In 1851, the Baptist Bethel Association, meeting in Benevolence, resolved to create an educational institution for females called The Baptist Female College of Southwestern Georgia, and this site in the village of Villa Nova was chosen for its location. Rev. Thos. Muse served for two years as agent, raising funds, promoting plans, and shaping policies. A handsome colonnaded building was erected here, Rev. A. T. Holmes became the first president, and the school opened in the fall of 1852. The first trustees were Jesse H. Campbell, James Clark, Francis Seig, William Janes, Ebenezer Warren, Roger Dickinson, John Wilson, William Wade, Joel Perry, Thomas Muse, William L. Crawford, Richard Thornton, John Fletcher, David Vason, and Jesse Stallings. The school closed in 1863 because of war and in 1864-65 served as the Hill Hospital of the Confederacy. In the 1880s, as a branch of Georgia’s university system, it became The Bethel Agricultural and Military College. After fire destroyed it in 1901, the property was sold, another site was bought, and a new building was erected. In 1907, Bethel Association sold that second property to the City of Cuthbert for operation of Cuthbert’s first public school.