History:

Oakland College, located in Claiborne County, Mississippi, was established by the Presbyterian Church in 1830. The college opened with three students under the presidency of Dr. Jeremiah Chamberlain. Oakland College was chartered by the Mississippi legislature in 1831 and soon became a flourishing institution.

Dr. Chamberlain was murdered by George A. Briscoe in 1851. There had been rumors circulating that Oakland College had Unionist sympathies, and one student had reportedly been expelled for anti-Unionist activity. Dr. Chamberlain's public denial of these rumors apparently provoked Briscoe’s actions.

Oakland College continued to operate until the Civil War. However, the depressed economic conditions of the post-war South hastened its decline. With the endowment lost and many of its former patrons impoverished, the Synod of Mississippi sold the college to the state of Mississippi. It is now the site of Alcorn State University. Nearly 2,000 students were educated at Oakland College.

Scope and Content:

This collection includes the personal correspondence of Dr. Jeremiah Chamberlain and James Archer concerning Oakland College, notes on the history of the college, various college catalogs and magazines, financial papers, miscellaneous papers, photographs, and newspaper clippings.

Box List:

• Box 1: Correspondence, 1830–1914.
• Box 2: Financial papers, miscellaneous papers, photographs, newspaper clippings, 1829–1876; n.d.
• Box 3: Catalogs, 1845-1867; addresses, discourses, poems, 1838–1859.
• Box 4: The Oakland College Magazine, 1855–1858.
• Box 5: Act of incorporation; newspaper clippings (oversized).

Provenance:

Presented by Chamberlain-Hunt Academy, Port Gibson, Mississippi, May 1979.