Union Literary Institute


The Union Literary Institute, located in rural Randolph County, Indiana, at 8605 East County Road 600 South, Union City, Indiana, was a school founded in 1846 by abolitionist Quakers and free blacks from Ohio, Kentucky, and North Carolina, after the Indiana Legislature decreed in 1843 that "colored students" could not attend the public schools. When founded it was one of only a handful of American schools in which black and white students studied together; it was the first in Indiana, The school closed briefly because of the Civl War. It published a magazine, and survived until 1880.

The school

The first meeting of the Board of Managers, which "uniquely" had both black and white members, was held at the Newtown, Indiana, Society of Friends Meeting House on September 4, 1845. Levi Coffin was on the board.
The school followed the manual labor model, in which students defrayed educational costs through work, in this case farm work. However, it was supported primarily by donations. The term "literary" meant that it was a non-religious school, not that it focused on literature. "Union" has been explained as jointly educating white and black students ; it also is said to refer to the three settlements of free blacks the school was primarily serving: Cabin Creek, Snow Creek, and Greenville, straddling the Ohio–Indiana state line. Randolph County "held the highest percentage of African American residents of any county in Indiana in 1860 ", with "a high percentage of anti-slavery whites"; the settlements had a steady stream of Underground Railroad fugitives passing through. However, boarding students came from as far as Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Tennessee. White students also attended, meaning it was one of the very few racially integrated schools in the country.
The curriculum, in 1864, at the "Primary Department", consisted of orthography, reading, writing, "first mental arithmetic", "written arithmetic through fractions", and geography. In the "Higher Department" the subjects were second mental arithmetic, written arithmetic, English grammar, physiology, natural philosophy , chemistry, and "first algebra". The first teacher, Rev. Ebenezer Tucker, who was white, was a graduate of the integrated and abolitionist Oneida Institute; he also had a 1844 ministerial degree from anti-slavery Oberlin. He was principal from 1846 through 1854, and after being President of Liber College from 1859 to 1868, returned to Union as teacher and principal from 1873 to 1879.
Although most students were black, whites also enrolled, making it an early example of racial integration in the Midwest. The black population in the area scattered after the Civil War, and the school in 1880 went out of existence, except for owning title to the property, and the building became a school in the local public school system.
The school closed in 1914, and the building was for many years used as a barn. A historical marker at the site was erected in 2016 by the Indiana Historical Bureau and Union Literary Institute Preservation Society:

''The Students' Repository''

From 1863 until 1864 there appeared six numbers of The Students' Repository: A Quarterly Periodical, Devoted to Education, Morality & General Improvement, "organ of the students and friends of the Union Literary Institute"; 1,000 copies were printed of one issue. It was mentioned in Harper's and received 3 pages in the North American Review. It ceased when the school's one teacher and editor of the publication, Samuel H. Smothers, an African American who had only 9 months of formal education, "volunteered for the Army of the United States". Among the contents:
The William Henry Smith Memorial Library of the Indiana Historical Society, Indianapolis, owns the Union Literary Institute Recording Secretary's book, 1845–1890.