Fundraiser for Atlanta University

06/27/1897 |

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A large audience gathered to listen to addresses and singing by students of Atlanta University.  The students were raising funds in support of the trades department at the university.

 

  1. George M. Stone stood in for Joseph Twichell, who was away.
  2. Stone introduced the Atlanta University Quartet.
  3. The quartet opened the service with three songs.
  4. R. W. Gadsden addressed the audience.
  5. The quartet performed again.
  6. G. A. Towns addressed the audience.
  7. Stone addressed the audience.
  8. A collection was taken.
  9. The quartet performed again to close the event.

  1. The first president of the university was Edmund Asa Ware, who had married Sarah Twichell, Joseph’s sister, in 1869 and who died in Atlanta in 1885.
  2. Edward Twichell Ware was Edmund and Sarah Ware’s son and Joseph Twichell’s nephew; he would become the third president of Atlanta University in 1907.

  1. R. W. Gadsden stated that it was “his desire to inform the people that Atlanta University had a manual training course which was in danger of suspension if funds could not be raised to tide over the trouble. The higher education of the collored people of Georgia was to continue, but there was danger and fear for the trades department.”
  2. “G. A. Towns, who was chairman of the club, followed with a clear, concise and logical treatment of the negro situation and closed with an earnest plea for Atlanta.”
  3. “Dr. Stone made a few reminiscent remarks about the underground railroad and his abolition days in Ohio.”

Edward Twichell Ware was ordained at Asylum Hill Congregational Church on September 20, 1901.

  1. Atlanta University is an HBCU founded in 1865. It is now Clark Atlanta University. 
  2. The Atlanta University Quartet was R. W. Gadsden, E. L. Simon, A. Sengstack, and G. A. Towns.
  3. R. W. Gadsden was Atlanta University Class of 1895.

  1. “With a few words he introduced the Atlanta University Quartet, which opened the services by singing three negro melodies.”
  2. “After the collection was taken the exercises closed with a few more selections of plantation revival songs.”

Unattributed, “Services by Colored Men,” Hartford Courant, June 28, 1897, page 6.

Asylum Hill Congregational Church

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