No institution in the care of the Presbyterian Church has a wider field or greater opportunities. Its students are gathered from all the South Atlantic States, and are scattered in their school and church work through all this vast region, and as far west as Texas.
It is the only institution of its kind maintained by our Presbyterian Church in the South; and it certainly is one of the most important agencies in the hands of the Church for the accomplishment of good among 8,000,000 of colored people. It commends itself to the prayers and gifts of all good men.
The _importance_ in the eyes of the Church, of the interests which Biddle University represents, is forcibly put in the language of a recent circular addressed to churches on its behalf by the _Board of Missions for Freedmen_:
"What is done," say they, "for Biddle University, will, in a great measure, determine the success of our whole work among the Freedmen."
Ferguson Academy is situated at Abbeville, S. C. The property was acquired by the Freedmen's Board of the Presbyterian Church in 1891. In 1892 Rev. Thomas H. Amos, A. M., then pastor of the First African Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, was elected principal to succeed Rev. E. W. Williams. The enrolment then consisted of sixty-two students, which have grown from that number to 210.
The property consists of three buildings valued at $7,000 or $8,000, free of debt.
[Illustration: REV. THOMAS H. AMOS, A. M.]
The course of instruction is divided into nine grades. The faculty consists of Rev. T. H. Amos, A. M., Principal; Prof. Joseph W. Lee, Mrs. Ida B. Amos, Eliza A. Pindle, Misses Carrie M. Richie and Mattie F. Barr.
There is an industrial department connected with the school, and most of the work is done by the students. The management of the work is economical; the instruction painstaking and thorough, the discipline kind, and the graduates have the reputation of being moral and efficient teachers. There is no doubt but that the influences of such a school are uplifting to the masses of colored youth in the community. Those who have investigated the work of the school praise the management and thank its benefactors for what it is doing. The friends of Negro education may have confidence in Ferguson Academy, and find it an appropriate channel through which the rising generation of this people can be helped to places of usefulness and respectability. The religious tone of the instruction is deep and in addition to this the diligence and experience of its faculty and the supervision of the officers of the Presbyterian Board guarantee that this is a light to scatter the night in the regions where its graduates, both male and female, will go forth.