THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
Last week’s column focused on
the new four-
year program, the Dora Hunter Allison Spiva School of Education at
Truett
McConnell College, Cleveland, Georgia named to honor a worthy Union
County
citizen and long-time educator, Mrs. Dora Spiva. The college is
celebrating
sixty years of continuous operation during 2006. Were there precursors
to the
present college? How did it all begin? Go back with me as we trace a
history of
this Christian institution,“A Light in the Mountains.
Looking
Back
Where did the spark begin that
grew into
the steady light of learning produced for sixty years by
Hiawassee Academy/Hiawassee
Junior College,
1886-1930, and Mountain Preachers’ Schools, held for a week in the
summers in
certain mountain counties had great influence in starting schools.
Imagine this
preachers’ school in the summer of 1886 held in Hiawassee,
Rev. Fernando Coello McConnell a
young
preacher, stood on the steps of the Towns County Court House and
preached an
impassioned sermon. No one threatened to arrest him for using a public
building
for a religious message. Preachers and citizens hearing him caught his
vision
of a Christian school. Rev. McConnell, who had the support and
financial
backing (though money was limited) of his father,
merchant-farmer-businessman,
William Ross McConnell, proceeded to start a mountain school.
Rev. McConnell’s first cousin,
George
Washington Truett of nearby
By the end of the first two
years, when
Truett and McConnell left the operation of
Several factors brought the
Hiawassee
school to an end in 1930. One was obviously the Great Depression.
Another was
the gradual opening of public schools making high school training more
accessible. The third and most unfortunate incident causing the closure
of
Blairsville
Collegiate Institute, Another
Not as old as Hiawassee Academy,
Blairsville Collegiate Institute operated in Blairsville, Union County,
from
1904 through the end of the spring semester in 1930.
Past columns have given
highlights in the
history of this school sponsored by Notla River Baptist Association and
the
Home Mission Board. Miss Dora Anne Hunter, whom the present Truett
McConnell is
honoring, graduated from the Institute and taught there before it
closed. She
had the good academic training and the “normal school” preparation of
teachers
at the Collegiate Institute to qualify her as a teacher. She continued
her
education at
The question of a mountain
(To be continued next
week.)
c2006 by
Ethelene Dyer
Jones; published Feb. 23, 2006 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville,
GA.
Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
[Ethelene Dyer
Jones is a retired educator,
freelance writer, poet, and historian. She may be reached at
e-mail edj0513@windstream.net;
phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708 Cedarwood Road, Milledgeville, GA
31061-2411.]
Updated August 4,
2009
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