Scarritt College

Last updated
Scarritt College
Neosho Collegiate Institute
Scarritt Collegiate Institute
Type Private, Methodist Episcopal Church, South
Established1878
Location, ,
USA
CampusSmall Town

Scarritt College was a private college founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1878, in Neosho, Missouri.

Contents

Neosho Seminary (1878–1880)

The Southwest Missouri Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, founded the school as Neosho Seminary in 1878. The Conference elected a board of trustees for the new seminary and the board bought a brick house to use as a school. [1] [2] [3]

Neosho Collegiate Institute (1880–1887)

In 1880, the name changed to Neosho Collegiate Institute. [1] [2] The school struggled financially, and by 1886 they reported to the Conference that they had $12,000 (equivalent to almost $384,000 in 2024) in debt. [4]

In 1887, the Conference ordered the school board to work with Rev. Nathan Scarritt and two other reverends to liquidate the debt. [5]

Scarritt College (1887–1909)

Rev. Nathan Scarritt, D.D., of Kansas City, Missouri was a minister as well as a millionaire real estate developer and banker. [6] He contributed $5,000 (equivalent to about $152,000 in 2024) to resolve the debt, and two other men provided for a new building. The school's name was changed to honor Scarritt. [1]

In 1902, John Elward Brown (later founder of John Brown University) held a revival in Neosho and learned about the school Despite the infusion of money from Scarritt and others, it was struggling again. He asked to be president, and the board agreed. As the school president, Brown added some vocational courses to the curriculum, such as typing and shorthand, but the previous president (J.T. Pritchett), served as the dean and made most of the decision. [7]

In 1903, the school closed during a smallpox epidemic. [8] Enrollment numbers remained low after it reopened.

Brown spent his efforts promoting the school in his evangelical revivals, [7] establishing the Neosho Chautauqua to bring speakers to the campus in the summer, [9] and through the newspapers: he wrote for The Herald, a local weekly newspaper, and later bought the Neosho Free Press and merged the two papers. [10] However, the number of students continued to decline and in January 1905 Brown stepped down.

The school never found good financial footing. For example, in 1893 the Conference had valued the school at $30,000 (equivalent to $1,023,000 in 2024). [3] However, by 1909 the school had been effectively closed for several years and the Conference decided to sell its assets and merge the school with another one. [11]

Missouri Supreme Court decision

During this time, William Edward Hall and his wife Martha Ellen Hall gave 1,600 acres (647.5 ha) of land in Texas to the Conference, to create an endowment for a learning institution in honor of their deceased son, John Winston Hall. [11] Scarritt College created the endowment by selling the land for about $8,000. Over time and with interest, the endowment grew to about $14,000.

Scarritt College closed in 1909 with the creation of Scarritt-Morrisville College. The Hall family asked the Conference to divert the endowment to a fund to build a memorial church in honor of their son, in Carthage, Missouri. The Conference, which owned the church and school property, agreed. [11] However, some of the Scarritt board of trustee members refused saying that when the money was originally given, the Halls specified that it be used for a learning institution, not a church.

In 1915, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled on this dispute (Catron v. Scarritt Collegiate Inst.), deciding that the endowment fund, which with time and interest was now $16,000 (equivalent to about $486,000 in 2024) should go to Morrisville-Scarritt College. It was used for the president's chair at that school. [12]

Morrisville-Scarritt College (1909–1924)

With the merger in 1909, all of Scarritt College's property was sold and proceeds plus the endowment given to Morrisville College (which had in earlier years been Ebenezer College) in Morrisville, Missouri. The combined school was named Morrisville-Scarritt College. [13]

Central Methodist College (1924–present)

In 1924, Morrisville-Scarritt College merged with Central Methodist College of Fayette, Missouri. Coincidentally, one of the founders of Central Methodist College in 1853 was Rev. Nathan Scarritt. [14] [15]

Notes of interest

The Neosho School District purchased the property, and in 1916 the empty buildings were razed to make way for a new public high school for the city of Neosho.

Scarritt Collegiate Institute was attended by cowboy philosopher and humorist Will Rogers for a single semester in the late 1890s before his transfer to Kemper Military School in Boonville, Missouri. [16]

Notable alumni

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neosho, Missouri</span> City in Missouri, United States

Neosho is the most populous city in Newton County, Missouri, United States, which it serves as the county seat. With a population of 12,590 as of the 2020 census, the city is a part of the Joplin, Missouri Metropolitan Statistical Area, a region with an estimated 176,849 (2011) residents. Neosho lies on the western edge of the Ozarks, in the far southwest of the state.

The Methodist Episcopal Church, South was the American Methodist denomination resulting from the 19th-century split over the issue of slavery in the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC). Disagreement on this issue had been increasing in strength for decades between churches of the Northern and Southern United States; in 1845 it resulted in a schism at the General Conference of the MEC held in Louisville, Kentucky.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African Methodist Episcopal Church</span> Predominantly African American Protestant denomination

The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a Methodist Black church. It adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology and has a connexional polity. The first independent Protestant denomination to be founded by Black people, AME welcomes and has members of all ethnicities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Methodist University</span> Private university in Fayette, Missouri, U.S.

Central Methodist University is a private university in Fayette, Missouri. CMU is accredited to offer master's, bachelors, and associate degrees. The school is affiliated with the United Methodist Church.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eugene Russell Hendrix</span>

Eugene Russell Hendrix was a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South in the U.S., elected in 1886.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Betts Galloway</span> American Methodist Episcopal bishop

Charles Betts Galloway Jr. was an American Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, elected in 1886. In his day, he was "the best-known and most influential personality in the Methodist world." He was also instrumental in the formation of Millsaps College.

John Monroe Moore was a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, elected in 1918.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John McKendree Springer</span> American Methodist bishop (1873–1963)

John McKendree Springer was an American bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church and The Methodist Church, elected in 1936. He was also a pioneering missionary instrumental in developing Methodism on the continent of Africa. While in Africa he introduced schools which came to be welcomed by many of the tribal chiefs and which the young Africans came to grow very fond of. Springer is noted for exploring and journeying 1500 miles across central Africa on foot in 1907, along with his wife Helen.

KFPW is a radio station broadcasting a talk radio format to the Fort Smith, Arkansas, area. The station is licensed to Pharis Broadcasting, Inc which is owned by William L. Pharis and Karen A. Pharis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Female College</span> Womens college in Lexington, Missouri, US (1869–1924)

Central Female College was a women's college located in Lexington, Missouri. The institution was associated with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. It operated from 1869 to 1924.

The Pentecostal Collegiate Institute was a short-lived co-educational collegiate institute operated initially by the Association of Pentecostal Churches of America at Saratoga Springs, New York from September 1900 to May 1902, and from then by Lyman C. Pettit until its closure in February 1903. It is considered an antecedent institution of the Pentecostal Collegiate Institute and also Eastern Nazarene College.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scarritt College for Christian Workers</span> United States historic place

Scarritt College for Christian Workers was a college associated with the United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. The campus is now home to Scarritt Bennett Center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morris Brown</span>

Morris Brown was one of the founders of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and its second presiding bishop. He founded Emanuel AME Church in his native Charleston, South Carolina. It was implicated in the slave uprising planned by Denmark Vesey, also of this church, and after that was suppressed, Brown was imprisoned for nearly a year. He was never convicted of a crime.

Alice Rebecca Appenzeller was the first American and first Caucasian born in Korea. Daughter of the Methodist missionary Rev. Henry Appenzeller who was among the first to introduce Protestantism to Korea, she spent her early years in Seoul until returning to the United States in 1902. There she pursued her education, first at the Shippen School for Girls. She later graduated from Wellesley College, after which she returned to the Shippen School to teach. She was appointed by the Methodist Church as a missionary teacher at Ewha College in Seoul in 1915 and became president of the college in October 1922.

Bishop William May Wightman (1808–1882) was an American educator and clergyman. He served as the President of Wofford College from 1854 to 1859. He served as the Chancellor of Southern University in Greensboro, Alabama from 1860 to 1866. He became a Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South in 1866.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belle Harris Bennett</span> American church and ecumenical leader (1852–1922)

Belle Harris Bennett led the struggle for and won laity rights for women in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. She was the founding president of the Woman's Missionary Council of the Southern Methodist Church. Much of her work including fundraising and organizational efforts to provide higher education for a new professional class of social workers and community organizers in the Southern Methodist Church in the U.S. and abroad. Her carefully collaborative support for African Americans and immigrants was considered radical at that time by Southerners. She was a suffragist and supporter of temperance as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thelma Stevens</span> American religious and civil rights leader

Thelma Stevens (1902–1990) was a Methodist advocate for social and racial justice. From a young age, she dedicated herself to studying and working in favor of integration and racial equality in the United States. From her early career as a teacher in rural Mississippi, to her position as Director of the Bethlehem Center in Augusta, Georgia, to her work in the Woman's Division of The Methodist Church, Stevens contributed to the Civil Rights Movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Singleton T. Jones</span> 19th century African Methodist religious leader

Bishop Singleton T. Jones was a religious leader in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. Although he had little education, Jones taught himself to be an articulate orator and was awarded the position of bishop within the church. Besides being a pastor to churches, he also edited AME Zion publications, the Zion's Standard and Weekly Review and the Discipline.

Haygood Seminary, also known as Haygood Academy, was a seminary near Washington, Arkansas, United States. It was established by the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church to train African Americans in Arkansas for a career in the clergy. It was one of the first such institutions established by the CME Church. In 1927, the school relocated to Jefferson County, Arkansas, where it operated as Arkansas-Haygood Industrial College before closing during World War II.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Conard, Howard L. (1901). Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri, Volume V. New York: The Southern History Company. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  2. 1 2 "Missouri History: Neosho Incorporated". Sikeston Standard. 20 August 1935. p. 7. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  3. 1 2 Woodard, W.S. (1893). Annals of Methodism in Missouri . Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  4. Minutes of the Sixteenth Session of the Southwest Missouri Conference of the M.E. Church, South. Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 1886. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  5. Minutes of the Seventeenth Session of the Southwest Missouri Conference of the M.E. Church, South. Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 1887. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  6. Euston, Diane (28 September 2020). "From Teacher to Preacher to Real Estate Dealer: Rev. Nathan Scarritt". Martin City Telegraph. Archived from the original on 3 February 2023. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  7. 1 2 Ostrander, Richard (2003). Head, Heart, and Hand: John Brown University and Modern Evangelical Higher Education. Fayetteville, Arkansas: The University of Arkansas Press. ISBN   1-55728-761-9.
  8. Dawes, Lisa (8 December 1983). "History: Organization of county paves way for city". The Chart. Missouri Southern State University. p. 2B. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  9. Kennedy, Ralph; Rothrock, Thomas (1999). John Brown of Arkansas, 1879–1957. Springfield, Illinois: Phillips Brothers Printing.
  10. Williams, Earl R. (1971). John Brown University: Its Founder and Its Founding 1919-1957 (EdD thesis). University of Arkansas.
  11. 1 2 3 Annual of the Thirty-Ninth Annual Session of the Southwest Missouri Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 1909. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  12. "Scarritt College Endowment Suit Decided". The Neosho Times. 22 April 1915. p. 1. Archived from the original on 5 April 2024. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  13. "Ebenezer". Springfield Leader and Press. 20 December 1959. p. 46. Archived from the original on 5 April 2024. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  14. Brenner, Morgan G. (2003). The Encyclopedia of College and University Name Histories. Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. ISBN   0-8108-4849-X . Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  15. "The History of Central". Central Methodist University. Archived from the original on 7 March 2024. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  16. Wertheim, Arthur Frank; Bair, Barbara (2000). The Papers of Will Rogers: Wild West and Vaudeville, Volume Two. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN   0-8061-3267-1 . Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  17. Conard, Howard L., ed. (1901). Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri. Vol. II. St. Louis, MO: Southern History Company. p. 6 via Google Books.