Papa's Education

 Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.   ~William Butler Yeats

Education for Charles Franklin McNair

Following a lead after I re-read Mother’s memories of Papa. I investigated her recollections of Papa’s training at a rural school. Mother recalled that Mack, his father, had farmed 165 acres near Boston Mountain in the vicinity of St. Joe. This all proves to be correct as I investigated a map. Mother mentioned that Frank had attended a finishing school at an academy in Valley Springs. I researched the history of Valley Springs and this is all correct. Boston Mountains are on the map nearby. The website mentions a Boat Mountain that I will investigate.  See the below information from the website:

https://valley.k12.ar.us/our-school-history/

Twin Springs, as Valley Springs was originally called, was so named because of the two springs that ran to the surface in this small Ozark valley. It may have been the source of fresh water that led the original families to settle here in the shadow of Boat Mountain. Not a great deal is known about the origin of the Valley Springs community, but what is clear is that the first citizens saw an important need for educating their young. It is apparent that the educational process has always been at the center of the community's interest. Soon after the Civil War, three learning academies were established in Boone County: Bellefonte, Rally Hill, and Valley Springs. Around the turn of the century, great improvements were noted in the academy at Valley Springs, and it emerged as the leader of the three. In 1912, the North Arkansas Conference of Methodist Churches felt a need to establish a high school in the Ozarks. Valley Springs, with its academic background, was selected, and it became Valley Springs Training School.

 There was much more history of the schools there, but only the early history applied to my research of my great-grandfather, Charles Franklin McNair…for me, he was Papa.