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Education Role Important in City
The Daily Journal, Flat River, Mo., Monday, March 19, 1979

Since 1805, when Mrs. Sarah Barton Murphy set up the first day school in Murphy's Settlement, education has been a part of Farmington.

Several private institutions have formed the backbone of the community’s educational system and caused the city to be nicknamed “Little Athens.”  Schools such as Carleton College and Elmwood Academy were predecessors to the public school system, which was started with the first public school building in 1870.            

The Elmwood Academy, later called Elmwood Seminary, and Carleton College have the richest history among the city’s private institutions.  Both schools were started in the mid-1800s and survived over a half century.            

            Miss Eliza Carleton was apparently responsible for both the birth and the fall of Carleton College.  The diminutive woman founded the college in a small log structure eight miles north of Farmington in 1854. 

            In 1859 it became Carleton Institute and was incorporated by the General Assembly of Missouri.  In 1878 the institute was moved to Farmington where it was located on 16 acres Miss Carleton purchased.

      A four story brick building was constructed when the move to Farmington was made.  In 1915 a new building was constructed at a cost of $36,000 but the college was to suffer its death blow the same year.

            In 1915 Miss Carleton died and in 1916, the institution followed suit.   Although the reasons for the demise of the school are not clear, apparently the steadily increasing role of the public school system combined with the death of Miss Carleton were the cause.            

Miss Carleton was the institution and the institution was her life.

            Even though, at age 17, she had only 24 months of schooling, she taught herself.  It was reported she learned Latin grammar by memory in only nine weeks.            

At 19 (1845) she began teaching “subscription schools” where she was paid $3 in trade or $2 in cash.  She was instructed by the Principal of Schools in Farmington, who helped her enroll in the Methodist College of Arcadia.                      
        No woman had been allowed at the school previous to Miss Carleton’s attendance.  After several attempts at admission she was enrolled with the understanding she would drop out if she couldn’t keep up with the men.  Four years later she received her Bachelor of Arts degree as valedictorian.        

  She rented a hickory log cabin in 1854 and started the school with 30 pupils.  The school continued through the Civil War and was moved to 16 acres in Farmington’s city limits in 1876. 

            The college continued to grow and in the early 1900s there were two divisions: the College of Liberal Arts which granted bachelor of arts degrees after 120 hours of secondary work and the academic department. 

            The majority of the students were in the academic department in which the only requirement for entry was a certificate of good moral character.  Students were taught the fundamental principles of each subject.            

            Courses in the College of Liberal arts included English, science, philosophy, history, mathematics, Greek and Latin.  In the schools’ Department of Oratory there were two year courses offered for ministers and lawyers.  The dramatic department put on several plays and the literary societies gave programs.            

            There were private lessons in Expression and the music department offered vocal music and piano.  There was also an important athletic program including a big football game Carleton won over St. Louis University.

Elmwood Seminary

               Farmington’s earliest academy was constructed in 1847 at the present site of the Presbyterian Home for Children.

              Called Elmwood Academy and later Elmwood Seminary, the school was basically started for the children of M.P. Cayce and others in the neighborhood. 

            The academy was the forerunner of the Elmwood Seminary and Presbyterian Normal School, which was opened on the same site in 1886 under the auspices of the Presbyteries of St. Louis and Potosi. 

            In 1890 a new building was constructed at a cost of $20,000 and in 1908 the school was fully accredited with the State University.  Students attended the school from as far away as Texas and California. 

            But, like other schools of the era fell to the pressures of a public school system and in May 1914 Elmwood Seminary closed its doors for the last time. 

           The history of the Baptist College in Farmington is peppered with hardships. 

              Established in 1886, the school was never considered very prosperous and it burned twice, finally closing for good about 1900. 

              The school was housed in a three story brick building in Feb. 19, 1894 when a fire started in the hallway.  An account of the fire said it could have been quickly doused if buckets of water would have been available.   

            The fire was almost certainly the work of an incendiary vandal, reports said.  The $5,000 building was destroyed by the fire, while potential firefighters stood by helplessly.

              After the college closed the building was used as the Baptist Sanitarium with a capacity of 100 patients, according to a advertisement in September 1903.

              The college was located on property where the present Middle School is located.

                       Although the three schools already mentioned were the dominant private schools in Farmington history, there were at least two others. 

            Farmington was the headquarters for the six Moothart Commercial Colleges which operated around the turn of the century.  In addition, a little-known school called the Jackson Military Academy was also located in the area. [In 1917, this college was reorganized as the Ozark Business College.   Located on site where Ozarks Federal Savings & Loan is located.]

            There was the Sterling Academy, which began in Cook Settlement in May 1862 with a 20-week session.  Farmington was reported to have had 600 inhabitants that year. 

            The Farmington Academy was also reported to have existed in 1862 with a 20-week course.  An advertisement for the school included the following promise: 

            “The principal will give his individual efforts to promote the healthful exercise and expansion of the physical, mental and moral power of his pupils.”

Thank you to Jeanne "Hunt" Nassany for typing this article for us!

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