Downer College was a

women's A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering ...

Fox Lake, Wisconsin Fox Lake is a city in Dodge County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,519 at the 2010 census. The city is located within the Town of Fox Lake. History Established in 1838, Fox Lake was the first settlement in Dodge County. The fi ...

, chartered in 1855 and opening in September, 1856.

History

It was founded in 1854 as Wisconsin Female College under the auspices of the Wisconsin Baptist Convention to prepare women for

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

service. It was poorly funded, and was reorganized in 1863, with control passing to the village of Fox Lake. For a while it operated as Fox Lake Seminary and was

co-educational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

. In 1883 Judge

Jason Downer Jason Downer (September 9, 1813September 1, 1883) was a justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. He was the first editor of the Milwaukee Sentinel when it became a daily in 1844, but quit after a half year, returning to the law. He served on the Wi ...

of the

Wisconsin Supreme Court The Wisconsin Supreme Court is the highest appellate court in Wisconsin. The Supreme Court has jurisdiction over original actions, appeals from lower courts, and regulation or administration of the practice of law in Wisconsin. Location The Wi ...

, a strong advocate of educational opportunities for women, died and left the college $80,000, putting the school on a firmer foundation.

Merger

In July, 1895, Downer merged with Milwaukee College to form

Milwaukee-Downer College Milwaukee-Downer College was a women's college in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in operation from 1895 to 1964. History Milwaukee-Downer College was established in 1895 with the merger of two institutions: Milwaukee College and Downer College of Fox Lak ...

under the presidency of Milwaukee College's

Ellen Clara Sabin Ellen Clara Sabin (November 29, 1850 – February 3, 1949; also known as Ella) was the president of the Milwaukee-Downer College in the U.S. state of Wisconsin from 1891 to 1921. She was a well-known advocate for the education of women. Sabin dev ...

. A new site was purchased on a tract of about ten acres on the northern end of the city of Milwaukee, about half-way between

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...

and the

Milwaukee River The Milwaukee River is a river in the state of Wisconsin. It is about long.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed May 19, 2011 Once a locus of industry, the river is now the c ...

. Watrous, Jerome A. (ed.).
Memoirs of Milwaukee County, Vol. 1
'. Madison: Western Historical Association, 1909, pp. 424-425.

References

{{authority control Educational institutions established in 1856 Educational institutions disestablished in 1895 Defunct private universities and colleges in Wisconsin Lawrence University Education in Dodge County, Wisconsin 1856 establishments in Wisconsin