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Before the establishment of public schools, education was provided by small private academies such as the Alexander Institute. a successor to the New Danville Masonic Female Academy, founded in nearby Danville in 1854. The institute was named for pioneer educator Isaac Alexander (1832-1919). A native of Virginia, Dr. Alexander was president of the academy when it moved to Kilgore in 1873, soon after the city was founded. In 1875 operation of the school was transferred to the East Texas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. Offering courses from primary through college level, the institute was highly regarded as a finishing school for girls and a preparatory school for boys. Students from all parts of east Texas received instruction here. The boys boarded in private homes and the girls with Mrs. Alexander, daughter of a well-known Methodist minister, the Rev. James Hall. Dr. Alexander served as president until 1894, when the school moved to Jacksonville in Rusk County and became Lon Morris College, one of the oldest junior colleges in Texas. The Kilgore public schools occupied the old Alexander Institute classroom building at this site until 1913. The structure was then dismantled and the lumber used to build a private residence. |
