Bloomfield Seminary

Rev. J. H. Carr, a Methodist missionary, was sent to the Chickasaw Nation to establish a boarding school for girls. In the spring of 1852 he selected a site on a wooded hill surrounded by prairie. Rev. Carr lived in a tent while supervising the building. He was visited by Jackson Kemp who called the place Bloomfield for the profusion of wild flowers. In June Rev. Carr married Angelina Hosmer of Bedford, Massachusetts. She served as matron of the school when it opened in September 1853 with 25 students. During the Civil War the school was Seminary was closed, the Chickasaw Battalion camped on the grounds, and the school house became a hospital. Although funds for the school were cut off, the Carrs continued to hold day classes. Angelina died in 1864 and was buried in the cemetery north of the school. Her headstone reads “For more than 15 years a missionary to the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians, Servant of God. Well done! Rest from thy loved employ. Many shall rise up and call thee blessed.” Unable to get funding for the school, Rev. Carr and his family moved to Paris, Texas in 1867. Bloomfield was reestablished in 1868 by Dr. and Mrs. H. F. Murray. A new structure, erected in 1896, was destroyed by fire in 1914. The school was moved to Ardmore and reopened as Carter Seminary.