Marion has distinguished itself as being a center for the advancement of education by giving birth to six colleges. Consequently, and rightly so, it has earned the title of "The College City." The first of these colleges was The Manual Labor Institute of South Alabama.
The concept of a manual labor program combined with a classical education for young men resulted in the founding of two area colleges during the early 1830's. The Manual Labor Institute of South Alabama and the Alabama Institute of Literature and Industry, the later being a Baptist School for the training of ministers in nearby Greensboro. Both were incorporated within a month of each other.
The Institute in Marion was established in response to a committee report of the South Alabama Presbytery on December 16, 1833. According to the Presbytery minutes, the report called for a board of sixteen trustees, only one third of which would be clergymen, and the purchase of a plantation where students would work a maximum of five hours a day. The initial trustees were Martin A. Lea, David McCullough, Levi Langdon, Robert Nall ( pastor of the Marion Presbyterian Church), Patrick May, James Hillhouse, Isaac Hadden, John Miller, Thomas Alexander, Francis Porter, William Blassingame, Robert W. B. Kennedy, Richard Walthall, John H. Gray, Edwin D. King, William Stringfellow, Sidney Goode, and Robert Garvan.
The site of the Institute was three miles west of Marion on some 150 acres known as the McKinney Plantation. The objective of the Institute was, according to the Alabama Legislative Act, "to grant such degree or degrees in the arts and sciences, to any of the students of said institution thought worthy." The first president was Prof. B. Crawford.
The school opened in 1834. By 1836 the Institute reported having over sixty students and a well-established program. According to an article in the July 9, 1836, Selma Free Press, an examination of students was reported which included examination of students in history, mathematics, classical literature, English grammar, and geography. The examination committee felt "it to be their duty to speak on the highest terms of commendation of the good moral deportment observed." As for the manual labor component, "three hours are devoted each day, performing the work of a full grown laborer."
On the other hand, the 1836 report also stated that "this institution has labored under many disadvantages from the want of Apparatus, Library, &c." However, the trustees "sent to Europe for a Philosophical and Chemical Apparatus...which will be equal, if not superior to Apparatus in the Southern or Western country. Also, they expected to increase greatly the library holdings from the present "several hundred volumes."
The report went on to say that the Institute could accommodate seventy to eighty students and that the tuition, room rent and fire wood "per session of five months is $18." Board in cost per session was $55, and "students are required to furnish their own beds, beddings, &c."
In January 1839, the Board of Trustees petitioned the General Assembly of Alabama to officially change the name of the Institute to Madison College. While an advertisement in the Marion Herald of October 7, 1841, stated that "the institution is still in operation under the direction of approved and good teachers," and that "all branches of collegiate education are thoroughly taught," no mention was made of the manual labor part of the program.
Unfortunately, financial difficulties brought an end to the Institute in 1842. Much of it was due to the national financial crisis of 1837 which affected potential financial donors. According to Reports of Cases Argued and Determined by the Supreme Court of Alabama, the College was insolvent. However, the significance of the Manual Labor Institute of South Alabama was the early interest shown by Christian denominations in establishing institutions of higher learning and creating a work-study program for young men to obtain an education.
-Dr. Paul G. Reitzer
Perry County Historical & Preservation Society
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