History of Chapel Hill College (MO)

Robert A. "Tony" O'Bryan-Lawson's masters thesis, "Chapel Hill, Missouri: Lost Visions of American's Vanguard on the Western Frontier 1820-1865," is available as a .pdf through the University of Missouri's MOspace.

O'Bryan-Lawson is an exceptional writer and weaves together material from a variety of sources to explore the life of slave holding society in a small Missouri town on the western frontier and the factors leading A. W. Ridings to found an institution at Chapel Hill that operated for four decades.

The author also notes that in addition to a number of notable alumni, the impact of Chapel Hill College can be traced through other institutions.  A.W. Ridings later moved to Warrensburg, MO and was instrumental in the founding of a normal school that evolved to become the University of Central Missouri.  Some of the Chapel Hill faculty went on to teach at McGee College.