THE SNOW HILL INSTITUTE PAPERS COLLECTION. Finding Aid. Call number: HC7. Extent: 2 ½ cubic feet

Transcription

1 THE SNOW HILL INSTITUTE PAPERS COLLECTION Finding Aid Call number: HC7 Extent: 2 ½ cubic feet Black Belt Archives, Station 45, Livingston, AL

2 SNOW HILL INSTITUTE PAPERS COLLECTION SERIES DECRIPTION AND CONTAINER LIST Location Number: HC7: Room 1, Shelf 1 Finding Aid Title: The Snow Hill Institute Papers Collection Physical Description: 2 ½ cubic feet Physical Location: Black Belt Archives: Room 1; Shelf 1 Introduction: Maris Mott Dauphin, the sister of longtime Snow Hill Institute trustee Mack C. Mott, donated the Snow Hill Institute Papers Collection to the University of West Alabama in May The collection totals about 2 ½ cubic feet of records and contains 2 letter boxes, 1 half-size letter box, and 1 oversized document box. The arrangement of the records is chronological and alphabetical by record series within a particular year. Many folders in this collection hold records created over a number of years rather than a single year, and are thus assigned a date range. In these instances, the folder is classified chronologically based on the earliest date of the included records. There are no access restrictions on the records in the Snow Hill Institute Papers Collection. Institutional History: The school that came to be known as the Snow Hill Institute was founded in 1893 by William James Edwards in a one-room cabin in northeastern Wilcox County. Edwards named the school the Colored Literary and Industrial School. 1 A former pupil of Booker T. Washington at the Tuskegee Institute, Edwards emulated Washington s educational philosophy by implementing a curriculum rooted in technical instruction. Edwards hoped that his school would provide the African-Americans of west Alabama with the practical knowledge needed to run efficient farms, operate a smithy, or work on industrial machinery. Snow Hill Institute also offered some instruction in the liberal arts. In expanding and improving the facilities at Snow Hill, Edwards relied on both local and northern benefactors. A civic-minded, white Wilcox County planter and Confederate Army veteran named R.O. Simpson donated 100 acres and the one-room cabin to Edwards to enable Snow Hill s foundation. The Simpson family eventually sold Edwards s burgeoning school 1900 more acres of land. Edwards took 14 classes at Harvard University and convinced northern philanthropists interested in improving the condition of black southerners to donate money to Snow Hill Institute during his time in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1

3 By the early 1920s, Snow Hill Institute could boast of 27 buildings, a staff of 35, and over 400 students. Many of the additional buildings were erected by Snow Hill s former and current students of architecture and building science. 2 Snow Hill graduates went on to further the educational mission of Washington and Edwards, founding the Utica Normal and Industrial Institute (Mississippi), Laurinburg Normal and Industrial School (North Carolina), Street Manual Training School (Alabama), and Perdue Hill School (Alabama). While principal of the Snow Hill Institute, Edwards also founded the Black Belt Improvement League, an organization devoted to the promotion of quality agricultural work, home ownership, increased education, and a healthy lifestyle amongst the African-Americans of Alabama s Black Belt. By the time of his 1924 retirement, Snow Hill Institute s prosperity belied its humble origins. Edwards s personal history mirrors the story of Snow Hill Institute. In his memoir, Twenty-Five Years In the Black Belt, Edwards recounts his childhood as an invalid cripple afflicted by scrofula and consigned to the dirt floor of a shanty, his excruciating convalescence from this condition via habitual knife-scraping of dead bone tissue on his elbow and heel, his successful academic career at Tuskegee (he was salutatorian of his class), and the foundation of Snow Hill. 3 Snow Hill Institute was operated as a private school until Edwards s retirement, but thereafter the state took over administration. In January 2011, Edwards was inducted to the Black Belt Hall of Fame. As the twentieth century progressed, African-Americans and whites moved away from Alabama s Black Belt in large numbers. Snow Hill Institute s enrollment suffered accordingly. The school finally closed in 1973 in the wake of the desegregation of the Wilcox County school system. The Snow Hill Institute Board of Trustees continued to maintain and lease the timber land owned by the school and initiated several aborted attempts to re-open Snow Hill. Snow Hill Institute was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in Consuela Lee, a noted jazz pianist and Edwards s granddaughter (who was also the aunt of Academy Award-nominated director Spike Lee), opened a performing arts school on the site of Snow Hill in 1980 called the Springtree/Snow Hill Institute. Lee s Springtree/Snow Hill Institute closed in Scope and Content Note: Inclusive Dates: 1840 to Bulk Dates: 1910 to The Snow Hill Institute Papers Collection contains records in categories including, but not limited to, Board of Trustees Correspondence and Minutes, Contracts, Mortgage Deeds, Property Descriptions, Insurance Policies, and Bank Statements and Deposit Slips. Most of the collection consists of paper records, but the collection also includes surveyor s photographs of tracts of 2 Ibid. 3 William J. Edwards, Twenty-Five Years in the Black Belt (Boston: Cornhill Company, 1918),

4 land. This collection contains information about the acquisition of land to create Snow Hill Institute and documentary evidence of the property s ownership, correspondence between Edwards, the Board of Trustees, and Robert R. Moton, a contemporary of Edwards and the influential successor to Washington as principal of the Tuskegee Institute, the value of timber on the school s property, the sale of school property during the 1960s and 1970s, a scandal involving a corrupt principal in 1966 and 1967, and attempts to reopen Snow Hill after its 1973 closure. Researchers interested in the history of Snow Hill Institute, African-American education in Alabama s Black Belt, and how a Board of Trustees manages a school s affairs after it closes will find merit in this collection. Series Descriptions: Bank Statements and Deposit Slips This series contains records from Wilcox County financial institutions such as the Camden National Bank. These statements show how much money Snow Hill had in savings. One set of bank statements pertains to the school s building fund. Board of Trustees Correspondence This series of folders includes a variety of information. Some relay information about conflicts between board members over issues such as financial policy, academic policy, deals with timber companies, and what land Snow Hill should acquire or sell. The folder in this series documents a case of financial misappropriation that threatened the solvency of Snow Hill and a bitter dispute between Edwards and the Board of Trustees concerning the rescission of $125 which had previously been granted him for life. Contracts/Deeds/Mortgages/Property Descriptions Often found stored in bundles together by the original creator, these documents outline the dimensions of Snow Hill s property and impart how that property was acquired during the 1890s and early twentieth century and sold off during the 1960s and 1970s. Insurance Policies The records within this series (almost all of which are oversized) show which buildings had fire insurance coverage on Snow Hill Institute property. Coincidentally, this provides the researcher with an idea of how many buildings were on campus at any given time as well as where those buildings were positioned on Snow Hill s land.

5 SNOW HILL INSTITUTE PAPERS COLLECTION SERIES DECRIPTION AND CONTAINER LIST Location Number: HC7: Room 1, Shelf 1 Finding Aid Container Listing Box # C to 1966 B Folder Name Folder Number Finding Aid Contracts/Deeds Deeds Bills/Contracts/Mortgages/W.J. 4 Edwards Correspondence 1873 Mortgage Deed Contracts/Deeds/Wills Contracts/Deeds/Indentures/Property 7 Descriptions ,1973 Copies of Snow Hill Articles 8 of Incorporation and Amendments/Bill for Copies Contracts/Deeds/Mortgages/Property 9 Descriptions Contracts/Deeds/Property Descriptions Insurance Policies Farm Loan Contracts Contracts/Deeds/Property Descriptions Automobile Fund Personal Correspondence Robert R. 15 Moton Board of Trustees/Lawsuit 16 Correspondence I Board of Trustees/Lawsuit 17 Correspondence II Contracts/Property Descriptions Legal Correspondence Martha Simpson Cotton Producers Note Contracts/Indentures/Property 21 Descriptions Insurance Policies Survey of Lots Maps 24

6 Brewer and Harris Camden Academy Track and Field 26 Ribbon 1950 Addresses Bills and Receipts Board of Trustees/Timber Land 29 Management Correspondence Surveyor Overhead Pictures and Maps 30 of Martha Simpson Land Surveyor Overhead Pictures 31 Gilmore Property 1962 Board of Trustees Correspondence Bids 32 Principal Vacancy Lawrence C. Johnson Board of 33 Trustees Minutes/Financial Statements/Personal Correspondence Bills and Receipts Board Meeting Minutes/Contract Bid 35 Notebook Loose Records from Board of 36 Trustees Book/Leases, Correspondence, Bills, etc Donor Correspondence Hackney Brothers Body Company 38 Bank Statements and Deposit Slips Building Fund Receipts Tax Forms Board of Trustees 40 Correspondence/Financial Statements Mack C. Mott Building Fund Camden National 41 Bank 1965 Dallas County Property Pasture Improvement Costs Bank Statements and Deposit Slips 44 Camden National Bank Box # P to Undated S Folder Name Folder Number Principal Correspondence 1

7 1967 Business Correspondence William M. 2 Wright 1967 Lease Contract Timber Sales Estimates Pomeroy and McGowin Timber Cruise 5 Sheets Gilmore Property Property Dimensions/Timber 6 Estimates Gilmore Property I Property Dimensions/Timber 7 Estimates Gilmore Property II 1969 Commencement Announcement Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes Scholarship Letters Commencement Personal Correspondence Martha 12 Simpson Snow Hill Taxes 1972 Lease Contract Lot Surveys Personal Correspondence Henry E. 15 Deyo, Jr Purchase Option Board of Trustees 17 Correspondence/Committee for Re-Opening Snow Hill/Institute Bylaws 1982 Tax Exemption Correspondence 18 Undated Christmas Cards 19 Undated Contract 20 Undated Maps/Property Descriptions 21 Undated Scratch Legal Pad 22 Box # Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes Book Box #4 Oversized Items 1889 M to 1946 P Item Name Item Number 1889 Mortgage Deed Snow Hill Act of Incorporation Copies Charter Amendment Copies Deeds Mortgage Note Hartford Insurance Company Policy Mortgage Deeds Leslie L. Taylor Mortgage Deed Rivers Wheeler Springfield Insurance Company Policy Springfield Insurance Company Policy 10

8 1925 Hartford Fire Insurance Company Policy Springfield Insurance Company Policy National Union Fire Insurance Company 13 Policy 1926 Springfield Insurance Company Policy Springfield Insurance Company Policy Springfield Insurance Company Policy Springfield Insurance Company Policy Springfield Insurance Company Policy Mortgage Deed Hartford Fire Insurance Company Policy Hartford Fire Insurance Company Policy Blueprint Snow Hill Institute Tract Property Map 23