Freed-Hardeman College

The names on the sign trace a church split. In 1907 Georgie Robertson Christian College closed for lack of funds after a division among its supporting church. That same year local businessmen asked A. G. Freed, its president, and N. B. Hardeman, a former student and teacher, to head a new National Teachers' Normal and Business College. The two men assumed the mortgage and in effect owned the school until 1919, when they turned it over to trustees from the Churches of Christ. It was a junior college from 1925 to 1975.

What the plaque says

Freed-Hardeman College The campus includes the sites of predecessors Henderson Male and Female Institute (1869-1885), West Tennessee Christian College (1885-1897), Georgie Robertson Christian College (1897-1907), and National Teachers Normal and Business College (1907-1919). It was renamed in 1919 in honor of A.C. Freed and N.B. Hardeman, administrators of Georgie Robertson Christian College and cofounders of National Teachers Normal and Business College.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Pinson Mounds State Archaeological Park — 4.7 mi
  The largest group of Middle Woodland mounds in the United States, about two thousand years old, with the second tallest mound in the country, a museum and paved trails.
• Tennessee River Museum — 26 mi
  A small museum in Savannah's 1939 post office with the Shiloh effigy pipe, a Trail of Tears river-crossing exhibit, a gunport replica from the USS Cairo and the largest petrified wood in the state.
• Natchez Trace State Park — 27 mi
  A New Deal state park built on worn-out West Tennessee farmland, where the Fairfield Gullies show what erosion did and kudzu was planted to stop it.
• Shiloh National Military Park — 27 mi
  The April 6-7, 1862 battlefield above Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River, with the Hornets' Nest, Bloody Pond, a national cemetery and no entrance fee.

More markers nearby

• John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson — 13 mi
• Historic Bemis — 14 mi
• Mills Darden — 14 mi
• The Hurst Nation — 14 mi