The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-05-25
A FEW FACTS
CONCERNING THE HIGHER EDC-
 CATION OF WOMEN.
The Soui:s Led the Way and Mtssis- sippt Was the Pfoneer--Some Mfsc0ncepfions and Misstnte- mehts Corrected by Mrs.
 F1inudfn.

l ..1- v cation of women, wlca the college hred'' woman is well .o rae front. Is much in evidence, that thess same such ignorance of the history of coi- leges for women as was recently diE. played in a biographical skyieh, ys MISS susan B. Anthony, published In . first-ciass magazine.
 The writer, when speaking of the conditions that confronted Miss An snony, when she began Fer Fer, career cnSoaI was open to them (women) wh1le 2 college education was hardly dreamed | This statement ma have been true of some portions of our country. but, certainly not true of all sectios $. | as can easily be shown from well au-
 Colleges were not only dreamed of I but many were in active operation, a. ] least one or more in every Sonlnefa i State, when Miss Anthony began hef
 Mississippi was the pioneer in this | movement: scarcely had she been en- | rolled in the sisterhood of Sta tes ! ter to "Elizaheth Academy. which ] had been established in 1si7, at ioid 1 Washington, near Natchez. l The name academy" Is mislesd- l the charter granted the powers usual 1 ly granted to colleges. and the cnr- riculum shows the g<ade or the | = missioner of Education. of .hs United States. said of this school: Tt was a college in all but name.
 An elaborate notice of tho Com i mencement of this college ~ht,h cm- braced August 21, S29, was puo,isn- ed in the papers of the yo1ny state an s event m in sSaissf Mississipni." fpnI' '' The essay of Miss Anna ". Boyd, who graduated with the honors of her class , appears in ..a fuii s.ysn ,Ssa 1 commencement, and honorary d!s, functions were conferrel on several | pupils from each of the six classes. tabiished at Mount Salus in Hinds county. Mississippi. on the foundation of sharon Academy. In 1882 this col- iege conferred degrees on two young mencement exercises was published in the 'ConstitutionaI Flag"
 There were other colleges in Mis- gan her career; but. these are snffi- cient to prive the existence of colieg- es at. all All these colleges were apparatus % m for aRRats Illustration 0s of natural science, and in some instances they had botanical gardens.
 Mississippi did not enjoy the honor or having college for women, alonc very long; Tn 1920, when Alabama h e been State only one year, her Legfs- lature, by Section IT, of the act which
 
 men. established a univ ersity of like grade for women, and in 1S47, there were four colleges for women in the State.
 Georgia did not turn her attention especially to the higher education of women until some time after Missis- sippi and Alabama had made consid : ever. many of her Academies admit ted girls to the same instruction as the boys had. but they were not "co- educational" For long time the State refused to charter any school exclusively for girls, but private en- terprise and denominational zeal es- tablished many schools of collegiate fature had changed views long before lS47. and had chartered four colleges for girls; one of them the famous when Miss Anthony made her debut on the stage as a champion of wom- ans rights. there were four colleges MT. Lucius Salisbury Merriam, in his nessee." under the title of Colleges my, chartered September, isos, Knox vile Academy chartered 1911. Mays vile Academy chartered 1873, and Tshye ss Iast contn @ uously until closed by the Federal soldiers during the. war between the States. It was famous school and
  that period were graduated from 1t. It is claimed that these were colleges In the full acceptation of that term, that is known of them is here stated, 1t is admissible, however. to place them in the rank of secondary schools. eoese Tsses Tsrf m sssrs SToTs S1ests o Ms Efs Anthony's advent. also institutes and seminaries, and many academies.
 In Kentucky there were institutes. seminaries and academies; North Car olina had also tss established ssfh mics and a college for women. Mary land had numerous secondary. schools and The Woman's College" in Fred been State only two Years, when Miss Anthony began to champion wo- mans rights and bewail woman's before Miss Anthony began her cru sade.
 Usually, when the schools of the first half of the nineteenth century. schools of that time were very poor; they dwindle into significance when compared. with the schools of the that all schools have attained & much higher standard than ever before. The standard of Harvard. Yale and Prince
 
 scarcely seem like the same schools: but the colleges and secondary schools of that period for women, compared as favorably with those for men as of the present day compare with those for men.
 The schools of the olden time ought to have been good; the South paid. annually. for instruction and books. $5,000.000; the principals and presi- dents ana. professors in charge of the schools for girls were usually graduates of Harvard. Yale or Prince ton or some other frst-class univer- sity.
 Again; the writer of the sketch says: "Wives-and most women were married-had practically no legal ex- istence, could not own the property they had inherited or acquired, or control their wages"
 The same condition exists today in the States where Miss Anthony la bored most Only year or two ago. an account of a bankrupt sale in q town In Massachusetts-Miss Antho- l ny's native State-was published; at | the time of the marriage, the bride l had a large property, the bridegroom nothing. but according to custom and l trol of the property: he invested tt and lost all the creditors sold ev- l erythinR, leaving not only not home but not a bed or chair or cook stove. proceeding could and did occur in the 1 twentieth century Even the Indian women Of the seventeenth century ! were better treated.
 1 tell us that when the French settled | Louisane" they found the Creek wo- men living In their own houses. own 1 ing property. and having complete French women of the colony were | quite as well treated as their Indian