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Mary Sharp
College is listed in the
TENNESSEE ENCYCLOPEDIA of HISTORY and CULTURE. This college was
named after Mary (Corn) Sharp, who was born in Henry County, Virginia in
1789 when education was only a possibility for privileged men. At that time, few
could write, let alone read. In her
youth, she would have learned that her father was able to both read and write.
It isn't known how he managed to learn this, as none
of his siblings were able to. His legal documents carry his
signature, as opposed to "marks" that appear on the documents of his
siblings. Mary herself never
learned to write, but perhaps this advantage she saw her father to have induced her
desire to further extend to women the quality of educational facilities that began being offered
to men in the early
1800s.
So when it became possible later in life, with the same fidelity she applied to her other endeavors, Mary committed herself in support of providing these same high quality educational facilities for women. To this endeavor she gave her all, both spiritually and financially, providing a college for women that had parity with that which was available to men.
Named the "Tennessee and Alabama Female Institute" when it first opened in 1850, this college provided a more thorough and practical education than could then be obtained in any other school in the country. In 1853, it was renamed Mary Sharp College in her honor. It was the first women's college in America to require Greek and Latin for a Bachelor's degree. "Learn to think" was the school's motto. The motto of those individuals who planned and put the school into operation was "Educate the mothers and you educate the people". Mary Sharp College closed it's doors in 1896.
In her speech at Wells College on January 11, 2000, author and Professor of Sociology, Leslie Miller-Bernal, who has researched the presence of a rigorous curriculum at early women's colleges stated that in her estimation, "Mary Sharp College in Winchester, Tennessee, which opened in 1853 with a curriculum grounded in Latin, Greek, and higher mathematics, is a contender for the first, true women's college."
Numerous articles are written about the history and/or extolling the virtues of Mary Sharp College. Below are a few excerpts and references:
The following two paragraphs were taken from article by Lynn D. Gordon found in the "Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History". They provide a short panoramic view of the issues and accessibility of education for women from the mid 1800s up through the early 1900s -
"Throughout the nineteenth century, a fierce debate raged concerning the wisdom of allowing women to attend colleges and universities. Proponents argued that women were the intellectual equals of men and their cultural superiors, and that the fulfillment of women's duties as mothers and elementary school teachers necessitated the best education available. Those opposed maintained that higher education would "unsex" women, rendering them physically and emotionally unfit for traditional roles.
In the midst of these arguments, women gradually gained access to advanced secondary and higher education, sometimes in coeducational schools, but also in a nationwide network of single-sex institutions, beginning in the 1830s and 1840s with the creation of women's seminaries, academies, and normal schools. The first women's colleges were Georgia Female College (1839) and Mary Sharp College in Tennessee (1851). In the post-Civil War era, pressure from tax-paying parents who wanted their daughters to have a means of self-support led to the admission of women to newly created state universities in the West and the Midwest. In the South and the East, neither the well-established prestigious men's colleges nor the state universities would accept women students. In 1870 only one-third of existing colleges and universities were coeducational. Thus, between the 1860s and the 1930s, many more women's colleges were founded by different individuals and organizations."
Then, there is this excerpt from page 97 of "the Journal of Sport History, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Summer, 1992)" also conveying the general attitude regarding higher education for women existing in the mid 1800s. This article also highlights the significant roll played by Mary Sharp College" in changing that perspective to be what we have today:
"Early criticism of higher education for women centered on its pointlessness. Reformers addressed these concerns by designing curricula for girls and women that emphasized domestic skills and social graces rather than mathematics, science and philosophy. By mid-century, however, critics were alarmed to see a proliferation of coeducational institutions and women’s colleges that offered women the same course of study pursued by men. Mary Sharp College, established in 1851 in Winchester, Tennessee as the Tennessee and Alabama Female Institute, was an early example of a new shift in women’s educational goals. The founder, Vermont native, Z. C. Graves, promised to create a “school for young ladies of a higher grade than any previously known to exist . . . a college where ladies may have the privilege of a classical education.” Many educators shared Graves’ goals and founded women’s colleges that increasingly copied the curricula at men’s colleges."
An article entitled "Mary Sharp College Building Soon Will Pass into History", by Gilbert K. Hinshaw, which appeared in a 1950 newspaper, was recently found by Joy Gallagher. It gives an excellent accounting of the history of Mary Sharp and her college. Another document that contains some of this history is "Goodspeed's History of Franklin County, Tennessee" (from Pea Ridge Relations). Available on the internet for some time now, it is less complete (with respect to Mary) than given in the Hinshaw article, but what is shown echoes what Gilbert Hinshaw wrote.
In Joy Gallagher's research, she also found a 1926 article in the Winchester Truth and Herald newspaper of Winchester, Tennessee. Entitled "Scholarship to Memorialize Dr. Graves", it tells of a scholarship fund that was set up in 1926 by the alumnae of Mary Sharp College. Descendants, either of the students, or it's president, Dr. Z. C. Graves, are eligible to apply. Checking further, Joy learned that this scholarship fund still exists. However, no one has claimed it in decades; so in 1992, the then Dean of Peabody consolidated it with five other "obscure" older scholarships into what is now called "The Mrs. J. M. King Scholarship". This combined scholarship is now only for Graduate Studies. Joy was also told that this scholarship is available to Mary Sharp College descendants and would be granted if its other criteria were met. However, it now is only given for Graduate study (not undergraduate). She also learned that this scholarship was awarded as recently as 2002/2003.
Thus, descendants of those appearing in this list of Mary Sharp College Alumnae should be eligible to apply for a grant under the "Mrs. J. M. King Scholarship" for Graduate Studies. In fact, Joy understands that descendants of anyone who attended Mary Sharp College are eligible for this grant.
Descendants are also asked to participate in helping with the Mary Sharp Cemetery maintenance efforts.
