Union University - Jackson, Tennessee - Universities and Colleges on Waymarking.com

Union University is an heir of three antebellum Tennessee schools—West Tennessee College and its predecessor, Jackson Male Academy, both located at Jackson, and of Union University, located at Murfreesboro—and it is the inheritor of another college in 1927, Hall-Moody Junior College of Martin, Tennessee.

Jackson Male Academy, founded in 1823 shortly after the opening of West Tennessee for settlement, was chartered by the legislature in 1825, making it the oldest school currently affiliated with Southern Baptist life.

Meanwhile, after years of discussion and the raising of an endowment, the Baptists of Middle Tennessee (there were three separate conventions in Tennessee at that time) in 1848 established Union University at Murfreesboro, near the geographical center of the state. Union University came upon hard times when in 1859 its highly respected president, Dr. Eaton, died and when during the Civil War its campus was badly damaged. It reopened in 1868 only to close again in 1873, largely because of its financial condition and an epidemic of cholera.

Southwestern Baptist University, the immediate predecessor of the present Union University, originated because of a desire by Tennessee Baptists, who still had a separate convention for each of the state’s three Grand Divisions, for greater unification. Education became the core issue around which such unification was promoted. Committees of the three conventions met jointly in Humboldt in 1873 and issued a resolution supporting the establishment of a first-class regional university. An Educational Convention met in Murfreesboro in 1874, and following that a committee was appointed to select a location for the proposed university. The committee recommended the acceptance of the offer made by the citizens of Jackson to assume ownership of West Tennessee College.

In September 1874, the new institution opened at Jackson as an academy, and in 1875 it was chartered as Southwestern Baptist University. In 1907, Dr. T. T. Eaton, a trustee at Southwestern from its beginning, bequeathed his 6,000 volume library to the college. He was a former professor at Union University at Murfreesboro, where his father, Dr. Joseph H. Eaton, had been president. Shortly thereafter the name of Southwestern Baptist University was changed to Union University to honor the Eatons and others from Union at Murfreesboro who had made a major impact on Southwestern as faculty, administrators, trustees, and contributors. In a further move to unify its educational efforts, the Tennessee Baptist Convention in 1925 secured a new charter which vested all rights, authority, and property of Union University in the Convention, including the election of the University’s trustees. Two years later, the Convention was able to consolidate Hall-Moody Junior College at Martin (1900-1927) with Union University. During the 1920s, Union discontinued its graduate program, its Law Department, and its high school and added a bachelor of music degree program.

After a major fire in 1912, several new buildings were constructed, including the centerpiece of the campus for the next 60 years, Barton Hall. In 1948 the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools granted Union University its original accreditation. In 1962, at the request of local physicians, Union developed a nursing program with the assistance of Jackson-Madison County General Hospital.

Because of an aging and landlocked campus, Union, in 1975, moved from near downtown to a new campus located along Highway 45-Bypass in north Jackson.

Name: Union University Location/Address: 1050 Union University Drive Jackson, TN United States 38305 Web Site: [Web Link] Type of School: Undergraduate School with Graduate Programs School Affiliation: Private -- Other (specify in description) Date Founded: 1823 Enrollment: 3,000 Nicknames/Mascots: Bulldogs School Colors: red and white Location of GPS Coordinates: south entrance Phone Number: Not listed School Motto: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
Post one original photograph of the school that is a different view from the one on the main page, and describe your visit. Add any additional information that you may have about this school is welcome.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log User Rating   10/18/2007 Titansfan visited it

View all visits/logs