Girardeau, John LaFayette

Influential citizens of Columbia, wanting “a southern theological seminary,” helped purchase the Ainsley Hall mansion to house the seminary. Following the model of Andover and Princeton theological seminaries, Columbia was a graduate professional institution with a three-year curriculum.

Sixteen German men constituted themselves as a social and mutual-assistance society to pay sick and death benefits, and allow members to borrow funds at low rates of interest. Almost immediately, German ethnicity was not necessary for membership, nor was the ability to speak German.