(fottOl. SLbQ~ CoQQ~CJ~ " ,- - '<'.- I , .. "~.;:,.:,, Two large buildings on a campus covered with blue grass and giant oak trees marked the beginning of a school that in later years was to be known as Harding College. Potter Bible College was founded in the fall of 190 I by Mr. and Mrs. C. C. Potter, Bowling Green, Kentucky. The beginning of the school was unusual and interesting. Eldon Potter, a nephew of C. C. Potter, became heir to sixty thousand dollars on his twenty·first birthday. Before the year had gone, he died leaving the money to Mr. and Mrs. Potter. In 3eeking a way to use this money for the greatest good they decided to establish a Bible School. They also gave a one hundred and forty-acre farm for the school's use. Potter Bible School was really an outgrowth of David-Lipscomb College, Nashville, Tennessee. After the buildings were prepared at Bowling Green, part of the David·Lipscomb faculty moved there to help begin the new institution. James A. Harding, who had been president of David·Lipscomb for ten years, became the first president. Dr. J. N. Armstrong was Greek, Hebrew and Bible teacher and Mrs. Armstrong taught physical education. These are the only ones who began with the school and came through the years with it. R. C. Bell and R. N. Gardner were also members of the faculty. About one hundred and twenty-five students were enrolled in this first Harding which had a faculty of nine teachers. The school was a junior college with no standardization. But there was no standardization among the Christian schools in the early days of Bible teaching. In this first step toward Harding College nine dollars a month covered all expenses- board, tuition, and fees. For eleven years, Potter Bible school instructed boys and girls in Christian living. For ten years James A. Harding was president, doing the work of thirty years in ten, In 1912 the school was converted into an orphan's home, But the spirit of Harding was not lost for another Christian school had been started in the meanwhile.
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