 For the Central Arkansas Library System and Little Rock Public Radio, I'm Mark Criss with an encyclopedia of Arkansas Minute. George D. Alexander founded the Co-Ed Alexander Institute at Tulip in Dallas County in August 1849, but a few months later it was split into separate schools for boys and girls. The Tulip Female Collegiate Seminary was chartered on December 17, 1849, with the stipulation that it would always be located in Tulip and would be exempt from taxes. Alexander was a school superintendent, and Methodist minister Benjamin Watson became principal in 1850.