THE LINCOLN NORMAL INSTITUTE at Marion, Ala., was established in the
year 1868, by the A.M.A. In the year 1874, the State of Alabama asked
to assume the school, which had won a good name, and to increase its
facilities for the education of the Negro. This was done. Last year,
the work was deserted by the State and came anew into our hands. This,
also, is an enlargement upon our schedule of work.

At LEXINGTON, KY., our Normal School has grown to such a degree that
even the vestibules and halls of our insufficient building were
crowded with eager pupils. Teachers were teaching, and pupils were
studying, in conditions that none but missionary teachers would
accept. For lack of room, industrial training has been impossible. The
locality, meanwhile, has been surrounded by saloons, and houses that
are worse. A benevolent lady who became acquainted with these facts
offered $2,000 to purchase four acres of land for school and
industrial purposes, and to give money sufficient for a new brick
edifice with eight large school-rooms and all needful appointments and
furnishings; the gift amounting to $15,000.

We believe that we were not wrong in accepting this trust in your
behalf, even though it means more teachers and increased expenditures.
We are confident that your Christian faith would not decline this
Christian benevolence. Hence the plans for Chandler School are in the
hands of the builders. Could some like-minded wealthy steward of the
grace of God visit Williamsburg, Ky., in our Mountain White work, we
might be compelled to face another such dilemma.

AT MERIDIAN, MISS., where Christian parents have besought us for
years, past to open a missionary school, through which their children
might be saved to morality and integrity of character during the