Student documents Christ School history in new book

Most high school students don’t spend their free time poring over love letters from the 19th century or teaching themselves how to read cursive. 

But Christ School senior Grey Edens is not like most high school students.

Edens recently self-published My Dear Christ School Boys: Celebrating 125 Years of Christ School Through Love, Loss, and Letters. The book traces the story of the Arden school’s 1900 founding by Episcopal clergyman Thomas Wetmore and his wife, Susan Allen Wetmore. 

“Thomas Wetmore started his career in Asheville [in the 1890s] helping children and people from families of little means,” says Edens, his enthusiasm for the topic evident. “Through that, he became really good at fundraising, and that gave him the idea to start Christ School, which originally provided education to children from families of little means.”

He adds: “That’s a lot of what I cover in the second chapter.”

Edens, who is from Charlotte, spent about a year researching and writing the book, which is available through Amazon and in the Christ School bookstore.

“I was pretty much working on it every weekday afternoon from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., plus I was taking rigorous classes,” he explains. “I’m glad I was able to do it. I’m glad I pulled it off.” 

His efforts have been noted at the college preparatory boarding and day school for boys.

“This is the 125th academic year at Christ School, and there has been a lot of enthusiasm amongst our alumni base here in Asheville and beyond for Grey’s diligence and interest in our history,” says Andrew Pearson, the school’s interim director of communications.

Xpress spoke with Edens about what inspired him to write the book, how he got interested in history and what his plans are.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Xpress: How did the opportunity to write a history of the school come about? 

Just out of curiosity, I decided to Google the name of the founder of my school [Thomas Wetmore] and discovered an archive at UNC Chapel Hill where they had about 950 letters between him and his wife [school co-founder Susan Allen Wetmore], as well as other people. The school didn’t know about it, so I put together a trip with myself and a few students and faculty members to go read the letters, and they were just fascinating. Fascinating is kind of an understatement. I think we were probably the first ones to read the letters since the founders. I thought I had to share something about it. 

What was your next step? Did you go to school officials and ask them to give you the green light to write the book?

I wouldn’t really say I asked for permission. I didn’t really think I needed it, but I definitely had a lot of help from teachers on editing it. It was mainly just me, as well as [Christ School English teacher] Dr. Spenser Simrill.

What was the research process like? 

I spent most of my time on the third chapter of the book, which is the love story between Thomas and Susan Wetmore. And I had to go read all 950 letters to be able to do that. I took photos while I was there [Wilson Special Collections Library in Chapel Hill]. I also had them send me some digital copies. Most of it was on a computer, just reading and transcribing the letters. One thing I will add is that people my age weren’t really taught how to read cursive, so that was definitely a challenge. I used websites [to learn cursive], but I kind of just learned as I went. The cursive people used back then was very different, so I just kind of learned how they wrote. 

The letters start about 1870 and end around 1906 when [Thomas Wetmore died from appendicitis]. But really the main correspondences are in the 1890s.

What was the most interesting thing you discovered?  

There’s a lot of really amazing stories, but I would say the most interesting thing I found is how much the two founders lost and how difficult their lives were. They had very little, and they sacrificed pretty much everything they had to found the school. They dedicated their lives to it from 1900 until the end of both of their lives. 

I’m glad I was able to highlight something that nobody really knew about, Susan Wetmore selling her inherited art. She was born and lived in the largest antebellum building in Buncombe County called Struan, which is on the Christ School property. Her family came from Charleston (S.C.) and used Struan as a summer home, and then lost pretty much everything after the Civil War.  But she had a Rembrandt, she had other paintings. She sold her entire family inheritance from this wealthy Charleston family to start the school, and they also went up north and fundraised. 

I did a lot of research on Alexander Robertson, the grandfather of Susan Allen Wetmore, who originally settled the property and built Struan. That’s what the first chapter of the book is about, so I condensed that and submitted it to the South Carolina Encyclopedia, and they put it on the website.

What got you interested in researching history?  

First, my family history. I found a lot of things in my own family that I thought had to be preserved and weren’t being preserved, and then that kind of opened my eyes to things that needed to be done in my own community and at Christ School. I learned about myself from writing this book and all through this research that I really love storytelling. 

What are your plans after you graduate? 

 I’ve just finished applying to college, so I’m not sure yet where I want to go, but I want to study architectural history and architecture. I’m writing another book about the history of a chapel in South Carolina. It’s a small country chapel on the Cooper River.

What has the reaction been among faculty and other students?

Most people say to me that they thought they knew the story of Christ School, but a lot of facts that they never knew came out of this. People feel like they now know the personalities of the founders of the school — maybe even a little bit too much stuff that they wouldn’t want us to know about — based off those love letters.