Montgomery County sentinel., 1955-09-29
But Private Academies Go
Back to Revolutionary Era
With 'TuscuIum's' Founding

most closely identified with the
excellent reputation through
out the country of this school.
When he applied for the job the
trustees were impressed with
the long distance he had travel
ed on foot and with his power
full physique but thought him
too young to maintain dis
cipline. He was allowed TO
stay after he had proved his
power by thraShing some of the
older boys. Many residents of
the county went to school under
him.
1t is interesting to note that
one of the first prohibition laws
in the State was passed in behalf
of this school in 1888. 1t prohibit
ed the sale of intoxicating liquors
within a mile of the school and
was the model for similar laws
elsewhere. Allan Bowie Davis,
president of the board of trustees
for many years, looked back
proudly on his signing of this
petition as one of the first and
best of his many public acts.
In 1868 the growth of the
academy demanded larger
building and the trustees bought
Ziegler's Choice. located on a hill
a half mile north of BrOokeville
A new addition was built with
stone from the quarry on the
John H. Riggs Farm at Locust
Grove.
With the establishment of a
State Board of Education and
State superintendent Of public
instruction the public school sys-
tenn was strengthened and the
need for the academy gradually
disappeared.
One of a number of private
schools founded by the QuakerS
in the Sandy Spring neighbor-
hood, Fair Hill School was per-
haps the most famous. In 1915
the Baltimore Friends decided to
start school in Sandy Spring
and finally settled on the Fair
Hill farm of $50 acres in 1917.
Repairs and remodeling of the
manor house put off the opening
of the school until 1919.
Deborah Brooke Peasants,
widow of William Stabler, be-
came head of the girls depart
ment in 1920. In 1924 Amos Far
quhar, father of William Henry,
brought his family to Fair Hill
and took over the running of the
farm along with teaching posi-
ton. William Henry Farquahr
later became one of the first
school commissioners in Mont
gomery County in the reorganiza-
ton of the public school system
in 1864.
He had returned to Fair Hill
as principal during the peak of
the schools successful career
under Richard Kirk and his wife,
Mary Farquahr Kirk, Williams
sister, from 1851 on.
Another of Fair Hills teachers
who later achieved great fame as
an educator was Benjamin Hal
lowell, founder of the Birthstone
Academy, a school for boys in.
Alexandria, that obtained wide
recognition throughout the coun-
try. He came from Philadelphia
to teach in 1919 and it was at
Fair Hill that he met his wife,
Margaret Farquhar, whom he
married few years later at the
Sandy Spring Meeting House.
Mary Coffin Brooke, one of the
county's outstanding teachers in
that generation, taught at Fair
Hill for the last 20 years of its
existence UP to its end in 1865
in the chaos of the Civil War.
One of her recollections is of hid
ing her bonds under the hearth
of her fireplace in her room at
a time when "Jeb" Stewart was
bivouacked near the area and his
men were ransacking the neigh
borhood for horses and provi-
SionS.
Another school i'm the Sandy
Spring area, smaller but still
very successful was Fuford,
located half a mile north of the
Sandy Spring. .OIney Highway.
II was owned by Anna Stable
but its principal, Icaac Bond,
gave its excellent reputation.
Mr.. Bond, it is said, changed
the old motto practice makes
perfect" to read "tO practice
on right principles will lead to-
ward perfection" His school
reports gave critical and pain
stalking analysis of the pupils
progress as Is shown by Roger
Brooke Farquhar's report for
July and November 1913. IL
listed ten counts: first rate,
excellent, very good, good, good
only, tOlerable, tOlerable only,
poor, very poor aid miserable"
Members of Benjamin Hal.