In 1902, she dedicated her family inheritance, 83 acres of land, to be the site for a boys" industrial school. The students paid their way by running a self-supporting farm and doing construction work. In 1909, she opened a girls" school, with a dormitory built by the boys. In 1926, the complex became a junior college, and in 1932, a four-year college. In these years of growth, Martha Berry worked tirelessly to raise an endowment. Her unique blend of idealism and practicality enabled her to win support from such prominent individuals as Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, and Theodore Roosevelt. The property of the college grew to more than 25,000 acres of farmland and pine forest. Students were taught forestry, conservation, and advanced farming methods, along with the traditional arts and sciences. They graduated with job-training and life-support skills and with the self-respect of people who have earned their way. Martha Berry died in 1942, but her mission of study, work and worship lives on in the college that bears her name. Her modest school has grown to a nationally recognized liberal arts college, which today remains dedicated to academic achievement, religious values and practical work experience in an environment of natural beauty. Her life continues to touch the lives of thousands. Martha Berry was born on October 7, 1866. Her parents moved to Rome in 1866, and her father started a store in downtown Rome. He was also a cotton factor, a person who buys cotton from a farmer and sends it off to be made into clothing. Her mother, Francis Berry, helped the children learn skills such as art, singing, and sewing. Her parents, Thomas and Francis, bought a house where Oak Hill now stands in 1871. There Martha Berry and her seven brothers and sisters and three adopted cousins lived. .
Martha Berry started her school around 1900 when three boys from the nearby hills (foothills of the Appalachian mountains) visited her in her log cabin study.
The American Indian lived life in love with nature. Their wisdom showed in their capacity for harmony with the environment, what they wore, what they created, what they ate and how it was prepared, in their home life and importance of family and in their philosophies and beliefs. It would be impossi...
