I do not
think I have ever made this fact public before.
During the summer of 1882, at the end of the first year's work of
the school, I was married to Miss Fannie N. Smith, of Malden, W. Va.
We began keeping house in Tuskegee early in the fall. This made a
home for our teachers, who now had been increase to four in number.
My wife was also a graduate of the Hampton Institute. After earnest
and constant work in the interests of the school, together with her
housekeeping duties, my wife passed away in May, 1884. One child,
Portia M. Washington, was born during our marriage.
From the first, my wife most earnestly devoted her thoughts and
time to the work of the school, and was completely one with me in
every interest and ambition. She passed away, however, before she had
an opportunity of seeing what the school was designed to be.
CHAPTER X
A HARDER TASK THAN MAKING BRICKS WITHOUT STRAW
FROM the very beginning, at Tuskegee, I was determined to have the
students do not only the agricultural and domestic work, but to have
them erect their own buildings. My plan was to have them, while
performing this service, taught the latest and best methods of labour,
so that the school would not only get the benefit of their efforts,
but the students themselves would be taught to see not only utility in
labour, but beauty and dignity; would be taught, in fact, how to lift
labour up from mere drudgery and toil, and would learn to love work
for its own sake.
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