Rhonda, There is a good article pertaining to the Woodson Institute on page 246 of the 1973 History of Ray County. The article includes a picture of the building which is no longer standing. The following is taken from the article. However, if you can get to a copy of the history such as by visiting the Ray County Museum, which also has artifacts from the institute, that would be much more informative than what I have extracted here. "In 1889 the Plattsburg Methodist church district of which churches in Ray County were members, met in Excelsior Springs. It was decided to build a school of higher learning in the district. Richmond made the largest pledge of money and grounds, therefore was selected as the site. The five acres upon which the present Woodson grade school (now Woodson-Deere School) stands and the football field is situated were given by Thomas D. Woodson and the school was named in his honor. (The site is at the intersection of E. Main St. and S. Institute St. in Richmond.) Grades one through twelve were taught, the last four years constituted a "prep" school for Central College, Fayette, and Missouri University, Columbia. Although this was a Methodist-sponsored school, it was nonsectarian in student acceptance practice. However, all students had to attend chapel every morning and have a copy of the Bible in their desk for reference. The school began classes in 1890. Mrs. Arthur Chenault (Louise Hughes), a graduate of Woodson, said: 'We had an excellent and demanding course of study. Four years of French, Latin, English, science, zoology, biology, advanced math, including calculus-not to mention music, art, literary societies and sports. When I later attended Christian College I found I had already completed many of the courses offered.' ... However, the Methodist conference was in financial difficulties and withdrew its support in 1914. The local churches did not feel they could continue the school without outside help and after a bitter battle it was voted to sell the $40,000 investment to the Richmond school district for $10,000 in 1915. ..." As noted above, I have omitted a bit of the article. Nevertheless, I hope that it answers your questions. Carter Rogers -----Original Message----- From: Ronda McCrary <[email protected]> To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Date: Saturday, November 03, 2001 8:20 PM Subject: [MORAY-CGA] Woodson Institute >Hello. Does anyone have any information about "Woodson" Institute, in Richmond? I have a Graduation announcement for my Great Uncle, Samuel Jewel Clark, 1914 Senior Class of Woodson Institute. Was it a Preparatory School? When was it in operation, where was it located, what was it's main purpose? As far as I know, all of the other children in this family attended public school. Thanks for any information you can give, Ronda McCrary > > >==== MORAY-CGA Mailing List ==== >Ray County Missouri was created in 1821 from Howard County. _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com