Union University

Union's Jackson roots are a prep school and a land grant. Jackson Male Academy opened in 1823 and was chartered in 1825, teaching a college preparatory course to the children of the town's more affluent citizens. In 1844 it was reorganized as West Tennessee College, and in 1846 the federal government gave the state title to certain public lands to endow it, years after an 1806 settlement had endowed colleges for East and Middle Tennessee. Confederate and Union troops both used the buildings as a hospital in the Civil War. Tennessee Baptists acquired the campus in 1874.

What the plaque says

Union University Union University is an heir of West Tennessee College, chartered in 1844; its predecessor, Jackson Male Academy established in 1823: and Union University, a Baptist College at Murfreesboro chartered in 1842. In 1873, the colleges merged in Jackson to form a regional university, Southwestern Baptist University. In 1907, because of many continued alumni links, the name was changed to Union University. In 1975, the campus moved to its present location. Union University is the oldest institution affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Pinson Mounds State Archaeological Park — 16 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.
• Tina Turner Museum at Flagg Grove School — 23 mi
  The one-room Black school Tina Turner attended in Nutbush, moved to Brownsville in 2012 and opened as a museum in 2014 beside Sleepy John Estes's house.

More markers nearby

• Home of Casey Jones — 0.9 mi
• Lambuth College — 3.9 mi
• John Luther Jones — 4.1 mi
• Lane College — 4.3 mi