Founder Morse’s WWI Draft Card 1917
February 26, 2009
Until recently, I had no idea that Founder Morse worked in Portsmouth, Virginia before going further south. As a related point of interest, this document puts Founder Morse in the same city as Bro. T.H. Reid (1st Eastern Regional “Director” or VP) after he finished his JD (HU ‘17) and started practicing at his father’s, Atty. W.M. Reid, well-established firm.
The Corey Memorial Institute was founded by area Baptists in 1906. After some financial difficulty, it merged with another private school for African Americans in the area – the Smallwood Industrial Institute. Marcus Garvey’s UNIA purchased the Smallwood-Corey school’s 66 acres and several buildings for $5,000 and the assumption of it’s $55,000 debt in 1925. Renamed Liberty University, the operation was eventually closed in 1929.
The last class to graduate from the Corey Memorial Institute in Portsmouth was 1918. Maybe that’s why Morse relocated to Alabama?
Hi, I was reading your article about Founder Morse and found it interesting that you would have mentioned Smallwood Institute and it being purchased my Marcus Garvey. I am the great, great niece of Dr. Smallwood, founder of Smallwood Institute and have recently published a book about Dr. Smallwood’s life and works. The book is entitled, Divine Will, Restless heart: The Life and Works of Dr. John Jefferson Smallwood. It can be purchased online at amazon.com and barnesand noble. Also, I would like to have more information from your fraternity in terms of perhaps being a vendor at your regional and/or national conference in an effort to promote my book. Please call me at 919-274-1187 or email me at maryecdrew@yahoo.com. I would love to hear from you.
Please email me.