FAYETTEVILLE ACADEMY. Fayetteville Academy opened at Fayetteville, Fayette County, in 1849 in quarters built for a church and school by the citizens of Ross's Prairie in 1848. The school was chartered on November 26, 1860, as Fayette Academy, but advertisements called it Fayetteville Academy. The school was nonsectarian; P. B. Chandler, a Baptist minister, was in charge for two terms, and W. P. Smith, a Methodist minister, conducted the institution for four sessions. The student body numbered between thirty and forty in 1851. Practical instruction was stressed. The public examination in 1852 covered two days, presented sixty pupils, and included a barbecue dinner and entertainment by German musicians. The school operated at least until 1858.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Johanna Caroline Walling, Early Education in Fayette County (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1941). Leonie L. Weyand, Early History of Fayette County, 1822–1865 (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1932).