Southern standard. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 1851-1856, 1851-04-12
TO the Friends of Education in Mississippi and
the Adjoining States:

TO the Friends of Education i'm Mississippi and
the Adjoining States:
At recent meeting of Joint committee, from
the Aberdeen and Chickasaw Baptist Associations
in the town of Pontotoc, location was made for a
Female Seminary, to be under the supervision OF
those two Associations. We have the location in
the town of Pontotoc The citizens and friends
have donated fifty-seven acres of land with com
modious building and other good improvements
We consider the building the premises worth
five or SIN thousand dollars, and suitable for com
mencing operations Immediately. Some sixty OF
seventy young ladies can be very well accommo-
dated. We are to get possession in October next.
Pontotoc Is one of the most pleasant towns IN the
South no place present better state of morals;
there Is not dram shop in the place; and tor re-
tinement and intelligence, it cannot be surpassed.
a more healthy location could not have been Sc
lected, 1t is situated on the dNldngndge between
the waters of the Tombigbee and Mississippi, en-
trely free from miasmatic influence, or any other
local cause of disease. The immediate ridge run
MING north and south about one half mile from the
Court House, is the place upon which the College
edifce will be erected, which will overlook the Tus-
cumbia and Ripley roads, surrounded by beauti-
fll grove of trees In a word, we have the most
desirable place that could have been selected,
We have resolved to raise s go, 600 for building
purposes and S go, 900 for an endowment fund
Dear friends, we have taken hold of this great en-
tcrprsc and have determined to build all institu-
ton of high character; and now appeal to you
for your aid and influence; and particularly do we
call on Baptist friends, (as this will be Bap-
fist institution to come up to our help. Other de-
nominations are building up institutions of learn
ing in almost every part of the country; and shall
sit still? We answer for you, no. We believe
that it is in your hearts, and hope it will
be III your hands to accomplish this great enter
II 1 IL l
vou with much ofthe wealth of this world, and will
YOU not contribute literally for the education of
your daughters? We live in an age, that the march
of intellect is progressye-thrown in the midst of
a country luxurious and healthy; surrounded with
every convenience that heart could wish; blessed
with social and religious associations-no people on
earth possess greater advantages to assist in such
an undertaking as is presented for your consdera-
ton We live not In an age III which Ignorance
and superstition hung its gloomy pavilion over the
human mind, thus claiming the female in idolitrous
vaSsalagc to her cruel lord looking farther than
his interest, seeking no benedction but from her
iron-heartcd dcspot, thus dragging out life of
misery, degradation and wretchedness, unconscious
of her real existence; intellectual culture had never
warmed her better nature; the gift of eternal life,
communicated through the benign rays of divine
truth, exalted not her hope and gilded never her
future prospects with the boon of Immortality
No. But God has blessed you with the Bible, the
lamp of life, and with religious and national liberty.
Thus having within your power the means to give
Your daughters well grounded education and to
place in their power the Alchmy that will turn the
course ofthoug hit TO The Intellectual fountain, whose
waters purify and refine moral and intellectual pa
ture. We call upon you, fathers, who have i'm
mortal spirits IN training, to recollect the weighty
responsibility that deyoyes upon you; we present
the moral, intellectual and eternal interest of Your
daughters; you know not the high destiny that
awaits them; YOU know not but that that intellect
which brightcns up that youthful eye, may illu-
mine the path of the wandercr the heather
shore, enlghtening his pathway to future home
of beSsednesS. You know not but that YOU may
have Mrs. Akin, Adams, or ,Judson, being rear
cd under your parental roof, What transported
feelings would cxhilerate your bosoms in your way
worn and dotted age to hear of that benevolent
daughter of thine, bending in arduous duty over
the benighted mind of the degraded heather; dis
polling the gloom that surrounds them; dispensing
the light OF gospel truth; disting the ray of hope
that scintllates from the transcript of Gods divin-
ity; administering the bread Of life to perishing
souls rearing them up in preparation for the union
and harmony of kindred spirits in the paradise OF
God. Surely your prayer would be, Now let thy
servant depart my eyes have the desire of this
heart Ii this be the prospect in the distant future,
give Us Your assistance that the bright destiny
may await them; assist us by your contributions
and prayers let the rising generation feel your be-
nevolence, serve God while living, that you may
have approving conscience and smiling God in
death.