Erskine College History
The Early Years
Erskine’s history began with the opening of a school in Due West, South Carolina, on February 1, 1836. The previous year, the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church had authorized the school, appointed John S. Pressly as principal, and directed that an application be made for incorporation. The school provided a classical education designed for young men pursuing further study, including those preparing for the ministry.
In November 1836, the ARP Synod organized a theological department alongside the school’s existing classical instruction and, by 1837, was making plans to expand the school into an institution “at which a thorough course of education, both literary and theological, can be obtained.”1 South Carolina incorporated the institution as Clark and Erskine Seminary in 1837.
Synod’s resolution to expand the institution took shape in 1839 when the existing Literary Department established a complete four-year curriculum. At that time, Synod appointed Ebenezer Erskine Pressly as the institution’s first president and enlarged the faculty to support the expanded course of study.
Erskine held its first graduation in 1842. By that year, the name Erskine College appeared in institutional publications and public notices. In 1850, South Carolina granted a charter to “The Trustees of Erskine College,” providing the established college with a fuller corporate structure.
During the mid-nineteenth century, the College and Seminary developed distinct administrative arrangements. The Seminary became separately organized in the late 1850s and received its own incorporation in 1863. Both continued the educational work that had developed from the original school at Due West.
Post-war Renewal and Women’s Education
The Civil War interrupted the College’s work and depleted its resources. After the war, supporters helped restore its finances and develop the campus. New academic appointments, renewed interest in literary societies, and an auditorium completed in 1892 strengthened Erskine’s teaching and its place in the cultural life of the surrounding region.
Women’s education also became an important part of Erskine’s legacy. Associate Reformed Presbyterian ministers and laymen independently established Due West Female College in 1859. Later known as the Woman’s College of Due West, it came under the denomination’s oversight in 1904. Erskine began admitting women in 1894 and became officially coeducational in 1899.
Accreditation and Consolidation
The 1920s brought the educational traditions the Seminary, the College, and the Woman’s College together. Plans for consolidation helped secure accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges in 1925. The Seminary reunited with the College in 1926, and the Woman’s College merged with Erskine in 1927. The Seminary served as the institution’s graduate theological school while the Woman’s College contributed its own history and educational legacy to the combined institution.
The Modern Era
During World War II, Erskine served as a cadet training school for the United States Army Air Corps. A substantial enrollment effort in the late 1950s brought Erskine’s undergraduate enrollment to over 700 students throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s.
Erskine began offering seminary courses at off-campus locations in the 1980s as well as arranging class schedules to accommodate commuting students. Since that time, students from many backgrounds—Presbyterian, Baptist, AME, Methodist, Pentecostal, and non-denominational—have joined students from the ARP Church to receive training for ministry. Distance education (now Erskine Online) was launched in the 1990s. In 2010 the Columbia campus was approved to offer complete seminary degree programs.
In Fall 2022, Erskine’s total student population topped 1,000 for the first time in the institution’s history. Erskine continues to grow and thrive in today’s atmosphere of accelerating change. Affirming the Christian faith on which Erskine was founded, we remain dedicated to offering an education that will prepare students well for lives of service and leadership.
1Synod minutes, 1837, p. 15; Synod minutes, October 8, 1838, p. 3.
