GROVE ACADEMY IN 1786.
At our last session of the Assembly in this State we got an act passed for establishing an Academy for the education of youth in the Grove neighborhood in this county. This school is fixed in the heart of the Presbyterian settlement where our family all live and we have a considerable share in conducting it. We have purchased a piece of ground pleasantly situated for the purpose, on which we are now building a house, which we expect will be finished about twelve months hence. * * * The presidency or tuition of this academy we think at the beginning or soon after will be as good as one hundred pounds sterling per annum, but no gentleman will be admitted to this charge unless he be of approved abilities and good conduct, and good sound moral character. * * *
Last October I received your very affectionate letter of the 21st April last, which was sent me by Rev. Alexander Patrick who soon after made me a visit and tarried some days with me, in which time I contracted a small acquaintance with him. I heartily thank you for the recommendation you gave me in his favor * * *. Mr. Patrick immediately on coming into this country got possession of one of the late Mr. Colvill's plantations on the N. West River and some of his slaves; the plantation he has rented out and the negroes he has hired for wages, which rent and hire he tells me amount to about one hundred and thirty pounds per annum. About Christmas he came down to our neighborhood at the Grove where we made him up a small school of fourteen or fifteen boys which is the first attempt that has ever been made to teach the languages in this part of the country. This little school will be about as good as forty or fifty pounds sterling to him. Those now under his tuition are intended to be removed to the academy when opened, when it is probable Mr. Patrick may be employed as a teacher if he is approved of; the school is in the same place where the academy is fixed. Mr. Patrick lives with my brother Joseph and has a convenient room and bed to himself. * * *
Duplin County, 24th Feb., 1786. Wm. Dickson.
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From Cart's Dickson Letters, pp. 29 et seq.
(Source: North Carolina Schools and Academies, 1790-1840, By Charles L. Coon 1914) 