Giles sisters

Mary, Theresa, and Persis Giles were schoolteachers and pioneers in women's education. They were from rural North Carolina and were the first female graduates of the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences (later Duke University) in 1878, well before the school formally admitted women. In 1885 they founded the Greenwood Female College in Greenwood, South Carolina.

The Giles sisters were born in Jones County, North Carolina to E.S.F. and Nancy White Giles. E.S.F. had been a minister of the Church of Christ, and a farmer. A brother, James, was killed during the Civil War, and their father, E.S.F., Sr. died in 1868. The sisters also had a surviving brother, E.S.F., Jr., and a younger sister called Sue.

In 1874, Nancy Giles moved the family from Richlands, North Carolina to Trinity, North Carolina in Randolph County. The move was prompted by the loss of land and slave holdings at the end of the Civil War, but the primary purpose for the move was that Nancy Giles was determined to have her surviving son get an education. Theresa, Persis, and Mary were all schoolteachers by occupation, and were working in Onslow County, when the rest of the family moved to Trinity. They joined the family in Trinity when their contracts expired.

Trinity College of Arts and Sciences (later Duke University) was located in Trinity, North Carolina, in rural Randolph County until 1892 when it moved to Durham (where it is located now). When the Giles sisters arrived, there was little to the community apart from the college. Trinity was an all-male college and remained so until 1892.

In Trinity, Theresa, Mary, and Persis at first continued to teach in the local schools. Meanwhile, their younger brother, E.S.F., Jr. attended Trinity College. The sisters attempted to enroll when they arrived in town, but were not allowed. Mary later reflected on this moment, saying "Trinity was a male school and we were barred."

Initially, the sisters had their younger brother tutor them in the evenings when he returned home. It soon became evident, however, that he would not be able to answer all of their questions, having just learned the material himself. Insistent on learning what their brother was, they contacted a neighbor and professor at Trinity, Lemuel Johnson, who agreed to tutor them after-hours. In turn, other professors at Trinity did the same, and taught them exactly the same lessons that the men at Trinity learned. They did attend one class with the men, metaphysics, taught by then-President Braxton Craven.

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