"Our objective is to finish the elements of a solid education, and we will try to cultivate self-control, truthfulness and a right sense of honor among our pupils."

Thanks to our guest blogger, Jason Gregg, BGA Class of 1990 and Director of Alumni Relations. Below are his remarks from Upper School Assembly on October 5, 2012.

Today October 5^th, is a very important day in the history of BGA, and I would like to take just a few minutes and tell you about it.

In the summer of 1889, a group of Franklin residents felt the need create a school in order to provide their children with the most current educational opportunities. They appealed to all citizens of Franklin to help, and a group of stockholders was formed.  According to the book A Monument to Education, these citizens felt the school should be “entirely non-sectarian: yet sound morals, good citizenship and Christianity will be its corner stone.”

So in July of 1889 six acres of land was purchased for $1,140, the site was across the road from the Carter House, and was the location of Mr. Moscow Carter’s Cotton Gin that stood during the Civil War. You would know that site today as the location of Dominos Pizza on Columbia Ave.

The cost to build the school was $10,000, and each stock holder was asked to contribute $800 towards the construction cost to help keep the school out debt.

The stockholders then sought two well know educators Mr. S.V. Wall and Mr. W.D. Mooney to head the school.  The original school charter listed the school name as Battle Ground Academy, a name suggested by Mr. Mooney, but following the custom of the day, the school was also  known as the Wall and Mooney School. An early school catalog for prospective families said,

“If you wish to place your son in Vanderbilt University, Yale, Harvard, Princeton or thorough college, then send him to us and let us fit him for it. Our objective is to finish the elements of a solid education, and we will try to cultivate self-control, truthfulness and a right sense of honor among our pupils.”

On Saturday, October 5^th, 1889 the town of Franklin gathered as Battle Ground Academy was dedicated. The dedication speech was delivered by General William B. Bate, a Civil War veteran, former governor of the State of Tennessee, and a United States Senator. I would like to read brief passage from his speech…….

This building, in architectural form tasteful and useful, has been built by the free contributions of a patriotic, brave, and generous people – an educational monument, so to speak – in memory of that battle, which occurred years ago on this spot, and to that successful training of youth which is of the hopeful future.  It is a memorial to patriotism and heroism of those who, a quarter of century ago, fought and fell on this historic ground, as it also is a building dedicated to the public good where the gold-dust of knowledge from the hands of educators will be scattered over their budding intellects of the present and future generations.  This cultured and generous people, proud of their lineage, their home, and their history, will see to it that this shall become a school where students will feel honored to have been graduated, not only in the branches of common English education, but in the Arts and Sciences, in the Greek and Latin, and modern languages.  Its name, by which we baptize it today – Battle Ground Academy, and the site on which it is erected, are suggestive of those wonderful historic events in our country that had a cause as well as a consequence, and which most appropriately call for a brief reference on this occasion of its dedication.

Happy Founder’s Day and here’s to another 123 years.

Photo of the Class of 1889.