648 TENNESSEE mancnt fund, amounting in 1875 to $2,612,- 600, was thus secured ; the interest on this, at the rate of 6 per cent, per annum, is dis- tributed semi-annually among the counties ac- cording to school population. The law also authorizes for school purposes a poll tax of $1, and a tax of one mill on the dollar up- on all the taxable property of the state, and provides that when the money derived from the school fund and the taxes imposed by the state shall be insufficient to support a public school for five months in the year in each of the districts in any county, the county court shall levy an additional tax for the purpose, or submit the proposition to a vote of the people. About one half of the counties of the state have levied an additional tax to prolong the schools. The total annual income from the permanent fund and state taxation is about $600,000. The state superintendent of public instruction is appointed for two years, and receives an annual salary of $3,000. County superintendents are elected biennially by the county courts. Three directors are elected in each district for three years. The public schools are free to all persons between the ages of 6 and 18 years ; but there must be sep- arate schools for colored persons. The school population (one county not reporting) on June 30, 1875, was 425,901; white, 319,671; col- ored, 106,230. The number of pupils enroll- ed (one county not reporting) was 198,085; average attendance (16 counties not reporting), 136,118; number of schools (13 counties not reporting), 3,942; school revenue, $740,316; total expenditures, $703,358. In 1873-'4 pub- lic schools in various parts of the state received aid from the Peabody education fund to the extent of $34,300. The state normal univer- sity, under the control of the state board of education, was opened as a department of the university of Nashville in December, 1875. It has an annual revenue of $6,000 from the Pea- body education fund and $6,000 from the uni- versity of Nashville. Normal instruction is also afforded in several of the colleges. In several of the cities there are efficient systems of free schools, supported in part by the cities and in part from the state and county school revenues. The universities and colleges of Tennessee, with the number of instructors and pupils in 1874-'5,' were as follows : NAME OF INSTITUTION. When opened. Where situated. Denomination. No. of instruc- tor*. No. of pupils in collegiate department. No. of pupils in all departments. Beech Grove college. ... .... 1868 1866 1871 1842 1869 1867 1866 1868 1849 1868 1819 Beech Grove None.... 4 9 9 13 15 7 16 9 5 5 11 4 28 2 48 151 101 16 10 71 80 40 21 48 135 240 127 891 815 86 262 112 187 84 94 104 iss 262 800 Central Tennessee college Nashville Methodist Episcopal Christian Brothers 1 college Memphis Roman Catholic Cumberland university Cumberland Presbyterian . None Methodist Episcopal None East Tennessee university . Knoxville Athens Nashville East Tennessee Wesleyan university . . . Fisk university Greenville and Tusculum college Hiawassee college . . . Greenville Presbyterian Sweetvvater (near) Bristol Methodist Episcopal, South Presbyterian King college Mary ville college . ... Mary ville . . . Clarks ville Stewart college Southwestern Baptist university 1875 1848 1785 1868 1875 Jackson . . Baptist Union university University of Nashville Nashville Sewanee Nashville None Protestant Episcopal Methodist Episcopal, South 7 19 27 22 124 140 University of the South Vanderbilt university. The East Tennessee university embraces the state college of agriculture and the mechanical arts, for which provision was made by congress in 1862. The university was organized in 1840 (the East Tennessee college having been opened in 1808), and the agricultural college in 1869. There are three courses of study of four years each, agricultural, mechanical, and classical; and two preparatory courses of three years each. Each senator is entitled to name two, and each representative three students, who may attend the institution without charge for tuition, and may also pass free on railroads between their homes and the university. For others, the annual cost of tuition is $36 in the college and $30 in the preparatory department. Students are required to perform manual labor during the freshman and sophomore years. The university has a considerable library, and cabinets of geology, mineralogy, and zoology. The university of the South, at Sewanee, is nnder the control of the Protestant Episcopal church. It has separate schools for each de- partment of learning. The institution has about 10,000 acres of land on a plateau of the Cumberland mountains, 2,000 ft. above the sea and 1,000 ft. above the surrounding coun- try. Owing to the favorable climate of this elevation, studies are continued during the summer, and a long vacation occurs in the winter. The university has a library of over 5,000 volumes. The East Tennessee Wesleyan university, at Athens, has a collegiate depart- ment, with classical and scientific courses, and preparatory and academic departments. Fisk university was organized in 1866 through the efforts of the American missionary association of New York. It is designed for the instruc- tion of colored persons, and has made the train- ing of teachers a prominent part of its work. It was named after Gen. C. B. Fisk, then com- missioner of the freedmen's bureau, through whose efforts government buildings were ob- tained for the institution. Since 1871 upward
