Edgar's Alma Mater

• Jefferson College (in Convent, St. James Parish, Louisiana) was founded in 1830. 
• André Roman, Governor of Louisiana, wanted a place "where our children will find the means of completing their course of studies without leaving their native land."
• It was chartered in 1831. 
• The main building was completed in 1833. 
• Classes commenced in February 1834 with 62 students. 
• A fire destroyed the main building in 1842 and, although it was rebuilt, the college was forced to close in 1848. 
• From 1853-56, a school on the site operated as "Louisiana College."
• From 1860-62, Valcour Aime purchased the site and renamed it "Jefferson College."
• In 1862, it was occupied by Federal troops. 
• It reopened in 1864, as "St. Mary's College of Jefferson," with 17 students. It was run by the Catholic Society of Mary, also known as the Marist Fathers.{See note 3}
• It was a bilingual college with respective faculties for the French and English languages. 
• The Literary and Debating Society was founded in 1878.
• Enrollment in 1902 peaked to 150 men. 
• The 1907 football team claimed the high school championship of Louisiana. (The college was a mix of high school boys, freshmen, and sophomore.)
• The "Blenk Science Hall" was built in 1911. 
• "Advertisements for the school in the 1920’s noted that the college was comprised of a high school with commercial courses, a junior college with pre-med, pre-legal and pre-dental courses, and a teacher training course."{Cited: See Note 1}
• EDGAR ANTHONY COCO, JR. was a student in the years 1923-24. He was my great-grandfather. He played Right Half Back on the football and kept school paper clippings in his scrapbook. I digitized pages from the scrapbook, in which he made a lot of penciled notes, and have preserved them on my Instagram account @iradavidontheweb which is named to honor my father, who was Edgar's grandson. The copyright for this pictures belongs to me, Ashley Rovira.
• The 1925 college football team is pictured in a book about Louisiana, 1925-26.{See Note 4.}
• Enrollment fell to 90 students in the 1926-27 school year. 
• The college closed forever in 1927. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY & WORKS CITED

1. https://www.lostcolleges.com/jefferson-college. Archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20200929175536/https://www.lostcolleges.com/jefferson-college. 
2. Wikipedia contributors, "Jefferson College (Louisiana)," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jefferson_College_(Louisiana)&oldid=1016181099 (accessed July 9, 2021).
3. Platt, R. Eric. Educating the Sons of Sugar: Jefferson College and the Creole Planter Class of South Louisiana. University of Alabama Press: 2017. Chapter 2: The Rise and Fall of Jefferson College. URL: https://books.google.com/books?id=5B4wDwAAQBAJ. 
4. Edgar Coco's Jefferson College Memories from 1923. Instagram @iradavidontheweb. https://www.instagram.com/iradavidontheweb/guide/edgar-coco/17845819862618695/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&utm_campaign=&utm_medium=. 
5. Louisiana: 1925-1926. Pages 209-10: St. James Parish. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89073028573&view=2up&seq=210.