88 UNION COUNTY PAST AND PRESENT
_ In 1854, the trustees delivered the house and grounds of Union ;
. j Academy to the trustees of the common schools "to be used and ;
occupied as a schoolhouse for common school purposes, under V *
the common school law." How long Union Academy remained
. under the common school trusteeship is not definitely known.
About 1870, the trustees sold the Morgan Street property and
purchased from the Presbyterian Church its building on Main
Street, which served the academy for many years. The name
was changed at this time from Union Academy to Collegiate
Institute, and the school divided into three departments—col—
legiate, academic, and primary. Maj. J. S. Austin was principal
from 1871-76, and reported to the trustees at the end of the
term, June, 1872, that "the moral tone of the school was good,
and out of 131 students not one had been dismissed or severely
I punished." Major Austin endeavored to introduce military train-
ing into the school but, finding it unpopular, soon discontinued
it. The teachers paid rent for the school, kept the building in
repair, and had "what was left" of the money taken in by sub-
_ scription from the students. This old academy, where many Mor-
ganfield citizens received their education, ceased to operate in
1892, when the present public school system was inaugurated.
The first public school in Morganfield was built in 1892, and
was for the use of both the grade and high school pupils. In 1910,
a separate high school was erected, with the addition of a gym-
nasium and an auditorium in 1927. In 1939-40, a new high school
was built and equipped at a cost of more than $100,000, and the
, old building became a grade school. In connection with the school
there is a library for the use of the students. The school offers
special courses in industrial arts, home economics, commercial
subjects, vocational agriculture, and the fine arts. A high school
band was organized in 1932.
St. Ann's, an elementary Catholic school, is operated by the I
Sisters of Charity for boys and girls of the Morganneld parish.
St. Vincent Academy. situated on a 400—acre tract tive miles
from Morganfield, is one of the States leading religious institu— V
tions, whose story dates back to the very beginning of Union .
County. First known as Little Nazareth, St. Vincent was estab-
lished by a colony of nuns who set out, in 1820, from the Mother- _
house of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, near Bardstown, and U
journeyed 150 miles on horseback to Union County. Here, on a '
\ .