"I believe that women have minds of equal force with those of the other sex, that they are susceptible to cultivation, that by proper culture women may be fitted for any station however exalted. I believe that if it suits her taste and she be properly educated and qualified she may engage in merchandise, in painting and sculpture, in the practice of medicine, or pursue any other lofty and honorable calling, and it is in order to do this that I desire to see the institution to be built on the cornerstone now laid, most thoroughly appointed and forever established."
- Statement by Trustee Dr. King at the laying of the cornerstone on an extension to the college building as printed in Laberta Dysart's Chatham College: The First Ninety Years, p. 38