PRIVATE SCHOOLS STARTED IN E/TEXAS AS EARLY AS 1847 - Upshur Co, TX ***************************************************************** Submitted by East Texas Genealogical Society P O Box 6967, Tyler, TX 75711 21 August 2002 Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. ***************************************************************** Originally published in the East Texas Family Records, Volume 4, Number 4, Winter, 1980, by East Texas Genealogical Society. PRIVATE SCHOOLS STARTED IN E/TEXAS AS EARLY AS 1847 *** Article reprinted courtesy Longview Newspapers, Inc., from the LONGVIEW MORNING JOURNAL Centennial album, dated May 3, 1970. See Reprint of letter from the newspaper giving us permission to reprint in the Fall edition of East Texas Family Records, Article provided from newspaper of Mrs. James Selman, 912 Arkansas, Longview, Texas 75601. Long before the days of public education, East Texas earned a reputation as a good educational center, Private Schools started here as early as 1851 and some continued on into the early part of the twentieth century. According to D. T. Loyd's History of Upshur County, the first school was the Gilmer Masonic Female Institute, sponsored by the Methodist Church in Gilmer. The school was taught by Mrs. L. V. Montgomery and it was reported she had 40 pupils. On Jan. 18, 1856 the Sixth Texas Legislature granted a charter to Gilmer Female College with the Rev. David Stovall as teacher. He was succeeded by Mrs. Martha Weathered and her daughter Margaret. The Murry Institute was one of the first boarding schools of the county. It was located on the Murry League of land, which is now the Ore City area. The school was located close to the present site of the Ore City Cemetery and a historical marker is on the cemetery grounds commemorating this early school. Joshua Clark and William L. Coppedge started the school and other teachers were Virgil DuBose and W. B. Bailey. The Civil War broke into the program of this school. Many of the young men quit to enlist in the Confederate Army. The principal, William L. Coppedge, joined the Confederate forces and became a Captain. He returned home once on a furlough, but then went back and was killed or died in service. The Looney School, operated in Gilmer from 1861 to 1870, was probably the most widely known school in Upshur County. It was operated by Morgan Looney. In the Texas Mirror files of the 1880's are advertisements for numerous private schools in the county. Most of them seemed to advertise with a certain regularity, especially at the opening of the terms. The usual fees were $2 a month for the primary grades, $2.50 for intermediate grades and $3 for high school or normal preparation. However, before the 1880's the Rev. Stokeley R. Chadick, a Cumberland Presbyterian minister, established the academy at Coffeeville. This was about 1857. There is no record of how long he operated this school but probably for several years. His youngest daughter, Nona Yarburn Chadick, (Mrs. T. H. Griggs) was born in Coffeeville in 1864. Leroy's Institute taught by Prof. Gilbert Leroy was an outstanding school in western Upshur County. Both Grice and Soules Chapel claim this institute and probibility is that Prof. Leroy taught at two different locations. He had a reputation as being a very good teacher. Leroy was also a justice of the peace and active in county affairs. In 1893 the Enon Academy, J. W. Wade principal was advertising a new session, teaching "progressive and inductive in method". Mrs Wade was a popular teacher in Upshur County for many years. He also taught a school at Pleasant Hill. A bill before the legislature in 1883 allowed teachers $40 a month if they held a third grade certificate, $50 a month for a second grade and $100 a month for a first grade certificate. To obtain a third grade certificate the student could take a county examination on questions at about the eighth grade level. This certificate enabled them to teach in their own home county. A second grade certificate required more schooling and preparation and a first grade certificate usually required college work and was good for a teaching job anywhere in the state. However, these regulations did not have anything to do with private schools unless they were drawing supplemental payments from the state funds. The big Sandy Normal Institute advertised a term opening Jan., 1883, J. M. Brown, principal. This was the first notice of a school in Big Sandy. In 1882, Prof. W. S. Burk, a young man from Glasgow, Ky., came to Gilmer to state (start) a school. There was no school building available so he taught in the Baptist Church which, was then located on the northwest corner of Titus and Cass streets. He had a building built on the northeast corner of Trinity and Cass and when it was completed he moved the school, which he named the Gilmer High School, to this location. A later issue of the Texas Mirror described the building "as a fine structure furnished with an excellent library," and said Burks made his last payment on the building in 1884. J. P. Hart and Mrs. I. J. Greer were teachers in the school. Mrs. E. O. Kelly and Miss Lena Kelly taught music. The following summer M. P. Mell, "recently from Glasgow Normal College," came down from Glasgow, Ky., Prof. Burks' hometown, to teach Latin and Greek in Burks' school. Thus began the career of one of Gilmer's prominent citizens who was active in the legal and political life of Upshur County for many years. He "read law" and was admitted to the bar after coming to Texas. In April 1884, much to the surprise of the student body, Prof. Burks was married at the Jackson home in Gilmer. His bride was a former pupil, Miss Louise Pollard, daughter of Dr. M. B. Pollard who had moved from Gilmer to Ruston, La. The Rev. Mr. Williams of the Methodist Church performed the ceremony. By the fall of 1884 the school name had been changed to the Lone Star Academy with J. P. Hart and M. P. Mell as principals. Board was offered in private hommes "from $8 to $10 a month". This same school year Prof. Burks was advertising the Pittsburg College, Pittsburg, Texas. In his advertisement he mentioned "children between 8-16 years old whose names appear on the community lists will be entilted to prorata funds." This same year, G. E. Warren, tax assessor for Upshur County, stated there were 1,750 white children within scholastic age and 950 colored. He also stated the county was entitled to draw $6 per capita from the state apportionment. Evidently there were some requirements for the pupils to be in schools approved by the county or state as there were no public tax-supported schools at this time. The state school money was dispensed by the County Judge and he was given a fee for handling these funds. In the Commissioners Court minutes of June 1882, Judge J. J. Lyons was posthumously allowed $70 for disbursing school funds of $2,785.87 for the year commencing Sept. 1, 1881. At Shady Grove, C. B. Reader, "recently of Ad-Ran College at "Trorp Springs" was advertising a school opening in 1884. After he left the county A. F. Shepperd, also of Ad-Ran College taught in this school. Ad-Ran College was the forerunner of Texas Christian University of Fort Worth. B. F. Rummel of Simpsonville was advertising the Martinburg School in Camp County. Penmanship was a speciality, 53 pupils enrolled. The name Martinburg through the years has been corrupted to "Mattinburg". Toll Buie's school at Concord, Miss Irene Hart's school at Rock Point (Miss Hart was later Mrs. W. F. Glass); Tom Jones's school at East Mountain and Miss Naomi Moncrief's school at the Crain house were all mentioned in the news in the 1880's. Union Grove had few settlers at this time and in the early days there was a school at O'Byrne's mill. This building was later moved to the Union Grove site. Glenwoord's school history started with the Rev. W. H. McClelland who moved to this community shortly after the Civil War and in 1869 started a private school in this new home-school house. This was a large two-story frome building, and he kept boarding pupils. Some pupils came from Longview, Harrison County, and other parts of East Texas. The school became known as the Parson McCelland School. It has been accepted for a historical marker. The school discontinued in 1876 when fire destroyed the building. Mrs. Eugenia Greer Floyd taught an early school in the Glenwoord community and in the 1888s Charlie Christain established a boarding school there. Later a two-story frame building was erected.