Midway University originally opened as the Kentucky Female Orphan School on October 3, 1849, with one teacher and sixteen female students.
The co-founders of the school were Dr. L.L. (Lewis Letig) Pinkerton (1812-1875),[REF] minister of the Midway Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) from 1844 to 1860,[REF] and Mr. James Ware Parrish, a Midway Christian Church elder.