VIOLA BODDIE, EDUCATIONAL REFORMER from Castalia Township, Nash County, North Carolina
OFFICERS OF THE WOMAN’S ASSOCIATION FOR THE BETTERMENT OF PUBLIC SCHOOL HOUSES IN NORTH CAROLINA.
[Founded in March, 1902, at the State Normal and Industrial College at Greensboro]
PURPOSE: MOBILIZING THE PEOPLE OF NORTH CAROLINA TO IMPROVE PUBLIC SCHOOL HOUSES, LIBRARIES, GROUNDS AND BEAUTIFY SCHOOL ROOMS.
PRESIDENT: Mrs. W. R. Hollowell, Goldsboro, N. C.
VICE-PRESIDENT: Mrs. E. E. Moffitt, Raleigh, N. C.
TREASURER: Mrs. L. E. Powell, Whiteville, N. C.
CORRESPONDING SEC.: Miss Mary Taylor Moore, Greensboro, N. C.
RECORDING SEC.: Miss Mary K. Applewhite, Greensboro, N. C.
FIELD WORKERS:
Miss Leah Jones, New Bern, N. C.
MISS VIOLA BODDIE NASHVILLE, N. C.
Miss Edith Royster, Raleigh, N. C.
Mrs. W. R. Hollowell, Goldsboro, N. C.
Miss Mary T. Moore, Mt. Airy, N. C.
COMPLIMENT TO THE WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION BY THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, 1906
“Since 1902 much valuable work has also been done in furnishing and beautifying school-rooms, in painting school-houses and in improving school grounds, of which there are no complete and accurate statistics.
Recognizing the Woman’s Association for the Betterment of Public School Houses as one of the most helpful agencies in the accomplishment of all this work, and as one of the most practical and effective means of carrying it on, I have requested Mr. Connor, of my office, to prepare, with the assistance of its officers, this bulletin about the history, the plans and purposes, and the work of the association.
For myself and my co-laborers, for the public school children of the state and for all friends of the public schools, I desire to express to the members of this association grateful appreciation of their valuable and unselfish service, and to express the earnest hope that the association may extend its organization and its work to every county in the state, and to every school district in every county.”
J. Y. JOYNER,
Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Raleigh, N. C., January 2, 1906.
THE STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION REPORTS IN 1906 THAT BY JUNE 30, 1902, NORTH CAROLINA HAD:
1. built 1,133 school houses;
2. the number of school district without any school house at all had been reduced from 840 to 553; and
3. the number of log school houses had been reduced from 829 to 549.
Further, he reported that: “For the year ending June 30, 1905, 440 new houses were built, the average cost of which was about $400.00. As before stated, all new houses erected since March, 1903, have been built in accordance with plans approved by the state superintendent and the county board of education, and have, therefore, been built in accordance with the established principles of modern school architecture.”
[SOURCE: DocSouth, the University of North Carolina]
1892 – The State Normal and Industrial School opens with a Department of Ancient and Modern Languages which offers a four year curriculum in Latin. Three years of Latin are required of all students.
1898 – The Department of Latin is already a separate unit with two full-time faculty members. The Department Head is Viola Boddie.
1931 – Having been renamed as the North Carolina College for Women in 1919, the campus joins the redefined state system, along with the campuses in Chapel Hill and Raleigh, and is renamed The Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina.
1935 – Viola Boddie retires as a member of the faculty at North Carolina College for Women in the Department of Classical Civilizations.
This brief summary states that Viola Boddie, who taught in the Classics Department, held advanced degrees from Littleton College and Normal School in Nashville, Tennessee, which today is Peabody College. Littleton College (formerly Central Institute for Young Ladies and Littleton Female College) in Littleton, Warren County, N.C., was privately owned and operated from 1882 until 1919 by Reverend James Manly Rhodes.
VIOLA BODDIE’S NASH COUNTY ROOTS
Viola Boddie was born on 2 October 1863 in Castalia Township, Nash County, North Carolina. Her parents were James B. H. Boddie and Leah S. Vick of Castalia Township. James Boddie was a farmer. She died at the age of 76 in the Wesley Long Hospital in Greensboro, Guilford County, NC on 20 March 1940. On her death certificate she is identified as a retired faculty member of Woman’s College in Greensboro, NC. Further, it states that she was buried in Nashville, Nash County, NC.
