36

part of the University Center) in Atlanta, Georgia.69 During his years at Bennett Seminary, the school moved into a fine new building on the permanent campus, to which more land was added. Boarding students be- gan to enroll. College level courses were first taught during Thayer's administration. The general atmosPhere of campus life seemed good.

Under Thayer, the school had experienced definite growth. Thus his

successor70 took charge of a school with a good past and a good poten-

tial.

The Principalship g: Wilbur Fletcher Steele. The Rev. Wilbur 7l

Fletcher Steele became principal of Bennett Seminary in l88l, and re-

72

mained principal for eight years. He and his wife were of New Eng—

land stock.73 During their fifth year at the seminary, in May, 1886, a

son, Wilbur Daniel Steele, later famous as a short-story writer, was

74

born on the campus.

69“First Head of Bennett College,‘l Greensboro Daily News, Janu- ary 19: 1938'- '

70A reference in the Greensboro Daily Battle—Ground, June 9, 188l, to Thayer's successor as the Rev. Mr. Sharpe, resulted perhaps from a confusion of names, for the next known principal was the Rev. Wilbur Fletcher Steele.

7lArnett, op. cit., p. l06; and "Bennett College Has Grown Ra- pidly in Past #0 Years," Greensboro Record, November l6, I940.

. 72Conclusion supported by Freedmen's Aid and Southern Education Soc1ety, Twenty—Second Annual Report, l889, pp. 36, 77; and N. C. Con- ference, Minutes, l889, advertisement.

73Robert Cameron Sellars, ”Back to His Native Soil,“ Greens- boro Daily News, January 5, 1930.

7“Wilbur Daniel Steele Writes New Novel, 'Sound of Rowlocks'," Greensboro-Daily News, March 27, I938.