The North Platte Historical Museum’s Steve Goodlet Memorial Lecture series hosted their second presentation called Educating Our Daughters, Camden Point Female Academy and Orphan School recently at the Camden Point Firehouse.
The North Platte Historical Museum and Cultural Center sponsored this program in partnership with the Missouri Humanities Council and with support from the Missouri Humanities Trust Fund. Missouri Humanities provided a $1,000 grant to the museum to purchase equipment to record the 2025 lecture series for the archives and public dissemination.
Museum member, Lynn Cassity, was the speaker at the event. About 40 community members attended.
Cassity grew up in Dearborn and became involved with the North Platte Historical Museum and Cultural Center about three years ago.
In her presentation Cassity focused on the facts that The Female Academy was established early in Platte County history, and a girls’ school continued for 80 years at Camden Point. It began as the Camden Point Female Academy when 12 local men donated $100 each in 1848. The Academy burned within 10 years of being built, but was quickly rebuilt. When it burned a second time, it again was rebuilt by community members who wanted their daughters to be educated. The school ended during the Depression.
The Orphan School began in 1867.
“The orphans made by the Civil War was why the Christian Church of Missouri started the Female Orphan School,” Cassity said. “At conventions throughout the state, Christian church leaders wanted to help the orphans with an education. In 1868-69, the Church agreed to buy the buildings and grounds at Camden Point for their orphan school.”
The schools were shining stars in Camden Point’s history, and a great source of pride in the community.
Cassity has had an interest in local history, and history in general for a long time. Her bachelor’s degree is in Secondary Education with a history emphasis, and her master’s degree is in Teaching Educational Uses of Computers.
“I’ve enjoyed history since junior high,” Cassity said. “After college, I became interested in local history. I find it fascinating. I actually started my teaching career in the late 1980s as a computer teacher, along with a junior high Missouri History class. For 10-12 years I was North Platte’s Novell network coordinator.”
After the presentation, several people in the audience told her they weren’t aware the college had been three different schools over the years: the Female Academy, the Female Orphan School and Missouri Christian College, which was a junior college for the University of Missouri.
There were also many inquiries after the presentation from audience members.
“There were questions and we received high marks and extremely generous praise according to comments on our returned evaluation sheets,” Cassity said. “Of course, if they didn’t like it, they probably didn’t turn an evaluation in.”
The first lecture of the North Platte Historical Museum’s Steve Goodlet Memorial Series was held a year ago when Tom Redman presented on the Civil War Battle of Camden Point. The third lecture in the series, The History of Edgerton, was hosted on March 1.
“We hope to have two to three lectures each year,” Cassity said. “At this time, we don’t have any more planned for 2025, but will probably have two in 2026. The museum members take turns presenting topics we’ve researched. We do plan to have one on the history of Camden Point in the next year.”
Cassity has also given a presentation at a Platte County Historical Society dinner on the Dorothy Day log cabin.
The North Platte Historical Museum and Cultural Center members believe that keeping history alive is important for both young and old alike.
“That is our mission - to share our history,” Cassity said. “The world didn’t start on the day we were born. The people who came before us were fascinating and accomplished such amazing things during their lifetimes. And, of course, if you don’t know history, you’re doomed to repeat it. Finding people who enjoy the past as we do is just fun. We can’t live in the past, but sharing it with others is enjoyable.”