Chapel Hill College was in Titus County prior to the organization of Morris County in 1875.
Site of Chapel Hill College: Located on Highway 259 in Daingerfield near the Presbyterian Church.
In 1849 Allen Urquhart, pioneer surveyor for the Republic of Texas, entered into an agreement with the Marshall Presbytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church for the establishment of a college in Daingerfield.
Urquhart gave forty (40) acres of land and pledged one half
of the proceeds from the sale of his remaining lots in the original
town Plat for the erection of the college buildings.
This college, Chapel Hill, operated from 1852 until 1869 when
it was closed due to lack of students and finances. The college
building was condemned due to a crack in the wall, torn down,
and approximately 100,000 bricks were salvaged and sold for
$9.00 per thousand.
Morris County Historical Survey committee erected a marker at the site of Chapel Hill College.
[Source: http://www.rootsweb.com/~txmorris/dfield.htm]
The establishment of this institution was sponsored by the Marshall Presbytery. On January 8, 1849, Allen Urkhart gave land for the college on condition that it be built at Daingerfield. The proposition was accepted. The school was opened on the first Monday in February, 1852, in an unfinished wooden building with Rev. S. R. Chadick as teacher. In September following, he was joined by Rev. W. E. Beeson, a former classmate in Cumberland University, who became president of the school. Rev. S. T. Anderson was soon afterward elected professor of mathematics. Rev. W. E. Beeson continued as president of this school until 1869, when he resigned to become president of Trinity University.
In 1852 Chapel Hill College was taken under the care of Texas Synod. During this period many who later became the leading ministers of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Texas attended school here, among them, Revs. Benjamin Spencer, J. S. Patton, J. A. Ward, W. S. Glass, S. E. Black, J. C. Blanton, W. Burgess Modrall, C. C. Givens, S. M. Johnston, T. W. Sergo, Jerre Shetter, A. W. Johnston, and Y. H. Hamilton.
When Trinity University was established by the three synods in Texas acting jointly, Texas Synod gave its support to that institution and Chapel Hill College reverted back to the Marshall Presbytery. In the summer of 1870 Rev. W. M. Allen was elected president and conducted the school a year. He was a native of Huntsville, Alabama, where he was born January 18, 1819. He grew up as an orphan boy with practically no school privileges. It is said of him that he never attended school but eleven months in his life. After he entered the ministry in 1842 in Mississippi, he began traveling with other preachers, assisting them in their work and studying the course prescribed for ordination. He soon became a fine English scholar, after which he studied Greek, mathematics, philosophy, Hebrew, and literature, carrying textbook in his saddlebags as he went from appointment to appointment. He came to Texas in 1859, and united with Marshall Presbytery the following year, and was a member of this presbytery until his death which occurred at Marshall, May 19, 1899. Among the ministerial students who attended Chapel Hill College under his administration were Revs. S. H. Braly, J. M. Burrow, and W. B. Allen.
With the institution of the free school laws just then beginning to become effective, Chapel Hill College soon had to close its doors, and the buildings were finally condemned and torn down.
[Source: History of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Texas. By Thomas H. Campbell. Nashville, Tenn.: Cumberland Presbyterian Publishing House, 1936, pages 95-96]
Chapel Hill College, at Daingerfield, Texas was chartered as a male school in 1850. Its first home was a two-story brick. It was a project of the Marshall Presbytery and was operated under their patronage until 1869 when it was one of the trinity of colleges giving way to Trinity University. The Rev. W. E. Beeson was the first president of the school being elected to that position in 1853, and serving until 1869. The Rev. S. T. Anderson, a graduate of Cumberland University, and S. M. Ward, each held the position of professor of mathematics in 1855-1857 and 1860-1865 respectively. [B. W. McDonnold, History of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church (Nashville, 1888), p. 574.] The school operated under different teachers for a few years after the opening of Trinity University, then closed its doors. The financial support of this school came from tuition fees alone, yet many young men who were ministerial candidates were given free tuition and were often boarded without charge. At one time during its history there was an attendance of 170 pupils, with patronage from Louisiana and Arkansas, as well as Texas, but when a central school was proposed the men who had controlled Chapel Hill College became ardent supporters of the project, and Mr. Beeson was elected president of Trinity University. [B. W. McDonnold, History of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church (Nashville, 1888), p. 552.]
[Source: Evans, Henry Bascom. "History of the Organization and Administration of Cumberland Presbyterian Colleges." Ph.D. dissertation, George Peabody College for Teachers, 1938]
Charter of Chappell Hill College, Marshall pres., Dangerfield, Titus county, chartered Feb. 7, 1850
An act to incorporate Chappell Hill College
Section 1. Be it enacted the the Legislature of the State of Texas, That an institution of learning is established at Dangerfield, in the county of Titus; it shall be called Chappel Hill College, and shall be under the control of the Marshall Presbytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
Sec. 2. There shall be thirteen Trustees, whose duty it shall be to take charge of the interests of the institution, any five of whom, shall constitute a quorum to do business.
Sec. 3. James McReynolds, Mathias Ward, A. H. Lattimer, Allen Urguehart, Gen. Record, Thomas Rogers, Pinckney Hill, John Ware, Charles Lewis, William C. Lee, M. Wood, D. L. Rowe and William C. Batt, shall be the first board of Trustees.
Sec. 4. The Trustees aforesaid, and their successors in office, shall be a body politic and corporate in deed and in law, by the name of the Trustees of Chappel Hill College; and by that name, they and their successors, may and shall have perpetual succession, and be able and capable in law, to have, receive and enjoy to them and their successors, lands, tenements and hereditaments, of any kind, in fee or for life, or for years, and personal property of any kind whatsoever; and also, all sums of money, which may be given, granted or bequeathed to them, for the purpose of promoting the interest of the said College; provided, the amount of property owned by said corporation, shall not at any time exceed two hundred thousand dollars.
Sec. 5. There shall be a stated meeting of the board of Trustees, in each year at the time of conferring degrees, and that the President of said College, shall have full power to call an occasional meeting of the board of Trustees, or a quorum of the same, whenever it shall appear to him necessary.
Sec. 6. The Trustees of said College, shall and may have a common seal for the business of themselves, and their successors, with liberty to change and alter the same as they shall think proper; and that by their aforesaid name, they and successors, shall and may be able to sue and be sued; plead and be inpleaded; answer and be answered; defend and be defended; in all courts of law and equity, in this State; and to grant, bargain and sell, or assign any lands, tenements, goods or chattels, now belonging to said College, or that may hereafter belong to the same; to construct all the necessary buildings for said institution, to establish a preparatory department and College proper, as well as such other dependent structures as they shall deem necessary; to have the management of the finances; the privilege of electing their own officers, of appointing all necessary committees, and to act and do all things whatsoever, for the benefit of said institution, in as ample a manner as any person or body politic or corporate, can or may do by law.
Sec. 7. The said Trustees shall have the power of framing and enacting all such ordinances and by-laws, as shall appear to them necessary for the good government of the said College, and of their own proceedings; provided, the same shall not be repugnant tot he constitution and laws of the State of Texas.
Sec. 8. The head of such College shall be styled the President, and the instructors thereof, the Professors; and the President and Professors, or a majority of them, the Faculty of Chappel Hill College; which Faculty shall have the power of prescribing the course of studies to be pursued by the students; of enforcing the ordinances and by-laws adopted by the Trustees for the government of the students, by rewarding and censuring them, and finally by suspending such of them as after repeated admonitions, shall continue disobedient or refractory, until a determination of a quorum of Trustees can be had; but it shall be only in the power of a quorum of Trustees to expel any student or students, of the said College.
Sec. 9. The Trustees shall have full power by the President and Professors of the said College, to grant or confer such degree or degrees, in the arts and sciences, to any of the students of the said College, or persons by them thought worthy, as are usually granted or conferred in other Colleges; and to give diplomas or certificates thereof, signed by them and sealed with the common seal of the Trustees of the College, to authenticate and perpetuate the memory of such graduations.
Sec. 10. When any vacancy shall occur in the board of Trustees, either by death, resignation or otherwise, such vacancy shall be filled by the Marshall Presbytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
Sec. 11. The President, Professors and other officers, shall be chosen by the board of Trustees, subject to the approval of the Marshall Presbytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
Sec. 12. Whenever a vacancy shall occur in the Presidency or any of the Professorships of the College, the said Presbytery shall have the power to fill such vacancy.
Sec. 13. The Presbytery shall have the power, of fixing the salaries of all the officers connected with the College, and of removing any of them for neglect or misconduct in office.
Sec. 14. That in the institution hereby incorporated, the students of all religious denominations shall enjoy equal advantages.
Sec. 15. The said board of Trustees shall at the close of each Collegiate year, make a full report of their proceedings and the condition of said College and the preparatory departments thereof, to the said Presbytery; and that the said Presbytery shall have and exercise general supervision and control over the said board of Trustees; and that the said Presbytery, shall have and exercise full power to remove any member of said board of Trustees; and that any and all vacancies in said board of Trustees, caused by such removal, shall be filled as herein provided.
Sec. 16. In pleading this act or a right derived therefrom, it shall be sufficient to refer to the same by its title, and the day of its passage; and the court shall thereupon take judicial notice thereof.
Approved, February 7, 1850
[Source: Gammel, H. P. N., The Laws of Texas. The Gammel Book Company, 1898, vol. III., Austin, pp. 75-77, Special Laws of the Third Legislature of the State of Texas]