Institutional History
Harbison Agricultural College began in 1885 when the Rev. Emory W. Williams of Washington, D.C. founded a school to educate young African Americans in Abbeville, S.C. It was named Ferguson Academy in honor of one of its benefactors, Rev. James H. Ferguson of the Presbyterian Church in Hanover, N.J. The Academy drew the attention of the Board of Missions for Freedmen of the United Presbyterian Church, an organization whose purpose was to “equip and maintain training schools and to train leaders most efficiently for the Negro community.” The Board assumed the debt and acquired legal title to the Academy in 1891 after one of the buildings burned before it could be completed. Rev. Williams left his position as president of the Academy in 1893, and in his place, the Board appointed Rev. Thomas A. Amos. When the school building was deemed unsafe in 1899, Samuel Harbison of Pennsylvania and a Board member, donated 20 acres of land outside of town. The school relocated to the expanded 87 acres in 1901 and was renamed Harbison College in his honor. Among the donors to the new school were Henry Phipps of Abbeville who donated money for a boys dormitory, the Women’s Missionary Societies of New Jersey who furnished the dormitory, and Mrs. Ira Condit who donated 500 books for the library. Mr. Harbison continued his financial support by purchasing an additional 200 acres of land for the college in 1903 and financed the building of Harbison Hall which would serve as the chapel and classroom building.
President Amos’ tenure at the school was difficult. Racial tension among African Americans and whites in Abbeville, as well as some rivalry with the Williams-Ferguson Academy which continued in Abbeville under the leadership of Rev. Williams, eventually caused Amos to resign in 1906. Rev. Calvin M. Young, a native of Due West, S.C. and then Pastor of Herman Presbyterian Church in Rock Hill, S.C., replaced Amos as President. Young closed the school briefly to assess the situation. In January 1907 the second of a series of fires struck the school, destroying the women’s dormitory (Ferguson Hall), one of four campus buildings. The school reopened with much smaller enrollment in February 1907.
On March 17, 1910 the third fire struck the school, when Harbison Hall was doused in kerosene and set ablaze. Three students were killed and another four or five were injured. In view of the uncertain and unhappy situation in Abbeville, the Board decided to relocate the school and settled on Irmo, S.C. for its new location. Mr. Harbison advanced $10,000 for the purchase of 445 acres of land. Several changes were affected by this move. First, the school went from being a co-educational institution to an all male school. Second, the name of the school was changed to Harbison Agricultural College, indicating the emphasis of the curriculum. In addition to agriculture, areas of instruction included literary, religion, and music.
Between 1913 and 1929 the College expanded through land purchases and donations. The school also purchased a church building once belonging to the Negro Baptists of Irmo and founded the Irmo Presbyterian Church. One of the other missions of the College was to promote the building of a Presbyterian Community. This was done through the “Farm Home Community” project. Parcels of land were sold off in small tracts of 25 acres or single acres for homes. In addition, the presence of the Irmo Parochial School, also led by the Presbyterian Mission attracted Presbyterians to the area. The college also owned the Harbison Farm where students could work to finance their education.
In 1929, the school changed its name to Harbison Agricultural and Industrial Institute. Unfortunately, the lack of equipment made it difficult for the school to offer full trade courses. Many students, however, were seeking curriculum which would allow for continuing higher education and the enrollment at the school began to decline.
Rev. Young resigned in 1919. He was replaced by Rev. James L. Hollowell, who died unexpectedly in October of that year. Rev. Young died shortly after Rev. Hollowell. Dean R. W. Boulware replaced Hollowell as interim president. In 1930, Rev. John G. Porter was appointed President by the Board. Due to the decreasing enrollment, Harbison Agricultural and Industrial Institute became a co-educational institution once again in 1933. The Irmo Parochial School, also maintained by the Board and residing on the HAII campus, was merged with the college.
On March 18, 1941 fire destroyed the main building of the college. The school closed during the 1941-1942 school year for rebuilding. When the school reopened in September 1943, it was for boarding students only. Rev. Porter as replaced by Dr. T. B. Jones as President. His wife, Vivian Young Jones, was the daughter of Rev. Calvin M. Young. Once again, primarily through donations and sales of land, the school began to expand. A new administration building was erected in 1944 and a new church in 1949.
In 1946 the school changed its name for the last time to Harbison Junior College. In 1952, the new church burned under unknown circumstances. In 1953 the Women’s dormitory building also burned. Once again the college had to rebuild. However, the declining enrollment, lack of accreditation and the lack of funds to make the necessary improvements to the college eventually led the Board to decide to close the institution in 1958. Students from the school transferred to other institutions, primarily the Boggs Academy in Keysville, Ga. and Barber Scotia College in Concord, N.C.
The buildings of the former College were leased for a time by the South Carolina Department of Corrections. In 1970, the Board of the National Missions of the Presbyterian Church decided to use the land for socially relevant purposes. To that end, 19.5 acres of land and the remaining college buildings were donated to Midlands Technical College – Harbison Center in 1978.
Chronology
| Year | Description |
| 1885 | Ferguson Academy founded in Abbeville by Rev. Mr. Emory W. Williams [a] |
| 1886 | School has an enrollment of 66 students [a] |
| 1890 | Multipurpose building burns [a, d] |
| 1891 | School has an enrollment of 115 students [a, d] Ownership of school transferred to Board of Missions [d] |
| 1892 | Rev. Williams resigns [d] Thomas H. Amos becomes president of Ferguson Academy [a] School has faculty of 5 and enrollment of 134 [d] |
| 1899 | School building is condemned as unsafe and rebuilt [d] |
| 1900 | School has enrollment of 316 students [a] |
| 1901 | School relocates to outskirts of Abbeville [a, d] 28 Oct. Harbison College (HC) officially incorporated [a, d] |
| 1902 | HC adds 47 acres to its original 20 and an additional 206 acre farm [a] |
| 1903 | HC has faulty of 4 men and 3 women and enrollment of 334 [a] An additional 200 acres purchased [d] 2 library donations of 500 volumes and 300 volumes received [d] |
| 1905 | Harbison Hall built [d] HC has graduating class of 25 [a] State Board of Education declares HC graduates eligible for teachers certificates [a] |
| 1906 | Rev. Amos resigns [a] Rev. Calvin Young becomes President of HC [a] |
| 1907 | 16 Jan. Ferguson Hall (girls dormitory) burns [a] 1 Feb. HC reopens [a] (Date given as March in [d]) Oct. enrollment of 200 [d] |
| 1908 | HC reports 2,700 matriculates and 145 graduates [a] Library has 1,200 books [a] Faculty of 4 females and 7 male teachers [a] HC has enrollment of 224 students [a] |
| 1910 | 17 March Harbison Hall set on fire and 3 students killed [a] 1 December Board announces Irmo as new home for HC [a] |
| 1911 | Land acquired in Irmo [a] 13 June ground breaking for new college [d] 10 October HC opens [b] School renamed Harbison Agricultural College (HAC) and is male only [d] HAC has faculty of 4-6 and enrollment of 66-74 [a] Administration building completed in Fall [a] |
| 1913 | Fourth floor expansion of Administration Building as boys dormitory [a] Construction on President’s home begins [a, d] Additional 762 acres purchased [a, d] Board establishes Irmo Presbyterian Church [a, d] |
| 1914 | Gift of 36 acres [d] |
| 1921 | Additional 2,402 acres purchased from Farm Home Community [a, d] |
| 1929 | Name changed to Harbison Agricultural and Industrial Institute (HAII) [a, d] President Young resigns [a, d] Rev. James L. Hollowell appointed President [a, d] 17 October Rev. Hollowell dies [a, d] Rev. Calvin Young dies [d] Dean R. W. Boulware serves as interim President [a, d] |
| 1930 | 10 February Rev. John G. Porter appointed President [a, d] Mrs. Porter is named Principal of Irmo Parochial School [a] |
| 1933 | HAIC becomes co-educational and merges with parochial school [a, d] |
| 1941 | 18 March fire destroys main building, Ferguson Hall [a] |
| 1941-1942 | HAII closed for refurbishing [a] |
| 1943 | Dr. T. B. Jones becomes President of HAII [a, d] September, school reopens [d] |
| 1944 | HAIC Board sells 2,210 acres to South Carolina Forestry Commission [a] New administrative building added [d] |
| 1946 | Name changed to Harbison Junior College (HJC) [a] |
| 1949 | New church is built [d] |
| 1952 | 2 October, fire destroys HJC church [a, d] |
| 1953 | Women’s dormitory burns [a] HJC reports enrollment of 33 men and 53 women [a] |
| 1956 | Women’s dormitory rebuilt [d] Dr. Milton Brown, Committee on Education and Medical Work recommends HJC be closed [a] |
| 1958 | 31 August, HJC Board agrees to close the school [a] |
| 1964 | Harbison property leased to the South Carolina Department of Corrections [d] |
Sources:
[a] Helsely, Alexia Jones. “Harbison College: Metamorphosis of a Dream,” Proceedings of the South Carolina Historical Association, 1988, p. 14-26. Includes a bibliography.
[b] Souvenir program, the Harbison reunion, August 30-31, 1980 (South Carolina: s.n., 1980)
[c] Harbison Agricultural College. Thirty-fourth annual session of Harbison Agricultural College, Irmo, South Carolina: A Presbyterian institution for colored youth (Columbia, S.C.: R.L. Bryan Co., 1917)
[d] Parker, Inez Moore. The rise and decline of the program of education for Black Presbyterians of the United Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., 1865-1970 (San Antonio: Trinity University Press, c. 1977)
AcknowledgementsBeth Bilderback of the South Caroliniana Library suggested this collection and allowed the Digital Activities Department access to it for scanning. Bella Wenum (BA, 2009) created the metadata for the photographs in an excel spread sheet from the finding aid provided by Beth Bilderback. The metadata records follow the Western States Best Practices Dublin Core format. Wenum also scanned the photographs on a flatbed Epson Expression 1000XL Photo scanner, using Silverfast scanning software. She scanned the images as color TIFFs at 24-bit and 600 ppi. From the TIFFs she created high quality JPEGs and added preservation metadata to the TIFF and JPEG images. Wenum and Santi Thompson (MLIS, 2008) uploaded the JPEGs to the CONTENTdm server. The TIFFs will be maintained as the archival masters on a SAN server, backed-up to DVD and tape. Wenum also created a home page for the collection. The work could also not have been done without the help of Tony Branch, of the Systems Department, who is the systems administrator for the CONTENTdm database and helps to manage the computers and scanners in the Digital Activities Department.
