Newspaper Page Text
September 7, 2022
m
MONROE COUNTY
Community
Calendar
Calendar items run free
of charge as a community
service each week as space
allows. Mail items for the
Community Calendar to
Diane Glidewell at news@
mymcr.net by 8 a.m. on
Monday.
Sept. 10
Voter Enhancement
Festival
The Heart of Georgia Voter
Enhancement Festival will be
Saturday, Sept. 10 from 10
a.m.-2 p.m. at Summers Field
in Barnesville. The family-
oriented festival will focus on
the importance of voting. The
Democrats of Lamar, Spald
ing, Upson, and Monroe
counties, the Psi Rho Zeta so
rority and the Omega Psi Phi
fraternity will co sponsor the
event. Along with music, food,
and children’s activities, there
will be information about the
three ways to cast a ballot
in this year's election. Check
voter registration status and
register, get guestions an
swered, and meet candidates
for offices at the local, state
and federal levels. Democra
cy requires active participa
tion. The goal is to emphasize
the importance of voting
and to empower everyone
to participate by casting a
ballot in the general election.
For more information, go to
the FB Events link https://
fb. me/e/3 nle54xKN
Juliette Roadway
Clean-up
The Juliette River Club will
have a Juliette Roadway
clean-up day on Sept. 10th,
at 8 a.m. Meet at the
Juliette Fire station. All are
welcome to help.
Sept. 12
M.C. Historical Society to
meet
Monroe County Historical
Society will meet on Mon
day, Sept. 1 2 at 7 p.m. in
the Conley Building. Dues
for fiscal year Sept. 2022-
Aug.2023 are due and
payable and may be paid at
the meeting. Ralph Bass will
present a program entitled
"Bolingbroke, an Evolving
Community ; Some Historica
Tidbits.” Refreshments will be
served immediately follow-
See CALENDAR
Page B4
DESTINATION
Reporter
B olingbroke
MC School System has long legacy
By Sloan Oliver
sloanoliver@earthlink.net
T hroughout most
of history, educa
tion was limited
to the wealthy.
The elites were the only
ones who could afford to
hire instructors.
Literacy began to
increase after the
invention of the
printing press (the
1440 s by Guten
berg), which made
books more
affordable.
However,
until Europeans
settled North America,
very few common folk had
any education whatsoever.
When the Pilgrims settled
New England, they placed
an emphasis on educa
tion in order to read and
understand the Bible. For
the same reason, other de
nominations also empha
sized literacy.
You could say that edu
cation has been important
in the United States long
before we were even a
country. The Northwest
Ordinance of 1787 (enact
ed to regulate the territory
that eventually became
Ohio, Michigan, and Indi
ana) set aside one parcel of
land, in each town, for the
building of schools. Early
education, whether it was
in the colonies, the states,
or territories was exclu
sively private and mostly
religious based. Back then,
there was no public educa
tion. Nevertheless, due to
an emphasis on education
the United States was (and
remains) one of the most
literate countries in the
GTAwa CM.owy.
world.
Like most of the country,
since its earliest days edu
cation has been important
in Monroe County (MC).
Most early education was
conducted at home by
private tutors, often hired
by several families. One
ofMC’s earliest
teachers was Early
Cleaveland who
came to the county
in 1821. By 1830,
there were eight
schools/academies
in the county. In
1838, Cleaveland
became princi
pal ofMt. Zion
Academy near Boling
broke. By 1840 there
were 28 academies in the
county.
From 1821 to 1860, the
Georgia Legislature grant
ed charters to 38 schools/
educational institutions in
MC. One of Cleaveland’s
daughters, Emma, married
Thomas Goodwin (T.G.)
Scott who was also an edu
cator. T.G. Scott became
the first principal of the
Georgia Industrial College
in Barnesville. (Barnesville
is now in Lamar County.
Until 1920, it was in MC.)
Those early schools
were all private, such as
Bolingbroke’s first school
established in a house on
W.O. Wadley’s place. He
hired a teacher for his
children and neighbors'
children. At other schools,
the tuition was paid by the
students’ families.
By the 1870 s support for
public schools began to
grow. In order to receive
state education funds, a
county board, similar to
the current school board,
The public Bolingbroke School, pictured in 1910, taught students in eight grades until
1939. It was located where United Bank & Harvey s Plumbing now stand.
was established. The
county was divided into
five districts with a board
member elected from each
district. The boards duties
included hiring teachers,
distributing funds and
making reports to the
state.
The first chairman of
the school board was T.G.
Scott. He remained chair
man/commissioner of the
school board until 1896.
T.G. Scott Elementary
School is named in his
honor. (See Note at end.)
In 1889 a county vote to
levy a tax with funds to be
used for education, failed.
In April 1891, the school
tax was voted on again
and passed with the levied
tax not to exceed 5 mills.
You could say that public
education in MC began
with that vote.
Dr. Smith, a school
board member, said, “In
the passage of this bill,
Forsyth became one of the
first school districts in the
state to vote upon itself a
tax to extend and supple
ment the public school
and to eliminate all tuition
charges upon individual
pupils.”
After the passage of the
1891 tax levy, it took years
for facilities to improve.
The county planned the
first public high school in
1895. The land (and some
of the money) was donated
by Mr. R. Banks Stephens.
The school was named
for him but wasn’t com
pleted until 1912 at a cost
of $35,000. The first year,
the school had 12 teachers
with 364 pupils (coeduca
tional) in 11 grades. The
building, and school, was
used for the next 70 years.
(It was torn down around
2000.)
In 1902 William M.
Hubbard came to Mon
roe County. He started
a school with four boys
and three girls. That was
the start of the Hubbard
named Forsyth Normal
and Industrial School
(FNIS) with the mission to
prepare black teachers to
educate black children of
Monroe and surrounding
counties.
The school became a
senior high school in
1916 and added 10th and
11th grades. In 1922, the
Georgia legislature desig
nated FNIS the school “for
agriculture and mechani
cal arts for the training of
Negroes in Georgia.” In
1931, it became a junior
college - State Teachers
and Agriculture College,
part of the Georgia Uni
versity system.
William Hubbard retired
in 1939 and his son,
Samuel E. Hubbard, be
came principal. That year,
it merged with Fort Valley
State College and returned
to being a high school for
blacks students. In 1954,
a new brick school was
built that allowed all the
School. It was _ n n „
See BOLINGBROKE • Page B4
To advertise your business,
call or text Donna Wilson at
478-718-8302, or e-mail him at
ads@mymcr.net.
Reporter
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