For a father to educate his children is one of the best things that he can do, when this is done following a Christian training in the home, that father may well sit back and fondly contemplate his work and enjoy the blessings which come to those who do a duty well. There are few fathers who can successfully put eight children through college and see them all grow to young womanhood and manhood fully equipped for the battle of life, but to Mr. G.M. Goforth of Charlotte, this remarkable record has come to pass.
Mr. Goforth, who is the representative of the International Agriculture Corporation, and who is well known in Forest City, where he frequently visits, was here recently, and it was after much persuasion that the reporter interviewed him on the subject of his great achievement in putting all eight of his children through college. He was finally induced to tell us of how he had accomplished the education of so large a family.
It took a great deal of money, of course, but to this he hardly alluded, and fondly declared that had he had moe children he would go ahead and put them through. Through it all there was never a word of any sacrifice on his part, of the cost, of the great financial outlay it must have required to put eight children through college. The predominant note of his conversation was a fond parent’s love and a pardonable pride that he takes in the success of his children, and of which any parent would be justified in taking a very great pride and pleasure.
This remarkable family is composed of the following members:
H.W. Goforth, U.S. Consul at Santos, Brazil. He is a graduate of Washington & Lee University. This young man has met with wonderful success in his diplomatic work.
Rev. R.C. Goforth, who is a Methodist minister stationed at Glen Alpine Station, N.C. This young man studied for the ministry for 19 years and has met with wonderful success in his work. He is a graduate of Atlanta University.
Another son is Mr. Mark Goforth, a prominent farmer of Lenoir, N.C. He is a graduate of A. & E. College, Raleigh. [Now called N.C. State University]
Mrs. Eva Barker, a daughter, resides at Burlington, N.C. She graduated at Greensboro and at the State Normal, Davenport, Iowa.
Miss Karoline Goforth graduated at Greensboro, State University. She now has charge of Y.W.C.A. work in four States—Colorado, Kansas, Utah and Wyoming. She resides at Denver, Colorado.
Miss Mabel Goforth graduated at St. Luke’s College in Pennsylvania. She is a trained nurse and resides at Lenoir, N.C. Miss Willard Goforth graduated at Columbia University. Following her graduation she was married to Mr. E. Eybers, who is principal in a big college in South Africa.
The baby of the family is Miss Emmeline Goforth. She is a graduate of North Carolina College for Women, where she gained many honors, not the least of which was the honor of having one of her poems publishe din the college magazine, included in Schnittkind’s anthology of verse—“Poets of the Future.” She was chosen editor of the college magazine while a member of the senior class and was also secretary-treasurer of the college press association.
The poem by Miss Goforth is the only one chosen from North Carolina colleges, and gives the North Carolina College for Women an unusual distinction.
A copy of the poem is as follows:
Street Cars
A creeping, crawling, swaying, swinging insect—
A caterpillar with a bee’s deep buzz,
A cricket in its shrieking dialect—
A yellow worm, close clinging to a wire with fuzz.
Of ladies’ bonnets and of children’s faces,
Sweet children’s faces through the window’s dust.
And great clear eyes with a conductor in them,
And oh!—the paint, and iron and wire and rust!
I wonder why the heart of youth is needlessly pent
In these loud, yellow, horrid, creeping things;
Leave them for those with blistered heels and gout—
I choose to swing down the sun-flecked street
Where some impalpable charm somehow close clings,
Where children play with laughter clear and sweet
Beside the flowers, outside of windows gay,
Where youth meets youth all gladly, buoyantly walking—
I scorn this ugly, cringing, mercenary way.
From the Forest City Courier, Rutherford County, N.C., Thursday, Feb. 23, 1922
No comments:
Post a Comment