Marion is one of those old college towns with the gorgeous homes and a downtown still being used and tons of history…
Above is Judson College in Marion – it’s still church affiliated (it was founded by Baptists) and its first president went on to help establish Vassar in New York. Judson College has always been a woman-only institution and is the fifth oldest in the US. The Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame is here.
Above is the monument for Harry, a slave owned by the Howard College president. Harry heroically saved Howard students by awakening them from the burning of the main building the evening of October 15, 1854. He died in the fire as a consequence.
Howard College was founded for men by the Alabama Baptist State Convention as a counterpart to the all-female Judson College (and one of its presidents was my upteenth-cousin, J.L.M. Curry). Howard is now the co-ed Samford University in B’ham.
Harry’s story is told on the monument and it calls him a ‘consistent member of the Baptist church’.
And after the War, another college – Lincoln College (named after President Lincoln) – was formed to educate newly freed blacks and soon Lincoln Normal University for Teachers was added too. It was burned in the 1880s and became Alabama State in Montgomery. Coretta Scott, later Coretta Scott King, grew up here in Perry County and graduated from Lincoln. She was inducted into the AWHF at Judson in 2009.
Here are some other pics from the cemetery:
