John Edwin McCorkle Diploma

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John Edwin McCorkle of Dyer County, Tennessee, received the following diploma from Bluff Springs Academy. The diploma is in Latin. This is a translation. John E. McCorkle's daughter Sophie King McCorkle, married Howard Anderson Huie, 1870-1935. Sophie and Howard Huie were my paternal grandparents.
Emigrating from Cabarrus and Rowan Counties in North Carolina, my Huie folks stopped right on the Dyer-Gibson county line, closer to Yorkville than Newbern, for they thought Yorkville was a better town. The immigrant Benjamin Huie rejected a farm further west (now on Hwy. 77) and chose ours (further east on Hwy. 77), just to be near to Yorkville. And Yorkville like many towns died on the vine for having refused to give rightaway to the Railroad; Newbern evidently sprang to life because of the railroad line.
I do not know the location of Bluff Springs Academy. Perhaps it was in Dyer County or Gibson County. Does anyone perchance know anything about Bluff Springs Academy? John Edwin McCorkle bequeathed my father, Ewing Huie, 1907-1971, a magnificent diploma, beribboned in blue, in Latin and dated just before the civil war, in 1860.

TO ALL AND EACH ONE WHO READ THESE LETTERS,
Greetings:
With academies, and institutions everywhere, men trained in philosophy and in humanities, and well looked on in the republic, are included in this homage.
     And so we the president, and others, and professors and the administration of this institution at
BLUFF SPRINGS

Certify the distinguished young man John E. McCorkle as having studied letters with us, without any hindrances, with having been examined by the administration and the professors, and worthy of the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and equipped with all the liberal arts, and all laws, honours and privileges that go with this degree.

In testimony of this we the president, professors, and administrators place our signature, and to which we affix our seal.

Given on 28th of June in the year of the salvation of the human race 1860.

Curatores [Administrators]:                            Artium Facultas [Faculty of Arts]

/signature/ Levi Wright, Pres                             /sig./ ?? W. Dickinson, President & Prof.
                                                                                    Math & French
Robt Nesbitt,                                                   Sec L.R. Hubbard, Prof Ancient Languages
Wm. E. [?Harvey?]                                          L.R. Crocker, Prof. English Literature.
???? Haum [Hume?]                                        ??? Matthews, Principal Female Department.


© 2003 - Marsha Cope Huie

This letter has been provided for personal use only, and is not to be copied,
redistributed, or used for any commercial purposes.

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