Henry Plummer Cheatham, was in charge of the orphanage for 28 years. To him we owe the campus as it appeared up to the nineteen sixties and seventies, the impressive brick buildings, including the Chapel and Auditorium, the boys and girls buildings, the latter four stories high, and the extensive farming operations. As an ex-Congressman and one of the acknowledged leaders of the black community, he had the respect of the Legislature and many prominent white men and women, including the powerful Duke family. It was he who approached Benjamin Duke, soon after the death of Mr. Dukes son, and persuaded him to build the Angier B. Duke School on the campus in 1925. It was he who kept the Orphanage solvent through the Great Depression of the early 1930s. For many years he was the colored orphanage, and no mention of the institution failed to mention his name.
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 20:46:20 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015