History

Wesley College began at Terrell, TX in 1905, founded by the North Texas Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South.  The new school took over the campus of the defunct Terrell University School, which had closed in 1904.  Renamed North Texas University School, it operated in Terrell until 1911.  Closed at Terrell, it reopened as a junior college and academy at Greenville in September 1912 and took the name Wesley College.

 

The 1920 Greyhound shows a faculty of 19, offering not only a strong and traditional core curriculum, but also teacher training, home economics, and commercial courses.  Wesley had a strong emphasis in music with four of the 19 faculty involved.  The same yearbook shows a student body of 82 in the college and 48 more in the academy.   The Handbook of Texas Online says that enrollment was around 500 for most of the life of the school.  Most college students were members of one of the literary societies—Astonian or B. J. Williams.  As usual, these societies served as “houses” for in-school literary and also athletic competitions.  There was also an S. E. Green Debating Society.

 

As a denominational school, Wesley had active chapters of both the Y.W.C.A. and Y.M.C.A., as well as the Ministerial Organization.  The school’s Social Calendar shows that most of the school parties and entertainments were organized by either the literary or religious societies.

 

Wesley lasted through much of the Great Depression but closed because of financial difficulties in 1938.