'holding a levee of wounded souls,' and whose generous arms were ever open to succor the poor and the orphan, perpetuated in the living present."

In another place, referring to the valuable services performed by the school at Bethesda, the same author says: "That this orphan house, in the face of many disappointments connected with its advancement to the stage of usefulness and prosperity anticipated and predicted for it, was an institution of great benefit to the colony, and that its sheltering arms ministered to the comfort of many homeless orphans and pointed the way to future industry, respectability, and independ ence, cannot be questioned. True it is that several persons who exercised a controlling influence over Georgia affairs during the last quarter of the eighteenth century were wards of this charity." "

1 History of Georgia, Vol. I, pp. 405-6.

2

2 Among them may be mentioned Milledge and Ewen, both Governors of Georgia, and Langworthy, who was a delegate from that State to the Continental Congress.

CHAPTER II.

SCHOOLS AFTER THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.

THE ACADEMY OF RICHMOND COUNTY.

Some months had elapsed after the signing of the Declaration of Independence when Georgia took her next step in educational progress. This was effected under the Constitution of 1777, the fifty-fourth section of which provided that schools should be erected in each county, and supported at the general expense of the State. During the Revolutionary War, such were the distractions of the period and of the community, that all efforts for education, either public or private, were wholly omitted. Upon the return of peace and the adjustment of affairs, both private and political, attention was once more directed to this important subject.

The earliest legislation in regard to public education occurring after the war will be found in an act for laying out the reserve land in the town of Augusta into acre lots, the erecting of an academy or seminary of learning, and for other purposes therein mentioned, assented to July 31, 1783.2 By the fourteenth section of this act, the Governor was empowered to grant one thousand acres of land for a free school in each county. Under the same act provision was made for the establishment of a free school in the town of Washington, Wilkes County, and of two academies, one at Waynesborough, Burke County, and the other at Augusta, in the county of Richmond. Of the academies the latter only deserves special consideration, partly from the fact of its longevity, it having from the beginning almost uninterruptedly maintained an active existence, but particularly on account of the historic memories which are connected with it.

After reciting, "And whereas a seminary of learning is greatly necessary for the instruction of our youth, and ought to be one of the first objects of attention, after the promotion of religion," the act directed the town commissioners to lay out the reserve land of Augusta into acre lots and sell them. With the moneys arising from such sales they

I Watkins's Digest, p. 15.

2 Marbury and Crawford's Digest, pp. 132-4.

3 Section 4 of Act.

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were, among other things, to erect an academy. This was the origin of what has since been known as the Academy of Richmond County. The school was regularly opened in 1785, and on the 25th of March of that year, we are told, "Mr. William Rogers, late of the State of Maryland, having been well recommended as being of good fame and sufficiently learned in the sciences," was appointed master of the academy, at a salary of two hundred pounds a year, with the use of the tenement buildings and the garden on the premises. He was required to teach the Latin, Greek, and English languages, and the common practical branches of mathematics. The tuition of the highest class of pupils was fixed at ten dollars per quarter. The master, as he was called, had the assistance of one, and afterward of two tutors.1

Mr. Rogers was re-elected annually to the office of rector of the academy until 1793. Three years later the Hon. William H. Crawford, who was afterward United States Senator from Georgia, minister to France under President Madison, and Secretary of War under President Monroe, became connected with the institution, serving two terms as English teacher in the academy, and one in the capacity of rector, resigning the latter position in 1799. In 1826 James P. Waddell, subsequently a professor of ancient languages in the University of Georgia, assumed the control of the school, holding the rectorship during six successive terms. The present faculty of the academy consists of three teachers, its principal being a prominent graduate of the University of Virginia. The original trustees of the Academy of Richmond County were George Walton, Joseph Pannill, Andrew Burns, William Glascock, and Samuel Jack. The number was subsequently increased to seven, and then to nine, as at present. The office of president of the Board was created in 1788, William Glascock being the first incumbent. Since Mr. Glascock sixteen persons, including the one now serving, have successively filled the position.

In 1790, Augusta still being the seat of government of Georgia, the building occupied by the academy, upon its tender by the trustees, was accepted and utilized for the transaction of the general business of the State. In May of the following year the acade.ay was honored by a visit from President Washington, who, in his tour through the States, had stopped at Augusta. The General expressed himself highly pleased with the condition and conduct of the institution, and complimented the teachers upon the fine appearance of their pupils. In 1815 a branch school was located and organized on the Sand Hills, near Augusta, which for many years subserved the purposes of a preparatory department for the academy.

The academy continued in successful operation until the latter part of the Civil War, when it was used by the Confederate authorities as a hospital. It was occupied by United States troops for a year or more after the termination of hostilities, and was then restored to its trustees, who,

1 Hand-Book of Augusta, etc. Augusta, Ga., 1878. Pp. 63–5.