Walter Clinton Jackson

“ He lived in a cabin opposite the school grounds. After hearing many talks about the importance of living in a real house instead of a one or two room cabin, old Uncle Harry finally decided that he must have a real house. Accordingly he came to his employer, told him his feeling in the matter, and laid before him his meagre savings, which he had determined to spend for a real house. Mr. Washington went with him to select the lot and added enough out of his own pocket to the scant savings to enable the old man to buy a cow and a pig and a garden plot as well as the house. ”

“ There was another old negro who had great ability in getting contributions from Washington. "One day, when Washington was driving down the main street of Tuskegee behind a pair of fast and spirited horses, this old man rushed out into the street and stopped him as though he had a matter of the greatest urgency to impart to him. ”

“ Washington had great sympathy for the unfortunate. He was constantly bringing up in faculty meeting the case of some poor negro who was in distress,—who couldn't pay the rent, was without food or clothes, or was in hard luck in some way. He insisted that these people be helped regardless of how they came to be in their unfortunate condition. ”

“ He was very fond of animals of all kinds, but the pig was his favorite. He always kept a number of the very finest breeds of Berkshires and Poland Chinas. After gathering the fresh eggs, his next job was feeding the pigs. After that came a visit to the cows. He always kept a good garden, too, and a part of the early morning was given to working in it. He had a very peculiar custom or idea about his garden work. He always worked barefooted. He said that there was something in the soil that gave one strength and health and power,—but you had to get it by direct contact with the soil. ”

“ He did not have an enemy in his own town of Tuskegee. All through the South were men whom Washington counted among his warmest personal friends.
Robert Russa Moton, Successor to Booker T. Washington at Tuskegee Among his own people, he was no less fortunate in his friendships. He knew and loved Moton and Scott and Banks and Carver and Fortune and Scarborough, and a great host of others. All these were his most loyal and devoted friends. But none of these were really any closer to him than "Old man" Diggs or Rufus Herron or many a lowly man of Macon County. ”

“ In this way he never overlooked an important thought or idea that occurred to him, and his ideas were always taken down while fresh and vivid in his mind. He often confounded his faculty by his tremendous energy. He would call them in and lay out enough work for them to keep busy for a week and, then, almost before they could get started, demand results. He could work so fast himself and do so much, he never realized that it took other people longer to finish a task. ”

“ He said that the negro ought to put more time on improving his opportunities than crying over his disadvantages. He believed that the first and most important thing was for the negro to become well prepared for the ballot, and by and by he would get it. ”

“ It is doubtful if Mr. Washington ever devoted more time or thought to planning any of the great buildings of the Institute. No potentate was ever half as proud of his palace as Uncle Harry of his four-room cottage, when it was finally finished and painted and stood forth in all its glory to be admired of all men. And Booker Washington was scarcely less proud than Uncle Harry.
"With Uncle Harry Varner, 'Old man' Brannum, the original cook of the school, and Lewis Adams, of the town of Tuskegee, whom Mr. ”

“ The second marriage was to Olivia Davidson, who had been a teacher at Tuskegee from its beginning. She had been of wonderful assistance to Washington in the early days of Tuskegee. She was the mother of the two boys, Booker, Jr., and Davidson. His third marriage was to Margaret Murray, of Mississippi, a graduate of Fisk University and for several years a teacher at Tuskegee. This marriage occurred in 1892. Mrs. Washington has had a very useful and distinguished career. No woman of her race has helped her people so much in recent ”