HENDERSON FEMALE COLLEGE. Henderson Female College, in Henderson, opened in August 1849. It was officially approved by the state legislature on January 28, 1856. Among the citizens of Rusk County placed in charge of the school were Mathew D. Ector, Malcolm D. Graham, William Wright Morris,qqv A. B. Graham, and C. C. Shumate. Shumate served as principal from 1849 through 1855. Little else is known about the college, except that it was privately owned. It was probably destroyed on December 5, 1866, by a tornado.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Donald W. Whisenhunt, The Encyclopedia of Texas Colleges and Universities (Austin: Eakin, 1986). Dorman H. Winfrey, A History of Rusk County (Waco: Texian, 1961).
Ann Hudson
