Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 8, 1992 TAG: 9202080369
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
HOLLINS COMMUNITY RECLAIMS ITS HISTORY
Scattered along a winding gravel road near Hollins College is a quiet community - half in Roanoke County, half in Botetourt County."Oldfields," they used to call it.
Mailboxes bear the names "Meade" and "Bolden" - names that ring familiar in the college's history.
The people of Oldfields are the descendants of black servants who were brought to Hollins' campus in the 19th century, primarily by students.
To Ethel Smith, the image was unsettling: Young women hauling their clothing, their books and their "mammies" to the college campus.
"Load up your truck and put Sally in the back," said Smith, a literature and writing instructor at Virginia Tech. "I've never been able to get that thought out of my mind."
For two years, Smith, 39, has spent spare hours and limited finances piecing together the history of Oldfields and its people. A graduate of Hollins' master's degree program in English and creative writing, Smith is documenting Oldfields - now referred to as the "Hollins community" - for an illustrated book.
"Some of the college people say I'm relieving them of a lot of their guilt," Smith said. "Then there are people who say, `Aren't you scared? Aren't there people who aren't happy about it?'
"But I'm beyond that. These people made it possible for Hollins to carry on the business of education."
When black servants first were brought to Hollins, administrators and students searched for a place to set up living quarters for them.
"Send them up to the old field," Smith said someone suggested. The field was a huge expanse of ruined farmland northeast of the college campus.
Smith's research began as an independent study, part of her graduate work at Hollins. She'd heard occasional references to Oldfields and asked a faculty member about its origin.
Intrigued, Smith started interacting with some Oldfields residents who worked with her roommate in the college dining hall. They invited her to their church, the First Baptist Church of Hollins. Through the church's oldest members, Smith learned bits of Oldfields' history.
Smith searched the Hollins archives for information. She found "a lot of stuff" but had to be selective in what she retrieved.
Her most treasured find was a collection of crumpled, yellowed photographs.
One shows black women walking across campus with bundles of laundry on their heads. Another shows a black man seated in a horse-drawn cart.
One photo is of Clem Bolden - a "Wild Bill Hickok" type - who was 12 when he was brought to Hollins, Smith said. He loathed the indoors, preferring to work in the open air. He spent years working in the college gardens.
Others are of Lewis Hunt, who called himself the "dean of servants." Each day, he rang a large iron triangle to summon students to dinner. An article in an old Hollins quarterly newsletter titled "Faithful Friend" was published after Hunt's death.
"These people were referred to as pets, and you think, `How can that be?' " Smith said. "But of course, we can believe it."
The first detailed documentation of the Oldfields community was in the 1902 Hollins yearbook. An essay titled "On Thursday Afternoon" describes servants' weekly ritual, when they would put on their best clothing, groom their children and head for campus to pick up the "missus' " laundry for washing.
A passage reads: "They come forth, old and young, bearing the washerwoman's burden to the young ladies. This is an occasion to don their finest attire, `wash and comb de chillun,' and bring them forth to see and be seen."
Says Smith, "It occurred to me what those people had to go through. Yet these people had so much pride and dignity in the school."
Jake Wheeler, the college's acting vice president for academic affairs, said few people are aware of the relationship between Oldfields and the college.
"They contributed mightily to the growth of the college," said Wheeler, who heads the college's sesquicentennial celebration. "It was a system of mutual dependence. I'm very anxious to see what [Smith] comes up with."
"It's important that this part of our history stay with us."
Oldfields residents have continued to work in the tradition of their ancestors. Nearly 30 are employed at Hollins College in residence halls, the printing office, the dining room and the grounds and maintenance department.
Residents at first were hesitant about Smith - an "outsider" - delving into Oldfields' history. Some were worried that she was out to "exploit" them, Smith said.
But no more.
Elise Meade has worked at the college since 1949. A descendant of two of Hollins' oldest black families, Meade said she and other residents are pleased that Oldfields' history is being so thoroughly researched.
The community is changing and, further down its graveled road, integrating.
In the late 1980s, government funding finally brought indoor plumbing to its homes.
Its elderly residents are dying, their presence replaced with younger families.
"My fear is that in a few years, it will be as if these people never existed," Smith said. "I want to give them their history."
Ethel Smith will give a slide presentation on Oldfields to the Roanoke Valley Historical Society at 4 p.m. on Feb. 19 at Christ Lutheran Church, 2011 Brandon Ave., S.