Custodial History

This ledger, which contains the meeting minutes of the Farmville Female College Board of Trustees, was donated to the Longwood University Office of Alumni Relations by Susan Paul, a descendant of one of the school trustees. This collection was transferred to the Greenwood Library Archives in 2021.

Biographical / Historical

Founded in 1839 as the Farmville Female Seminary, Farmville Female College was the second incarnation of the institution now known as Longwood University. The school, which was then owned by stockholders and governed by a Board of Trustees, had been flourishing in the years leading up to the Civil War. However, in the immediate aftermath of the war and through the early years of Reconstruction, the school fell into a prolonged period of financial difficulty. During these years, Farmville Female College was initially under the immediate supervision of Arnaud Preot, a Frenchman who had joined the faculty in 1860 and taken over the presidency subsequent to the retirement of George La Monte in 1862. In 1869, when Preot took a position at Danville Female College, the helm of the Farmville Female College was given briefly to S.F. Nottingham who only remained in the position for one year. Nottingham was followed by Francis Marion Edwards and James D. Crawley, both of whom also only lasted one year. It was at this point that the Farmville Female College Board of Trustees made the decision to sell the school and dissolve the corporation.

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of a ledger containing the meeting minutes of the Farmville Female College Board of Trustees from 1865 to 1873. Contained in these pages is information related to the school's struggle after the end of the Civil War as well as information regarding faculty and students during these years. Finally, the ledger contains information related to the Board of Trustee's decision to dissolve the corporation which owned the College and sell the school buildings and property.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Farmville Female College
• Female seminaries
• Reconstruction -- Virginia -- Prince Edward County
• Women -- Education