Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/462

 402 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI Sanford, other teachers were ilrs. Juhu Scrips, ]Irs. Edward Griddle, Mr. Wathen and Miss Rlioda Rauney. The Jacksou Acad- emy was incorporated again in 1839, the trustees being P. R. Garret, Edward Griddle, Nathan Vauhorn, John Martin, Johnson Ranney, Charles W. Welling and N. W. Wat- kins. The academy opened with J. G. Gardi- ner as principal and Miss Elmira Gregory assistant; Mr. Gardiner was a very skillful teacher and the school became one of the lead- ing schools in this part of the state; he was succeeded, after five or six years, by Rev. D. E. Y. Rice. The academy was operated until the war ; at that time it was transferred to the Methodist church but owing to some bitter feeling the act of transfer was not confirmed and after the close of the war the buildings and grounds were transferred to the trustees of the public school. The Potosi Academy was rechartered De- cember 24, 1824. Like the other institutions of its kind it was empowered to take and hold property and to establish and conduct a school. No religious restrictions were made in employment of teachers and all students who offered themselves were to be received. The first body of trustees of this academy had among its members men who were very in- fluential in the early history of Missouri. These trustees were William H. Ashley, Lionel Browne, John Rice Jones, Moses Aus- tin, David Wheeler, Moses Bates, Benjamin Elliott, James Austin, William Perry, John Mclllvaine, Andrew Scott, John Hawkins and Abraham Brunke. An academy was chartered at New Madrid January 11, 1841. It did not differ in the scope of it.s powers, its purposes or the limita- tions thrown about it, from the other acad- emies in the state ; its trustees were Robert G. Watson, Henry Toney, Richard Jones Waters, Alphonso Delorederi, Richard Bark- ley, Robert D. Dawson and Frederick C. Butler. February 25, 1845, the general assembly in- corporated an academy to be conducted at I'erryville, with the following trustees : James Rice, Reuben Shelby, Ferdinand Rozier, James A. Rutledge, Edward M. Holden, Hiram Block, Dr. Wheeler, Albert G. Aber- nathv, William McCombs and John Layton. Three da,vs after the incorporation of the academy at Perryville a similar institution was incorporated to be conducted at Point Pleasant, in New Madrid coiinty; its trustees were Urban C. Spencer, John Woodward, H. D. ]Iaulsby, Thomas S. Bancroft, Godfrey LeSieur and John Martin. In 1830 the people of Gape Girardeau elected George Henderson, Abner Vansant, Ezra J. Dutch, Alfred P. Ellis and Levi L. Lightner as trustees to purchase a lot and build a school house. They bought the lot at the corner of Fountain and Merriweather streets, now occupied by the Lorimier school, and on this lot erected a small brick building. In Februarv, 1843, a school known as Gape Girardeau academy was incorporated, with Hiram L. Sloan, P. H. Davis, W. S. Watson, E. B. Cassilly, I. R. Wathen, Thomas J. Rod- ney and B. M. Horrell as trustees. In 1849 the school known as the Washington Female seminary was incorporated ; its trustees were George Trask, Edward Dobbins, Noah Handy, John B. Martin, John D. Cook, Wilson Brown and Samuel A. Hill. Both these institutions were maintained until the Civil war. Among the principal teachers in them were Lyman B. Andrews, L. II, Andrews, and J. J. Gar- diner. They both occupied the old building known as the Ellis Hotel. The first schools in Bloomfield were taught in the Methodist church. In 1853 the Bloom-