Considering the Past: Topics in M.C. History

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. 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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