William Carey University

Celebrating 125 Years

Joshua Wilson, Donna Duck Wheeler, Barbara Hamilton

• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781439662649
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

In 2006, William Carey College celebrated 100 years of serving students in south Mississippi. To accompany the centennial, alumni director Donna Duck Wheeler wrote William Carey College: The First 100 Years. In the 11 years following 2006, the school's enrollment increased to nearly 1, 500 students and more programs, such as the College of Osteopathic Medicine, have been established. The span between the first volume and this updated one also includes the name change to William Carey University and the discovery of an additional predecessor institution, Pearl River Boarding School, founded in 1892. This expanded volume, published in commemoration of the institution's corrected 125th birthday, tells the next chapter of Carey's history--a history filled with faculty, staff, students, and alumni living out the words of the university's namesake, William Carey, and "expecting and attempting great things for God."

One

SOUTH MISSISSIPPI
COLLEGE

1906–1910

The year 1906 was an exciting time in Hattiesburg. Construction skyrocketed with several new buildings underway. On a 15-acre site in the southwest section of Hattiesburg, a crew of men was framing the three buildings that would house a new college, the first in Hattiesburg. Notices appeared regularly in the Daily Picayune of New Orleans. They read: “South Mississippi College (removed from Poplarville) has accommodations for 300 students, with steam heat, electrical lights, sanitary toilets, hot and cold shower baths, and artesian water provided. Primary, intermediate, high school, and college department are offered with an excellent faculty. Sessions open October 2. Send for catalogue.”

—W.I. Thames, President
Hattiesburg, Mississippi

South Mississippi College was the result of efforts by a stock company of New Orleans businessmen from all denominations. The faculty of the college numbered 16, and the college had impressive facilities. The main building of the campus contained 12 recitation rooms to accommodate 500 students, music rooms, a library with several thousand selected works, an auditorium that would seat over 1,000, classrooms, and offices for the administration and faculty of the college. The girls’ dormitory had rooms for over 100 women, and the boys’ dormitory housed 200 men. The dining hall would accommodate 320 students. (Both, courtesy of the Hattiesburg Area Historical Society.)

Cora Henry and Cora Henry’s report card from South Mississippi College, October 3, 1908, give a glimpse of student academics. (Both, courtesy of the Henry-Rowell-Waldrup Papers of the McCain Library and Archives, the University of Southern Mississippi.)

Gale-force wind damage delayed the scheduled beginnings for South Mississippi College until November 8, 1906. About 75 boys had to sleep in the dining hall until repairs were completed. The opening session listed 380 enrolled students. This postcard from the early 20th century shows the girls’ dormitory. (Courtesy of Reagan Grimsley.)

Ira Stockstill, a former student, stated in a 1956 news article in the Hattiesburg American, “It (SMC) was nothing but a forest of cut-over pine land covered with stumps. We had a football team and a baseball team. We never had more than 11 men on the football team and substitution was unheard of then. We had demerits for rule-breakers and the penalty was digging stumps. For any offense, the student would be assigned an ax and shovel to dig up a stump. Mr. Thames was a strict disciplinarian.” Pictured here is Ira Stockstill as a young man. (Courtesy of Hunter Godsey.)

William I. Thames, for whom W.I. Thames Elementary School in Hattiesburg is named, was a pioneer educator with ample qualifications, broad experience, and superior ability. Thames became president of South Mississippi College after serving as principal of the high school in Poplarville for 13 years. After South Mississippi College closed, Thames went on to a further distinguished career in education, serving on the first faculty of State Normal College (now the University of Southern Mississippi), president of Burleson College in Texas, and superintendent of Hattiesburg city schools for 17 years.

Founders Day guests in 1975 included two Hattiesburg citizens with connections to the school when it was South Mississippi College. At center are H.P. Todd, vice president of the school in 1906–1908, and Lorene Salmond, wife of J.B. Salmond and daughter of W.I. Thames, founder and first president of the school. The two are flanked by Joseph M. Ernest (left), academic vice president of William Carey College, and Ralph Noonkester, president. Salmond stated, “South Mississippi College had good teachers. The departments of art, music, and home economics were especially strong. A home economics department was rare in the early 1900s. The college band was outstanding. They were practicing the night the administration building burned in 1910, and nearly all of the instruments were destroyed in the fire.” The devastating fire of February 28, 1910, destroyed the main building, along with its records and accounts. South Mississippi College could not recover and passed from the educational scene in Mississippi. No catalogs or records of South Mississippi College are known to be in existence.

Two

MISSISSIPPI
WOMAN’S COLLEGE

1911–1954

After its closing, the South Mississippi College property was acquired by W.S.F. Tatum, a wealthy Hattiesburg lumberman, businessman, and Methodist layman. After the State of Mississippi declined his offer of the property as the site for the Normal College in Hattiesburg, he offered the property to the Methodists for a college. His fellow churchmen chose not to build another college in the state. He then turned to Mississippi Baptists, who were already making plans for a Baptist college for women in Hattiesburg and who accepted his offer.

The property consisted of two frame buildings and 10 acres of cut-over land. W.W. Rivers, former president of Central Female College in Conway, Arkansas, became president and began putting the two frame buildings in order, securing a faculty, and recruiting students. In 1911, opening exercises were held in the Hattiesburg High School auditorium on Forrest Street, and the new institution became Mississippi Woman’s College.

On September 13, 1912, the college opened for its second session with an enrollment of 167 students. John Lipscomb Johnson Jr. assumed leadership. Mae Waller Batson, lady principal, said of Johnson, “Be...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. South Mississippi College: 1906–1910
• 2. Mississippi Woman’s College: 1911–1954
• 3. William Carey College: 1954–1980
• 4. William Carey College: 1981–2006
• 5. Crusaders in Action
• About This Edition
• 6. William Carey University: 2006–2012
• 7. William Carey University: 2012–2017
• 8. William Carey University: 2017 and the Future
• Additional Acknowledgements