INFLUENCE OF A SINGLE FARM COMMUNITY. 9 
UNION ACADEMY OF BELLEVILLE. 
Some time prior to 1824 the Rev. Joshua Bradley made a persist- 
ent effort to interest the people in the vicinity of Belleville in the sub- 
ject of schools, education, and even higher education. He canvassed 
the townships of Ellisburgh and Henderson again and again to 
influence the people to give from their limited means for the purpose 
of schooling their children. In the fall of 1824 Mr. Bradley opened a 
Fig. 3.— This map shows the distribution of persons from farms in the Belleville community who attended 
the academy at some time or other. Each dot a student. Students from hamlets and villages not 
shown. 
school of higher grade in the upper part of a house, and employed a 
teacher. The prosperity of this school awakened the people to want 
an academic institution in Belleville. 
Mr. Bradley presented a plan for a manual-labor school, and stock 
was subscribed sufficient to finance a building. A lot of 6 acres was 
given by Giles Hall to be "forever after used for school purposes." 
April 13, 1826, an act of incorporation was obtained and 24 farmers 
were constituted a body corporate, under the name " Union Literary 
Society/' for the support of an academic school for both sexes. The 
54705°— 21— Bull. 984 2 
