Scarritt College
{{Short description|College in Missouri, US}}
{{Infobox university
| name=Scarritt College
Neosho Collegiate Institute
Scarritt Collegiate Institute
|motto=
|established=1878
| type=Private, Methodist Episcopal Church, South
| president=
|city=Neosho
| state=Missouri
| country=USA
| campus=Small Town
}}
Scarritt College was a private college founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1878, in Neosho, Missouri.
Neosho Seminary (1878–1880)
The Southwest Missouri Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, founded the school as Neosho Seminary in 1878. The Conference elected a board of trustees for the new seminary and the board bought a brick house to use as a school.{{cite book |last1=Conard |first1=Howard L. |title=Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri, Volume V |date=1901 |publisher=The Southern History Company |location=New York |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediahis00conagoog/ |access-date=5 April 2024}}{{cite news |title=Missouri History: Neosho Incorporated |url=https://archive.org/details/sikeston-standard-1935-08-20/ |access-date=5 April 2024 |work=Sikeston Standard |date=20 August 1935 |page=7}}{{cite book |last1=Woodard |first1=W.S. |title=Annals of Methodism in Missouri |date=1893 |url=https://archive.org/details/annalsofmethodis00wood/ |access-date=5 April 2024}}
Neosho Collegiate Institute (1880–1887)
In 1880, the name changed to Neosho Collegiate Institute. The school struggled financially, and by 1886 they reported to the Conference that they had $12,000 (equivalent to almost $384,000 in 2024) in debt.{{cite book |title=Minutes of the Sixteenth Session of the Southwest Missouri Conference of the M.E. Church, South |date=1886 |publisher=Methodist Episcopal Church, South |url=https://archive.org/details/30885065.1886.emory.edu/ |access-date=5 April 2024}}
In 1887, the Conference ordered the school board to work with Rev. Nathan Scarritt and two other reverends to liquidate the debt.{{cite book |title=Minutes of the Seventeenth Session of the Southwest Missouri Conference of the M.E. Church, South |date=1887 |publisher=Methodist Episcopal Church, South |url=https://archive.org/details/30885065.1887.emory.edu/ |access-date=5 April 2024}}
Scarritt College (1887–1909)
Nathan Scarritt, D.D., of Kansas City, Missouri was a minister as well as a millionaire real estate developer and banker.{{cite news |last1=Euston |first1=Diane |title=From Teacher to Preacher to Real Estate Dealer: Rev. Nathan Scarritt |url=https://martincitytelegraph.com/2020/09/28/the-rev-nathan-scarritt-from-teacher-to-preacher-to-real-estate-dealer/ |access-date=5 April 2024 |work=Martin City Telegraph |date=28 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230203214412/https://martincitytelegraph.com/2020/09/28/the-rev-nathan-scarritt-from-teacher-to-preacher-to-real-estate-dealer/ |archive-date=3 February 2023}} He contributed $5,000 (equivalent to about $152,000 in 2024) to resolve the debt, and two other men provided for a new building. The school's name was changed to honor Scarritt.
In 1902, John Elward Brown (later founder of John Brown University) held a revival in Neosho and learned about the school Despite the infusion of money from Scarritt and others, it was struggling again. He asked to be president, and the board agreed. As the school president, Brown added some vocational courses to the curriculum, such as typing and shorthand, but the previous president (J.T. Pritchett), served as the dean and made most of the decision.{{cite book |last1=Ostrander |first1=Richard |title=Head, Heart, and Hand: John Brown University and Modern Evangelical Higher Education |date=2003 |publisher=The University of Arkansas Press |location=Fayetteville, Arkansas |isbn=1-55728-761-9}}
In 1903, the school closed during a smallpox epidemic.{{cite news |last1=Dawes |first1=Lisa |title=History: Organization of county paves way for city |url=https://archive.org/details/1983-12-8-the-chart/ |access-date=5 April 2024 |work=The Chart |publisher=Missouri Southern State University |date=8 December 1983 |page=2B}} Enrollment numbers remained low after it reopened.
Brown spent his efforts promoting the school in his evangelical revivals, establishing the Neosho Chautauqua to bring speakers to the campus in the summer,{{cite book |last1=Kennedy |first1=Ralph |last2=Rothrock |first2=Thomas |title=John Brown of Arkansas, 1879–1957 |date=1999 |publisher=Phillips Brothers Printing |location=Springfield, Illinois}} and through the newspapers: he wrote for The Herald, a local weekly newspaper, and later bought the Neosho Free Press and merged the two papers.{{cite thesis |last=Williams |first=Earl R. |date=1971 |title=John Brown University: Its Founder and Its Founding 1919-1957 |degree=EdD |publisher=University of Arkansas}} However, the number of students continued to decline and in January 1905 Brown stepped down.
The school never found good financial footing. For example, in 1893 the Conference had valued the school at $30,000 (equivalent to $1,023,000 in 2024). However, by 1909 the school had been effectively closed for several years and the Conference decided to sell its assets and merge the school with another one.{{cite book |title=Annual of the Thirty-Ninth Annual Session of the Southwest Missouri Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South |date=1909 |publisher=Methodist Episcopal Church, South |url=https://archive.org/details/30885065.1909.emory.edu/ |access-date=5 April 2024}}
=Missouri Supreme Court decision=
During this time, William Edward Hall and his wife Martha Ellen Hall gave 1,600 acres (647.5 ha) of land in Texas to the Conference, to create an endowment for a learning institution in honor of their deceased son, John Winston Hall. Scarritt College created the endowment by selling the land for about $8,000. Over time and with interest, the endowment grew to about $14,000.
Scarritt College closed in 1909 with the creation of Scarritt-Morrisville College. The Hall family asked the Conference to divert the endowment to a fund to build a memorial church in honor of their son, in Carthage, Missouri. The Conference, which owned the church and school property, agreed. However, some of the Scarritt board of trustee members refused saying that when the money was originally given, the Halls specified that it be used for a learning institution, not a church.
In 1915, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled on this dispute (Catron v. Scarritt Collegiate Inst.), deciding that the endowment fund, which with time and interest was now $16,000 (equivalent to about $486,000 in 2024) should go to Morrisville-Scarritt College. It was used for the president's chair at that school.{{cite news |title=Scarritt College Endowment Suit Decided |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-neosho-times/29726214/ |access-date=5 April 2024 |work=The Neosho Times |date=22 April 1915 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240405223738/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-neosho-times/29726214/ |archive-date=5 April 2024 |page=1}}
Morrisville-Scarritt College (1909–1924)
With the merger in 1909, all of Scarritt College's property was sold and proceeds plus the endowment given to Morrisville College (which had in earlier years been Ebenezer College) in Morrisville, Missouri. The combined school was named Morrisville-Scarritt College.{{cite news |title=Ebenezer |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/springfield-leader-and-press/21685781/ |access-date=5 April 2024 |work=Springfield Leader and Press |date=20 December 1959 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240405223537/https://www.newspapers.com/article/springfield-leader-and-press/21685781/ |archive-date=5 April 2024 |page=46}}
Central Methodist College (1924–present)
{{Main|Central Methodist University}}
In 1924, Morrisville-Scarritt College merged with Central Methodist College of Fayette, Missouri. Coincidentally, one of the founders of Central Methodist College in 1853 was Rev. Nathan Scarritt.{{cite book |last1=Brenner |first1=Morgan G. |title=The Encyclopedia of College and University Name Histories |date=2003 |publisher=The Scarecrow Press, Inc. |location=Lanham, Maryland |isbn=0-8108-4849-X |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofco0000bren/ |access-date=5 April 2024}}{{cite web |title=The History of Central |url=https://centralmethodist.edu/about/historyofcentral.html |website=Central Methodist University |access-date=5 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240307032828/https://centralmethodist.edu/about/historyofcentral.html |archive-date=7 March 2024}}
Notes of interest
The Neosho School District purchased the property, and in 1916 the empty buildings were razed to make way for a new public high school for the city of Neosho.
Scarritt Collegiate Institute was attended by cowboy philosopher and humorist Will Rogers for a single semester in the late 1890s before his transfer to Kemper Military School in Boonville, Missouri.{{cite book |last1=Wertheim |first1=Arthur Frank |last2=Bair |first2=Barbara |title=The Papers of Will Rogers: Wild West and Vaudeville, Volume Two |date=2000 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |location=Norman, Oklahoma |isbn=0-8061-3267-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/papersofwillroge0002roge/ |access-date=5 April 2024}}
Notable alumni
- Harvey C. Clark, U.S. Army brigadier general{{cite book |editor-last=Conard |editor-first=Howard L. |date=1901 |title=Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri |volume=II |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tg_VAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA5 |location=St. Louis, MO |publisher=Southern History Company |page=6 |via=Google Books |ref={{sfnRef|Conard}}}}
- E. LeBron Fairbanks, college and seminary president
- Sue Thrasher, activist, writer and educator{{authority control}}