DuBose Memorial Church Training School, Monteagle, Tennessee

This school was one of the recognized theological seminaries of the Episcopal Church. It operated from Sept. 21, 1921, until Aug. 1944. It was founded by the Rev. William Sterling Claiborne (1877-1933) to train men for ordained ministry in rural areas. It was named in honor of William Porcher DuBose, late dean and professor at the School of Theology of the University of the South. The campus of Fairmont College, a school for young ladies that closed in 1917, was purchased and remodeled. The DuBose School concentrated on practical training among the mountain people of Tennessee but also taught church history, scripture, doctrine, worship, sociology, Christian education, and church administration. Tuition was kept low because the students did all the work on the campus and ran a farm. About 275 students from at least seventy-five dioceses in the United States and the Caribbean attended the school before World War II caused a declining enrollment. After the school closed, the property was sold to the Diocese of Tennessee and turned into the DuBose Conference Center. The assets were made into a scholarship fund for candidates thirty-two years and older to attend an Episcopal seminary. See DuBose, William Porcher.