1858-1899
Judson College
Hendersonville, North Carolina NC
Judson College in North Carolina is number three of the eight institutions of higher learning named for Ann and/or Adoniram Judson.
Judson College was a nineteenth-century academy located in the mountain town of Hendersonville, North Carolina. The school was conceived by the Western Carolina Baptist Association in 1858 and originally named the Western North Carolina Female College. Construction of the college’s main building was begun in 1860 under the direction of a board of trustees…. The Civil War halted the building process, however, and the incomplete structure housed a variety of ventures until 1879, when a high school was opened on the site.
The Judson College catalog for the academic year 1887-88 shows the curriculum to have included mathematics, English grammar, natural science, “language lessons,” North Carolina history, geography, Latin, and Greek. A six-year “common school” course of study was available to students, preparing them for “entrance to high school or academic work.” The Preparatory Department was a three-year course for individuals interested in attending the University of North Carolina or another college in the state. Finally, the Normal Department offered its graduates either a teaching certificate or a Bachelor of Divinity degree, depending on the length of the course. Tuition for these courses ranged during the 1890s from 24 cents to $1.00 per week; for students boarding at the school, an additional $2.50 per week was charged.
While Judson College never established itself as an influential academy on a state level, it was an important part of its local educational environment…. The school also produced many influential teachers and educational administrators before it was closed in 1899, a victim of two decades of financial struggles.[1]
[Compiler’s Note: There once was a small town named Judson in Swain County, NC, on the far western edge of the state near the Tennessee border. Judson was evacuated for construction of the Fontana Dam on the Little Tennessee River which was completed in 1944 creating the Fontana Lake reservoir. Numerous historic towns and prehistoric sites were inundated by the lake. Some structures can be visited when the lake is at its yearly low. And there was once another small unincorporated community named Judson in Cumberland County, NC, near Fayetteville.]
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[1] Jay Mazzocchi, “Judson College”, Encyclopedia of North Carolina, William S. Powell, Editor (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina, 2006), p. 643.