A letter from the late Virgil DuBose, who lived at Palestine, to D. T.
Loyd, details more on the Murry League story:
“As a whole, the men of Murry League (near Ore City) were active and
quite above the ordinary, and their wives were energetic, thrifty,
good-looking, and all had a superior education. About all these families
had was a house full of children whom they reared to work and at the
same time gave them a good education.
“Among the citizens that lived at the League about the year 1857, and
years later, as I remember, were: Rev. Joshua Clark; his brother, Uncle
Billy Clark; my father, Prof. Virgil M. DuBose; Capt. Coppedge, Rev. J.
T. P. Irvine, who fought in the battle of San Jacinto; Harvey Armstrong,
the Grans, Mr. Willeford, father of W. L., Billy and C. W. Willeford, of
Mings Chapel; and the Nashes, the Crossleys, the Weatherds, the Emmetts,
the Coveys, the Hambrights, the Bullocks, and others I fail to remember.
“Rev. Palmer and Rev. Irvine were traveling preachers of the M. E.
Church South, called in their parlance, (circuit riders). Rev. J. Clark
ran the league school for many years prior to 1857, and that year he
offered my father, Prof. Virgil M. DuBose, a job as co-principal and it
was accepted. My father was a graduate of Miami University, at Oxford,
Ohio, having attended that school four years—1832-1836.
“When we moved to the League in 1857, I was a very small boy learning my
abs, ebs, ibs, obs, but I soon got to the back of Webster’s old Blue
Back Speller and could rattle off the four pages of synonyms in the back
of the book without any trouble. I have since those days observed many
schools and institutions of learning but I have never seen such
emulation and desire for learning evinced among pupils as I saw in those
days at the old Murry League School. They were all bright talented young
men and women, and the school grew and kept growing.
“All the advanced students not only became proficient Greek and Latin
scholars, but went on up into higher mathematics as applied to
mechanics, astronomy, and civil engineering. These are my memories of
those days;—though I was but a kid, I saw how it was. They were great
days for a boy.
“But for months prior to 1861, the muttering storm in the distance was
heard! I saw it all. The people of the New England states went mad. The
people of the South went mad! The war between the states was on, and by
May, 1861, all the young men attending the school went to the war. This
broke up the school and Murry Institute became a memory—a thing that
was, but is not! My father carried on the local school during the four
years of the war. Along 1862-3, many planters came in from Arkansas as
refugees, fleeing from the Yankee soldiers when they invaded that state,
bringing their slaves with them. This made quite an addition to the
League, for they were educated, refined people, and their children
attended my father’s school.
“Capt. Coppedge, a most noble and brave man, went at once into the war
with Lee and Jackson’s armies. He came back on a furlough in 1863, went
back, but never returned. Died or was killed in battle!”