Landrum, J. B. O. History of Spartanburg County. Atlanta, Georgia: Franklin Prtg. and Pub. Co., 1900.

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Porter, a Presbyterian minister, was the first teacher, the school being what was then termed a "Latin School." Colonel E. C. Leitner, George Packer, a Mr. Dye, Roland Burdette, Mr. Sims, James Smith and Mrs. Betsy McClintock were some of Rev. Porter's successors. Col. H. H. Thomson, Madison Thomson, Joel Foster, Barham B. Foster, Mike Whetstone, Charles White, Calvin White, Javan Barnett, David Zimmerman, Colonel Joseph Walker, and many other well-known men of that day attended this academy.

About the same that the above named academy was established, a number of summer residents erected a school building southwest of the present building of the School for the Deaf and Blind, and secured the services of Mr. Scarborough to open there an academy for girls. Both of these schools were among the best in Spartanburg District at that date.

In 1849, Rev. N. P. Walker, having become interested in the education of the deaf, bought the hotel building near the spring, and there established a private school for the deaf. On the 22nd of January of that year he had a class of five deaf children in his school for speaking and hearing children. The names of these were John M. Hughston, E. Melton Hughston, E. Jane Hughston, Irene A. Cooper and Harvey W. Bennett, all of whom were residents of Spartanburg district.

Before the opening of this school Mr. Walker had attended for a few months a school at the Cave Spring (Georgia) School for the Deaf, in which he had prepared himself for this special work. It was not long until this school had the cordial patronage of the State, and finally, in 1857, became a State institution. The State erected, in 1857-59, the present (1900) buildings.

The founder of the South Carolina Institution for the Deaf and the Blind, and also his son, his successor, deserve more than passing recognition and casual attention.

Rev. Newton Pinckney Walker was born in Spartanburg county, S.C., November 29th, 1816. He, like other who have achieved success, was born poor, and was beset in his boyhood days by all the drawbacks inseparable from his adverse surroundings. There were struggles to be made, there were peculiar difficulties in the way of his success that he had to overcome; but the faithful love and labor in the great cause for afflicted humanity has had its reward, for to-day the Institution for the Deaf and Blind stands as a monumental record of his triumph. His wife had some deaf relatives, and becoming interested in these, he determined to make an