ANNIE PERRY, FRESHMAN
By Louise Pettus

Annie Perry, a freshman from Hartsville, S. C., arrived on the Winthrop College campus on Sept. 29, 1895. That was the day that Winthrop opened its doors in Rock Hill after having spent its first ten years in Columbia.

Annie arrived by train that had standing-room only. She got off in a downpour. "I waded to the college, and got wet through and through." She wrote a letter home only 5 hours after she arrived on campus. That letter and her other freshman year letters to her family were saved and are in the South Caroliniana Library in Columbia. They give a remarkable insight into life on campus at its very beginning. Here are some interesting excerpts:

"Miss Hallett says it is better to have your uniform made at home, but if I take dress-making I will be obliged to make my dress-uniform. Mrs. Poge [Poag] is making me two shirtwaists, charges. 25 cents and does everything, even shopping. . . Miss Bynum is on my uniform. Charges .75 cents for skirt and $1.25 for jacket.

"There are some pretty tough girls here. One right nice looking one came in my room the other night and asked if I danced! I told her she was asking the wrong girl. Out of study hours, some of the girls dance on the polished floors.

"Prof. Johnson [Pres. D. B. Johnson] allowed all the girls that wanted to, to go with him to an entertainment given by the King's Daughters, in Roddey Hall tonight. [Roddey Hall was downtown; the campus Roddey Hall was many years in the future.] The name of the play was 'Miriam's Crime,' music by Prof. Brown. Admission to college girls 20 cents, regular 35. I didn't know what you would say, and I had work to do, so I did not go. I won't go to anything of a doubtful nature.

"Tell Maclure they have 'good eating' up here but I can't get anything to eat between meals. Aunt Sylvia's cake and your jelly and Hannah's apples and candy are most gone. I don't know what I will do then.

"Each girl takes a week in the kitchen. Two girls take a table. They have to put everything on it, set it, clean it off. . . .I dread my turn. I have no aprons.

"I am right on the front street. Streetcars pass every hour of the day [from 6 in the morning until 11:00 p.m.].

"Lize Watson has changed so much she is like a perfect stranger. The other Friday evening, she and some other girls threw in and brought a churn of ice-cream. There were eight chums in the dormitory that evening. These girls must have plenty of money to waste.

"There is a bicycle race track near the college and there was a race Friday aft. The Winthrop girls were invited but Mr. Johnson would not let them go.

"It is nearly a mile and a half to church over the roughest, ugliest streets I ever saw. We have to go through factory town and through the business part of town to get to the church [Baptist].

"Our washing did not go til Wed. and has not come in yet. All our things are dirty, not soiled, and we have only one face towel between us.

"All you hear about Winthrop girls being worked nearly to death is true. If a girl hasn't got nerve enough to know where to stop, something like a breakdown will show her.

After final exams for first semester Annie Perry wrote, "Out of about 400 students only 60 passed on everything, and I am so thankful I was one of the number. . . .I never saw so much crying and so many long faces before."

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or distribution without the permission of  Louise Pettus © Copyright 2005