Edmund Asa Ware (December 22, 1837 – September 25, 1885) was an American educator and the first president of Atlanta University, serving from 1869 to 1885.

Biography

Ware, son of Asa B. and Catharine (Slocum) Ware, was born December 22, 1837, in North Wrentham, now

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, Massachusetts, and entered College from

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

, Connecticut, to which place his family had removed about 1852. He graduated from

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

in 1863. For the two years next after graduation he taught in the

Norwich Free Academy The Norwich Free Academy (NFA), founded in 1854 and in operation since 1856, is a coeducational independent school for students between the 9th and 12th grade. Located in Norwich, Connecticut, the Academy serves as the primary high school for Norw ...

, where he had had his early education. In September 1865, he went to Nashville, Tennessee to assist in reorganizing the public schools, and thence a year later to

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, Georgia, under the auspices of the American Missionary Association, as Superintendent of the Association's schools in that city and vicinity In December 1866, he was licensed to preach, and from that time preached more or less frequently. He received August 1, 1867, from Howard University founder and first President General Howard, the appointment of State Superintendent of Education for Georgia; interested in the further of higher education for African-Americans. He thus took over the leadership of Atlanta University previously founded by James Tate and Grandison Daniels two former slaves. He became the first President of the Board of Trustees at Atlanta University founded September 19, 1865. Atlanta University chartered October 17, 1867; offered first instruction at postsecondary level 1869; first graduating class 1873, (normal school for future women teachers); and awarded its first six bachelor‘s degrees June 1876. He had lately returned from a visit to the mountains, to prepare for the opening of the school, and appeared in usual health; on the afternoon of September 25, 1885, he died suddenly of heart disease, in Atlanta, in the 48th year of his age. He married November 10, 1869, Sarah J. Twichell of

Plantsville, Connecticut Plantsville is a neighborhood in the town of Southington, Hartford County, Connecticut. It is centered at the merger between South Main Street (road from the Milldale section) and West Main Street (road from the Marion section). As of the 2000 C ...

, who survived him with three daughters and one son. One of their daughters, Olive, was married in 1912 to

Percy Williams Bridgman Percy Williams Bridgman (April 21, 1882 – August 20, 1961) was an American physicist who received the 1946 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the physics of high pressures. He also wrote extensively on the scientific method and on other as ...

, recipient of the 1946

Nobel Prize in Physics ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...

. His son Edward Twichell Ware went on to become the third president of Atlanta University.

Legacy

The Edmund Asa (“E. A.”) Ware School was built in his honor in 1922 on the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Walnut Street, near the Herndon Home Museum. It was one of the first elementary schools for

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

children in Atlanta. The building was later renamed as Jordan Hall and became part of the Morris Brown College. It was placed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1976.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ware, Edmund Asa 1837 births 1885 deaths Clark Atlanta University faculty People from Norfolk, Massachusetts Yale College alumni American Missionary Association Educators from Georgia (U.S. state)