History of Piedmont College - The Early 1900s

The Early 1900s

Campbell resigned as president in 1907 after deciding he needed to rest more. The third president of the college became Henry Clinton Newell who originally came to Piedmont as a professor of science. Newell would also become the fifth president, coming out of retirement to help the college out. Most of Newell’s presidency focused on acquiring financial stability for the college. During Newell’s three years, he helped acquire the college’s first endowment fund. Newell resigned for many of the same reasons as his predecessors. He resigned because of his declining health.

In 1910, Frank Edwin Jenkins would become the fourth president of Piedmont College. Before becoming president, Jenkins served as the chair of the board of trustees. Where Newell focused heavily on finances, Jenkins focused his efforts on Piedmont’s growth and status as an education institution. His first major expansion of the college was acquiring new buildings and upgrading old buildings for a total of 37 usable buildings for the college’s use. All of the new expansions cost the college a large sum of money. Since there were no wealthy individual backers, most of the income came from numerous smaller donations. Another source of income, which Jenkins revamped to be more profitable was the College Farm, a 100-acre (0.40 km2) piece of land.

The Farm was successful in helping out all aspects of Piedmont. Food from the farm was served at meals, saving the college money. The farm also provided jobs to many male students for a large discount of tuition. The parts of the crops that were left after Piedmont used it’s share were sold in markets to raise money for the college.

In 1920 the academy, which was the primary schools, discontinued so more effort could be focused into turning Piedmont into a better college.