Oliver Otis Howard, Autobiography of Oliver Otis Howard, major general , United States army : volume 2

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[394] Institute at Oxford, Pa. The institute also for colored youth in Philadelphia, founded in 1837 by the bequest of a Friend, Richard Humphreys, was designed to teach agriculture and mechanical arts, and prepare teachers for their profession. By other gifts, and by the help of benevolent and friendly associations, this institute had come, in 1866, to have a capacity for three hundred (300) pupils; it was fairly endowed and doing well, giving excellent results. Its teachers were all colored persons. It had that year 48 graduates, 31 of whom became teachers. Still, notwithstanding these sources of supply, the need for more teachers was constant, and if any general system of free schools should be adopted, the demand would be a hundred times beyond the possibility of meeting it by competent instructors.

As the work of carrying forward the schools developed, the old negro clergymen of every name became inadequate for the religious instruction of the more enlightened people. Many ministers felt themselves to be unlearned, and so sought such knowledge of books as they could get. Negro pharmacists and other medical men were soon required, and contentions with white men in the courts demanded friendly advocates at law.

Under the evident and growing necessity for higher education, in 1866 and 1867, a beginning was made. Various good schools of a collegiate grade were started in the South, and normal classes were about this time added, as at Hampton, Charleston, Atlanta, Macon, Savannah, Memphis, Louisville, Mobile, Talladega, Nashville, New Orleans, and elsewhere.

In every way, as commissioner, I now encouraged the higher education, concerning which there was so