December 3, 1906
Atlanta Constitution
ARE ELATED OVER VICTORY
People of Hancock County Rejoice Over Getting School
Sparta Ga, December 2. (Special) The people of Hancock county are highly elated over procuring the agricultural college of the tenth district. The committee, on its return from Augusta, was greeted with an ovation, and whenever a member of this committee stops on the street, even now, a crowd gathers around and bombards him with questions as to how the whole thing was done.
  Sparta's success last Monday is due principally to the adroit management, untiring energy, boundless enthusiasm, and shrewd political sagacity of our county school commissioner, Professor M. L. Duggan, whose name is expected to be inscribed on the cornerstone of the main college building. Yet, in accomplishing our success, others played no small part, and among these were: Judge Seaborn Reese, W.H. Burwell, and Messrs. E. A. Rozier and J. L. Walker.
  The college will be located three miles east of Sparta, on the road between Sparta and Culverton, and within a few hundred yards of the Granite Hill station. It will occupy a part of what was originally the country estate of the late Colonel A. J. Lane, and will be separated by the road and railroad from the broad fields, meadows and orchards of Rocky (ROCKBY), the home of the late Colonel Richard Malcolm Johnson, where his celebrated school for boys gave instruction to so many of the famous men of  our state.
  Rocky (ROCKBY) is now owned by C. J. Rocker, a thrifty and industrious German, and a most excellent citizen, who learned grape culture on the banks of the Rhine, and who, on coming to this country, served the confederacy most valiantly in the war of the 60's.
     The college buildings will be constructed of Hancock granite, which has been donated for that purpose. They will occupy an eminence presenting a fine view, both from the road and railroad. Work on them will begin at an early date, and it is expected that the school will be in operation by the fall of 1907. The executive committee of the board of trustees, with Professor Duggan as chairman, will have a meeting at an early day to agree upon all the details of construction. Owing to the certainty of this school land in Hancock county has already made a decided rise.
 

1907   ground broken in February
Expected to open Oct. 1 1907
Buildings: main building, boy's dormitory, girl's dormitory and dining hall
First faculty elected: Professor I. M. Rodgers, principal
R. W. Duggan, A. D. Hamock and Carl J. Key, assistants.
Two female teachers were allowed but not elected.
The board cost $10 per month, including laundry and other details.
Professor John Rogers superintendent 1907 - June 30, 1910
Formally opened Oct. 15, 1907

1910 Professor R. L. Nixon was elected superintendent. Mrs Inez McRae, was in academic department, Mrs. Cordelia M. Carmichael of Tennille, Ga, was matron.

March 23, 1911
Atlanta Constitution
Flames Destroy College At Sparta
Main Building of Tenth District School Burned to the Ground
Sparta, Ga., March 22 (special) The main academic building of the Tenth District Agricultural College burned to the ground this morning about 2 o'clock. The loss is estimated at around $25,000, but is partially covered by insurance.
  The origin of the fire is unknown, though it is supposed to have been the work of an incendiary.
  The building will be rebuilt as soon as practicable.

Note: The General Assembly appropriated $7,000 to help in the rebuilding August 1911.
The new academy building was opened for the fall term.

July 1 1911 Professor Kyle T. Alfriend, of Macon was elected the superintendent. He was a native of Hancock County.
1912 - R. L. Nixon superintendant
1913 - had football team
1914  - professor James T McGee  superintendant
1915 - Miss Floy Shannon  and Mr. Fitcher Johnson were teachers here
1918 - Professor Edwin C. Merry elected superintendant
1919. "Enrollment is 105. Daily attendance is 30 boys and 51 girls. Ther were 2 horses, 1 mule, 12 Jersey cattle, a registered Jersey bull, 3 registered Poland China hogs, 12 brood sows and eighty pigs for sale. A new orchard of 300 trees is set and a chicken yard for Rhode Island Reds started. There is a commercial garden of an acre and a school garden of another acre, divided in twentieths, with two girls to each division who are to learn how to keep a garden the year round with a hoe, rake and fork. There is not ground for criticism at the present time of the Tenth District school." Moses W. Harris, Treasuer Board of Trustees, Tenth District School, Sparta, Ga., February 13, 1919.
Atlanta Constitution 2/14/1919
1921 - Professor Merry died April 11
1922 -1924 Luther Elrod was the president of the school
 
 
 

ACTS AND RESOLUTIONS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF GEORGIA. 1906.
PART I--PUBLIC LAWS.
TITLE VI. EDUCATION.

1906 Vol. 1 -- Page: 72

Sequential Number: 048

Short Title: SCHOOL OF AGRICULTURE AND MECHANIC ARTS.
Law Number: No. 448.

Full Title: An Act to provide for the establishment and maintenance of schools of agriculture and the mechanic arts in the respective congressional districts of this State.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Georgia, and it is hereby enacted by authority of the same, That the Governor is hereby authorized to establish and cause to be maintained in each congressional district of the State an industrial and agricultural school in accordance with the further provisions of this Act. Said schools shall be branches of the State College of Agriculture, a department of the University of Georgia. The general board of trustees of the University shall exercise such supervision as in their judgment may be necessary to secure unity of plan and efficiency in said schools.

SEC. 2. Be it further enacted, That all fees received from the inspection of fertilizers, oils, and all other inspection fees received by the Department of Agriculture in this State, after the present year, over the expenses of such inspection, and after any portion of said fund otherwise appropriated, shall be used as a fund for the purpose of establishing and maintaining such schools, and, as far as practicable, be equally divided between such schools, and the said Governor is authorized to pay to the trustees of said schools, from time to time, their respective portions of said fund.
 

SEC. 3. Be it further enacted, That the Governor is authorized and directed to appoint from each county in the respective congressional districts one trustee for the school to be established in such districts; such trustee to hold office for the term of six years from his appointment and until his successor is appointed, and that the trustees so selected in each district shall constitute a board of trustees for the school in said district, with power to control the management of said school, and make rules and regulations for the same, subject to the provisions of this Act.
 

SEC. 4. Be it further enacted, That the Governor shall be authorized to receive from any county, or any of the citizens thereof, a donation of a tract of land in such county, not less than two hundred acres, on which to locate a school for the district in which such county is situated, together with any additional donation in the way of buildings or money; and if there are two or more offers of such donations, the Governor, with the aid of the trustees of such school, shall select which to accept, taking into consideration the title, value, the centralness of location, accessibility and suitableness in any respect for the purpose intended, and upon the acceptance of any such donation, and the execution of proper deeds vesting title in the trustees, within a reasonable time, the school for said district shall be established on the tract selected, with the right to select another locality should such deeds not be made to the satisfaction of the Governor. And if no such donation is made or perfected in any district within one year from passage of this Act the pro rata share of the fund going to said district shall go into and be prorated in the regular common-school fund in said district.

SEC. 5. Be it further enacted, That the principal of said schools shall, under the direction of the trustees, keep an account of all receipts from the sale of the products of the farm or shops which are not consumed in said school, and one-half of said receipts for each year shall be set aside as a fund to pay the students. That each pupil, having performed to the satisfaction of the principal his duties for an entire school year, shall receive his pro rata of said fund, the amount going to each pupil not to exceed one hundred dollars, and the balance, if any, to be replaced in the general fund of the school.
 

SEC. 6. Be it further enacted, That the course of studies in said schools shall be confined to the elementary branches of an English education, and practical treatises or lectures on agriculture in all its branches, and the mechanic arts, and such other studies as will enable students completing the course to enter the Freshman class of the State College of Agriculture on certificate of the principal.
 

SEC. 7. Be it further enacted, That the faculty of such schools shall consist of the principal, who shall be an intelligent farmer: one superintendent and instructor in farm-work, one intelligent mechanic, who shall direct and instruct in all mechanical work in and out of the shops; one practical instructor in care of stock and dairying, one instructor in English, and such other instructors and assistants as the funds of the college may permit. That the trustees may dispense with and combine the duties of any of the above, as necessity may require, and it shall be the duty of said instructors in said schools to co-operate in conducting farmers' institutes and farm and stock demonstrations in the several counties of their respective districts.

SEC. 8. Be it further enacted, That after the first buildings are erected, before the opening of such schools, which shall be only such as are absolutely necessary for temporary use, all work on, in and about said schools, or on the farm, or on or in the barns and shops connected with said schools, whether it be farming, building, care of stock, or work of whatever kind, shall be performed exclusively by the students of said schools, under such regulations for the proper division and alternations in such work as may be provided by the trustees.

SEC. 9. Be it further enacted, That tuition in said schools shall be free, and the trustees may limit the number of students, from time to time, according to the capacity and means of the institution, and shall make such rules of admission so as to equalize, as far as practicable, the privileges of the school among the counties according to population. And the trustees may defer the actual opening of the school until such time as may be necessary to prepare reasonably proper facilities and equipment for beginning the same, in the meantime accumulating for said purpose the funds going to said school which may be received from the rent of any portion of the property, but it is made the duty of said trustees to open said school, even though it may have to be done at first on a limited scale, as early as practicable, and afterwards extend its operations as circumstances may permit; and the trustees are authorized to rent to the best advantage, from time to time, any portion of the property of said school not required for the purposes of said school.

SEC. 10. Be it further enacted, That all laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act be, and the same are, hereby repealed.

Approval Date: Approved August 18, 1906.
 

Eileen B.McAdams copyright 2004