With last week’s announcement that Franklin Academy would no longer be used as a school, it is worth reviewing the history of the historic 204-year-old school. It was the first free public school in Mississippi, charging a small tuition for those who could afford to pay but free to those who could not. I traced the early history of the school for its bicentennial four years ago using the records in the school’s original minute book and those records provide a fascinating look at school life in the 1820s and 1830s.

The origin of Franklin Academy goes back to the chartering of Columbus as a town in Mississippi. Columbus was first officially recognized as a town on Dec. 6, 1819, but as the Town of Columbus, Alabama. It was not until Jan. 3, 1821, that Mississippi Gov. George Poindexter announced that “a considerable population on the waters of the Tombigbee formerly attached to Alabama fall within the limits of this state.” That population on the Tombigbee included the Town of Columbus. Columbus was then charted as the town of Columbus, Mississippi, on Feb. 10, 1821, by an act of the Mississippi Legislature. Section 5 of that act stated that there “shall be established an academy by the name of Franklin Academy” to be funded by the lease of lots in the town. Columbus turned out to have been settled on 16th Section land set aside for schools.

The legislature went on to appoint eight commissioners to survey the town and lease lots. This commission became the Trustees of Franklin Academy and the first governing body of the town of Columbus, Mississippi. The trustees/commissioners held their first meeting on June 4, 1821, and elected William Cocke president of the Trustees of Franklin Academy.

The record of that first meeting is found in the 1821-1835 Minute Book of the Trustees of Franklin Academy.

“Minutes of the proceedings of the commissioners for the town of Columbus–
The commissioners appointed by the general assembly of the state of Mississippi for laying out the town of Columbus in Monroe County of said state, met agreeably to the act on the first Monday in June 1821—
Members present: William Cocke, Silas McBee, David Kincaid, William Leech, John Deck, Thomas Townsend and Gideon Lincecum, who proceeded to ballot for their president and William Cocke was duly elected.
Resolved –That the president shall notify the citizens of Columbus and its vicinity by advertisement that they are prohibited from cutting or otherwise destroying the green timber in the 16th section in which the town is situated.
Resolved – That Thomas Townsend and Gideon Lincecum be and they are hereby authorized employ some persons to get four hundred states suitable for corner posts to the lots as soon as may be – the said posts to be let to the lowest bidder.
Resolved – That Joshua McBee be appointed to survey the town of Columbus – and be allowed one dollar for each lot, he paying all expenses arising.
The commissioners then adjourned to meet on the 3rd Monday in this month June 4th 1821.
Wm Cocke President”

The trustees met again on July 13, to accept a plat of the town and name the streets. Then on Aug. 8, they met and directed, “That the secretary advertise in the Tuskaloosa paper that a teacher qualified to teach reading, writing, arithmetic, English, Grammar & Geography is wanted at Franklin Academy.” The Trustees also appointed William Leech, John Mims and Richard Barry to provide “the cheapest and best plan for a school house.” The specifications for that first schoolhouse were:

“A framed house 20 feet by 30 – one story high – 10 feet between the sills & plates – a good shingled roof made of heart pine or cypress sawed rafters & sheeting – weather-boarded with good pine plank dressed and beaded floor well laid with 1 1/4 plank – square front – 2 doors one on each side opposite each other in the center of the house with a window on each side of each door – the windows to contain 18 lights of 8 by 10 inch glass with good shutters – the house to be built calculated to receive a brick chimney at each end 6 feet wide, the whole to be finished in workman like manner to be set on light wood block 15 inches height to be completed by the first day of December next.”

The school was built where the present school building sits.

There was a rail fence around the school grounds and the open green space by the school became known as “Franklin Square.” That space soon became an assembly place for parades and public assemblies. In 1828, the trustees approved the construction across the north side of the school of “a piazza built in a manner to correspond with the Academy viz a Shingle Roof hewed & posts & Sills with a good Frame.”

On March 13, 1822, the trustees established the “Rules and Regulations for Franklin Academy.” These rules provided that tuition would be paid by all students living outside of the township. Beginning in September 1822, students living inside the township were required to pay a discounted tuition. However, paupers were exempt from paying any tuition. Among the regulations were:

“Sec. 1st: The price of tuition for all scholars living out of this Township shall be as follows viz – for spelling, reading, & writing 3 dollars per quarter – English Grammar, Geography, and arithmetic 4 dollars per quarter – Latin and Greek languages & mathematics 5 dollars per quarter – in all cases to be paid in advance
2nd: The hours of tuition shall be as follows – from the 2nd of March to the 22nd of September the school shall open at 1/2 past 7 o’clock A.M. and close an hour by sun P.M. – allowing 2 hours intermission Noon. From the 22nd Sept. to the 22nd March 8 O’clock A.M. shall be the hour for meeting and close an hour by sun as before with an intermission of an hour in each day
5th: Punishment shall be at the discretion of the teacher provided – that no corporal punishment shall be inflected on any scholar above the age of 14 years all refractory scholars above that age shall be by him reported to the trustees, who shall reprimand, suspend or expel as they may think proper. (After a fight occurred among some students in 1835 the trustees addressed students bringing deadly weapons to school. The trustees announced that if any student brought “to school any gun, pistol, Dirk or other improper instrument of death” the student’s parents will be informed and upon a second offense the student would be expelled.)
7th: It shall be the duty of the scholars to keep the school house and yard clean, & the tutor for that purpose shall see that each one bears his or her respective part in that duty; provided, the females be exempt from sweeping the yard.
10th: There shall be allowed a vacation of four weeks in a year, viz. Two weeks commencing at the first of July & the two last weeks in December.”

Daniel Lawrence was hired as the first teacher. The students were both male and female and had to be at least five years old. The earliest surviving record of tuition being received for individual families is from 1829. Interestingly two of the families, Folsom and Pitchlynn, with children attending Franklin are Choctaw or of Choctaw descent.

The original structure was replaced in 1835 by two brick buildings. One building was the male department and the other the female department. The buildings were two stories with two rooms on the second floor and one large room on the first floor. When those buildings became inadequate, a three story brick structure was constructed in 1886. In 1938, the current structure was built.

Cocke was corresponding with Thomas Jefferson, an old friend from Virginia, about education and Franklin Academy. In an 1825 letter he mentioned that there were “upwards of 60” scholars attending the school. Cocke exemplifies the farsighted citizens who in 1821 realized the importance of public education and founded the first public school in Mississippi.

Cocke, who was president of the board from its creation until his death in 1828, is one of the most notable figures in the history of Columbus. Cocke had served in both the Virginia Assembly and the North Carolina House of Burgesses and was associated with Daniel Boone in the settlement of Boonesboro. During the American Revolution, he served as a captain and one of the “Overmountain Men” under Col. John Sevier. Upon Tennessee’s statehood, he became one of the new state’s first two U.S. senators. He served under Andrew Jackson in the Creek Indian War and was the U S Chickasaw Indian agent from 1814 to 1817. He probably moved to the site of Columbus during the summer of 1818.

Franklin Academy has a grand heritage, and its story is the story of Columbus. Thanks to Carolyn Kaye for transcribing the 1821-1835 Franklin Academy minute book.

Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].