Augusta County: "Miss Baldwin: A Brief Memoir," by Armistead C. Gordon, March 6, 1925
Summary: Account of Mary Julia Baldwin's heading of a school in wartime Staunton
Miss Mary Julia Baldwin
In November, 1863, there had been war in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia for more than two years. Three of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse had galloped back and forth through its once fertile expanse, and left in their wake death and destruction and desolation; and the shadow of the fourth constantly loomed on the horizon.
Barns and fences had been burned, live stock had been carried off, and agriculture, which had once made the region to blossom as a rose, was at a standstill. Food and clothing and the bare necessities of life were practically unobtainable. Flour sold at eighty dollars a barrel. Other provisions were equally costly in comparison, and all were difficult to obtain. Clothing for both men and women was beyond the purses of even the most prosperous, who like their poorer neighbors wore their "old garments," or those of more recent homespun manufacture. The Valley was filled with newly made graves, and in the little town of Staunton, wounded men and prisoners were no unaccustomed sight.
By the summer of 1863 every school in the place had been closed on account of the distractions and disasters of the War. Other things than education occupied the minds and hearts of most of its men and women. The harsh inevitable present had to be met as best might be. There was little time to reflect on the future and to consider that when the misery of it all should come to an end a younger generation would have to take up the burden of life; and in order to bear it must be educated.
Out of the stress and wretchedness of the time, which grew greater as the weeks passed, emerged the heroic figure of a woman, who with clear vision looked into the uncertain future, and with noble courage and indomitable resolution set mind and heart to meeting the future's un- escapable needs. Her earlier life had been spent with no anticipation that her career was to be what it became. Modest and retiring, at the age of thirty-four years, Miss Mary Julia Baldwin was little known to the people of the community in which she lived as possessing the latent qualities that were to make the great educator and wise administrator, which her subsequent career so splendidly demonstrated.
The Augusta Female Seminary had been established in the summer of 1842 by the Reverend Rufus W. Bailey, a native of Maine, who had earlier taught in South Carolina. Mr. Bailey was a scholarly man of much ability; and opening his school for the education of girls and young women, with the advice and assistance of prominent citizens in the town and county he made it from the start a seminary of high grade, under Presbyterian influence and control.
The corner-stone of the first building for the Seminary was laid on the 15th of June, 1844; and in it was deposited a copper-plate engraved with the names of the Trustees, officers, and pupils, and a copy of the Bible inscribed "The only Book of Faith and first text-book of the Augusta Female Seminary."
In 1845 the school was incorporated under the name of Augusta Female Seminary; and it bore that title until two years before the death of Miss Baldwin, who had made it one of the most distinguished and successful institutions of learning of its kind in the United States, it was called the "Mary Baldwin Seminary."
Mr. Bailey's administration, which lasted until 1849, was successful, as were those of the several principals who came after him; yet at no time did the school ever achieve the importance which was given it by the administration of Miss Baldwin. Its last principal before her advent was Mr. John B. Tinsley, who kept it open in the battle-years from 1861 to 1863. But the numbers of pupils were greatly reduced and the places of boarders were filled with refugees who fled to Staunton from the vicinity of the contending armies.
The auspices under which the Seminary had been founded were very favorable from the standpoint of morality and religion; but for a time it was confronted with financial difficulties. Its associations from the beginning were distinguished, for it grew up in the shadow of a great church, that has numbered among its pastors many of the most eminent divines of the Presbyterian denomination. James Waddell, known to Americans as "the Blind Preacher," at one time ministered to the congregation, and Joseph R. Wilson, the father of the great War President, later served in its pulpit. The leading men of the community manifested a deep and abiding interest in its welfare. The old church building where the Rev. Mr. Wilson preached, and in which his famous son was baptized, has for many years formed a part of the school-buildings; and about the place young Wilson was accustomed to play when he occasionally visited it in his childhood.
But nothing ever served to so awaken it and set it on the high road to usefulness and great achievement as did the coming of Miss Baldwin as its Principal.
Miss Mary Julia Baldwin was the daughter of Dr. William D. Baldwin, of Staunton, and Margaret L. Sowers, his wife. She was left an orphan at the age of sixteen years and grew up under the care of her maternal grandparents, who were people of piety and religious life. They early developed her natural qualities and benevolence and self-sacrifice; and her heart went out to the many poorer children of the town, whom she saw growing up, in the absence of public schools, without the opportunities of even the most meagre instruction. She first attracted attention as a teacher in the Sunday School. Possessing a small competence derived from her father's estate, she rented a modest school room, and enlisting the sympathy and aid of several other young ladies, she opened a charity-school, which she conducted with whole-souled devotion and success for several years. Her heart was in the work, and even as a young woman she had formed the purpose of making teaching her profession, not merely as a means of support, but because of the good she felt she could do and the useful career which it offered. Upon the death in 1862 of her grandmother, with whom she lived, she rented suitable premises and began the conduct of a private school.
It was while engaged in this occupation which promised a modest success, and with no thought or aspiration of a more ambitious or distinguished career, that she was offered the vacant principalship of the Seminary.
Among the Trustees of the institution was a citizen of Staunton, later well known as a publicist and an author, whose interest in the Seminary had always been marked, and who continued one of its best and most influential friends until his death in the fulness of years, long after the re-vitalized school had come into its own. Mr. Joseph Addison Waddell, a man of fine business sense and judgment and of eminent piety, had observed the beneficent and unselfish life of the young school-teacher, and knew her lofty character, her intelligent equipment, and her administrative capacity. He approached her on his own motion with the proposition that she should take charge of the Seminary as Mr. Tinsley's successor, in conjunction with Miss Agnes McClung as matron and housekeeper.
They were both disposed to regard the offer unfavorably, but through no feeling other than one of modesty and a doubt of their capacity successfully to undertake it. But Mr. Waddell, who possessed a well-founded confidence that these two women could make a larger success of the school than any of the worthy men who had preceded them were able to do, without arguing the matter further with them, presented their names to the Trustees. They were elected, and accepted the trust.
Thus is came about that Miss Baldwin was one of the pioneers in conduct and management of higher institutions of learning for young women in America. It had been customary theretofore for such schools and colleges to be in charge of men, but her experience demonstrated the field to be one for which the right type of woman was best adapted.
The task which she essayed was one calculated, under the conditions that confronted her, to appal any person of feebler fiber or weaker will. She had a clear understanding of its difficulties, an experience in dealing with young women and girls, and a confident belief that it was the finger of God that pointed the way in which she might accomplish the greatest good for humanity. Her religious faith was very great, and to this faith, even more than to her valiant spirit, her unusual ability, and her indomitable will, the triumphant accomplishment of her mission in life in attributable.
The sublime language and meaning of St. Paul's saying to the Philippians were in her heart and mind and thenceforth were wrought into the fabric of her life: "I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before." Animated by this spirit, she felt that, in the providence of God, failure was impossible; and she never deviated from her set purpose.
The school, which most people thought could not continue to struggle on in the poverty, the distractions and the sorrows of the War, that were then at their flood-tide, was advertised by the two new principals to open on the first day of October, 1863. The buildings were almost entirely unfurnished, and there were scarcely household articles enough remaining to equip the sleeping rooms of even the Principals; and there was no furniture to be obtained in the shops. But the two dauntless women were as resourceful as they were courageous. "In the dilemma," says Mr. Waddell, "the Principals resorted to the expedient of borrowing from their friends. No man would or could have started under such circumstances; but many persons were ready and anxious to help two ladies so well known and so highly esteemed. When a boarder was entered, all necessary chamber and table furniture had to be borrowed - bedding, towels, chairs, dishes and plates, cups and saucers, knives and forks; and the dwellings of many persons were stripped of all articles that could be spared."
In the meantime by advertisement and the personal invitation of themselves and their many friends, who were inspired by the energy and determination of the new Principals, boarding-pupils from various directions were enrolled and day-scholars were entered; and on the opening day the Seminary, refurnished and re-equipped, though in a meagre fashion, opened with fifty-eight day-pupils and twenty-two boarders - probably a larger number than in any preceding session.
One of Miss Baldwin's distinguishing characteristics was the possession of a keen knowledge and understanding of men and women. "Common sense" is a rarer and more valuable faculty than "uncommon sense;" and the ability to "look through every other man with silent sharp inspection" was a quality which she possessed in a remarkable degree. She made no mistakes in choosing the teachers and officials, whose selection rested chiefly with her; and among the earliest of her instructors was the accomplished Miss Eliza Howard, a sister-in-law of Dr. William H. McGuffey, the famous professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Virginia, whose "Spellers," with their a-b's and e-b's, and Primers and Readers opened up the ways of knowledge to many children of a past generation. Miss Baldwin's adventure with the School greatly interested Dr. McGuffey; and recognizing her fine qualities and her courageous efforts, he came to her academic assistance and aided her freely with his experienced advice and counsel in organizing its courses of instruction and its general educational plan and system.
She had no foolish pride in her own knowledge or capacity; and with the modest simplicity of wisdom and intelligence, she consulted those whose advice she believed would be valuable, and upon whose interest in her plans she could confidently rely as genuine and sincere.
Napoleon said that every soldier in his army carried a Marshal's baton in his knapsack; and Miss Baldwin showed in her selection of associates and employees that she understood and appreciated the meaning of the apothegm. It would be pleasant, if space permitted it, to recall the roster of those who in her long vigil and work of thirty-four years, rendered her the loyal and intelligent assistance which is a splendid part of the history of the Seminary. To name only a few of these noble women would be invidious; to mention them all in this paper is impossible.
In making the announcement of the opening of the School, Miss Baldwin further exhibited her marked characteristic of common sense. Her whole life had been spent in Staunton, where she was born; and no one knew better than she did the economic straits to which the country had better than she did the economic straits to which the country had been reduced by the ravages of war. As in the case of producing the furniture for the school, she was equal to the yet more difficult emergency of providing proper food for her boarders. The currency of the time was very greatly depreciated; and while her patriotic devotion to the cause for which her people were struggling burned with a steady flame to the tragic end, she saw that in the devastated Valley little could be accomplished, if she had to rely on purchases of supplies with the almost valueless Confederate notes. She "stipulated," says Mr. Waddell, "that as far as possible the payments for board and tuition should be made in country produce, - flour, corn, meats, butter, poultry, eggs, vegetables, wood for fuel, hay for a cow, and sorghum."
The plan worked admirably, and the girls in the Seminary through her wisdom and pre-vision fared, not sumptuously, but in some respects better than did the fighting armies in the field.
A characteristic account of the Seminary, in its wartime days under Miss Baldwin, has been written by one of her former pupils:
"Friends were very kind and sent contributions of every sort. The dinner-table presented a queer appearance, set as it was with odds and ends gathered from everywhere, no two cups and saucers alike, here a kitchen knife and there a silver one, while a stately cut-glass goblet was arranged alongside of a heavy china mug; but young appetites are not fastidious, and the girls grew strong and hearty, no matter if butter and gravy never appeared at the same meal, or if their coffee was made from rye and sweetened with sorghum......The furniture of the rooms, like that of the dinner-table, was collected here and there, no two pieces being alike."
The resolution and resourcefulness of the new administration overcame every difficulty. The school became at once a great success, and so continued. But, curiously enough, with the end of the war came a repetition of some of the chief difficulties which it had encountered in 1863. The Principals had no money that would pass current, and the friends who had loaned furniture were compelled to reclaim it on account of the necessities in their own homes. But character in business is the foundation of credit; and by degrees the Seminary was refurnished. Within three years, after the surrender at Appomattox, the school has 137 pupils, including not only those from Virginia, but others from Georgia, West Virginia, Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, Illinois and Ohio on its roster. It had ceased to be a local institution; and its influence had begun to penetrate the whole South and parts of the West.
Of its subsequent development in buildings, equipment, faculty, broad scholarship and beneficent moral and religious influence, there is no room to speak here in detail, further than to state that in each of these phases of its life is visible the influence of Miss Baldwin. Her ability as an organizer and as an administrator was only one side of her splendidly rounded character as a great educator. Another side, less known to the general public, but equally significant in making the institution under her charge a notable success, was what may be called the domestic one. In her contact with the members of her faculty and with her pupils, she illustrated that indescribable influence, often exercised by individuals of unique mind and character, which accomplishes results without fuss or parade, and so unobtrusively as almost to escape observation. She possessed in large measure all the domestic virtues. With her strong religious feeling and her original individualism were blended unwearying compassion, good temper, conscientious devotion to duty, and an affection, which while it was not unduly demonstrative, was always broad and generous. In her personal habits of neatness, dignity, consideration, courtesy and forbearance, she taught better lessons than those learned in books.
Without pretensions to wide scholarship, but with the capacity to recognize its value, in her selection of her teachers she looked to the establishment of the highest standards in the School; and the diploma of the graduate became thenceforth the conclusive testimonial of a thorough cultural and scholarly proficiency.
Benevolent and charitable to all worthy persons and objects, unselfish in her dealings with her fellows, liberal in her contributions to religious causes, she embodied in her career, to a degree unexcelled by that of any other American woman, the qualities that are to be found in the great teachers of youth in England and in this country, - of Arnold of Rugby, of William Everett of Quincy, of the two Colemans and Gordon McCabe in Virginia, and of Moses Waddell, the famous schoolmaster of Willington, South Carolina.
Bibliographic Information: Source copy consulted: Miss Baldwin, A Brief Memoir, The McClure Co., Inc. Printers, Staunton, Virginia, p.3-11
