There were other noted schools organized in Upshur County that were maintained for a while, but went down on account of the Civil War and other causes. It was almost impossible to finance a school back in those days. There were founded, in Gilmer, the Gilmer Masonic Female Institute, Gilmer Female Academy, which was supported by the Methodist Church, and Gilmer Male Academy, also supported by the church. Then there was the Looney School at Gilmer.
Located near Simpsonville was the Leroy Institute, founded and taught by Professor Leroy. This was a noted school for a few years, and did some valuable work.
Some Facts About Murry League
A letter from the late Virgil DuBose, who lived at Palestine, to D. T. Loyd, details more on the Murry League story:
“As a whole, the men of Murry League (near Ore City) were active and quite above the ordinary, and their wives were energetic, thrifty, good-looking, and all had a superior education. About all these families had was a house full of children whom they reared to work and at the same time gave them a good education.
“Among the citizens that lived at the League about the year 1857, and years later, as I remember, were: Rev. Joshua Clark; his brother, Uncle Billy Clark; my father, Prof. Virgil M. DuBose; Capt. Coppedge, Rev. J. T. P. Irvine, who fought in the battle of San Jacinto; Harvey Armstrong, the Grans, Mr. Willeford, father of W. L., Billy and C. W. Willeford, of Mings Chapel; and the Nashes, the Crossleys, the Weatherds, the Emmetts, the Coveys, the Hambrights, the Bullocks, and others I fail to remember.
“Rev. Palmer and Rev. Irvine were traveling preachers of the M. E. Church South, called in their parlance, (circuit riders). Rev. J. Clark ran the league school for many years prior to 1857, and that year he offered my father, Prof. Virgil M. DuBose, a job as co-principal and it was accepted. My father was a graduate of Miami University, at Oxford, Ohio, having attended that school four years—1832-1836.
“When we moved to the League in 1857, I was a very small boy learning my abs, ebs, ibs, obs, but I soon got to the back of Webster’s old Blue Back Speller and could rattle off the four pages of synonyms in the back of the book without any trouble. I have since those days observed many schools and institutions of learning but I have never seen such emulation and desire for learning evinced among pupils as I saw in those days at the old Murry League School. They were all bright talented young men and women, and the school grew and kept growing.
“All the advanced students not only became proficient Greek and Latin scholars, but went on up into higher mathematics as applied to mechanics, astronomy, and civil engineering. These are my memories of those days;—though I was but a kid, I saw how it was. They were great days for a boy.
“But for months prior to 1861, the muttering storm in the distance was heard! I saw it all. The people of the New England states went mad. The people of the South went mad! The war between the states was on, and by May, 1861, all the young men attending the school went to the war. This broke up the school and Murry Institute became a memory—a thing that was, but is not! My father carried on the local school during the four years of the war. Along 1862-3, many planters came in from Arkansas as refugees, fleeing from the Yankee soldiers when they invaded that state, bringing their slaves with them. This made quite an addition to the League, for they were educated, refined people, and their children attended my father’s school.