Historical Marker
Mrs. Annie Coleman Peyton (1852-1894)
Hazlehurst, Copiah County · Mississippi
Erected by Mississippi Department of Archives and History, 1955
Annie Coleman graduated from Whitworth College as valedictorian in 1872 and taught there two years before marrying Ephraim Peyton, a Hazlehurst lawyer and judge; they had eight children. From 1879, signing herself A Mississippi Woman, she sent the legislature petitions, newspaper letters and pamphlets asking for a public college for women. In 1884 she backed one Senate bill, then dropped it to support a rival bill that narrowly passed in March. It created the Industrial Institute and College, the first publicly supported women's college in the United States, open to white girls only.
Where it stands
31.85986, -90.39639 · Directions
More markers nearby
- Hazlehurst — steps away
- Robert Johnson Birthplace — steps away
- Bus-Train Collision of 1942 — 9.0 mi
- Tommy Johnson — 9.1 mi