Starting with 10 acres and a capital investment of $15,000, Catawba College has grown over its 150-year history to a 276-acre campus in the midst of a $56.5-million capital campaign — one that’s close to reaching its goal.
Yet numbers alone can’t tell the story of commitment, sacrifice and perseverance that have made Catawba the strong institution it is today. Nor can they tell the full impact this small, private college has had on the Salisbury-Rowan community.
People made it happen, not numbers, and those people have played many different roles in Catawba’s success. Founders and professors. Administrators and supporters. Graduates who have gone on to make Salisbury-Rowan a better place to live.
They teach in our schools, work in our banks. They practice law, run grocery stores, raise families.
Today’s Post contains a very brief history of the college, gleaned from the work of others who have tackled the job of documenting the Catawba story.
It covers major events that newcomers to the Catawba story might not know about — for example, that the college started in the town of Newton in Catawba County in 1851 with the goal of training young men for the ministry. That the college became an academy during and after the Civil War. That, even though it resumed collegiate work in 1885, it fell upon hard times in the early 1920s and nearly closed for good.
Instead, Catawba moved to a site that was then “two miles from Salisbury” —the West Innes Street location that it has today. Here it has endured, weathering Depression, war and financial challenges to build a reputation as a small college that cares, an institution where students earn credits and learn to be good citizens.
Certain names recur in the college’s history: Clapp, Leonard, Shuford, Abernethy, Corriher, Peeler, Linn. In the past 50 years, Hurley, Stanback, Ketner and others have joined the list of those whose strong commitment to the college have helped shape its future. So many other people and families have given generously that mentioning any at all risks leaving out someone who is noteworthy.
The strength of Catawba reflects the strength of the community that supports it; the two go hand-in-hand. Catawba officials must wonder where the college would be without the encouragement of key supporters here. And Salisbury-Rowan should consider what this community would be like without Catawba — the faculty and staff members who live in our neighborhoods, the students who often decide to make Salisbury their home, the cultural and sports programs that add so much to Salisbury’s quality of life.
Reviewing Catawba’s history helps one appreciate the fact that these things do not come easily, or by happenstance. Each step is an uphill climb, with financial challenges and a changing marketplace exerting a powerful gravitational pull. The easiest thing would be to stay the same or fall back. But Catawba pushes on.
Congratulations to Catawba for rising to this 150-year pinnacle, and good luck as the climb continues.
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