COLD SPRINGS FEMALE INSTITUTE. Cold Springs Female Institute, also known as Cold Springs Female Academy, was at Coldspring, at a site then part of Polk County but later in San Jacinto County. The school was incorporated on February 7, 1853, and opened under the guidance of Daniel Webster Steele in 1854. Four years later Steele moved to Pennington College in Trinity County, and B. T. Fore took over the school. Although the act of incorporation provided that the school be nonsectarian, the Tryon Baptist Association was providing support for the academy by 1858. The institute closed in 1861 due to a lack of patronage.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Aline T. Rothe, History of Education in Polk County (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1934). Carl Bassett Wilson, History of Baptist Educational Efforts in Texas, 1829-1900 (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas, 1934).

Robert Wooster