by Nancy Griffith | Nov 30, 2023 | Davidson History, News
Search for: NEWS Echoes of Slavery: The Nortons Davidson barber Ralph Johnson’s mother was Bessie Norton, and she, too, was a descendant of enslaved people. Her father, Charles, came from near Stony Point in Alexander County, North Carolina, and along with his parents...
by Nancy Griffith | Nov 18, 2023 | Bottom Left Box, Davidson History, News
Search for: NEWS Davidson College and the Civil War William Alexander Smith was born in Anson County in 1843, and he enrolled at Davidson as a freshman in 1859. In his 1920 reminiscences, found in the Davidson College Archives, he describes his experience at the...
by Nancy Griffith | Oct 31, 2023 | Davidson History, News, Top Middle Box
Search for: NEWS Davidson Without a College? It’s hard to imagine Davidson without Davidson College, but there were at least two discussions about moving the college to Charlotte. Although the first effort, discussed in 1888, has been described by historian Mary Beaty...
by Nancy Griffith | Oct 11, 2023 | Davidson History, News, Top Left Box
Search for: NEWS Tobe’s Pressing Club The process that we now refer to as “dry cleaning” has developed over many centuries. As far back as the Roman Empire, professional cleaners used lye and ammonia, combined with a kind of clay called fuller’s earth, to absorb dirt...
by Nancy Griffith | Aug 24, 2023 | Bottom Middle Box, Davidson History, News
Search for: NEWS Professor William D. Vinson, “One of the Brainiest Men in the South” On August 25, 1897, Davidson College lost Professor William D. Vinson who, despite his relatively brief tenure at the college, was sorely missed by town and gown. Vinson...