History

Ewing High School was founded by a small group from the Baptist Church of Ewing, IL. Dr. John Washburn was the first president of the high school.  The school used the church for classrooms until a building could be built.  When the founders chartered the school and looked for a building site, they decided to create a college.  The bulletin states that Ewing College provided “an education more distinctively Christian than is obtainable elsewhere.”  To meet the diverse needs of a small community, it offered seven departments—collegiate, academic, normal, divinity, law, business, and music.  It offered four-year programs leading to a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degrees, but it also allowed students the opportunity to attend college taking only such elective courses as their background would warrant. 

 

The bulletin notes that the school sponsored two literary societies—Pythagorean and Logessian.  Ewing College awarded five prizes each year in oration, declamation, and essay writing—one of the essays in Latin.  The Mary Elizabeth Bryan Prize was donated by her son William Jennings Bryan. 

 

Through the years the college maintained an enrollment of around 300 students—323 total in 1900—and the town of Ewing grew up around the college.  Ewing College provided training for most of the preachers and teachers of the area.

 

In 1910-11, what Prince calls the golden age of the school, it experienced a rupture between those wanting a more closely aligned Baptist school and those who did not.  This rupture cost the school its president, four faculty members and fifty students.  Prince felt that the school never fully recovered.

 

During World War I, many families had to move from the area, and many students went into service.  The Baptist decided to close the college in 1925.