Miss Alice on screen at Ahoskie's Gallery Theatre in February, 2009 during the WINTON TRIANGLE stage production. .She is introducing a segment about her mother, Annie Walden Jones. Sandi Goolsby, Miss Alice's great-great neice, is playing Annie Walden Jones, Sandi's great-great grandmother.
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Memories of C.S. Brown School
Written by Alice Jones
Nickens
Part Five
Mr. Hugh Callie Freeland,
Second President
Hugh Callie Freeland was born and educated in Tallahassee, Florida, and
entered North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina. He
received his Masters degree at New York University.
Mr. Freeland continued the work of Dr. Brown.
He became principal in the fall of 1936 after the death of Dr. Brown.
Mr. Freeland was a very dedicated and efficient person. He was married
to Emma Hall, and to that union one girl,
Shirley, was born.
During his tenure, the school moved on. A new gymnasium was built as Well as a lunchroom. The gym was named the H. C. Freeland gymnasium. The faculty purchased the first school bus and paid for it through their own efforts during the time he was principal.
At the time of his death, he was a member of the Board of Trustees of Roanoke Chowan Hospital and Roanoke Chowan Technical College. He was also a member of the Hertford County Industrial Development Commission, the National Teachers Association, Hertford County Teachers Association, Hertford County Small Business Association, Town of Winton Planning Board, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Boy Scouts of America, and Chairman of the Board of Pleasant Plains Church.
School Board
Like all private schools, the school from the beginning had a Board of Trustees to help make decisions and advise the principal.
Some of the first board members included J. B. Catus,
president; M. T. Pope, financial secretary; [W.D.] Newsome, treasurer;
and [Isaac] Boone, secretary. Most of these lived in the community. Other
members were J. 0. Hollomon of St. John, Reverend A. Parker of Potecasi,
William Scott and Nicholas Lassiter both of Woodland, R. A. Reynolds of
Murfreesboro, David Rooks of Gates, Reverend A. Cooper of Winton, Isaac
Jordan of Como, and Levi Brown of Winton. These men are due a great deal
of praise because they worked with the school when the going was really
difficult.
| Alumni We are very proud of the students who finished our school. The first graduate and the only one at the end of four years was Annie Walden. She was an excellent student, and her parents sent her on to Shaw University for two years. At that time teachers in Hertford County had to take an examination. It was said that she took the examination and made the highest marks made by any person that had ever taken the test to qualify for a teaching certificate. She taught in the public schools in Hertford County until her health failed. She did not teach many years. She married Eff Richard Jones, and to this union thirteen children were born. Three died in infancy, two died after their father who died in 1916. Eight of her children graduated from C. S. Brown school and went on to institutions of higher education and have been credits to their parents. At present eight are living, all in their 70's and 80's. The family has maintained their old home on Main Street in Winton that has been in the family for nearly one hundred years. We are very proud of the C. S. Brown students who have attended some of the best school in the country and graduated with honors. I will name a few that have made their way into the headlines of the media. Some of the noted graduates are Dr. Basil Weaver, Dr. Voight Jones, Dr. Garon Weaver, [Dr. Clayton Asa Robbins], Dr. Joseph Jones, Dr. Joe Dudley Weaver, Dr. Terry Hall, Dr. Roy Flood and Dr. Sessoms. The lawyers were Mabel Turner, District Attorney in Eastern Pennsylvania; Lawyer Dale Evans, Los Angeles, California; Judge Alretta Melton, Greensboro, North Carolina; Laverne Jones, New York City [attorney]; and Lawyer Floyd Hall of Virginia. Distinguished graduates also included The Honorable
Hobson Reynolds, Grand Exalted Ruler of the Elks, undertaker and
politician in Washington under President Eisenhower; Robert L. Vann,
President of Pittsburgh Educators and Assistant District Attorney
of Franklin Roosevelt County; Dr. Ruth Brett, Baltimore, Maryland;
Dr. J. L. S. Holloman, Washington, D. C.; Dr. Rudolph Jones, Fayetteville,
North Carolina; Dr. Dudley Flood, Assistant to the State Superintendent
of Education in Raleigh, North Carolina; Dr. Alexander L. Scott,
first black to become assistant superintendent of schools in Virginia.
There were also Ross Newsome in ,~ agriculture in Petersburg, Virginia;
and businessmen such as Eley Reid, Andrew Watford, mechanic; Horace
Brown, mechanic; Jacobia Reid, Mercedes In the Army were Colonel Douglas Jones of Cofield and Captain Sonny Reid of Winton, North Carolina. Luke Jones actually went on to play with the New York Mets. There are several undertakers- Hobson Reynolds, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; the Weaver brothers, Royal and Purchase; the Hertford County Undertakers, Mrs. Dicie Smith and Mr. Calvin Hall; Reynolds Funeral Home, Odell and Catherine Reynolds and Agnes Rey; and the Hunter Funeral home, Madge Hunter and sons Howard, Jr. and Andrew. There are too many teachers to name from every state in the union, some earning more than fifty thousand dollars a year, and many with Masters and Doctorate degrees. There are also television performers. Max Robinson, the late television news anchor had parents and grandparents who were students of C. S. Brown. Ambrillas Cooper Lewis of Como, a 1921 graduate, was grandmother of Mickey Leland, Congressman from Texas. Dr. Hollomon taught and lived on campus in what was called the Hollomon House. He married my first teacher, Rosa Jones Hollomon. To this union were born five children. Three were born on campus and two more later when they moved to Washington, D. C. All but one of the children earned Doctorate degrees. Marjorie is married to Federal Judge Barrington Parker who was the judge in the famous Hinckley Case, the fellow who shot President Reagan.
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With the help of her children Carlton and Cassandra and Lynelle James Eure, Miss Alice celebrated her 105th birthday in April, 2009. Hertford County School Board member Dennis Deloatch presented Miss Alice with one of the flags given to spectators at the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Dennis and his family braved severe cold for long hours to attend. (I was out there too, but couldn't get onto the Mall). Shown here is T.W. Jones making his usual flirtations to Miss Alice. Standing over them is Marian Reid Flagg who was a student of Miss Alice's in the late 1920's. She came from Washington, DC for the party. Mrs. Flagg's first teacher was Annie Walden Jones, Miss Alice's mother. On the right in the back are Miss Alice's daughter Cassandra Nickens Jones and Dennis Deloatch. Photograph by Marvin T. Jones |
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| Things We Love To Remember About twice a year before 1920, bands of gypsies would come to town and set up camp across the road from the school near the Masonic Hall which was used for classrooms. Everyone in town would warn their children not to go near the gypsies, but we just couldn't resist the temptation of standing a good way back and watching them cook over an outdoor fire. They were beautiful brown skinned people with straight black hair usually hanging in long plaits. They had many children. They were dressed in brilliant colored skirts and blouses. They wore lots of jewelry and were barefooted or wore sandals depending on the weather. They usually spoke in a language unknown to us. They rode in closed wagons which were drawn by at least two horses. They liked to go to all the stores in groups and it was said they would steal from the merchants. No one clerk could watch that many people at one time. Many of our parents believed that they would steal children, and of course this made us afraid to go to bed while they were in the community. Every place they went, they wanted to tell the adults' fortunes for a fee. The school children were always happy to see them come and sad to see them go. The railroad passed Tunis and Cofield, and quite often tramps and hobos would steal rides on the boxcars on the train and ride without paying for tickets. Many of them would get off the train and wander to Winton. They would knock on doors and ask for food. They were usually dirty and ragged. They always needed a shave and they needed a haircut. Some of them would offer to cut some wood or do some other little chore around the house. Others only wanted food. If one child came to school and told that a tramp had been at their house, we would run all the way home. At least once each year men would come to the school walking with an animal. Sometimes it would be a bear, or sometimes it would be a monkey. We eagerly awaited their visits. Usually the animal would dance, and their owners could play an accordion or a banjo. The animals would do a few tricks before they passed a hat around for pennies that children might have left from what they brought from home to buy candy, cookies, or sour pickles. But it was certainly worth saving your pennies to see a monkey dance. You must remember that we did not have radios, TV's or any of the many things for entertainment that children have today, so those things meant very much to us. The animal men could not hitchhike from town to town because we did not have good roads or automobiles, so they would walk from town to town and sleep in the woods at night. Really, we always had the street people. We did not own cameras, so men would come from Suffolk
or Norfolk about twice a year, and our parents would make sacrifices
to see that their family had a family picture made and one of each
child. My mother told me she did not have a picture made of me when
I was a baby because she said no photographer came by at that time,
but I always teased her and said it was because I was a very ugly
baby. It is very interesting now to look at old pictures. We still
have a few of our school building, the children, and faculty. END |
Design Copyright 2010, Marvin T. Jones - all rights reserved