Educational Interests of Tennessee 



BY A. V. I <>M IK. \.M. 



The desirability of education was firmly implanted in the 

 minds of the earliest settlers of Tennessee. In Tennessee educa- 

 tion gained its first lodgment west of the Allegheny .Mountain 

 In Middle Tennessee, indeed, education antedated even the estab 

 lishment of civil government itself; for the sister of General 

 James Robertson, the "Father of Tennessee," herself taughl the 

 children on board the boat which Col. John Donelson brought to 

 the site of Nashville in 1780; and the school, thus begun, was 

 continued after the landing. 



PEABODY NORMAL COLLEGE 



While the pioneers were by no means scholars in the mod- 

 ern sense of that word they were of great mental vigor and high 

 intelligence. That there were few illiterates is shown by two 

 conclusive instances: In 1776 a petition for better protection 

 was sent to the Provincial Council of North Carolina by one 

 hundred and fourteen men of the Watauga Association, the first 

 settlement in what is now East Tennessee ; and of this number 

 all but two were able to sign their own names. 



Again, a few years later, the settlers of the Great French 

 Lick (Nashville) to the number of 256 formed an agreement and 

 only one was compelled to make his mark. 



These advance guards of western civilization early provided 

 for educational facilities. With them the spelling book went hand 



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