1884 Knoxville College graduate repaid the school’s kindness
There are several things in local history that intrigue me. Most of the time I can research and find the answers to my questions, but not always. Since about 1980 I have been interested in a Black woman from Blount County who went to Knoxville College. She was a very intelligent, articulate person who was very popular with women’s civic and social groups here. She had inherited quite a bit of property from a source that is still unknown to me.
Jane (Jennie) P. Henry graduated from the Normal Department at Knoxville College in 1884. She had enrolled there in grade school Sept. 9, 1879. In one of her talks she said, “When we entered school, little children of five and six years old were farther advanced than l, and this was very discouraging, but the old adage of ‘where there is a will, there is a way’ kept me going.”
As a student she became a member of the Witherspoon Literary Society and at its sixth annual public exhibition, on May 11, 1883, she gave an oration titled “Is an Education the Only Future Worth Striving For?” Her delivery attracted the attention of women’s groups across the city and she was constantly invited to their civic and social affairs.
Henry received her teaching certificate July 12, 1884, and began teaching third grade in Chattooga County, Georgia. But after just one year she developed a serious health problem and had to give up her job. Knoxville College was sympathetic with her condition and offered her a position in its elementary training department that she took May 21, 1885.
Apparently her affliction was a tumor that robbed her of her eyesight within five years. In 1900 the college president, Dr. Ralph McGranahan, referred to her in his report to the Board of Trustees: “The blind girl, Miss Jane Henry is left with little resource upon which to depend. A year ago the congregation of our church arranged to pay for her boarding in the college department.
“The arrangement made her as happy as a bird. She is worthy in every way and it does the congregation good too. She owns a little farm of 63 acres 14 miles from here in Blount
County. Of her own accord she has expressed a desire to leave this to the college and has taken steps to have the will made out.”
McGranahan guessed in his report that the tumor would kill Henry within a year. He also noted that “Some of her worthless relatives were trying to get control of her property.” He guessed wrong about her longevity because she would live exactly 33 more years after his prognosis.
Several years before her death she deeded the property to the college. Twenty-five acres of it contained valuable timberland and the trees were felled, sawed and hauled to Knoxville under the supervision of a foreman and college boys during the summer, The other acreage was leased and used for growing feed for livestock.
The lumber was used by the KC Industrial
Department to erect all the buildings across the front of the campus except the library. The bricks used were made at the campus brickyard. Students who attended the college in the 1920s remembered meeting Jane Henry, who still lived in the dormitory. She died Sept. 1, 1933.
Robert J. Booker is a freelance writer and former executive director of the Beck Cultural Exchange Center. He may be reached at 865-546-1576.