Elizabeth female academy

The Elizabeth Female Academy, founded in 1818 in Washington, Mississippi, was named for Mrs. Elizabeth Roach (later Greenfield), its original benefactrix, who donated the land on which the school was located. [History of Education in Mississippi, Edward Mayes, 1899, page 38] It received its charter from the State Assembly on February 17, 1819. Although female education in the Mississippi territory dates to 1801 with Rev. David Ker's public school for girls in nearby Natchez, the Elizabeth Female Academy was its first female college and is said to be the first degree-conferring state-chartered school for women in America. Sadly, the school closed in 1845 as the town of Washington, the original state capital, had long-since faded into oblivion after the seat of governance was removed to Jackson in the early 1820s. Today the spirit of the Elizabeth Female Academy and the over two-hundred year tradition of female education in Mississippi continues at the Mississippi University for Women located in Columbus, Mississippi. The ruins of the Elizabeth Female Academy are now maintained by the National Park Service as part of the Natchez Trace Parkway and may be visited at mile marker 5 just just before the terminus of the Trace at Natchez.

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