Southern Baptist educational institutions are falling upon hard financial times. Many students have marched off to war, while funding is shrinking as the war drags on into winter.
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Greenville, South Carolina is among the struggling institutions. The seminary is now scrambling to secure enough funding to remain solvent, while assisting in the financial support of the Confederate government. Notices in Baptist newspapers implore investors in the seminary to take action.
Elder A. Broaddus, Agent of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary at Greenville, South Carolina, requests us to say to all concerned, that if they will send the amount of their Bonds, or any part of it, to Elder Thos. E. Skinner of this place, Brother S. will receipt for the same, and on reporting to Brother Broaddus the Bonds will be forwarded, or the amount, if only in part, be credited. It is very desirable that collections be made; inasmuch as the Institution is sustained exclusively by the interest; the money being invested, as fast as collected, in Confederate State Stock, that the money may be applied to the defence of our country, and the interest to the support of the Professorship.
Hopes are high at this time for the Southern nation, but it won’t be long before Confederate stock and currency succumbs to runaway inflation. The seminary, by investing in the Confederacy, is inadvertently adding fuel to an escalating financial fire that will force it to close its doors for the duration of the war.
Source: “Greenville Theological Seminary,” Biblical Recorder, December 18, 1861 (link); image (link)
