Moark Baptist College
West Plains, Missouri
1947-1951.
Travel and E-Travel
I remember Moark Baptist College from my grade school days because my seventh-grade teacher left school early on Friday afternoons to attend classes there. I also remember the building across the street from the bus station. The West Plains Public Library has a copy of the 1951 yearbook, The Challenge, source of the three images on this page. West Plains newspapers, the Quill and the Journal-Gazette covered school news.
History
When I was growing up, the area around West Plains was filled with small rural churches and grade schools, without an hour of college credit being offered within a hundred-mile radius. The Baptist churches in the area undertook to provide college training with the creation of Moark Baptist College, chartered in December 1947. Moark opened on May 31, 1948 and was accredited by the University of Missouri in 1949. Describing itself as “a liberal arts college dedicated to Christian education,” Moark was tested in 1949. The Journal-Gazette noted that Dean Frank Tomlin had been dismissed from the school for attempting to teach evolution.
The curriculum appears to focus on the needs of three groups of students: area teachers, area ministers, and high school graduates who would later transfer to a four-year school. Among the first students to enroll was 86- year- old “Aunt Lizzie” Stephens, taking a Bible course. There were initially seven courses of study: Bible, Commerce, English, Mathematics, Education, Music, and Social Science. In the fall of 1948 twenty individual courses were scheduled. In addition to offering a summer session when area teachers could attend, Moark offered evening and weekend classes to accommodate these teachers—as my seventh-grade teacher experienced. During the summer term, Moark also operated an elementary school to provide opportunities for practice teaching.The only student organization shown in Challange was the Ministerial Alliance. However, Moark had a 40-voice student choir which often sang at local functions. In 1949 the group performed an oratorio Holy City as an outreach program.Moark remained a small school, with a listed enrollment of slightly over 100 students—many of whom were part-time. The college closed in May of 1951. The Poplar Bluff Daily American Republic noted that it had been “liquidated” and student records transferred to Missouri Baptist College.
Bricks and Mortar
The Moark trustees acquired a parcel of land on the west side of town as a permanent location for the college. As a temporary campus, the college used the new educational annex to the First Baptist Church on Walnut Street, two block east of the square. This building, measuring 84 x 40 feet, was a three-story concrete block structure faced with Carthage marble. It contained twenty large classrooms, in addition to administrative offices.
The school found two residences on Grove Street to use as small dormitories for male and female students. The First Baptist Church itself served as a chapel; sports activities used the National Guard Armory. Though a groundbreaking ceremony took place in 1950, the west side campus never materialized. The annex was later razed when a new First Baptist Church was built.
The Educational Annex.
Sports
Team name: Hornets
School colors: Purple and Gold
On October 10,1949 the Quill announced that Moark would have a basketball team. Among the 51 full-time and 61-part-time students, Moark would find enough players to fill the ten uniforms purchased. Since warm up jackets cost $8.50 each, only six were ordered. The initial 14-game schedule included some high school and independent teams as well as junior colleges. Perhaps a sign of things to come was a 113-31 loss to the freshman team from what was then Southwest Missouri State College.
In 1950 Moark became a member of the Missouri Junior College Basketball Conference. This provided a schedule that included Conservation (Iberia), Southwest Baptist (Boliver), Missouri Baptist (Poplar Bluff), Moberly, Joplin, Jefferson City, Monett, Chillicothe BC, Wentworth MA, Trenton, Flat River, and Hannibal-LaGrange, The Hornets lost both games in the conference tournament that spring.
1950-51 Hornets.
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