I am feeling empathy for the residents and students at Lees McRae College in Banner Elk, North Carolina today after damaging floods from Hurricane Helene in September of 2024. The students were evacuated by National Guard helicopters and had to continue their school year remotely. (They have recently been able to return to school in Banner Elk.)
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Banner Elk is a very small town in the mountains of western North Carolina. Edgar Tufts was a Presbyterian Minister and missionary of sorts who went into the mountains in 1895, established a church, and preached to the mountain people for the rest of his life. In 1900, he was instrumental in establishing the Lees-McCrae school which became the college that exists today. He also brought in a doctor and helped start the hospital there and I recently learned he helped orphan children through fostering, placement, and establishing an orphanage called The Grandfather Home.
Lees-McRae College history page on their website
They did a musical play this year about Edgar Tufts' story
The Avery Journal Times has a historical article quoting a eulogy for Edgar Tufts from Edgar’s friend, Rev. Dr. James I. Vance; in part: “‘O, God, how can we go on up there in the mountains without him?’.....“For I know how they love him, how absolutely they trust him. For 25 years he has been their sky-pilot, pointing and preaching and leading the way to the country lying out there beyond their own fair, far skyline, and he has always led them straight, and not once through all these years had he done a selfish thing to shake their faith…(the article continues) ...Jan. 6, 1923. News of his Edgar’s death was carried across the state. The Salisbury Evening Post reported that he was “one of the most valuable workers North Carolina had.” The Lenoir Topic considered him a “valuable man and a good friend.”
This is a very short version of the many accomplishments of Edgar Tufts. Tufts Kinsmen (2010) by Herbert Adams and The Tufts Kinsmen Association has a full story with details and references and is quoted below. I will include links for researchers and family who want to look deeper. His family line starts with Peter Tufts the most common Tufts immigrant ancestor who came from England to Charleston, Massachusetts before 1638.
Edgar’s ancestors:
Peter Tufts (1617-1700) The immigrant ancestor
Jonathan Tufts (1660-1722) and Rebecca Waite (1662-1755) Malden, MA.
Joseph Tufts (1704-1758) and Lydia Francis (1703-1778) Medford, MA
John Tufts (1735-1788) and Martha Ruggles (1737-1813) Brookfield, MA
Francis Tufts (1780-1849) and Mary Parks Milner (1809-1878) (Francis’ third wife) of
Joseph Francis Augustus Tufts (1838-1900) and Anna Denby Robinson (Edgar’s parents)
Edgar Tufts (December 4, 1870-1923) Married Mary Elizabeth Hall (1874-1958)
Edgar’s grandfather, Francis Tufts, was a trader and farmer who left Brookfield, Massachusetts with his brother Gardner, and went south, where they established business as traders and merchants in Savannah, Georgia. Francis went inland to Blountsville, in Jones County, Georgia where he had a farm and left a large family. (I have a project researching this branch. Please contact me for more information.) From Blountsville, Francis’s widow moved to Midway, Georgia. Francis’s son Joseph (Edgar’s father) was enrolled in Oglethorpe College and fought for the rebel cause in the Civil War.
After the war, Joseph was in business in Georgia and later had an orange grove in Florida. Edgar grew up in the wilds of Florida and through a friendly benefactor was able to attend college and seminary school which led to his work in the mountains of North Carolina.
The devastation from Hurricane Helene will be felt for years. Please support the recovery efforts if you can. As always, please send me any corrections or additions to this story.
The Tufts Kinsmen Association website page to order Tufts Kinsmen 2010 by Herbert Adams and the Tufts Kinsmen Association. The Association also have an ebook available at Barnes and Noble and other retailers here. The Association had a tour of the college and town at a reunion many years ago.
Additional reading:
And Set Aglow a Sacred Flame History of the Edgar Tufts Memorial Association, 1895-1942
By Margaret Tufts Neal · 1983, Pudding Stone Press.
Wikipedia link for Lees-McRae College
Edgar Tufts traveling organ story
findagrave link with picture and story
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