Miss Alice speaks at the school's Centennial. The three men are, from the left, Reverend Robert Ashe of Pleasant Plains Baptist Church, John Pierce - now Hertford County Commisioner and President of the Commuter's Club that owns the Freeland Gymnasium, and Winton's Mayor Carter Jones.

Memories of C.S. Brown School

Written by Alice Jones Nickens

Part Two

The first building built on the campus was named Chowan Academy. Forty men gave $10.00 each for buying material, A three-story building, the first floor was a printing office and two classrooms. The second floor was used for a chapel, and the third floor was used for the boarding students.

That building was located near where Morehouse Hall was later built, and in later years the building was sold to the Masons and was moved across the Cofield road where it now stands. It was still used as a classroom for grades one to four, and this is the building in which I first entered school in 1909.

The second building was a two-story building. The first floor was used for classrooms, and the second floor was used for the out-of-town girls who boarded.

Recreation

Dr. Brown believed in the old saying that all work and no play make Jack a dull boy. So from the first grade we were given time to have some play. In the elementary grades we played drop the handkerchief, Ring around the Rosie, hide and seek, hopscotch, marbles and jump rope.

In the high school the young people had a very good ball team. They played ball with all the adjoining communities. The girls would break most any home rules to see our team play.

Waters Training School Students at the net. The third girl from the right is Dr. Brown's daughter, Eunice, who won prizes in tennis while enrolled at Virginia State College.
Courtesy of Alice Jones Nickens.

We also had a fair at the King’s field on Tunis Road for several years. Blacks were allowed to attend and ride on the moving vehicles and buy food, but they could not even enter their horses to race unless they hired a white driver. So some of the Negro leaders met and organized what is now the Atlantic District Fair, which is about fifty years old, and the white fair closed their gates in Hertford County.

We always had excellent English teachers, especially Dr. Brown’s family, and under their instruction we put on dramas in close competition with those on TV and Broadway today. The elementary department had operettas especially at commencement. In tact, commencement lasted at least for a week. On Sunday was the Baccalaureate program. On Monday night the primary department, or sometimes every grade, would have a night of entertainment for the public.

People would begin assembling before the sun went down, and the children in the program had been scrubbed and cleaned like only on rare occasions to perform for proud parents. The fare for everyone was ten cents except for babies, which would be brought in free. Each night for a week commencement was very much in evidence, and the performances were superb. It was usually ended with class night about Thursday and a real drama on Friday night put on by seniors only. About once a year the faculty would have a drama. I remember being in a couple myself like “What About Betty”. Many town people still call me Betty.

I will never forget the Lyceums we always had on Friday nights when we could really show off our talents. We recited poems by poets such as Longfellow and Dunbar. We debated about things that were happening in our vicinity and in the nation. I remember one I was in about “Why educate the girls and neglect the boys?” We played duets and sang in groups. It was very competitive, but we learned so much by participating, and the nicest part was that after the program, the fellows walked with the young ladies through the muddy path home, sometimes having to dodge cows.

It was always nice to be able, with your parents’ consent, to invite a boarding girl home for the weekend and vice versa.

Player pianos were very popular in that day. I remember spending several holidays with the Coopers in Como. They had a player piano, and oh what fun we had dancing to the music of old songs like “Oh, You Beautiful Doll” and other popular tunes!

There was as much competition then between the girls who boarded in the building and the town or walking students as we have experienced lately between the Ahoskie [Robert L. Vann High School] and Winton high school students.

For one year only, before integration, a local radio station had a quiz bowl between all high schools in the Roanoke Chowan section. You don’t have to ask who come out first - dear old C. S. Brown... .we beat them all.

We were just tops in the good old days. We had students who traveled in drama and always came home with honors. Our agriculture fellows always won wherever they went. I would say the same bout athletics, but I just can’t. It seems we had the brain but not the brawn. After Ahoskie was able to get a high school [Vann] in 1938, they always beat us in athletics.

We won many medals and cups when we went away for contests with other schools. In some subjects we brought back cups -- in agriculture, drama, home economics, and English.

Religion

When Dr. Brown came to Winton to stay, he came as a pastor f or Pleasant Plains Church. He was their first colored minister. The church was organized for free-born blacks and white indentured servants. He liked the people and his job. He had been trained to preach at Shaw University. In his spare time before he took the job at Chowan Academy, he taught a few of the children in the community. He soon visited the other sections of the county and found himself with a church for every Sunday. Among them Phillipi at Cofield, New Hope in Gates County, and Mt. Moriah at Como. The churches at that time had services once a month.

He brought his religion with him when he opened Chowan Academy. He called together 40 men in the community, and each one paid $10.00, and this was the beginning of the Chowan Educational Association, or as we know it today, the West Roanoke Baptist Association. It was really organized as an association to help with the expenses of the school, but also to do missionary work at home and abroad. He also was the one who started the Lott Carey Convention. That is still a thriving organization among Baptists in this country and abroad. His nephew, Reverend Wendell Somerville, took Dr. Brown’s place in that organization when he passed on, and is still head of that great organization. Dr. Brown was one of the founders of the State Baptist convention and held the office of corresponding secretary for many years.

When Dr. Brown came to Hertford County he brought a printing machine. The school put out a newspaper each month, and it was an excellent paper. Copies were sold all over North Carolina. This was another method to let people know what was going on in the school and community. It was also used for income and to spread religion. People also put ads in it and notes from mission circles in the county and church or religious news.

Courtesy of Michelle Felton

Dr. Brown always emphasized religion and how to live. In the minds of the students, this was especially emphasized at Morning Exercises and Wednesday night prayer meetings. Everyone liked to attend prayer meeting, for it was here that you could smile at your boyfriend, and maybe even get him to walk home with you. I can still hear hymns like “In the Garden” and “Sweet Hour of Prayer’ in my memory as they were sung. We were also taught the Bible in our curriculum, and we had school clubs like What I Can Society, BYP [Baptist Young Peoples], and YMCA. In the church and on the campus different young people led the religious meetings at times, and I think this early training has followed them through life.

At least once a year Dr. Brown would have an evangelist come and hold services for a week, and as usual he always had the best he could find, regardless of how far away they lived. At this time many students joined the churches of their choice having professed a belief in Christ.

Chapel Exercises

I really don’t know why it was called “Chapel Exercise”, but every morning the old school bell on a tall pole near Moore House Hall rang for five minutes, and every one had to be ready and in their seats in the auditorium by that time. Some of the town children ran all the way because punctuality was stressed, and Dr. Brown would call your name out in a gruff voice if you were late. We usually started out with a patriotic song like “America”, “The Star Spangled Banner’ or “Ho, for Carolina” followed by a salute to the flag, a prayer, then scripture. Dr. Brown would repeat quotations like “Good, Better, Best”, and he would explain what they meant.

He would tell us how to be polite, how to cooperate, and how to treat our neighbors. If you had been real bad, you might be called to the stage for a real whipping. This happened mostly to the boys, because the teachers could handle the girls. We repeated Bible verses and sang hymns. We marched out two by two to the tune of “Onward Christian Soldiers” or some other marching tune. These lessons are things I have never forgotten. I feel we don’t have enough now in any of our schools. Teachers, even with aides, do not have the time to love the children and instill in them ideals for future citizenship. This is just my opinion. They have so much written work to do and so many reports to make out.

["Memories..." continues in the August-September, 2006 Edition]