W. W. Magruder home on Jackson Street is shown here

Shirley Carley said, “The W. W. Magruder home on Jackson Street in 1951, it was in a rundown condition after being vacant for some time. When it was built in 1900, however, the house was one of Starkville’s most handsome homes. Through several periods of repair and renovation the house, which today is the Community Youth Center add offices of the Parks and Recreation Department, remains an attractive structure and a center for community activity.

The building features spacious rooms with high ceilings typical of the turn of the century. An unusual feature, for that era, was the inclusion of two large bathrooms. There were five bedrooms upstairs while the main floor held double parlors, a dining room, kitchen and spacious entry hall. Curly pine paneling was used on the walls and the floors were of solid walnut. The woodwork in the lower rooms and the handsome spindled stairway in the entry hall added distinction to the décor.

Shown is an attractive mantel and mirror located in the front parlor of the Magruder home

After the Magruder family moved from the house, it was vacant until the city purchased it for $20,000. It was bought specifically to provide a place for the young people of the community. Parents had exerted pressure for a suitable center for the youth that previously had been allocated a small room in the city hall for their activities.

A committee of youth and adult was formed to guide the development of the center. Their first order of business was to clear the lot that had suffered heavily in a severe ice storm earlier in the year. In the front lawn were two large oak trees and two magnolia trees while the back boasted 16 tall cedars, three oaks, five pecans, one elm and 38 fig trees.

The house was rewired and the rooms redecorated with paint and wallpaper. Rooms on the left side to the downstairs were turned into an apartment for a resident hostess, the first of who was Mrs. I. C. Pope who moved in September of 1951. Local citizens

donated furnishings for the apartment and the rest of the building.

The official dedication of the Youth Center was held in December. The following summer, recreational programs for youth were begun and continued to be offered each summer for many years. Classes in art were also available and the center was often the scene of art exhibits.

In 1959, Mrs. Opal Haney became the resident hostess. The following year the kitchen and downstairs rooms were redecorated and a tennis court was constructed on the lower back lot. Activities expanded to include dances and open house after Starkville High School home football games. The boy and girl scouts began holding their weekly meetings there. The boys constructed picnic benches for the yard and the girls decorated two of the upstairs rooms. Included on the activity schedule during these years were classes in flower arranging and art along with card parties, lectures, talent shows and a weekly youth radio broadcast.

After Mrs. Haney left several years ago, a permanent hostess was not employed. The left side of the building now houses the Red Cross office and offices for the P&RD department that oversees use of the facility by community groups and also supervises the upkeep.

An active program for the elderly has been initiated along with classes in various crafts, cooking and exercise for adults and young people. Boy and girl scouts continue to meet there, and the center is also available for young people on Saturday nights when parents volunteer to chaperone. A regulation pool table, pin-pong table and games of all kinds from monopoly to croquet offer entertainment and fun. “We’re looking for a juke box so the young people can enjoy music here too,” commented P&RD director Forest Ponder.

In the back yard are several picnic tables and a Tot Lot filled with playground equipment donated several years ago by the Starkville Jaycees. A contract has been let to resurface the old tennis court and future plans call for a fence and lights for the courts as they can be utilized for lessons.

In the past several years, renovation and redecorating of the meeting rooms and offices has been continued. A few years ago a new roof was put on the house and recently the repair and painting of the exterior was completed along with installation of a metal outside fire escape.

There is still a lot of work to be done, however, the handsome old home continues to be a landmark in the community as well as the hub of activity for young and old alike.”

Today, it is the home of Genevieve Maxon-Stark who is restoring it.

Carl McIntire used to write a feature history column for the Clarion Ledger. years ago in 1906 And this is one that he wrote on Mississippi’s first bridge. And one early historian asked in 1906 if it could be the bridge could be the first bridge in the nation – fluctuated in value from $1,000 to 30,000 to 800 in just a few years.

Located across the Noxubee River in the southern part of Oktibbeha County, just above the Noxubee County line, it was a privately built and operated span on which toll was collected from all who passed over – human or animal, in all likelihood.

Just what the tolls were is not told for this bridge, but if it was like others, as it probably was, the prices might have been like this” 15 cents for an adult, 5 cents for children, 3 cents per cow or horse and 5 cents for pigs or sheep by the dozen.

At any rate, it was the only bridge on the only thoroughfare from east to west and was on the U. S. government road known as Robinson Road, the first to be built in the state.

THE ORIGINAL LANDOWNER was a Daniel Nail, said to be a half-breed Choctaw. He sold his interest in 1832 to Grabel Lincecum for $500 and Lincecum built the bridge, probably in the same year.

A year later, when Oktibbeha County was organized, the county organized, the county granted an annual appropriation of %000 for the benefit of its citizens. Apparently, the county residents could use the bridge for free, all others paid.

Traffic must have been heavy in this era of the 1830s when the westward treks were underway by immigrants from the Carolinas, Georgia and Virginia. Many were heading for Texas, but it was in this period that many stopped and settled in Mississippi.

In covered wagons, drawn by oxen, and with their cattle and other livestock along, the families had to cross the river and the bridge was here, for a fee.

IT MUST HAVE BEEN a great business venture.

In 1834, Lincecum sold out to McKinney Holderness for 1,000. He sold it some time later to Richard Watkins for $2,000. By then, Lincecum must have realized the bonanza he had created and almost given away in the first sale, so he and Dr. John Watkins bought it back from Richard Watkins, paying $5,000. They in turn, sold it to a Mr. Gooch for $20,000 and a Mr. Dulaney came along and grabbed it up for the bargain price of $30,000.

He probably thought he had a bargain, for traffic must have been at its peak when he made the purchase. The value dwindled fast, it would seem for it was not a long time before he was selling it for a mere $800 to James Stewart.

From there on there is no more story of the bridge, but most occurred during its lively period than just the sales.

THE STORY IS TOLD that a tavern owner, whose place was only about a mile from the bridge tried to entice customers by informing them, in periods of low water, that the river could be forded a short distance below the span, thus circumventing the tolls.

Owners of the bridge, whosoever it was at the time, naturally reacted to such information being glibly handled about and there was deputes, lawsuits and generally poor relations between the neighboring businessmen.

At the price of the bridge would indicate, from sale to sale, it was a golden egg for a period. Then, at last, when Dulaney lost $29,200, in unloading it to Stewart, either there were some ways to ford a creek or a lot fewer people heading west.

HISTORIANS who have recounted this bit of Mississippiana—including William A. Love, who wrote for the Mississippi Historical Society in 1908 – believed it was the dropping off of traffic that caused this deline in the bridge’s value.

Beginning in the eastern part of Choctaw and the western portion of Oktibbeha Counties, the Noxubee River flows southeasterly to connect with the Tombigbee over in Alabama.

It was considered the dividing line of the Choctaw Indians between their permanent home in the pine forest region to the south and their hunting grounds to the north.

THEY HAD GIVEN it its name—Noxubee—which means stinking water, presumably for the bad odors which emanated from the swampy bottoms, following summer floods. (It was not, several writers of the era have noted, given the name for the stink that would have noted, given the same for the decaying of bodies of their enemies who might have been tossed into the river.)

Only a mile and half from the bridge, to the east on Robinson Road, was the Choctaw Agency. It had been established soon after the Treaty of Doak’s Stand in 1820, when the Choctaws had sold part of their lands to the white man.

It was at the agency that the Choctaws received some of the annuities granted to them prior to the later Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1835.

FOR THE CHOCTAWS, it was a prominent place and in 1827 they held their national council there, discussing at that time some of the details that were later written out in the Dancing Rabbit Creek treaty.

Also, Humming Bird, one of the chiefs of the Choctaws, was buried there in 1828 with Colonel Ward, the Choctaw agent, giving him full military honors.

After the second treaty ad until 1833, the spot was occupied by Col. Ward as the agent for the Choctaw families who had desired to remain in Mississippi and not join the others in the Trail of Tears: in new homes and hunting grounds in the Oklahoma Territory.

When Ward, left, the place on the river where the agency had been became infamous. There were houses of entertainment, as they were called, and thefts and robberies became common. There were reports of people suddenly disappearing.

IT WAS LATER PROVED that the outlaw John A. Murrell and his gang had operated there and Love, in his account says, “in the recent discovery of human bones in a long abandoned well as the premises, these traditions are not lacking verisimilitude

Someplace close to the Noxubee River and along Robinson Road, better times were to come, and nearby, there had been better times.

Rev. Cyrus Kingsbury a missionary established the Mayhew Mission along Robinson Road and in about 182 erected a log home nearby. His work drew many persons of religious or official prominence over the years.

There were other crossing places on the Noxubee River, most of them ford, but a few ferries, not far from the bridge.

IT WAS JUST BELOW one of these ferries, known for Starnes, its operator, that Pushmataha had been born in about 1784. A large black oak tree was for years pointed out as the place of the famed Indian’s birth.

Pushmataha, of course, became one of the most prominent figures in Choctaw history. He served in the U. S. Army in the Creek War of 1813 attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was a major participant in the Treaty of Doak’s Stand and when he died in Washington, D. C. was given full military honors when buried in the Congressional Cemetery.

Not far below the bridge near where Shuqualak Creek enters the Noxubee was another historic site for the old river. It was here that the famous international bail game of the Creek and Choctaw Indians was played in 1782.

FIFTY CHAMPION PLAYERS from each side and several thousand spectators from each nation were on hand. It was a long hard struggle and the Creeks won.

Immediately after the game a battle ensued and there were many losses in a day and night of fighting. The chiefs finally were able to quell the hostilities and the dead were buried, the survivors departing in peace.

While this writer has yet to see any such artifacts, Love, in his account, says, “relics of the dead warriors have been exhumed from their resting places on the hall ground.”

So goes the story of the river and the first bridge–in the nation?

This home shown on Lampkin ST provides a handsome example of elegance and charm of the turn of the century.

A few years ago when we had open house at the museum hosting a new beginning, Attorney William “Bill” Stark was present and “spotted” an aerial view of Starkville with the photo of the “Page” House on Lampkin Street that he purchased and had moved to their property on Highway 82 West. He asked for a copy of the photo as a reminder.

Next, a precious” lady, Shirley Carley, gave the museum a copy of some of her back articles. As you remember, she was the very talented writer who wrote about Starkville. Among her articles in 1974 was one entitled “Page Home Stands as Reminder of Starkville’s Past.” She wrote the article when the home was still standing on Lampkin Street.

And then, an article by Ginna Parsons in the 2005 Tupelo Journal gives the remaining history of the house, entitled, “The Caragen House in Starkville is the only Steamboat Gothic-Style house in Mississippi.”

Carley wrote, “Tucked away among stately old trees and apparently unperturbed by the parade of progress going on around it, the old Page home on Lampkin Street stands as a handsome reminder of Starkville’s past.

Surrounded by the trees and shrubbery, the house might go unnoticed by the casual passerby. However, once glimpsed, the beauty and charm of the structure often brings people back time and time again to admire its broad, graceful lines and picturesque designs.

Shown is a unique fireplace – Mrs. Ted (Hilda) Bryan stands by one of the nine fireplaces in the home. This fireplace is in the dining room and the leaded glass doors on the cabinet above the mantel enhance its beauty.

The home now belongs to Mrs.William Dabney Peeples and Mr. And Mrs. Ted Bryan. They purchased the house in 1945 from Wilburn Page, great nephew of William Oliver Page, who built it in 1898.

Oliver Page’s parents, John Gutherie Page and Eliza Letcher Phillips Page, settled in Oktibbeha County in the early 1850s, having made the long journey from their home in Virginia by covered wagon. A landowner, “Ollie” Page was in the cotton business in Starkville. He and his wife had eight children, one of whom died as a small girl. A son, Sam, died at 19 from typhoid fever. The other children grew up to be leading citizens of the city. Son Curtis Page was a farmer and served as a county supervisor for 30 years. Frank and Archie were farmers, and Walter became president of Peoples Bank. The two daughters, Miss Fannie and Miss Leila, lived on in the house after their parents died until around 1936, when they sold it to Wilburn Page. The only surviving child, Miss Leila, now lives in a nursing home in West Point.

From 1936 to 1945, the home was rented to a family who ran a boarding house there. Time has not dimmed the luster of the wood or the elegant lines of the stairway or the handsome carved fireplaces.

Probably the most charming room of the house is the dining room. Here the original gold and green finish on the solid oak ceiling beams in still evident. The 12-foothigh walls are wainscoted in beaded ceiling panels topped with a plate rail. The unusual fireplace has a stunning cabinet with leaded glass doors above the mantle, and the green tile surrounding the fire opening adds a bright touch to the dark wood. On the wall opposite the fireplace is a massive built-in china cabinet with leaded glass doors above and rows of drawers below.

There are nine fireplaces in all, with one in each of the seven bedrooms and one in the dining room and in the parlor. The parlor fireplace is of solid mahogany with a huge beveled mirror above. On either side of the mantle are hand-carved lion’s heads extending down to the floor to form feet

W. Overstreet, a Jackson architect, designed the home. Twenty-nine railroad cars of long-leaf pine lumber from South Mississippi went in to the construction.

Elegant rails and posts dominate the spacious entry hall. And the second floor landing, the door leading to the back porch is flanked on the left by two windows. Above the windows and the doors are unusual stained glass panels of green and gold torch designs.

The full attic is a modern architects dream with its peeked ceiling and solid beams. Twenty-seven steps lead from the attic to the roof observatory, a flat platform which at one time was enclosed by a railing.

Leaded glass windows, still boasting the original panes, border the massive oak front door.

Everything in the house reflects the care and attention to detail that went into its buildings. Mrs. Bryan said she had been told that there was not a single knothole in the original lumber.

Family sources say that five magnolia trees were planted on the front lawn when the house was built. One remains to the right of the sidewalk leading to the porch steps. The others were lost during the widening of Lampkin Street.

The exterior of the home is so pleasing to the eye that artists often are seen sketching it. Wide steps of quarried stone lead up to the main porch, above is an identical porch on the second story. Both porches are outlined with sold railings that circle around to the side of the house, forming an attractive design.

Family sources say that five magnolia trees were planted on the front lawn when the house was built. One remains to the right of the sidewalk leading to the porch steps. The others were lost during the widening of Lampkin Street.

The beauty and charm of the Page home contrast vividly with its surroundings and at the same time lend a pleasant feeling of continuity to them.”

In another article in the Tupelo Journal, the paper records the following story. In 1981, Genevieve Stark bought an old home on Lampkin Street in downtown Starkville because she couldn’t bear to see it destroyed. Room by room, chimney by chimney, window by window, the entire home was dismantled, its pieces numbered and hauled away.

A year and half later, the house had been put back together and restored to its former grandeur on property owned by the Stark family on Highway 82 west of town.

At the time, Stark’s four children were all younger than 8, with the baby in diapers. She decided to name the home for them: Caroline, Andrew, Randolph and Genie.

She would call it The Caragen House.

The Caragen House is the only example of a Steamboat Gothic-style home in Mississippi, Stark said. Build around 1890 by one of Starkville’s founding fathers, William Oliver Page, its two-story wraparound porches resemble a steamboat, while the slate roof is of a Gothic architectural style.

“The only reason it’s not on the National Register is because I moved it from downtown,” Stark said. “I really thought I was saving a piece of Mississippi history.”

After rearing her children in the 7,000-square-foot home, Stark sold it to Kay Shurden, who turned The Caragen House into a bed and breakfast in 1995.

“My husband had died several years before and I was finished raising my girls and I needed to find something to keep me busy,” Shurden said. “I’d always been a stay-at-home mom. I knew how to clean a commode and make a bed and cook, so I just took my homemaking skills and turned the home into a bed and breakfast.”

Downstairs, the home boasts a large foyer, library, parlor, dining room and butler’s pantry. It also has a sunroom with a 26-foot high ceiling, a utility room and a bedroom and bath. Shurden added a commercial kitchen in 1998 to make entertaining easier for large parties.

The second floor is home to four spacious bedrooms and five bathrooms and a large foyer. Transoms top almost every door in the house and leaded glass sparkles from windows. Every bedroom in the home has a coal-burning fireplace, but only the ones downstairs are in working order.

The third floor, a full attic that has not been finished out, adds another 3,000 square feet to the home.

Now to the next life.

In the 10 years Shurden has had The Caragen House, it has seen weddings, bridal showers, rehearsal dinners, business meetings, private parties and university functions.

“I’ve met a lot of interesting people here,” Shurden said. “I’ve met a lot of famous people, too.”

Over the years, she said, the likes of publishing mogul Steve Forbes, Govs. Lamar Alexander, Haley Barbour and Kirk Fordice and journalist Bob Woodward have come through her doors.

“I’ve really enjoyed having this business and it’s been good for me but it’s time to stop,” Shurden said. This past November, she ceased to operate as a full-service B&B, although she will still occasionally rent to overnight guests or she’ll rent the house for a party, but she doesn’t “do” the parties anymore. She’s even entertained the idea of selling the home.

“In my first life, I was a wife and mother,” Shurden said. “In my second life, I had the bed and breakfast. Now, I’m waiting to see what my third life is going to be.”

After Stark moved home to Starkville from Florida recently, she briefly considered buying The Caragen House back. She recalled the years she spent researching the Victorian styles that were popular at the time the house was built and the attention she gave to wallpapering and painting rooms the way they would have looked in the 1890s when the home was built.

She knows the ornate Italian-style mantels in the downstairs formal rooms are not original to the house, because she found two layers of wallpaper beneath them in the early 1980s. She guesses they were installed at a time when money flowed more freely, likely just before the Great Depression.

Through the years she lived in the house, she got caught up in the details of its history, of its former life.

“Everyone told me I was crazy to move that big old house,” Stark said. “But I loved it. I put my heart and soul in that house. But it’s not for me anymore.”

The true “First Lady” of Mississippi State University (then called Mississippi A&M College) was a unique woman, the child of a unique time. Regina Lily Harrison was born February 24, 1841, of Columbus, Mississippi. Her father was James Harrison, a prominent lawyer who was once chosen to defend Jefferson Davis if he had been brought to trial. Her mother was Regina Blewett Harrison, the daughter of Major Thomas Blewett, one of the few wealthy Southerners to come through the War Between the States with his fortune intact. Her impact on the budding University was formidable General Stephen D. Lee, her husband, depended greatly on her advice and sought it on most of the   university problems that arose during his tenure as first president of the University.

Regina Lily Harrison was reared like a princess. She was both beautiful and gifted. Before the war, Tiffany’s compiled a list of the 900 most beautiful women in the Universe. Regina was on the list that appeared in the New York Times. She was a favorite of her grandfather, Major Blewett, who delighted in taking her on trips with him. She accompanied him to Montgomery, Alabama, once where she was a witness to the formation of the Confederacy.

The two of them stayed at the Exchange Hotel and letters from her during her visit gave a graphic picture of an excited young women on a holiday, but knowing full well the importance of what was unfolding. She wrote, “For two weeks I sat opposite Mr. And Mrs. Jefferson Davis at the table for supper. I took wine with Mr. Davis and an old acquaintance of the family. The elegant Col. William S. Berry and his wife sat with us.” In youthful impatience she wrote, “Every day we went to the State House and after two or three bills were read, some mean old member would rise and say I move we go into secret session.” On March, 1891, she stood in front of the capitol in Montgomery and watched the Stars and Bars run up for the first time.

Back in Columbus, she was involved in a frenzy of activities after the way began. Major Blewett’s home was a gathering place for Confederate officers. He equipped and armed a battalion of men and Regina was the beloved of the entire cadet force. A battle flag of Company C, 2^nd Bn., Mississippi Infantry CSA, made from silk dresses donated by Regina and Anna Fort is now in the Mississippi Archives.

Among the handsome young officers who were domiciled with Major Blewett was Lt. Gen. Stephen D. Lee. He had been wounded in the retreat from Nashville and went to the hospital in Tupelo. From there he came to Columbus where he was in command of a company of cavalry. There he me and fell in love with Regina Harrison. They were married on February 9, 1865.

The wedding took place at the home of her parents, now the parsonage of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Several accounts exist of the wedding, which was undoubtedly the social event of the season. Eight couples acted as attendants, the men in full dress uniform. The bride’s maids were all in white with crimson sashes fastened with gold stars and tiaras of red flowers on their heads. The bride wore white satin with a magnificent lace veil and diamonds. General Lee was in uniform, but could not wear boots because of his injury and was on crutches.

One month after the wedding the couple moved into Harrison House, now gone. They lived there for 10 years, while Lee retuned to civilian life as a planter. On March 1, 1887, their only child, Blewett was born. In 1878 Lee was elected State Senator and then in 1880 was chosen as the first president of the new A&M College.

Although Mrs. Lee was at this time a semi-invalid, she presided over the President’s Home and welded tremendous influence over the beginnings of the new university. She was intelligent and well read and General Lee was known to make a few decisions before discussing them with his wife. The campus gossips were fond of saying, “General Lee runs the college, but Mrs. Lee runs the General.”

In the mid-1890s, General Lee was tempted to enter the race for governor but withdrew because Mrs. Lee was in failing health. She died on October 3, 1903 and is busied in Friendship Cemetery in Columbus.

Their son, Blewett, was one of the first graduates of A&M. He was a successful businessman, a professor of law at Northwestern in Chicago and served in the cabinet of President Taft. The Blewett-Harrison-Lee home was his gift to the City of Columbus to be used for educational purposes.

A view of the first buildings on the campus of Mississippi A&M (now Mississippi State University)

From its first chapter to the ever-changing last work, the story of Mississippi State College is at epic of constantly expanding service and usefulness.

The fifty-eight years those entrusted with its destiny have brought about a partial fulfillment of the ideals of Darden and Lee and George. Today the blank pages reserved for the unfolding years are filling rapidly with figures and characters that are transcendently beautiful. Captain Put Darden went about pleading with fine oratory that Mississippi take advantage of the Morrill Land Grant Act by establishing an institution “to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions of life.”

Today the echo of his voice reaches the descendants of those who listened then, and the College through one or more of three strong arms reach every community of the state with its far-reaching influence. Their forebears draw today more than 2,000 young men to the landmark of technical training set up.

It is a far cry from an enrollment of 2,178 in 1938 to a registration of 87 college students in 1880. It is equally as far to the days when the principal work of the college was concentrated in three buildings; when the president’s office, the dining hall and chapel were all in one structure; when the Professor of Science taught all of the ‘ologys’ and the Professor of Agriculture in addition to teaching every branch of his subject was superintendent of the college farm. The College Physician was also the College Veterinarian.

Today the college grounds have been enlarged to more than 4,000 acres, and the buildings and equipment together with the grounds, are valued at about $7,000,000. About 300 employees handle this equipment.

Starting in 1885 the college began an expansion program that has not abated – Creation of an Experiment Station. These plants, located in eleven counties, have been leased by the college to a legally organized cooperative association of producers within the area, at one dollar per year. The charges for meat curing run from one to three cents a pound. The rates for bee storage range from one-half cent per pound per month at Brandon to one and one-half cent per pound for a month in Houston. In addition, pork, eggs, potatoes, apples and miscellaneous products have been stored in large quantities during the first year of operation.

Engineering has developed into a four-department school that offers a choice of specialization after the freshman year in Aeronautical, electrical, mechanical and civil engineering.

Need for a stronger course offering of the School of Science led to the establishment of the School of Science in 1911. This school, like agriculture and engineering has widened to include general science, pre-med, chemical engineering and physical Science.

Realizing that business in Mississippi is dependent to a great extent upon agriculture, the college in 1914 established a School of Business that now offers degrees in Commercial Aviation, Merchandising, Banking and Accounting and General Business.

The newest school, Education was established in 1935. It provides degree work in Agricultural Education, Commercial and Distributive Education, English and Social Studies, Industrial Education, Mathematics and Science and Physical Education.

A Graduate School, Established in 1936, grants the degree of Master of Science in each of the undergraduate schools.

Military training is a phase of instruction at Mississippi State and all other land grant colleges. It is a requirement of the Act founding a national system of such colleges and universities that able-bodied male students who have not reached their junior year are required to take military.

The first two years or basic courses are required. The advanced course, whose academic and military records are above the average, is elective, and if successfully completed results in commissions in the Officers Reserve Corps.

Military classes are not designed primarily to train soldiers but to instill the responsibilities of citizenship, teach due regard for authority and how to assume authority, develop the man physically and when the occasion arises to immediately become an integral factor in the nation’s defense should war be thrust upon a peace loving people.

Uniforms are free and credits earned in military classes count toward degree requirements. Moreover, students of advanced military are paid about $9 per month, thus, helping many deserving and needy young man to compete their college education.

When the College was first established, students were under a rigid code of military discipline that assumed to anticipate every action of vigorous young men. That system held sway for years but was finally abandoned in favor of a more normal and self-sustaining code of behavior.

Back in the early days a student was required to work daily on the farm, march to and from classes, salute professors, walk “extras,” wear the uniform at all times and meet military formations at least a half-dozen times each day.

The demerit system was in vogue then, and the average student had to watch his step to keep from being “shipped” for excess marks.

Social life on campus as it is in one’s own community is largely what the individual makes it. He cuts his own pattern and fills it out. Starkville churches make special provisions for college students by providing Sunday School Classes and young people’s unions specifically for them.

The spirit of Mississippi state student bodies has always been a distinctive adjunct. It is a friendly group of students who have due regard for strangers and for each other.

Many changes have been wrought since the college opened its doors to students in the Fall of 1880. Yet the spirit of those who have studied here has not changed. The oldest graduate and the youngest freshman possess a common love for Alma Mater that blots out, to a large extent, differences in age.

At football games and other athletic contests, at alumni meetings, at homecomings and on all other occasions that have a common appeal the old and the young, if they are real sons or daughters of State, evince the same enthusiasms and loyalty for Mississippi’s largest institution of her learning.

It is important to acknowledge the millions of women who have worked to create change and give women’s history meaning. We’ve come a long way, but there are still issues that need to be addressed, such as equal pay and violence against women.

The lack of rights and struggles women faced took place not that long ago. Women couldn’t vote until 1920, It wasn’t until 1974 that the Equal Credit Opportunity Act came along. Before then, women had to use their husband’s names to get a credit card. It seems that the 1970s was when women’s history began to be taken seriously and in 1987, Congress declared March as National Women’s History Month.

I was trying to find out when women started attending Mississippi A&M, now Mississippi State University so I could write this story.   I remembered Chester McKee telling about a few women attending, mostly locals, back in the early 1900s and they got kicked out when one of the ladies was caught with a cadet in the library and it was not until 1932 that women could attend Mississippi State.

Pearle Powell is shown in the 1914 Yearbook

Mrs. Pearle Powell was one of those “persistent” women who managed to graduate and is in the yearbook of 1914. The yearbook with her photo tells it like this. “Mrs. Pearle Powell: “The glory of our life below, Comes not from what we do or know. But dwells forevermore in what we are.”

She graduated in 1914 in the School of Industrial Education

Mrs. Powell has been a faithful preserving pedagogical co-ed from our Freshman year up, and although deprived of attending classes in her Senior year by action of the board of trustees debarring ladies from attending the college, by special ruling of the faculty she has been permitted to take her examinations regularly and will finish with the illustrious class of 1914.

Our pedagogues are especially proud of having the only lady member of our class in their midst, realizing full well the refining influence that a lady’s presence exercises from association. Mrs. Powell has by persistence attained the goal, and her pathway has not been devoid of special glory; in her sophomore year she had the honor of winning the Magruder medal. The very best wishes of our noble hand go out to you, Mrs. Powell, for a graciously successful future.”

Cathryn T. Goree, director of the Center for Alcohol and Drug Education and assistant professor of counselor education and educational psychology, tells is like this. “The early 1900s was a contentious time for the student body of Mississippi A&M. As early as 1908 a general strike occurred over a discipline issue that soured the presidency of John C. Hardy and ultimately led to his departure from the college in 1912.

Matters did not improve under his successor, George R. Hightower. The senior class of 1912-13 was, from the first, even more presumptuous than previous senior classes, in the view of the faculty and the administration. This group expressed the perennial gripe about the uniforms, of course. In addition, they awarded to themselves, by unanimous vote, a set of senior privileges without consulting anyone on the college staff.

Early in the fall, the college expelled 35 students on charges of misconduct on an athletic trip to Birmingham. By late fall it was clear that the students were ready for a direct confrontation with the new Hightower administration.

That confrontation occurred in November 1912, and by chance the triggering event involved a woman student. Vice President W.H. Magruder discovered a cadet visiting one of the coeds in the ladies’ study room at the library during the noon hour. The official code of conduct did not prohibit visitation between cadets and coeds, but the administration’s response indicates that commonly understood rules of propriety had been broken. The military department issued the following order on Thursday, November 7, 1912: “cadets . . . will not be allowed to visit the young ladies of the college in their study rooms at the noon hour, or periods when they are not in recitation. Neither will they be allowed to meet these young ladies in the chapel or other rooms for the purpose of social conversation or study.”

Since women students did not live on campus, this proclamation amounted to a requirement of no contact between men and women students outside of class. According to a contemporary newspaper account, the cadets were incensed at this order, viewing it as an insult to the honor of the ladies of the college.

On Friday, Nov. 8, the seniors passed a resolution calling for the president and vice president of the college to apologize to the ladies immediately. The student body as a whole stayed away from classes that day, holding meetings in the chapel and the dormitories. That same day, Friday, the day the strike began, a memorandum circulated, signed by all the women, stating that they had no objection to the order which forbade contact between cadets and coeds, and that they believed it was intended “to secure for us better opportunity for study.”

The faculty responded on Saturday by expelling 61 of the seniors for inciting the rebellion, but the students refused to leave. That night students fired shots from a dormitory room and flooded the hallways with water, ruining some of the furniture in the men’s rooms.

On Sunday, Gov. Earl Brewer arrived to mediate the crisis. He spoke with the strikers in the chapel and in the dormitories all day Sunday and into the night. In this first meeting with the students the governor adopted a conciliatory tone, reasoning with the students and pointing out the untenable nature of their position.

On Monday several key events occurred. The governor met with strikers again. This time his tone was firmer. He announced that he had secured injunctions to clear the campus of the expelled students. He called on underclassmen to use their own judgments in the matter rather than relying on loyalty to the seniors.

That same day five of the women, including the three seniors, recanted their original statement. They circulated a second statement, saying that they had signed the first memorandum without knowing “its true nature,” and indicating that they did, indeed, support the action of the student body on their behalf.

Also on Monday, the governor met with the Board of Trustees, which convened on the campus. The board voted unanimously that “Co-education at Miss. A&M College is not desirable and that any girl student withdrawing now from the college be not permitted to re-enter and that in future the entrance of girls as students be discouraged.”

On Tuesday the governor departed the campus at noon, and he spoke with the strikers one last time before he left. This time he moved from mediation to confrontation. He told the strikers that if they had been men instead of boys, he would have met them with Gatling guns and bayonets instead of speeches. This was strong condemnation for the students, since Mississippi A&M was a military college, and all male students carried military rank and responsibility.

By Tuesday, the day of the governor’s departure, the student population of the college had dwindled to 325, down from the normal 1,100 students. Clearly the strike was having a serious effect on the function of the college. But some combination of factors took most of the energy out of the strike by midweek. These factors included Governor Brewer’s intervention, the offer of President Hightower to readmit any striker who would make appropriate apologies, and the inability of strikers to secure places at other colleges (since the college would not issue transfer certificates for them).

On Wednesday, the five women who signed the second, inflammatory statement withdrew from the college in support of the strike, saying that their fathers had forced them to sign the first disclaimer. Governor Brewer countered by announcing that the college simply would not admit women in the future.

In the end, the college allowed the women and most of the male strikers to return and finish the year. All of the senior men were demoted to the military rank of private as a condition of their return. The seniors wore this dishonor proudly. They commemorated the strike and its aftermath by renaming the Reveille for that year Private ’13. The three senior women who had signed the inflammatory statement supporting the strike all received bachelor’s degrees in the spring of 1913. But the trustees stood firm in their decision not to admit women the following year.

The college struggled a bit with this policy. In an exchange of letters with the governor, President Hightower urged that an exception be made in the case of Pearl Powell, who was a junior at the time of the strike and appeared not to have participated in it. She was the wife of an employee of the college, with a young daughter to care for, and was not in the position to complete her studies at another institution. With the support of the “fathers and patrons” of the other expelled women, Hightower urged the governor and the trustees to admit Powell only. The governor responded that one exception would surely lead to others and, difficult as the individual case might be, he believed that the rule had to be enforced.

Co-Eds are shown coming to college in the Reflector in 1932

In fact, the college managed to serve the needs of the student while observing the letter of the law. To please the trustees, the college forbade Powell to attend classes. In order that she might graduate, however, the faculty voted to permit her to take examinations with her class. The Catalogue for that year lists her among the graduates, but she is omitted from the list of students. The registrar’s grade rolls show that she earned the necessary credit during 1913-1914, and her picture was carried in the 1914 Reveille. Powell is the last female student to appear in the yearbook until the Board of Trustees lifted the formal ban on coeducation in 1930