Greensboro Patriot, June 8, 1850

GREENSBORO FEMALE COLLEGE

The Annual Examination of the Students of Greensboro' Female College took place on Tuesday and Wednesday last, closing on Thursday with the exercises of the Graduating Class and the Address of President Shipp. The occasion has been one of unprecedented attraction; and we regret that indispensable engagements to a late period of the week have prevented us from so particular a notice of the exercises as their interest and importance demand.

Our town has been crowded to overflowing with visiters [sic]: relatives and guardians of the young ladies of the College. and friends manifesting the liveliest interest in the success and prosperity of the Institution. And they have gone away with a very general and hearty expression of satisfaction at the progress of instruction, as manifested by results in the examination. The fact was strongly impressed upon those who had opportunity to attend closely to the exercises of Tuesday and Wednesday, when the various classes were examined on the regular literary course of the instruction, that paramount care had been bestowed upon those solid acquirements of the mind which give to woman the proper dignity of her sex, and fit her for those stations in domestic life, in the social circle, in the church, which the intelligent and cultivated of her sex so peculiarly honor and adorn.

Nor have the "accomplishments" of female education been neglected. Competent instruction has been successfully employed for all who desire these things; and the walls of the chapel decorated with paintings, and the music at the public concert on Wednesday night, attested the success of the teaching in these departments.

The chapel of the College, though spacious, could only accommodate a small portion of those who desired admittance to witness the examination exercises. The concert on Wednesday night, was therefore held in the new church, where all the seats, on the floor and galleries, were crowded. The concert was well conducted, under the supervision of Mr. Cochen, one of the teachers: and the excellence of the fair performers, had a most exhilerating [sic] effect upon the audience. In fact, we dare say, this was the most agreeable portion of three days' exercises in the estimation of the more youthful portion of the crowd.

On Thursday morning, at 9 ½ o'clock the Faculty and Students, accompanied by the Trustees in attendance, repaired in procession to the church where a crowded assemblage was in waiting to witness the exercises of the Graduating Class. After prayer by Rev. T. McDonald, and a Hymn by the School, the members of the Class proceeded to read the Compositions which they had prepared for the occasion, as follows:

Miss Mary A. Howlett, Greensboro'—Music.

Miss Jane M. Brandon, Greensboro'—Evening Thoughts.

Miss Eugenia Hoover, Hillsboro'—The Pleasures and Pains of a Student's Life.

Miss Margaret Campbell, Iredell county—The Life and Character of Hannah More.

Miss Elizabeth Field, Greensboro'—The Tear of Sympathy.

Miss Elizabeth Pettway, Alabama—Home.

Miss Susan Lindsay, Greensboro'—A Composition in French.

Miss Mary Newby, Elizabeth City—Early Impressions.

Miss Mary Swaim, Greensboro'—Influence of Misfortune upon the Gifted.

Miss Julia A. Hill, Greensboro'—The Moors of Spain.

Miss Rebecca Frost, Mocksville—Valedictory.

Miss Fannie Southall Murfreesboro', was called home a few days before the close of the session and prevented from participation in the graduation exercises. Miss Isabella Wiley, Guilford, and Virginia Speed, Greenville, late Students of the College, received diplomas.

As few female voices, in the ordinary tone of reading possess sufficient compass to fill an area so large as the church, the remoter portions of the auditory could not hear the compositions distinctly. But the manner of reading was generally clear, distinct, and unaffected, as those who were seated could testify. The compositions were carefully and elegantly written; and without any invidiousness we may particularize the Valedictory as peculiarly appropriate, in sentiment and expression, to the occasion.

Of the Address of President Shipp we lack terms to express our estimate. It was no mere holiday speech, intended to tickle the fancy of giddy girls or the ears of those who understand nothing but the mere music of pretty elocution. It was a powerful and manly address to the understanding of the heart—a resistless declaration of truth—a withering denunciation of the frivolity which has too much attached to the process termed “a fashionable education”—a faithful exhibition to the female sex of the power and dignity and virtue of the position which they ought to fill and which they ought to be educated to occupy, in society. He discharged in this Address at once the duties of a Preceptor, an American citizen, and Christian minister.