HIST: Johnson's Indian School - Scott Co

Johnson's Indian School - Scott County, KY 

HISTORY OF BOURBON, SCOTT, HARRISON & NICHOLAS COUNTIES
edited by William Henry Perrin, Chicago, O. L. Baskins & Co, 
Historical Publishers, 1882

Pg. 160-161

As we have stated, the schools and colleges of Georgetown will be carefully
and fully written up in the educational chapter devoted to that flourishing
little city. In conclusion of our sketch of general education of the county,
a few words of an institution now forgotten by many of the citizens of Scott
will be of interest perhaps to our readers.  We allude to the Indian school
once maintained by Col. "Dick" Johnson.  This school was located at White
Sulphur Springs.  When the general Government bought the lands of the
Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians, and located them west of the Mississippi
River, the annuities due them were devoted to the education of Indian boys.
Col. Dick Johnson, then a Member of Congress, and afterward Vice President
of the United States, was appointed Superintendent of this school.  He
located it at his farm five miles west of Georgetown, at Blue Spring.   This
was about the year 1822 or 1823; it is known , by citizens still living, to
have been in operation in 1825, as La Fayette, in his tour of the country in
that year, visited it at Blue Spring, and a great feast was prepared for him
by the neighborhood, the ladies making a cheese for the occasion that
weighed 500 pounds.  In 1831, the school was removed from Blue Spring to
White Sulphur Spring, which was also on a farm owned by Col. Johnson.  He
employed teachers and ran his school as a regular boarding school, receiving
so much per week for board and tuition.  There were generally from two to
three hundred Indian boys in attendance, and it brought a considerable
revenue to Col. Johnson's exchequer.  Some of the boys afterward filled
prominent positions in the country; one is now practicing law in New York,
and several others became preachers of the Gospel.  In 1833, during the
raging of the cholera, it was terribly fatal at the school.  There were two
physicians residing near, who usually attended the students, but, one day,
when the disease was at its worst, Col. Johnson sent to Georgetown for Dr.
Ewing, who was a partner of Dr. Gano, and had been the Surgeon of Col.
Johnson's regiment in the war of 1812.  Dr. Ewing, being unable to leave,
Dr. Gano went in his stead, and says that seventeen of the boys died that
day.  He advised Col. Johnson to change the location of the school, as he
thought both the location and the arrangement of the buildings were
favorable to the spread of the disease.  Col. Johnson rejected the
suggestion, however, with scorn, saying, "He would stay there and die with
the last one of them.  About the year 1836 or 1837, the school was
discontinued.


From: "Polly A. Menendez" 
<bobpolly@zapcom.net>
Date: Tue, 9 Jun 1998