USA > North Carolina > Western North Carolina; a history, 1730-1913 > Part 40
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THE BLAB SCHOOL. At the earliest period of the most isolated schools, there were but few books, and spelling was usually taught and learned by a sort of chant or sing- song, in which all, teacher and scholars, joined. Young and old joined in this exercise, and children often learned to spell who did not readily distinguish the letters of the alphabet. These were often chalked or written with charcoal on boards against the walls.
NEWTON ACADEMY. From 1797 to 1814 the Rev. George Newton taught a classical school at this place [Newton Acad- emy] which was famous throughout several States.7 Mr. Newton was a Presbyterian minister, reported to the Synod
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at Bethel church, South Carolina, October 18, 1798, as hav- ing been received by ordination by the Presbytery of Con- cord (Foote's Sketches on North Carolina, 297). He lived on Swannanoa until 1814, when he removed to Bedford county, Tennessee. There for many years he was principal of Dick- son Academy and pastor of the Presbyterian church in Shel- byville, and there he died about 1841.7 "At that time there was a building which had been used for church and school purposes, known as Union Hill Academy. The house, which was a log one, was removed and in 1809 a brick house took its place. In the same year its name was changed to that of Newton Academy." 8 Here for many years the people resorted to preaching and sent their children to school, and buried their dead. In 1857 or 1858 the brick building between the present academy and the grave yard was removed and the brick academy now there was erected. (See Clayton v. Trus- tees, 95 N. C., 298.)
DR. ERASTUS ROWLEY. "The old Newton Academy was the only institution in the county which, up to 1840, had ever been dignified with as big a name as that of Academy. This was a very old structure when I first entered it in 1844. Dr. Erastus Rowley taught here that year. The house was a very long one and rather wide one story, divided into two rooms-one very long room and one small one. It was built of brick and stood on the top of the knoll some distance above where the present one stands. Many of the older men of this section received their education at this widely known institution and its fame has always been almost co-extensive with that of Asheville." 9
DR. SAMUEL DICKSON. "In 1835 Dr. Samuel Dickson, a Presbyterian minister, established here a seminary for young ladies, which was most successfully carried on for many years. It was a school which even in this day of improved educational methods would stand in the highest rank. Miss Marguerite Smith of Rhode Island also taught in this building at the same time. At it were educated all the girls in this sec- tion of the country. Dr. Dickson lived and carried on this school in the first brick house put up in Asheville. It was a handsome colonial residence, known afterwards as the 'Pul- liam place,' on South Main street. The first woman who ever became a regular practitioner of medicine in America was a member of this school, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell." 10
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COLONEL STEPHEN LEE, SOLDIER AND SCHOOLMASTER. "Dr. Erastus Rowley also taught the male school at the old Newton Academy for quite a while. He was a 'Yankee' but a most excellent teacher, as well as a fine preacher. Col. Stephen Lee, about this time, established a school for boys on the Swannanoa four miles from Asheville, which had a wide reputation and he did good in all this mountain section. It may be said without intended disparagement to others that Col. Lee's equal as a teacher has scarcely been found in this country; his memory lingers with and is blessed by many of the 'old boys' of today.
"Col. Lee's school for boys was far famed and many of the best citizens of this country and South Carolina remembered with gratitude, not only the drilling in Latin and Greek re- ceived from this most successful educator, but also the les- sons in high toned honor and manhood imparted by this knight 'without fear and without reproach.' Col. Lee came from South Carolina and opened his school first in a large brick house built by himself on Swannanoa, known as 'The Lodge'- afterwards famous as the hospitable summer resi- dence of Mr. William Patton. Colonel Lee afterwards moved to Chunn's Cove, where he taught until, at the call of his country, he and his sons and his pupils enlisted in the cause which they believed to be right. He was a graduate of West Point and distantly related to Gen. R. E. Lee." 11
Col. Stephen Lee, son of Judge Thomas Lee of Charleston, S. C., was born in Charleston, June 7, 1801, was educated at West Point and for some years after taught in the Charles- ton College. In September, 1825, he was married to his cousin, Caroline Lee, also of Charleston; they had fifteen chil- dren, nine boys and six girls. Some years after he was married he moved to Spartanburg, S. C., where he lived only a few years, moving with his family to Buncombe county, N. C. In Chunn's Cove he started his school for boys, which he kept up as long as he lived, except for two or three years in the sixties, a part of which time he was in command of the 16th N. C. Regiment, serving his country in West Virginia and the rest of the time drilling new recruits and preparing them for service. Besides serving himself, he sent eight boys into the Confederate army, four of whom gave their lives to the cause. At the close of the war he returned to his school du-
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ties and prepared many young men for their life work. He died in 1879, and is buried in the Asheville cemetery.
MRS. MORRISON AND MISS COUSINS' SCHOOL. Another school now long passed away, and existing only in the tender memories of its pupils, was taught for girls by Mrs. Morrison and Miss Cousins, on Haywood street, the present residence of Dr. H. H. Briggs.
SAND HILL SCHOOL. Captain Charles Moore, son of Cap- tain Wm. Moore, was a man of ability and learning, a strict Presbyterian and a most useful citizen, who early realized the importance of education to a people so isolated as were the men of his time. Consequently, early in the nineteenth cen- tury he erected a small frame building on his farm, since famous as Sand Hill School. It was a school house and church for ministers sent out by the Mecklenburg Presby- tery, and later became the most useful institution of learn- ing west of the Blue Ridge, to which boys from all the sur- rounding counties came as long as Captain Moore lived. Among them were the late James L. Henry, Superior court judge; J. C. L. Gudger, Superior court judge; the late Riley H. Cannon, Superior court judge, and Judge George A. Jones of Macon, who held the position of judge by appointment for nearly two years. Among those living, are Captain James M. Gudger, Sr., solicitor; J. M. Gudger, Jr., member of Congress; H. A. Gudger, chief justice of the Panama Canal Zone; Supe- rior Court Judge Geo. A. Shuford, Judge Charles A. Moore, the late Hirschel S. Harkins, former internal revenue collector for this district; the late Fred Moore, Superior court judge; the late James Cooper, a prominent lawyer of Murphy; Hon. W. G. Candler, member of the legislature; Thomas J. Candler, Dr. James Candler, and Dr. David M. Gudger. Captain Charles Moore is said to have been largely instrumental in erecting the first Presbyterian church in Asheville. He in- sisted on employing only the most competent teachers for Sand Hill School, among them being Prof. Hood and W. H. Graves, both highly educated teachers. He died about the close of the Civil War. Professor S. F. Venable, a graduate of the University of Virginia, also taught at Sand Hill.
ANOTHER EARLY SCHOOL. Bishop Asbury records the fact that in September, 1806, he and Moses Lawrence lost their way in Buncombe county when within a mile of Killion's
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on Beaverdam creek, and spent the night in a school house, without a fire. The floor of this school room was of dirt, on which Moses slept, while the Bishop had a "bed wherever I could find a bench." This was not Newton Academy, for he had already recorded the fact that he knew the Rev. George Newton in November, 1800. Besides, Newton Acad- emy was more than three miles from Killion's. Just where this school house was seems to have escaped the knowledge of all our local historians.
SILAS McDOWELL. He was born in York District, S. C., in 1795, and for three sessions was a student at Newton Academy, near Asheville. He was apprenticed to learn the tailor's trade at Charleston, S. C., and worked as such at Morganton and Asheville. He married a niece of Governor Swain, and moved to Macon county in 1830, where for sixteen years he was clerk of Superior court. He was a practical mineralogist and geologist, botanist and a scientist of original views. His descriptions of mountain peaks attracted much attention; but his "Theory of the Thermal Zone" gave him great reputation and was published in the Agricultural Re- ports of the United States. He died in Macon county, July 14, 1879.
A BENEVOLENT "SQUEERS. "12 A most unique character among the teachers of that day was Robert Woods or "Uncle Baldy," as he was generally called, for his head was bald as a door knob with the exception of a light fringe at the base of his cranium. Although a finished classical scholar and per- fect in mathematics as well as all the higher branches taught in that day, he would not teach in the higher schools, but preferred to labor in what was then known as the "old field," where there was seldom anything taught but the elementary branches-such as spelling, reading, writing "ciphering." Occasionally he would have a boy who wanted to take a little Latin or Greek, or the higher mathematics, which he was thoroughly competent to teach. He was singular and very economical in his notions of dress. He made one suit last him for many years. I can see him now in imagination, with a long tail blue jeans coat that came down to his knees and which had seen service so long that the threads of white fill- ing were showing plainly. The collar was large and when turned up came nearly to the top of his head. His pants
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were of heavy "linsey woolsey" of deep brown color and very baggy. His vest was of the same material and buttoned up to his chin, with a good flap at the top, his shirts were of heavy red or purple flannel, his shoes were of a style of heavy home made comfortable brogan that were very generally worn in that day. This was his dress and the only one I ever saw him wear. When he was not hearing recitations he constantly walked the floor of the school room from end to end with a swinging walk with his hands crossed upon his back and in one of them a six foot birch "tidivator," and when he would catch a boy with his eyes wandering or at meanness he would give him a keen rap across the shoulders and say in a savage tone, "mind your book." In the summer time when the flies were bad he would tie a large red bandanna handkerchief over his head which he could arrange something after the fash- ion of a woman's sunbonnet and thus he could save fighting the flies, but with all his queer ways and habits he was a most excellent, useful and successful teacher and a good old gen- tleman. For many years he taught acceptably in various parts of this county.
FIRST SCHOOL HOUSE IN ASHE. The first school house in Jefferson was of logs and stood on a branch in the eastern end of Jefferson in a lot owned by Felix Barr, just left of the black- smith shop. He removed it in 1873 or 1874. A fine spring is near the former site.
BURNSVILLE ACADEMY. In 1851 Rev. Stephen B. Adams, now deceased, of the Methodist Church, established the Burns- ville Academy and taught there several years. He was the father of Judge Joseph S. Adams, also now deceased. Out of this grew
MARS HILL COLLEGE, which was established by the most prominent members of the Baptist denomination in 1857, after realizing the necessity for such a college. Thomas Ray, John Radford, E. D. Carter, Daniel Carter, Stephen Ammons, Shepard Deaver, Rev. J. W. Anderson and Rev. Humphrey Deweese were prominent in establishing this institution. During part of the Civil War the buildings were used by the soldiers, but after the close of that struggle the buildings were repaired and others added. It has done and still is doing great good.
WEAVERVILLE COLLEGE was established by the Metho-
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dist Church, South, about the year 1856. It is situated on land where formerly camp meetings were held. It has been greatly enlarged and improved of late years. It is co-educational. It has done excellent work in the past and continues to do the same now.
ASHEVILLE MALE ACADEMY. In 1847-48 the citizens of Asheville erected a brick building on the north side of what is now College street about a hundred yards east of Oak. It stood till August, 1912, when it was removed. In it Prof. James H. Norwood taught till about 1850, when he removed to Waynesville, where he remained till shortly before the Civil War, when, having been appointed Indian agent in the Northwest, he removed there and was afterwards killed by the Indians. During part of the time he taught at this academy Col. Stephen Lee also taught there, but soon removed to Chunn's cove.
ASHEVILLE FEMALE COLLEGE. About 1850 or 1851 this college was established on the land now bounded on the north by Woodfin, on the east by Locust, on the south by College and on the west by Oak streets. Part of it is used as a hotel and the remainder is now the high school's property. At first it was Holston Conference Female College, but was afterwards known as the Asheville Female College, and subsequently as the Asheville College for Women. It prospered and had a large patronage from the start under the presidency of Dr. John M. Carlisle, Dr. Anson W. Cummings, Dr. James S. Kennedy, Dr. R. N. Price, Dr. James Atkins, Mr. Archibald Jones.
ASHEVILLE SCHOOL FOR GIRLS. This was begun in 1911, with Miss Ford as principal, assisted by several competent teachers. It occupies the handsome and commodious resi- dence built by Col. N. W. Woodfin at the corner of North Main and Woodfin streets, Asheville, and enlarged by the late Dr. J. H. Burroughs.
SULPHUR SPRINGS SCHOOL. William Hawkins taught in the school house on the hill above Sulphur Springs from 1838 till long after 1845. A school had been maintained at that place by Robert Henry's influence and largely at his ex- pense since 1836. The grave yard still there is just back of the place where the old school house stood. The late Riley Cannon, the Jones, Hawkins and Moore children attended school there in the old days.
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MRS. HUTSELL'S GIRLS' SCHOOL. Mrs. Hutsell, the wife of the Rev. Mr. Hutsell, a Methodist preacher, taught a school for girls about four miles west of Sulphur Springs from 1840 to 1853, and took some of the scholars to board at her house. Her husband and Francis Marion Wells of Grassy Creek, Madison county, were brothers-in-law.
"ORDER OF THE HOLY CROSS" AT VALLE CRUCIS. 13 In 1840 a gentleman from New York, in search of rare wild flow- ers, wandered into Valle Crucis. He called this beautiful vale to the attention of Bishop Levi S. Ives of the Protestant Episcopal Church, who, on July 20, 1842, held services there and promised to send a missionary. In December, 1842, Rev. Henry H. Prout arrived and began work in the Lower Settlement, near the Tennessee line. In August, 1843, Bishop Ives returned and purchased 125 acres of land which was subsequently increased to 2,000 acres. His first intention was to "make this valley an important center of work for the entire diocese, to include a missionary station, a training school for the ministry, and a classical and agricultural school for boys." The necessary buildings having been constructed in 1844, school was opened early in 1845, with thirty boys which number increased to fifty during that summer. Rev. Mr. Thurston was at the head of the mission and of the school. There were seven candidates for the ministry, several of whom were assistant teachers. Upon the death of Mr. Thurston the Rev. Jarvis Buxton, then a candidate for holy orders, took charge of the school and Mr. Prout carried on the mis- sionary work. But Dr. Buxton removed to Asheville in 1847, where he became rector of Trinity church, resigning that posi- tion in March, 1890. This withdrawal from Valle Crucis was in consequence of the introduction into the mission of Valle Crucis by Bishop Ives, in June 1847, of the "Order of the Holy Cross," planned by himself and which he intended, it was said, to develop into a monastic institution. The Bishop was the General of the Order, the members of which were divided into three classes: those in the abbey at Valle Crucis only taking the medieval vows of chastity, poverty and obedience; others taking lighter vows; and some taking lighter vows still.
Both the clergy and laity might belong to either class. The Rev. Mr. French was appointed Superior, Mr. Buxton
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having declined the appointment. Many divinity students became connected with the order, but none of them aban- doned the church. The chapel having been destroyed by fire, the little band rebuilt it by themselves, locating it in a little grove at the foot of a hill. Instead of bells a bugle was used to summon them to worship, and to work. Rev. Wil- liam West Skyles of Hertford county, had joined the mission in 1844 as a farmer, and was ordained a deacon in August, 1847. He was now called "Brother William, " while the Rev. Mr. French was addressed as "Father William." All were required to work the farm two hours every day. But reports of the new order had spread through the diocese, funds had failed to arrive, but the committee on the State of the church at the convention held at Wilmington in 1848, favored the mission, saying that its importance "is immense as the nursery of a future ministry because of its retirement, . its hardy
and useful discipline and great economy." At the convention held at Salisbury in May, 1849, Bishop Ives gave assurance that "at this religious house no doctrine will be taught or practice allowed" not in accord with the principles and usages of the church, "the property of the establishment having been secured to the church for the use of the mission on the specified conditions." At a later day the Bishop declared that from the date of the convention at Salisbury the order had been dissolved. Its regular existence, therefore, scarcely covered two years. The committee on the state of the church having reported in 1849 that they had assurances on which they could rely that "no society whose character, rules and practices are at variance with the spirit if not with the laws of this church is at present in existence in this diocese," the convention ordered 1,000 copies of the report distributed throughout the diocese. In July, 1849, Bishop Ives visited Valle Crucis, however, and addressed a pastoral letter to the diocese which was considered a defiance and a partial retrac- tion of the assurances he had given the convention during the previous May. Consequently, funds for the mission almost entirely ceased, and some of the students sought work elsewhere. Mr. French left the mission in the winter of 1850 and Bishop Ives appointed the Rev. George Wetmore to take charge of Valle Crucis. At the convention of 1850, held at Elizabeth City in May, Bishop Ives alluded to his assurances
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of 1849, in which he had denied private confession, absolution and Christ's real presence in the Eucharist, etc., and still claimed that there had been no heresy or schism. A committee in 1851 investigated Valle Crucis and reported that the Bish- op's explanation was satisfactory.
Bishop Ives visited Valle Crucis in the summer of 1852 and consecrated Easter chapel above Shull's Mills. In Sep- tember, 1852, he asked for $1,000 and six months' leave of absence. He sailed for Europe and on the 22d of December, 1852, he resigned as bishop and declared his "intention to make his submission to the church of Rome." He had been bishop over twenty years. Dr. Thomas Atkinson, who had been rector of Grace church, Baltimore, was elected to suc- ceed him May 22, 1853. The title of the Valle Crucis property was never in the Episcopal church. It was sold by Dr. Ives' legal representatives to Robert Miller who worked the mis- sion grounds as a farm.
The little chapel which Rev. Mr. Skiles had succeeded in having built on Lower Watauga at a cost of $700, was consecrated by Bishop Atkinson August 22, 1862. Mr. Skiles, who had done many deeds of charity and love, died at the home of Col. J. B. Palmer near what is now Altamont, in Avery county, December 8, 1862. His remains were interred in the churchyard of St. John the Baptist, December 18, 1862. This chapel was removed in 1882 to a spot higher up the Watauga river, near St. Jude postoffice, and in 1889 Mr. Skiles' remains were re-interred in the new churchyard under the direction of Rev. George Bell of Asheville.
The Episcopal church has purchased a large part of the original mission property and now maintains a flourishing school for girls there. The buildings are large, handsome and modern, the orchards and farms are well cultivated and the work accomplished is uplifting and enduring. The prin- cipal credit for this work is due Right Reverend Junius M. Horner, Bishop of Asheville, who since his consecration in 1900 has been untiring in building up at this favored spot a useful and elevating school for girls. An investigation of this work and the success which is already evident will con- vince the most skeptical of its value and importance.
VALLE CRUCIS SCHOOL FOR GIRLS. "The school property consists of a farm of 500 acres, woodlands, apple orchards,
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dairy farm, vegetable garden and poultry yard. It is in Watauga county. There are two fine buildings, Auxiliary Hall and Auchmuty Hall. Auxiliary Hall was built with that portion of money given the Bishop of Asheville, Rt. Rev. Junius M. Horner, from the united offerings of 1901, added to other smaller gifts. It is a frame building of handsome proportions, and contains the assembly hall for the school and six class rooms on the first floor; the dining room and kitchen on the second floor; and a dormitory for two teachers and twelve girls, on the third floor, with linen closets and bath rooms adjoining.
"Auchmuty Hall is the regular dormitory building for the school. It is built of concrete blocks, and has thirty rooms with capacity for six teachers and sixty girls. The ground floor has office for the principal, a living room, and a prayer room, where daily morning and evening prayers are said. This building was put up at a cost of $15,000, the gift of friends personally interested in the school and missionary work. These buildings are well designed for school purposes and those in authority are diligent in carrying out the deliberately planned policy of the school, viz .: that of making this a model school industry, that shall be sufficiently economic to be self- supporting after the equipment of $50,000 is completed and an endowment of $50,000 is added to insure the sal- aries of the necessary teachers in the school. It is the policy of the Bishop of Asheville to have here an industrial school which will educate women, home makers, so that the growing generation of men and women from the Appalachian mountains shall be the type known as 'faithful unto death.'
" Half a century ago a school for boys was opened at Valle Crucis by Bishop Ives who named the place because of the natural formation of the valleys, Valle Crucis, or the Vale of the Cross.
"The property of the school, however, was lost to the church until a few years ago when sufficient interest in the mountain region was awakened to enable the church to buy back the best portions of the old school farm and commence the erec- tion of the present industrial school."
SKYLAND INSTITUTE at Blowing Rock was established about twenty-five years ago (1891) by Miss E. C. Prudden, and is supported by the American Missionary Association. It is a girls' school with industrial training.
W. N. C .- 28
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MAST SEMINARY. This is at Mast postoffice on Cove creek, Watauga, and is the gift of Mr. N. L. Mast to the Presbyte- rian Church. It is only a little over two years old, but will flourish. Both sexes taught.
WATAUGA ACADEMY. This was established in the summer of 1899 by Messers D. D. and B. B. Daugherty at Boone, their childhood home. They are brothers. 14 The Dougherty family, both men and women, not only in Ashe and Watauga, but in Johnson county, Tenn., also, have for years been zeal- ous in the work of education, religion and the uplift of their States. This was the beginning of the Appalachian Training School.
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