MARY ALLEN JUNIOR COLLEGE MARY ALLEN JUNIOR COLLEGE. Mary Allen
Junior College was in Crockett, Houston County, Texas. The
school was named Crockett Presbyterian Church Colored Sabbath
School from 1871 to 1875, Moffatt Parochial School from 1875 to
1885, and Mary Allen Seminary from 1886 to 1933. In 1871, the
first year of his pastorate in Crockett, Rev. Samuel Fisher
Tenney established a Sabbath school for black children in the
Presbyterian Church, U.S. By 1875 a separate church with an
educational wing had been provided. Construction costs came from
church members and solicitations of Dr. Tenney in the cities of
the North and East. This led to the establishment of a parochial
day school known as Moffatt Academy. Extension education in the
county was also conducted by young black students themselves.
The program developed slowly, in part because of indifference
and opposition and in part because of the depressed economic
circumstances of the times. When Tenney saw an advertisement
expressing the interest of