Office of University Relations and Thornwood Publishers
Facts and Figures about
UNA....
Updated in 2005 by Chotank.com
UNA Has Had Seven Names...from
its beginning as LaGrange College to the present.
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LaGrange College - 1830
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Florence Wesleyan University - 1855
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State Normal School at Florence - 1872
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State Normal College - 1889
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State Normal School - 1913
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Florence State Teachers College - 1929
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Florence State College - 1957
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Florence State University - 1968
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University of North Alabama - 1974
LAGRANGE COLLEGE - The forerunner of UNA became the first state chartered school to open its doors in Alabama on 11 January 1830. The University of Alabama, chartered in the Alabama Constitution of 1819, opened one year later. LaGrange, a Methodist school, was chartered by the state legislature with twenty-one trustees. They are listed for the college legislation in Acts of Alabama, Eleventh Annual Session (Tuscaloosa: McGuire, Henry and Walker, State Printers, 1830), pp. 41-43. Two founding trustees are of special interest, John Coffee and Henry Stuart Foote. Foote was an attorney and newspaper editor from Tuscumbia. After leaving Tuscumbia, he resided in Natchez, and later became US Senator and Mississippi Governor. See Foote for more on his family. The Methodist Church established LaGrange College only 11 years after Thomas Jefferson founded the University of Virginia.
THE PRESIDENTS OF UNA and their
terms:
1830 - Rev. Robert Paine
1855 - Dr. R.H. Rivers
Dr. D. H. Anderson
1873 - 81 Septimus P. Rice
1881 - 85 Dr. Hardie Brown
1885 Dr. James A. Heard
1885 - 87 Dr. T. J. Mitchell
1887 - 97 James K. Powers
1897 - 11 Marshall C. Wilson
1911 - 13 Dr. James K. Powers
1913 - 38 Dr. Henry J. Willingham
1938 - 48 Dr. James Albert Keller
1948 - 72 Dr. Ethelbert B. Norton
1972 - 90 Mr. Robert M. Guillot
1990 - 2004 Mr. Robert L. Potts
2004 - 2005 Dr. Gary Warren (interim president)
UNA Alumni who have become
Governors of Alabama
Edward Asbury O'Neal - Alabama governor, 1882-1884, 1884-1886
When Edward Asbury O'Neal was born September 20, 1818, in Madison County, he was a one generation removed from his father Edward's native Ireland. Four years later, his father died and his mother reared and educated the family.
After graduation from LaGrange College in 1836, he studied at the bar with James W. McClund in Huntsville. After amission to the bar in 1840, O'Neal began practicing in Florence. Luckily, he was appointed fourth circuit solicitor the next year and held that post for four years.
In 1848, he ran an unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. House of Representative seat.
As tensions rose in the nation over slavery and other issues, O'Neal was a leader in the secession drive. He was appointed captain June 4, 1861. In March 1862, he rose to colonel and was assigned to the 26th Alabama Infantry in Richmond. As leader of that unit he was wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines. He was wounded again, severely, during the Battle of Boonesboro.
1864 found him home in Alabama again. More troops were added to his regiment and he traveled to Dalton, Georgia, to attempt to stop Yankee general T. Sherman's scorching march to the Atlantic. As the war between the states ended, O'Neal was serving as a brigadier general, but he was never formally awarded the star.
Upon his discharge, he began building a law practice again in Florence.
He was elected governor in 1882, the first of two elected terms. Tax reduction, prision reform and educational funding boosts were among his achievements. He pushed for the establishment of the Office of Examiners of Accounts after the state treasurer was caught int he theft of $250,000 in state funds. The treasurer, Isaac H. Vincent left the sate with the money.
O'Neal died in Florence in 1890.
Emmet O'Neal - Alabama Governor, 1911-1915
Emmet O'Neal was considered one of the most progressive governors Alabama had had till his time. During his tenure as the state's chief executive, a rural school library system was established, a board of trustees to unify and direct the educational system from rural schools to colleges was created and appropriations to all public schools were increased.
The Oyster Commission and the State HIghway Commission were established during this administration. Mine workers protection laws were enacted, child labor law were bolstered and agricultural improvements were made.
O'Neal made many progressive attempts for improvements in the state but was rebuffed by the legislature. Among the ideas they turned down were driving tests for licenses, special school taxes, municipal government reform, reorganization of the public school system, revision for the criminal code and establishment of a Public Utilities Commission.
Controversies over thefts of state funds by Convict Department and Department of Agriculture officials smeared his administration.
O'Neal was the first state executive to live in the Governor's Mansion.
After his term, he settled in Birmingham and became a referee in bankruptcy cases. In 1920, he sought the Democratic nod for U.S. Senator John Bankhead's seat, but was defeated by J. T. "Cotton Tom" Heflin.
O'Neal was born September 23, 1853, in Florence, Alabama, to Governor Edward O'Neal and wife Olivia Moore O'Neal. He attended Florence Wesleyan University, the University of Mississippi and the University of Alabama.
UNA Fall Enrollment Trends
- 1985-98
Year Headcount Full-Tim Equivalent
1985 5,171 4,331
1986 4,979 4,179
1987 5,062 4,254
1988 5,291 4,382
1989 5,581 4,567
1990 5,622 4,533
1991 5,755 4,656
1992 5,523 4,390
1993 5,409 4.028
1994 5,221 4,159
1995 5,437 4,409
1996 5,529 4,532
1997 5,575 4,568
1998 5,773
--provided by the UNA Office of Research
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Revised/Reviewed/Refreshed by Chotank.com, 13 March 2005, Thornwood's 10th Year