POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION
Saturday, July 8, 2006, 09:37 PM - Muhlenberg County
XIX, Post-Primary Education in Muhlenberg
Some of the pioneers of Muhlenberg were men and women of education and refinement; some were not; others occupied an intermediate position. All, however, with very few exceptions, were respectable people. The sons and daughters of educated and well-bred parents, of course, had an advantage over those children whose parents, owing to a lack of education or to a lack of hereditary instincts of refinement, were not qualified to teach their offspring better manners than they themselves possessed. Many of those who were members of such families acquired some polish through their association with those whose education and home training were of a higher order. On the other hand, those who continued to associate with their moral and intellectual inferiors drifted to a lower level. Those who, during their leisure time, sought the companionship of good books and mingled with honest and progressive people rapidly became citizens for whom the community had the greatest respect. Then, as now, a man was judged by the company he kept.
Representatives of some of the better pioneer families, owing to a lack of education, deteriorated in the course of a generation or two, but comparatively few such sons or daughters ever lost all traces of their better blood. One citizen, now past seventy-five, informs me that he did not learn to read or write until after he was married. He is the son of a religious man, whose education was limited, but the grandson of a pioneer whose education, judging from all reports and from documentary evidence, was of a superior order. Each of the children of this old man spent about six years in a country school, and his grandchildren attended school until they reached the age of about eighteen. Thus, in the course of five generations, this family went down the hill of education for a half century, and in about an equal length of time--from 1850 to 1900--climbed back to the starting point. Religion held a firm and constant grip on each generation, but not until education again took hold did the family return to its original plane. Commenting on the essentials of a happy life, this grandson of a pioneer said to me:
"I have noticed, again and again, that from 'shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves' is often a matter of only three generations, and that from silk stockings back to silk stockings is usually a matter of at least five generations. In my opinion there are three essentials to a happy life. From the days of my youth and down to the present, I have heard the preachers preach on the Father. Son, and Holy Ghost, and I have always believed in the Trinity. But I must say my father and my grandfather failed to realize that there is a trinity in the right way of living, and that unless each part is practiced in about equal proportions, life is bound to be a failure. This is the trinity of Learning, Labor, and Love of the Lord. My labor has given me a comfortable home on earth, and my religion, I feel, has prepared me for the next world, but my life has been a failure for want of education. From as far back as I can remember, and down to the day of her death, my mother sang a song I shall never forget. It went like this: Teacher and Pupils, McClelland School
"Tis religion that can give Sweetest pleasures while we live; 'Tis religion must supply Solid comfort when we die.
After death its joys will be Lasting as eternity! Be the living God our friend, Then our bliss shall never end.
"It is a beautiful hymn, but if I could write I would weave into this old song education and work along with religion, and make this trinity the source of the 'sweetest pleasures while we live.'"
It is not my purpose to argue the question as to whether "Learning, Labor, and Love of the Lord" are the three essentials of a happy life. However, it is an indisputable fact that where any one or any two of these essentials existed without the others--that is, where the "trinity" was incomplete--life to the citizen of Muhlenberg in the Nineteenth Century was seemingly a failure. When all three were missing, life was a deplorable failure. Such men as "didn't have no larnin'," "done a heap of nothin'," and went to church "just to devil the preacher," were, fortunately, few.
It was the lack of better education and not the lack of sincere religion and honest occupation that began to tell on a number of the citizens who were born in the county during the first half of the last century. During that same period some of the families living in various sections sent their children to Lexington, Danville, and other cities to be educated. Among such pioneer families as the Allisons, Bells, Campbells, Eaves, McLeans, McNarys, Randolphs, Renos, Russells, Shorts, Weirs, Wickliffes, and Worthingtons were found some of the best educated people in the county. Their training indirectly helped to educate many of the local people with whom they came in contact but who were not in position to attend any but local schools.The Shaver or Philadelphia Schoolhouse On Greenville and Rumsey Road--one of the few log schoolhouses now in the county
In the meantime, the schoolhouses throughout the county were open only a few months each year. A short time after Greenville was founded the pioneers built a one-story, two-roomed brick schoolhouse on the east side of Cherry Street north of Main Cross Street. This house was used many years. both as a schoolhouse and as a place of worship. It was usually known as the Greenville Academy, but is sometimes referred to as the Greenville Seminary. It was established by an act of the Legislature approved January 18, 1810. For many years it was used as a district school and later also as a county school, it being a higher graded school than any other in the county. It served as a district schoolhouse until about 1890, when it was torn down and another building secured elsewhere for that purpose. M. J. Roark taught school in the old house for a number of years, including the early sixties.
None of the schools in Muhlenberg County went beyond primary work until about 1850, when post-primary classes were first taught by Professor William Lewis Green, who is regarded as the first teacher of higher education in the county. During the course of the second half of the last century five colleges were organized, all of which have since passed out of existence. Professor Green's school, the Greenville Female Academy, although started in the fall of 1850, was not established by an act of the Legislature until February 11, 1854. The Presbyterial Academy of Greenville was established by an act approved January 7, 1852. The Greenville College, which was practically the successor of the Female Academy, was started in 1880 by Professor E. W. Hall, who for a few years during the sixties had taught a private school in Greenville. The South Carrollton Male and Female Institute, which in 1886 became known as the West Kentucky Classical and Normal College, was established by an act approved February 23, 1874. The Bremen College and Perryman Male and Female Academy was incorporated April 3, 1890.Residence of Henry C. Lewis, Greenville
R. T. Martin, writing about the early history of higher education in Greenville. says:
"During the year 1850, one William L. Green began the establishment of what was called the Greenville Female Academy. He built houses upon a site perhaps not excelled anywhere in the State for beauty and attractiveness. South of the brick study hall, which faced College Street, he erected a large frame dormitory and east of it a brick cottage, all shaded by large forest trees. Professor Green married Susan M. Weir, daughter of pioneer James Weir. He was a man of high intellectual attainments, a Presbyterian preacher and a fine sermonizer. The whole tenor of his life seemed based and centered upon education. He spent a fortune of $50,000 for the betterment of education in Greenville and Muhlenberg County. He not only erected the buildings now owned by the Greenville School District, but he also assisted greatly in building other schoolhouses in different parts of the county.
"Professor Green organized the Greenville Female Academy under the very best discipline and regulations and supplied it with competent teachers, some of whom came from the East. He offered all the necessary comforts required of a good school. He soon had a large attendance of young lady students from different parts of the State, and his Academy rapidly gained a widespread reputation. But after a few years his means failed him, and he was unable to further conduct the school successfully. So, after having spent his time and money in procuring educational advantages for his town and county, he disposed of his school property to the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, left the State a poor man, and never returned. He spent a long, eventful, and useful life in other States. 1 William L. Green, 1900
"When, about 1858, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church came into possession of Professor Green's Academy, they continued the school under the same discipline and regulations and employed many of the teachers who had served under him. For the first few years this institution was placed under the care of Miss Susan M. Anthony and Miss Abbott, both experienced educators. It was next placed under the superintendency of William C. McNary, who in turn was succeeded by Reverend J. C. Bowden. William C. McNary, Reverend W. L. Casky, Reverend James Morton, and Reverend Azel Freeman, shortly after which, or about 1878, the property was purchased by Reverend W. L. Casky, who conducted the college a few years and in 1880 sold the property to Professor E. W. Hall, of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Thus ended the life of the Greenville Female Academy, sometimes called the Greenville Female Collegiate Institute or Greenville Female College, and thus also began a new school conducted by Professor and Mrs. Hall.
"About the time Professor Green established the Greenville Female Academy he, together with others, urged the importance of establishing a male school. So, in the early fifties, the Presbyterians, with outside help, erected a two-story brick building on the north end of Cherry Street, near a fine spring. This was called the Presbyterial Academy of Greenville. It was first placed under the charge of Professor John Donaldson, who conducted it until 1856, when Professor James K. Patterson became president and was assisted in his work by his brother, William Patterson. The Pattersons were young men of fine education and were gifted educators. They soon established a school of considerable reputation. Young men, not only from Muhlenberg and adjoining counties but from many other parts of the State, came to Greenville to attend the Patterson school. The Academy grew rapidly until the Civil War broke out, when many of its students joined the army and the school closed. Professor James K. Patterson married Lucilia Wing, daughter of Charles Fox Wing. After the Presbyterial Academy closed the Pattersons continued their educational careers elsewhere, and Professor James K. became one of the most celebrated educators in Kentucky." 2 James K. Patterson, 1909
In 1864 Professor and Mrs. E. W. Hall, of New York State, were employed by some of the citizens of Greenville to teach a school in the old Presbyterial Academy building. They taught there until 1866. During the two years following they conducted a school in a building on Main Street known as Temperance Hall. Mr. and Mrs Hall were succeeded in the old Presbyterial Academy building by Professors Crow, Hageman, O'Flaherty, and Helm, after which, about 1873, the school was discontinued and the place became the property of Doctor T. J. Slaton, who in 1885 sold it to R. T. Martin and D. E. Rhoads, by whom the building was used as a tobacco manufacturing establishment for two years. In 1887 it was sold to the Greenville School District and used for school purposes a number of years. It was next purchased by a few citizens who lived in the immediate neighborhood. In 1904 it was bought by H. C. Lewis, who remodeled the building and now occupies it as a residence.
In 1880 Professor and Mrs. Hall returned to Greenville and, as stated above by Mr. Martin, bought the Greenville Academy property. They established the Greenville Ladies' College and the Greenville College for Young Men, two separate schools under one administration.Greenville College
The Halls were assisted by a good faculty, among their teachers being Professor W. S. Hall, a brother of Professor E. W. Hall. Their college opened in September, 1880, and soon gained a wide reputation for the efficiency of its management and the thoroughness of its courses. In February, 1889, after a very brief illness, Professor Hall died of pneumonia. His widow, Mrs. Sarah T. Hall, continued the schools, acting as President for eight years. She was assisted by her son, Professor Elmer T. Hall, and a competent faculty. In 1897 Mrs. Hall retired from school work and sold her college property to the Greenville School District, since which time it has been used for public school purposes. The outside walls of the old frame dormitory were stuccoed and the entire building remodeled and equipped in modern style. 3
About six years before Professor and Mrs. Hall returned to Greenville, Professor Wayland Alexander established a college in South Carrollton, which was conducted for about twenty years. One of the frame buildings erected by Professor Alexander is now used as the South Carrollton public school. When the South Carrollton Male and Female Institute was chartered in 1874, the citizens of South Carrollton were enthusiastic about their new venture. It brought many young men and women to the town, and the place seemed destined to become the Athens of the Green River country. Its course of studies was of a high order. Graduates were given license to teach in any of the public schools in Kentucky without passing an examination before the State board or the superintendent of public schools of the county in which they had been chosen to teach. When the Institute was incorporated in 1874, many unlimited scholarships were sold at the rate of three hundred dollars each, good for an indefinite period and transferable. A number of men invested in these scholarships and sold them to students at the rate of about forty-five dollars a year, thus realizing fifteen per cent on the investment.Edwin W. Hall, 1888
The students who attended this school during its early career received the benefit of all the capital derived from the paid-up scholarships, but in the course of a few years all the money derived from the sale of these scholarships was used to pay teachers' salaries, and the scholarships that had been sold became the source of obligations involving expense which the Institute had made no provision to meet. Financial aid was occasionally given, and the school was thus temporarily revived. This state of its financial affairs, coupled with increasing competition, resulted in the closing of the college.
By an act of the Legislature approved April 7, 1886, the name of the Institute was changed to the West Kentucky Classical and Normal College. However, it was usually called the West Kentucky College. With the exception of a few years, the place was constantly under the charge of Professor Alexander. Notwithstanding its financial and other difficulties, the enrollment often reached two hundred. Its popularity was due greatly to the reputation of Professor Alexander, whose scholarly attainments and ability as an instructor were well known, and to the fact that he always employed well-trained college men and women for instructors. 4 South Carrollton Public School
The Bremen College and Perryman Male and Female Academy was opened September 9, 1889, with Milton T. Brown as President. The first trustees were Joseph A. Shaver, John J. Humphrey, Peter Shaver, Reverend John B. Perryman, and Joseph Whitmer. The object of the school was to offer a preparatory course to those intending to enter the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and also to give a general education to any others who wished to take advantage of the scholarships.
Reverend John B. Perryman, an Eastern man, was the original promoter of the school. He devised a scheme whereby scholarships were sold to such persons as wished to buy them without using them and thus contribute Public School Building, Central City, Erected 1909 Public School Building, Greenville a specified amount toward the cause, and to such prospective students as might desire to procure scholarships with the expectation of attending school during part or all of the time specified in the contract.
Perpetual scholarships were sold for one hundred dollars each, eight-year scholarships for seventy-five dollars each, and four-year scholarships for fifty dollars each. Warranty deeds were issued for the paid scholarships which expired four or eight years from date, or never, as the case might be. In this way three thousand dollars was raised the first year, but this amount was not sufficient to meet the teachers' salaries and to pay Joseph A. Shaver for erecting the new building. Although the time and price of scholarships was changed, and although Mrs. Fannie Speed, of Louisville, and a number of local citizens, contributed much toward the support of the institution, the trustees, for lack of funds, were obliged to discontinue the school in the spring of 1900, since which time the college building has been used for a public school. Among the teachers were: Professor J. C. M. Ellenberger of Pennsylvania, Professor Peter G. Shaver of Bremen, and Professors Brown, Gordon, and Carhart. From fifty to one hundred students attended the school every year, over half of whom lived in Muhlenberg County.Public School, Bremen
Thus, from 1850 to 1900, five colleges were opened and closed in Muhlenberg. At the time these institutions were in progress, the best public schools in the county were not much above what is now a common graded school. These five colleges not only included many of the post-primary studies in their courses, but also a number of primary studies that are today confined to primary schools.
Many of the country schools are now better supplied with desks, charts, and libraries than were some of the town schools during the time of the colleges. There are at present one hundred and two school buildings in Muhlenberg, in which one hundred and twenty-six teachers are employed to teach the nine thousand children in the county, of whom about sixty-eight hundred are enrolled. Six towns have graded schools: Central City, Greenville, Drakesboro, South Carrollton, Dunmor, and Bremen. There are high schools at Central City, Greenville, Drakesboro, and South Carrollton, with a total attendance of one hundred and sixty-eight pupils. Any one who now is graduated from any Muhlenberg County high school receives an education equal to any that was given by the minor colleges of fifty or even twenty-five years ago.Public School Building, Drakesboro
The schools in the county are progressing with the times. Modern methods have been introduced, and in most instances new and well-equipped houses are used. Even the five or six old log schoolhouses still occupied are equipped with comparatively modern furniture. That the children themselves are becoming more and more interested in their schools and school work was manifested on November 15, 1912, when Muhlenberg held its first School Fair and Corn Show. Six thousand people, of whom two thousand were school children, came to Greenville that day to see the exhibit of drawings, paintings, needlework, carvings, inventions, etc., made by the school children who were attending the common, the graded, and the high schools in the county.



1. Professor William Lewis Green was born near Danville, Kentucky, in 1825. After being graduated from Centre College he continued his education in the East and in 1850 came to Greenville, where during his stay of more than six years he devoted his time and all his money to higher education in Muhlenberg. He was the first man in the county to establish a post-primary school. After leaving Greenville he and his wife resumed educational work in Wisconsin. He was a widely known Presbyterian minister, an orator and an exceedingly well-informed man. After preaching in Illinois and Kansas for a few years, he returned to Wisconsin in 1882 and established a Presbyterian school at Poyenette, of which institution he had charge up to about the time of his death, July 28, 1903.

2. Professor James K. Patterson was born in Glasgow, Scotland, March 26, 1833. He came to America in 1842 and in 1856 was graduated from Hanover College, Indiana. From 1856 to 1859 he was at the head of the Greenville Presbyterial Academy, in which school he was succeeded as principal by his brothers William K. and Andrew M. Patterson. He taught in Stewart College, Clarksville, Tennessee, from 1859 to 1861, and from 1861 to 1865 was principal of Transylvania High School, Lexington. He was Professor of History and Latin in the Agricultural and Mechanical College, Lexington, from 1865 to 1869, and President of the State University from 1869 to 1910. In 1910 he retired from the educational world, after an active career of more than half a century devoted to higher education.

3. The Reverend Edwin Walter Hall was born in Jefferson County, New York, March 4, 1838, and died in Greenville February 27, 1889. He was graduated from Genesee College (now Syracuse University) in 1863, and shortly after received the degree of A. M. from his alma mater and also from Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut. In August, 1863, he married Miss Sarah D. Trowbridge, of Lima, New York, who was also educated at Genesee College. They taught together in the Watertown High School, New York, until 1864, when they went to Greenville to teach. In 1869 they removed to Missouri, where Professor Hall had accepted the position of President of Macon College. A few years later he became President of Craddock College, Quincy, Illinois. In 1878 he was placed at the head of Cazenovia Seminary, one of the oldest schools in Central New York. In 1880, at the solicitation of many old friends and former students, he returned to Greenville, where he established a college for young ladies and one for young men, and continued as their President up to the time of his death. Though his special work was that of an educator, he was nevertheless considered one of the best preachers in the Louisville Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of which body he was an honorary member. One of his old pupils said of him: "Professor Hall did much toward the intellectual improvement of Greenville and the surrounding county. He did as much, if not more, for the morality of Greenville than any other man."

4. Professor Wayland Alexander was born in Jefferson County, Kentucky, June 26, 1839. He taught his first school at Sacramento, McLean County, in 1858, and fifteen years later became identified with educational work in Muhlenberg. He also taught in Hartford and Owenshoro. During his many active years he was one of the best-known educators in Western Kentucky. He died in Hartford. Ohio County. August 28, 1911.

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