The Founding Mothers of North Carolina A&T
The names of Frances Grimes, Sophia M. Parker, Florence Garrett, and other female staff and alumni from our earliest years are more widely known today than in earlier generations, thanks to new research from the University Archives and Special Collections. Since the last story about the earliest women in Aggieland was published, even more fascinating discoveries have been made about the “Founding Mothers” of North Carolina A&T State University, which we are proud to share once again for Women’s History Month and Founder’s Day.
“The Agricultural and Mechanical College for the Colored Race” was established in 1891, with Greensboro selected as the location site in 1892. The first college building was erected in 1893 with dormitory spaces for both men and women.
Susie B. Dudley.
The first woman known to teach on the campus was Mrs. John O. Crosby, the wife of our first president. A college graduate, she volunteered to teach sewing and cooking, which was the beginning of Home Economics at A&T. Susie B. Dudley (c.1852-1933), the wife of President James B. Dudley, was a homeroom instructor for the preparatory department and much more. A true renaissance woman, Mrs. Dudley wrote “Dear A&T” [originally Dear A. & M] sometime before 1905 and established dramatic arts at A&T in 1898 with her annual “Industrial Night” plays at commencement. Margaret Falkener, the wife of Professor and Trustee Henry Hall Falkener, established A&T’s music department in 1894.
H. H. & Margaret Falkener with their children.
Mrs. Crosby, Mrs. Falkener, and Mrs. Dudley were never credited in their instructional roles in surviving college publications. With the times and traditions, two staff roles were assigned exclusively to women at the college and were credited: the matron and the head of domestic sciences.
The North Carolinian (Raleigh) August 16, 1900.
The College Matron oversaw the health, well-being, and domestic care of the students in campus living quarters. She also had direct supervision over the lives of female students on campus. The earliest known matron was Johanna Jones, who worked at the college from 1893 to 1895. She was succeeded by Mrs. Eliza A. Cheek, who worked at the A&M College while her son, Willie, was enrolled as a student. William “Willie” Thomas Cain Cheek was one of the first graduates of the college in 1899.
After Mrs. Cheek, Alice V. Williams (1872-1954), “a versatile and highly intelligent lady,” served as the college matron. For many years, the archives did not realize all of Mrs. Williams’ connections to multiple HBCU histories. She was born Alice Vivian Unthank, the youngest of the six children of Harmon “The Boss” Unthank, who is still known as Greensboro’s first Black leader and the unofficial first mayor of the Warnersville community.
Model Dining Room, 1899. Library of Congress.
Alice Williams was also a sister-in-law of Livingstone College President W. H. Goler and lived and worked for a time in Salisbury, NC. Before working at A&T, she was also the college matron at Bennett College. Williams later remarried a school principal and served as a community leader and benefactor to Bennett College and the city of Winston-Salem for over 30 years as Mrs. Alice V. Unthank Reynolds. A flagpole was dedicated to her father by Mrs. Reynolds on the campus of Bennett College in 1946.
The first woman to head a department at A&T was Ms. Sophia M. Parker (1876-????). She led the “Department of Domestic Sciences” from 1897 to 1901. Parker was a prize-winning student of the preparatory and normal departments at St. Augustine’s College in Raleigh, NC. We can assume she was exceptional to be hired as the head of a college department at the age of 21. Ms. Parker taught a six-year coursework program in sewing, as well as “cooking and food economy.” Her classrooms included a laundry, “spacious sewing rooms,” a model kitchen, and the campus dining room. After her time at A&T, she returned to Raleigh as an instructor of sewing and dressmaking.
Another role traditionally associated with women was the college librarian. While A&T’s earliest known librarians were Henry Hall Falkener and John Henry Manning Butler, they were succeeded by Estelle [or Estella] May Carter (1873-1965), A&T’s first female librarian. The library was, for decades, one of the few departments on campus where a woman could be the head. Ms. Carter was raised in Massachusetts and served as the librarian and bursar (treasurer) for the college from 1898 to 1901.
The first “library and reading room” was a “large and convenient room” on the second floor of the Old Dudley Building. The services of Falkner, Butler, and Ms. Carter laid the foundation for finances, librarianship, and records management at our university. After her time at A&T, she worked as a teacher in the New Bedford, Massachusetts community and was involved in the suffragist movement with Elizabeth Carter Brooks (no relation).
Cutting and Fitting, 1899. Library of Congress.
At least 12 women were enrolled as students in 1895. Coursework for the Bachelor’s Degree began in 1897. Women could enroll for the B.S. in Mechanics and the “Women’s Course,” but not Agriculture or the B. Agr. Three women earned bachelor’s degrees before 1902. The first female graduate of A&T was Frances Grimes in 1901, who became a schoolteacher in Charlotte, N.C. That same year, A&T decided to stop admitting women to the bachelor’s degree program and to close the preparatory department. After Grimes, only two of her classmates, Hannah Bullock (1902) and Florence A. Garrett (1902), would finish their degrees. Women were readmitted for bachelor’s degrees in 1928.
While women were no longer enrolled in bachelor’s degree programs, hundreds of teachers attended the summer school sessions. Among the female faculty known to be instructors at the A&M Summer School were Mary Alice Jackson Dunston, a teacher from Wilmington, NC.
The Founding Mothers of North Carolina A&T had deep roots in African American communities from several states and multiple HBCU campuses. The University Archives and Special Collections receives multiple requests about them and needs help finding missing information. Of the 11 women described in this story, the University Archives only has photos of Mrs. Dudley and Mrs. Falkener. Group photos of women at the old A&M College have survived, but we cannot positively identify anyone in them.
If you have an ancestor who worked at or attended A&T before 1930, or would like more information about this story, please contact us at libraryarchives@ncat.edu.
By: James R. Stewart ’08
