My Genealogy Hound

Mrs. Myra C. Warner. No true history of this section could fail to make mention of this esteemed lady, whose connection with the affairs of Arkansas Female College, of Little Rock, has given her wide and honorable acquaintance. As early as 1872 a number of prominent citizens of this place began to see the necessity of establishing a school where their daughters might be educated, and at the same time be kept within the circle of home influence. The result of their efforts was the establishment of the Arkansas Female College. Twelve directors were selected, of whom Hon. G. A. Garland was president, Judge William C. Ratcliff, secretary, and Dr. J. H. McAtamont, treasurer. In order to insure the confidence of the public, the Methodist Conference was asked to take the school under its management, and make it a Conference school. Dr. Winfield, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was elected financial agent; Gen. L. M. Lewis, president of the faculty, and Mrs. M. C. Warner, principal. The president of the faculty has always been president in name, and Mrs. M. C. Warner has adjusted the school affairs. At the end of four years Gen. L. M. Lewis resigned, since which time the subject of this sketch has found all the duties incident to an institution of this kind devolving upon her. The Methodist Episcopal Conference withdrew their interest also, but Mrs. Warner has remained faithfully at her post of duty, true to the cause of education, in which she glories, and in which she is spending her life. She has seen over sixty of the daughters of many of the best families in Arkansas graduate from her school, and the alumni in the early years of the school has always been kept up—the only successful alumni in the State. The successive presidents of the school board have been Hon. G. A. Garland, Maj. Blocker, Judge English and Hon. J. G. Fletcher. The person to whom the true honor of the fame of Arkansas Female College is due is Mrs. Myra C. Warner, the present principal, and the only one of the original members still identified with it. She is a native of New York State, born in 1833, and grew to womanhood there, graduating from Alfred University with two degrees, A. B. and A. M. Ten years from that time the school conferred the degree of D. D. upon her also. She came to Little Rock in 1852, taught a private school for two years, and then went North. She returned after the war, opened a private school, and taught the same until she became principal of Arkansas Female College. Mrs. Warner is a woman eminent as an educator, and in scholarly attainments has no equal in the State. She is Scotch-Irish on her father’s side, and on that side, too, is related to the Carrolls, of Carrollton. On the mother’s side she is connected with the Huntingtons. She and her people are strict Presbyterians.