The outraged white population turned its back upon this new type of coeducation; in the autumn of 1872 not a solitary white boy made his appearance.

The old university therefore closed its doors for lack of students and for the next few years it became a pitiable victim to the worst vices of the reconstruction era.
Politicians were awarded the presidency and the professorships as political pap, and the resources of the place, in money and books, were scattered to the wind.

Page had therefore to find his education elsewhere.

The deep religious feelings of his family quickly settled this point.

The young man promptly betook himself to the backwoods of North Carolina and knocked at the doors of Trinity College, a Methodist Institution then located in Randolph County.