HistoricSiteMarkers
Civil War

Andrew College

Cuthbert, Randolph County, Georgia

Marker Inscription

Andrew College. Cuthbert is the Site of Andrew College, founded here January 1854. named in honor of Bishop James O. Andrew whose refusal to free his Wife's slaves separated the Northern and Southern Methodist Episcopal Churches (1844). First President - Augustus Alden, of Yale, a pioneer in Georgia for higher education. The second college chartered to confer graduate degrees upon women. Served as a Confederate Hospital 1863-65. The first women's college in the South to include Physical Education in its curriculum (1867). Today, a fully accredited Junior College, it has upheld throughout a century the highest principles of educated, Christian womanhood. GHM 120-5 GEORGIA HISTORICAL COMMISSION 1953

Erected by Georgia Historical Commission

The Story

Founded at Cuthbert in January 1854, Andrew College was named for Bishop James O. Andrew, whose refusal to free his wife's slaves helped split the Methodist Episcopal Church North and South in 1844. Led first by Yale-educated Augustus Alden, it was the second college chartered to confer degrees on women and served as a Confederate hospital in 1863–65. In 1867 it became the first women's college in the South to include physical education in its curriculum.

Why it matters

Andrew College reflects both the pioneering expansion of women's higher education in the South and the way the nation's crisis over slavery fractured even its churches.

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Related people

  • · Bishop James O. Andrew
  • · Augustus Alden

Related events

  • · Founding of Andrew College, 1854

Themes & tags

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