Alexander Sloan Townes
Southern Baptists of Georgia are buttressed in their support of the Confederacy by a recent article written by Samuel Boykin, editor of Georgia Baptist’s Christian Index. Laying claim to the goodness of the war, Boykin declares the “object” of the war is “good – to save the soul and bless the world.” Likewise, the “end” goal of the war is “good – life, peace, joy, eternal rest.”
Twenty year-old South Carolinian Alexander Sloan Townes believes the war a good cause as he enlists with the state’s Hampton’s Legion today. The young Baptist fights valiantly and survives the war. Near Lynchburg when Robert E. Lee surrenders at Appomattox, Townes returns home and reports of Lee’s surrender. Upon hearing the news, his mother screams and his father insists upon believing that only a portion of the general’s army had laid down their arms.
Remaining devoted to the cause that was that of the Confederacy, Townes nonetheless becomes an educator. In succession he serves as president of the Baptist Female College in Rome, Georgia (later Shorter College), Curryton Academy (South Carolina), and Greenville Female College (South Carolina). The latter school is located a mile from Baptists’ Furman College, and the two institutions, while not formally related, maintain close relations. Townes is a dedicated member of First Baptist Church of Greenville. In 1894 he calls upon South Carolina Baptists to embrace the equality of the sexes in education by merging the Female College and Furman. Yet not until 1933 does a merger take place, the result of financial problems at the (now) Greenville Woman’s College.
Sources: “War a Good Warfare,” Christian Index, June 5, 1861; Alexander Townes biography (link); Furman’s Merger With Greenville Woman’s College (link)
