The desire to provide education opportunities for their children has always been a concern of parents. In the early days of settling and forming communities in Alabama, efforts to create schools were forefront in the minds of civic leaders as well. An example of this was a lengthy letter written to the editor of the Eutaw Whig and Public Advertiser ( December 16, 1843) citing the need for a female institute and gave six reasons why Eutaw was "a most desirable place" for one. As history shows, Eutaw became the birthplace of several schools.
In January, 1845, not long after Eutaw became the county seat of Greene County, an act was passed by the General Assembly of the State of Alabama to incorporate the Mesopotamia Female Seminary for the purpose of education young women. Sponsors of that act were Joseph Pickins, Willam A. Glover, John C. Johnson, Nicholas R. Morgan, Amasa T. Park, and John Womack. The original site of the school, according to the New Orleans Christian Advocat, was a mile and a quarter "from the business part of town. " The first principal was Mrs. Priscilla Maxwell Upson, a 30 year old teacher and principal, coming from the Marion Female Seminary where she had been for seven years.
During her tenure, she built up the enrollment, brought two teachers with her, including her sister from Massachusetts, and, according to the advertisement in the Eutaw Whig of January 22, 1847, "other instructors will be procured as the Institute may demand." It is interesting to note that an advertisement for the Eutaw Female Academy also appeared. However, the Mesopotamia Female Seminary offered an "advanced Department" indicating a collegiate level of instruction.
Unfortunately, due to health issues, Mrs. Upson had to relinquish her career at the Seminary. After a period of recovery, she moved in 1850 to Camden, Alabama, where she became the founding principal of the Wilcox Female Seminary.
The next president of the Seminary was Alexander Winchell, who came in 1851 from being the president of the Newbern Female Seminary. Seemingly, according to the local newspaper clippings from the Winchell scrapbook, now at the University of Michigan Library archives, the Seminary "had been suspended a long time and the public attention has ceased to be attracted to it." However, Prof. Winchell took charge and worked diligently to build up the school. Being educated in horticulture, he procured scientific apparatus, erected a herbarium composing specimens of about one thousand species of plants, and kept a daily record, between 1851 and 1853, of the climatology of Eutaw for the Smithsonian Institute.
His tenure at the Seminary was met with rivalry from supporters of the Eutaw Female Academy. In 1853 he left Eutaw to become president of the Masonic University in Selma.
Following the departure of Mr. Winchell, Henry P. Hatfield became president, coming from being president of the Marion Female Seminary. His tenure lasted until 1860, when he accepted the position of president at the Wilcox Female Seminary in Camden.
A notable graduate of the Mesopotamia Seminary was Martha Foster from Fosters near Tuscaloosa. She was trained as a teacher and graduated in 1849 at the age of nineteen. The next year she married the Rev. Tarleton Perry Crawford and was appointed in 1851 to China as the first woman foreign missionary from Alabama by the Southern Baptist Convention. During her 58 years as missionary she wrote numerous articles on her work that were published in the Alabama Baptist. In 1998 Mrs. Crawford was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame.
Due to the scarcity of records, it is not known how much longer the Mesopotamia Female Seminary survived. It is interesting to note that the rival Eutaw Female Institute became co-educational in 1870, and in December of 1888, the General Assembly of the State of Alabama approved the incorporation of the Eutaw Female College.
In 1889, the main building of the Mesopotamia Female Seminary was moved to its present location on the corner of Main Street and Wilson Avenue in downtown Eutaw.
-Dr. Paul G. Reitzer
Perry County Historical & Preservation Society
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