Lexington College for Young Women
Lexington, Missouri
1851-1916(?)
E-Travel
My wife is from Hamilton, MO, so I have been through Lexington and over the old Missouri River bridge too many times to count. Midwest Genealogy Center has the 1912 Chapel Bell Chimes, the Lexington College yearbook. The Lexington Intelligencer carried most school news. The image of business graduates (right) is from the Chimes
History
Lexington Female Collegiate Institute opened for seventy students in 1851, offering both collegiate and preparatory programs of study. Purchased by the Baptist Church in 1855, it reopened as Baptist Female College, thus laying claim to being “the oldest Baptist female college in the West.”
Throughout its existence, the school had an enrollment of around 100 students, with a high of 133 in 1880. The yearbook shows 67 students in 1912. While many were from the area, there were enough students from Kansas and Oklahoma to organize state clubs. In 1890 the faculty numbered 16—six of whom taught music, art, or elocution. (In 1912 seventeen of 67 students studied piano, and another nine were violin students). B.F.C. offered B.L., B.A., and B.S. degrees, as well as diplomas in Vocal Music, Instrumental Music, Elocution, and Art. In 1889, B.F.C. determined that women should know business, especially as some might have to earn their own living and so opened a business program with courses in stenography, bookkeeping and typing.
Not surprising, student activities that made the news were primarily musical. Initially, both commencement week and Christmas week featured entertainments with both instrumental and vocal solos and duets. In 1888 a chorus of sixteen members performed. In 1890 students performed a cantata and, in 1894, an operetta. Cadets from Wentworth Military Academy filled in as needed.
The Intelligencer highly praised the art exhibition offered as part of commencement week. In 1889 the William Jewell Society of Baptist Female College showcased speech activities. Later the Euterpean and Klionian literary societies offered intersociety debates. Dramatics students presented both Queen Esther and A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1912.
In 1903 the name of the school was changed to Lexington College for Young Women. In January 1916 Word and Way reported that the school, now listed as a junior college, was “no longer in operation.”
Bricks and Mortar
The original home of Baptist Female College was the old courthouse, abandoned when a new courthouse was built in 1847. In 1869 the school moved toward a permanent location by purchasing the home of William B. Waddell, one of the founders of Pony Express. Located at the corner of South Street and what became Thirteenth Street, it was a large two-story brick structure. Early on the school added a west wing, which became the chapel, later adding an east wing, and a third floor with a Mansard roof. The last additions allowed the school to accept more than 50 boarders. Also added were bathrooms with hot and cold water, electric lights, and steam heat. In 1896 the Intelligencer notes 34 rooms, including the chapel, recitation rooms, study rooms, art and music rooms, a laboratory, a library, a gymnasium, dining rooms, and dormitory rooms.
Today the property is listed on nationwide realtors’ pages as having 91,000 square feet with nine bedrooms and seven bathrooms.
Sports
School colors: Green and Pink
In 1895 the Intelligencer noted that Baptist Female College had hired an instructor for physical culture, “a system of exercise. . . well calculated to strengthen the body, and give grace to movements.” Part of her job was “to see that each pupil takes the proper amount of healthful exercise.”
In 1912 the Intelligencer notes, “Tennis and basket ball, etc., are the popular health and recreation diversions.” The 1912 Chimes shows two basketball teams, four tennis clubs, and a horseback riding club.
As early as 1907 a school team lost to a team from Missouri Valley College 10-7. The 1912 team, featured in the Chimes (right), defeated Lexington High School 5-3. The 1913 team defeated Wellington H.S. 10-7 and lost to Howard Payne College 18-9. Newspapers show a 1914 win over Odessa H.S. 13-4 in “a fast and interesting game.” That team also defeated Lexington H.S. 25-0.
Baptist Female College (left) with added chapel and Mansard roof. Image from MoGenWeb. The same building (right) in 2023 with the added East wing but without the chapel and Mansard roof. Image by Google.
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