On a beautiful Saturday morning in late April of 1886, a confrontation took place, which was to alter the whole history of a family. At her little stall in the marketplace on Monroe Street in Montgomery, Alabama, a vigorous little black woman, Lavonia Julian, born a slave in 1848, was busy selling her vegetable, fruits and fowl, from the family farm 21 miles away, to her usual array of weekly customers. She was being assisted on this particular day by her second son, James Sumner Julian. In the course of the morning, a young white woman, Joan Stuart, of Danville, Indiana, appeared to make her customary Saturday purchases from Mrs. Julian. "Ah, Mrs. Julian," she said, "who is this bright young fellow?" "This is my son, Jimmie," was the reply. "Young man," Miss Stuart said, "What school do you attend?" "I've finished school," was the 16 year old boy's reply. Miss Stuart knew immediately what this meant. She was a graduate of the Danville Normal School of Danville, Indiana, and at that time a teacher in the State Normal School in Montgomery, established formerly by missionary whites as a school for the training of Negro teachers, and modeled after Danville Normal.

     Miss Stuart knew that the boy's answer meant that he had finished the sixth grade, and thus had completed the only public school education permitted the Negro child at that time in the State of Alabama. "Ah, you've finished school," she remarked, "but wouldn't you like to 'continue' your education?" "I would be so happy if I could have such an opportunity," said the boy. And his mother, Lavonia, joined in to say, "I would give my right hand if I could find some way to satisfy his yearning for more education. He reads night after night every book he can find." Whereupon, on the spot, a pact was made between the black mother and the white teacher whereby each week she would give to Miss Stuart a part of her earnings to assist the boy whom Joan Stuart agreed to take into the State Normal School. The boy graduated from the State Normal School 7 years later as Valedictorian of his class, having made up one year of the 8 years required. And there, James met the girl who was to be his wife, whom Joan Stuart always affectionately called "my little Queen Elizabeth." Joan Stuart later wrote that Mother Lavonia never failed her in all those 7 years!

     Joan Stuart's desire for this boy, James, was that he would go to DePauw University and this dream, although not realized for him, became his dream for each of his six children. The eldest of them, Percy Lavon, who significantly was name for his Grandmother, Lavonia, also studied under this noble teacher, and later Joan Stuart -- herself a protege of Julian Hogate, Editor of the then Danville Republican -- commended the lad, Percy, to the care of Julian Hogate's son, Kenneth Hogate, when Percy came from Montgomery to DePauw University as the first of six children to attend. All six of them were sent to DePauw by James and Elizabeth, and five graduated. Thus, this meeting in the Alabama marketplace became truly The Birth of a DePauw Family.