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Page 16 text:
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Montgomery Bell Academy opened in 1867 supported by the bequest of Montgomery Bell, a Pennsylvanian who came to Dickson County, Tennessee around 1800. In 1804, he purchased the Cumberland iron furnace from James Robertson and soon expanded his iron nace holdings. “It was by reason of his financial success, states the history of Davidson County, “that more than 30 furnaces shed their ruddy light over the western iron belt previous to the war.” Montgomery Bell died in 1855 at the age of 86. Froin his considerable fortune, he left $20,000 to the Uni- versity of Nashville. The interest from this sum was to be appropriated for the ' support of an academy or school to be called the Montgomery Bell Academy forever.” This sum was too small to start an academy at that time. The trustees of the University invested the money under the care of Dempsey Weaver of the Planters’ Bank in Nashville and by 1867, it had grown to $46,000. At this time John Berrien Lindsley opened Montgomery Bell Academy. From its earliest times, MBA offered scholarships to “deserving and needy students.” According to the Bell will, these were to go to 25 boys — 10 from Davidson County and five each from Montgomery, Williamson and Dickson Counties. lO
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Page 17 text:
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Montgomery Bell Academy 1881. In its early years MBA included grammar, high school, and collegiate departments, the last offering freshman and sophomore courses. An 1870 history states that the rooms “are furnished in a manner not surpassed. All the floors are covered with heavy cocoa matting; the furni- ture is of oiled walnut; and blackboard and map accom- modations are of the most ample kind.” It was during this period that the academic depart- ment of the University of Nashville ceased to function, and at the urging of President J. B. Lindsley, the Acad- emy was expanded into the “collegiate department” of the University in about 1869. The next year Gen. Bush- rod Johnson, of the pre-war Western Military Institute, reappeared upon the scene, asociated with Gen. G. E. Kirby-Smith. These men took over operation of the University. Upon receipt of monies from the Peabody Fund in 1875, the University of Nashville became the Peabody Normal School. A ne v board of trustees took over the Normal School, while the old board of the University of Nashville retained control of Montgomery Bell Academy. For a time the Normal School projected making a “model school ’ of MBA, but the trustees held out against the plan. Since the Normal School wanted to occupy all of the University’s buildings, MBA agreed to leave the campus, and in 1881 moved to a six acre tract just east of the old site. When the school moved, it retained the income from the Bell trust fund. II
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