This Week in Texas Methodist History January 7

Huntsville Welcomes James Follansbee as President of New College, January 1853

When Texas Methodists wished to establish schools and colleges, it was necessary to recruit leadership from the northern states.  The southern states had not supported education to the extent that the northern states had.  A case in point is the recruitment of James Morrill Folansbee to be the first principal of Andrew Female College in Huntsville.  The college was founded by the Texas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South at its 1852 Annual Conference.  It brought in Follansbee (1823-1900) to be the first president. 

Follansbee was born in Washington, D. C.  His father, Joseph, once served as Door Keeper for the House of Representatives and served on the D. C. Common Council.  James attended Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA and Columbia Medical School in Washington.  He taught several years in Tennessee.  He was admitted on trial to the Texas Conference in January, 1849 and was appointed to Gonzales.  $ years later he became head of Andrew Female College.  He then transferred to Soule University as professor of languages.  When Soule fell on hard times he went back to Washington, D. C. where he rejoined the Baltimore-Washington Conference.  He returned to academia with his appointment as president of Johnson Female College in Union, West Virginia, and then as president of Charleston (W. Va.) Female College.  

Follansbee married Eliza Stevens of Ohio, and they had several children.  They named one of their sons James Soule Follansbee.