The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-08-13
William J. Bingham, Al
exander Wilson, Thos.
J. Lovejoy, and James
H. HOrner.
All Of Them Upon Occasion Believed
in the Use of the Rod and Main.
9. tanned Strict Disci.
DIjne.
pIine.
BY II. III. BATTLE, LID.

To the Editor: IN compliance with
your request / would say a few words
about four teachers of the past in this
State, who stood out prominently
above others of their generation. Since
the war of 1876, we have had en-
inent teachers who adapted them
selves to improved methodS"s OF
teaching and have made and are max
ing impression r1or- goods on the youth
of the cotintTy. I Would do Injustice
to some were l to try to enumerate
them, but 1 will take the liberty OF
saying that in faithfulness and eff
cheney none have been superior to our
neighbor. MI. Hugh Morson, the last
principal of the Raleigh Male Acade-
my. In organizing a high school as
the head of our graded school system
of Raleigh. the committee in charge
showed wise discrimination in select
ing him as principal. But 1 would
speak of four teachers, now long pass
ed away who before and after the
middle of the last century, stood GU;
prominently above other educators in
North Carolina. Living as l did at
Chapel Hill for fifteen years of my
youth and early manhood and for the
last eight connected with the Univer-
sity as student and Tutor, / had the
opportunity of knowing these men
personally and to witness the effect OF
their teaching upon the young men
whom they had prepared for college.
The four are William j. Bingham,
Alexander Wilson, =. D.: Thomas j.
Lovejoy and James H. Horner. Be-
sides them, Hughes. of Orange, and
Lee, of Buncombe, and others. did eX-
cellent work but the number of their
pupils sent to the University was not
so great and / could not so we'll judge
of their efficiency. During my day at
VI OH f1 II
that the first students from the schools
of these four educators would be first
honor" men in college.
VIM j. Bingham was trained by
his father, William Bingham, who was
a leading teacher early in the last
century, and in turn, he trained his
own sons, William and Robert. for
his and hiss fathers calling. The
former of them, though dying young,
was recognized as a master, and left
in Bingham's Latin Grammar the best
textbook edited by North Carolin-
IAN; and the latter esteemed through
out the South as one, of the foremost
educators of the country. They We're
my college mates, and Robert my
pupil in Soph Mathematics and they
both were First Honor" men in the
classes of 1856 and 1857, respectively.
William j. Bingham was graduated
from the University in 1925. His in
tention was to be a lawyer, but his
father dyin gabout that time he took
charge of his school ia Hillsboro. That
he sustained its reputation from the
beginning, may be inferred from the
fact that as early as 1926, the late
Judge Thomas S. Ashe was sent back
to the State from Alabama by his faith
Ell and entered as one of its students.
Believing that the country was better
no Ot
training of boys, after few years,
Mr.. Bingham moved to THE Oaks"
Il good neighborhood some ten or
twelve miles west of Hillsboro. he
conducted With different assistants a
school thal would nave done credl.
To any State in the Union. Among
his assistants was his brother. John
for some years. and toward the latter
his two sons. This he placed VIM
Bingham Lynch, enc of the first
scholars at the University in the class
of 1858, and still an able and useful
teacher Though Mr.. Lynch and tn,
younger Bingham became soldiers and
officers in the Confede rate army, the
+. nnnnnnnnnnnnnrib sg 123456 1894 l
school did not close its doors during
the War Between the States, but sery-
ed as a safe retreat for youths under
the age of CONSUMPTION until the end.
The strain, however, proved too much
for the principal and his mind be-
coming partially deranged SOM
months before his death. in 1866 his
friends found it necessary to bring him
to the asylum for the insane, at Raj.
eigh My observation led me to tn.
opinion that for average boys, between
twelve and twenty, he was the mos
successful disciplinarian and teacher
we have had. His discipline was OF
the strenuous kind. All his pupils OF
whatever age, were obliged to behave