Early Schools in Hardin Co. continued: Hambleton College was the logical successor of Hardin Academy, which closed its doors at the opening of the great civil conflict. Just after the close of the war, Prof. G. W. MAXIN of Ohio taught a high school in the old Masonic Hall, now occupied by the Durham Bott- ling Works. This hall was built in 1823 by John Y. HILL and was long known as the "Old Seminary." Before the war a number of prominent teachers conducted private high schools in this building. Perhaps the most successful of these schools was that taught by Rev. Robt. H. THURMAN, who in after years, became a noted Baptist minister. It was not until 1866 that his school was given the name of Hambleton College. In the fall of that year, Rev. J. H. HEGAN, a mini- ster of the Presbyterian Church from Pa., organized and established a most prosperous school to which he gave that name. Under his management, with the able assistance of such capable educators as Professors Jacob FISHER, Sam Henry MILLER, Miss Alice AUL and Mrs. Eliza VERTREES as music teacher, this College maintained a high reputation and received a large patronage for ten years. In 1876 he sold his property, now occupied by Mrs. Jennie WELLS, to Prof. TODD and moved to Morrilton, Ark. Prof. Todd assumed control of the school but only taught one term, after which the school was never again opened as Hambleton College but was merged into the graded schools. The following are a few of the many pupils that attended this institution: Dr. Frank P. STRICKLER, Hon. Jas. POTTS of Arkansas, Ed B. WINTERSMITH of Cincinnati, Ohio, the late Rev. S. H. MORGAN, Frank GANET, W. B. WOOD, Ham CHURCHILL, Jas. WINTERSMITH, James, Mid John and Charley SLACK, Arthur and Buck PARK, Jas. P. HELM, Tom GEOGHEGAN, Ben ATCHISON, James RIHN, George RIHN, Sam PAYNE, Burr SHOWERS, Martin and Robert PHILLIPS, Jesse GOSNELL, Richard VERNON, James McMUR- TRY, Jas. H. SWEETS, Jake ROGERS, Fred DEPP and June ELLIOTT. In the year 1850, there stood a log schoolhouse, in size above the average of such buildings at that period near the present town of Ce- cilian and close to the old Howevalley Road. In that year and the suc- ceeding year, Prof. PITMAN, a Yankee schoolmaster, taught school. The next year, 1852, Prof. H. A. CECIL afterwards long and familiarly known by the boys as "Old Pres," began his first work as a teacher in that old log structure that "sat on the dusty roadside, like a beggar sunning." Fresh from the cloister of Georgetown College, D. C., where he had graduated with honors, his vaulting ambition and high ideals led him at once to dignify his school with the name of "St. Nathan Academy." After teaching one year, he returned to his Alma Mater to take a post graduate course. During his absence, Prof. Sam ABLE, who had re- cently come with his father from New Orleans, La. to Ky., taught this school. He returned in five months and resumed teaching at St Nathan. His success as an educator was to a degree phenomenal. His intro- duction of new branches of learning and innovation of old methods of instruction, soon gave himself and school a reputation that reached far beyond the confines of the immediate neighborhood. In a few years the seating capacity of this log schoolhouse was wholly inadequate to accommodate the rapid increase of attendance from all parts of the county. In the fall of 1859, Prof. CECIL began the erection of Cecilian College. This imposing structure, when completed in the summer of 1860, con- tained a large chapel, a number of recitation rooms, capacious dormitory and dining hall. On Sept. 2nd of the latter year, the doors of Cecilian College were thrown open to the public for patronage. The following year, Civil War began which checked its growth during the period of that fra- ternal conflict. However in the fall of 1865, this school took on a new life and was soon regarded as one of the foremost institutions of learning in the state. It not only had a very large home patronage but many pupils from different southern states were matriculated. The "Annual Exhibitions" of this college, which such scholastic exercises were then called, is well remembered by the middle aged and elder citizens of Hardin Co. Their announcement meant the assembling of thousands of every vocation from all the surrounding country to be superbly entertained with a high or- der of declamatory eloquence are rare bits of amateur acting. With the death of the "Old Pres" about 1884 came the decadence of the old institu- tion. He was indeed its creator, soul and life and when he died, the college was lambent and in a very few years its doors were closed forever. To give a complete roster of the teachers during the many years of this school's existence would require too much space. Suffice to say that the "Old Pres," Tom, Ambrose and Charlie, his brothers, whom he educated, were at all times, the leading teachers in the faculty and the dominating factors in its management. Among the thousands of pupils that attended St. Nathan and Cecilian College: C. C. OLIVER, who became a noted priest in the south; J. J. MONTGOMERY, a very distin- guished bishop of the Catholic Church in Ca.; the late Hon. Tom ROBERT- SON, Judge George THURMAN, Dr. Dave SMITH, Jas. C. SMITH, Prof. Sam Henry MILLER, Frank PAREPOINT, Wood ENGLISH, Strother BLAND, the late Jas. A. KINKEAD, Henry PARK, Quince JOHNSON, Jas. C. POSTON, Turner WILSON, Richard LARUE, James RIHN, Dunlap MILLER, Dr. BELL and James KURTZ, Everetts BLAND, J. B. HAYDEN, Thomas ENGLISH, William GUNTER, Chas. CORBIT, Robert WINTER- SMITH, John G. HILSON and Dick WOOD. [To be continued]