number of doctorates. Among its many graduates who have distinguished themselves in all walks of life, perhaps their most famous graduate is the late Coretta Scott King (1927-2006), wife of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, the slain Civil Rights leader.

Coretta Scott (far left, front) as a new member of Lincoln School’s Little Chorus, 1942-1943. (Credit: Marion Chapter, Lincolnite Club, Inc.)



Coretta Scott, who was born and raised in Perry County some nine miles from Marion in North Perry, attended the one-room Crossroad School (a daily five-mile walk) before entering the Lincoln Normal School. She graduated in the Class of 1945 as the Valedictorian, and attended Antioch College in Ohio. Later, while studying voice at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA, she met a young doctoral student in theology at Boston University, Martin Luther King. They were married at her family’s home outside of Marion in 1953.

The home of Obadiah and Bernice Scott near North Perry, some nine miles from Marion. (Credit: Terry Barkley, MMI Archives)



All that is left of the Cross Road School (1896-1969) at Mt. Nebo AME Zion Church where Coretta Scott attended. (Credit: Terry Barkley, MMI Archives)



Coretta Scott King, with family and friends, attending the funeral of her father, Obie Scott, at the Mt. Tabor AME Church in North Perry in 1998. Mayor Ed Daniel of Marion is presenting Mrs. King with a proclamation honoring her father for his prolonged service to Marion and Perry County. (Credit: The City of Marion, Alabama)



Coretta Scott sang in a jewel of Lincoln School, the Little Chorus, a musical group which toured many Northern states. Here is a playbill from Cincinnati, Ohio. (Credit: Marion Chapter, Lincolnite Club, Inc.)



The Lincoln School was closed in May, 1970 – after 103 years - when its high school students were consolidated in the newly-built and racially-integrated Francis Marion High School. The 100th Anniversary of Lincoln School had been celebrated on May 7, 1967.

One of the few buildings not demolished on the campus – Phillips Memorial Auditorium – is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Lincoln Memorial Museum opened in 2002 and is operated by the Lincolnite Club, Inc., which maintains both the auditorium and the museum.

The Lincolnite Club, Inc., also oversees the school’s national alumni chapters and the biennial reunions of students; the 17th Biennial Reunion was held in Marion in 2008.

State historical marker for the Lincoln School (behind a high security fence). (Credit: Terry Barkley, MMI Archives)

Clio and My Aunt Bertha – A family in Civil War Marion/Perry County

No, this isn’t another blog about my family! It is, however, about a family that lived in Marion/Perry County during the Civil War.

Over the holidays, I was able to purchase for the MMI Archives from Ebay (through my friend, Nick Picerno, in Virginia) a small volume entitled Clio and My Aunt Bertha,by John T. Winterich. Privately printed in 1942 in New York City (Marchbanks Press), the little 25-page booklet is actually a reprint of an article which appeared in the October 31, 1942, issue of the Saturday Review of Literature.

Clio and My Aunt Bertha (1942) by John T. Winterich. (Credit: MMI Archives)



John T. Winterich, a bibliographer and bookman, relates the memoirs of his Aunt Bertha Winterich, who grew up on a small cotton plantation in Perry County, Alabama, near Marion, during the Civil War. Bertha’s memories include the plantation’s only slave, Uncle Steve, visits to her father from Confederate General Edward Cary Walthall and a Captain Kouraysh (spelling?), who distilled whiskey locally, and of soldiers secretly burying something on the family’s plantation.

MG Edward Cary Walthall (1831-1898), C.S.A., gallant officer of the Army of Tennessee who distinguished himself – among other battles - at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge in the battles around Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1863. (Credit: Alabama Department of Archives & History)



Aunt Bertha’s father (John Winterich’s grandfather) went off to war three times to serve the Confederacy, but each time he returned home due to ill health. Bertha mentions the shortage of coffee and other food stuffs, and how dietary shortages and other imbalances led to the deaths of two of her siblings, John and Marie, both babies.

By the end of the war, Aunt Bertha tells of a “parade” of battle-worn Confederate soldiers trooping past the Marion Female Seminary. A childhood friend, Frances Sellick, climbed up on one of the stone posts to watch the passing soldiers:

“It was a tatterdemalion company that passed, plodding along at ragged route step – one-armed men, one-legged men, men with matted hair on their heads and matted clothes on their backs, listless men, dazed men, battered human driftwood washed up beyond reach of the ebbing tides of disaster. Suddenly a ragged, bearded fellow broke ranks and rushed toward the stone post on which Frances Sellick was sitting. He reached up, grasped her in his arms, ran back into formation with her. Her screams echoed back down the road as the line wound on – echoed back, Aunt Bertha is sure, even after the bedraggled veteran had been able to convince Frances that he was her father.”

Were these troops returning from the war as a unit, or could at least some of them have been patients of the Breckinridge Military Hospital at Howard College (MMI) departing for home (especially, the amputees)?

Marion Female Seminary in Marion, Alabama, where Nicola Marschall taught. He is credited with designing the first Confederate flag and the first Confederate uniform. (Credit: Alabama Department of Archives & History)



Finally, Bertha relates how her father’s ill health forced him to sell the plantation to a Mrs. Day at the end of the war. He had also been swindled out of his cotton crop by an unscrupulous cotton broker in Selma. The family – which originally came from Georgia by way of Prussia (Germany) – then moved North to Hoboken, New Jersey, to join relatives!

Question? With only one slave (Uncle Steve), how were they able to harvest their cotton and get it to market? Use of slaves from other plantations? Family members and hired hands?

P.S. Clio, of course, is the Muse who sings of famous deeds and who restores the past to life. Aunt Bertha tells some whoppers herein, including the one about the hoopsnake which sticks its tail in its mouth and rolls like a bicycle tire toward its victim!

When the University of Alabama Came to Auburn’s Rescue!

In July, 1864, Union cavalry under Major General Lovell H. Rousseau raided into East Alabama destroying iron furnaces, mills, and railroad tracks of the West Point and Montgomery Railroad. One important rail stop was Chehaw Station near Auburn, Alabama.

Union MG Lovell H. Rousseau (1818- 1869). (Credit: The Library of Congress)



The alarm went out to assemble as many Confederate troops as possible to thwart the Federal raid. The Alabama Corps of Cadets (ACC) of the University of Alabama – known at the Katydids - were then on a fifteen-day furlough following their graduation exercises in Tuscaloosa (remember, that the ACC was commanded by COL James T. Murfee, later founder and first president of Marion Military Institute). Thus, the call went out to those cadets living in or passing through Montgomery to join the Confederate effort to stop Rousseau. Some 54 cadets in the Montgomery area answered the call. Although there were new British Enfield Rifles in the Confederate warehouses in Selma, time was of the essence, and the Katydid Cadets were given ancient re-bored and rifled smoothbore muskets of dubious operation. The Cadets joined Lockhart’s Battalion (mostly young boys) and some conscripts from Camp Watts. These 500 Confederates were quickly transported from Montgomery to Chehaw Station (Beasley’s tank) near Auburn on the West Point and Montgomery Railroad. Rousseau’s cavalry had already rampaged through Auburn.

A cadet officer in the Alabama Corps of Cadets (ACC) during the Civil War. (Credit: Hoole Special Collections Library, University of Alabama. Reprinted from The Young Lions: Confederate Cadets at War, 1997, by James Lee Conrad)



On July 18, 1864, at Beasley’s Farm, some six miles east of Chehaw Station, the two sides collided in a spirited fight following a foiled ambush attempt by Rousseau’s cavalry. Pouring from the train and fighting from behind a rail fence, the Confederates eventually took cover in a ravine. Depending upon which side’s report you read, either the South won the battle or the Federals did – each side claimed victory! However, Confederate casualties numbered about 80 including some 40 killed, compared with the far lighter losses of three killed and 8-10 wounded for the seasoned and heavily armed (Spencer carbines) Union cavalrymen. Two of the Katydid Cadets were wounded, the first casualties of the war for the Alabama Corps of Cadets (ACC) as a unit.

A Katydid Cadet from the University of Alabama during the Civil War. (Credit as above)



At any rate, the Katydid Cadets reportedly moved on to the village of Auburn where they were technically still on furlough. The East Alabama Male College (1856), later Auburn University, was closed for the war and the buildings were being used as a Confederate hospital for some 400 Texas soldiers. Sound familiar? Sorry, no, the Katydid Cadets did not party down at the KA House on the Auburn campus, but it does appear that the Katydid Cadets were warmly received and that they did find “comfort” in Auburn.

East Alabama Male College (Old Main), Auburn, Alabama, in 1883. (Credit: Auburn University Libraries Special Collections and Archives)



A company of University of Alabama cadets in 1893 in front of Woods Hall, built by architect James T. Murfee after the Civil War. Murfee, who served as commandant of the Alabama Corps of Cadets during the Civil War, founded and served as the first president of Marion Military Institute. (Credit: Hoole Special Collections Library, University of Alabama. Reprinted from History of the University of Alabama, 1953, by James B. Sellers)