Wedemeyer House/Belton Male Academy

In the late nineteenth century, the Belton Male Academy, adjacent to the Wedemeyer House at 404 East 9th in Belton, Texas, was an intermediate school where “a young man may prepare himself for the higher classes of a first class college” or where “he may lay the foundation of a thorough practical education, and thus prepare for life’s school.” Wedemeyer devoted himself to discovering the “best means and methods of developing the latent powers of the youthful mind, and of assisting the pupil in building a strong, noble character.” Among those who received early training at the academy were Walton H. Walker of the U.S. Army, Justice Mallory B. Blair of the Court of Civil Appeals in Austin (and later the Nuremberg Trials), Charles M. Campbell, banker of Temple, and Tom DuBose, County Clerk.

Charles Henry Wedemeyer established the Belton Male Academy in 1887. Wedemeyer was educated at Baylor at Independence. After receiving an A. B. degree in 1878 and an A. M. degree in 1880, he taught school at Millican and Round Rock. Wedemeyer returned to Baylor at Independence as vice president and professor of Latin and English. He was considered one of the most brilliant men in the field of education and had a speaking knowledge of seven languages.

When Baylor left Independence, he remained there, serving as a principal of the male department of Crane College which the local citizens hoped would become old Baylor’s successor. In 1887, Wedemeyer moved to Belton and established the Belton Male Academy. The Wedemeyers built their Victorian home in 1891 adjoining the academy. According to its catalog of 1896-97, there were 99 students enrolled, and many of Bell County’s outstanding citizens were among its students. In the beginning, the school was a male academy but by 1895 had become co-educational. Wedemeyer stated in the 1896 catalog that “it is hardly necessary to say that co-education from now on is a fixture of the academy. The trial of the past year was a success beyond our most sanguine expectations.” The curriculum was “parallel with that of the very best schools in the country,” and the catalog advised that “other things equal, the regular Classical Course, including Latin and Greek, is recommended as undoubtedly preferable to all others.” The four-year course of study included classes in English grammar, higher arithmetic, history of England, algebra, geography, geometry, Latin and Greek, anatomy and physiology, German, English and American literature, chemistry, philosophy, New Testament Greek, botany, geology, astronomy, political economy, and logic. In addition, students could, without any extra charge, take a thorough and complete course in book-keeping. Students had free use of the principal’s private library of between 400 and 500 “well-selected volumes” including Encyclopaedia Britannica, Stedman & Hutchinson’s History of American Literature, Macaulay’s, Green’s and Hume’s History of England, and Official Records of the War of the Rebellion.

Patrons were expected to pay tuition in advance—half upon entering the pupil and half at the beginning of the second term. Tuition was $50.00 per session with an incidental fee of $2.50 per session, and an additional fee for chemistry students of $5.00 per session. A $10.00 fee per session allowed for use of the piano, and music was $40.00 per session. Special rates were allowed for ministerial students, licensed by their churches, to children of ministers actively engaged in the ministry, and where two or more come from the same family. Room and board was $125.00 per session. Students were allowed to board with private families convenient to the school but only with the advice and consent of the principal. The catalog stated that “little pocket money is needed beyond what is necessary for washing, which ranges from $1-2 per month.” Parents were advised that “it is not wise to encourage your sons in forming extravagant habits.” Other rules for the governing of students included “no firearms” and retiring at 10 o’clock. Students were constantly encouraged to form the habit of reading good books so that they would be preserved from temptation during their spare time. According to the catalog, “late hours, social pleasures, et id genus omne, mix with study about as readily as water with oil. The boy becomes listless, loses interest in his books, his education is interrupted, and too often his mental development forever dwarfed.” Student were expected to attend Sunday school and preaching at the church of their parents’ choice.

At the end of each month, reports were sent to the parents or guardian, showing attendance, deportment, and scholarship. Students were subjected to rigid written examinations upon completing a session, and those who reached 70 percent were allowed to pass to the next study. Students whose general average for the entire session was not below 90, and whose deportment was not below 95, were exempt from exams. The Academy was an approved high school whose graduates were admitted to the freshman class of the University of Texas without examination. Having Greek in its course of study, it was accorded “complete affiliation,” a distinction enjoyed by few schools of the time.

The school moved to Temple in 1912. When the academy closed in 1915, Professor Wedemeyer went to Greenville as an instructor in Burleson College. Since 1927, the house was owned by the family of Mrs. Alice Law. It became a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1975. It was later owned by Richard Brewer.

The house now has a reputation of being haunted by four to seven ghosts including several children.

Bell County Historical Commission (Tex.), and E. A. Limmer. 1988. Story of Bell County, Texas. Austin, Tex: Eakin Press.

Belton Academy (Belton, Tex.) 1896.

Belton Male Academy, (Belton, Tex.) 1896-97. [Georgetown, Tex.: Sun Print].. .