Elias Marks
Elias Marks founded the South Carolina Female Collegiate Institute at Barhamville, South Carolina. The girls' school flourished for over 30 years in the antebellum period, pioneering in higher education for young women. Marks was born in Charleston and earned an M.D. at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City. He soon switched from medicine to a career in female education. Marks published writings on medical and educational themes as well as a book of poems. He "was esteemed by all as a scholar and a gentleman."
Early life and education
Marks was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1790. His parents, Humphrey and Frances Marks, had come from Lancashire, England in 1783 and worshipped at Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim Synagogue in Charleston. The Marks family was in a group of Jews "invited to Carolina by the indigo and rice planters... to invest money in mortgages on plantations along the seaboard." He likely received his early education at one of several private schools run by Jews in Charleston. The family owned a store in Columbia and lived above it. Marks converted to Christianity early in life, after being inspired by the Methodist faith of his African American nurse. He attended the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City and graduated in 1815 as a medical doctor.New York after medical school
After graduation from medical school, Marks conducted "a drug store in New York City for a few years." He was "for a time associated in practice with Dr. Valentine Mott", a prominent New York surgeon.He published his inaugural dissertation in 1815. It reviews the mind-stomach connection and is "as much a study in psychology as it was in physiology."
Marks married Jane Barham in 1816. Born in Lincolnshire England, she was a Christian and "a teacher who shared his commitment to the development of women's intellectual abilities."
In 1817, Marks published an English translation of the aphorisms of Hippocrates, based on a Latin text. It is dedicated to the South Carolina botanist Stephen Elliot, who had an intellectual circle in Charleston.
He belonged to the Physio-Medical Society and gave a speech to them on the "sophistication of medical theory" in 1817. This speech was published in a 15-page booklet.
Medical and educational career in Columbia S.C.
In 1819, Marks and his wife returned to South Carolina but to Columbia instead of Charleston. During the 1820s, his parents and brother also moved to Columbia. "Columbia's early Jews found a warm reception in their new town. Many Jews, including... educator Dr. Elias Marks... were viewed by their neighbors as important people with powerful connections."Elias and Jane worshiped at Trinity Episcopal Church in Columbia. He and Jane "soon became aware of an urgent need in this state for the higher education of women." They became principals at Columbia Female Academy by 1821. Jane and Elias had four children before she died in 1827. None of Jane's children survived to adulthood.
Marks continued his involvement with the medical profession for a while, giving an 1821 speech to the Medical Board of Columbia SC. The Medical Board published the speech as a 7-page pamphlet "Discourse on the progress of medical science".
In 1826, he asked the S. C. legislature to fund an institution of higher learning for young women. The proposal was considered inexpedient, so he decided to undertake "singly... that, which was deemed inexpedient for the many". He proceeded to open the South Carolina Female Institute in 1828 without support from the government or a church organization. "Very probably this was the first women's college in the South."
While formally named the "South Carolina Female Institute" in 1828, the school was often casually called the "Barhamville Institute/School/Academy/College/Female Seminary" or simply "Barhamville." The South Carolina government agreed in 1835 to elevate the school's title to "Collegiate Institute", making it the "South Carolina Female Collegiate Institute." At that time, the formal title of "College" was restricted to institutions for male students.
The Barhamville Institute was often praised over the years. "Few southern institutions received as much recognition as the... Institute." It was the "best girls' school in the South, so it would seem". "...it was the first and only school of its character at the South. It was of a very high class..."
Marks published the first edition of "Hints on Female Education" in 1828. In it, Marks argued that "men and women were equal in intellectual gifts but that those gifts found different expression." He makes a Christian argument that female education is necessary for "enlarging and strengthening the moral and intellectual faculty" of women. There must have been significant interest in the book because it went through two more editions in 1837 and 1851 with substantial changes in each re-issue. His educational philosophy was influenced by Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, and Maria Edgeworth.
In 1829, Marks announced that the Institute had hired Mrs. Julia Ann Pierpont Warne, principal of a girls' school at Sparta, Georgia. She was a Christian and the still-young widow of attorney Richard Henry Warne, who died in 1824. Julia was trained by the feminist educator Emma Willard, founder of the first school for women's higher education. Like Jane, Julia was deeply committed to women's education and was described as "of deep religious feeling—hospitable, generous, dignified." Marks and Julia married in 1832. "The credit for Barhamville's success should be shared almost equally by the two of them." Elias and Julia had six children.
Marks published various educational materials, such as his "Questions Analytically Adapted", which was written as a supplement to Samuel Whelpley's history textbook.
South Carolina Female Collegiate Institute at Barhamville
Marks selected a location with over 500 acres two miles outside of Columbia for his new school and named it "Barhamville" after his deceased first wife Jane. The spot was selected because the sandhills there were considered healthier than downtown Columbia and it was distant from the distractions of the town. "The house was situated on an elevated knoll in the pine woods, surrounded by a beautiful drive and gardens in a state of high cultivation." The main building had a three-story center structure with a cellar and wings off to each side. The North wing was made of wood, three stories high with a basement of brick. The South wing was all brick and two stories high with a cellar. There were stand-alone structures for the chemistry lab, teacher housing, and the like. Marks and his wife lived in the central building, which had an entrance hall complete with African American butler and "a broad, circular stairway with mahogany balustrades." The student dormitories and classrooms were in the wings.The Institute had upper and lower chapels. Each year there would be a different chaplain, rotating among the Protestant denominations of the South. Church attendance was mandatory. The Barhamville Institute was not connected to or supported by any particular denomination.
There were two or four girls in each bedroom with curtains partitioning the room. The students ordinarily wore "hoop skirts, kid slippers with flat heels, long tightly laced corsets, and cotton dresses." They would switch to silk dresses with cashmere or silk shawls for more formal events. Exercise was mostly confined to walking and practicing quadrilles. Students received visitors in the parlor or library; rules forbade any male visitors other than relatives such as brothers and cousins.
Marks sought out top-notch teachers, often from Europe or Northern states, and paid them well. Eugene Dovilliers and Sophie Sosnowski were among the teachers. The students came mostly from South Carolina and mostly from the wealthy planter class. Among the prominent students were Anna Maria Calhoun Clemson, Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, Elizabeth Allston Pringle, and Theresa Jones. Ann Pamela Cunningham, another student, founded the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, which rescued George Washington's home.
Enrollment fluctuated between 100 and 200 students. Board and tuition were $200 in the 1850s for a collegiate year, but the optional fees could raise that considerably.
Marks' circular for the school dated 1855-1856 shows the curriculum. There was a preparatory year and then four years of collegiate classes. The classes included mathematics, sciences, history, philosophy and literature. Literature was taken seriously. "Don't read light fiction, he warned his hearers; cultivate your literary taste; nurse your spiritual welfare."
Around 1847, the school published several issues of the Barhamville Register, "perhaps the earliest literary publications by an educational institution for women." "The important thing about The Barhamville Register is not that the verse was poor or that its essays lacked originality but that it existed at all."
Drawing, painting, music, and languages were available as optional courses. The music classes and performances were particularly important.
It was not solely intellectual work running Barhamville Institute. On one occasion, Marks used his shotgun to chase away disruptive students who arrived at Barhamville from a nearby male college. He slightly wounded one student with a shotgun pellet. The student's flintlock misfired when he attempted to return fire on Marks. On at least two occasions, Marks advertised for the return of runaway slaves. Another time he did damage control in the newspaper after rumors spread of an affair between two staff members. The Barhamville school term ended early in 1854 when a student died of typhoid, the first student death at the school in 18 years. Marks grew mulberry trees on the Barhamville property for the Southern silkworm industry during the M. multicaulis craze of the 1830s.
The insignia of the South Carolina Female Collegiate Institute combined a six-pointed star and a triangle. The Latin motto was "Qualem decet esse sororum", "Such as sisters ought to be". It was a quote from the Metamorphoses of Ovid, book 2.