JONES - MUSCOGEE COUNTY, GA - BIOGRAPHIES Thomas Bog Slade Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Jacqueline Carter Table of Contents page: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/jones.htm Georgia Table of Contents: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm from The Columbus Ledger; Monday, January 6, 1964; p. 13 Our Town - "The First of the Slades" by W.C. Woodall The Slade family has been prominent and influential in Columbus for considerably more than a century, and has made a contribution to the community in many ways. One of its members, James J. Slade served as mayor of the city. For the purpose of this narrative, and family identification with Columbus, the first of the Slades was Thomas B. Slade (1800-1882), who was not only a leading citizen of this community but was an outstanding figure in the long fight to establish public schools in Georgia. He was the first president of the Georgia Teachers' Association when it was organized in 1853. Thomas Bog Slade, a Baptist minister and pioneer teacher, was born in Martin County, North Carolina, June 6, 1800. He was graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1820 with highest honors. He was gifted in oratory and known for his detestation of hyprocrocisy as well as his love of learning. The latter characteristic was recognized by his college mates, one of whom remarked while playing marbles: "I am just as sure to hit that marble as Tom Slade is to know his lessons." (This incident is reported by Dorothy Orr, in her History of Public Education in Georgia) MIGRATED IN 1824 After studying law, Slade migrated to Georgia and settled in Clinton, Jones County, in 1824. While living there he married Anne Jacqueline Blount. The trustees of Clinton Male Academy invited him to become principal in 1828, and as a consequence he abandoned law and engaged in teaching for a period of 50 years. In January, 1831, he organized a female institute of collegiate grade in Clinton and is reported as having been very sucessful in this venture. Later he took charge of a female institute at Penfield, Georgia, but in 1841 he left Penfield and established what is described as ³a well-equipped female institute in Columbus.² He was an expert botanist and at the age of 50 took up the study of French. As a minister of the gospel he performed ministerial duty for the sick and often acted as a supply preacher. In the story of Columbus in the ante-bellum period, reference was made time and again to Mr. Slade¹s educational enterprises and activities. In the first city directory published in 1859, the only educational institution mentioned was the Female Institute of which the Rev. Thomas B. Slade was the teacher. As a matter of fact, there were then quite a number of private schools in Columbus, some of which had been in existence for a long time. SCHOOLS ADVOCATE Thomas B. Slade was a great leader in the valiant fight in the 1850s to establish public schools; he traveled over Georgia in behalf of this worthy cause, and made at least one trip to Montgomery on the same mission. He assisted in the organization of Weslyan College at Macon. He was the father of James Jeremiah Slade, himself a leading figure in the Columbus educational picture for a long time. Etta Blanchard Worsley in her history reports that the school of Rev. Thomas B. Slade, located at 1417 Fourth Avenue, was known as ³Sladeville Hall.² Begun in the 1840s, it was alternately a girls¹ and boys¹ school and at one time was used for both sexes. It was rated as a high school in 1844. GIRLS SCHOOL IN 1845 In 1845 the Slade School was listed as Slade Female Institute, and it is recorded that its commencement exercises were held in the First Baptist Church. Lemuel T. Downing, Esq.; delivered the graduating address. Compositions were read by girls and a listing of the subjects treated is interesting. Thus: ³Benevolence,² by Miss Lucy A. Pitts; ³Wisdom and Knowledge,² by Miss Sophia H. Shorter; ³Difficulty of Originating a Thing,² by Miss Amanda Jernigan; ³He Labors in Vain Who Strives to Please All,² by Miss Mary L. Rose; ³When I Leave School,² by Miss Lucy A. Barnett. In 1868-69 Sladeville Hall was a school for boys. Instructors were Rev. Thomas B. Slade, M.A., and his son, James Jeremiah Slade, who had served four years in the Confederate Army. Many leading citizens of Columbus were among the graduates of the school. In 1890 Sladeville Hall was partly torn away and remodeled for a residence for Hockley C. McKee, whose wife was the former Stella Slade, daughter of ... [the rest of the column is missing] ------------------------------ Williams, C.W. (1957); History of Jones County Georgia 1807-1907; J.W. Burke Co., Macon, GA; pp. 423-425 [This book has a number of typos, and I don't guarantee all the dates.] THOMAS BOG SLADE Patrick Maule and wife Mary, ch. were: (1). Mary Maule, mar. a Bonner, lived near Wash. D.C. (2). John Maule. mar. Eliz. Hare of Va. (3). Elizabeth Maule mar. a Mr Hare, bro of Eliz. Hare of Va. John Maule and Eliz. Hare ch (1). Anne Hare b. Mar. 22, 1765, mar. P.G. Roulhac. (2) Elizabeth mar. Mr. Smith. (3) Jamima mar. a Mr. Bryan, Newborn, N.C. (5-sic) Moses never mar. All born at Smith¹s Point on Pamlico River, Beaufort Co., North Carolina. Psalmet G. Roulhac and 1st wife Anne H. Maule ch. were: (1) Elizabeth, b. Oct. 4, 1786, mar May 14, 1803, James Blount, the political enemy of the family. Lived at Plymouth, N.C., until 1816 when they moved to Ga. settled at Blountsville, Jones Co. She d. Dec. 12, 1820, leaving a widower and five ch. Children of Elizabeth Roulhac and James Blount: (1) Anne Jacquelin (sic), b. Feb. 15, 1805 in Wash. Co., N.C. mar. at Clinton, Jones Co., Ga. Thomas Bog Slade, b. June 20, 1800, in Martin Co., N.C. At the age of fifteen he was sent to the University at Chapel Hill, N.C., where he graduated in 1820 with highest honors of his class. It is recorded that all four years of college, he never received a demerit or missed a recitation or failed in a single duty. He practiced law with his father until 1824, when he moved to Ga. In 1828 he abandoned law and commenced his career as a teacher. He was one of the pioneers of the female education in Georgia, and the good influence of his wife Anne Blount, who always assisted him runs like a thread of gold through many lives that bless our country. They both joined the Baptist Church and he was ordained a minister of the gospel in 1835 that he might preach to destitute churches, which he did gratuitously throughout his long life. He taught successfully in Clinton at The Clinton Female Seminary, Penfield, Macon and Columbus, Ga. He took thirty of his students at Clinton over to Macon, forming the nucleus of the Weslyan Female College, in the organization of which he assisted, and was chosen first professor of natural sciences. (This was the first college to give a diploma to females). In 1842, Thomas B. Slade moved to Columbus, Ga., where for thirty years, he was principal of a Female Institute of the highest grade and prosperity, although he was never known to ask for a pupil or to reject one because she was unable to pay. His wife was an active and efficient co-worker, the perfect union of strength and gentleness of character, making her presence a blessing and an example to all who knew her. A fitting climax to their long wedded life of usefulness and happiness was the celebration of their Golden Wedding in 1874, besides guests there were forty children and grandchildren. He died in Columbus, Ga., Feb. 12, 1891.(sic - that was her death date; he died on 5 May 1882) ³Two lives beautifully blended, as the rays of the setting sun, lighting and purpling the crystal clouds, until sun and clouds are mingled in one mass of crimson beauty.² Thomas Bog Slade was the son of Gen. Jeremiah and Janet Bog Slade, he was the 6th generation from Henry Slade who came from England to the coast of N.C. about 1650. Children of Rev. Thomas Bog Slade and Ann (sic) Blount (1) Janet Elizabeth b. May 5, 1825, Clinton, Jones Co., d. April 10, 1914. Mar. July 15, 1863 Wm. R. Gignilliat at Columbus Ga. (2) Mary Lavinia b. Dec. 11, 18126 (sic), Clinton, Jones Co. d. Feb. 14, 7863 (sic). (3). Annie Louisa b. _____ 21, 1857, Clinton, Jones Co. m. Roswell Ellis, d. Feb. 16, 1857. (4). James Jeremiah, b. July 19, 1831, m. Annie Graham, 2nd m. Leila B. Bonner (5) Emma Jacqueline b. Jan 10, 1833, Clinton, Jones Co. m. Alfred Prescott, 1854. (6) Thomas Bog, Jr., b. Dec. 16, 1834, Clinton, Jones Co., m. Almarine Cowdery. (7) Martha Bog. b. Dec. 3, 1837, Clinton, Jones Co., m. Grisby E. Thomas, (8) Stella Blount, b. July 19, 1839 m. Hockley C. McKee. (9) Helen Roulhac b. Feb. 15, 1841 at Penfield, Ga. m. John P. Lindsey. (10) John Henry b. Jan. 11, 1843 killed in Civil War. (11) Fanny Blount, b. May 31, 1845 d. April 29, 1848. Anne Blount, who mar. Thomas B. Slade had a sister, Lavinia E. Blount, born in Jones County who mar. Simri Rose of Fort Hawkins, editor of a paper which became the Telegraph, also Rose Hill Cemetery is named for Simri Rose. Records show that Slade sold his home and lot to Samuel Griswold Dec. 20, 1838, adjoining Mrs. Samuel Lowther, Mary George, S. Griswold, and John Fannin. Described as the dwelling and school called Clinton Female Seminary containing seven acres. ================ ------------------Excerpted from The Atlanta Journal and Constitution Magazine; June 22, 1975; "A Town Progress Passed By" pp. 12-14 & 19-20 p. 19: ... Clinton has pioneered in the education of women, but soon lost its schoolmaster to Macon. "On the frontier belt of Georgia while the prints of the Indian's moccasins were still fresh in the soil," wrote Lucian Lamar Knight, Georgia historian, "a far-sighted scholar (Thomas B. Slade) who, with the ken of a phrophet, could read the signs of the future, here opened an academy in the year 1828 and started a movement for women's intellectual emancipation." But, alas, Slade and many of his students moved to Macon to a college being founded there in 1836. Slade thus became the first professor of natural sciences at Weslyan College. According to Knight, Slade "wrote the first diploma ever delivered to a woman and arranged the curriculum for the oldest female college in existence." ... --------------