USA > Kentucky > A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume I > Part 59
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"Schools of a higher grade, however, soon appeared. John Filson, surveyor, adventurer, and first historian of Kentucky, for whom the most important historical club in Kentucky was named, established a seminary in Lexington in or before 1784. The pioneer Baptist preacher, Rev. Elijah Craig, established a like school at Georgetown in 1788, and during the same year, the celebrated James Priestly took charge of Salem Academy at Bardstown. which had been preceded there as early as 1786, by a school taught by a Mr. Shackelford. This school, under Dr. Priestly's management, was for some time, one of the most noted in the State, and in it, many of the great public men of the early history of Kentucky received the principal part of their education. The founding of private high schools continued steadily in conjunction with another movement to be presently noted, until Winterbotham, in 1795, could truthfully say, in writing of Ken- tucky's educational facilities : 'Schools are es- tablished in the several towns and, in general, regularly .and handsomely supported,' and Marshall states, referring in general, to this period : 'There are many educated and more means to be applied in that way than most other countries could afford, while a general propensity for giving and receiving literary in- struction was obviously a prevailing sentiment throughout the country.'
"The other movement above referred to, is the most striking feature of the state's early history, and is so interesting as to demand a more extended treatment. It consisted in the inauguration of a system of local and state patronage of secondary and higher education. Lexington, soon after its establishment, re- served land for Latin and English schools, and by this inducement, as early as 1787, caused
Isaac Wilson, late of Philadelphia College, as he described himself in an advertisement in the Kentucky Gazette, to open the Lexington Grammar School ; but state patronage of higher education came even earlier, as Transylvania Seminary, one of the first public schools or seminaries of learning in the Mississippi Val- ley, was endowed by an act of the Virginia legislature, in 1780, and further endowed and chartered in 1783, and other foundations and endowments by the mother state and by Ken- tucky soon followed, until a state educational system was developed quite unusual in its cir- cumstances and quite in advance of the ideas of the day elsewhere in this country.
"The main thing of interest in Kentucky's educational history, up to about 1820, is the development of this splendid system of higher education, composed, as projected, of a State University and at least one subsidiary academy in each county, and probably intended to be supplemented later by a system of more ele- mentary schools. The subsidiary academies were quite fully developed and reached their culmination during this period, while Tran- sylvania University was fairly inaugurated and foundations laid for the career upon which it was about to enter. The more elementary schools were, however, never connected with this system and have only been established in any perfection, in quite recent years, and then on an independent basis.
"The main current of education in Kentucky began at the top and extended downward. First there was the university, or college, and then the common school. This was not to be wondered at as it was, as a rule, true in all the older states. A number of the prominent men among the early settlers in Kentucky were themselves college men, and of or among the college founders in Virginia and naturally, their first attempt to promote education in the new state, according to the prevailing ideas of the time, especially in Virginia, from which most of them came, took shape in the form of
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an institution of higher learning. It was re- markable, however, that in their hands, this institution should have been planned to become the head of a great state system of public edu1- cation embracing even elementary schools-a conception in advance of public opinion at that time, in this country at least.
"The period from 1820 to 1830 was marked by the downfall of the magnificently conceived university system. Even before 1820, the sys- tem of correlated academies had reached its culmination and had, for various reasons, been acknowledged as a failure by discerning men. Soon after that date the plan was abandoned as a state enterprise. The academies did not disappear at once, but many of them continued as high schools, and some of them even de- veloped into colleges. Augusta, Georgetown, and many of the earlier colleges of the state were built upon the foundations of older acade- mies whose funds they inherited."
Public patronage between 1820 and 1830 was confined almost exclusively to Transylvania University. Dr. Halley, an accomplished Uni- tarian minister and educator, had been brought from the east to be the head of this institution, and for a time a brilliant and successful era seemed to have dawned upon the institution. But oil and water never successfully join with each other without the aid of another element. Dr. Halley's religious views were not in accord with those who controlled the university. It is doubted if they believed that Dr. Halley, a Unitarian, had any religion whatever. The country will not have forgotten that in a late Presidential contest, some ill-informed persons insisted that one of the leading candidates should not be chosen, since being a member of the Unitarian church, he was necessarily an infidel. One scarcely knows whether to ascribe such a charge as this to the stupidity of the ill- informed or to the detestable bitterness of partisan politics. However that may be, the candidate in question was successful at the polls, while the university, into which religious
partisanship had crept, was for years forced to langnish and almost to die.
The upbuilding of educational institutions in Kentucky was retarded by a blending of control by church and state. The State College, now the State University, suffered for years from the fact that a church control was mingled with the nominal control by the state. The mem- bers of the church in question were wont to speak of it as "our college," thus driving away the patronage and support of the people of other denominations. It was to the detriment of this college that it was left by the legisla- ture to a denominational body to accept and utilize the government grant of 1862. Subse- quently, the connection between state and church was relinquished and today Transyl- vania, and the State University, with many memories of the older days clustering about them, hold high stations in Kentucky, most de- servedly, and their students and graduates en- joy with pleasure, a retrospect to the earlier history of each. Each is a credit to its found- ers and to its subsequent history.
"It must not be understood that there were none other in the days referred to than the higher schools. There were then, as there are now, schools of a minor character, known then as 'Old Field' schools. Today, they are known as district schools by legal designation ; coun- try schools by common usage. In the early his- tory of Kentucky it is found that as soon as a settlement was established, a school was or- ganized however few might be the children to receive its benefits. This was a natural step, since the men who came to settle Kentucky from Virginia and North Carolina, were, in the main, men of education, who recognized the necessity for school facilities for their chil- dren. Why these should have been termed 'Old Field' schools is not known. One writer has suggested that 'the name probably arose from the fact that the schoolhouses were usu- ally built in some old clearing, often a spot for- merly occupied by Indians for agricultural pur-
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poses.' This is scarcely a correct solution since the Indians never occupied Kentucky for agri- cultural, but only for hunting purposes, with the exception of a time at what is now known as 'Indian Old Fields' in Clark County. The same writer adds, that the term 'Hedge Row' is applied to them by Professor Shaler: but the writer has never seen the term itsed else- where in reference to them, nor has he ever heard it used in western Kentucky, where the term 'Old Field' is frequently used by elderly people."
It is not a matter of moment what these old log schoolhouses were called; it is enough to know that from them emerged many youths who were later to write their names large upon the history of their State and country. The men who taught the rising generation of young Kentuckians were, in many instances, gradu- ates of universities and colleges of high degree : men who, with splendid educations, yet lacked that some one faculty which would have made them leaders in the world's great strife. With this lacking, they turned to the school-room and at the most inadequate salaries, sought to lead the youth of the land to those heights themselves had missed. Some were com- petent ; many were incompetent. Yet in the absence of native-born teachers of the youth of Kentucky, these eastern-born men, and sometimes women, "Yankee teachers" they were called, filled the schoolhouses of the state and taught the young girls and boys their first steps toward an education. There are yet among the elder women and men of the state those who cherish with grateful memory, those strange people who came out of the north to lead what they deemed the young barbarians of the south out of darkness into light. Writ- ing of them, Professor Alvin Fayette Lewis of the University of Arkansas has said : "These men could not have made teaching their profession, as their wages were very low. When teaching, however, they were required to take up early and turn out late, giving short
recesses and noon intermissions, the idea being that they must earn their money. They were otherwise practically under no supervision, ex- cept such as the pupils chose to put upon them, and taught according to their own peculiar theories, temperaments and habits. They were often as rough and passionate as they could well be, and liberal in their use of the rod, even knocking down impertinent pupils, while, on the other hand, some of them allowed the pupils to do as they pleased. All, as a general thing, had written rules which were frequently read and usually vigorously enforced, the pupils often dreading the frown and the birch of the master more than the screams of the wild animals they sometimes heard on their way to and from the schoolhouse."
This description of the earlier schoolmaster applied long after the period when "the screams of wild animals" were heard by the school children. Up to the period of the War between the States there were few Kentuck- ians who were teachers in the schools and the northern man, with his portentous frown and Draconian rules, was almost without excep- tion, the school teacher. One of these the writer has in mind, the mildest-mannered, gentlest man whom he ever knew, who claimed New York as his native state. When the war came, he was teaching a girls' school and to the surprise of everyone, he left his school and, at the head of a company of young Ken- tuckians, entered the Confederate service as a captain. So pronounced was his spirit of po- liteness that it was told of him that he would say to his company: "Gentlemen, please right dress," which was probably an exaggeration. However this may have been, it is true that on the battle's perilous edge, he was among the bravest of the brave, and this gentle Yankee gentleman came out of the war as a Confeder- ate major with the affectionate regard of every man who had observed his military career.
Recurring to the earlier country schools, after this brief incursion into sterner fields, it
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may be stated that the instruction offered in them was of an elementary character, consist- ing only of "reading, writing and ciphering to the rule of three." In the earlier days the teacher must needs be an expert maker of quill pens, the steel pen being then unknown. "Geography and arithmetic were taught orally, and in studying, the pupils who were not recit- ing, added to the monotonous uproar of the class by studying aloud, as they were usually allowed to do. The text-books used at first were Delworth's Speller, and the Bible; later Webster's old blue-back Spelling Book and Murray's English Reader and Grammar were introduced. Afterwards, more mathematics and some classical instruction were added to the course in many schools, thus materially en- larging the education offered. After Lindley Murray's Grammar, came at a later date, Kirk- ham's Grammar, more incomprehensible to the young student, if possible, than the former. In the library of the writer today is the Kirk- ham's Grammar which cost him many a weary hour of study and the loss of countless "re- cesses" during which he was "kept in" by a teacher incompetent to lead him through the intricacies of the English language therein pre- sented. And that teacher was not a "Yankee," but a Kentuckian born.
Professor Lewis, pursuing the course of common school education in the earlier Ken- tucky days, says: "Practically the only super- vision to which the teacher was subjected was by the pupils. This was regulated by custom with which the patrons of the schools never in any way interfered as long as it was at all within reason. It only concerned such things as 'treats' upon certain recognized occasions, the granting of holidays and similar matters and was enforced by the larger boys of the school who rode the teacher upon a rail, ducked him in some convenient spring or pond, or otherwise made things so unpleasant for him that he was forced to yield to their demands. A very common practice was to turn him out,'
until he granted the desired concession. This is well illustrated by the following characteris- tic incident taken from an article by Col. R. T. Durrett in the Louisville Courier-Journal, of April 2, 1881 :
"'On the 28th of April, 1809, the first show, as the boys called it, occurred in Louisville. It was the exhibition of an elephant and there was a general uprising in all the schools for a holiday. The Jefferson Seminary, and the schools at the head of which were teachers conversant with the habits of the place, gave the boys a holiday without trouble, but there was a New England teacher, recently come to the charge of one of the log schoolhouses, who could not understand why the boys were to be permitted to lay aside their books a whole day to see an elephant. He would not grant the holiday asked and the boys went to work in the usual way to make him yield. On the morn- ing of the 28th, the "Yankee" teacher, as they called him, came to his schoolhouse and found the door barred with benches, fence-rails and logs of wood, and the boys all inside laughing at his futile efforts to get in. They promptly told him the terms upon which the fort would be surrendered, which were simply to give them the day as a holiday, so that they could go and see the elephant. The teacher was indig- nant and not being able to get through the (toor, climbed upon the roof and attempted to descend the chimney. For this contingency, the boys had prepared a pile of dry leaves and when the teacher appeared at the top of the chimney, the leaves were lighted in the fire- place. Down came the teacher, for, having once started, he could not go back, and the flames scorched him and the smoke smothered him so that he was the powerless autocrat of the school and knight of the ferrule. He gave the holiday and went home "to lay up for re- pairs," as the boys expressed it ; and the boys went to the show as if nobody had either been burnt or smoked.'
"Such were the methods of discipline and
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of teaching in the 'Old Field' schools which were to be found in many parts of Kentucky" in the earlier days of the State.
So different are the methods of today, that there is no need for an apology for the space used in setting forth for the youth of today incidents common enough in the school-days of their grandfathers or, it may be, even in the experience of their fathers, if the latter found their first instruction in the country schools. Of course, the changes in discipline and in text-books, make the schools of today far su- perior to those of the period referred to, yet it must not be forgotten that those "Old Field" schools sent out into the world men who made their mark deep and wide upon the history of their times, some of whom never saw even the outer walls of a college.
The good women of Kentucky, who have organized clubs for the advancement of pretty much everything under the sun, will be inter- ested in learning that the first common school teacher in Kentucky was a woman, though, unfortunately, the name of this pioneer ad- venturer into the wilderness of education, can- not be here given. Notwithstanding that she made the first efforts to extend the benefits of education, there were not, at first, separate schools for girls. Girls were excluded from the first academies, and the only opportunities extended to them were those found in the "Old Field" schools. Professor Chenault, one of the foremost of Kentucky educators, to whom the State owes more than it can ever repay, quoting from the distinguished Felix Grundy, states that the teachers of these early schools, which girls had usually to attend, if they received any education at all, "were often destitute both of a knowledge of polite litera- ture and good manners."
It is a pleasure to write that the statements above made are no longer correct and that the young girls of Kentucky have now an equal opportunity with others to secure the fullest education. The first seminary for the exclu-
sive education of girls in the west, and prob- ably in the United States, was that of the Rev. John Lyle, a Presbyterian minister, which was located at Paris in 1806. This school was successful and soon there were two hundred students or more, after which, it is said to have been closed by reason of others than himself connected with its management, objecting to the reading of the Bible as a part of the daily exercises. Mr. Lyle withdrew from the semi- nary and returned to the ministry and the in- stitution appears, so far as can now be learned, to have been broken up. Another female school of importance at this period was that of Mrs. Louisa Fitzherbert Keats at Washington in Mason County. This school, opened in 1807, after educating the daughters of many promi- nent citizens, was closed in 1812. "About this time, Loretto Academy was opened in what is now Marion County, and was followed in 1814 by Nazareth Academy in Nelson County. In 1825, Mrs. Tevis and her husband estab- lished Science Hill at Shelbyville, which ex- cellent institution continues to this day, though under another management, and has educated thousands of the brightest young women of Kentucky and the south.
The oldest college in Kentucky with a·con- tinuous name, up to a recent date, is Centre College, founded at Danville in 1819. The first president of its Board of Trustees was Governor Isaac Shelby. This excellent insti- tution, the best of its class west of the Alle- ghenies, has had a most illustrious career and has graduated scores of men who were subse- quently governors, senators, congressmen, am- bassadors and occupants of lesser positions. Its first president was the Rev. John McChord, of the Presbyterian church, and about him was gathered a faculty of the highest educational capacity. After him came Rev. Jeremiah Chamberlin, D. D., a man of great learning and ability. He resigned in 1826, going to Louisiana to become the president of Jackson College.
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Dr. Chamberlin was temporarily succeeded by Rev. David C. Proctor who acted as presi- dent until 1827. when Rev. Edwin Blackburn was elected president and served until 1830. During his administration a theological depart- ment was added to the institution under the direction of Rev. James K. Burch, but owing to a failure of financial support, this idea was abandoned in 1831.
Dr. Blackburn's successor was the illustrious Dr. John C. Young, who came to the presi- dency in 1830 and continued to exercise that high office until his death, June 23. 1857. "do- ing, during this time. more than any other man, before or since, to establish the prestige of Centre among Kentucky colleges." Dr. Young's successor in the presidency was Rev. L. W. Green, D. D., formerly president of Transylvania University. Dr. Green's service was during the troubled period of the War be- tween the States, but the operations of the col- lege were not interrupted by the war for more than a few days at a time, though the matricu- lation of new students was reduced by the fact that the young men who should have been in college were, during that period, students in the University of War.
Dr. Green died in May, 1863, and was suc- ceeded by Dr. William L. Breckinridge, who served until 1868, when he resigned.
Dr. Ormond Beatty succeeded Dr. Breckin- ridge. retaining the presidency until Septem- ber, 1888. Dr. Beatty was an alumnus of the college and had devoted his life to teaching. His administration was most successful, as the college during his term met and overcame a heavy financial loss, from which it emerged with a larger fund for present use than it had possessed when the loss occurred, thanks to the generous subscriptions of the wealthy friends of the institution. In November, 1886, Dr. Beatty, owing to ill-health, a second time tendered his resignation as president, which was regretfully accepted. After several un- successful efforts to secure a capable successor
to Dr. Beatty, the trustees finally selected. in 1888, Rev. Wm. C. Young, D. D., son of the former president of the college, who accepted the position. He was a graduate of Centre and had broadened the education there received by extensive travels abroad. During his adminis- tration a law department was added to the col- lege, and the Hon. Procter Knott, LL. D., long a distinguished member of congress and a former governor of Kentucky, was dean of the faculty; the Hon. R. P. Jacobs, LL. D., and the Hon. John W. Yerkes, A. M., LL. B., being his associates. This department has been very successful. notwithstanding that from various causes the original faculty is no longer connected with it.
Following the death of Dr. Young, a new president was chosen after much delay in the person of Rev. William C. Roberts, D. D., a native of Wales and a graduate of Princeton University and of the Princeton Theological Seminary.
Dr. Lewis says: "No institution in Ken- ticky has a more distinguished body of alumni than Centre College ; in fact few colleges in the country have a greater number of graduates distinguished in political life, especially,-the profession of law and that of the ministry be- ing those most followed by Centre alumni. Once or twice in the past seventeen years there have been more old students of Centre in both houses of congress than from any other col- lege in the country except Yale University." The following statement, taken substantially from the catalogue of the college for 1897-8, will, perhaps, best show the number and at- tainments of Centre's graduates: The entire number of the alumni at the present time is over 1,200. Among them are more than 330 lawyers, about 225 ministers of the gospel and more than 100 physicians, while the remainder are found in various professions and callings. Among the alumni, both of the living and the dead, who have greatly distinguished them- selves in their respective professions and have
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attained the highest positions of honor and trust, especially through the south and west, where they reside or where they did reside while they lived, Centre College has graduated twenty-four college presidents, forty-four col- lege professors, twenty-six representatives in congress, five United States senators, seven governors of states, two vice presidents of the United States, one justice of the United States supreme court, thirty-eight circuit judges ( state and national ), forty-eight editors, four or five ministers to foreign countries, and many others occupying positions of trust and respon- sibility in other fields.
There had been differences growing out of the war which affected Center College and which led to the founding of Central Univer- sity at Richmond. Kentucky, an account of which may be pertinent here, as those dif- ferences have been long allayed and the two institutions have happily become one. The editor acknowledges his indebtedness for much of the following matter to Rev. 1 .. H. Blanton, D. D., former president of the Uni- versity, and to Rev. Harvey Glass, D. D., for- mer curator of that institution. From these two accomplished gentlemen, these facts which follow are learned.
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