One of the first acts taken by the newly established county was the dedication to educating its inhabitants, both male and female. Between 1830 and 1850, there were more than 20 schools and academies chartered in the county, providing educational opportunities to whites.

Ironically, at about the very time that a structured female education was being provided the citizens, the Georgia State Assembly passed a law, making it a misdemeanor crime for anyone to teach a negro, whether freedman or slave, to write or read!

Talbot County achieved the reputation of being the center of outstanding education and culture in west central Georgia in the years prior to the Civil War and for many years thereafter. In attendance were not only local pupils, but boarding students from all over Georgia and Alabama.

In addition to Washington Academy and the Talbotton Female Institute, the Centerville Academy was established in 1830, Oak Ridge Academy in 1831, Union Academy in 1833, Prattsburg Academy and Valley Grove Academy in 1836, Franklin Academy in 1837, Dion Academy, Mt Pleasant Grove Academy, Bellvue Academy and Collingsworth Institute were established in 1838. The Farmer’s Academy, Bower Academy and Central Aca-demy in 1839, Sweet Spring Academy in 1842 and the Talbotton Male School Academy in 1843.

Trustees were appointed for each school, usually the most prominent, influential, public- spirited and wealthy men of that neighborhood.

Listing a sampling of just a few standard subjects included in each school’s curriculum: Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Geography, History. Advanced courses in each of those subjects were offered, based upon the student’s ability to progress, with additional and more expanded courses being offered, such as Orthography, English Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic, Mythology, Roman, Grecian and Jewish Antiquities, Composition & Dictation, Geometry, Algebra and Higher Mathematics, Natural, Moral and Intellectual Philosophy, Natural History, such as Geology and Botany, Zoology, Political Economy, Languages, such as Latin and Greek, etc, etc.

Optional courses were also available, at additional charge: French, drawing, painting and mezzotinting, painting in oils and water Colors, transferring and making wax fruit and flowers, needlework, vocal and instrumental music, philosophy (Natural & Moral) and sciences, such as chemistry and astronomy.

Talbotton was touted as being of the highest healthy and moral environment in all of Georgia. Since the Georgia public school system as we know it today was not established in the state until around 1871, the various schools, academies and colleges in and around the state were financed by the student’s tuition fees. Those fees were used to pay the teachers and all the school’s operating expenses.

Cost per course were an average of $10 per quarter term, or $1.00 per lesson. Some classes, such as vocal & instrumental music, were $15.

The average cost of rooming at one of the Academy’s was about $9.00 a month for board and included their laundry and $2.00 a session for lodging. Cost of room and board in an adjacent household, with either a teacher or respectable local families, was between $8.00 and $12.50 per month, depending upon the age of the applicant.

BELLEVIEW ACADEMY

CENTERVILLE ACADEMY
Established 1830. This notice in the Dec 6, 1834 issue, Columbus Enquirer: The Trustees of Centerville Academy, Leonard P. Breedlove, John C. Boynton, J. Cadenhead, Thomas G. Pearson, Hamilton P. Smead, H. Smith and S. J. Thomas have retained Rev. John J. Groves for the ensuing school year.

COLLINGSWORTH INSTITUTE
Conceived by Josiah Flournoy, a wealthy Methodist planter, as the Manual Labor School for boys. Somewhat over 600 acres was purchased one mile south of Talbotton and incoming students were afforded the opportunity to work for part of their tuition. The manual labor portion of the program was not a success, and was soon abandoned, most of the land was sold, and the School became a regular high school, serving as a preparatory school mainly for students planning to enter Methodist Colleges.

The school was named for Rev John Collingsworth, a Methodist preacher and close friend of Mr Flournoy. The first President was James R. Thomas. Trustees named were: Charles A. Brown, Jacob A. Clements, Ignatius A. Few, John Flournoy, Josiah Flournoy, Miranda Fort, James D. Dismukes, Samuel K. Hodges, Barnard Hill, Seaborn Jones, Lovick Pierce and James J. Tooke.

The ownership of the school changed hands several times. The most popular years were between 1856-1860, with its largest enrollment averaging about 100. The outbreak of the Civil War disrupted all. At that point, Rev John Torrence McLaughlin and David Seay were the owners. When the war erupted, David Seay enlisted, as did most of the students and teachers.

After the war, the school regained some of its prewar popularity. It was put under the supervision of the Methodist Church with a local board of trustees. At this point, the enrollment varied between 70-80 students.

By 1878, Collinsworth and LeVert, both beset with financial difficulties, decided to merge into one co-educational school under the name Le Vert College. Rev McLaughlin became President of the college and Collingsworth closed its doors, 41 years after opening. Legal title to the property was transferred to the town of Talbotton, to be used for educational purposes.

DION ACADEMY
Trustees were: Willis P. Baker, Duncan Calhoun, Henry Kendall, John Sea and John L. Smith.

JACKSON ACADEMY
Established 1839 - Erected on the old Bellevue Academy lot. The land, 2 acres, was sold to the Academy trustees Oct 15, 1839 by Nathaniel Athon, part of LL #43, LD 23 in Bellevue. Trustees were: Peter Flournoy Mahone, Nathaniel Athon, Dr A. L. Acee, Robert Greene Crittenden, Samuel Fuller, William T. Holmes and Daniel G. Owen.

MARION ACADEMY
John and Nancy (Sims) Adams gave the land for the Academy on Oct 18, 1834 for a token consideration of $5; 2 ½ acres in Baldwinville, 16th LD, LL #212. A provision in deed stated that should the Academy fail, with no school following it, the land was to revert to John Adams or his heirs. The school Commissioners named on that deed were: John Adams, Thomas Dickson, John Files, Samuel Hart, James Mason, Joel Mizell and Thomas Weekley. Later renamed the Mt Zion School.

MT JACKSON ACADEMY
Trustees were: John Branford, Samuel K. Croll, Charles H. Porter, Hiram Powell and Martin Stamper.

MOUNT PLEASANT GROVE ACADEMY
Trustees were: Lemuel Cox, Moses Harvey, John Haynes, James P. Leonard, A. K. Leonard, and Lewis P. Mathers.

OAK RIDGE ACADEMY
Established 1831.Located on LL #128, LD 22, Rough Edge GMD 902. Trustees were: William Boswell, Abel Diamond, David John-ston, Thomas C. McDowell and Norborn B. Powell.

PLANTERS ACADEMY
Incorporated 1835 - In or near Carsonville, on 1 acre in LL #131, LD 24, then Talbot County, deeded by Robert Carson April 6, 1842. Trustees were John Carson, William P. Edwards, John Emerson, Nathaniel Raines, Richard B. Rucker and Howell Short.

ROSE HILL SEMINARY
An Episcopal school organized by Rev Richard Johnson in 1852. Located near Talbotton on 30 acres. After Johnson left Talbotton , Rev Wesley P. Gahagan was sent to continue the school. The curriculum was advertised as being wide and comprehensive, of both solid and ornamental branches, and comparable to those taught in other first class female seminaries. Rev Gahagan died in 1857 and the school closed and the furnishings were sold to Marion Bethune and Barnard Curley in May 1860.

SWEET SPRINGS ACADEMY
Trustees were: James Adams, Robert Adams, Thomas Bledsoe, John B. Heath and William M. Measles.

TALBOTTON FEMALE ACADEMY or SEMINARY
Although not the first county in the state to take action looking toward advancing the education of it’s female citizens, Talbot County was still one of the first, modeling their new academy in 1830 after the Wesleyan College in Macon, which was then some 20 years old. The curriculum, standards, catalogues, pricing & teacher’s qualifications were comparable to Wesleyan. The Talbotton Female Academy or Seminary was chartered in 1830 by the Georgia General Assembly.

Trustees were: James Bell, John B. Blackburn, Robert G. Crittenden, Henry Mims, N. B. Powell, Charles Smith, ElishaTarver. In 1850, Elias H. Beall, Thomas A. Brown and James P. Leonard, and William Ragland were also added.

By the 1836-1837 term year, Le Vert and Washington Academy had combined their efforts. During the 1837/38 fall and winter terms, there were about 100 students enrolled. In 1856, the original building probably having burned, another building was erected, and the facility was then renamed the Le Vert Female College, after Madame Octavia Celeste Valentine Walton Le Vert (1811-1877), the daughter of George Walton, Jr, one of the Georgia signers of the Declaration of Independence, and the grand-niece of Matthew Talbot, for whom Talbot County was named.

During most of her life, Madame Le Vert, was the toast of the world. Her first honor was bestowed at age 12, when she was asked by General Andrew Jackson to name the new capital of Florida. Having a remarkable talent for languages, she soon became a world known socialite. Having met the Pope in Rome, received by Queen Victoria and numbering among her intimate friends, Millard Fillmore, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Robert & Elizabeth Browning, Henry Clay, Washington Irving, Edwin Booth and Marquis Lafayette. She married Dr Henry Le Vert of Mobile about 1837, and died in Augusta Ga March 12, 1877.

By the 1836-1837 term year, Le Vert and Washington Academy had combined their efforts. During the 1837/38 fall and winter terms, there were about 100 students enrolled.

TALBOTTON MALE SCHOOL
Trustees were John Allums, Jeremiah Beall, James C. Leonard, Rev. James Perryman, Thomas H. Persons, Joseph Pou, John Neal, and William Stallings.

VALLEY GROVE ACADEMY
Established 1836 in the Belleview community. In the Nov 20 1838 issue of the Macon Telegraph Newspaper Teacher wanted to take charge of the Valley Grove Academy, Belleview Post Office, Talbot Co. John Ellison, George Buchanan, Thomas Smith, J. R. Russel, John Bonner, James McDowell, John J. Cook, Trustees.

WASHINGTON ACADEMY
Apparently the Academy had been chartered, by the Georgia General Assembly, and& was in operation before May 1828, when Lot #22, Square B in Talbotton was reserved for the building. The building itself was probably erected ca 1830.

The Academy was superintended by a Board of Trustees compos-ed of some of the earliest settlers of the county. Among the first trustees were: Thomas G. Bugg, William Goss, Samuel C. Leach, Henry Mims, William McCurry, and H. R. Ward. By 1836-1837, it was being operated in conjunction with the Talbotton Female Seminary/Academy.