LASCASSAS ACADEMY 1824-1889 in District 22, formerly 16, was allegedly a private school as early as 1824. It was located about one-fourth mile west of the intersection of the present Old Lascassas Pike and the Jefferson Pike. It was on the south side of the road and was built slightly west of the present location of LASCASSAS SCHOOL near Bradley’s Creek. The Beers Map of 1878 shows the site of the school.
Joseph Loughrey, born March 28, 1826 in Blairsville, Pennsylvania, a Presbyterian preacher and a Princeton graduate, recorded in a diary that he “came to teach at the Las Casas Academy.” The 1850 Tennessee Census shows J. N. Loughrey to be a school teacher and twenty-four years of age, living at the home of A. C. Sublett and wife Louiza.
Another teacher was Mr. Leitner who came to teach foreign languages.
Harriet Elmira Butler Dill, b. 1845, was a student under Joseph N. Loughrey. Maggie, Nan, Tom, and Joseph Dill, children of Harriet, were also students in the 1870’s and 1880’s.
For recreation the girls played with corn cob dolls under the oak trees across the road.
A subscription private school continued with minor interruptions until 1889 when a LASCASSAS SCHOOL was built on the north side of the Pike.
SOURCES: Interview, Jan. 24, 1985, with Ed C. Loughrey, Sr., great grandson of J. N. Loughrey. *Emily Dill Florida, granddaughter of Harriet Elvira Butler Dill and daughter of Tom Dill, b. Dec. 7, 1875.