Anita Mitchum

All Roads Lead to Baxter: a Story of Baxter Seminary, Baxter, Tennessee Anita Mitchum

Baxter Seminary existed for the purpose of offering a Christian education to the boys and girls of the Cumberland Plateau who needed to work their way in order to secure an education. It trained them in Christian citizenship for a life of usefulness. Its dedicated triumverate, Dr. and Mrs. Harry Lee Upperman, and Dean Ethelyn P. Hill, believed that "instruction was the least part of education." In 1923, the Uppermans arrived in the small town of Baxter with orders from the Methodist Church to close the school, but instead, they chose to transform it from its position on the brink of extinction to a renowned institution which, upon his retirement in 1957, had an enrollment of more than 400 students. This book highlights stories as told by Baxter students, living in a Christian environment, surrounded by an intercultural and international atmosphere, who learned to appreciate the school's philosophy: "Truth, Honor, Loyalty, and Service."