After the charter was issued by the state for what would become Meredith College, Oliver Larkin Stringfield was hired as a financial agent to travel North Carolina in search of the money required to create a college for women. To open, the school needed land, buildings, equipment and salaries.
Born in 1851 in Wilmington, Stringfield had survived family and financial losses in childhood. At 23, feeling called to preach, he entered Wake Forest with only a rudimentary education and little money. Upon graduation, he worked as a teacher, preacher, and principal, often among students who needed his help with food and clothing to continue. Mary Lynch Johnson, in A History of Meredith College, felt that these experiences "developed in him an extraordinary sturdiness of character." Perhaps as a result of these formative experiences, as well as remembering a sister who had longed for further schooling, he threw himself into the work of fundraising across the state. He was a true believer in quality higher education for women, traveling to raise interest as well as contributions of any size, from gatherings large and small.
Falling too ill to attend the school’s opening in September 1899, he visited in November and emotionally declared himself, “the happiest man in North Carolina today.” Recognizing his work as a teacher, preacher, fundraiser and trustee, the 1906 Oak Leaves is dedicated to Stringfield, no doubt by young women who knew him personally and had been urged by him to come to Raleigh.
Upon Stringfield's death in 1930, Dorm D was rededicated to him, commemorating his efforts. At that event, President Charles Brewer remembered Stringfield for The Twig: "He saw this institution before others believed it could possibly become a reality. All over North Carolina he went with the with the mission of a seer and the fire of a prophet to spread the tidings of the coming institution."
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Oliver Larkin Stringfield (1851-1930)
Stringfield later wrote about his pleas on behalf of the Baptist Female University:
No, indeed, I did not ask for money! It was given to me as I went on. Exactly what I said at the close of my speeches was: "I did not come here to get your money; I came here for lots more than money. I came here for you. I do not want your money if we cannot have you. I want to know if you want the people of North Carolina to build a great school for our young women like we have for our young men at Wake Forest. This is what I want to know. Tell me, men and women, by standing this minute."
Stringfield Residence Hall with the Fannie Heck Fountain in the foreground, each commemorating individuals responsible for fund-raising for the college at critical times.
In 1925, former college president, Richard T. Vann, wrote of Stringfield:
He had great heart, a far vision, a mighty faith, and boundless enthusiasm. While others fainted, Stringfield stood strong; when they could see nothing, he literally saw the invisible. He spoke of the coming college with the solemn assurance of a prophet. He "roamed at large ' among the people in town and country as the evangelist or woman's education until he awakened the interest of the Baptist masses and inspired them with ... his own enthusiasm. He was not particularly gifted in raising large sums from a few, but what was better, he did secure small gifts from the many. So that before its opening the proposed college was probably the best advertised educational institution that ever opened in North Carolina.
Carlyle Campbell Library
Meredith College
3800 Hillsborough St.
Raleigh, NC 27607
919-760-8532
