~ Arthur Ashe
Reverend Russell H. Conwell on December 1, 1912 stood in the pulpit of the Grace Baptist (Temple) Church in Philadelphia, PA to recount the story of his friend, a little girl name Hattie May Wiatt.
“Hattie May lived in a house near the church in which we then worshipped, at Berks and Mervine, which is now occupied by the Christian Church.”, he began. “It was a small church and was crowded; tickets of admission were obtained sometimes weeks in advance for every service. The Sunday school was as crowded as the rest of the congregation, and one day when I came down to the church, I found a number of children outside. [The children] were greatly disturbed because they could not get in, on account of the crowd of children already in the Sunday school rooms of the church, and little Hattie May Wiatt, who lived nearby, had brought her books and a contribution, and was standing by the gate, hesitating whether to go back home or wait and try to get in later. I took her up in my arms, lifted her to my shoulder, and then as she held on to my head - an embrace I never can forget - I carried her through the crowd in the hall, into the Sunday school room, and seated her in a chair away back in a dark corner. The next morning as I came down to the church from my home I came by their house and she was going up the street to school. As we met, I said: ‘Hattie, we are going to have a larger Sunday school room soon’, and she said: ‘I hope you will. It is so crowded that I am afraid to go there alone’. ‘Well’, I replied, ‘When we get the money with which to erect a school building we are going to construct one large enough to get all the little children in, and we are going to begin very soon to raise the money for it’. It was only in my mind as a kind of imaginary vision, but I wished to make conversation with the child. The next that I heard about it was that Hattie was very sick, and they asked me to come in and see the child, which I did, and prayed with her. I walked up the street, praying for the little girl's recovery, and yet all the time with the conviction that it was not to be,” he remembered.
Reverend Conwell was asked to perform the funeral. After which the girl’s mother told Reverend Conwell that Hattie May had been saving money to help build a bigger church and gave him the little purse in which Hattie May had saved 57 cents. Reverend Conwell had the 57 cents exchanged for 57 pennies. He told the story of little Hattie May to his congregation and offered the 57 pennies for sale. He raised $250. In addition, 54 of the 57 pennies were returned and displayed as an encouragement to further giving. While Reverend Conwell used the story in a December 1912 sermon, the events actually occurred in 1886 when $250 was a large sum of money. Some members of the congregation formed what was called the Wiatt Mite Society which was dedicated to make Hattie May’s 57 cents raise as much money as possible toward building a new church, primarily Sunday school facilities. A house nearby was purchased and the rest is, as they say, history. The first classes of Temple College, later Temple University, were held in that very house. This house purchased to make room for Sunday school was eventually sold to allow Temple College to move and grow into Temple University which resulted in the additional founding of the Good Samaritan Hospital (now the Temple University Hospital).
Hattie May never had a vision for the lives and minds that would be (and continue to be) changed through Temple University. She only wanted to help her church provide larger rooms so that more children could attend Sunday school.
We don’t always know the outcome of the actions we take. We may have a limited vision for the circumstances in our lives. Others however, may build upon what we start and grow our tiny dreams to be larger than anything in our wildest imagination.
I encourage you to dream. I encourage you to build upon the dreams of others. Most importantly, I encourage you to do. Who knows where Temple University and its more than 35,000 students sprawled across nine campuses would be had it not been for little Hattie May Wiatt and her purse of 57 cents.
There are so many great opportunities for excellence in our community. I know that there are so many more we have yet to realize. Get out there and reach for the stars. I know that if you do, our community will be better off because of it!
Sources for further study: http://library.temple.edu/collections/scrc/hattie
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/h/hattiemaywiatt.htm#.U34f4tJdXh5
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* This article was originally printed in the Sunday, May 25, 2014 issue of The Chronicle's "Planting Seeds" column.
