Johnson Female Seminary

In the year of 1872, the West Virginia Seminary was chartered and opened in Union as a boarding school. An addition was made to the first Union Methodist Church building that was built in 1831 and sold. It was enlarged to its present day size. The first principal was J.P Marshall. A lack of sufficient support and the Civil War caused the Seminary to be sold to Calab E. Johnson who renamed it the Johnson Female College and conducted it twelve years with success. The Johnson Female College was under the auspices of the Methodist Church. The first principal was J.M. Foollansbee. Miss M.R. Cabell was the head of the music dept. This academy provided a higher educational training to many who would have otherwise been deprived of this opportunity. Many of the students became teachers.

Mr. Johnson, a well known gentleman in this section of the state,had charge of the boarding department, and living in the college with his family, gave the assurance that the material wants of the students were met and supplied.

The Johnson Female College, located in Union, West Virginia, in a region noted for its healthfulness, in the midst of the celebrated mineral springs of Salt Sulphur Springs, a noted Resort prior to the Civil War. Union is twelve miles from the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, with which it was connected by a daily stage line.

In 1891, the Johnson Female College closed and the property was sold to Joseph Davidson from Mercer County, West Virginia.

Taken from Morton’s History of Monroe County