Person:Andrew Kerr (33)

From World Family Tree, Cd#20, Tree #1170:

Andrew was born in Orange County, North Carolina, at the head of Eno River; came to Tennessee in 1808 and settled where Spring Hill now stands in Maury County. He had a good education and followed the Democratic way of life. His occupation was wagon making. He mad his permanent home near Culleoka in Maury County. He had fourteen children. In 1942 the house was still standing, owned by Mr Jell Smith, who had it for 50 years, or sence 1892.

Date: 11/28/98 Subject: Andrew Marshall Kerr From: JKJBrandon@@aol.com To: hamkarr@@hctc.com Date: Fri, 27 Nov 1998 22:51:51 EST

       born Orange County, NC 1786, died Maury County, TN 1864.  Had 12 or

14 children. Would like information on these descendents. He was my mother's great-grandfather. Known children: Andrew Marhsall, Jr., (b. 1820), Joseph Lee, Newton Marshall, Hardin, Willis O., Susan, Martha. My father is researching this family. He lives in Nashville, TN and does not have e-mail but I will forward any information you might be able to provide. Thanks

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~maury/c011833.htm

PLEASANT GROVE ACADEMY PRECEDED CULLEOKA SCHOOL

Pleasant Grove Male Academy situated several miles northwest of Culleoka was built and chartered in 1835 with Merritt H. Booker , Elisha Uzzell, Joseph Bellanfant, JAMES KERR (Note: this was the father of Andrew Marshall Kerr) & Dr. J. H. Hunt as Trustees.

Two Acres of land was purchased from Mr. Booker at ten dollars per acre and a brick building 48 X 24 feet and two stories high was erected. At the time the country was sparsely settled only about twenty five families lived in a radius of five miles and a very large majority of them in moderate circumstances and none wealthy.

These settlers had emigrated from North Carolina, Virginia and Kentucky and had been learned at the schools and colleges of those states and knew the value of learning and had either to accept the meager facilities that the country afforded or to send their children back to the older states. Owing to the meager facilities for traveling and scarcity of means there were unable to send them back.

So they wisely concluded to build a school at home. The house was built as far as possible from the labor of the community and the timber was sawed by hand using the whip saw. The brick was molded and burned on the lot; also the line. The wealthier of the community furnished the money necessary to hold out some inducement for students from a distance and it was decided to board students at the actual cost of the rations it would take to feed them, Which they placed at five dollars per month, lights included, and by this means they had students from Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and from distant communities in the state. The rate of tuition was five dollars per month for the highest grade, three dollars for the intermediate, and two dollars for beginners with an incidental fee of 1$ per session of five months.

In this school was taught the English language, including Logic and Rhetoric, Moral and Mental Philosophy, Natural Philosophy, and Chemistry. Mathematics was taught to include surveying with practice on the field. Latin included Caesar, Cicaro Ovid and Virgil. Greek to include the Reader and Terre johns Anabasis. The pupils were advanced by the decision of the instructor and not by grades. A pupil completing the course was able to enter the junior class of colleges of that time.

Rules and discipline were very strict and must be obeyed or correction was demanded and that more often by the switch than otherwise. The teachers were first, Mr. James Kerr, a local man; second, Newton Bills, also a local man, next Ferguson an Eastern man, then Johnson P. Clark, then McAdo, then John G. Campbell (local, then two brothers Thomas and Wesley  Beal, then T. H. B Hockaday.

After this time girls were admitted and it became a mixed school and taught by Mr. Malone, then Mr. Miller. This brought it up the War of 1860, during which period little teaching was done.

After the war teaching was resumed for a while with C. S. Williamson as teachers then Jesse Tomlinson and others in these schools. Some free money was used.

In the schools before the war debating societies were held every Friday night and in the last two years before the war they were kept up during vacation period with public debate once each month and on these occasions there was always a full house. The debates were general issues of the day. The last debate was in the winter of 1860, the topic being Union and Secession with C. K. Warden and J. T. Williamson on one side and John S. Wilkes on the other. G. H. Wilkes presided.

In 1868 a school was opened at Culleoka in the basement of the Methodist Church. It was first taught by Rev. Dinwiddie, then the Webbs in 1870, and Pleasant Grove Academy was abandoned. In 1918 Pleasant Grove Academy was sold by an act of the Legislature for four hundred dollars and torn down. That money was used in the erection of this building (school built in 1921).

The above article appeared in the Columbia Herald about  1976 but was written in  1922. The author is unknown to me. It is known that the actual founding name of the first school was "Fountain Creek Male Academy". That was changed to Pleasant Grove Male Academy" a short time later by the promotional efforts of Richard A. L. Wilkes a prominent businessman. ANDREW KERR believed to be the Andrew Marshall Kerr, born 1786 died 1864, was known to be one of the first notable teachers of the school. The school was consolidated sometime around the late 1800s under the leadership of Prof John P. Graham, born Oct 26, 1869, at which time it became public. The name it was given then given the name Moore Institute.  Andrew M. Kerr's nephew Andrew Ross Kerr was also known to be a teacher. It is unknown to me if he taught at Pleasant Grove Academy. There was also a school in operation in the Campbell Station Community a few miles south of Culleoka at the time. An old School survey in 1835 found a school in District 6 called Rice School. It was possibly named after the revolutinary Soldier named Nicholas Rice or his descendents, who is buried in a small cemetery with the James Warden family down Martin Hollow Road just south of Campbell Station high upon the hill. Andrew R. Kerr was conducting a school of sorts when he took his nephew Josephus Jerome Kerr into his home in as found in the 1860 Federal Census to provide him training valuable to his adulthood. During the early 1800 inhabitants who had the resources sent their children to schools back in the Carolina's and Virginia. Those that were less fortunate or most of the settlers used other methods of educating their children. Many families whereby the parents had previous schooling themselves home schooled their children. In other cases the teenage children were placed in the home of a nearby relative or neighborhood family that was literate for a time and the children were thus educated in that manner. Sometimes this was done to teach the child a special skill. [WA 10/25/01]

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Wayneal1@@aol.com.