History of the College

Millsaps College was founded in 1890 by the Methodist Church as a "Christian college for young men." The philanthropy of Major Reuben Webster Millsaps and other Methodist leaders in Mississippi enabled the College to open two years later on the outskirts of Jackson, the state capital, a town of some 9,000 population. The beginnings were modest: two buildings, 149 students (two-thirds of whom were enrolled in a preparatory school), five instructors, and an endowment of $70,432. Fifty years later, the student body numbered 599 and the faculty had increased to 33. Women were admitted at an early date and the graduation of Sing Ung Zung of Soochow, China, in 1908, began a tradition of the College's influence outside the state.

By the time of its centennial celebration in 1990, enrollment at Millsaps had more than doubled with approximately one-half of the students coming from out of state. The quality of the liberal arts program was nationally recognized with the award of a Phi Beta Kappa chapter in 1988. A graduate program in business administration, begun in 1979, received national accreditation along with the undergraduate business program in 1990.

Millsaps' first president, William Belton Murrah, served until 1910. Other presidents were David Carlisle Hull (1910-1912), Dr. Alexander Farrar Watkins (1912-1923), Dr. David Martin Key (1923-1938), Dr. Marion Lofton Smith (1938-1952), Dr. Homer Ellis Finger, Jr. (1952-1964), Dr. Benjamin Barnes Graves (1965-1970), and Dr. Edward McDaniel Collins, Jr. (1970-1978). Dr. George Marion Harmon was named president in the fall of 1978.

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