This is one of the earliest reports on what became the Western Baptist Theological Institute.
COVINGTON THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTION
The Triennial Baptist Register, 1836This Institution is under the patronage of the Western Baptist Education Society, formed at the meeting of the General Convention of Western Baptists at Cincinnati, November 10, 1834. Immediately after the organisation [sic] of the Society, the Executive Committee entered actively upon the duties entrusted to them. More than five months of the winter and spring were spent in fruitless endeavors to obtain a suitable site. Several sites were had in view, but they were prized [sic] so high by the holders of the property, as to forbid in the judgment of the Committee the propriety of purchase. In the month of May, their attention was providentially turned to a property lying immediately south of the city of Covington, Ky. In the course of two or three weeks, several purchases were made, comprising about three hundred and fifty-six acres of land lying nearly the whole of it in one body, at an expense of $33,250. Sale was soon after made of a portion for $22,500; and further sales might be made so as to pay for the whole purchase, and leave at least two hundred acres clear of incumbrance for the purposes of the Institution.
This Institution is designed to go into operation as soon as the necessary preparations can be made.
A correspondent of the American Baptist, speaking of the contemplated Institution and its location, says:
"Covington is separated from Newport on the east, by the Licking river, and from Cincinnati on the north, by the Ohio. Since, therefore, nearly all the winds in this vicinity, are from the south-west, Covington would be, of course, and has the reputation of being, much more healthy than the two other adjacent places. And in many other respects, the location is judicious. It is near Cincinnati - nearer, I believe, than the Lane Seminary, and cannot fail of receiving the sympathies and patronage of the whole State of Ohio. Still it is in Kentucky, and will doubtless be regarded by her, so generous in her dowries, as her own and most cherished daughter. Indiana favors the selection, and will not be backward In adopting the institution as her own. The churches in the east will not only pray, but contribute for its success. It will clash with none of their Institutions or interests; but it will be a powerful means of promoting that for which they labor and pray—the diffusion of knowledge and pure religion throughout the immense valley of the West. Let it maintain the character of a purely theological institution; let it be trammelled by no appendage; let it interfere with no political or feverish question, which so often agitates and distracts human society; let it be eminent for sound knowledge and sound religion, as taught by Christ and his apostles, and it will be, and long continue, a bright and shining star in the West."
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