1902 graduating class of Greersburg Academy.
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Combining legend and fact, Greersburg Academy, Darlington, serves as a unique monument to America's past when education was less sophisticated but nonetheless intense. It is also linked to several "firsts" in the nation's history.
Constructed in 1802, some 15 years after George Washington was inaugurated the first president of the foundling nation - - the world's first democracy - - Greersburg Academy was the first educational institution of its kind west of the Allegheny Mountains.
Established as a seminary for young Presbyterians by Dr. Thomas Hughes, then pastor of Mt. Pleasant United Presbyterian Church, the academy operated until 1883 when it was sold to a railroad and renovated to become a railroad station.
During its more than 80 years existence, the two-story red-brick structure, sentimentally regarded as the "Old Stone Academy", drew a number of students who were to carve distinct niches in American history.
While facts sometimes blur when surveyed through the gray mists of antiquity, sufficient documentation has surfaced to indicate that some of the academy's more illustrious students included Dr. William Holmes McGuffey, whose classroom textbooks taught generations of Americans to read, and John Brown, fiery abolitionist, who led the raid on Harper's Ferry before the Civil War.
Other notables who graduated from the academy were Walter Forward, who served as secretary of the treasury, and John W. Geary, governor of Pennsylvania and a major general in the union army during the War of Rebellion.
But the one graduate to make the most enduring impact on millions of Americans was McGuffey who set the moral tone for young people for decades through his books.
It has been estimated that more than 122 million McGuffey Readers, Spellers and Primers were sold from 1836 to 1920.
His books on reading constituted the great library of literature for the children of the "little red school house" period. The books served as texts in morals, thrift, adventure, literature, and a wide set of purposeful lessons on human conduct.
McGuffey's life and career exemplified the morality he taught, that good triumphs over evil, that study and hard work will conquer adversity.
Born in Finley Township, Washington County, PA, on Sept. 23, 1800, McGuffey spent his early years in Trumbull County, OH, where his father, Alexander, had staked a land claim and constructed a log cabin in which the family lived. There were five other children: Anne, Catherine, Betsy, Asenath and Alexander Hamilton, who was later to assist his older brother to prepare the texts that achieved worldwide renown.
During his early years, William Holmes McGuffey had little opportunity for education. With no schools in the vicinity, he was taught to read and write by his mother.
Later McGuffey and a sister were taken to Youngstown where they were taught in the home of Rev. William Wick who had also migrated from Washington County.
When McGuffey was 15, Rev. Wick passed away.
This could have ended McGuffey's education had it not been for Rev. Hughes, the Presbyterian minister, who was supervising the Old Stone Academy he had constructed in Darlington for the education of young men.
Darlington was on the direct route from Pittsburgh to Cleveland, through Youngstown, OH, and 30 miles south of the McGuffey homestead.
In that era when the entire traffic between Pittsburgh and Cleveland was carried on the backs of pack horses, Darlington was experiencing a boom. It was a relay and supply station for all important stages passing from Pittsburgh to the northern section of Pennsylvania.
The inns, which monopolized the trade, prospered.
Among the early businesses in Darlington were the general store, tailor, bootmaker, clockmaker, mill keeper, millinery shops, carriage works, livery stable and others.
Rev. Hughes, riding horseback through the country, stopped at the McGuffey cabin. Here legend mingles with fact as to how McGuffey came to Greersburg Academy. Historians relate McGuffey's mother had prayed that some way might be opened for her son to obtain an education.
In a sense her prayers were answered when Rev. Hughes, quite fortuitously, was passing through the region at the time.
Rev. Hughes, taken with the sincerity of the mother's wishes and the intelligence of the boy, "opened" wide the doors of the Old Stone Academy.
Enrolled at the academy, young McGuffey started to prepare himself for college.
While attending the academy, he continued to work on his father's farm during the summer months and at harvest time.
He was soon able to teach the younger students and earn his tuition of $3 per quarter and 75 cents a week for board.
In 1820 he graduated from the academy, and six years later graduated from Washington College, later Washington and Jefferson College, Washington, PA.
Dr. McGuffey went on to a distinguished career as a scholar, educator, preacher, president of Ohio University at Athens, Ohio, and philosophy professor at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA. He died May 4, 1873 in Virginia and is interred in the University of Virginia Cemetery.
McGuffey's fame did not diminish with his passing. His textbooks continued to sell in enormous quantities, imparting to Young America a morality and life-style that began during his early, formative years at the Old Stone Academy.
The academy, a Darlington landmark, is located in the town square at Third and Market streets opposite a Civil War Monument erected in the late 19th Century.