OAK GROVE SEMINARY One-room schools, academies, and seminaries began appearing in towns and commuties and remote crossroads from the time the earliest settlers arrived. An academy is identified as a school above the elementary level. A seminary in those days was the name used for a school for the education f girls. One of these was the Oak Grove Seminary on the Savannah Highay about 13 miles from Florence. Bettie M. Smith was the teacher in 1860. Excerpt of "A Walk Through The Past"