The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-12-04

Icy Greek iH Dalias county, that was incorporated by act of legislature January ?. 1s41, and in 1s43 under Rev. A H. Mitchell the school opened with between sixty or seventy pupils of both sexes. The name was changed to .summerfield" in 1s45. for 1t was thought the old name was not sugges- tive of . high and healthful locality so says pr. West This institute con- ierred the degree of Doctor of Divini- " on several ministers.
 Tn the Autumn of is4s, by authority of the Tennessee Conference, Female Institute of Athens. was opened for girls under trustees named in the act Of Incorporation. and has long been a center of culture and wide influence,
 The Alabama Conference, January fete. took the Oak Bowery Femaie In- stitute under It's control; located as 1t was in one of the influential agricui- tural sections of East Alabama, 1t after the war, May the speaker be permitted to acknowledge. that he holds the building Of the Oak Bowery Female Institute" In loving memory. for 1t was there his mother received her education, and there today Is to be found in the old building an old time heavy desk, where as small school boy he cut the first two initials of his name. May God bless dear old de- serted Oak Bowery School House."
 "The Bascom Female Institute was located in 1852 near Huntsville in tenn porary quarters, and did good work to the time of its interruption by the Civil War. That same year the "Minis- terial Education Society" to help young preachers. to secure an education. where they were worthy was organized
 school at TuskeEee.
 During the session of the Alabama Conference at Tuscaloosa. December. 1858, communication from the trus- tees of proposed Female College at Tuskegee, Ala, was received, and re- ferred to the Committee of Education. and in February 3. 1854. the act of It's incorporation was approved. In the beautiful village of Tpskegee. with its refined, liberal and pious people. that college has now grown. under the management of Dr. John Massey, be- yond the capacity of it's building. 'The Talladega Conference Institute, female high school was projected by the Conference December. 1854, and about that time the Masonic School was given the Methodist Conference much encountered with debt. which they were unable to clear, and in 1858 the conference turned the school over to the State of Alabama, and since then 1t has been used as the School of Deaf Mutes and Blind.
 'In 1856 the Southern University was established at Greensboro, incor- porated by the act of General Assem- hly of Alabama, January, 25, 1856. where it has done a noble work, send- ing untold blessings to the manhood of the State and many into an educated ministry.
 'The people at Auburn had originat- ed the memorial to Conference for a college. Being unsuccessful when the location was secured to Greensboro, they moved forward with their plan for college and just sevep days after the granting of a charter to the Southern University the General As- sembly of Alabama incorporated the "East Alabama Male College" (Febru- ary 1. te50 Being surrendered to the State by our church 1t has become the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, one of the strongest institutions of learning in the South.
 "Tuscaloosa. LaGrange, summerneld Athens, Oak Bowerv. Huntsville, Tus. kegee ,Fiorenee, Greensboro and Au- burn were the educational eenters in Alabama under the auspices of Meth- ism to the close of the civil war. Of course other influences in the State have fought valtantiy for the cause of edu- cation, but we of the Methodist faith may look with no ordinary pride on the part our church has taken for an educated citizenship.
 n Service of Dr. West.
 "This monograph. as imperfect as it may be, would be sadly lacking did I not acknowledge the service of Dr. An son West for the History of Method ism in Alaoama. and to say that his untiring effort contributed much to the establishment February 3. 1897, of the North Alabama Conference College at Owenton, . suburb of Birmingham, The annual Conference in 1908 changed its name to the Birmingham College: and under a wise management the future hath for 1t much in store
 We have come to the dawn of new day in the educational interests of our church. A casual reader of history will see that the tendency of our times is to the larger centers of in. terest and influences. If, when the SC. lection of college site was made at Valley Creek. it had been New phila. delphia Montgomery or that of lone ly LaGrange Mountain had been at Browns Spring (Birmingham), who can doubt but that the course of its history would have been different.