Kemper College

Nineteenth-century college named for the Rt. Rev. Jackson Kemper, the first Missionary Bishop of the Episcopal Church. Kemper had concluded that the only hope for supplying the west with clergy was to train westerners in the west. On Jan. 13, 1837, a charter for a college was granted with the qualification that the trustees would not use the name Missouri College, which had been agreed upon by the trustees and Bishop Kemper. In Kemper's absence, the trustees named the school Kemper College. In Apr. 1837 a 125-acre site was purchased. It was five miles from St. Louis. The college opened its doors on Oct. 15, 1838. In 1840 a medical school was opened. The school closed on Apr. 1, 1845, because of indebtedness.