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Cedar Bluff College

Cedar Bluff College began in 1864 when William F. Whitesides, a Simpson County farmer, resolved to educate his two daughters in "a strictly select school in his own home." He soon assembled other pupils to study with his children and in 1867 obtained a state charter for the school.

Cedar Bluff College was housed in a large, two-story frame building on a high point of ground three miles southeast of Woodburn, Kentucky.  In order to receive "that care and solicitude of which young ladies should not be deprived while absent from the paternal roof," all students--usually between 50 and 80, from 8 or 9 states--were required to board at the college with the faculty.  Whitesides' dairy and large farm supplied their dining table.  Students might leave their rooms to stroll among the cedar-crowned bluffs, fresh springs, flowers and autumn fruits of the ten-acre campus, wading in the creek or collecting specimens for botany class, but were forbidden to venture farther unless chaperoned.  Cedar Bluff's catalogue described it as a "perfect Arcadia of quiet beauty," free from the "disturbing influences" of visits to town, young mens' attentions and local gossip transmitted through mere "day pupils."

On January 21, 1892 a fire destroyed the college.  The displaced students and faculty moved to Russellville, where they were absorbed by Logan Female College.

Warren College

Warren College in Bowling Green, Kentucky was chartered in 1866 under the patronage of the Louisville Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South.  Lack of funds, however, delayed its opening for six years.

Warren College was a Southern school.  Students were required to attend dressed in military gray, and were said to have forced the resignation of a faculty member when they discovered that he had voted for an African-American candidate for jailer.

By 1875, the future did not look promising.  The Louisville Conference had shifted its support to Vanderbilt University in Nashville and plans were under way in Bowling Green to open Ogden College, an endowed institution that would grant scholarships to young men from the county.  After suspending operations in June 1876 Warren College leased, then sold its property to Ogden College.