Mansfield Female College, DeSoto Parish, Louisiana Submitted by: Judy Baugh Source: Desoto Parish GenWeb page --------------------------------- ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** ---------------------------------------------------- Mansfield Female College Between 1850 and 1930 Mansfield was home to a two-year college for women which offered a course of general study in the fine and liberal arts. Said to have been the first college for women established west of the Mississippi River, it may have begun informally as the Mansfield Academy as early as 1849. In the mid-nineteenth century the education of future wives and mothers was a societal luxury from the standpoints of both time and expense. Northwestern Louisiana was removed from the frontier chronologically by only a generation, and geographically by only a few hundred miles. It is indicative of the rapid development, relative wealth, and cultural refinement of the area population that such an institution could not only be sustained, and grow rapidly, but survive the changes wrought on the region by the Civil War. Local citizens organized the Mansfield Female Seminary Co. in 1852, and the cornerstone of the first building, a three-story affari which would eventually be the "main hall" of the college for the duration of its existence, was laid in 1854. In "time-capsule" fashion, several items such as kid gloves, newspapers, and coins were laid inside the stone. Dr. Robert T. Gibbs was the first president of the Seminary's board of trustees. At that time there were no boarding students, and the College aimed to serve only the young ladies of Manfield and the surrounding area. Contemporary newspaper articles mention faculty members teaching natural history, moral philosophy, Roman literature, chemistry, music, French, drawing, painting, and needlework. In January, 1855, the trustees turned over operation of the College to the Louisiana Conference of the Methodist Church. It was legally incorporated as Mansfield Female College on March 9 1855, when Governor P.O. Hebert signed Act 88. The first diplomates were freshmen at the time of this official blessing. As the Class of 1856, the Misses Martha J. Pearson (later Campbell), Mary E. Stuart (later Elam), and Elizabeth Greening (later DuBois) are considered to be the first graduates of Mansfield Female College. Miss Greening was the first of three generations, and no fewer than 7 family members of MFC alumni. Only two years later, the College was able to house boarding students, indicating that it was attracting more than a few students from outside the Mansfield/DeSoto Parish area. The dramatic changes brought about by the Civil War necessitated the closing of the College, and auctioning off of its buildings and furnishings to Mr. Lewis Phillips to satisfy an outstanding debt. The campus served as a campground, and the buildings as hospital facilities for Confederate troops before, during, and after the Battles of Mansfield and Pleasant Hill in April, 1864. The properties were leased back from Mr. Phillips after the War, and classes reconvened in 1866. Two years later, with some help from the citizens of Mansfield/DeSoto Parish, the Louisiana Methodist Conference was able to repurchase the lost property. That the College was able to remain in operation in the post-War years is somewhat remarkable given the diminishment of wealth in northwestern Louisiana, and the rest of the South. It speaks to the emphasis many families placed on maintaining the same standards and traditions for their daughters, in spite of their abruptly reduced circumstances. Enrollment was such by the turn-of-the-century that another academic building, and more dormitory rooms were constructed. In 1913, the College was officially accredited as a junior college. During that same period, it also began offering a school for boys under 14. Noted theatrical producer Joshua Logan was an alumnus of the Manfield Female Academy's "model" school for boys. The post World War I era heralded societal changes which drew more and more young ladies toward co-educational and four-year institutions. The increasing specialization of higher education may have made the broad-based liberal and fine arts curriculum at Mansfield seem somewhat anachronistic. Of the College's graduates who had needed to earn their own income after leaving the school, the vast majority had done so in the teaching profession, and in more than a few cases a specialized background in education was becoming a requirement for those positions. Faced with dwindling enrollement, and fearing that revision in curriculum was neither advisable, nor would serve constructive purpose, the Methodist Conference closed the College in 1930. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1998, Judy Baugh. Used by the LAGenWeb/USGenWeb with permission. This page may be linked to but not reproduced in any form.