2014 Exhibit

Educational opportunities on the western Virginia frontier were few at the turn of the eighteenth century.  Whereas private schools and tutors abounded in eastern Virginia, such avenues were lacking in Trans-Allegheny Virginia.  Where they did exist, frontier schools were often crude affairs offering only rudimentary lessons.   This log schoolhouse constructed sometime in the early nineteenth century was located at Core, (West) Virginia.  It was in this rustic building that the noted American educator Alexander L. Wade (1832-1904) began his distinguished teaching career.

McKinnon Arithmetic Primer

Educational publications were rare on the frontier in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Thus, parents and teachers routinely had to make their own textbooks. This homemade primer, bound with bark, was made by Rev. David McKinnon in 1765 for the purpose of instructing his daughter Anne in arithmetic. The book, which also contains rules of grammar, hymns, and quotations, was subsequently employed by McKinnon descendants including the Rogers family of Morgantown.

The Monongalia Academy Officially Begins

Legislative Act Creating Monongalia Academy

The Monongalia Academy was incorporated by this act of the General Assembly of Virginia on November 29, 1814.

The Monongalia Academy

The Monongalia Academy’s first classes are thought to have been held in a building on the corner of Spruce and Willey (then Boundary) streets.  The school continued at this location until a new building was constructed by the trustees on a lot at Spruce and Walnut streets.  This building (see photo at left, ca. 1860) served as the home of the Academy from 1829 until 1867 when the assets of the Academy were donated toward the establishment of WVU.  The University held the property only briefly before selling it to help fund the construction of WVU’s first building, University (now Martin) Hall.

The Monongalia Academy, the Early Years 

Minute Book of the Monongalia Academy (above)

Relatively little is known about the Monongalia Academy's first years as records for this period are lost. The minute book on display here was begun in 1827. It documents the purchase of a lot for and construction of a new building on the northeast corner of Spruce and Walnut streets. It also reveals the extent to which the Academy served as a local loan agency. Among the Academy's foremost clients were the trustees themselves. While the practice of money lending, to be repaid with interest, was meant to augment the treasury, it is clear that the practice was abused. Some loans were never repaid. Indeed, questionable financial practices generally, in money lending and lottery ventures, led to legal entanglements for the trustees and an indictment on at least one occasion.

Monongalia Academy Trustees (from left to right)

Thomas P. Ray, Trustee and Treasurer, ca. 1827-1841

Thomas Wilson, Trustee and Secretary, 1814-1826

Mathew Gay, Trustee and President, ca. 1827-1857

Funding the Monongalia Academy 

Loan in the Amount of $150 "payable in six months“ (above)

The Trustees of the Monongalia Academy used the Academy's financial resources liberally as a lending bank with the goal of financial gain through charging interest.

Funding of the Academy (above)

The Virginia General Assembly Act that officially created the Monongalia Academy in 1814
decreed that a percentage of all surveyors' fees collected in Monongalia County would be earmarked to help fund the school. While these funds were no doubt appreciated, they were not nearly sufficient. In order to raise additional monies, the trustees of the school endeavored to augment resources through schemes including conducting lotteries and by lending money to be repaid with interest to local citizens.

Lottery Contracts

These legal agreements document the Monongalia Academy's lottery enterprises. Management of the lottery was subcontracted to external companies who were responsible for advertising and conducting the lottery. Proceeds from these ventures were a major source of funding for the Academy.

Monongalia Academy Student Accounts & Other Costs

Student account records contained in the ledger at left reveal that enrollees routinely spent far more on food, shelter, clothing, laundry services, school supplies and other supplies and services than they did on tuition.  The documents pictured below show the cost of supplies and the amount that the Monongalia Academy paid in taxes on its land (less than $2).

  

The Monongalia Academy Building on Fire

The Monongalia Academy building was destroyed by fire in 1897.  A grand new public school was built on this lot and opened two years later.

Monongalia Academy Students

Exercises and Report Card of John W. Mason

The above exercises and report cards at left, were those of John W. Mason. Mason both studied and taught at the Monongalia Academy during the mid-1860s. He went on to read law under Judge Marshall Hagans of Morgantown, winning admission to the bar in 1867. A highly esteemed attorney and judge, Mason served as Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service under President Benjamin Harrison from 1889-1893. Also included here is a note from educator Alexander Wade attesting to Mason's excellent performance in Monongalia County public school prior to his admission to the Monongalia Academy.

Monongalia Academy: Quality and Curriculum 

Take a closer look at the courses offered by Monongalia Academy in the 1860s.  Some of these classes are still taught in schools today—some are not!

What level and caliber education did the Monongalia Academy provide? That likely depended in great measure on the individual! While basic educational skills were required for admission, reading, writing, and spelling were standard subjects for pupils deemed to be of the first and second "class." Greek and Latin were offered to students of the fourth class, and Moral and Intellectual Philosophy to those of the fifth. Students of classes 6 through 10 studied advanced subjects including Algebra, Rhetoric, Surveying ,and Navigation among others.

Many graduates used the education they received at the Academy as a springboard directly into professional careers in assorted fields. Others continued their educational odyssey at other institutions. Some fared quite well with the foundation they received at the Academy. For example, Eli Marsh Turner, class of '64, graduated as Princeton's valedictorian in 1868.

Literary Societies at the Monongalia Academy 

The Monongalia Academy hosted a pair of literary societies during the 1850s, the Monongalian Society and the Columbian Society. Literary societies were common at private academies and colleges during the age. They were in many ways precursors of sororities and fraternities. Members met for social occasions and programs routinely consisting of orations and music.

Monongalia Academy Finances 

Monongalia Academy Tuition Receipts (above)

These miscellaneous tuition receipts date from the 1850s. In 1854, the tuition rate was $3.75 per quarter or $15 per year. Calculating the modern value of that sum is difficult. Estimates range anywhere from $3,000 to over $10,000.

Ledger of Monongalia Academy (above)

This ledger was used to record money owed and paid to Monongalia Academy.  

Mathematics 

Algebra Workbook

This meticulous algebra workbook, dating from the year 1841, was compiled by an unknown student at the Monongalia Academy. Exercises vary in difficulty from supposedly "simple equations" to complicated "reductions of radical quantities."

James Robertson Moore  & Elizabeth I. Moore

The Reverend James R. Moore and his wife Elizabeth I. Moore had a profound impact on education in Morgantown.  A Presbyterian minister, J. R. Moore was principal of the Monongalia Academy from 1852 until his death in 1864.  A Wheeling native, Mrs. Moore founded the Woodburn Female Seminary with her husband and served as principal of the institution until its assets were transferred to help found West Virginia University in 1867.  Mrs. Moore subsequently purchased the Morgantown Female Academy which she operated until the school was destroyed by fire in 1889.

Academy Students 

Student Grade Reports, 1853 (above)

H. Lowe's report cards show that he received high marks in his studies, which included reading, arithmetic, and penmanship.  He also received high marks in “General conduct” and “Observance of School Rules”.

Catalogue of the Teachers and Students of Monongalia Academy, Morgantown, VA. for the Year Ending in July, 1854 (above)

U.S. Army Corporal Jacob Pierpoint, ca. 1861

Jacob Pierpoint attended the Monongalia Academy in the late 1850s. He subsequently moved from his home in Morgantown to Indiana, enlisting in the army at the outbreak of the war. Pierpoint's regiment, the 19th Indiana was attached to the renowned "Iron Brigade". His last letter April, 1862 from the Shenandoah Valley, to his parents in Morgantown report the wounding of his hands and his hope to be sent home to recuperate. Sadly records show Pierpoint died later that same month, the exact cause is not known.

Academy Teachers 

Adams W. Lorentz, Monongalia Academy Teacher

A.W. Lorentz taught at the Monongalia Academy in the 1850s and 1860s and later WVU. Among his students at the former institution were future U.S. Navy Rear Admiral French Chadwick and future WVU President E. M. Turner. Lorentz was named interim principal of the Academy in 1864. After the Academy was dissolved, he served alternately as a faculty member and on the Board of Regents for WVU for the next quarter century.

Morgantown Female Academy

Morgantown Female Academy Catalogue, 1849 (above)

This pamphlet contains information pertaining to courses, tuition, room and board rates, textbooks, and location. It also lists faculty and the names of 143 students enrolled.

“Morgantown Female Academy and by that name shall have perpetual succession...” Acts of the Virginia Legislature, 1839 (above)

Confusion abounds over the correct name of the Morgantown Female Academy during the mid-nineteenth century. The matter is settled by referring to the Act of the Virginia Legislature that authorized the establishment of the school as a distinct entity in 1839. While the school was often referred to by other titles including Morgantown Female Seminary, Whitehall Female Seminary, Methodist Seminary and Morgantown Female Collegiate Institute, no legislative authorization of a name change occurred until the school was sold to Elizabeth Moore in 1869. At that time the name was officially changed to the Morgantown Female Seminary.

“You will please not consider me a candidate for your seminary” -- Letter from C. R. Pomeroy to W. T. Willey, July 24, 1857

The West Virginia and Regional History Center holds a cache of letters received by Waitman T. Willey in his capacity as a trustee of the Morgantown Female Academy. The correspondence pertains to matters including courses of study, books, tuition and other costs, as well as inquiries and applications for faculty and administrative positions. The letter displayed here, by Reverend C. R. Pomeroy of New York, reveals that in at least one case, tensions between the north and south interfered with faculty recruitment. Intent on visiting his prospective place of employment, Pomeroy traveled to western Virginia by rail in July 1857. When he disembarked at Fairmont he was informed that " ... northern men were not wanted in any part of [this] state [Virginia]." He promptly withdrew his application.

Upon completion of the Monongalia Academy’s new building in 1830, the Academy’s trustees turned their full attention to establishing a school for female students.  The Virginia General Assembly granted their petition to form the Morgantown Female Academy as a department of the Monongalia Academy the following spring.  The trustees used funds from the proceeds of the sale of the Academy’s old building at Spruce and Willey to construct an edifice for the newly chartered school on the corner of Fayette and Chestnut streets.

The Female Academy struggled during its first few years relying on the Monongalia Academy’s resources to keep it afloat.  In an effort to improve the situation by separating the two, the trustees petitioned the General Assembly to separately incorporate the Female Academy in 1838.  When permission was granted, ties between the two schools were largely severed.  A new board of trustees for the Female Academy was appointed including Waitman T. Willey, William Lazier, George Hill, Guy R. C. Allen and Reuben B. Taylor.

Poor Conditions Reported of Female Academy Building (above)

Created as a "department" of the Monongalia Academy, the Morgantown Female Academy first held classes in the Academy's old building at Spruce and Willey. A. C. Werninger, a trustee of the Monongalia Academy, documents the "much out of repair" condition of the structure. This property was later sold to build a new female academy building at Fayette and Chestnut streets.

Handbill Advertising Reopening of the Female Academy, ca. 1854 (above)

Funds for the new building were appropriated in 1852. The new structure was probably finished in ca. 1854.

Morgantown Female Seminary Closing Exercises, July 12 & 13, 1854

Also known as the Morgantown Female Academy, the closing exercises included public examinations of the classes.

Woodburn Female Seminary

The estate of Thomas Ray was sold in 1857 to a group that included Reverend James R. Moore and his wife, Elizabeth Moore, for the purpose of establishing a female seminary.  The Moores had been involved in the supervision of the Monongalia Academy since 1852 and were interested in providing for advanced education of women.  The seminary was incorporated in 1858 and named the Woodburn Female Seminary.  Located on a knoll overlooking the Monongahela River just north of Morgantown, Woodburn opened in May, 1858, offering preparatory subjects beyond the course of high school.  The seminary was closed in 1866 and the building turned over to create the land grant state college, WV Agricultural College, subsequently West Virginia University.

Ledger, 1858-1861

The Seminary's account book preserves records of students' debits (noted by a "Dr'') and credits ("Cr'').  The enlargement below shows the charges for board, tuition, music lessons, etc.

Emily Reed Norton at Woodburn Female Seminary 

"I think this is the most delightful situation I ever saw." Letter from Emily Reed to her mother, November 12, 1858

Emily Reed, from Kanawha Salines in Kanawha County, was one of the first students enrolled at the new Woodburn Female Seminary. She wrote several letters home expressing how thrilled she was with the school, the students, the faculty, and her classes. Financial matters were her only concern. So much so she was unable to visit home after her mother died in the summer of 1859. Emily graduated in 1859.

Emily Reed Norton

Moses and Emily Reed Norton ca. 1865

Martin Hall and Woodburn Seminary Building, WVU Campus, ca. 1870

Morgantown Female Seminary, 1870-1889

In 1899, the Citizens of West Virginia presented Chadwick with an ornate sword, shown above with its scabbard, in honor of his heroic service during the Spanish and American War. The program for the sword presentation ceremony is above.  Chadwick was promoted to Rear Admiral in 1904.