We have a copy of a letter in the Bolin family archives and although I cannot remember when I first saw this letter, a framed copy of it now hangs on the wall of my hstory department office. I always glance at the letter before going out the door to class for the purpose of inspiration; to inspire me to value the worth of each one of my students and inspire me to care for them.

The letter was written on April 10, 1893, to my grandfather, Wesley Lafayette Bolin, a student at Clinton College in Hickman County in far Western Kentucky. Founded in 1873 by Willis “Father” White—who served as pastor of First Baptist Church of Clinton, county judge and moderator of West Union Baptist Association—as an academy for young women, Clinton College graduates often found their way to Wellesley College in Massachusetts.

The institution later became coeducational, but with declining enrollment, it closed in 1915. In 1893, however, the newly-formed West Kentucky Baptist Association had taken charge of the school and for a time, Clinton College flourished. Amanda Melvina Hicks, a cousin of Abraham Lincoln, both taught there and served as president from 1880 to 1894, a remarkable achievement for a woman at a denominational college in Western Kentucky in the 1890s.

In the spring of 1893, President Hicks wrote the letter to my grandfather. Although she sent it to him, the missive actually concerned my Great-Uncle Eugene, a student at Clinton College and the “character” of the Bolin family. I grew up listening to stories my Baptist minister father would tell about “Uncle Gene,” and despite his uncle’s shenanigans, my father, another Wesley, had a twin brother named Eugene after his Uncle Gene. So, my Great-Uncle Gene must have had some qualities worthy of emulation. Either way, Mrs. Hicks seemed to be especially concerned about the prospects of one Eugene Bolin. Read the letter and see for yourself:

Clinton College, Apr. 10, (18)93

Mr. Wesley Bolin—

My dear pupil.

I am very anxious that Eugene should hear the lecture tonight. The subject is “God’s Message to the World.” It may do Eugene a great deal of good to hear it. He told me he would stay at home and that you were coming. If you can so arrange that he can come I shall be much pleased even if you have to stay at home. I say this because I am so much concerned about his soul.

Your friend and teacher.

Amanda M. Hicks

A great deal of mystery surrounds this letter. I never found out if my Great-Uncle Gene made it to the lecture that evening. And I never knew what the speaker said during his lecture, “God’s Message to the World.” There is a great deal that I do not know.

I do know, however, that here was a teacher who cared so much for one of her students that she took the time to write to the student’s brother—my grandfather—asking him to make a sacrifice for the sake of his brother. In short, the teacher wanted young Eugene to come to the lecture because she was “so much concerned about his soul.”

I don’t know if Amanda Hicks inspired Eugene to come to the lecture, or to attend to his schooling or his soul, but I do know that she inspires me today. She inspires me to care for my students more, to recognize in them seeds of worth and even greatness.

For more information on Clinton College, see R. Charles Blair’s entry in The Kentucky Encyclopedia, (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1992) on page 208.

Duane Bolin is a professor of history at Murray State University. He also is the author of “Kentucky Baptists, 1925-2000: A Story of Cooperation.”