Now & Then: How did we come to have our Pea Ridge schools?

— As I remember my school days in the 1940s and 1950s, we didn’t have much emphasis on our local history. I do recall having a pretty fine sixthgrade Arkansas history course. The textbook was a blue book with the Arkansas flag on the front. I have seen a copy or two of that book through the years, but have never found one to buy. I don’t recall in our textbooks any real discussion of the early schools of Pea Ridge, or even much about of the Civil War Battle of Pea Ridge. Many of us have come to realize only later in life the significance of momentous things that took place right here where we live. My dad occasionally mentioned the Pea Ridge Academy, so I had a glimmer that there was a significant school here in the early days, but I actually learned moreabout the Pea Ridge Academy from J.W. Jordan than from our classes in school.

One day during recess, (Do schools do recess any more?), J.W. and I were out on the east lawn of the school. A small brick building stood there, and I wondered what it was?

The discussion led J.W. to remark that the old college building used to stand there where we were. His mother had gone to school in the old college building, and his dad was involved in taking it down and constructing the new school building in 1930. So, right there, while we were out of class and supposedly just playing, I got a lesson in Pea Ridge history that I really treasure today. Often we learn things in the most unexpected ways!

Sometimes people assume that a small place like Pea Ridge would just always have been a sleepy rural town, supposing our early settlers to be unlettered folk living contented pre-literate lives, without much use for “booklarnin.” We may need reminding that many of those who settled the Pea Ridge area were people who came here from verycivilized places, and that they already treasured good schools, good music, good churches and good family life. Even many who had little formal education were interested in making a good education available in this new place. Also, as with many new towns in Arkansas in the mid-1800s, the Pea Ridge area was blessed with several strong Masonic Lodges and churches; groups which were committed to shaping an informed citizenry and a high-toned way of life in their community.

Tax-supported schools in Arkansas developed mainly after the Civil War.

Earlier schools were private schools, supported by student-paid tuitions and by funding from investors and donors. Most early schools in Benton County did not survive the turmoil of the Civil War years.

Two efforts to establish schools at Pea Ridge were short-lived. Skelton Academy was opened in 1851 by Professor Lockhart, and Mt. Vernon Academy was begun in 1852 by Professor Morrison. Apparently neither school endured beyond one year. But developments in the Buttram’s Chapel community southeast of Pea Ridge led to the first enduring school in our area.

Following the destruction of the village of Leetown in the Battle of Pea Ridge, the Leetown Masonic Lodge moved to the site which is today’s Buttram’s Chapel Cemetery. The Masonic Lodge and neighborhood residents erected a two-story building at the center of the plot. Lodge meetings were held upstairs, and church and other community gatherings took place downstairs. In 1874, the Rev. Elijah Buttram, working with the church folk and the Masons, broughtin a young Missourieducated professor named John Rains Roberts to open a school. So, the Pea Ridge Academy was born.

Professor Roberts taught the upper grades, while his sister, Miss Nanny Roberts, taught grades one to five.

For five years, Pea Ridge Academy held classes at Buttram’s Chapel. Then the school closed for 1879-80, while a new brick school building was being built in Pea Ridge. The new building was a twostory structure, facing east, fronting on the street we call Davis Street today.

The Academy re-opened with classes in the new schoolhouse in the fall of 1880. There, the public school movement would soon begin in Pea Ridge, its early history enmeshed with that of the Pea Ridge Academy.

In the early 1880s, Pea Ridge Academy was growing not only in numbers of students and faculty, but also in its reputation as a quality school, recognized throughout northwest Arkansas. The first public school for Pea Ridge started in 1884, offering grades one through eight. In an arrangement with theAcademy, public school classes met in the academy building, co-existing with the academy’s program.

According to Billie Jines, Pea Ridge’s premier newspaper editor and historical writer, the public school functioned with its own separate school board, while the Academy continued to be governed by a board of trustees. In 1884, the Academy was certified to offer a full course of instruction, including college-level classes, in association with the University of Arkansas. This opened the era of the Pea Ridge College. In 1887, the college added new building space to the south end of the building, providing new classrooms downstairs anda large second-floor auditorium known as College Hall. The new addition increased student capacity to 250.

(To be continued...)

◊◊◊

Editor’s note: Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge, is a retired Methodist minister with a passion for history.

He is vice president of the Pea Ridge Historical Society. He can be contacted by e-mail at [email protected], or call 621-1621.

Community, Pages 5 on 06/06/2012