first coeducational college in the United States to award a degree to a female student. That year it granted degrees to two women, Alice Robinson and Catherine Hall.
In the beginning, Mississippi College was not church-related. For a number of years, it was affiliated with the Methodist and Presbyterian churches. Since 1850, Mississippi College has been affiliated with the Mississippi Baptist Convention, and the board of trustees oversees the institution.
=== Civil War and reconstruction ===
Classes were not held during the Civil War, and the buildings deteriorated. Many students joined with faculty, a school trustee and townspeople to form the Mississippi College Rifles, a company of the 18th Mississippi Infantry Regiment during the war years or signed up with other units.
In the half-century after the war, the college enrollment and campus slowly recovered. The college president Walter Hillman helped refurbish the buildings by securing Northern financing prior to being offered the college presidency. The …
