USA > Virginia > Rockbridge County > Rockbridge County > A history of Rockbridge County, Virginia > Part 25
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A HISTORY OF ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY, VIRGINIA
Thus it is probable that the first session of the Ann Smith Academy began November 18, 1807. Joseph Dilworth was engaged as steward, January 9, 1808, and was required to give bond in the sum of $1,000. The schoolroom was found to be too small, and John Galbreath, Jr., came to the rescue by offering the use of the large room in the steward's house of the Washington AAcademy. The offer was accepted, and at a cost of $25 Mr. Galbreath agreed to lay a plank sidewalk between the two school buildings.
Wlule these adjustments were being affected, the Assembly passed, January 9, 18OS, the needed act of incorporation. This was in response to a petition hy nineteen persons, who say they selected Lexington as a school for female educa- tien, "as it is going forward under favorable appearances, but we are under the disadvantage of not being legally authorized to manage its funds." The first clause of this quotation seems to refer to the town rather than the school.
The first section of the Act is of the following tenor :
"Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That Samuel L. Campbell, John Preston, Ed- ward Graham, Thomas L. Preston, William Caruthers, Alexander Shields, Daniel Blain, James McDowell, John Leyburn. Andrew Reid, James Caruthers, William Wilson, Jolin Robinson, and the principal teacher, for the time being, be appointed trustees of an acad- emy for the education of females, hereby established in the town of Lexington, and coar.ty of Rockbridge. And the said trustees are hereby constituted a body pohue and corporate. by the name of "The Trustees of the Ann Smith Academy, and by that name, shall have perpetual succession, nay suc and be sucd, and have con non seal, with the power to take and hold any estate, real or personal, for the use of the said academy."
Miss Smith was known to the trustees before they organized the school, and it was their am to secure her if possible. She was a cultured lady, a born teach- er, and was highly successful in her new position. Her terms were liberal in the extreme. She declined to accept any salary, but her board and her inc:dental ex- pentes were to be paid by the trustees. There has been an opinion in Rockbridge that she contributed to the school in a pecuniary way, but there is nothing to in- dicate that she gave assistance of this tangible sort. It is more than a century since AAnn Smith c'osed her labors in this community, and little is now known of her. It is believed that she came from Frederick burg, although there is some ground for thinking she was a native of Maryland.
At the beginning of 1808 Edward Graham was hired as assistant teacher on a salary of $150 a se sion. Mready, one student had been expelled after a lengthy trial. The girl was Nancy Miller, whose offense was smashing a bonnet, But she was soon rein tated.
In June 1808, a tero-acre lot was purchased from John Moore and his wife, Polly, at a cost of 100 pounds ($333 33). It lay just outside the town limits, and ran down to Nelson street to the Franklin Library lot. The lower portion was after- ward laid off into building lots and the proceeds applied on the indebtedness that we shall presently mention. The academy building was begun the same year, but
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THE ANN SMITH AND OTHER ACADEMIES
the completion does not seem to have taken place until the following spring. It was a brick structure and rather imposing for those early times. The center was of three stories and the wings of two. Colonel Jordan was the contractor for the brick work and John Chandler for the wood work. The bills they presented were for $4302.67, and here was a beginning of long continued trouble.
Aside from a miscellaneous item of $106.50, the face value of the fund sub- scribed by 113 persons was $3894.50. John Preston headed the list with $500. James McDowell, Andrew Reid, and John Robinson followed with subscriptions of $200, $160, and $150, respectively. John Leyburn, Alexander Shields, William Caruthers, Carter Beverly, Gordon Cloyd, and John Taliaferro gave each $10. The remaining pledges were of sums varying from $5 to $60. The subscriptions were not fully paid in, even so late as 1827. Thus the school was heavily in debt from the start. The income from tuition was scarcely more than sufficient for the ordinary expense, and very little could be done toward paying off the in- debtedness. A judgment was at length secured by Jordan, but he allowed a re- bate of $250 on account of the damage resulting from the use of inferior brick. By the close of 1821, his claim with interest had grown to $2321.66. In March, 1824, a sale of the schoolhouse and lot was decreed, the personal property of the academy, amounting to less than $100, having already been applied to the in- debtedness. John Robinson, the benefactor of Washington College, now inter- posed, bought off the claimants, and executed a release to the trustees. There were no further financial difficulties of a serious kind, and the property was kept in repair from the income from the rents.
Relief had vainly been asked of the legislature. A memorial by the trustees, dated 1821, proposed to turn the school over to the state, This paper gives some interesting facts. The buildings had cost $5255.51. They had a capacity for 100 students, besides room for the principal and the steward, and lodging for forty-five boarding students. The high-water mark in the attendance had been seventy, but for several years past the average had been about twenty-five. In- struction was given in reading, writing, and arithmetic, grammar, geography, natural philosophy, chemistry, astronomy, belles lettres, French, painting, instru- mental music, and embroidery. Tuition in the lower branches was twenty-five dollars a year. The extra tuition for geography and other advanced studies, and for painting, embroidery, and music, varied from $5 to $20. The students were generally between the ages of thirteen and sixteen. All had to cat at the steward's table, unless there were special arrangement otherwise. The rules of government were unwritten, the discipline being on a parental basis.
It was pointed out that Ann Smith was the only school of its kind in the state, and so far as known to the trustees, it was the only one of its kind in the entire South. In Virginia the education of females had hitherto been left to the
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A HISTORY OF ROCKBRIDAL COUNTY, VIRGINIA
schools of a transient sort. The trustees remarked that an institution of a per- manent character would tend to break down local prejudices and create some- thing like uniformity in sentiment, habits, and manners. Under Miss South hun- dreds of girls from Virginia and other states had been educated at Lexington, who otherwise might never have enjoyed anything better than rudimentary train- ing. But because of the suit threatened by the principal creditor, students were discouraged from coming, and the teachers had found employment elsewhere. As a private residence the academy building was not worth what it cost. The school had no productive funds whatever, and in default of outside help there was no future for it. John Ruff and Samuel McD. Reid were made a committee to lack up the statements in the memorial with evident facts. But as already observed. the Assembly turned a deaf car to the appeal.
Ann Smith severed her connection with the Academy in 1812. Her reasons for doing so are not clearly shown. Perhaps she thought that after working five years for no other financial return than her board and other primary expenses. she Had done ler part in putting the new school on its feet. Under her super- vision the academy had been very prosperous, and her departure was sincerely regretted by the community. The average attendance had been thirty-four, and during sixteen sessions the charges for tuition amounted to $6525 90. In the ex- pense account, the following are a few of the items charged to the principal :
Ore far of "Dorg irons"
$22.39
One fair shoes 1 75
One fair bl k stockings. 202
30 yards din ity 18 75
One yard blue satın 2.00
Merding an umbrella
Hauling a trunk from Colonel McDowell' .25
.19
Y'et the loss of the first principal was unfortunate. The attendance fell off in a marked degree. From 1821 to 1839 the building was simply rented out for school purposek. But after the latter date there was a regular succession of prin- cipal, and the school recovered something of its carly prestige. Under the Rev- crend John W. Pratt, who took charge in 1871, there was an advanced course in which the tuition was $50 Boys were admitted about 1877. Then for about a quarter of a century, the academy was a good day school with classical features The last principal was Mi . Madge Paxton who e administration continued from 1879 until 1892. The last tru tees were John L. Campbell, Addison Hogue, WV' T Shields, General Scott Shipp, and W. C. Stuart.
In 1903 the building was rented to the pubhe school board. Fre years later the truthes offered to convey the property to the town of Lexington, on condi- tion that the town would .- by October 1. 1900,-erect a school building of not less than $15,000 For this purpose there was a bond issue of $20,000, and the
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THE ANN SMITHI AND OTHIER ACADEMIES
venerable building was torn down to give room on the same spot for the High School of Lexington. On New Year's day, 1910, the trustces turned over to the public school board its unexpended fund of $730, and in return for this gift two perpetual scholarships were established in the high school These, known as the Ann Smith scholarships, are awarded by the principal to two meritorious girl students of Lexington or Rockbridge county. The above act closes the official history of the Ann Smith Academy. The school had endured more than a cen- tury, and had imparted secondary education to many hundreds of girls, especial- ly those of Rockbridge.
We now present in its actual form, Miss Smith's letter of acceptance at the end of the first and experimental year. The original is well preserved and is written in a clear, bold, and rather masculine hand. It is followed by a letter of farewell from the trustees, who then, as always, were among the leading men of Rockbridge. The two letters not only throw some light of their own on the his- tory of the academy, but they are interesting specimens of the precise and formal epistolary language of a hundred years ago :
Col. McDowell, Captn. Preston, Captn. Wilson, E. Graham Esqr. Gentlemen
The favorable sentiments toward me, expressed in your polite address, have dif- fused over my mind a considerable degree of complacency, and I beg you to accept my thanks. for your esteem and approbation, with which you are pleased to honor me. Your solicitude for the prosperity of an institution, that has for its object, the enlargement of the female mind, excites my gratitude ; and prompts me to a concurrence in a zeal so laudable. My peculiar turn of mind, renders it disagreeable to me, to enter into a positive engagement, or to say, or to do any thing, that would oblige me to fix here; yet for a continuance of my exertions, I think you may with safety rely, on my habits of industry, and the friendly sen- timents, with which I am impressed, toward the inhabitants of the place .- As to pecuniary matters, my accompt at the post-office, and small demands which casualties may oblige me to make, will be all I shall ever ask :- However Gentlemen, as you seem inclined to re- spect whatever may be interesting to me, I will mention a subject that has engaged my at- tention, ever since an unexpected number of students, promised success to our seminary .- I have been informed, that the Washington Academy, is much indebted to the exertions of the late revd. Mr. Graham, and that he was the friend of genius, and of literature. Now, could we extend the advantages of this institution, to his family, it might be pleasant to the feelings of the benevolent, and grateful, to see an old debt noticed, and the virtues, of a father, visited on his children.
The peculiar circumstances, of one of the Miss Grahams, have disposed me much in her favor, and I think it would give me pleasure, to have an opportunity, of showing her at- tention.
I hope, Gentlemen, what is here suggested will be agreeable to you, if otherwise, re- member I am to receive, not to give directions.
Lexington April 8th 1808.
ANN SMITHI.
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A HISTORY OF ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY, VIRGINIA
Miss Ann Smith
Madam, The Trustees of the Seminary which bears your name, have heard with regret that you have expressed an intention of leaving the institution at the end of the present session. Although the Trustees have never expected you to continue with them longer than would be consistent with your comfort and convenience, yet having been led to bcheve that you had some time ago, made up your mind to continue at least until next Fall. they have not made those efforts to procure a suitable successor which perhaps they might otherwise have done. The interests you must naturally be expected to feel for the future prosperity of an institution which has grown up into eminence under your patronage and care, will doubtless induce you to endeavor to leave it in such circumstances as will afford a reasonable prospect of its permanent usefulness Your continuance another session would enable the Trustees to collect the greater part of the outstanding subscriptions, to pay the debts of the institution, to procure a good set of maps & globes, & perhaps to obtain a reputable female successor. But on this subject the Trustees cannot insist. You have al- ready done more than, at first they could expect ; and if your determination is fixed they must in silence acquiesce. It is a duty, however, which they owe to you & to themselves to express, as they on several occasions have done heretofore, the high sense they entertain of the assiduity & skill which you have always manifested in conducting the seminary, and which had so large a share in raising it from small beginnings to its present eminence. And they have the satisfaction to reflect, that it has been their constant endeavor to promote your comfort & convenience, so far as it could be done by any effort on their part. If there has been any failure, it has arisen from want of skill or want of means, and not of want of in- clination.
To whatever part of the world you may remove or whatever mey be your future des- tiny, you will carry with you their best wishes for your happiness & they will hope that you will always entertain a maternal solicitude for the interests and prosperity of the Ann Smith Academy.
So long as education was usually regarded in Virginia as a private interest, the pay school had a monopoly of educational efforts. And since the well-to-do were the most willing as well as the best able to pay tuition fees, it is easy to under- stand that much stress was laid on a better training than could well be given in the old field school itself. The men who conducted the schools of higher rank were frequently college graduates, and were often of superior qualifications for the school room. The effect was to diffuse a considerable degree of scholastic cul- ture among the more prosperous members of the community. The private aca- den y had lost none of its repute in the decade following the war of 1861. But the opening years of the twentieth century found the free school system so well intrenched, and doing so efficient work in the higher grades, that the private in- stitution could no longer compete on equal terms with the public graded school. It was because of this fact that the Ann Smith Academy passed out of existence.
The antebellum academy schools at Lexington. Brownsburg. Fancy Hill, Kerr's Creek, and Ben Salem could fit the student for college or give him a re- spectable start even without college training. Many of the old field schools were able to give instruction in the classics.
Lexington, Fancy Hill, and Brownsburg have been the most conspicuous seats of private academics The record of the county scat is to be found in the
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THE ANN SMITH AND OTHER ACADEMIES
history of Liberty Hall and Ann Smith Academy. Yet in 1834, incorporation was asked for the Central School of Lexington, founded in 1819 by John Leyburn, John Perry, John Jordan, Andrew Wallace, William H. Letcher, Reuben Ross, Samuel Darst, Phoebe Caruthers, John Ruff, and Joseph Blair. These persons bought a lot and built a house upon it at a cost of $1100. But it would appear that primary rather than secondary education was the purpose.
In the Lexington Gasette for 1855 are the advertisements of four schools of academic rank. One of these was the Brownsburg High School, under the care of James Greer. Another was the Lexington Classical School, conducted by Jacob Fuller, A. M. Its tuition was $40. There was also the announcement of the Lexington Mathematical and English Academy, to be presided over by G. A. Goodman. The tuition was $8 for five months. The same paper adver- tised that James B. Ramsey would open a classical school at Highland Bell school- house near New Monmouth.
In 1860 the Brownsburg Female Seminary advertised a nine months session, with tuition at $20 to $40 and board at $100 to $110.
In 1856 the Valley Star contained a notice of the Rural Valley Seminary, three miles north of the Natural Bridge. The principal was the Reverend Sam- uel Emerson, A. M. In 1860 the Brownsburg Seminary announced a session of nine months, with board at $100, and tuition at $20 to $40. The same year Miss Laura Ball was teaching a term of ten months. in Lexington.
The same fall that brought General Lee to Lexington witnessed the opening of the Lexington Classical School by C. P. Estill, a graduate of Washington Col- lege and an accomplished scholar. Another laborer in this field at the same time was W. B. Poindexter.
In 1866, the Brownsburg High School, now in charge of Captain H. R. Mor- rison, was still at work. The same year the county papers advertised the Fancy Hill Classical School by Colonel W. T. Poague, and the opening of an English and Classical School by S. C. Smith. A select school, conducted at the county seat for several years by the Misses Baxter, was still at work. His house "Se- clusaval," near Fancy Hill, Robert C. McCluer, who died in 1881, maintained for many years a classical school for girls. David E. Laird, who won a Robinson prize medal in 1856, opened a classical school at old Fancy Hill, and continued it for nineteen years. Colonel Poague was associated with him for six years.
Palmer's Academy, near the junction of the north and south forks of the Buffalo seems to have been the last school of this class. A joint stock company was formed in 1903. The following spring, the cornerstone was laid with Ma- sonic ceremonies and was followed with an educational address by Doctor J. A. Quarles of Washington and Lee University. After three quite successful ses- sions as a high grade private school, the academy was in 1907 converted into a public high school, the first to be organized in this county outside of Lexington.
XXVIII THE FRANKLIN SOCIETY
No history of Rockbridge would be at all complete without a sketch of the Franklin Society. For nearly a century it was foremost among the debating clubs of the county, and it provided a public library to the town of Lexington.
The exact year of its origin is not certainly known. According to the l'alley Star of 1850, it took its rise in 1800. We find also a belief that it was in existence as early as 1796. Both these statements may be correct. During several suc- cessive winters the men of Lexington may have maintained a debating club in an informal manner and without giving it a distinctive name. They would soon have come to feel the need of definite organization.
Be this as it may, Colonel J. T. I. Preston, in his address before the Frank- lin Society in February, 1873, tells us that it was first known as "The Belles Lettres Society." Four new names succeed d one another within the next dozen years. In 1804 the organization was called "The Union," in 1807, "The Repub- lican Society": in 1808, "The Literary Society of Lexington"; and finally Au- gust, 1911. "The Franklin Society."
The following persons are named as the leading members-probably for the year 1800-John Alexander, Andrew Alexander, Doctor S. 1 .. Campbell. John Caruthers, James Caruthers, Cornelius Dorman, John Leyburn, Thomas 1 .. Preston, Alexander Shic'ds, and Layman Wayt.
Colonel Preston says the society made its first purchase of books in 1813 The thirty-eight volumes were mainly on historical subjects. In 1801, however. a library, distinct from the debating society, was organized on the share-hold- ing principle This library was soll in 1825.
Incorporation came January 30. 1816. The first meeting under the charter was to effect an organization, and was he'd in the hall of Washington College. Ten years later, ground was purchased at the corner of Nelson and Jefferson streets, and a building was created at a cost of $1.800. Several years later the lot was enlarged. The original charter expired by limitation, February 1, 1850, but a renewal was granted and this was to remain valid until 1870 The petition asking for the renewal informs us that in 1849 the house and lot were worth $2.500. and that the 1400 volumes in the I brary Had cost $3,000. But seven years later. the l'alley Star tells us there were forty shareholders, and that the real estate and the library were each worth $4,000. A meeting held January 27, 185], de- cided to ask that the society be given leave to enlarge its quarters, its building not Leing sufficiently commodious The Franklin Hall was twenty-four by fifty feet on the ground and two stories high The upper floor was occupied by the hall
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THE FRANKLIN SOCIETY
for debates, which were held every Saturday night. The library was also kept in the room, and for more than fifty years John W. Fuller was the librarian. By 1873, $10,000 had been expended for ground, house, and library. The books came through the war of 1861 unscathed.
The questions for debate were scientific as well as literary, and were cx- cccdingly varied in their scope. "Since 1850," remarks Colonel Preston, "no subject of interest, of national, or state, or county importance, has failed to be dis- cussed in the Franklin. In 1860-61, how wide the difference of opinion, and how sternly those opinions were held !"
Some of the questions for debate in the pre-war period were these :
"Would a separation of the states be preferable to a limited monarchy ?" Decided in the negative.
"Are theatrical amusements prejudicial to morality?" Decided in the af- firmative
"Does man consist in two substances, special and distinct from each other?" Decided in the negative.
"Can any heathen be saved who never heard the name of Jesus?" Decided in the affirmative by a unanimous vote.
"Ought the Scriptures to be used as a classbook in the schools?" Decided in the affirmative.
"Would it be polite to repeal the hog law in this town?" Decided in the negative.
From the first there was a good feeling between the Franklin Society and Washington College. It is also worthy of note in this connection that the estab- lishing of the Virginia Military Institute was first publicly discussed by this society.
The weekly debates came to an end in 1891, and in the same year the hall and library were transferred to the Washington and Lee University on condition that a Franklin Society scholarship be founded for the benefit of some student from Rockbridge. In 1909 the hall was sold by the university. It was destroyed by fire January 8, 1915.
The Franklin Society flourished almost a hundred years. It was indeed a wise foresight that purchased the lot and built the hall. Without such an anchor a debating society will languish and at length dissolve. But real estate is held to with tenacity, even though it may not put back a dollar into the pockets of its owners. The hall was a place for lectures and entertainments as well as debates. It was frequented by the ablest talent of Lexington, and among the attendants, despite the fact that the automobile had not yet arrived, were men from the rural districts. The society exerted a wide and beneficial influence in Lexington and its vicinity, and even outside of Rockbridge county.
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A HISTORY OF ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY, VIRGINIA
Interest waned after the coming of the iron horse to Lexington. The debates languished. There seemed to be only one thing for the society to do, and that was to close its doors. In our day there is a greater inclination to scan the daily newspaper in its headlines, to gallop through the "latest book," and to go joy- riding in a Ford than to take time for the more substantial benefit that comes through the perusal of the world's classics, or the threshing out of some topic of interest by debaters who prepare themselves for the fray. Ours is a time of tran- sition, a hurried, feverish time. But all fevers burn themselves out, and as our new century becomes more "stabilized." the debate may once more come into its own. It may also be that some of the people who knew the old Franklin will know a new one.
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