The Lives And Times Of The Snickersville Academy

The Lives And Times Of The Snickersville Academy. C. 1825. , A Village's First School And Church , Amos Clayton, son of the village's founder, and his wife Elizabeth, parents of 12 children , provided one half-acre of their own land for the construction of a schoolhouse and "free" (nondenominational) church. The founding "Indenture" signed at Clayton Hall on May 21, 1825, specifies the building be used "for the purpose of building a house for a public school and place for divine worship.", Tuition was $3 to pay salary for a teacher, who taught students from ages six to sixteen, on all learning levels, in the single classroom. Families provided the schoolbooks, which children often shared. Since paper was scarce, students scratched on slates to practice writing and arithmetic., The community stopped using this building as a church a quarter century later when Snickersville built its stone church, still in use today., Look in the Windows. Seated on benches in this one room schoolhouse, the children of Snickersville not only mastered the skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic , they also learned about the wider world. Stories in the readers covered history, wild animals, Aesop's fables, and making moral choices. Noah Webster's spelling book introduced the "CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES of AMERICA, and the Principles of Government., The Civil War Years. The schoolhouse reduced hours during the Civil War years since children had less time for schooling as they took on extra duties at home, replacing the older men who had become soldiers., A few of the older school boys took part in an 1864 skirmish just uphill on Snickersville Turnpike, when Confederate and Union soldiers met unexpectedly and exchanged fire., After the Civil War, Virginia slowly established public schools, which included the Snickersville Academy in 1870, until the multi-classroom Mountain Shadow School opened on Snickersville Turnpike two years later., Modern Times , The Old Schoolhouse then became rental housing for almost a century. Descendants of Susie Neil, who lived there nearly thirty years, still return to the cabin and have shared many memories with us., The Hatcher family, who had owned the mountain farm that included the Academy for 60 years, donated the Snickersville Academy to Friends of Bluemont (FOB) in 2010., Over the following five years, FOB restored the building using period materials and local craftsmen skilled in pioneer building techniques. In a May 2015 ceremony, on the 190th anniversary of its founding, the Snickersville Academy was dedicated as a community resource., Established in 2002 as a nonprofit historical association, Friends of Bluemont preserves local history, highlights memories, and operates the Snickersville Academy and the Bluemont Heritage website. See www.bluemontva.org and www.bluemontheritage.org.