A college building and land are purchased from the Presbyterians to create a female institution run by the Memphis Conference of the United Methodist Church. The original MCFI building could be found at E. Chester St. in Jackson, TN, where Jackson Fire Department Station 1 is currently located.
The Memphis Conference Female Institute (MCFI) is chartered by the Tennessee General Assembly with Reverend Lorenzo Lea as the MCFI first president.
Civil War - faculty and staff enlist in the Confederate Army.
The Union Army occupies Jackson, TN, and turns the MCFI building into a field hospital – classes are held at the MCFI President Amos W. Jones’s private residence.