 The Whitewright Sun Thursday, May 4, 1961 pg. 1 GRAYSON COLLEGE EXES TO BRING AUTOMATION TO OLD COLLEGE BELL by Gladys Ray In the spring of 1904 a group of civic-minded citizens of Whitewright set out to raise a fund sufficient to rebuild the school plant destroyed by fire on February 16, 1904. This 3-story brick building was known far and wide as Grayson College. However, it was a complete school plant for it maintained primary, high school, and college departments. The building was only 11 years old, having been erected in 1893. The fire originated in the chemical lab on the third floor in the late afternoon. By midnight the school building was a mass of ruins. So successful had been the school in all departments that the patrons were determined that they should not be deprived of it by fire. There was some insurance, but not enough to rebuild a 3-story brick building. The citizens were successful in their building drive and by the 2nd of May 1904, $6,000 in cash had been paid in at the 2 banks of Whitewright. The building committee then obtained an amended charter from the state; the first charter had been secured in September 1887 but with no capitalization. Now, the building committee, members of which were also directors of the institution, amended the original charter and on the 2nd of May applications for same were signed, stating that henceforth the capital would be $60,000. The plan was to divide that amount into 6000 common shares of $10 par value. Every donor of $10, or more, received a stock certificate issued by the company. At the present time there are in Grayson Museum several of these original certificates. The citizens paid in between $15,000 and $20,000 in cash and the new building was built (almost an exact duplicate of the old.) The class of 1905 graduated in the new building. That is the building that stands on the campus today. The entire school plant of the city again is housed on College Hill in the college building, the elementary building, the gymnasium, and the vocational agriculture building adjacent thereto. One of the notable features of the "new" college building was the bell tower; the architect who designed the building emphasized the beauty of the tower with its new bell. The bell is still in the tower. It is a large and heavy bell and it was no child's job to ring it by pulling the rope. Nevertheless, it has sounded off from its place in the tower for more than 50 years. It has a deep and mellow tone and deserves more consideration than that given the bell of the 1893 building. That bell was cast off after the fire and used as a feeding trough and as a flower bed until the drive for scrap iron came along. The bell went along with the drive for scrap. The present bell maintains its position aloft and has been heard by thousands in its 55 years of service. It was rung for classes, assemblies, dismissals, and special occasions. In the early 1940s when the high school's first Annual appeared the students name it "The Bell." The bell has not been so active since electric bell systems for classes were introduced. This year, at long last, the bell will resume its former schedule of ringing at 8 a.m., at noon, and at 4 p.m. The Alumni Association of Grayson College will back a move to install an electric system to ring the big bell by electricity instead of by manual power. Everybody that has ever gone to school on College Hill is invited to participate in this project by contributing quarters, dimes, or dollars to the fund. A special timer is being made in Chicago on special order. This and other details of installation will take several weeks but it is hoped that the work will be completed by May 29th and the bell will ring the first time on Graduation Day as a tribute to the Class of '61. It will be presented to the school as a permanent gift on Alumni Day June 11th, when the Ex-Students of Grayson meet at the campus for their annual day. Virgil Mullins and J.D. Marlowe are in charge of installation and say they expect the work to go along smoothly and on time. If so, the bell in the tower will ring again to tell you the time at 8, 12 and 4. It will be something uniquely Whitewright. If you want to help in this drive for $200, give your contribution to the writer of the article or leave it at the band for the Grayson Ex-Students' Association. Grayson College History Susan Hawkins © 2024 If you find any of Grayson CountyTXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message. |