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Some feared that the recognition of women's intellectual capacities would bring about the destruction of the home and family but after the turn of the century, Texas Baptists generally assumed that mental activity was a providential substitute for the muscular work that had consumed women's time in the past. Education was the tool that would enable Christian women to deal with the complexity forced upon both sexes by modernity and to assist men in the monumental evangelistic task to which they both were committed. Although women were encouraged to attend first to the moral phase of their training, they were occasionally urged to enhance that with education at world-renowned universities. This unprecedented suggestion was made on the assumption that interaction at
"great centers of life and culture"fostered world-wide sympathies and a deeper sense of
"the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man,"
BS , August 21, 1913, p. 5.
corresponding with the outward thrust of missionary interest that had seized the denomination.Within their own schools, Baptists refined the idea of what it meant to be an educated woman. From an emphasis on domestic arts, music, art, religion, and a smattering of "academic" subjects, they added a strong literary focus in the 1890s, including recitation and oration. Girls commonly wrote compositions on a moral theme to read at public gatherings; for example, Annie Jenkins gave a speech entitled "A Moral Character, the only basis of Success" at her 1897 Baylor University graduation.
BS , July 1, 1897, pp. 10-11.
BS , February 2, 1893, p. 5.
"one of the ablest on this or any kindred subject."The new century brought an increased interest in health and hygiene; current events received more attention than they had previously, especially the events leading to and participation in World War I.BS , January 18, 1894, p. 2.
Baylor Female College, removed from Independence to Belton in 1886, did not accrue a financial endowment nor develop graduate programs as did Baylor University, but it built a substantial physical plant with several stone buildings during this period and was still on the upswing in 1920. The fact that it offered single-sex education and stressed a traditional female model made it a popular option, especially for rural girls. Owing principally to the work of Elli Moore Townsend, Baylor Female College introduced the "Cottage Home," a boarding house (later dormitory) run at low cost by the girls who occupied it, thus enabling poor girls to obtain a higher education.
"For years and years,"she pointed out in 1897,
"the brethren have provided a way for poor young men who were anxious for it to get an education, and especially have board and mess halls and other means been devised to help poor young preachers. But who has cared for poor girls?"
BS , July 15, 1897, p. 10.
Mrs. Townsend cared and made "Our Baylor" a special cause of the Baptist women of Texas.
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