The college was founded in 1850 with five teachers and 100 students[1] as Chappell Hill Institute, a boarding school; the land was donated by Jacob and Mary Haller.
[2][3] Tuition for a session of five months was advertised as ranging from $8 for "reading and spelling" to $20 for "Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Astronomy, Physiology, Algebra, Geometry, Latin, Greek, or the higher branches of Mathematics" and $25 for music or piano "with use of instrument".
[3] Fires required replacing the building at least once, and the college was badly affected by the Civil War and by yellow fever epidemics, but it had paid off its debts by 1873.
[6] Enrollment had risen to 112 by 1885, but fell by half in the following ten years: the college took in 70 public school students, 50 of them boys, to raise money.
The curriculum was revised in 1900 to conform to the Methodist Church General Board of Education;[3] a study published in January 1912 assessed the college as offering primarily secondary-school level courses.