Over one hundred years ago a man had a vision, a vision of a school for young men in the mountains of North Carolina. So passionate was he about this vision that he bequeathed his entire 1400 acre plantation to the establishment of “an agricultural school” to develop the “fine minds of mountain boys”. This man was Samuel Legerwood Patterson, who died in 1908. In September 1909 his vision became reality and The Patterson School was opened.

September marked the school’s 100th anniversary. Think about that for a minute…100 years. We humans rarely live that long. Imagine the history that has taken place on that 1400 acre plantation over those 100 years. Think of the thousands of students and faculty that have walked over the campus in that time. Where did they go, what happened to them, who did they become?

For some, the school played such an important part in their lives that they sent their own children to the school, and some of those did the same. The Patterson School became a tradition to these people, a rite of passage. Many others were so profoundly affected by their time at the school that they never forgot what it made of them, how it molded them, how it prepared them for the future.

Even today students who attended the school more than 60 years ago still keep the memory of their time at the school alive. They visit the campus, they receive the school’s newsletters, they subscribe to the schools Friends & Alumni Registry, they call, they write. Even in their old age their time at the school still echoes in their minds, still brings their thoughts to a time in their lives when life was fresh and sweet, were learning was a duty, even a pleasure.

What value can one place on their time at The Patterson School? What value can one place on the beautiful mountain retreat, shielded from the worries of the world? How much would one pay to once again smell the fresh mown lawns, see the mountain laurel in bloom, hike the trails to the top of Ripshin, fish in the waters of the old mill dam, play ball in its fields, splash in the pond, gaze up at the stars in the night? Are there any alumni who still remember building the old gym, or laying the bricks in the court yard of the classroom cluster? Are there any alumni who still remember making the very bricks to build the oldest buildings on campus, leaving a piece of themselves forever embedded in the school’s history?

Those days are gone but are not forgotten. They are memories that will come back to the students again and again, throughout their lives. I know they do me, all the time. I was a student at Patterson School from 1971 to 1976. Sometimes, I yearn to recapture those days but I know I never can. Time marches on. Things change. The future has become the present, and even the past.

If the school ceased to exist, if its buildings were torn down and its campus filled with row after row of homes, apartments or even industrial buildings, how would you feel? Would it hurt? Would you be sad? Would you be angry? Would you wish you had done something to prevent that most wonderful place from passing into history? Sadly, this is the future the school faces if the Caldwell community does not rise up, get involved and do something.

One hundred years she has survived! She survived fires that destroyed the original Palmyra, the old gym and several barns. She survived two world wars. She survived the great depression. She survived the oil embargo. She survived the worst the world could throw at her…but she couldn’t survive apathy. We, my friends, it is we, the alumni and the Caldwell community who are to blame. We went on with our lives, her importance lost to us as we were consumed by the cares of life. How sad are we? Would we have had the lives that we do were it not for her? How different might things have been, if we had never known her? How different would the Caldwell community have been had she not been a part of it for those 100 years?

Many of us are dedicating every fiber of our being, and in many cases every penny we have, to try and save her. We can’t do this alone though. We need the Caldwell community. I emailed almost one hundred of the churches of Caldwell County, asking them to pray for her, to have their congregations pray for her. Only one church out of almost one hundred answered my plea for prayers. Where is God in this community? Can you not even say a simple prayer for her? What Christian refuses when someone asks them for their prayers? We need your prayers, not your indifference!

If there is any hope of saving her, then we must pray, fervently, passionately, daily. Please do not ignore her. All I ask for is your prayers, nothing more.

Edward Kelley ‘76
The Webmaster