Oberlin Home and School

Transcribed from the Caldwell County Heritage Book. Information provided by James B Dula

In 1885 Miss Emily Prudden, daughter of a Congregational minister in Connecticut, established a school near Hudson to serve the mountain children whom she said did not have adequate educational opportunites. She purchased one hundred acres from Henry Keller on Lick Mountain. Some said she only paid two or three dollars per acre for it.

She built a two story eleven room house for the dormitory, call the White House because it was painted white. Later she erected the school, called the Green House, because of the color. She named it Oberlin Home and School for Johann Friedrick Oberlin of France, whose life of service in rural areas of his native land had been an inspiration to her. Her helpers were Elizabeth Kennedy and Mary Frances. There were about fifty enrolled and about half of these were boarding students. Money was not required. The students paid their expenses by working.

About 1903 when the school had expanded beyond Miss Prudden's means of supporting it, she deeded it to the Women's Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, who changed the name to Mitchell Industrial Home and School, in memory of Ebenezer Mitchell, a step son of Mrs Mary Mitchell of Dayton, Ohio, who make a cash gift of $1,000.00 to the school, to complete the second story. Later she gave another thousand dollars.

Miss Mary Abbott, another teacher, took pictures of the students in rags, as a joke. She had the picture put in a Cincinnati, Ohio, newspaper along with an article asking for money and old clothes for the 'poor destitute' people of the South. When people of Hudson and the surrounding community heard about this, it made a lot of them angry and as the report circulated, it was exaggerated. Some accused her of saying, "Many never saw a piano." Quite a few of the people in the community tood sides, some against Miss Abbott and the school, others supporting the school. Conditions grew so tense, some threatened to kill. So one Sunday afternoon in September 1905, they had a battle on Lick Mountain, with eight or ten on each side, shooting at each other. Those who didn't have guns threw rocks. At least two hundred shots were fired in less than an hour. Two men were shot. John Martin died after spending two weeks in a Hickory hospital.

The teachers left and there was no school for a year or two. It was reopened again about 1906 or 1907 by two other Methodist home missionaries, Miss Emily Bartholomew and Miss Elssworth Apperson. The school served both boarding students and day students.

At two AM on January 14, 1908, a boys' room in the dormitory caught fire. There were no fires in the building so it was a mystery how it started. It was totally destroyed but all 35 students and two teachers escaped safely and took refuge in the school building. Within a month officers of the Society found in Lenoir a house with eight large rooms and a log dining room and kitchen on the rear with could be rented to continue the school term for 26 of the pupils. This was the Leanlittle Cottage.

Efforts wo raise funds to rebuild failed, so finally in the summer of 1909 the decision was made to accept an offer of land with a building on it at Misenheimer in Stanley County as the new site of the Mitchell Home and School.

On February 2, 1910, twenty-two pupils and teachers with their freight were moved free of charge by the Southern Railway, which also delivered a load of coal from Tennessee. The new home had two school rooms with forty-five students in the Home, and a day school of thirty. Boys were admitted in 1913, when a dormitory for them was added.

High school was added shortly after the move to Misenheimer and junior college studies were added in 1928. In 1934 the junior college program was fully accredited, so the old name of Mitchell Home School was changed to Mitchell Junior College and High School. In the meantime confusion arose over the existence of Mitchell College in Statesville. It was a junior college for girls established in 1856 under Presbyterian auspices.

Consequently, in recognition of Mrs Henry Pfeiffer's generous gift in 1935 which made possible the erection of four brick buildings and a president's home, the name of the Misenheimer institution was changed to Pfeiffer Junior College, beginning with the 1935-36 year. Mr and Mrs Henry Pfeiffer along with Gustavus and Louise Pfeiffer of New York City continued to make gifts from time to time.

Baccalaureate degrees were first conferred in 1957. Pfeiffer College became formally affiliated with the Western North Carolina Conference of the Methodist Church in 1961.

So Oberlin Home and School that had its little beginning on Lick Mountain in 1885 grew into a standard four year college with a plant worth more than twelve million dollars, occupying a campus of over 300 acres, with a faculty of about 70. It draws students from 15 or more states and confers annually more than 200 baccalaureate degrees.

Miss Emily Pruden, who was the founder of this school died in Hickory, NC on Christmas Day 1917, at 85 years of age. In Orange Connecticut, her tombstone reads (in part): Fifteen mission school and colleges were founded by her in the Southland.