Education Centers
To provide immediate educational support for aspiring ministers, the Education Society funded two home-based education centers between 1830 and 1832. Edward Baptist (1790-1863) of Powhatan County and Eli Ball (1786-1853) of Henrico—Baptist ministers and vice presidents of the society—agreed to board and teach students at their respective residences.6 The year the education center opened, between nine and 14 ministerial students studied there.
Baptist was a highly educated, wealthy, and influential advocate of the creation of the General Association and the Education Society. His education center was housed at the Dunlora plantation, where he and his family had resided for more than a decade. They shared the home of his wife’s aunt, Ann Hickman, the owner of the plantation following the 1821 death of her husband. In addition to founding schools on the property, Baptist oversaw the operations of Hickman’s estate, including the nearly 60 enslaved people she held.
While the revival activity in the area often drew the aspiring ministers away from formal classwork and toward opportunities to preach, their success at increasing the membership of area churches reassured some who were previously reluctant to embrace formal ministerial education.
