Morgan State University - Promethean Yearbook (Baltimore, MD)

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A Brief History of Morgan In 1866. when Ihe embers of ihe campfire » of the Civil War were just dying, the idea of establishing a school for Negroes was bom in the minds of five great men. On December 24. 1866. Thomas Kelso. William Harden. William Daniels, and William B Hill were called together by Bishop Levi Scott. He presenter! them with $5,000, on appropriation from the Meth- odist Episcopal Church. This amount was the nucleus of a fund to establish a school to train the recently freed slaves for leadership and the Christian ministry. Be- cause this fund had been raised in the Centenary Cele- bration of the founding of Methodism in this country, the name of the school was to be Centenary Institute. The next day. the names of John lamahan. Henry W Drakeley. Hugh II. Bond. James H. Brown. Charles Reid. and Isaac P. Mimics were udder! to those of the men who had met the previous day. and they becurne the Board of Trustees of the Centenary Institute. Pluns were then mode to incorporate the Centenary' Institute. The Act of Incorporation was executed, recorded, and acknowledged by law on November 27. 1867, thus marking the legal founding of the school Although the Institute had a hoard of trustees, a name, a charier. $5,000. and a purpose, it hod neither building, president, nor student. After finding nine young Negro men interested in entering the lastitute. the members of the board un- dertook the task of organi .ing and teaching in the base- ment lecture rooms of the Sharp Street Methodist Church, which had been built in 1802 by free Balti- more Negroes. The Board of Trustees continued to teach in Sharp Street Church for two years Indore a school building was purchased. In the summer of 1869. Dr. J. Emory Round was elected president of Centenary Institute and formally opened school in a newly acquired building at 44 East Saratoga Street. Dr. Hound lias been characterized as ”u ripe scholar, thorough disciplinarian, and ex- cellent teacher. He COuld leach not only English, but Creek. Latin, and Hebrew as well. He was also a soldier ami officer in the Civil War. who fought to save the Union and emancipate 4.000.000 slaves. While he was president, his annual salary was $1,500. Because u majority of the students enrolled in the Institute had to be taught how to road ami write, the first Institute class was not graduated until 1877. It consisted of three students: John H. Griffin, John H. Nutter, and Sylvester H. Norwood Within ten years, the Saratoga Street property be- came too small for the increasing number of students. The Reverend Dr. ami Mr . John F. Coucher donated a plot of land at Fulton and Edmondson Avenues. The construction of a building on this land was a giant step forward for Centenary Institute. The charter of Centenary Institute was first amended in 1879 to udmit those students who desired to pre- pare to become teachers or enter other professions. It was again nmended in 1899 when Dr. Lyttleton F. Morgan. Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Institute at that time, offered to give the Institute enough money to make possible the change of Centenary Institute into an institution offering courses on the college level. It was then that Centenary Institute was renamed Morgan College, in honor of its bene- factor. Dr. L.F. Morgan In 1886, at Princess Anno. Maryland, Morgan Col- lege established a branch school. (Ik Princess Anne Academy, now Ihe Eastern Branch of the University of Maryland. In 1891 another branch school, which aLso emphasized secondary nml industrial training, the Virginia Collcgiute and Industrial Institute, was establishes! at Lynchburg. Virginia. It was destroyed by fire in 1947. 10

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! of the Past John C). Spencer. Ph.D., Fourth President —1902 1997 Dwight O Holmes. Ph D.. Fifth President - 1937-1948 List of Impurtunt Dates 1867 Centenary Institution incorporated 1869 First president elected 1874 Became coeducational 1877 First class graduated 1879 Students first admitted to pre|utrr for professions other than the ministry 1889 Centenary Institute became Morgan College 1890 Established a branch school. Princess Anne Academy 1891 Established another branch school. Virginia Col- legiate and Industrial Institute at Lynchburg. Vir- ginia 1899 First college class graduated 1917 Morgan College moved to its present location 1925 Morgun first receives! Class A accreditation 1935 Alma Mater written 1935 Day students admitted 1939 Morgan College purchased by slate from Methodist Episcopal Church 0

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Centenary Institute. Comet (4 Edmonriwn and Fithoo II