The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-08-13

more from him than from any of the
others. He knew how to teach, which
is a great thing. / have known teachers
without this gift. There is great dis
tinction in hearing and teaching.
went to him for several years. and
was with him at his death, aged eighty
years. He was an uncle of the late
Rev Calvin II. Wiley, ID. D., the able
and first superintendent of Public In
struction in North Carolina, to whom
a monument has been erected. When
he was young lawyer at Oxford he
found a true friend in his most
worthy and appreciative uncle. My
old teacher had but one child, the late
Rev. Louis X. Willie Methodist local
preacher. of classical education and
some gifts of eloquence.
My last teacher at Oxford I recall
as to appearance, but his name escapes
me at present. I.left Oxford for Bing
hams School. where | remained but
4 short time. / saw enough to learn
something of the great qualities of
William Bingham as q teacher. He
was a first-rate drill-master If you
lid not study you We're not allowed to
return He took but thirty pupils, and
the tuition for a year was $4,000,
higher by far than that of any other
school in the South. He impressed me
mirably endowed teacher. His two
sons succeeded him--William, his
namesake. first, and upon his most
untimely death, his younger brother,
Major Robert Bingham, succeeded
aim, and continues in 1905. at the
head of one of the foremost institu-
tons of the kind in all of dear South
I land. When l was editing with Hon.
Josiah Turner, the proprietor, the
\ 1t. -, Il Nz1
Bingham wrote a very amusing, keen
and striking article upon the then re-
ent passing political events, and sent
| to me. | published it and it at
| racted much attention, as it SO rich
| deserved to do. Ex-Governor
| Charles Manly came into the office the
morning of it's publication, and asked
! ne who wrote it, saying he hoped the
| luthor would continue the excellent
work. / communicated with my old
| laSS-mate, and he wrote some three
r four articles. in addition, all in rich
| 'ein of humor. They were in imita-
| ton of the style of the Chronicles in
the Old Testament.
1 left Binghams for Raleigh Mill
tary Academy, known so favorably
then as 'Lovejoy's.' l entered in
July, 1S45, and remained for two
years. 1t was an excellent school and
| literally patronized. 1t had over nine
ty cadets, and the boys loved "Old
| jeff" as Mr.. Lovejoy was called, then
| some forty years of age. His chief as
sistant and commandant was William
| f. Disbrow, New Yorker, who was
the room mate of General T. S. Grant
at West Point. as | learned from the
General himself in November, 1868.
| Mr.. LoVejoy was a scholar, something
of a poet, q good classical teacher, and
| personally very brave. He was a New
| Englander, but true and devoted to
the South and its cause. His eldest
son, George. fell at the front bravely
fighting for his native State. His
mother was a North Carolinian, and
| lived in Halifax county, in the Scotland
Neck section, and was of kin to this
writer. Mr.. Disbrow was a capital
drillmaster and teacher of tactics
mathematics, etc. The old-time schools
were not ito be grinned at" but were
efficient, useful. successful The
School houses were not so large i'm
posing, and perhaps, comfortable as
those of the present. but the teaching
met the requirements of Southern
youth, and turned out men of genuine
stamp-honorable trustworthy, truth
full. upright, resolute for the right
and with high ideals and aspirations
There was another military school a
that time at Raleigh. 1t was Gray
and It's teachers were of New England
| think it had some seventy-five o
eighty pupils. They wore the United