aCentury

ofChange

the 20th Century

The following letter and photograph was contributed by Edwin Dornell, of State College, Pennsylvania.  Mr. Dornell has been a regular contributor of information on Steelton and the Hygienic School, of which he is a graduate.  He is also a supporter of the Friends of Midland organization, which regularly posts photographs, information and primary research materials from their archives.  Originally formed to rescue and rehabilitate the historic Midland Cemetery, the Friends of Midland also have an interest in local African American history, including the Hygienic School.  They are very interested in hearing from former students of the Hygienic School, and can be contacted at the following address:
Friends of Midland, P. O. Box 7442, Steelton, Pennsylvania 17113-0442.
E-mail:  Friends of Midland  or view the Homepage

88th Class Reunion, Steelton High School--Martha Brown-Cobbs

From Edwin Dornell, State College, Pennsylvania, April 2006

I recently had the pleasure of attending the 100th birthday celebration for Martha Brown-Cobbs.  She is a graduate of Steelton High School and the former Shippensburg State Teachers College.  She was my third grade teacher at the Hygienic School during 1944.  From the information given at the birthday celebration, she began her teaching career at Hygienic and remained there until 1948.  Unfortunately I don't have the facts concerning her career in Steelton, but there seems to be a lot of interesting information regarding her requirement to commute to Shippensburg from Steelton because there were no accommodations at the school for Afro-Americans.  I do that that my sister-in-law who also attended Shippensburg in the early days found it necessary to live with a local black family while attending school there.

I am enclosing a photograph of Mrs. Cobbs I took at the last All Class Reunion for Steelton High School in 2005.  This photograph represented Mrs. Cobbs' 88th class reunion at age 99. 

Editor's Notes

The 1920 Census of Steelton shows the George H. Brown family living at 110 Ridge Street.  Martha was recorded as 13 years old at the time.  Her father was employed at the steel company as a laborer, and had probably come north to Steelton from his native Virginia for the job.  Of the 97 African American families enumerated on Ridge Street, only seven of those identified as heads of households were born in Pennsylvania.  The other ninety families were headed by people generally from the upper south, with Virginia being the predominate state of origin.

At 47 years of age, George H. Brown had managed, with his laborers wages, to buy the house in which his family lived.  He still had mortgage payments, but his wife Charlotte and five daughters, all of whom were Pennsylvania born, were more secure than two-thirds of the neighboring Ridge Street families, who rented their homes.

Martha G. Brown graduated in 1923 from Steelton High School, one of only three African American students in her class that year.  These three, however, would prove themselves to be highly distinctive in their fields of endeavor.  Martha, of course, pursued teaching as a career, and influenced generations of children as a Hygienic School teacher.  Her fellow graduates were equally influential:  Lillian Ball established the Lillian L. Ball School of Music and Elocution in 1928, with locations in both Harrisburg and Steelton.  One of her most successful graduates, in turn, was Leonard Oxley, who wrote the Broadway musical "Bubblin' Brown Sugar."  The other graduate was Richard Brown (no known family relationship to Martha), who became a physician and established a successful practice in Harrisburg.

Ed Dornell's observations about the need for African American students at Shippensburg State Teacher's College to room with local African American families, rather than board on campus, is backed up by reminiscences from other graduates.  John Weldon Scott, of Harrisburg, noted a similar situation in a 2005 letter to the Afrolumens Project.  Despite this obstacle, many other notable African American educators are alumni of that school, including Samuel H. Cole, the second and one of the most well-known principals of the Hygienic School.

Other Steelton Articles

• The Hygienic School
• Roll of Colored Graduates of Steelton H. S.
• Former Teachers in the Hygienic School
• George H. Imes and Aura Imes, Hygienic School Teachers
• George Lake Imes
• Numa P.G. Adams
• Historic Midland Cemetery
• About the Friends of Midland
• Clayton E. Carelock