HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 403 field Educational Society was organized with S. G. Kitchen, Orson Bartlett, Henry Miller, D. B. Aliller and Michael A. "Wilson as trus- tees. They proceeded to erect a two-story frame building and conducted a seminary luitil the war. After the close of the war t ho only schools in the town, for a time, were some private schools taught at the seminary building. The first school in Poplar Bluff was ostaD- lished in 1869 by the Butler County Educa- tional Society, a corporate body, with Green L. Poplin, J. W. Baldwin, James Tolds, J. M. Henderson, J. M. Spence, B. F. Turner, J. S. Ferguson and G. T. Bartlett as trustees. The school which was conducted was known as the Black river Seminary; the first principal was H. McKinnon, and was conducted in a two-story frame building erected for school purposes. This seminary was succeeded by the public schools. In 1870 the Charleston Classical Academy was opened in Charleston. It was the enter- prise of a number of leading citizens of the town that led to the formation of a company and the foundation of the academy. A large brick building was erected for the .school, which was under the supervision of Justin Williams. The academy, however, did not prosper. The feeling among the people was in favor of public schools by this time, so the academy was closed, and the building was rented to the public school.
