Union University

The Union University in Jackson shares a name but not a campus history. Murfreesboro's Baptist school ended in 1873, and when a Baptist convention met on the old campus in April 1874 to plan a new college, it recommended Jackson, where West Tennessee College became Southwestern Baptist University and took the Union name only in 1907, honoring the Eatons and others from Murfreesboro. Union's grounds in Murfreesboro later went to the Tennessee College for Women, founded by the Southern Baptist Convention.

What the plaque says

Union University First organized in 1834, and chartered in 1848 by the Baptist General Association of Tennessee. Rev. Joseph H. Eaton was its first president. Closed during the Civil War, its buildings were used by both armies as a hospital. Reopened in 1868, it closed in 1873, due to a cholera epidemic, and was moved to Jackson, Tennessee.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Stones River National Battlefield — 3.6 mi
  The Murfreesboro battlefield of December 1862, with a national cemetery built by Black soldiers, a Trail of Tears route and the story of the freedmen's settlement called Cemetery.
• Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration — 25 mi
  The Shelbyville show grounds where the Tennessee Walking Horse has been crowned world grand champion each late summer since 1939, and where the practice of soring is part of the story.
• Henry Horton State Park — 25 mi
  A Duck River park on Governor Henry Horton's former farm in Marshall County, with a mill ruin from 1845, kayak floats and the grave of a governor the House declined to impeach.
• Fort Negley — 30 mi
  The largest inland stone fort of the Civil War, built in 1862 on St. Cloud Hill by more than 2,700 conscripted Black laborers, hundreds of whom died.

More markers nearby

• Tennessee College for Women — steps away
• Rutherford Hospital / Middle Tennessee Medical Center — 0.3 mi
• Joseph B. Palmer — 0.3 mi
• Middle Tennessee State Teachers College Training School — 0.3 mi