SALEM ACADEMY or SEMINARY 1887-1902 was on the north side of the Salem Road just east of the intersection of that road and the present Kimbro Road. On June 30, 1887, William H. Windrow and Frazier Kimbro sold for $50 each a parcel of land consisting of one acre each. The Trustees of the new Academy were J. M. Witherspoon, W. R. Jarratt, T. O. Lillard, J. M. Johnson, Joseph Jones, R. H. Young, M. J. Tarpley, C. C. Brooks, and R. A. Smith.
Professor Ellington was a teacher.
Among those who were students were Mary Snell Young, b. 1871, who boarded with the Will Windrows; Ernest Young, who lived in Barfield and later married Mary Snell; Mary and Fannie Witherspoon; and Sumpter Campbell who later became a doctor.
In 1891, Superintendent James D. Nelson, said, “We have some of the best schools of the state in our county . . . Salem Seminary. . .
On July 19, 1902, the SALEM ACADEMY Trustees, W. R. Jarratt, M. J. Tarpley, C. C. Brooks, R. A. Smith, T. O. Lillard, and Joseph Jones sold to J. C. Sebastian the two parcels of land, one acre each.
The building was converted into a residence and is still used as a home.
Reunions were held in the 1920’s.
SOURCES: Deed Book 29, p. 540; Book 46, p. 52. Tennessee. Department of Public Instruction. Annual Report 1890 Nashville: Marshall and Bruce, 1891, p. 160. Douglas Sparks, “History Notes Many Changes in Our Schools,” The Daily News Journal, Nov. 13, 1963, p. 1. Interview, December 30, 1984, with Odell Hendrix Leathers, whose daughter Myrtle Leathers Bell now lives in the building. *Sara Young, daughter of Mary Snell and Ernest Young. *Catherine Clark, daughter of Mary Witherspoon Clark, b. Dec. 19, 1872, and niece of Fannie Witherspoon.