Linwood Female College was an American women's college associated with the

Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church The Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARPC), as it exists today, is the historical descendant of the Synod of the South, a Synod of the Associate Reformed Church. The original Associate Reformed Church resulted from a merger of the Associate ...

(ARP). It was located at the foot of

Crowders Mountain Crowders Mountain is one of two main peaks within Crowders Mountain State Park, the other peak being The Pinnacle. The park is located in the western Piedmont of North Carolina between the cities of Kings Mountain and Gastonia or about west ...

, near

Gastonia, North Carolina Gastonia is the largest city in and county seat of Gaston County, North Carolina, United States. It is the second-largest satellite city of the Charlotte area, behind Concord. The population was 80,411 at the 2020 census, up from 71,741 in 20 ...

. The school was also known as Jones' Seminary in its early years, and as Linwood College in its last years. The school was in operation from 1884 to 1921.

History

Around 1884, Emily Prudden of Connecticut founded a school for white girls at the former site of All Healing Springs, a popular

mineral springs Mineral springs are naturally occurring springs that produces hard water, water that contains dissolved minerals. Salts, sulfur compounds, and gases are among the substances that can be dissolved in the spring water during its passage under ...

resort. The former resort's grounds were also briefly used for an industrial school after the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

. Prudden's school soon became the ARP-associated Jones Seminary, with the financial backing of Edwin S. Jones, a judge in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Cyrus Hampton ran the school from 1889 to 1898; the school closed for a year when Hampton retired for health reasons, but re-opened in the fall of 1900 witth A. G. Kirkpatrick as its president. After the retirement of college president A. G. Kirkpatrick, the college was taken over by Archie Thompson Lindsay, a local ARP minister, and his brother, Ernest Lindsay. A year later, the Lindsays asked the student body to propose a new name for the college since it was no longer under the ownership of Judge Jones, and the all-female student body put together the name "Linwood" by honoring the president and the wooded area surrounding the school. The school had a campus of 325 acres near Crowders Mountain. The college operated as Linwood Female College from 1904 until 1915, when it became a coeducational school in an attempt to improve its financial situation. The name was then shortened to Linwood College. The college closed due to financial difficulties in 1921.

Faculty and alumni

A. T. Lindsay announced that the 1907 faculty of Linwood Female College would include Frances Wideman as Lady Principal, with teachers Phronia Falls, Nell Orr, Bessie Boyce, Mary Copenhaver, Lucy Wallace, and Eleanor Gourdin, and Sallie Holland as one of the matrons. Eunice Riggins was selected Lady Principal of Linwood College in 1916. Two notable alumni of Linwood were Ben Elbert Douglas Sr., who served as mayor of Charlotte, and Mary Beth Rowan Friday, mother of

University of North Carolina system The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sys ...

president William C. Friday.

Legacy

In 1931, the Greek Orthodox Church of America bought the old Linwood College campus, with plans to open a new college there. The school's site, now only a few building foundations, is within the boundaries of

Crowders Mountain State Park Crowders Mountain State Park is a North Carolina state park in Gaston County, North Carolina in the United States. It is near Kings Mountain, North Carolina and on the outskirts of Gastonia, North Carolina, it includes the peaks of Crowder's M ...

References

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History

Faculty and alumni

Legacy

References

See also