[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: