Ch.5 Pt.2 - Brock Historical Museum of Greensboro College

SECOND MAIN BUILDING 

Second in the Series of 

the Four Stages of the 

‘‘Main Building.))

Artist’s sketch of the Second Main Building of Greensboro 

Female College. August 27, 1873,- ten years and eighteen 

days after the fire of August 9, 1863,- restored building of 

G.F.C., was re-opened for students,-to accommodate 200 

boarding students.

A ROMANCE OF EDUCATION 89 

DR. T. M. JONES AND PROFESSOR W. F. ALDERMAN 

By MRS. J. LEGRAND EVERETT (Lillie Moore) '87 

No institution is stronger or more permanent than is its foundation. 

But the foundation depends for its stability upon the vision, the faith, 

the determination, the integrity of its builders. 

Greensboro College is such an institution. 

Its foundation is the 

vision of it, the faith of it, the purpose for it embedded deep in the 

souls of those who planned and promoted it a century ago. Like unto 

the birth of a child, it was lovingly conceived and brought into being; 

nurtured with affectionate care during its formative years; and guided 

wisely through many and varied growing pains, till today, in maturity, 

it is seen firmly established in enduring strength of character upon 

the fundamentals of its creators. The vision: an institution of learning 

for woman, equipped with better facilities for higher education 

than had then been provided her; the faith: that she could and would 

use them wisely and well; the determining purpose: that there should 

be erected such an institution as they visualized, sponsored by the 

Church, and managed by the best Christian teachers under the most 

wholesome influence possible to secure, to produce the highest type of 

womanhood. Higher education for women was a new and unpopular 

cause at that time, and for a number of years, those who promoted it 

had no easier task than other pioneers have had. Chief among the 

pioneer builders of Greensboro Female College were Turner Myrick 

Jones and William Franklin Alderman. 

Both have been numbered also among the builders of Greensboro. 

Time has demonostrated that they were builders of our state as well. 

They were not wealthy men. They probably had little capital to invest 

in money making concerns for the commercial interests of the community, 

but they did have something far more profitable than mere 

money to invest- they had themselves, and those, they poured out generously 

into real investments. They invested themselves in lives, the 

dividends from which, still accruing are richer by far than any that 

mere wealth could have declared. In the lives of hundreds of girls, 

students in old G.F.C., who during almost a half century were 

passing and lingering under their beneficent influences. Girls, who 

inspired here by radiant visions of youth, went out from the old College, 

imbued with the spirit of its fine ideals, its high standards, to 

assume the responsibilities of their womanhood, and to meet their obligations 

in life, better prepared to do so for having felt the impact of 

those two great personalities upon theirs, and instill into new generations 

the principles of righteous character, so constantly taught by them 

in precept and example. Girls who became the great-grandmothers 

and grandmothers of today, having borne and reared many of those 

who have builded built our State into a good place in which to live, who

90 A ROMANCE OF EDUCATION 

staff our institutions, and have made our Church an open door of 

opportunity through which any who desire to serve their fellow crea- 

tures may find a way to do so. 

They were both educators by choice, and eminently qualified for 

their profession by superior natural endowments and the excellent edu- 

cation each had acquired. Dr. Jones, the elder by fourteen years, was 

graduated from Randolph-Macon College in Virginia with A. M. and 

A. B. degrees. And Professor Alderman, after a period of study at 

Randolph-Macon, returned to the University of North Carolina, from 

which he was graduated with high honor, receiving his A. M. degree. 

During several years after their graduation, each taught most success- 

fully in various places. They were both native North Carolinians, of 

old and honorable lineage. Both were happily married, and reared 

large families of sons and daughters to honor and bless them. 

In the middle eighties when I was a student here, Dr. Jones and 

Professor Alderman were the only men on the faculty. Dr. Jones 

came to the College in 1853, as Professor of Ancient Languages and 

Mathematics. The next year, upon the resignation of Dr. Deems, he 

was unanimously elevated to its presidency. Professor Alderman came 

in 1860, as Treasurer and Professor of Ancient Languages and Mathe- 

matics. During the years between the burning of the College in 1863 

and its re-opening in 1873, both men were teaching, though Dr. Jones 

as financial agent of the college, spent the first two years in soliciting 

funds for another college building. After this, he opened a school 

in Louisburg, and invited Professor Alderman to join his faculty. He 

accepted and remained there till the school was closed, when he went 

to Maysville. Both Dr. Jones soon had to leave Louisburg on account 

of illness. Within a year, however, he opened a school in Warrenton, 

where he taught until he was recalled to Greensboro. 

There are no finer examples of genuine patriotism, amounting in 

many instances to real heroism, than were displayed by our southern 

teachers during the dark days of the years following the close of the 

Civil War, and these young teachers of ours were two of the finest. 

It would be impossible to describe the hardships they endured, or to 

depict the discouraging conditions, the difficulties and discomforts 

under which they labored-we can only imagine them in the light of 

the history of that period. 

But the sentiment was general and strong for rebuilding the col- 

lege at Greensboro. A real necessity was recognized in the State for 

such an institution as it had been. Dr. Jones expressed the belief that 

“what Greensboro Female College had done in the few years of its 

life, for and with young womanhood, had removed many prejudices 

from the public mind on the subject of female education. The College 

had, by illustrating the importance of female education, created a


deeper interest on that subject; it had demonstrated the capacity of 

women for making high attainments in intellectual culture; it had 

contributed much to elevate the standards of female requirements in 

the schools of the land; and it had sent out from its hall hundreds 

of well educated Christian women to adorn and to bless society and 

the Church.” So the College was rebuilt, and in 1873 opened for 

the reception of students, with Dr. Jones and Professor Alderman 

heading the faculty in their same old positions. 

I suppose there are seldom seen two unrelated people so closely 

associated for so many years in the same business concern, both pos- 

sessed of so many of the essential principles of honorable, upright char- 

acter, so much alike in many ways, yet whose personalities were so un- 

like, as were those of these two great men. Both were refined, gentle, 

kind, patient, and courteous, but firm as a rock when necessary. We 

knew that they both held us in fatherly affection, and felt sincere 

interest in all of our doings. But Dr. Jones was reserved, aloof, 

rather austere in his manner, while Professor Alderman was genial, 

affable, and approachable at all times. Dr. Jones, as president, was, 

of course, more prominently before the public, but Professor Alder- 

man, while recognized as next highest in authority, was more privately 

engaged, busy in his class work in the College, for all the Mathematics 

and Latin subjects were taught by him from the sophomore year 

through the senior. We honored and loved them both, but most of us 

simply adored our “dear old Fessor.” He was the sweetest, gentlest 

soul! We used to run down the long walk to meet him when he would 

be coming up to school mornings, and his eyes would twinkle with 

merriment and his face wreathe itself in smiles to see us. It was no 

unusual thing to see him coming swinging along up the hill, a girl 

hanging on each arm, two or three walking along backward in front in 

order to see and talk to him, several others bringing up the rear, all 

chatting together as if of the same age. We loved him then and we 

hold him in loving memory now-we old grandmothers! 

The higher education of women was so supremely important to 

them both, that during the thirty years of their association, they 

worked together daily in unbroken harmony of plan and action to 

promote its interests through the College, as well as for the good of 

the big family of students and teachers there. I am convinced that 

Greensboro College is what it is today largely because of that har- 

monious co-operation between those two great builders of it. Dr. Jones 

became in a sense the personification of the College, he was so closely 

identified with it. Dr. F. L. Reid, who was later a president of the 

College, said of him in 1890 at the time of his death, that “Dr. Jones 

has done more for the higher education of females, than any other 

one man in the State, and he will live on in the lives of hundred of


noble, consecrated women who bless the world because of their hav- 

ing been educated by him.” And Charles Lee Raper wrote of him in 

1898, that “he was one of the most noble and cultured teachers this 

State has produced. As a teacher and guide of young women he has 

no superior, and with the exception of Dr. Smedes, no equal.” Excell- 

ing in the literary attainments of a well-rounded scholar, he was noted 

also as a leader in our Church which honored him with many responsi- 

bilities. He was licensed to preach, but felt a greater urge to the min- 

istry of teaching. And old Trinity College, of which he was a trustee, 

in 1870 conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. 

Of Professor Alderman, Mrs. Metta Folger Townsend, his for- 

mer student and devoted friend said, “there is no possible way of 

measuring the good that Professor Alderman accomplished in his deal- 

ing with girls at G.F.C. Though much of his work was in the 

field of mathematics, he had a profound love for literature. He read 

widely, and always the best held its appeal for him. His familiarity 

with the English classics was remarkable He went on his modest 

way, loving music, poetry, all those immaterial things which have been 

dear to seers of visions, but Greensboro today is a better Greensboro 

because W. F. Alderman held such high place in its beginnings 

His religious life was so much a part of the man, you could not differ- 

entiate it from his life as a teacher. You might speak of his connec- 

tion with West Market Church, his loyalty to that organization, his 

long service as treasurer there, but when you have stated these facts, 

you have not given any idea of the gentleman who walked in his 

Master’s footsteps, wearing always the white flower of a blameless 

life, but wearing it without ostentation- a Christian gentleman in deed 

and in truth.” The North Carolina Christian Advocate in an editorial 

at the time of his death, said, “No finer Christian gentleman ever 

lived among us than Professor W. F. Alderman. He was of that rare 

type of cultured man all too scarce in our day and generation. As 

gentle as a woman in manner, he was yet as firm as a rock in his 

adherence to the right, and he never swerved from the path of Chris- 

tian duty. He loved God supremely and his neighbor as himself, and 

he goes to his reward, leaving behind, a record that is ‘without spot 

or wrinkle or any such thing.’ He was the sort of man that a cultured 

Christian Educator like Dr. T. M. Jones would naturally associate 

with himself in the delicate work of training young women for their 

life work.’’ Thus, these two friends and co-workers in a great cause, 

were highly regarded by their peers for what they accomplished, held 

in exalted esteem by all who knew them for what they were, respected, 

honored and loved to the point of reverence by their students of whose 

entire trust and loyalty they were possessed, and they wore the dignity 

and honor of their positions and achievements both modesty and


worthily till they laid them all down and made their departures from 

the earthly houses of their tabernacles to enter into buildings of God, 

houses not made with hands eternal in the heavens, prepared for them 

by Him whom they had loved and served. 

DEATH OF REV. DR. T. M. JONES 

Raleigh Christian Advocate, Wednesday, July 2, 1890 

REV. F. L. REID, Editor 

Just as we were closing up this issue for the press the wires flashed 

to us the following sad news: 

“Greensboro, N.C., June 30, 1890 

“To Rev. Dr. F. L. Reid: 


A fuller sketch of this eminent educator and good man, giving 

more in detail, giving the strong points of his character, his life-work 

and an account of his last hours, will be given hereafter. He died of 

some organic disease of the heart. To the greatly bereaved children 

(he leaves five sons and three daughters) we tender the most sincere 

sympathy in this hour of their great sorrow. 

MEMOIR OF DR. T. M. JONES 

By REV. L. W. CRAWFORD 

Rev. Turner Myrick Jones, D. D., the subject of this sketch, was 

born in Franklin County, N.C., on the 4th of June, 1819, and died 

in the City of Greensboro at 1 o’clock p.m., June 30, 1890, aged 

71 years and 26 days. 

His father’s name was Amos Jones, a local minister of the Meth- 

odist Church. His mother’s maiden name was Mary Anne Myrick- 

both were natives of Franklin County. They had twelve children- six 

sons and six daughters. Turner M. Jones was the eleventh child 

He was brought up on the farm, where he formed habits of indus- 

try and the habit of early rising, and also learned to attend 

to business. His early educational advantages he regarded as defective. 

He attended what in those days was called “old field schools.” In 

them he learned to spell and read, and the fundamental rules of 

arithmetic, and committed to memory Murray’s English grammar. So 

it is evident that he made the most of his opportunities. He was pre- 

pared for college in a boarding school, six miles from his father’s 

house. From there he went to Randolph-Macon, the joint males col- 

lege of Virginia and North Carolina Conference. Before graduating 

he left college on account of failing health. 

While resting at home he soon recovered and afterward engaged 

in teaching in the family of Mr. Edward Alston of Warren County. 

At the close of the year he was elected Principal of Ridgeway 

Academy in Warren County. He continued there two and a half 

years. 

In 1845, two years after the time he would have graduated had 

he continued at College, he attended Randolph-Macon Commence- 

ment, was examined and received his degree of A. B., from the hand 

of L. C. Garland, President of the College. 

In the fall of this year he was married to Miss Augusta T. Stone 

of Franklin County. After eleven years of real conjugal happiness 

she died, leaving four children. (One child had died.) 

He spent ten and a half years teaching in private families and in 

male academies. Two and a half years of the time were spent in 

Warren County and seven and a half years in Franklin County. At 

one time his school had in it sixty boys and young men, which was a


very unusual thing in that day, and showed the efficiency and popu- 

larity of the young teacher. 

In 1853 he was elected to the Professorship of Mathematics and 

Ancient Languages in Greensboro Female College, then under the 

presidency of Rev. Charles F. Deems. In this capacity he remained 

one scholastic year. In December, 1854, Dr. Deems resigned the 

presidency, and Professor Jones was unanimously chosen to fill his 

place. This was a great responsibility upon one so young and modest, 

but it proved a most fortunate selection for the Institution, for in a 

short while the patronage of the College became greater than the 

capacity of the building, and as many as twenty young ladies had to 

be boarded outside. 

On the 9th of August, 1863, a few days after the fall session 

opened, the College building was destroyed by fire. This was felt to 

be a calamity by the whole State. Every room in the building was 

occupied at the time, and as many as fifty pupils had been refused 

admission for want of room. For the next two years Professor Jones 

was engaged in raising funds for the purpose of rebuilding the Col- 

lege. At this time the Civil War closed, and all plans for rebuilding 

were discontinued. 

In December, 1865, he went to Louisburg, and in January, 1866, 

opened a school there. The school prospered until the fall of 1868. 

In January, 1869, he left Louisburg on account of sickness in the 

school and went to Kittrell, where he remained five months. 

In the summer of 1869 he leased Warrenton Female College and 

removed his school thither, where he continued teaching until the end 

of the spring session in June, 1873. In Warrenton his school was 

prosperous, and large inducements were offered to keep him there, but 

his attachments to Greensboro caused him to accept the Presidency of 

Greensboro Female College, the new building having been completed. 

He remained the faithful, honored, and loved President of that noble 

institution until his connection with it was severed by death. 

Rev. T. M. Jones was married, the second time, to Miss Lucy 

McGee, of Chatham County, on June 2, 1857. She was a lady in 

every particular eminently fitted for the high and responsible position 

to which she was called. Her noble nature, her large endowments, her 

thorough culture, her entire consecration to the duties involved in her 

position, greatly enlightened the care and burdens of the President, and 

promoted in every way the interests of the Institution. 

The fruit of this marriage was seven children. On the 2nd of 

November, 1884, this sainted woman, affectionate wife and devoted 

mother, was called by death from earth away, full of honor, loved 

and revered by many hundreds of young ladies to whom she had acted 

the part of friend, teacher and mother. Here came the great sorrow


of Dr. Jones’ life. He felt that the great loss to himself and the 

Institution by her death was irreparable-in this he found in after 

years that he was not mistaken. 

HIS RELIGIOUS LIFE 

In his thirteenth year, on Tuesday night, at a camp-meeting held 

at Schocco Church on Warren Circuit, after an exhortation of Rev. 

James Reid, who was Presiding Elder at that time, he went to the 

altar for prayer, and professed conversion that night. He soon afterward 

joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and became a useful 

devoted and prominent member. He never attended a circus, a 

theater, or any of those worldly amusements or dissipations that have 

been so hurtful to many professing Christians. 

He devoted much time to and realized much benefit from prayer, 

reading the Scriptures and religious books and papers. 

At the age of thirty-four years he was licensed to preach while 

teaching in the Male Academy in Louisburg. He, as a preacher, was 

sound in doctrine, clear, accurate and scholarly in the presentation of 

the truth. His style was finished, attractive and popular with educated 

and literary people. He was in great demand by the churches and 

ministers. However, he always shrank from pulpit work. While he 

desired always to answer the calls of duty, he never pushed himself 

forward or sought opportunity to preach for personal notoriety. 

He never joined the Conference, though urged to do so. He preferred 

to remain in the local ranks. The pressure of his professional 

work and college duties was so great he neither had time nor strength 

to do much outside work. When he accepted invitations to preach he 

made thorough preparation. His sermons were always of a high order, 

beautiful in conception and sentiment, and adorned with the graces of 

rhetoric and gems of thought. Great congregations listened with delight 

and profit as he dispensed the word of life as occasion offered. 

For a great many years he was elected annually to the sessions of the 

North Carolina Conference, and several times he was chosen as a 

member of the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 

Church, South. His ability was recognized in these bodies, and he was 

often honored by them with responsible and difficult duties. 

A few years ago the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity was 

conferred upon him by Trinity College. All who knew him felt that 

he was well worthy of this distinction, and he wore it with grace and 

reflected honor upon the title and the Institution which gave it. 

His life-work was well chosen. He was an educator by nature 

and by profession. He was preeminently fitted to be the President of a 

great Female College. Scholarly and cultured, he was firm, gentle, 

pains-taking and patient.


Refined in his nature and tastes, tender in his manner and deli- 

cate in his sensibilities, always in sympathy with the pure, the good, 

the beautiful in character and deportment, he had all the qualities 

essential to success as a female educator. It was not surprising to his 

friends, that he achieved success as a female educator. It was not sur- 

prising to his friends, that he achieved success and fame in his high 

calling. He has for years been recognized in the Methodist Episcopal 

Church, South, as one of their foremost educators. He was respected, 

honored, and venerated by the members of his profession wherever 

known. While always modest in his pretensions and claims, he was 

an accurate, well rounded scholar, and excelled in the higher literary 

and classical attainments. 

For twenty-six years he was the honored President of Greensboro 

Female College and under his management this became universally 

regarded as one of the first female schools in the South. Few institu- 

tions have made for themselves such a proud history as has Greensboro. 

Thousands of young ladies have been educated within her walls, and 

they have gone out as ornaments in society, and as educated, refined 

Christian women, whose lives have been an incalculable blessing to our 

church and our country. (President ten years additional elsewhere). 

Most of these bear the impress of their great teacher, and carry 

with them the highest respect and strongest affection for their devoted 

and accomplished president and preceptor, and today there is mourn- 

ing throughout the State by hundreds of those who sat as pupils in his 

presence; and by their lives they testify to his efficiency and ability and 

by their tears they testify to their love for his person and memory. 

Dr. Jones had been in feeble health since Commencement, though 

he had continued at work as usual until last Friday morning. On that 

day he came to this church to attend the funeral of Mrs. Virginia 

Baker of this city, a former pupil and a devoted friend. He was here 

taken sick and was conveyed at once to the College. His physician 

found him suffering greatly from heart and stomach complications. He 

from the first was thought to be in a critical condition. Dr. Jones 

himself thought he would not recover, owing to his age and debility. 

He So expressed himself to his family. He told them his life’s 

work was done; assured them of his abiding faith in God and acpuiescence acquiescence 

in his Heavenly Father’s will; he expressed great satisfaction in 

the assurance “That neither death, nor life, nor angels nor principali- 

ties, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, 

nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the 

love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

During his brief, but very severe illness, he suffered much, but 

bore it patiently, and had his soul refreshed by prayer, and nourished 

by grace and the Holy Spirit. He was ready and willing and waiting


for the Father’s will to be done. After lying in an unconscious state 

for several hours, at ten minutes to one o’clock on yesterday p.m., 

“ 

The silver cord was loosed and the golden bowl was broken, and 

his pure spirit returned to God who gave it.” “Mark the perfect man 

and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace.” 

(Three stanzas of hymn: “Servant of God well done-The pains 

of death are past Soldier of Christ well done 

TRIBUTE TO DR. T. M. JONES BY C. F. DEEMS 

(In Raleigh Christian Advocate, Aug. 20, 1890- p. 1.) 

(Written While Dr. Deems Was Abroad) 

The Lord makes His saints to differ as He makes His stars. A 

man more exactly the opposite to John Tillett (whose character, Dr. 

Deems had just portrayed in the same article in the Advocate) in 

everything except heart-honesty, was Turner M. Jones. He was as 

gentle as a good sweet child. His manners were as soft as those of the 

gentler kind of woman. He was regular, systematic and precise. What 

he accomplished came to pass from no push but from the persistence 

of a man who laid the weight of his character against that which 

was to be overcome. He was born apparently to be an instructor. I 

saw that and secured his call to Greensboro College as Professor that 

he might be my successor in the Presidency. And I believe that from 

the time of his election until his departure no other man was ever 

thought of for the position. He was a true friend. He was a member 

of the Institute (viz., established by Dr. Deems). 

(MISS) “DORA DUTY JONES” 

An Appreciation from Dr. C. Alphonso Smith, of the University of Virginia 

(Greensboro Daily Record, 4-3-13) 

The interment of Miss Dora Duty Jones, who died in London, 

February 3, 1913, took place privately yesterday (3/Ap/13) in Green 

Hill Cemetery in the presence of a few of her surviving relatives. 

The announcement of the death of Miss Dora Duty Jones on 

February 3rd will bring grief not only to those whose privilege it 

was to know and love her, but to that wider international circle who 

recognized the rare originality of her work, and who sought and 

found both light and leading in her writing. The sum of her achieve- 

ments for the last twelve years is a record of courage, of persistence, 

and of final victory that will form a quickening and enduring heritage 

to all those who admire a noble ideal nobly and unfaltering pursued. 

I count it one of the privileges of my life in Berlin during the 

winter of 1910-1911 to have renewed with Miss Jones an acquaint- 

ance that had begun in early boyhood. Even in the old days her per- 

sonality had about it a suggestion of distinction, a flavor of uniqueness,

MISS DORA DUTY JONES

A WORD-PICTURE OF MISS DORA D. JONES 

Medium size, well developed. Medium height. Fair complexion. Blue eyes. 

Dark hair. 

Her traits of character, according to one who knew her well in college were: 

Very intelligent ; cheery disposition ; most gracious woman at all times ; equal 

to any emergency; was well fitted to take her mother’s place as Lady Principal. 

She was very tender and tactful with her younger brothers, coaxed rather than 

demanded. For example, she would say: “Sis Dora wishes you to do so and so.” 

As a student in college this one, describing Miss Dora, said: “I always felt 

free to go to Miss Dora for advice, and I always found her advice to be wise 

and freely given.” 

Another one-an intimate friend of Miss Dora Jones-made special reference 

to Miss Dora as being always “well-groomed”, indicating excellent taste in dress. 

MISS DORA DUTY JONES 

Daughter of 

REV. TURNER M. JONES, A.M., D.D. 

and 

MRS. LUCY MCGEE JONES (Second Wife) 

Born in Greensboro, N.C., November 30, 1859. 

Died in London, February 3, 1913. 

Buried in Green Hill Cemetery, Greensboro, N.C., April 3, 1913. 

(Body cremated in London-ashes interred in T. M. Jones’ Plot, Green Hill 

Cemetery, Greensboro, N.C.)


a note of dedication as unmistakable as it was rare and attractive. As 

Lady Principal of the Greensboro Female College, as lecturer on art 

as she knew it at first hand in the great European galleries, as teacher 

of lyric diction in New York, she had already given evidence of great 

powers about to become greater. Intellect and insight, scholarship and 

enthusiasm were so blended as to hint of some unique and compelling 

achievement when the larger opportunity offered. The larger oppor- 

tunity came when she settled permanently abroad and began to teach 

the mechanism of the human voice and its application in speaking and 

singing. In 1907, after a year of successful teaching in Florence, she 

moved to Berlin, where the opportunities were greater because the 

competition was keener. Here her work met with instant and increasing 

acclaim. No one in the large American colony in Berlin, varied as 

were its interests and specialized as were its activities, seemed to me 

to be doing work comparable with hers for originality, for helpfulness, 

or for purely scientific excellence. She taught Germans how to sing 

German, Italians how to sing Italian, Frenchmen how to sing French, 

Englishmen and Americans how to sing English. Among her students 

were men and women already famous on the stage, but who were 

among the first to recognize that she alone had detected unerringly 

their vocal limitations and had unerringly pointed the way to increased 

resonance in both speech and song. 

The fame of her work drew her for the two last years of her life 

to London, where many of her former pupils resided and where new 

friends and admirers were eager to share the inspiration of her teach- 

ings it was here that the end came quietly and resignedly, and it was 

from here that her ashes were sent by her own direction to the old 

home in North Carolina. I can never forget the interest that she 

manifested in Greensboro, in its people, in its new activities, in her 

friends of earlier days, and in all that had come to them of light or 

shadow. Though not strong, she spoke with no note of weakness, but 

with a breadth of sympathy made more tender by the years and with 

an eager alertness of intellect that time and distance seemed only to 

have intensified. 

The fruits of her twelve years of teaching and investigations are 

now garnered in her two books, “The Technique of Speech: A Guide 

to the Study of Diction According to the Principles of Resonance” 

(1909) and “Lyric Diction for Singers, Actors and Public Speakers, 

with a Preface by Madame Melba” (1 913). The theme of the first 

book is vowel resonance. “Resonance,” she maintains, “brings the 

only quality characteristic of the voice in both speaking and singing, 

is the only natural link between speech and song.” Her method is 

based on her discovery of a definite point of control in the muscular


action of the tongue, from which the movements of that organ may 

be directed easily and naturally through the sense of touch.” 

“Lyric Diction” was published only a day or so before the death 

of the author. It makes a wider appeal than “The Technique of 

Speech,” though it supplements and complements the first work in 

every chapter. Lyric diction means “the preparation of the word for 

singing.” Like its predecessor this book shows perfect familiarity with 

the latest and most abstruse investigations of German, French, Italian 

and American phoneticians, but it adds something distinctive to them. 

It co-ordinates coordinates and fuses and applies preceding results with such 

fineness of understanding, with such breadth of interpretation, and 

with such clearness of statement, that the work is itself creative rather 

than electric or purely reproductive. “Let the vocal student, therefore, 

deliver himself promptly from the dominion of the ear-let him learn 

to feel the sensations of tone-let the arrogant ear retire to its proper 

and sufficiently important past as director, critic, referee, or umpire- 

let the reins of control be transferred from the sense of hearing to 

the sense of muscular movement.” These striking sentences picked 

here and there from the second chapter will give an idea of the great 

underlying thought of the whole treatise. 

The two books will conserve the author’s name and will perpetuate 

her influence. The chorus of discriminating applause that greeter her 

first book will make and retain a still wider audience for her last. 

To be remembered thus, to live again in the song and speech of four 

nations, song and speech made sweeter and more melodious because of 

what she wrought and taught, is not to die. It is only to have joined 

the choir invisible. 

“Whose music is the gladness of the world.”

Ch.5 Pt.2 - Brock Historical Museum of Greensboro College

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