Image credit: David Seibert

Year Erected: 1957

Marker Text:  In 1857, the Legislature authorized a lottery to complete this college, chartered in 1838 as Fort Gaines Female Institute. It was finished in 1859. Sereno Taylor was the first principal, followed by John W. Grant. The large college building was used for a “tax-in–kind” depot -- for storage of one-tenth of all food and wool raised -- for the support of the Confederate Army. At the close of the war, Confederate soldiers distributed contents of this and two other local warehouses to families in this area before Federal troops arrived. Used for a time as barracks for Federal soldiers, it became again an important educational center. The school closed after an epidemic of typhoid fever.