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The school's first principal in 1805 was Rev. Henry Wilson, a Presbyterian minister. The Bellefonte Academy had no religious affiliation, but students were required to read one Bible passage a day.
The Academy traditionally taught "classical courses" and quarterly tuition was based on the courses taken. In 1839 the Academy, with John Livingston as principal, was seeking students. An ad in the Centre Democrat (a local Bellefonte newspaper) noted: "Terms: Sessions in a year are two, consisting of five months each. Half session constitutes a quarter. The winter term commences on the first Monday in November, Vacations in April and October. Tuition per quarter is $5 per scholar for Greek and Latin, $4 for mathematics and $3 for English, In winter session there is a small extra charge for fuel." Years later Professor Alfred Armstrong reminisced, "Latin was taught on Monday morning, Greek in the afternoon; Tuesday, Greek was taught in the morning and Latin in the afternoon; Wednesday and Thursday were the same, and Friday was a review of the weeks work."
In 1873 with Rev. Robert P. Hughes as headmaster, the Academy added a "female department" and a "primary room". The curriculum was expanded to include bookkeeping, French, German, natural science, surveying and music.
Under Headmaster James R Hughes, the 1906 Bellefonte Academy curriculum offered to students was as follows:
The studies pursued in the different courses of study were selected from the following schedule:
Academic
FIRST YEAR.
English.-Grammar ; Analysis; Composition; Reading from American authors; Themes; Supplementary reading from American and British authors.
Mathematics -Wentworth's Grammar School Arithmetic; Algebra begun.
History-Channing's History of the United States ; Note-book work based on class work and outside reading.
Miscellaneous -Orthography; Penmanship; Bible Lectures.
Latin-Allen and Greenough's Grammar; Leighton's Latin Lessons, Selections from Viri Romae, Nepos, Gradatim.
SECOND YEAR
English-Elementary Rhetoric; Composition; Themes; Greek and Roman Mythology; Study of British authors.
Mathematics-Wentworth's Advanced Arithmetic; Wentworth's Elementary Algebra; Plane Geometry begun Crittenden's Book-keeping.
Hisiory-West's Ancient World; Note-book work.
Miscellaneous-Physical Geography; Civil Government; Practical Physiology Orthography; Penmanship Bible Lectures.
Latin-Grammar: Caesar; Sight Reading; Latin Prose.
Greek-White's First Lessons.
French-Fraser and Squair's Gramniar; Dictation; Conversation; Reader; Translations from Dumas, Harvey and La Boulaye.
German-Joynes-Meissner's Grammar; Wenckebach's Reader; Translations from Carmen, Sylva, Storm, Riehl and Zschlokke.
Spanish-Edgren's Grammar ; Dictation, Conversation, Matzke's Reader, Translation of simple texts.
THIRD YEAR.
English-Advanced Rhetoric and Composition; College Entrance English; Themes.
Mathematics-Advanced Arithmetic completed Hawke's Higher Algebra; Plane Geometry completed.
History-Robinson's History of Western Europe, Note-book work.
Science-Astronomy.
Miscellaneous-Political Economy Stenography; Gray's Botany ; Bible Lectures.
Latin-Cicero's Orations; Sight Reading; Latin Prose.
Greek-Goodwin's Grammar; Xenophon's Anabasis; Sight Reading; Greek Prose.
French-Syntax; Prose Composition; Dictation; Conversation; Translations from Daudet, Lamartine, Moliere and George Sand.
German-Syntax; Prose Composition; Conversation; Translations from Schiller, Lessing, Freytag, and Chamisso.
Spanish-Advanced Grammar, Composition, Dictation, Conversation, Translations from Galdos, Pereda, Valdes, Alarcon, Padre Isla.
FOURTH YEAR.
English-College Entrance English; Composition; History of English Literature; Paragraph Themes.
Mathematics-Hawke's Higher Algebra completed; Solid Geometry; Plane and Spherical Trigonometry; Review of Plane Geometry and Arithmetic.
History-Coman and Kendall's, or Montgomery's History of England; Note-book work; Review of United States History.
Science-Physics; Chemistry.
Miscellaneous-Stenography; Classical Geography Bible; Lectures
Latin-Virgil's Aeneid; Salltist (optional); Sight Reading; Advanced Prose Composition.
Greek-Xenophon's Anabasis completed; Homer's Iliad; Sight Reading; Prose Composition.
French-Prose Composition; Conversation; French Literature; French History; Translations from Victor Hugo, Balzac, Corneille and Racine.
German-Prose Composition; Conversation; Wenckebach; German Literature; German History; Translations from Goethe, Lessing, Schiller and Heine.
Spanish-Syntax; Composition; Selections from Classical Spanish authors, Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Calderon. Spanish the language of the classroom.
NOTE-Suitable courses are provided in the Primary and Intermediate Departments for those pupils who wish to receive an early training in French and German. Advanced classes are organized in Livy, Agricola, Germania, Herodotus and other classical studies for those who wish to pursue advanced courses in these subjects.
The English Classic Course
The following schedule of literary works includes the books to be studied critically in the class room, those required for reading and those recommended for home supplementary reading, to prepare thoroughly for college entrance during the years 1907, 1908 and 1909.
Examinations are held periodically upon both required and supplementary work.
Required for Careful Study.
Burke's Speech on Conciliation, Macaulay's Essay on Addison, Macaulay's Essay on Johnson, Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Milton's Minor Poems.
Required for Reading.
Lowell's The Vision of Sir Launfal, Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, Scott's Ivanhoe and Lady of the Lake, Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and Macbeth, Irving's Life of Goldsmith, Sir Roger de Coverly Papers, Tennyson's Gareth and Lynette, Lancelot and Elaine and The Passing of Arthur. Eliot's Silas Marner.
Suggested for Home Reading in Primary, Intermediate and Academic Departments.
PRIMARY DEPARTMENT-Hall's Our World, Poulsson's In the Child's World, Young Folks' Library of Choice Literature, Jane Andrews' Books, Pratt's Stories of Colonial Children, Selections from Poets, Kingsley's Water Babies. Sewell's Black Beauty, Wiggin's Birds' Christmas Carol, Wbittaker's Miss Toosey's Mission, Laura Richard's Works, Susan Coleridge's Juliana Horatia Ewing's and H. H. Jackson's Children's Stories.
INTERMEDIATE DEPARTMENT-Hawthorne's A Wonderbook, Kingsley's Greek Heroes, Francillon's Gods and Heroes, Peabody's Old Greek Folk Stories, Carpenter's Geographical Readers, Wiggin's Rebecca of Sunny Brook Farm, Dodge's Hans Brinker, Hall and Lock's Yonng Folks' Library in twenty volumes, treating of Fairy Tales, Fiction, Adventure, History, Patriotism, Biography, Myths, Legends, Tales of Fantasy, Natural History, Etc., Montgomery's Heroic Ballads, Alger's Hatim Tai, Creasy's The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World, Mace's The History of a Mouthful of Bread, Allen's Man Wonderful in the House Beautiful, Selections from the Poets, Alger's Peter Schlemihl, Radcliff's Schools and Masters of Painting, Blackmore's Lorna Doone, Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, Smiths Evolution of Dodd.
ACADEMIC DEPARTMENT-Hughes' Tom Brown's School Days, Washington Irving's Sketch-book, Dinah Muloch Craik's John Halifax, Edward Everett Hale's The Mail Without a Country, Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography, Nathaniel Hawthorne's Short Stories, J. Fenimore Cooper's The Deerslayer, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Helen Hunt Jackson's Ramona, Longfellow's Tales of a Wayside Inn, Evangeline, Richard Henry Dana's Two years before the Mast, Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare, Bullfinch's Mythology, Dickens' A Christmas Carol, Swift's Gulliver's Voyage to Lilliput, Poe's Selection of Tales, Lincoln's Gettysburg-Speech, Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter, Scott's Kenilworth, Marmion, Irving's 'The Alhambra, Whittier's Snow-bound, Dickens' David Copperfield.
Expenses per school year
Boarding Students: $400.00 (this includes tuition, boarding, furnished room, light and heat)
Day Pupils Intermediate and Academic: $52.00 Primary: $42.00
Extra Charges:
French: $25.00 German: $25.00 Spanish: $25.00
Two Modern Languages: $40.00
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