*** See corrected coordinates below, comments.
City Directories and History: Constructed as one of Newberry’s earliest 19th century dwellings, this house has been remarkably maintained during the years and in 1982 when the survey team recorded the small dwelling the house, though covered in tar paper was sound. The survey card reads, “Last house in Stoney Battery. May have been home of Elijah Hammond when he taught school at the Mt. Bethel Academy and birthplace of his son, Gov. James Hammond.
Mount Bethel Academy: The situation and surroundings of this Academy, near Pomaria, are quite romantic. It is within a half mile of the town, just in the borders of a beautiful grove and near a spring of clear, cool water, which gushes out from among the rocks at the foot of a hill. Few academies or high schools in the county can make a better showing than this. The citizens of the neighborhood soon after the war, seeing and feeling the great importance of education, united with the Masonic order,‘the Grange and the Knights of Jericho, and built a school-house sixty by twenty-six feet, with a second or upper story, the latter for the use of the orders mentioned. The lower story was the school room and had blackboards surrounding the entire inside of the building. The several School Commissioners, in their rounds looking after the interests of the schools, have pronounced this house superior to any in the country.
According to the best recollection of the writer, the schools at Bethel have been taught in the order named by the following experienced and educated teachers: Miss E. A. Souter Lexington; Capt. John F. Banks, Newberry; Prof. D. Benjamin Busby, now of Edgefield; J. M. Alewine, lately deceased Texas; J. B. O’Neall Holloway, now of Orangeburg; Mrs. S. M. B. Wright, deceased; Miss Mattie Steck, now Mrs. Jaynes, of Walhalla; Miss Hennie Boozer, now the wife of Dr. W. D. Senn, of Newberry County; Rev. W. K. Sligh, now Professor in Newberry College; Miss Alma Kibler, now Mrs. R. F. Bryant, of Orangeburg; Pro! Burr H. Johnstone, now teach ing at Allendale; W. B. Boinest, of Pomaria; Miss Lula-Teague, now of Johnston; Miss Ella Belle Shirey, now one of the leading teachers of Mount Amoena Female Seminary, Mt. Pleasant, N. C.
The following graduates from Newberry College may be mentioned as having been prepared here to enter that institution: L. E. Busby, ’75, minister, Leesville; J. B. O’Neall Holloway, ’75, farmer, Orangeburg County; J. B. Boinest, ’77, since deceased; J. Eusebius Berly, ’79, minister, deceased; John F. Hobbs, ’79, Australia; C. W. Welch, ’79, professor Clemson College; W. W. Berly, ’82, farmer, Pomaria; E. 0. Counts,’ 83, Fiincipal Prosperity High School; Sidney T. Riser, ’84, minister, died at Staunton, Va.; Henry P. Counts, ’85, minister, Haralson, Ga.; E. O. Hentz, ’85, physician, Walton; Monroe J. Epting, ’86, minister, St. Luke’s.
The following named, prepared at this institution, are now (1892) in the Sophomore class of Newberry College: Richard H. Hipp, Henry C. Holloway, Robert H. Welch. It is due to Prof. D. B. Busby to say that he taught this school several years, and that he prepared for college all the graduates mentioned to 1886, including also some who were not graduates of Newberry: W. C. Dreher, once Professor in Roanoke College, and recently engaged in literary work in New York; Paul D. Hyler, who went to Wofford, afterwards studied law and died soon after entering upon the practice of his profession; L. B. Folk, who entered the Junior class in South Carolina College, but left college, read medicine and is now a practicing physician in Columbia. To Prof. Busby is due also the credit for the greater part of the school work done here, and I feel sure that a grateful people will remember him always kindly for the part he took in moulding the minds of their children, not only through the books used and taught, but also for his influence in helping them to a high plane of character and sense of honor.
(Information from: The Annals of Newberry Co., SC – O’Neall and Chapman, Aull and Houseal Publishers – 1892)
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Johnny says
The coordinates above are incorrect. They take you to the center of downtown Prosperity.
I believe the house was located here:
34.181141, -81.532620
But sadly, the house appears to be gone.