Downer College (previously Wisconsin Female College) was a

women's A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functional uteruses ...

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further education institution, or a secondary sc ...

Fox Lake, Wisconsin Fox Lake is a city in Dodge County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,604 at the 2020 census. The city is located within the Town of Fox Lake. History Established in 1838, Fox Lake was the first settlement in Dodge County. The fi ...

, chartered in 1855 and opening in September 1856.

History

It was founded in 1854 as Wisconsin Female College under the auspices of the Wisconsin Baptist Convention to prepare women for

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

service. It was poorly funded, and was reorganized in 1863, with control passing to the village of Fox Lake. For a while it operated as Fox Lake Seminary and was

co-educational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

. In 1883 Judge

Jason Downer Jason Downer (September 9, 1813September 1, 1883) was an American lawyer, judge, and Wisconsin pioneer. He was a justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court from 1864 to 1867. Earlier in his life, he was one of the earliest editors of the ''Milwaukee ...

of the

Wisconsin Supreme Court The Wisconsin Supreme Court is the Supreme court, highest and final court of appeals in the state judicial system of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. In addition to hearing appeals of lower Wisconsin court decisions, the Wisconsin Supreme Court also ...

, a strong advocate of educational opportunities for women, died and left the college $80,000, putting the school on a firmer foundation. In 1889, its name was changed to Downer College in honor of trustee and benefactor

Merger

In July, 1895, Downer merged with Milwaukee College to form

Milwaukee-Downer College Milwaukee-Downer College was a women's college in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in operation from 1895 until its merger with Lawrence University in 1964. History Milwaukee-Downer College was established in 1895 with the merger of two institutions: Milwau ...

under the presidency of Milwaukee College's Ellen Clara Sabin. A new site was purchased on a tract of about ten acres on the northern end of the city of Milwaukee, about half-way between

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and depth () after Lake Superior and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the ...

and the

Milwaukee River The Milwaukee River is a river in the state of Wisconsin. It is about long.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed May 19, 2011 Once a locus of industry, the river is now the ...

. Watrous, Jerome A. (ed.).
Memoirs of Milwaukee County, Vol. 1
'. Madison: Western Historical Association, 1909, pp. 424-425.

Notable people

* Elizabeth L Banks (1865–1938), author

References

{{authority control Universities and colleges established in 1856 Educational institutions disestablished in 1895 Defunct private universities and colleges in Wisconsin Lawrence University Education in Dodge County, Wisconsin 1856 establishments in Wisconsin