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Morristown College bell is back home
Jeremy Weaver • Nov 19, 2019
Once Lost... But Now Found and Returning...
This story comes from a series of very lucky breaks. It began on Danny Underwood’s Fourth North Street porch when we looked up to see the hill which had held Morristown College was now bare.
Nothing was left to mark it having been there. We remembered the neatly-dressed students walking in groups of their friends to go downtown, and how the college had produced well prepared academics, ministers, business people and craftsmen such as masons, mechanics and farmers.
In its hundred-year history, the college had improved the lives of its students as well as the area, and those still-living students were going to miss their old school terribly.
The first break came in a visit with Hamblen County historian Bill Henderson. Bill had been one of the white students who could not afford the tuition or living expenses of an out-of-town college, and chose to attend Morristown College. He retains a strong love for the school. When it was mentioned the Morristown College hill was now bare, Bill replied a Horner man in Whitesburg still has the school bell.
With that comment in mind, it wasn’t long before I was speaking at a Whitesburg Bent Creek memorial service and mentioned the bell. Shortly afterward, Jeff Horner came to tell me he had the bell.
It turned out Jeff’s father, Robert “Bobby” Horner, had been working on the demolition of a college building years earlier when he was told the bell should come down before it fell and possibly hurt someone. When the bell came down, it was given to Mr. Horner.
The 2,500-pound bell could easily have been sold for scrap metal, but Mr. Horner felt the bell had a bigger purpose and built a concrete slab for it to rest on. At our meeting, I learned Mr. Horner had recently died and had passed the bell on to his son, Jeff. Jeff now serves as the executive vice president of Motlow Community College, and he and his wife Kim have a daughter, Casey. After discussing the coming Heritage Park on the college site, Jeff decided the bell was be an excellent piece to honor and memorialize the college. It could be kept as long as the park honored the college. He also added the bell should be sheltered under a permanent structure.
And then I lost Jeff’s contact information.
Morristown councilmember Kay Senter is a long time friend and has a deep love for her home and its people. The news the bell had survived excited Kay and she relayed the information to Hamblen County Sheriff Esco Jarnagin.
Esco, who had earlier refereed ball games at the school, shares the same feelings for his home and people as Kay and recently called to say, “I’ve found the bell.” It turned out Esco and Mr. Horner had been long-time friends. With that, we were joined by Vietnam Bronze Star recipient and former Morristown College student Bill Thompson to head to the Horner home to work out the details for the move. Since that meeting, we were informed the bell had been returned to its Morristown home and should be available for display at the grand opening of the park Nov. 16.
From the first pioneer settlement of our area, free persons of color, as well as slaves, were mentioned in the records of Bent Creek and Bethel South churches. The incorporation of Morristown in 1855 listed 175 citizens and unfortunately nine slaves, while other slaves lived in the surrounding areas. The coming of the railroad in the 1850s found several free persons of color who worked for the railroad and who were living just east of the town. From the first written history, people of every major race had been held in slavery, a human failure that was finally being recognized in progressive countries in the late 1700s which began outlawing slavery. In the 76 years from Washington’s presidency in 1789 until the 13th Amendment was ratified on Dec. 6, 1865, the United States sadly allowed human slavery.
Following the Civil War, the countryside in and around Morristown was significantly damaged, but reconstruction was soon underway. With a good number of area citizens being found illiterate, most black persons had never had the opportunity of an education. Some church tenets did, however, instruct that slaves be taught to read and write in order to read the Scriptures. Help for those freed slaves began soon after the war when the New Jersey Presbyterian Church started a school near today’s Bethel Church, and sent Misses Hanford and King as teachers. Miss King was replaced in 1869 by Mrs. Almira Stearns, who had lost a husband and son in the war. When ex-Confederates tried to frighten the teachers, Miss Hanford soon left, but Mrs. Stearns was here to stay.
Among Mrs. Stearnes’ first pupils was Thomas Trotter, a 63-year-old ex-slave, who rapidly learned to read and write, 63-year-old Fannie Jemison, and 110-year-old “Uncle Dick.” Andrew Fulton became one of her most successful students. Fulton attended Bethel Church South, where slaves and free worshiped together. Slaves were sold in 1861 in that same building. In 1888, Fulton was hired by Judson S. Hill to teach at the Morristown Normal Academy, where he served for 44 years. Word spread about the excellence of the school, which became well-accepted by most local citizens.
In 1880, the Holston Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church (the African Methodist Episcopal and African Methodist Episcopal Zion Churches had withdrawn from the MEC) decided to separate black preachers from the white. As there were not enough black preachers locally, a school was needed to train the new ministers and it was decided to pay $500 for the old Reagan High School building on Buffalo Trail. Bishop Warren paid half while “Uncle” Henry Walker went door-to-door to raise the other $250.
In 1881, New Jersey native Dr. Judson S. Hill came south to work with a Chattanooga church before helping in the building of Centenary Methodist Church. Later in the year he joined with Mrs. Stearnes in establishing the school first known as Morristown Seminary. Dr. Hill served as the president of the college for 50 years and the seminary later became Morristown Normal and Industrial College, before adding Morristown College High School. The college finally became a part of the Knoxville College system.
On May 26, 1897, a newspaper article reported, “Morristown Normal Academy had received a splendid new bell from the Buckeye Bell Foundry of Cinncinatti for its new building. The bell weighs about 2,500 pounds and was presented to the school by Mr. James A. Woolson, of Boston, Massachusetts.”
A fire in the early 1920s had destroyed the building housing the bell and the national status and reputation of the school was shown in a Sept. 10, 1921 front-page article in The New York Age, known as “The National Negro Newspaper,” which reported Dr. Judson S. Hill and school students giving up their summer vacation to make a half-million bricks to rebuild the building. The article added “a quarter million feet of lumber had already been sawed from college land. There is enough wood on the place to furnish fuel for the burning of the brick and also the limestone on hand for the mortar.”
A local newspaper from Jan. 1, 1923 reads, “Among the bells ringing was that of the Morristown Normal and Industrial College which sounded for the first time after having been re-melted and hung in its tower. This bell was presented to the college in 1897 by James A. Woolson of Cambridge. It was damaged by the fire which occurred last January and was restored to a state of perfection by the daughters of the original donor, Mrs. J.L. Payne and Mrs. B.L. Hurbut, 1 November 1922.”
Morristown’s West High School was opened In the late 1950s and served in that capacity until desegregation began in 1966, when that school became an elementary school. The loss of Morristown College High School, desegregation, and the arrival of the modern and well-funded Walters State Community College, eventually laid the groundwork for the closure of Morristown College.
Come see the bell that represents the change in the lives of so many, as well as enriching the story of our area.
-Jim Claborn is a retired history teacher and a historical reenactor, as well as a published historian.
Reference: "Morristown College bell is back home." Citizen Tribune, 28 September 2019, https://www.citizentribune.com/news/history/morristown-college-bell-is-back-home/article_69096636-e250-11e9-b1d0-87c461586f26.html. Accessed 19 November 2019.
My journey at Morristown College began a couple of years after a disappointing first-time college experience at a prominent large institution in my hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. At the recommendation of the late Dr. Addie B. Crutcher, an Upward Bound High School Counselor, I enrolled in Morristown the fall of 1973. Upon arriving on the campus, I was nervously excited and had no idea of the far-reaching impact that was to follow. From the time I moved into my dorm room and met my roommate, to the first day of classes, the first canteen cheese steak and the first basketball game, Morristown College was the place where almost everyone knew your name. The intimate class sizes, the academically supportive faculty, the extra-curricular activities, chapel services, study in the library, and local Sunday church worship were all conducive for a well-rounded experience. After graduation in 1975, I attended Clark College(now Clark Atlanta University). As a result of the Morristown College experience, I was not only prepared spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually to excel at Clark College, but was able to interact with students at the other nearby institutions including Spellman, Morehouse, Morris Brown, and Atlanta University. Little did I know in 1973 that the Morristown College experience would launch my road to academic and professional success. I am grateful for the privilege to be a graduate of Morristown College.
The festivities of Jubilee Day put smiles on faces as crowds enjoyed the soul food, games for children and music at Fulton-Hill Park for the Aug. 8 state holiday that celebrates the emancipation of Tennessee’s slaves. Dr. Alpha Alexander, the chair of the Morristown Taskforce on Diversity, said she was pleased to see communities coming together and enjoying themselves. “I think it’s a wonderful start for Hamblen County,” she said. “This is the first Jubilee Day we have celebrated here. I think it has the potential to grow and be an annual event here. Knoxville, Greeneville, Johnson City, Newport… they have been celebrating it for years.” The day started out with speakers including Todd Morgan, executive director of the Knox Heritage and East Tennessee Preservation Alliance and Morristown Mayor Gary Chesney. Chesney said it was important for people to understand the importance of the park where Morristown College, a historic institution of higher education for African Americans that stood at the site. “I think it’s an appropriate history at that location,” he said. “Andrew Fulton is one of the men Fulton-Hill Park. As a child, along with his mother, he was auctioned as a slave at that site. Later, he was a graduate of the school and then a professor who taught there until he passed away.” Chesney said he was looking forward to next year. Games for children were organized, including an egg toss where splattered eggs created big smiles on many faces. The Morristown-Hamblen Library was on hand and were giving away books to children. The Taskforce on Diversity provided free school supplies and prizes for the game winners. The evening ended with a showing of “Best of Enemies,” a movie about the friendship between former enemies in North Carolina- a Ku Klux Klan leader and a civil rights worker. Source: “Day of Jubilee: Fulton-Hill Park Hosts Celebration of Freedom.” Drew Robinson [Morristown, TN], 9 Aug. 2021, www.citizentribune.com/arts_and_entertainment/fulton-hill-park-hosts-celebration-of-freedom/article_f6c11b1a-f930-11eb-85e8-dbdbb4bc3095.html.
Reunion of the Ages has announced its annual scholarship winners. Reunion of the Ages is a non-profit organization established in 2002 and serves as a voice for the legacy, history and pride of Morristown College. It also serves to preserve, honor and celebrate the history and impact of former black educational institutions in Hamblen County in view of the present and future need of the community. Each year scholarships are awarded to graduating high school students based on availability and academic achievement. Students must maintain a high grade point average, be involved in their community and write an essay on why they are applying for the scholarship and their educational goals. Over the course of 18 years the organization has awarded $65,150 to 140 students. The following awards have been awarded for the 2021-2022 academic year: Kailey N. Hoffner, Jefferson County, attending Carson Newman University, nursing, awarded the Francis Pressley Scholarship, $1,000. Kellen Harrison-Lee, Henderson, NV, Eastern Nazarene College, criminal justice, James A. Nichols Scholarship, $500. Isaiah Sherles, Jacksonville, FL, University of Central Florida GPA, computer engineering, Samuel Braziel Scholarship, $500. Daeshawn Harris, Morristown East, Walters State Community College, business, James A. Nichols Scholarship, $500. Kelly Fluker, Morristown West, Tennessee Technological University, computer engineering, Melissa Dukes Scholarship, $500. Noah Lovell, Morristown West, Middle Tennessee State University, journalism, James A. Nichols scholarship, $500.
"I know for certain that we never lose the people we love, even to death. They continue to participate in every act, thought and decision we make. Their love leaves an indelible imprint in our memories. We find comfort in knowing that our lives have been enriched by having shared their love." ~ Leo Buscaglia Marjorie Senter ( FORMER MC DORMITORY MATRON) Rev. Donald Daniels ( FORMER MC EDUCATOR / FORMER BETHEL UMC PASTOR) Hazel Simpson ( FORMER MC COOK/DIETICIAN) Janice McMahan Martha Ilene Patterson Alma Estelle Davis Alley Henry Mason Brenda Goodson Mary Alice Davis Litton Mary Wilson Mavis Laverne Dallis If your loved one was missed, please inform us so that we can honor them on our social media page.
Plans are well underway for the Second Annual Juneteenth Celebration at Cherokee Park on Saturday, June 19, 2021. This festival-event will be open all day and will involve all kinds of activities and presentations to inspire, motivate, educate and entertain event goers. Juneteenth recognizes that although the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Abraham Lincoln went into effect on January 1. 1863, the news did not travel fast and there were states that did not accept this news readily. The people of Texas did not actually receive the news that those who had been enslaved in that state were now free until June 19, 1865. Texas was the last state to comply and so "Juneteenth" has been celebrated in that state and others since that day. What began as a localized celebration has been adopted by many states as an illustration of Dr. King's often quoted statement that "none of us are free until we all are free." Booths are available at no charge for marketing purposes. Please contact Keisha Monroe at keishajmonroe@gmail.com for more information. Donations are welcomed. Our 2021 Scholarship Recipients will be recognized at this event.
Membership in the ROTA ensures you stay connected to Morristown College and its extensive alumni network and ensures the voice of all alumni is heard. Membership helps provide programming to keep alumni connected with the legacy of Morristown College, the affiliate schools and each other. Together, members advocate for the Legacy, promote excellence and help the ROTA promote and advance the best and brightest students with scholarship support. Only $15.00 per person annually Applications are available on our website. Click Here Contact Walter Evans at 423-586-3957 or Michelle Stokes at 423-307-9511
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Our Mission is to acknowledge and celebrate the diversity of our community and to promote acceptance and understanding among its residents. Our Vision is to make Morristown a city where all individuals are equally valued solely “by the content of their character,” and are welcomed and celebrated for the uniqueness they contribute to our community. An Operating Principle: We seek partnership and inclusion in every endeavor. Dr. Alpha Alexander, Chairperson
Men Of Vision is a grassroots organization of professional men who are interested in impacting the Community of Morristown, TN. The organization was founded to enhance the development of growth of the character within the African American community in a small town in eastern Tennessee. This group is on a mission to impact this area Civically, Socially, and Economically. Since its inception the community of Morristown is already reaping the benefits of this organization, and we are looking forward to meeting our challenges and goals in the year 2021. John H. Jones, President
TONI YVETTE THOMPSON OXY Occidental College Francis Pressley Scholarship JORDYN NECHELLE YEARY East Tennessee State University William “Sam” Braziel Scholarship ASTRID VANESSA RIVERA Walters State Community College James A. Nichols Scholarship HASLAN LACHELLE WOLF University of Tennessee, Knoxville Melissa McCray-Dukes Scholarship LYRIC MARIE KNIGHT Tennessee Tech University James A. Nichols Scholarship JAYSON ALEXANDER LUTTRELL East Tennessee State University James A. Nichols Scholarship