Now & Then: How Pea Ridge public schools came to be

— As we mentioned last week, the first Pea Ridge Public School opened in 1884, offering first through eighth grades. Classes were held in the Pea Ridge Academy building downtown.

The new public school was governed by its own school board, and operated under a facilities sharing arrangement approved by the Board of Trustees of the Academy.

With the opening of the public school, evidently most, if not all, of the community’s younger children quickly became public school pupils, and Miss Nanny Roberts, who had headed the Pea Ridge Academy’s Primary Department since the Academy’s origin in 1874, took up thatrole for the new public school. The year 1891 saw a brief venture to move the Pea Ridge public school classes to a separate schoolhouse. The Hilltop School was established on the hill just west of downtown Pea Ridge, where today’sLaughlin house stands.

Some of the knowledge we have of Hilltop School was preserved by Miss Brenda Lasater in an article written for her 1976 Pea Ridge High School yearbook. Evidently she interviewed Mr. Sterlon Patterson, who had attended Hilltop School in the early 1890s, and he was able to supply her with some history of the Hilltop site, and to name the teachers who taught there during its three years as Pea Ridge’s public school. The teachers were Mr. Jasper Cavness, 1891-92; Mr. Tom Powell, 1892-93; and Mr. Hugh Lee and Mr. John Hail, 1893-94.

In 1894, the public school classes returned to the college building downtown, and the Hilltop School house was converted to a residence. At that time,the college was facing a financial crisis, and major changes were taking place.

Professor J.R. Roberts, the headmaster of the Academy for its first 20 years, left the school. He taught briefly at Bentonville, then moved to Springfield, Mo., where for a time he continued a career as a school administrator, eventually becoming a lawyer and judge. For 1894-95, the Pea Ridge Academy was reorganized under a new administration, and took the name, Mt. Vernon Normal College, with an emphasis on the training of teachers. The name, Mt. Vernon, comes from the name of the township where Pea Ridge is located. A second reorganization of the Pea Ridge College took place in 1902,when 11 Arkansas Masonic Lodges teamed together to support the school financially. The college then took on a new name, Mt. Vernon Masonic College, and a new focus on business education. The Masonic College was advertised across Arkansas as a business school unexcelled by any other in the state. One of my mother’s uncles attended the Masonic College in the early 1900s, and my family always spoke of the Pea Ridge College as a high-class school.

The cooperative arrangement between the Pea Ridge College and the Pea Ridge Public School continued through the changes in the college administration, and well into the second decade of the 1900s. In 1914, the Pea Ridge community celebrated the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Pea Ridge Academy. Professor J.R.

Roberts came back to Pea Ridge as featured speaker and guest of honor for the occasion, and the celebration attracted great crowds from all around the area.

However, barely two years later, in 1916, a decision was made to close down the college, and to turn over the college property to the Pea Ridge Public School. The lack of available recordsmakes us unable to cite precise reasons for the closing of the college. We surmise that the closing had to do with declining enrollment, continued difficulties of financing the institution, and the growth and availability of the tax-supported University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.

It seems fitting to note the major significance of the old college building to the town of Pea Ridge and to the surrounding area, especially the importance of the school auditorium, which was known as College Hall.

Pea Ridge in the 19-teens and 1920s had no separate community building, and the school auditorium often served that need. For instance, when the Bank of Pea Ridge was organized in 1911, the Bank Board meetings early on were held in College Hall. My mother often talked to me about her grade school years in the 1920s, saying it was common for the small rural schools to go to Pea Ridge for occasions which called for large assemblies. She said that even Bentonville district schools like Valley View, where she attended, would often come to Pea Ridge with other small schools like Summit, Miller and the country schools outside Pea Ridge, to hold math competitions (cipherin’ matches), spelling bees, special programs, and annual commencement exercises.

Throughout its 50 years of existence, the old college served as a major public meeting place for Pea Ridge and the surrounding area and played an important supportive role in advancing the cause of public education throughout the area.

To be continued.

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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 06/13/2012