Background
Elias Marks was born on December 2, 1790 in Charleston, South Carolina. He was the son of Humphrey and Frances Marks of Lancashire, who settled in Charleston in 1785.
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Elias Marks
Edit ProfileEducation
After preparatory training in Charleston, he completed his classical and medical education in New York City, graduating from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1815.
Career
On account of his wife's health he moved south and resumed practice in Columbia, S. C. , where the two also conducted the Columbia Female Academy on Washington Street. After the death of his wife in June 1827, he continued a year longer with his school, in which he had both day scholars and boarders. In 1826 he had attempted to enlist the support of the legislature for what appears to have been a plan for the higher education of women. Failing that, he decided to establish a school of his own in the seclusion of the sandhills, at a place which he named Barhamville. The prospectus of his South Carolina Female Institute appeared in 1828 as Hints on Female Education. The school was formally opened on October 1, 1828. The few annual catalogues now remaining give evidence of systematic internal economy and increasing educational range and efficiency in accordance with Marks's theories. Through his second wife Julia (Pierpont) Warne influence, according to her daughter, the Institute became collegiate, and in 1835 the word "Collegiate" was added to the name. The reorganization of the school involved a modeling, in some measure, after "similar institutions in Prussia, Germany, and other parts of continental Europe. " The school gained wide popularity and reached an enrolment of 124 students. Marion Sims, writing in 1831, said: "Young ladies were sent there from all parts of the state to school, as it was the first and only school of its character at the South". Teachers were drawn from wherever talent offered, and the work was intensive and systematic. The curriculum offered four years of collegiate study beyond an academic year sometimes necessary for entrants. Resident graduates could pursue further studies, and the vacation period provided opportunity for private instruction in residence, possibly for making up deficiencies. From the first insistence was placed on thoroughness, thinking rather than memory, and regular reviews. Reliance was placed on the student's honor. Walks, entertainments, visits of approved troupes or singers, and May parties enlivened the routine. In 1855, six years before he gave over the school into other hands, Marks claimed nearly thirty-nine years of professional services during which time he had had in his charge over four thousand young women. Marks relinquished his connection with the Institute on June 15, 1861. He spent his declining years in Washington, cheered in his old age by expressions of love and respect of his former pupils.
Achievements
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In his dissertation, A Conjectural Inquiry into the Relative Influence of the Mind and Stomach (1814), Marks treats of the connection of moral faculties with bodily sense and the influence of mind on bodily functions. His Aphorisms of Hippocrates from the Latin of Verhoofd (1818), continues the classical and ethical interests observable in his first work.
Personality
Throughout his life Marks had written occasional poems and in 1850 he published Elfreide of Guldal, a Scandinavian Legend, and Other Poems.
Connections
About 1817, he was married to Jane Barham, of Lincolnshire, a teacher. In 1833 he was married to Julia (Pierpont) Warne of Sparta, Ga. , a friend and pupil of Emma Willard, who assumed the duties of directress of the Institute on January 1, 1830.
