Victoria Male Academy

The Victoria Male Academy in Victoria was in operation for some time before February 1858, when William L. Callender replaced a Mr. Hatfield as head. Under Callender's direction courses were offered in Latin, Greek, English, mathematics, and natural sciences. In 1860 the city of Victoria erected the Male Academy Building and rented it to E. H. Gaylord, who apparently continued the school. The academy ceased to operate during the Civil War, however. From October 1861 to March 1862 the building was leased for use as a hospital by the Confederate Army. The following September the city council collected the seats and desks and moved half of them to the Victoria Female Academy. In 1865 Samuel Wilkins and R. W. Kyle reopened the school and offered "all the usual branches of an English Education." In August 1867 W. Gaelweiler and Louis Kosbiel were granted use of the building for a "Male School," where they taught in English, German, or French, "as patrons may desire." Nineteenth-century sources after 1870 do not mention the academy.