Marion College (Missouri)

This article is about the historical college in Missouri. For Marion College in Indiana, see Indiana Wesleyan University. For the historical women's college, see Marion College (Virginia).
Marion College
TypeManual labor college
Active1831–1844
FounderDavid Nelson
William Muldrow
David Clark
Religious affiliation
Presbyterian
PresidentDavid Nelson
(1832–1835)
William S. Potts
(1835–1839)
Hiram P. Goodrich
(1839–1843)
John Blatchford
(1843–1844)
Location
Philadelphia, Missouri
Ely, Missouri

Marion College was a small school in Marion County, Missouri, 1831-1844. It was the first college to be chartered by the Missouri state legislature, and the second educational institution in Missouri to be granted the right to confer college and university degrees.[1][2] Founded in 1831, Marion College was originally planned as a manual labor college focusing primarily on agriculture, while also teaching classics. From 1835, it also incorporated a theological seminary. The school was founded by private individuals, but was strongly Presbyterian.[1] Its three schools were located in Philadelphia, East Ely and West Ely in Marion County, Missouri.[3]

The college attracted many investors, faculty and students from the East. It was opposed by proslavery residents of northeastern Missouri, who were particularly critical of founder and president David Nelson, an antislavery activist.[4][5] Marion College was also part of a speculative bubble in Marion County, involving investment in Marion City, Philadelphia, and a planned railroad line.[1] Enrollment dropped following the financial crisis of 1837, and by the spring of 1844, the college had closed.[1]

  1. ^ a b c d McKee, Howard I. (April 1942). "The Marion College Episode in Northeast Missouri". Missouri Historical Review. 36 (3): 299–319 – via Digital Collections – State Historical Society of Missouri.
  2. ^ St. Mary's seminary had been granted the right to confer university degrees in December 1830. (McKee, p. 313)
  3. ^ Lamkin, Charles Fackler (1946). A Great Small College: A Narrative History of Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, 1946. St. Louis: Horace Barks Press. pp. 13–17.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).