Hattie May Wiatt: This little girl wanted to go to Sunday school so badly, but was not able to get in. The pastor, Russell H. Conwell, spotted her one Sunday, apologized that their space was so limited; and he picked her up and took her to the Sunday school class himself. Just a few months or years later, the girl died; and her family wanted that preacher to do her funeral. They gave him a change purse that Hattie May had used in her attempt to save money to donate to the church so as to speed up their ability to build more space...it contained 57 cents.  This ultimately lead to all that has become Temple University.

There has been an e-mail "urban legend" story about this little girl. It has been embellished. See pastor Conwell's 1 December 1912 sermon detailing the interesting and accurate story at the Temple University (Pennsylvania) web site. The little girl died in 1886.

(posted 3 November 2002, the day our pastor noted this story in his sermon)