Mary Kimball Morgan

Mary Kimball Morgan (8 December 1861 – 13 October 1948) was an American educator and the founder of The Principia, a K–12 school in St. Louis, Missouri, and Principia College, a four year college in Elsah, Illinois.

Biography

Nellie May Kimball, who went by Mary, was born in Janesville, Wisconsin on December 8, 1861.[1][2] Her family moved to St. Louis when she was six years old, where she went to school and was active in the Methodist Church.[3][4] She planned on attending college but was prevented by health issues. She married William Edgar Morgan in December of 1885, but her health continued to decline rapidly.[4] She joined the Christian Science Church in St. Louis and in 1896 became a practitioner.[5]

She began homeschooling her two sons, and soon was asked by other parents at her church to teach their children as well. She opened a home school in October 1898, hiring an assistant to teach the older children, and teaching the younger ones herself. Morgan called her school The Principia. In 1910 she added a two-year college, one of the first in America, which expanded to a four year college in 1932.[4]

Kimball served as president of the school and college until 1937 when her son Frederic took over and she was named president emeritus.[2] She died 13 October 1948.[1]

References
  1. McHenry, Robert (1980). Liberty's Women. Springfield, MA: G. & C. Merriam Co. p. 292. ISBN 978-0-87779-064-8.
  2. "Morgan Family Photograph Collection". The Principia.
  3. Bednarowski, Mary Farrell (2008). The Westminster handbook to women in American religious history. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press. p. 154. ISBN 978-0-664-22454-7.
  4. Edgerly, Lois Stiles (1994). Women's Words, Women's Stories. Gardiner, ME: Tilbury House. pp. 478–479. ISBN 978-0-88448-143-0.
  5. Tinling, Marion (1986). Women Remembered: a guide to landmarks of women's history in the United States. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. p. 202. ISBN 978-0-313-23984-7.

Further reading
  • Edwin S. Leonard Jr. (1948). As the Sowing: The First Fifty Years of The Principia.
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