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- [S106] The Mountain Press, 16 Jul 2012.
Upland Chronicles: Nancy Academy once had major education role in Sevierville
By CARROLL McMAHAN
In 1979 the last building associated with the old Nancy Academy was demolished to make way for a new building to house Butler Electric Service.
The storied structure was so old that no one living at the time could remember when it was built. The frame building was once the Independent Order of Odd fellows Lodge before the Nancy Academy Board of Trustees purchased it in 1896.
By the time Nancy Academy relocated in the old building, the storied school was merely a remnant from the past that was struggling to survive after the new, modern Murphy Collegiate Institute opened its doors.
In 1806 the Tennessee Legislature established the first school in Sevierville. The school was named in honor of Nancy Rogers Porter who was reputedly the first white child born in Sevier County.
She was a daughter of a daughter of Josiah Rogers and wife of Sevierville’s first full-time lawyer Major James Porter who was a member of the Tennessee General Assembly.
Due to insufficient funds or a building, the school didn’t open until 1811. A site was donated to the school’s trustees by Isaac Thomas and James McMahan who donated the land on which early Sevierville was built. Each man gave an acre of land and the two acres adjoined. A 20-by-30 frame building was erected with money and labor donated by local citizens.
The site was approximately where Rick’s Service Center is today on the old George Zirkle property. The school continued at this location until 1816 when a fire of incendiary origin destroyed the building. The arsonist, whose identity is unknown, is said to have disliked the teacher hired by the trustees.
For a couple of reasons, a new building was not constructed on the same site. The well on the property did not supply sufficient water and in the winter months it was an inconvenience to be located so far from town.
In 1818 the Forks-of-the-Little-Pigeon Baptist Church appointed its pastor, Rev. Richard Wood, William Henderson and George Oldham to meet with the Academy trustees at the courthouse where an agreement was reached for the school to use the church building. Four years later the trustees of Nancy Academy purchased a lot and an unfinished brick building for $400 from Micajah Rogers. The lot was located near the church on the corner of Main Street and Park Road.
The brick building was completed and used by the academy until 1849. In 1824 tuition was advertised in a Knoxville newspaper for Spelling, Reading Writing and Arithmetic for $5. For English Grammar, Arithmetic, Geography, Mathematics, History and Chronology, the cost was $7.50 and a Classical Department was $10. A female Academy was offered with instruction in Plain Needlework, Ornamental Needlework and Painting.
A disruption occurred in 1842 when a lawsuit was filed by the Board of Trustees against their predecessors charging that the $400.00 paid to Micajah Rogers for the property was excessive. However the former trustees were vindicated when the issue was heard in Sevier County Chancery Court.
That same year, State Rep. Isaac Miller who was a trustee and lawyer absconded to Texas with $720 of the school’s funds. This scandal and other affairs of the school were exposed to the whole of East Tennessee in a bitter Second District Congressional campaign.
Lewis Reneau, prominent Sevier County attorney who lived at Henry’s Cross Roads, was a Whig aspirant to represent the second district to which Sevier County then belonged. James Cumming, a Methodist minister who lived on Walden’s Creek started the quarrel when he published a letter using his pseudonym “Little Kentucky” in the Jonesborough Whig, edited by another Methodist preacher William G. Brownlow, just then starting his stormy career as editor-politician in Tennessee.
Rev. Cumming accused State Sen. Reneau with assisting Isaac Miller in getting legislation passed to enact a special law that permitted Miller, as Academy trustee, to obtain the Nancy Academy funds from the State Comptroller. This dispute became so heated that Reneau finally withdrew from the race.
In 1849 Nancy Academy trustees voted to build a new building. The old building had become so unsafe that when a storm approached the faculty evacuated the students in case the building collapsed.
The new two-story frame building was constructed on the same site. It measured 40-by-26 and consisted of large rooms with high ceilings and a beautiful staircase. There were three rooms and a large hallway on the second floor.
Nancy Academy flourished for the following four decades. But after Murphy College was organized in 1890 the two schools could not survive in a town the size of Sevierville. This led to the closing of Nancy Academy on the corner of Park Road and Main Street and the building was sold to Pink Maples for $1,200 in 1893.
The building was remodeled and sold to Sanders Atchley in 1910 for $2,500. It was destroyed by fire, along with all of the Atchley household furnishings in 1937. As a matter of fact, Mr. and Mrs. Atchley barely escaped with their lives.
In an effort to revive the historic institution, the Nancy Academy Board of Trustees purchased the old Odd Fellows Lodge for $1,000.00 in 1896. The school struggled for a few years before closing its doors for good.
In 1907 the building along with its furniture and real estate was sold at public auction on the courthouse steps. It was purchased by M.C. Bruner and E.F. Goddard for $1,660. The building was renovatedfor commercial use and for the following 70 years housed several businesses.
At different times, the building was used as a grocery store, newspaper office, apartment building and hardware store.
When the old wooden building was demolished in 1979, the last tie to the first institution of learning in Sevierville was gone.
—Carroll McMahan is the special projects facilitator for the Sevierville Chamber of Commerce. The Upland Chronicles series celebrates the heritage and past of Sevier County. If you have suggestions for future topics, would like to submit a column or have comments; please contact Carroll McMahan at 453-6411 or email to cmcmahan@scoc.org; or Ron Rader at 604-9161 or email to ron@ronraderproperties.com.
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