| In The Rise and Decline
of the Program of Education for Black Presbyterians of the United
Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., 1865-1970, Inez Moore Parker recounts the
early history of Boggs.
She states:
Deep in
the
heart of the “Black Belt” of Georgia, where superstition and ignorance
gripped the minds of the inhabitants, and where the seeds of discord
between house slaves and field slaves and field shaves had germinated
and taken root – the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. established the academy
on a two-acre plot donated by a Baptist elder.
The identity of the
“Baptist elder” referred to by Moore has been
a matter of dispute. One researcher identified him as Morgan Walker, who
was black. Phinazee Walker, a Presbyterian elder and fourth-generation Walker, informed the writer that at the end
of the Civil War, his great-great-grandfather, Moses
Walker gave land to each of his thirteen
children in the northwest section of Burke County, near Waynesboro,
Georgia. This section became known as “The Walker Settlement.” Each of
the thirteen children received land involving three and a half acres,
divided by Beaver Dam Creek. Over the years, the land in the Walker family passed through successive
generations: the “Walker Settlement” is still intact.
Morgan Walker was
the son of Moses Walker (white) and Elizabeth
Walker (black). As the generations
developed, Rodney Walker, the son of Ryas Walker (known in family
history as the first black Walker)
became the grandfather of Phinazee
Walker, and Morgan
Walker, the brother of Ryas Walker, became
the great-great-uncle of Phinazee.
Phinazee
Walker
relates that the Reverend John Lawrence Phelps, the founder of Boggs
came to the area for the purpose of establishing a school built on
Christian principles, which would educate African American youth. Phelps approached member of the Walker family, described his vision of a
school, and successfully persuaded Rodney
Walker and Morgan
Walker to give two acres of land so that the
first building could be erected. The tradition in the Walker family is that the land, through a
“gentlemen’s agreement,” would never be sold and would always be kept
available for the welfare of African Americans in the county.
The first structures on
the Boggs campus were the school and a chapel. The school was named
Boggs in honor of Mrs. Virginia Boggs, who
was the corresponding secretary of the Board of Missions for Freedmen.
The chapel was name Morgan Grove Presbyterian Church in honor of Morgan Walker. Phinazee Walker’s
brother, Frank, left a historic
note in which he says that the building of the church was completed in
October 1909 and he (Frank) was
the first infant baptized in the edifice, on Christmas Day 1909. Later
in 1930, the original church was destroyed by fire and another building
was erected through the generosity of the Blackburn family of
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The new chapel, which is still standing on the
Boggs campus, was named the Blackburn Presbyterian Church. Phinazee Walker
was baptized there in 1931.
Phinazee Walker
and his brother, the late Frank
Walker, both attended Boggs Academy. Frank graduated from Boggs in 1928 as
valedictorian of his class. Phinazee, who was younger, attended Boggs
from 1927 to 1934, but did not graduate. He and a third brother, Albert Walker,
reside in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Today, the campus of
Boggs Academy has been converted to the Boggs Rural Life Center through
an agreement, “A Covenant Between Boggs Rural Life Center, Inc. and the
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).” Under this agreement, the mission of the
center is to implement a wide variety of human and community development
projects over a twenty county target area. The center, in partnership
with local and national organizations, is conducting conferences and
retreats, providing health screenings, prenatal and nutritional
counseling, and is working with area school systems and several state
institutions of higher education. The center is managed by a twenty-nine
member board of directors and is administered by an executive
director.”
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