Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 May 1901 — An Ancient Village School. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

An Ancient Village School.

Pocahontas, 111., the other day celebrated a semi-centennial celebration commemorative of the erection in 1851 of the village school house, still standing and in excellent condition for a frame building half a century old. The structure was built before the days of public schools in that section of the country, and was consequently a private enterprise at the

start Later the building was turned over to the public, and for many years retained its old name of Pocahontas Academy. The first name of the village for Amity, and by some of the “oldest inhabitants” the school was called Amity Academy. A few preferred the name Hickory Grove Academy, because of the fact that for several years the official name of the town was Hickory Grove, but majorities ruled in those days, and the majority, among whom were the founders of the school, gave h the name by which it was known most widely and longest—Pocahontas Academy. It will be observed that all insisted that the school should be called an academy. Pocahontas is now but a small place with a few hundred inhabitants, and it was much smaller in the early 50s. Pocahontas is in Bond, one of the original five counties of Illinois, and on the Vandalia railroad, about forty miles from St. Louis.

POCAHONTAS ACADEMY.