Zion-Parnassus Academy [1]
Zion-Parnassus Academy
The Zion-Parnassus Academy was an eighteenth-century classical school located in Rowan County [2] about a mile east of Thyatira Church [3] (believed to be the oldest Presbyterian [4] church in western North Carolina). The school's founder (and Thyatira's minister), Samuel Eusebuis McCorkle [5], hoped to establish a school that would stress religious as well as classical learning. Its name recalled the Hill of Zion [6], the residence of King David and his successors, and Parnassus [7], the Greek mountain sacred to Apollo (god of youth, music, and prophecy) and the Muses (goddesses of poetry, art, and science).
Patterned after David Caldwell [8]'s school in Guilford County [9], Zion-Parnassus added a department for teacher training. For this reason, McCorkle's academy has been referred to as the first normal school in America. Forty-five ministers emerged from Zion-Parnassus before it closed around the beginning of the eighteenth century, as did many lawyers, judges, and state officials. In 1798, when the fledgling University of North Carolina [10] held its first commencement, six of the seven graduates were from Zion-Parnassus.
References:
William Henry Foote, Sketches of North Carolina (1846).
James Hurley and Julia Goode Engam, The Prophet of Zion-Parnassus (1934).
Additional Resources:
The prophet of Zion-Parnassus: Samuel Eusebius McCorkle by James Franklin Hurley, Julia Goode Eagan, Presbyterian Church in the U.S. Committee of Publication, Published for the authors by Presbyterian Committee of Publication, 1934 - 121 pages: http://books.google.com/books/about/The_prophet_of_Zion_Parnassus.html?id=brLVAAAAMAAJ [11]
Sam'l E. McCorkle, NC Highway Historical Marker L-20: http://www.ncmarkers.com/Markers.aspx?sp=search&k=Markers&sv=L-20 [12]
True and Candid Compositions: The Lives and Writings of Antebellum Students in North Carolina: http://docsouth.unc.edu/global/name_search.html?type=9&projid=9&name=Zion-Parnassus%20Academy,%20Rowan%20County,%20NC&name_id=name0001264 [13]
1 January 2006 | Suther, Steve
