Bloomfield Seminary, 1924

In the fall of 1847, John Harpole Carr was appointed him to superintend the construction of buildings known afterward as "Bloomfield Academy," in the Choctaw Nation. He was afterward appointed superintendent of the school. This establishment of the first missionary boarding school for girls among the Chickasaws.

The Board contributed one third and the Nation two thirds of all the money used for the current expenses of the school. There never was any average attendance calculated for we always kept our number filled, whether it was twenty-five, thirty-five, forty-five or sixty. Whenever there was a vacancy through sickness or any other cause for any length of time, another was waiting to step in. The trustees were the superintendent of missions, the Rev. John Harrell on behalf of the Church, and two Chickasaws on behalf of the Nation.

Following the firing on Fort Sumpter, the whole South was in arms, and many of the fathers of our girls enlisted. Their first act was to take their daughters home. So, in May of that scholastic year, Bloomfield Academy, as it had been, was no more. (Chronicles of Oklahoma)

Source: Microfilm copies of Narrative and Statistical Reports for the Bloomfield Seminary, 1912-1930, are included in National Archives Microcopy M1011, Roll 6, available in the National Archives system and in the collections of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.

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