Kountze Baptist College, also known as Jermany College, served African American students in the area for nearly two decades. In 1910, the Trinity Valley Baptist Association opened the primary and secondary grade level school, as such institutions were often known as colleges at the time. Professor W.H. Jermany served as president and taught classes with four other teachers, including his wife. Affiliated with Bishop College in Marshall, the school initially enrolled 15 students in a small wooden building. Its classes included Reading, Writing, Mathematics, Home Economics and Sewing, Dressmaking and Millinery, Music and Theology. The school also operated a truck farm on part of its 81-acre campus to support agricultural education programs, and it included a college preparatory academy and a teacher training program. The school thrived in the 1910s and into the 1920s, replacing the small wooden building with a larger structure, and in 1915 obtaining additional land and erecting a three-story building with dormitory rooms, classrooms, and a chapel. By the late 1920s, Professor Jermany had resigned and was replaced by Professor Schlyde. Financial difficulties compounded by the Great Depression led to the school's closure in 1930. Many of the young African American men and women educated there went on to graduate from college, and the school became a source of pride for both blacks and whites in the area, leaving a legacy of vital importance in Hardin County.