ECTTS Class Trip to Raleigh and the Governor’s Mansion

ECTTS Class Trip to Raleigh and the Governor’s Mansion
Students and Faculty from ECTTS on the steps of the Governor's Mansion in Raleigh, North Carolina, 1917. Included in the picture alongside the students is Mrs. Fannie Yarborough Bickett, the wife of Governonr Thomas Bickett, Mrs. Effie Rouse Joyner, the wife of Mr. James Yadkin Joyner, and Col. Frederick A. Olds. Image Source: "Visitors of East Carolina Training School to Raleigh, photo 1917." State Archives of North Carolina, Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, N. 59-12.118.

The second ECTTS class trip to Raleigh, taken in early 1917, occurred just months before the U.S. entry into WWI. The latter soon consumed the minds and resources of the young school, precluding subsequent such grand trips. Nevertheless, for the student participants, the 1917 adventure, a decade after the school’s legislative founding in 1907, provided memorable, once-in-a-lifetime experiences at the Governor’s Mansion, the two houses of the state legislature, the Woman’s Club of Raleigh, a “modern” women’s department store, and the campus of North Carolina State Agricultural and Engineering College (now NCSU). The trip also helped to advance the cause of ECTTS before state legislators who would within a few years, further the progress of the institution by upgrading it to a four-year teacher’s college, ECTC, solidifying its reputation as one of the state’s most important centers of teacher training.

A picture found at the State Archives of North Carolina captures the highpoint of the trip: 98 ECTTS students, all young ladies, standing on the front steps of the Governor’s Mansion, construction of which had begun during the final years of Gov. Thomas J. Jarvis’ (1836-1915) administration. Included in the photo are Col. Frederick A. Olds (1853-1935), newspaper editor and one of the founders of the North Carolina Hall of History (later the N.C. Museum of History); Sallie Joyner Davis (1871-1954), ECTTS history instructor; Fanny Yarborough Bickett (1870-1941), wife of the governor, Thomas W. Bickett (1869-1921); Mary Burwell Lacy (1859-1960), wife of the state treasurer, Benjamin Rice “B. R.” Lacy (1854-1929); and, Effie Joyner (1866-1930), wife of the state superintendent of public education and chair of the ECTTS board of trustees, James Yadkin Joyner (1862-1954). Mrs. Bickett was, incidentally, a public advocate, along with her husband, of women’s suffrage and in 1920, appeared before a joint session of the N. C. legislature in support of it. No doubt the trip to Raleigh, the epicenter of state politics, amounted to a day of political excitement and empowerment for the students, all of whom would have, within three years, the right to vote.

The group had travelled by train to Raleigh, with the 98 and their chaperones, Sallie Davis, Daisy B. Waitt (1875-1968), and Nellie Maupin accommodated in two private cars. Reportedly, they had an enjoyable trip, “surrounded by a jolly crowd, singing and laughing” with “unusually congenial chaperones.” Greeting them at the station were Col. Olds along with North Carolina A&E professor of pedagogy, Thomas Everett Brown (1881-1965), and Raleigh businessman, James Burrell “J. B.” Pearce (1859-1934), co-founder of the fashionable downtown lady’s emporium, Boylan Pearce.

The group first visited the North Carolina State Capitol and witnessed the legislature, both houses, then in session. Led by Col. Olds, they next stopped by Gov. Bickett’s private office where they were welcomed with a short talk and an assurance that ECTTS would have, as before, his “hearty support.” They then traveled to the nearby Governor’s Mansion where, shortly after their arrival, the “attractive picture” of the group, with Mrs. Bickett, Mrs. Lacy, and Mrs. Joyner in the center, and Col. Olds, to the right, was taken. A tour of the living quarters was followed by lunch at the Woman’s Club, then stops at the Boylan Pearce Department Store, the Wake County Courthouse, and North Carolina A&E. At the latter, the group was greeted by President Wallace Carl “W. C.” Riddick (1864-1942) followed by dinner and a brief social hour with the young men of the school. The last stop of the day was the Supreme Court Building and a tour of the Hall of History. There, Chief Justice Walter M. Clark (1846-1924) – a “forceful supporter of woman's suffrage” – gave a brief talk on the subject.

At the end of the day, the students agreed that the trip to Raleigh should be held annually without interruption. However, the onset of America’s involvement in WWI precluded, in the short-term, continuation of the tradition. And the phenomenal growth of the school over the next few years made similar trips, even after the war, virtually impossible. Equally noteworthy, however, is that during this, the second ECTTS Raleigh trip, the students did not visit the Monument to North Carolina Women of the Confederacy as the 1916 ECTTS group had, suggesting that as WWI and the cause of women’s suffrage appeared on the horizon, the hearts and minds of the student body were focused on the extraordinary challenges of the future rather than those of the increasingly distant past.

Sources

Citation Information

Title: ECTTS Class Trip to Raleigh and the Governor’s Mansion, 1917

Author: John A. Tucker, PhD

Date of Publication: 4/22/2022

 

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