142 The Winning of the West 



and took the lead in trying to build up institutions 

 for higher education. After a good deal of diffi- 

 culty an academy was organized under the title of 

 Blount College, and was opened as soon as a suffi- 

 cient number of pupils could be gotten together; 

 there were already two other colleges in the Ter- 

 ritory, Greenevillfc antl Washington, the latter being 

 the academy founded by Doak. Like almost all 

 other institutions of learning of the day these three 

 were under clerical control ; but Blount College was 

 chartered as a non-denominational institution, the 

 first of its kind in the United States. 8 The clergy- 

 man and the lawyer, with the school-master, were 

 still the typical men of letters in all the frontier 

 communities. The doctor was not yet a prominent 

 feature of life in the backwoods, though there is in 

 the "Gazette" an advertisement of one who an- 

 nounces that he intends to come to practice "with a 

 large stock of genuine medicines." 9 



The ordinary books were still school books, books 

 of law, and sermons or theological writings. The 

 first books, or .pamphlets, published in Eastern Ten- 

 nessee were brought out about this time at the 

 "Gazette" office, and bore such titles as "A Sermon 

 on Psalmody, by Rev. Hezekiah Balch" ; "A Dis- 

 course by the Rev. Samuel Carrick"; and a legal 

 essay called "Western Justice." 10 There was also 

 a slight effort now and then at literature of a lighter 



8 See Edward T. Sanford's "Blount College and the Uni- 

 versity of Tennessee," p. 13. 



9 "Knoxville Gazette," June 19, 1794. 



10 "Knoxville Gazette," Jan. 30 and May 8, 1794. 



