Hendrix College | Digital Archive Project Preserves Hendrix History

Strange how I all of a sudden remembered  Brother Dill coming to our house just to talk to me about enrolling in Hendrix College.  He seemed very disappointed I wouldn't even consider it.  I had already decided on University of Arkansas as they had all the programs I needed to enter veterinary school.  I had very little animal husbandry experience as Prescott, Arkansas was more of a lumber mill town. Also had a small country club golf course w/swimming pool all white as well as very Methodist  membership.  Prescott even chose to close the city pool instead of  integrate.   Even as a kid  remember arguing with other country club kids that was wrong.  Their argument was the blacks where given the chose of swimming pool or  basketball court and they chose the basketball court.  Whites pretty much controlled  all the business in that town.  We had a maid named L.B. we drove  back and forth between the project.   And now as an adult, now realizing most of his patients were more rural as well as a lot of  blacks.   Although mother took us to the methodist Church dad grew up with, very few of them were his patients.  Now I'm beginning to understand why there weren't many people at his funeral as I thought there would be and why he prefered to stay at home instead of out to eat or events, parades, etc.  As Dad was on call 24/7 days a week for his patients, delivered a lot of  babies,  we were always apppoached by simple rural country people bragging how our dad our dad was their doctor.  And at graduation time how my mother and dad would concur together to congradulate and who not to believing they were just flimzy excuse to get a gift. 

Hendrix College Digital Archive Project Preserves Hendrix History: Founded in 1876, Hendrix College is a national leader in engaged liberal arts and sciences education. Hendrix was named the country’s #1 “Up and Coming” liberal arts college for the third consecutive year by U.S. News and World Report. Hendrix is featured in the 2011 edition of the Princeton Review as one of the country’s best 376 colleges and is listed in the 2012 edition of the Fiske Guide to Colleges as one of 25 “Best Buy” private colleges included. Hendrix has been affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884. For more information, visit http://www.hendrix.edu/.

In 1884, the institution officially entered into a relationship with the Methodist Church in Arkansas and in 1889, the institution was renamed Hendrix College in honor of Bishop Eugene R. Hendrix. The next year, the college was moved from Altus to Conway.




After the turn of the century, the college was cited by the U.S. Office of Education as having higher standards for admission and graduation than any other institution of higher learning in Arkansas. It also was accredited as a “Class A” college by the Methodist Church and became accredited both nationally and internationally. Today, Hendrix is part of a vital network of the United Methodist institutions of higher education and is accredited by the University Senate of the United Methodist Church.



Vital piety, sound minds, generous hearts, and helping hands. These are just a few of the goals that Hendrix College founder, Reverend Isham Burrow, set when the college was founded. The historic relationship between the College and the United Methodist Churches of Arkansas continues to achieve these early goals. With the motto, “unto the whole person,” Hendrix College is committed to not only educate the mind, but also shape the spirit.