BASTROP ACADEMY. Bastrop Academy, under the jurisdiction of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, opened at Bastrop in 1851 and was chartered on February 7, 1853. Administrators built a two-story pine building for $15,000; it had separate male and female study halls and a library of 1,000 volumes. The enrollment was 132 for the first session and increased to 194 by 1857. William Hancock, the first principal, was succeeded by John Carmer. On May 25, 1872, the property of the academy became a part of the Bastrop public school system.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: William Henry Korges, Bastrop County, Texas: Historical and Educational Development (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1933). Bill Moore, Bastrop County, 1691-1900 (Wichita Falls: Nortex, 1977).