108 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



versity charter tinder the auspices of the Protestant 

 Episcopal Church. This institution was located about 

 four miles southwest of St. Louis, on a tract of land of 

 125 acres, adjacent to the old county farm of St. Louis 

 County, and near the site of the present Insane Asylum. 

 The college opened in October, 1838. In 1840 Dr. Joseph 

 Nash McDowell organized a medical department, the first 

 course of lectures being given in 1840-41 in a building 

 erected on a high bank of Chouteau's Pond, at the cor- 

 ner of Ninth and Cerre streets, where some of the build- 

 ings of the Wainwright Brewery now stand. 



Although Kemper College never attained the position 

 among western colleges which its promoters had hoped it 

 would, it was, nevertheless, a popular academic school 

 for some years, but in 1845 was discontinued on ac- 

 count of lack of financial aid. The County Court of St. 

 Louis County purchased the college buildings and used 

 them as an asylum for the poor, known as the Poor 

 House. When Kemper College failed, its medical de- 

 partment became the Medical Department of the State 

 University, and was so conducted until the general reor- 

 ganization of the State University, when a separate char- 

 ter was procured under which the college was indepen- 

 dently conducted as the Medical Department of the Mis- 

 souri Institute of Science, more commonly known, how- 

 ever, as the Missouri Medical College, 32 or McDowell's 

 College. The college was located on the corner of 

 Eighth and Gratiot streets. At the beginning of the 

 Civil War it was confiscated by the United States gov- 

 ernment and became a famous military prison, known as 

 the Gratiot Street Prison. After the close of the war 



32 Valentine, Mary T. (Mary Young Ridenbaugh.) The biography 

 of Ephraim McDowell, M. D. 2nd ed. rev. 158-180. 1894. 



Goodwin, E. J. A history of medicine in Missouri. 129-131. 1905. 



Outten, W. B. Dr. Joseph Nash McDowell. Glimpses of early St. 

 Louis medical history. Med. Fortnightly. 33-34: 143-146. 1908. 



Barbee, A. B. History of the Missouri Medical College from 1840 

 to 1861. Jour. Mo. Med. Assoc. July, 1914. 



