A Progressive School Community

V. C. Matthews

Pictures in the photo gallery show the transition, which has been a part of the growth, of Aurelian Springs High School from a one story log schoolhouse to a modern brick plant now housing more than 500 pupils and teachers The first picture in the gallery shows the school when V. C. Matthews came to the district. Beneath that is the front view of the main building as it was in 1923. One of the finest pieces of work done in the rural high schools of North Carolina is carried on at the Aurelian Springs High School located in the northwestern end of Halifax County. The illustrations indicate the development of this school from the one room log house used for a school in 1890, the abandoned storehouse used a school building during the early 1890s, the three-room frame building used up until 1924, and finally, the modern brick building containing six rooms and an auditorium which is being used at the present time. The improvement in the buildings themselves is indicative of the spirit of progress, which has made this school community famous for its support of a rural population. This is evident in the quality of the boys and girls who have received their training there. It was from the Aurelian Springs School that Harurah Heptinstall came to win first place in the statewide essay contest fostered by the N. C. Cotton Growers Co-operative Association last spring. Miss Heptinstall, after winning the State contest in which 65 rural high schools participated, was given a free educational trip to Washington, D. C., where she appeared before the Federal Farm Board in the National contest, winning second place. This was only one of the many contests in which representatives’ from this school have taken prominent part. Lorenzo Pittard, graduate of the 1930 class, represented the school last spring in an oratorical contest put on by the State branch of the American Legion, and won first place in the final contest at Raleigh. This school has furnished a debating squad in statewide debating contests six years in succession, and its teams have participated in the final contests at Chapel Hill five years out of the six. The school has never lost a county contest and one of its prized possessions is a silver loving cup, won several years ago in county debating. An alumni of the school received the highest honor last spring that can be given at the North Carolina College for Women, when she was awarded the $1,000 Weil prize.
One of the’ students, writing about the progress of the school and its various activities, gives full credit to its wide awake faculty, and especially to its superintendent, V. C, Matthews, who is declared to have won the admiration and respect of the student body, the community and the county during the eight years he has served. Former students of the Aurelian Springs School are justly proud of its record. The pictures show the development of its buildings are taken from photographs of paintings made by Mrs. Ferdinand Boseman of Scotland Neck, Formerly Miss Annie Cook, graduate of the Aurelian Springs School and later of Louisburg College. The present $75,000 school plant is modern in every respect, from the steam heating plant to the conveniently placed drinking fountains and its library containing 1,100 books.

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Aurelian Springs – A School at the Crossroads

1922-1937 V. C. Matthews, Principal

V. C. Matthews

On a cold winter Saturday in January in 1922, I was asked by the county superintendent of schools of Halifax County to go from Roanoke Rapids to Aurelian Springs to meet with the school committee. The only person I contacted was Mr. Ed W. Liles, Chairman of the local school board. He introduced himself as E. W. Liles, Chairman of the School Board, and asked, “What is your name?” I answered, “V. C. Matthews.” He said, “Mr. Matthews, how are you?” I answered, “I’m pretty good.” He informed me at once, that you may be good, but you lack a lot of being pretty. I responded to Mr. Liles, “If I apply for this job, and if I am approved, and if I accept this position, are you going to hold it against me because I am ugly?” “No sir,” Mr. Matthews, I’m not, because we’ve already had three different principals this year and we don’t want another change.” “Well, if I take this job, I’m planning to stay on it and not to leave it until you have a good school.” He said, “That is what we want.” I answered, “I have to have your cooperation, your support, and the support of the community in order to give you the kind of school that I hope to.” I’11 have to have a place to live Mr. Liles, and I was wondering if you had an available house I could live in. He said, “Mr. Matthews, I think we have what you want down at the parsonage right next to where I live. You go there and you will find our preacher, Mr. N. M. Wright. Nobody but himself is living in the parsonage. and I think you will be able to work out something with him.” I did-went to the parsonage, and there stepped out to meet me was Mr. Wright, an old schoolmate I was with at Trinity College. I was delighted to see him and he seemed to be glad to see me. From that we looked the situation over in the house and soon he said he would be delighted to have me come and live in the parsonage with him. So that seemed to work out very satisfactorily. Sunday, the following day, there was a service at the church. I returned for that service Sunday and went to the church and met quite a few people and we got acquainted and arranged for the opening of school the next morning at nine o’clock.
It was a cold Monday morning and I was dressed in my Florida underwear and clothes, and I was having a hard time staying warm. About that time there appeared on the scene a Mr. Callis who was buried in a bear-skin coat from head to toe and had some of the students there working like trojans to get some fire going in the stoves. He said to me, “Are you a stranger here?” “This is my first day here,” I replied. “It is yours?” “It certainly is.” “I just moved into the community.” I said, “Mr. Callis, how many children have you?” He said, “Five.” I said, “I am glad to meet you.” He sympathized with me and I sympathized with him.
Finally, we got things shaped up and more children came in and two additional teachers who were to be with me. Then I got acquainted with, them. Soon we had the school ready for the children to find their places and for us to find out how and when we were going to have some work done. The first thing we decided was that we would have a chapel exercise in the old auditorium. And we did. Miss Kenlaw, the primary teacher, was a very excellent music teacher and so she arranged these children around there and asked me for any special song. I said, “No, use any song you and your pupils are familiar with.” It seems to me that the First song that they sang was “Onward Christian Soldiers” and then they followed that with “Old McDonald Had a Farm.” That was when I commenced to get a feeling that children who could sing like that could do something else. I kinda proceeded on that basis. It proved that I was exactly right. For if you ever heard a group of country children “rare back” and throw their heads back and open their mouths with their little throats working like a mocking bird; they did it. I enjoyed that part of our program to the utmost.
From that we arranged for the children to go to various rooms-first for the primary children, then for the grammar grade, and the five or six people who were apparently prepared to take high school training. These advanced students were placed in the same room with the seventh grade. We got to going and the children were wide-awake and interested and took suggestions readily. The other teachers got things to moving. It wasn’t too long before we had forgotten some of our problems and were in full operation so far as everybody having something to do was concerned. It seems to me that the first day of school was to be long remembered. and I think you will be able to work out something with him.” I did-went to the parsonage, and there stepped out to meet me was Mr. Wright, an old schoolmate I was with at Trinity College. I was delighted to see him and he seemed to be glad to see me. From that we looked the situation over in the house and soon he said he would be delighted to have me come and live in the parsonage with him. So that seemed to work out very satisfactorily. Sunday, the following day, there was a service at the church. I returned for that service Sunday and went to the church and met quite a few people and we got acquainted and arranged for the opening of school the next morning at nine o’clock. It was a cold Monday morning and I was dressed in my Florida underwear and clothes, and I was having a hard time staying warm. About that time there appeared on the scene a Mr. Callis who was buried in a bear-skin coat from head to toe and had some of the students there working like trojans to get some fire going in the stoves. He said to me, “Are you a stranger here?” “This is my first day here,” I replied. “It is yours?” “It certainly is.” “I just moved into the community.” I said, “Mr. Callis, how many children have you?” He said, “Five.” I said, “I am glad to meet you.” He sympathized with me and I sympathized with him. Finally, we got things shaped up and more children came in and two additional teachers who were to be with me. Then I got acquainted with, them. Soon we had the school ready for the children to find their places and for us to find out how and when we were going to have some work done. The first thing we decided was that we would have a chapel exercise in the old auditorium. And we did. Miss Kenlaw, the primary teacher, was a very excellent music teacher and so she arranged these children around there and asked me for any special song. I said, “No, use any song you and your pupils are familiar with.” It seems to me that the First song that they sang was “Onward Christian Soldiers” and then they followed that with “Old McDonald Had a Farm.” That was when I commenced to get a feeling that children who could sing like that could do something else. I kinda proceeded on that basis. It proved that I was exactly right. For if you ever heard a group of country children “rare back” and throw their heads back and open their mouths with their little throats working like a mocking bird; they did it. I enjoyed that part of our program to the utmost. From that we ar:ranged for the children to go to various rooms-first for the primary children, then for the grammar grade, and the five or six people who were apparently prepared to take high school training. These advanced students were placed in the same room with the seventh grade. We got to going and the children were wide-awake and interested and took suggestions readily. The other teachers got things to moving. It wasn’t too long before we had forgotten some of our problems and were in full operation so far as everybody having something to do was concerned. It seems to me that the first day of school was to be long remembered.

The next morning we came back and things went along the line of having chapel program with the children participating in some songs. On that morning we had a few scattered parents who had come to see us and wondered as they watched if we were able to meet the situation such as we had there, and operate a school in the way that children normally should be trained. We found that the parents were very responsive. We questioned them. They came to get acquainted with us and we got acquainted with them. Everything was moving up and looking up and we had some additional children we did not have the first day. The first day our enrollment was around sixty-eight. The second day we had around seventy-five present.

In fact the school continued to increase almost daily, at least every week faces were showing up. The school was taking roots, so to speak, in the community. The parents seemed to be getting interested. It seemed worth a good honest effort on our part as teachers.

On the second day I felt it was my duty to give the children, and the teachers and the parents there a little bit of information of where I had been, and what I had been doing before I came to Halifax County for my first trip

So the facts were that I had been living in Florida for about four years and for about three of these I was Inspector of Customs in the port of Jacksonville. I was taken out of the schoolroom and put on that job as the result of a civil service exam I had taken in Tampa. I was put on the eligible list for service in Charleston, as a storekeeper, in Jacksonville, Fla. as inspector of customs, and in Washington as a graphing clerk.

So being in Florida nearer Jacksonville I decided that I would accept the job as inspector of customs in Jacksonville. I went there and began that job which was entirely new. I found it most interesting and a test of a great many things, many of which were entirely new. I had to inspect the foreign mails and the registry division. As ships came into the port of Jacksonville, I had to inspect those ships for contraband of all kinds, whiskey, stowaways, opium that was illegal to be brought into the U.S. I was supposed to be on the lookout for and seize it if I found it not to be on the captain’s manifest. It was then seized, and carried to the bonded warehouse of the customs serice. This took most of my time because a great deal of shipping went on at that time with foreign countries.

It was my responsibility to check the captain’s crew to see that they were properly certified and that they were licensed to take a job on a ship carrying cargo that belonged to the regular trade. That work was importarrt all through the war and we had a lot of trouble with folks trying to enter the U.S., stowaways, people who had been hiding on the ship until it landed in Jacksonville. Then they would of course attempt to get off the ship without being caught or detected.

One of the phases of my work required that 1 work with the Naval Patrol as a member of the FBI. In doing this they in turn worked with me in boarding and inspecting ships as they came into the port of Jacksonville on the St. Johns River, that led up to Jacksonville, twelve miles from the May Port down at the bar.

Another phase of this work new to me was most dangerous, seizure of whiskey. For instance, on Thanksgiving Day, we had a tug boat to come in that had been to Havana, Cuba. It was pulling two big barges of lumber. They delivered the lumber and on their way back to the States they got in a storm and kept their captain out at sea for two or three days and he exhausted his fuel supply and had to come in for a new supply.

When the tug came in I had to go aboard and check it to find if there were anything irregular in the way of contraband. I found on the stern of this tug boat a lot of beautiful hemp rope laid in perfect designs. I got to raising that up and got about the second layer and I saw that there was something in there that they were attempting to conceal. I found when I cleared it all out that there were ninety-seven jugs or demi-johns, five gallons in each demi-john of liquor that was contraband. The captain saw that I had caught him with his contraband and he left the ship. I had to get on the port to a telephone and call the collector of customs, who had three bonded trucks sent down, or transportation vehicles, to take this whiskey and carry it back about twelve miles to town and store it in the goverrlment bonded warehouse.

But that didn’t end that project. Those barges that had carried the lumber had been left about twelve miles down the bay. The Naval Patrol carried me down and we went aboard and we found on each of the barges that the bunks of all the seamen had the slates in each bunk so they could be removed. And in those bunks were placed quarts of all kinds of liquor and spirited drinks. That was collected and it had to be carted back to the bonded warehouse in town. It took just about a day to work out that project alone. Things of that kind were new to me.

My responsibility was very heavy and strict because it all had to be accounted for and put under lock and key and turned over to the collector of customs for final disposition in whatever way the government might order. That went on until the end of the war which ended as you know Nov. 11, 1918.

From there the collector informed me that I was entitled to two weeks paid vacation and said, “You can have your two weeks and go back to N. C. and spend the time there with your people as you desire. We want you back here at the end of the two weeks. We are planning to send you to Key West.” Well, when he said Key West, chills ran over me although it was hot weather down there. I didn’t like the idea of going as far south as it was as far north from Jacksonviile to N. Y., which was about the distance equal to that from Jacksonville to Key West. I warned the collector when I was leaving that I would decide and let him know before the time was up whether I would accept the job to go to Key West. I decided that I could not go to Key West and then accept the opportunity, which led to the undertaking of this role at Aurelian Springs.

I went to Roanoke Rapids to visit my two sisters I had there and their families.

On Saturday moring, the County Superintendent of Schools, Mr. A. E. Akers, came into the store in which I happened to be. He was then in a jam. He said he had nobody to take over the school at Aurelian Springs. He understood that I had been teaching in Florida. He was anxious for me to go out and investigate the vacancy at Aurelian Springs.

My sister took me on a car about fifteen miles in about the coldest weather I had ever experienced. That was when I closed the deal and got ready to come back io school in N. C.

It is necessary it seems to me to give a short account of the school and its facilites at this time. The building was wooden construction and had been in use for some time. It was badly in need of repairs in so far as being comfortable and so on. The location of the school being at the crossroads between Littleton and Roanoke Rapids soon opened its doors to students to the East, West, North, and South in Halifax County.

There commenced to be in the beginning a feeling on the part of the community that a new building was a necessity. However, the feeling was that there was not much hope for getting money for a new building at this time. But we moved on and the student body increased gradually day by day until toward the end of the first year after I took over the school an effort was launched to secure a new building. The old building was on the grounds, which was needed for placement of the new building and it was put up and sold to the highest bidder. The whole layout was sold for four hundred dollars cash to Mr. S. C. Crawley. He was told by several that it was a good donation he had made to the school. They doubted very much whether his investment would prove out to be of value to him. That brought up the question of additional land needed for the school complex, so we had to add seven or eight acres of land.

In obtaining that land we had to go through a process of condemnation. A commission, appointed by the Board of Education, came to investigate the site and decided on a price for the land, which was not satisfactory to the owner. Then the

commission made their recommendation that the land be bought but the owner refused to accept their decision. It was then taken to the courts, which approved the price. Finally the deal went through and the school had about eight acres of land to operate on.

Then the next question came of getting a building set up. The big problem was money needed for the building. Since the county hadn’t expected any new building at this time, they were not financially in shape to launch a building program. Then the matter of a local tax was discussed and found to be very well received by the people of that area of the township. We pushed a local tax of fifty cents on the one hundred dollar evaluation. All adjoining land to the original school district could come into the taxed school district by petitioning the Board of County Commissioners to put their property in the school tax district of Aurelian Springs. This was accomplished in a most friendly and cooperative way on the part of some of the big land owners and eventually wound ,p in having about one- fourth of the area in Halifax County in Aurelian Springs school district. This made available money so that the building program could go ahead and be started. Al1 this gave encouragement to the community, teachers, pupils, and new principal, who had been feeling very discouraged and blue because there had already been three principals during the first half of the school year, l92l-22, was kind of a depressing situation for a new man to face. These things all cleared away and things moved very rapidly.

About this time of year there had been in the county a contest put on in the schools for a silver loving cup given by the mills in Roanoke Rapids. This proved to be a most worthy undertaking on the part of pupils and teachers to enter this countywide contest. This article is written up in a newspaper clipping and is included in this record.

In this contest, as will be noted, Aurelian Springs won the first undertaking. It brought about quite a stir and interest over the county. The next year it was put up again for the schools to compete for. That year, which was 1922-23, Aurelian Springs entered that contest and was the only school in the county to win both sides of the contest.

This of course added further stimulation and interest in Aurelian Springs and she commenced to be recognized and talked about all over the county, This goes on into a wider, bigger contest later which proved to be a statewide undertaking and gave Aurelian Springs a recognition all through the state. You might say here that the project for the state was known as the N. C. State Debating Union. It was headed by the Honorable E. R. Ranking of Chapel Hill. He arranged each debate from time to time. As speaking off the record it occurs to me that we entered the state debates fifteen times out of sixteen and Aurelian Springs won in the county contest and participated in the state debate at Chapel Hill fourteen times. We had a number of pupils that went to Chapel Hill, and we didn’t go to Chapel Hill with the idea of repeating the same kind of contest with the same pupils. I stressed the fact that we wanted to develop more pupils. Maybe giving more experience to a greater number, than just taking the same contestants each year and using them over and ever hoping by some tum of events to win the state debate, which we never succeeded in doing.

Our financing was limited so we could not go to the expense and trouble of getting material far and wide on the debating issues. This kept us from being able to fully compete and win with the big schools that had money and specially trained speakers and trainees to work with the pupils because at Aurelian Springs it was just part of the help given to the pupils from their regular teachers and the principal who carried a full teaching load, five classes. He sponsored these debates and guided the preparation of the pupils for these contests.

It is to be noted that Aurelian Springs started with a very small number of students and gradually increased month after month and year after year until in 1926 she had grown to be large enough so that the state put the school on the accredoted list of state high schools at this time, which proved to be four years to the month after the new principal took charge. That is a record which many people couldn’t believe had been done. They don’t understand to this day how it was done, but it was done. This is a matter that is in print in articles included in this coverage.

We’ve come now to the point where we want to make mention of the pupils. The first pupil to leave Aurelian Springs after the new organization – was in operation was Miss Anna Shaw. She had not graduated from Aurelian Springs, but Dr. Mahn, President of Louisburg College, came in the community and found Anna to be a rather outstanding student in the high school. He insisted she go to Louisburg and he would see that- she was given the necessary training to prepare her to carry on her college training. She went and stayed until she finished and she returned to the Halifax County and entered the teaching business and proved to be one of Halifax County’s outstanding teachers.

This brings us to another situation which is very commendable and had not happened in the county before. Miss Mattie Moore Taylor finished Aurelian Springs in 1926 and went to UNC at Greensboro. In her fourth year, she was designated as the proper person to claim the Weild Fellowship amounting to one thousand dollars, to use to further her education. She went to the University of Wisconsin at Madison to further her journalistic preparation which she has followed until this day. Our last account of Mattie Moore after finishing her college is that she is with the Clearwater Press as one of the writers and promoter of journalistic materials. Now she was a member of our first graduating class at Aurelian Springs and we had gone all through the matter of organizing, of adding buildings, of getting new teachers, and of recruiting more students. In the midst of it all, it is a most commendable part played by the students at Aurelian Springs. I want to make it clear and plain here that bringing this material together is to emphasize the part that the pupils played in different projects in the county, in the state, and outside the state. This is material that has been written by outsiders who were interested in the school and the work that it did. We want this to be in mind as you read from now on. Not an article in the whole write up was requested by any teacher or the principal to be contributed. It was all voluntary and was the feeling of outspoken words that came along from time to time. We cannot include all these letters that were received; but we are going to give a sample to show that it was a piece of magnificent work done by students, teachers, and the community.

We attempted at all times to keep in mind the value and importance of the child. I’m quoting here a poem that seems to convey our idea of the importance of the child in the field of education.

“Nobody knows what a child is worth,
A child at his work or play.
A child who whistles around the place,
Or laughs in an artless way.
Nobody knows what a child is worth,
And the world must wait to see,
For every adult in an honored place,
Is a child that used to be.
Nobody knows what a child is worth,
A child with his face aglow,
For hid in his heart there are secrets deep Not even the wisest know.
Nobody knows what a child is worth,
A child with his bare, white feet;
So lend a hand and kindly word,
To every child you meet.”
We also believe and were guided by the proposition that:
every child has a right to be well bred,
every child has a right to be well fed,
every child has a right to be well’ read,
every child has a right to be well led,
every child has a right to be well wed.

These principles guided us to all times in our effort to give every child a fair chance to his rightful place in his efforts in life. One of the things that we have tried to be conscious of at all times was to make children want to know and to want to learn and willing to do for themselves that which brought about satisfaction in the uncovering from day to day of their talents. This leads me to say that ones teaching may be considered half done, half accomplished at least, when each child is anxious and willing to put forth his greatest effort. We must be careful at all times not to miss-treat or short-change a child by giving him the answers to all questions before he or she has done his best to reach the answers for himself.

teaching may be considered half done, half accomplished at least, when each child is anxious and willing to put forth his greatest effort. We must be careful at all times not to miss-treat or short-change a child by giving him the answers to all questions before he or she has done his best to reach the answers for himself.

The students had respect for the teachers, for each other, and even for the janitor, Glenn Glasgow, who was a former graduate of the school. He contributed much to the general smooth running and cleanliness of the school building and grounds. This was a strong fact noted by a committee who visited our school to evaluate it.

You can be sure that all these articles are true and can be trusted as you find them, given from time to time. These articles meant more than an inspiration to these students. They meant to fire up and pep up a faculty that was listening, and ready, and responsive to encouragement instead of maybe criticism. That is one that I was always proud of the cooperation and the spirit of the cooperation that was given at all times for the benefit and uplifting of students. It was a pulling back of the curtain and letting the community see for themselves that their children were being properly directed and that they were being encouraged at all times to give the best that they had and that they got credit for it. This school at the crossroads has trained and developed men as leaders in many and varied fields of endeavor.

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School Is Improving Steadily

N. M. Wright

.The unusual happens-yes happened when both the affirmative and the negative teams of Aurelian Springs were declared victors over their opponents from other rural schools of Halifax County in the forensic battle of the triangular debates. Little did the framers of the regulations, govelxing the debate, dream that one school would carry away the Patterson cup with double honors, both teams winning

On two previous occasions, two names, along with the school and year, were engraved upon the cup. This year will be unique in that four names will be inscribed: Elizabeth Callis, Percy Crawley, Marguerite Liles and Anna Shaw, representing respectively the affirmative and the negative of the query, ‘Resolved, that a system of Co-operative Marketing should be adopted by the farmers’.

Aurelian Springs High School was at one time a thriving, well attended school, then came her lean years. The opening day of last year found her without a principal. Three substitutes were had until January when Professor Matthews was secured.

Someone expressed his opinion that with the coming of prohibition poetry would decline. Any one hearing the debate of the rural school children would know that the power of speech resides in a different kind of stimulant. That which awakened the imagination, produced argument and brought conviction was no bottled-up spirits.

In their victory over worthy opponents and able teams from Bear Swamp, Calvary, Dawson, Halifax, Hobgood, Hollister, and South Rosemary, the debaters met the high expectations of their faithful teachers, Prof. V. C. Matthews, Miss Margaret Kinlaw, Mrs. Harvey and Mrs. Brewer and displayed powers and talents often times left hidden and brought honor to their Alma Mater the first rural high school organized in Halifax County.

Changing of teachers tends to demoralize and discourage yet in spite of the changes six out of seven standing for the seventh grade examinations were promoted.

With the coming of the new blood she is taking on new life. She has in her the making of a new day and sees it.

On a June day the people propose by u vote of the people to enlarge the special tax district, thus bringing more revenue and a larger enrollment.

Let him who values more highly the education of his children and an enlightened citizenship than the hoarding of a few dollars prove his faith by his works. Let the county authorities devise plans and furnish her with a new building, with adequate classrooms, a creditable auditorium and modern equipments so that the children will have advantages equal to others and we predict that Aurelian Springs will be heard from again and again in her fight for better citizenship.

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1937 Commencement Speech

E. W. Liles

This copy of this speech was found in the belongings of Sallie Liles Riggan by her
granddaughter. Mrs. Sallie Liles Riggan was Mary Liles Keeter, Al Liles, and Patsy Liles
Pilgreen daddy’s sister, and daughter of Edward Wilson Liles. (E. W. Liles) Mrs Riggan lived in
Littleton after she graduatedfrom nursing school in Roanoke Rapids. She worked in the Roanoke
Rapids hospital. The copy was very poor even though it was typed (in all caps).

.As you read this speech you will get a vision of how much of the foundation for a great school
was laid by Principal V. C. Matthews, the early teachers, and students. All alumni are
beneficiaries of his work with the early teachers and students at Aurelian Springs.

On my own accord, I am going to take advantage of this occasion as chairman of our school board to say what I think is one of the great thrills of my life that this man – Our Principal – V. C. Matthews never be allowed to leave us without being told in dollars what his services have been worth to us in this part of Halifax County during the sixteen years that he has been with us at Aurelian Springs School, as principal and teaching five classes as a regular teacher every day ofthe school year.

When he came to us January 2, 1922, we had less than 100 pupils in the entire school including the high school and grades. How many people would say are present here tonight? A thousand or more! The sheriff of Halifax County Mr. John Patterson warned Mr. Matthews during the first week of school not to attempt to hold any public meeting out here at the school. If you do, you will have trouble with drunks and fighting. To my personal knowledge, we have been having public meetings just when we wanted to for sixteen years and up until tonight no disturbance has ever been seen on these grounds as of now.

Just exactly four years from the month that this man came here this school was examined by the State Board of Education in Raleigh and found entitled to be rated as an accredited high school of the state, entitling all four-year graduates to any college in the state without entrance examination.

On June 30, 1930, Dr. J. Henry Highsmith wrote superintendent A. E. Akers Superintendent of schools in Halifax County, that the State Board of Education had just completed a sulvey of all high schools in the state and that they found not a single high school doing a better or more efficient job of educating than the Aurelian Springs High School was doing. Signed by J. Henry Highsmith, Director of Instruction Services for the State of North Carolina.

What do you think this man and his faculty have been worth to this community? I don’t say what I think I say what I know, I was bred here and I was born here and I am going to live here until I die here and now I am almost in sight of a hundred years. Yes, you and your faculty, Mr. Matthews, have been worth a million dollars to our school and community. Good bye, and come back to see us. Believe it or not, I have three children graduating here tonight, Alvin W., Reba, and Charlie C. Mr. Matthews and your wonderful faculty, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for what you have done for us all.

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Aurelian Springs High School

Patsy Liles Pilgreen, Class of 1965

My doors are closed and locked. The halls are silent; I need a rest, a time of quiet to reflect upon my life. Even when the halls are silent, I can still hearthem – my beloved students. For generations they have been entrusted to my care. The first ones are dead now, but I have not forgotten them. I remember boys who became men and left my doors to fight a war and die forwhat they leamed in my classrooms. I remember the girls who became lvomen and left my doors to become teachers, and mothers of children who would come to me, as their parents did before them.

I have a history and I am very proud to be the center of this rural community. I was built by men who realized that an education was very importantfor children. I began my life as a one-room school. I became a sprawling brick building with many classrooms, a Iibrary, auditorium, lunchroom and gymnasium.

I became everything to my students. Not only was I theirfocal point during the day but also at night. My stage in the Auditorium became the scene forThe Mikado, Sunnv of Sunnyside, piano recitals, school plays, graduations and Chapel each moming. I was amazed and proud of what I had become!

ln the Fall, I became the setting for a Halloween Carnival. My classrooms became a hot dog stand, a bingo room, a fortune teller’s booth or a magical fishpond where children fished for treasurers that cost a dime- My boiler room became a Fun House . . . the scary place for only the brave. There were some who would never go down the steps!

ln the Spring, I became the setting for a May Pole Dance on my lawn. My students practiced for weeks to learn to entwine their colorful streamers around my flagpole. Would they get it right? They always did and l was so proud at the performance!

Also in theSpring there were the piano recitals. The curtain was drawn across my stage as the auditorium filled with parents of nervous little girls, who were lined up in rny back hall, waiting to play the piano. Finally at 7:30 PM, the heavy purple curtain opened to much applause. I was so proud of my students as they played Liszt, Beethoven, Melody in F by Rubinstein, and On the Lake by R. Williams. What a delight when four little girls sat down to play “A bicycle Built for Two.”

My Auditorium was a busy place while steps were placed across the stagepnd students lined up to sing Santa Lucia or Come Unto Me. lt was a time of grace and beauty in my life. The Home Economics Girls had prepared a “Tea Party” under the careful supervision of Mrs. Mabel Liles. She was so proud of her girls as they served homemade cookies and poured punch in the proper manner. It was a proud night for my Library. The windows were open and a cool breeze blew through. lt was such a special night that l’ll never forget it!

Prom time was always so special to me! The students worked so hard to transform the Gym into A Holiday in Rome orArabian Nishts, or Singing in the Rain. With much imagination and school spirit, the Gym became another world for one night! The girls were lovely and the boys were so handsome as they walked on the shiny Gym floor.

Only months before, I had seen the same students playing basketballin the Gym. lwas happy for them when they won and sad when they lost, At half time during the games, my cheerleaders stood on the Home Side and wore my colors of Purple and Gold. They stood in formation and led fellow students who stood to sing a song about me.

“Unto Aurelian School We’ll Loyal be
Unto our school we’ll always faithfull be
And for A. S. School we’ll yell, yell, yell
And to our Alma Mata true we’ll ever be.
And so we’ll fight, fight, fight for A. S. school
And when we leave we’ll always honor her
And so the Purple and the Gold, Gold, Gold
We’ll always love” Go Hornets!

To me, it was a pledge of allegiance. I knew as my students stood together and sang that song, they would never forget me!

Those same students would graduate in late May. They would adorn caps and gowns and march down my aisle to the sound of Aida and sit quietly during presentations and speeches. ln 1962, an elderly gentleman was helped onto my stage in the auditorium to recite a Poem entitled “The Bridge Builder’ by Will Allen Dromgoole. lt was a poem about an old man who stopped and took the time to build a bridge across a chasm that was vast, deep and wide to protect youth who would someday walk in his footsteps. I knew that man well. For years and years he sat on my front steps and welcomed people as they walked up my steps to attend P. T. A. meetings, recitals, plays, graduations, etc. He was Mr. Ed Liles, a school board member for 35 years. I listened to his poem and thought that it was only right that he should be on my stage. He attended my school when it was a one-room school and learned to love poetry from his teacher, Miss Pattie Bowers. Poetry was to Mr. Ed. Liles the way to express feelings, the way to describe the human feelings or love, compassion and hope. ln my classrooms, people have learned so much. Many students have learned about Keats, Shelly, Whitman, and Robert Frost. Thornton Wilder wrote: ‘Stop a moment to see your lives passing.”

Wthin my walls, students have leamed so much about life. Friendships have been formed that would last a lifetime. Within my walls, people have fallen in love, gotten manied and sent their children back to me. Vtlrthin my walls, the news of death has come and fellowteachers have wept with their students. I have been the strength of the community. People see me every day when they pass.

ln the Fall they see the school buses parked beneath a flame of golden leaves on the Maple Tree. I am so lovely then! My white columns catch the sunlight and bounce it back to all who pass by. ln Wnter my grounds are sometimes covered with snow and my students are at home building Snow Men! ln Spring the Azaleas will bloom in front of the lunch room. They were planted in Memory of a 3d Grade Teacher, Julia Liles with a collection taken up by her students. lt’s Summer now. l’m resting now and watching farmers go by on tractors and Sunday traffic going to Tabor Church, just down the road.

It’s a hot July day and I’m resting. Suddenly the sound of heavy equipment! Men operating heavy equipment are coming towards me! Surely they don’t mean to harm me! They do!

First, the front wall of the lunchroom crashes down on those specialAzaleas. Then the English class and the 10s grade homeroom fall. The big iron hand reaches over to tear off the roof of the Chernistry Lab. I am destroyed!A brief reprieve-the operator stops his machine to pick up something from the rubble. The school bell! He gives it to an onlooker and then continues his work. I am crying out for help! lt’s too late. I’ve been crushed and destroyed in a day. The heavy equipment and changing times saw to that. It took many men and hard work to bulld me over many years and in just a few days; I’ve been torn down.

The sad news traveled quickly and my former students came to watch me fall. The Gymnasium was the last to go and on a Saturday, a former student and cheerleader walked through the hole in my wall and stood in her old spot on my floor. She softly sang my song one last time, gathering up pieces of the gym floor and walked away. She was crying. She also got a brick from my foundation to keep forever.

I am gone now. I was not just a bick building. I was a part of your lives. I was a way of life in Aurelian Spnngs. I was a state of mind. I was the center of life in a country cammunw. I was everything that was beautiful and lovely. I was grace and beauty.

Some of my students have taken bits and pieces of me to their homes to cherish forever. I ‘m gratefulfor that. I will live forever in their hearts and minds. I didn’t expect to end this way, suddenly being torn down in July, 1991.

Lines from a poem come to mind now. “A thing of beauty ls a joy forever. lts loveliness increases and will never turn to nothingness.”

Those who loved me will love me forever even though l’ve been torn down. I will always be Aurelian Springs High School!