Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1868-06-04

The above engraving presents Photographic
view of the KING MOUNTAIN MILITARY SCHOOL
building, located at this place. ... .... r... :
There are so many features of interest connected
with this institution, from its establishment in 1855
until its close in 1861 when cadets and instructors
in the tented field that we feel constrained to pre-
sent the readers of the ENQUIRER, with brief out
line of its origin and history. ,.r
In the year 1854, two young men Of high prom
ise and energy just before their graduation at the
South Carolina Military Academy, in Charleston,
simultaneously conceived the idea Of establishing a
Preparatory School, for boys the object of which
should be to fit them, in some measure, in advance,
for the rigid course of study and discipline required
in the State Military School. These two young men
were Micah jenkins and Asbury Coward names
that few years later had become too well intro
duced to the people Of this State to require any
formal introduction here. These two young men
being members Of the same CLASSIFY some means
became informed as to each others views, and de-
cided to unite their efforts in establishing the
School. After some consultation, Yorkville was
decided upon rs the location for their maiden en-
terprise Immediately after graduating in Novem-
Der, 1854, one of these gentlemen came to this
village, and made the necessary preparations for
opening the School in January following. The
prospects Of success were hopeful only to those
two young men, whom everybody thought over
sanguine. The experiment of private Military
School, where boys were taught the duties of SOL
diers at the same time they were learning how to
become citizens, was novel one, to say the least
of it.
Undetered by any suspicion Of failure, the School
opened in January, 1855. Twelve boys only, pre-
ssnted themselves at the opening but the energetic
principals did not despond. A temporary wooden
bDs oronfad tho ctfo of tho anf
barrack, which answered the purposes of school
room. This building was afterwards destroyed by
fire.
The first session of the >infant Military School
wore away, and at its close in July, the roll Of Ca
diets numbered forty-seven. ..sa..: d.
The second Session began in August of the same
year, with the roll augmented to sixty boys, and
before the close of the year. it hadr up to eighty
Never before had an educational idea met with
such an amount of popular favor, in so brief a
time The Preparatory School was success
The admirable discipline-the rigid requirements
of study-the orderly behavior of the Cadets, and
the thorough control exercised over them-togeth-
er with the competency and popularity of the
youthful Principals, had all united to give the as
piring institution name and fame throughout the
State, and to fasten it ndellibly upon the affec-
tions of the people The Proprietors were not ig-
norant of these facts, and contract was now given
out for the building of the commodious brick
structure, that appears at the head of this article
The continually increasing number Of applicants
for admission also admonished them of the neces.
sity of enlarging the curriculum of studies, and
providing additional instructors. G. A. Seabrook,
then recent graduate of the South Carolina Col.
lege, was employed as instructor in Latin and
Greek. The limited accommodations, at hand, did
not permit the number of cadets to exceed eighty
and thus, with Lieut.. Seabrook at his post, open
ed the second year of the school.
Shortly after the second Session of Sc lad opened
the new building was completed, and cadets and
officers of the School took formal possession. The
resources of the School were now much enlarged,
its capacity of accommodation better, and the roll