Wil Jones

Albany State University is a four-year, state-supported, historically black university located in Albany, Georgia, United States. It is one of three HBCU's in the University System of Georgia. ASU is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. Joseph Winthrop Holley, born in 1874 to... former slaves in Winnsboro, South Carolina, founded the institution in 1903 as the Albany Bible and Manual Training Institute. Two educators, Reverend Samuel Loomis and his wife, sent Holley to Brainerd Institute and then Revere Lay College . While attending Revere Lay, Holley got to know one of the school's trustees, New England businessman, Rowland Hazard. After taking a liking to Holley, Hazard arranged for him to continue his education at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. Holley aspired to become a minister and prepared by completing his education at Pennsylvania's Lincoln University. W. E. B. Du Bois inspired Holley to return to the South after he read Du Bois's writings on the plight of black people in Albany, GA in The Souls of Black Folk. Holley relocated to Albany to start a school.
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McGehee is a city in Desha County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 4,219 at the 2010 census. The history of the city of McGehee and the history of the railroad through McGehee are intricately interwoven. The history of the railroad dates back to 1870 when a railroad was constructed from... Pine Bluff southeast through Varner, to Chicot. In April 1923, the Gulf Coast Lines and the International-Great Northern were acquired, forming the Missouri Pacific Lines. Important in the history of the town of McGehee is the McGehee family which came to the area from Alabama in 1857. Benjamin McGehee, his wife, Sarah, a son, Abner, and daughters Laura and Mary settled on land that is now a part of McGehee. Abner McGehee, son of Benjamin and Sarah McGehee, purchased 240 acres of land on July 1, 1876, on which the town of McGehee was later to be located. When the railroad came into McGehee in 1878 and continued south and southwest, people began to move into the area. Abner McGehee constructed a large commissary building and entered the mercantile business to accommodate the new arrivals. One of the first buildings in the area was a sawmill.
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