Wesleyan College - Veterropt Yearbook (Macon, GA)

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THE BIRTH OF THE WORLD ' S FIRST WOMAN ' S COLLEGE I I IGHER education for women is a comparatively modern development, not modern in the same sense that the radio and the aeroplane are modern, but because one century in the history of educa¬ tion is not a long time when we consider the many centuries that have seen progress in that field. In 1815, Mrs. Emma Willard, the founder of a female seminary at Troy, New York, published a plan for Improving Female Education. This plan was found by Duncan Campbell when he was a member of the Georgia State Legislature in 1825, and he was so impressed with the idea that he presented it in the Legislature. Campbell in his speeches emphasized the necessity for educating women in order to assist the progress of the state because they would be capable of contributing to the valuable store of literature, philosophy, and religion ' This proposal met with much opposi¬ tion and was not discussed in the Legislature again for ten years. However, the idea was all this time alive in the minds of thinking people, and, when Daniel Chandler, who was the son-in-law of Campbell, made the commencement address at the University of Georgia in 1834, he had for his subject “Female Education. This address was a great contribution to the movement, because those of the audience who favored it became more enthusiastic and those who opposed it became less prejudiced. In 1835, when Macon was about ten years old, a group of citizens began to discuss the founding of a girls seminary. Elijah Sinclair threw a figurative bomb into the meeting with the proposal that a college and not a seminary be founded. About this same time the members of the Georgia Method¬ ist Conference were considering the founding of a permanent institution for the education of wo- men. So the Macon citizens wrote to the conference suggesting that they should join their efforts, since both groups were working in the same direction, and the offer was accepted. In November of 1836, the matter of higher education for women was again brought before the Georgia Legislature and the request was made for a charter for the institution. When the fate of the charter hung in the balance after vigorous debates in the capitol, Alexander Stephens, then a young lawyer and later vice-president of the Confederacy, sprang to his feet and made an impromptu speech so stirring that the charter was approved. It was on December 23, 1836, that the Legislature granted a charter to The Georgia Fema e College. In 1843 the name was changed to Wesleyan Female Col¬ lege, and in 1919 it was changed again, this time to Wesleyan College. However due to unfavorable financial condition, brought on by the panic of 1837, trouhle with the Indians, and the strong feeling of pre,ud.ee which still existed against the project, the college was not opened until January 9 1839. The college buildings had been cotnpleted a, a cos, of $85,000 Thtl.SUd ' ‘h d . h7 tTn »« W« of Macon and the village of Vineville. In 1833 doseh. chool Clinton. Georgia, bu, he was persuaded to close his school, accept a professorship m the new college „J i 1 • V i » V| am ,„fL ' 1 II , ,, V college, and transfer his patronage there also. Many of his pupils were persuaded to follow him to the new school and J i • • c , present on the opening day. I f ° rme£l the ma J OMt y of thofle There must have been great excitement on that first dav and nn d k. L • , . , cess and failure. We do not know very much about the no doubt prophecies for both sue- prayer, ninety young ladies came forward and regi.,LedT« r ”“!• ' “( ' “T. Thu. came into being the firs, chartered college in the world f. r !l“ °

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h„ YETERRQPT 1336 cntaimal C Xil L ion Published annually by the senior class of WESLEYAN COLLEGE MACON, GA.

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