108 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 
versity charter under 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. J oseph 
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,*? or MecDowell’s 
College. The college was located on the corner of 
Kighth 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 elose 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. 
» A. B. History of the Missouri Medical College from 1840 
to 1861. Jour. Mo. Med. Assoc. July, 1914. 
