Lucy Cobb Institute Trustees extract, 1881 November 5

Summary

Creator:
Lucy Cobb Institute (Athens, Ga.). Board of Trustees
Date:
1881 November 5
Extent:
1 folder(s)
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

Lucy Cobb Institute Trustees extract, MS 1310. Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, The University of Georgia Libraries.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection consists of an extract from a called meeting of the Trustees of the Lucy Cobb Institute dated 5 November 1881. The extract deals with thanking Mr. George Seney for his contribution of ten thousand dollars for the erection of the chapel at the Lucy Cobb Institute.

Biographical / historical:

The Lucy Cobb Institute, a secondary school for young women in Athens, was founded in 1859 by Thomas R.R. Cobb, a prominent lawyer and proslavery writer. Between 1880 and 1928 Cobb's niece Mildred Lewis Rutherford, a Lucy Cobb graduate, taught at the school. She served as principal for twenty-two of those years. Rutherford's work in women's clubs, most significantly the United Daughters of the Confederacy, made her one of the best-known women in Georgia of her day. Her national reputation as a historian of the Civil War (1861-65) and the Old South brought the school widespread recognition and respect.

For more information, see the article Mildred Lewis Rutherford in the New Georgia Encyclopedia.

In 1880, shortly after Mildred Rutherford became principal of the Lucy Cobb Institute (a college for girls founded in 1858), she recognized the need for a chapel for the religious services of the school. She initiated a fund-raising campaign by having students contact prominent philanthropists. Nellie Stovall wrote to George I. Seney, who had given to both Emory University and Wesleyan College. Seney contributed a significant amount, under the condition that the citizens of Athens contribute the remaining sum needed. This was quickly done. Construction was begun and the cornerstone of the Seney-Stovall Chapel was laid in May 1882. The chapel was used for graduation exercises, as a recital hall, for lectures, plays, pageants, concerts and cultural events of all sorts. -- The Carl Vinson Institute of Government website. (http://www.cviog.uga.edu/about/chapel/history.php) Retrieved 2/13/2009.

Access and use restrictions

Preferred citation:

Lucy Cobb Institute Trustees extract, MS 1310. Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, The University of Georgia Libraries.