Romney Academy

Romney Academy
Address
North High Street
Romney, Virginia (now West Virginia)
United States
Information
Established 11 February 1818
Closed 1846 (reorganized as Romney Classical Institute)
Area trustee

From 1839:

Principal
  • Dr. Henry Johnston
    (1820–1826)
  • Dr. William Henry Foote
    (1826–?)
  • Rev. Theodore Gallaudet
  • Benjamin E. Pigman
Faculty
  • Mr. Brown
  • Samuel Mulledy
  • Thomas Mulledy
  • E. W. Newton
  • Silas C. Walker

Romney Academy was an educational institution for higher learning in Romney, Virginia (now West Virginia). Romney Academy was established by the Virginia General Assembly on February 11, 1818 and was active until 1846, when it was reorganized as the Romney Classical Institute. In addition to the Romney Classical Institute, Romney Academy was also a forerunner institution to Potomac Seminary. Romney Academy was one of the earliest institutions for higher learning within the present boundaries of the state of West Virginia.

Establishment and development

In 1817, a bill "incorporating the trustees of Romney Academy in the county of Hampshire" was presented to the Virginia House of Delegates by Mr. Scott, a delegate on the Committee of Schools and Colleges.[1] The bill was read a second time in the Virginia House of Delegates following a motion by Hampshire County delegate William Naylor, after which it was ordered to be "re-committed to the Committee of Schools and Colleges."[2][3] An amended version of the bill was again presented to the Virginia House of Delegates for a third time by Mr. Scott from the Committee of Schools and Colleges and it was passed by the legislative body and renamed "an act incorporating the trustees of Romney Academy in the county of Hampshire."[4]

Romney Academy was established on February 11, 1818 when the Virginia General Assembly finally passed an act entitled "an act incorporating the trustees of Romney academy, in the county of Hampshire" in which the assembly incorporated Romney Academy and constituted and appointed a board of trustees for the operation of the institution.[5] In 1819, shortly after the formation of the Romney Literary Society, the society recognized that the quality of the education provided by Romney Academy and other local subscription schools was not meeting the needs of the Romney community and therefore, it launched a movement to establish an institution for "the higher education of the youth of the community."[6] As a result of this movement in 1820, Romney Academy incorporated classical studies into its curriculum, thus making it the first institution of higher education in the region.[6]

Board of trustees

John Baker White (pictured left) and Angus William McDonald (pictured right) were members of the Romney Academy board of trustees following its reconstitution in 1839.

The inaugural board of trustees were constituted and appointed by the Virginia General Assembly in 1818.[5][7] Due to subsequent vacancies incurred among the board of trustees since Romney Academy's establishment in 1818, its act of incorporation was amended by the Virginia General Assembly on March 25, 1839 appointing a new board of trustees governing Romney Academy consisting of prominent Romney area residents David Gibson, John Baker White, Angus William McDonald, Daniel Mytinger, and John Kern, Jr.[5][7] In addition, the 1839 act authorized any of the five appointed trustees of Romney Academy to fill vacancies on the board "occasioned by death, resignation, removal, or legal disability" thereby preventing future prolonged vacant trustee seats.[5]

Romney Academy trustee John Baker White was a clerk of both the circuit and county courts of Hampshire County[8] and was the father of Robert White, Attorney General of West Virginia from 1877 until 1881.[9] Robert White successfully lobbied the West Virginia Legislature to pass an act establishing the Institution for the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind of West Virginia, which utilized the former campus of the Romney Classical Institute, a successor educational institution to Romney Academy.[9] Another trustee, Angus William McDonald, was the father of Marshall McDonald, who served as commissioner of the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries from 1888 until 1895.

Faculty and staff

The early faculty members of Romney Academy are unknown, but the institution's first principal and one of the institution's longest serving teachers from its era of infancy was scholarly Englishman Dr. Henry Johnston.[6][10] Under Dr. Johnston's leadership, Romney Academy became known regionally for its courses in the "higher classics."[11] Presbyterian Reverend and historian Dr. William Henry Foote became principal of Romney Academy around 1826 and served in that capacity until his departure from Romney around 1839.[12][13][14][15] Dr. Foote also concurrently served as the pastor of the Romney Presbyterian Church.[15] Dr. Foote introduced courses in theology into the school's curriculum, which broadened the make-up of the student body to include young men preparing for the ministry. As the school's popularity grew and knowledge of its curriculum under Dr. Foote spread, Romney Academy began to attract students from beyond the South Branch Potomac River valley region.[12] Following Dr. Foote's departure, Reverend Theodore Gallaudet served as Romney Academy's principal.[16] In addition to Dr. Johnston, Dr. Foote, and Rev. Gallaudet, other known faculty at Romney Academy were E. W. Newton, Silas C. Walker, a Mr. Brown, Thomas Mulledy, and Samuel Mulledy.[17] Thomas and Samuel Mulledy each later served as presidents of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Building

Romney Academy utilized a native stone structure located behind the Hampshire County Courthouse[10][18] at a site presently occupied by the Courthouse Annex building (1934) at 66 North High Street in Romney.[19] When surveyors on behalf of Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron laid out the town of Romney in 1762, a log school was already in existence along with other public buildings.[20] Later in 1762, the log school was rebuilt in stone on the same site.[20] The stone building inhabited by Romney Academy on the site of the previous two school buildings was likely constructed around the beginning of the 19th-century before the school's establishment in 1818, but the exact date of construction is unknown.[10] According to West Virginia historians Hu Maxwell and Howard Llewellyn Swisher in their History of Hampshire County, West Virginia (1897), the Romney Academy building was one of the earliest educational facilities in the county and regarding its architecture, Maxwell and Swisher noted: "the rough unhewn stones of which the academy was built gave it a very uncouth exterior."[10] By 1831, Romney Academy had outgrown its quarters in the old stone school building and relocated to a new Classical Revival structure completed in 1846, after which the institution was reorganized as the Romney Classical Institute.[12][21]

After the academy's stone building ceased being used as an educational facility, it was subsequently utilized for various purposes including serving as the offices of the Virginia Argus and Hampshire Advertiser newspaper and as a meeting place for local fraternal organizations.[17] Romney Academy's stone building remained dormant and unoccupied for a number of years and was demolished by the time Maxwell and Swisher researched and authored their History of Hampshire County, West Virginia in the late 1890s.[13]

Alumni

During its brief years of operation between 1818 and 1846, Romney Academy educated a number of notable alumni. According to Seldon Brannon's Historic Hampshire (1976), "among the pupils of this school were some of the most prominent men in the early history of the [Romney] community."[12]

Alumnus Image Years attended Profession
John Jeremiah Jacob[22] 4th Governor of West Virginia
Angus William McDonald, Jr.[15] West Virginia lawyer, politician, and military officer
Rev. Stuart Robinson[23] Presbyterian minister, orator, writer, and editor[23]

Legacy

According to West Virginia historian Hu Maxwell in his article entitled “West Virginia a Century Ago” published in The Transallegheny Historical Magazine (1901), Romney Academy was "one of the oldest and most renowned schools on the early soil of West Virginia."[24] Of the institution, Maxwell stated that "from its halls went forth some of the teachers who became the disseminators of learning in the famous South Branch [valley]—whose people might appropriately be called the Phoenicians of the Alleghenies, the carriers of liberty, equality, and education."[24]

References

  1. ↑ Virginia House of Delegates 1817, p. 133.
  2. ↑ Virginia House of Delegates 1817, p. 165.
  3. ↑ Virginia House of Delegates 1817, p. 173.
  4. ↑ Virginia House of Delegates 1817, p. 179.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Virginia General Assembly 1839, p. 131.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Brannon 1976, pp. 258–259.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Morrison 1917, p. 152.
  8. ↑ Biographical Publishing Company 1903, p. 21.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Biographical Publishing Company 1903, p. 22.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Maxwell & Swisher 1897, p. 297.
  11. ↑ Brannon 1976, p. 258.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Brannon 1976, p. 259.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Maxwell & Swisher 1897, pp. 297–298.
  14. ↑ Maxwell & Swisher 1897, p. 299.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Williams 1911, p. 121.
  16. ↑ Williams 1911, p. 122.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Maxwell & Swisher 1897, p. 298.
  18. ↑ Blue 1980, p. 22.
  19. ↑ Rowe 2003, p. 8.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Hendricks 2006, p. 125.
  21. ↑ West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey 1927, p. 6.
  22. ↑ "John Jeremiah Jacob", West Virginia Archives and History (West Virginia Division of Culture and History), retrieved December 6, 2013
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Crowell 1883, p. 132.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Maxwell 1901, pp. 234–236.

Bibliography