FOOTNOTES:
[143] Colonial Mobile, pp. 185, 294; 7 Statutes at Large, p. 55.
[144] 4, Am. Hist. Rev. p. 62, &c.; 7 Stat. at Large, p. 140.
[145] Ellicott's Journal, pp. 40, 177.
[146] But at least he did not turn cannon on Gayoso and compel him to evacuate, as stated (p.[45]) in Jones' Introduction of Protestantism.
[147] Ellicott's Journal, pp. 141, 282.
[148] Winsor's Westward Movement, p. 266; Ellicott's Journal, App. p. 45.
[149] Ellicott's Journal, App., p. 44, &c.
[150] Colonial Mobile, p. 342; Ellicott's Journal, p. 182.
[151] Picture in Colonial Mobile, p. 295, shows Ellicott to be inaccurate as to lettering.
[ELIZABETH FEMALE ACADEMY—THE MOTHER OF FEMALE COLLEGES]
BY BISHOP CHAS. B. GALLOWAY, D. D.
I believe that Mississippi can justly lay claim to the honor of having established the first chartered institution for the higher education of young women in the South, if not in the United States. Though called an Academy, it did full collegiate work, had a high standard of scholarship, and conferred degrees. The institution was located at Washington, six miles east of Natchez. Washington had been the brilliant and busy little Territorial Capital, and was then the center of social and political influence.
A recent visit to the site of that venerable school enabled me to gather much valuable information about its work, and heightened my appreciation of its vast educative and spiritual influence upon the history and destiny of the Southwest. The walls of the spacious building still stand, but the merry voices that rang through its halls only live in the sweet echoes of a distant past. Borrowing a style of architecture from the Spanish of Colonial times, the structure was two and a half stories high, the first of brick, the others in frame. A fire consumed it twenty years ago, leaving only the solid masonry as a memorial of the educational ambition and spiritual consecration of Early Mississippi Methodism. Some of the grandest women of the Southwest received their well-earned diplomas within those now charred walls, and went out to preside over their own model and magnificent homes. The early catalogues contain the names of fair daughters who afterward became the accomplished matrons of historic families. For many years the Elizabeth Female Academy was the one institution of high grade in the entire South for the education of young women. All others have been followers and beneficiaries of this brave heroine of Mississippi.
The grounds and buildings were donated to the Mississippi Conference by Mrs. Elizabeth Roach in 1818, and in her honor the institution was called the Elizabeth Female Academy. The year following a charter was granted by the Legislature, of which this is a copy:
"An Act. To Incorporate the Elizabeth Female Academy.
"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Mississippi in General Assembly convened, "That an Academy be, and is hereby established near the town of Washington, in the county of Adams, to be known by the name of the Elizabeth Female Academy, in honor of Mrs. Elizabeth Roach, the founder thereof, to be under the superintendence of John Menifee, Daniel Rawlings, Alexander Covington, John W. Briant, and Beverly R. Grayson, and their successors who are hereby constituted a body politic and corporate, to be known by the name and style of 'The Trustees of the Elizabeth Female Academy' and they and their successors are hereby made capable of receiving real and personal estate, either by donation or purchase, for the benefit of the institution, not exceeding one hundred thousand dollars, of suing and being sued, and of doing and performing all other acts, and shall possess all other powers, incident to bodies corporate.
"Sec. 2.—And be it further enacted, That all vacancies that may happen in the said Board of Trustees, either by death, resignation, refusal to act, or removal from the State, shall be filled by the members of the Methodist Mississippi Annual Conference: provided however, that all such vacancies may be filled by the said Board of Trustees, to continue until the meeting of the said conference next ensuing such vacancy, or until they shall fill the same.
"Sec. 3.—And be it further enacted, That the said trustees and their successors shall have the power to appoint their president, vice-president, and other officers, to engage such teacher or teachers as may be necessary for conducting the literary concerns of the Academy, to hold stated meetings of the board and to make all by-laws and regulations for the government of the institution and promoting piety and virtue among the students, but no religious test or opinion shall be required by the by-laws of the institution of the pupils admitted or to be admitted into said Academy. The president, or in his absence, the vice-president, may at any time call special meetings of the board by giving to each member five days notice of such meeting: the ordinary meetings shall be held on their own adjournment; Three members shall constitute a quorum to do business: the president, or in his absence, the vice-president shall preside, or in case of the absence of both, any member chosen by a majority of the members present shall preside.
"E. TURNER,
"Speaker of the House of Representatives.
"D. STEWART,
"Lieut. Governor, President of the Senate.
"Approved the 17th day of Feb., 1918.
"DAVID HOLMES,
"Governor of the State of Mississippi."
The "announcement" for the initial term appeared in the Mississippi State Gazette, of Oct. 24th, 1818, a paper published in Natchez, and was signed by B. R. Grayson, Secretary of the Board of Trustees.
The Academy opened its doors to pupils November 12th, 1818, under the presidency of Chilion F. Stiles, and with Mrs. Jane B. Sanderson as "Governess." Of the first President, and the first Lady Principal of that first college for young ladies in all the Southwest, the distinguished Dr. William Winans thus writes most interestingly in his manuscript autobiography:
"Chilion F. Stiles was a man of high intellectual and moral character, and eminent for piety. The Governess was Mrs. Jane B. Sanderson, a Presbyterian lady of fine manners, and an excellent teacher, but subject to great and frequent depression of spirits. This resulted, no doubt, from the shock she had received from the murder of her husband a few years previously by a robber____Though a Presbyterian, and stanch to her sect, she acted her part with so much prudence and liberality as to give entire satisfaction to her Methodist employers and patrons. Some of the most improving, as well as most agreeable hours, of relaxation from my official duties were at the Academy in the society of Brother Stiles, who combined, in an eminent degree, sociability of disposition, good sense, extensive information on various subjects, and fervent piety, rendering him an agreeable and instructive companion. He was the only person I ever knew who owed his adoption of a religious course of life to the instrumentality of Free Masonry. He was awakened to a sense of his sinfulness in the process of initiation into that fraternity. Up to that time he had been a gay man of the world, and a skeptic, if not an infidel in regard to the Christian religion. But so powerful and effective was the influence upon him by somewhat in his initiation, that from that hour he turned to God with purpose of heart, soon entered into peace, and thenceforth walked before God in newness of life, till his pilgrimage terminated in a triumphant death."
Mr. Stiles was succeeded in the presidency by Rev. John C. Burruss of Virginia, an elegant gentleman, a finished scholar and an eloquent preacher. The school greatly prospered under his administration, as it continued to do under his immediate successor, Rev. Dr. B. M. Drake, a name that will ever live among us as the synonym for consecrated scholarship, perfect propriety, unaffected piety, and singular sincerity. In 1833 Dr. Drake resigned the presidency in order to devote himself entirely to pastoral work, and was succeeded by Rev. J. P. Thomas; and in 1836 he gave way to Rev. Bradford Frazee of Louisville, Ky. Rev. R. D. Smith, well known throughout the Southwest for his rare devotion, was called to the president's chair in 1839.
Some of the by-laws adopted by the Board of Trustees for the government and regulation of the Academy, recall in a measure the rigid and elaborate rules prescribed by John Wesley for the school at Kingswood. A few of these by-laws I here reproduce.
"The President of the Academy____shall be reputed for piety and learning, and for order and economy in the government of his family. If married he shall not be less than thirty, and if unmarried, not less than fifty years of age____.
"The Governess____shall be pious, learned, and of grave and dignified deportment____She shall have charge of the school, its order, discipline, and instructions, and the general deportment and behavior of the pupils who board in or out of commons____.