Fuller states that Nelson Merry College was created to “meet the needs of Baptists to train leaders for their religious organizations.”  But despite the name, it is not clear that Nelson Merry ever offered collegiate work.  Negro Education and Fuller both show that Nelson Merry was essentially a grade school at least to World War I.  Glass and Lang call it an elementary and high school, emphasizing teacher education.  But the composition of the 1917-20 faculty shows that students had access to classes in Latin, algebra, geometry, rhetoric, ethics, physiology and political economy.

The first newspaper notice in 1894 shows the Nelson Merry agent in town soliciting funds for the college.  Through the years this was a common theme as newspapers reported on fundraisers and the need for them. Fuller reported that the local school district and the sponsoring churches were to jointly fund the school, but the “situation grew more and more embarrassing as debts piled up and the resources of the school decreased under the general financial stringency.”  In 1932 the school was deeded to the state in exchange for state support. Becoming known as Nelson Merry High School, it was closed in 1965 as a result of desegregation.

Enrollment figures are available for the period 1915-1918, The Yearbook shows 154; Fuller shows 114 with 30 boarders.  Apparently Nelson Merry had a strong music department. In 1907 students were able to perform the cantata Jephtah and His Daughter, “rendered to the satisfaction of all.” In 1918 the school did a musical to benefit the Red Cross, and the 1929 commencement featured musical selections.