If, as Emerson says, “every great institution is the lengthened shadow of one man,” then Pictou Academy, from 1816 to 1832, was indeed the visible incarnation of the genius of Dr. Thomas McCulloch, a Scottish Presbyterian clergyman, who on his way to Prince Edward Island, on account of the lateness of the season, was persuaded to remain during the winter of 1803-4 in Pictou, a resolve which was fraught with far-reaching consequences on the intellectual life of the Province.  No sooner had he become pastor of the Harbour (now Prince Street) congregation in 1804, than he recognized the need of well educated Presbyterian clergymen, and then and there he conceived the idea, which twelve years later flowered as the Pictou Academy.  He began the organization of a society to found an institution of learning offering a college education, with a view of preparing young men for the Presbyterian ministry.  The project not materializing at that time, he opened a grammar school on his own account, and following the passage of the grammar school act he received the Government Grant of one hundred pounds allotted to the Pictou County District.  His school attracted students, not only from all sections of the Province, but also from the West Indies, whom he tutored with the idea of matriculating in the future college which his genius had planned, and which he hoped to see established in the not distant future.

    Eleven years later his dream was realized with the incorporation of “Pictou” Academy, on March 26^th, 1816.  In deference to the friends of King’s College, which had been founded in 1790, and which received not only a permanent Provincial grant of $2000.00 but also a British Government grant of $5000.00 yearly, its promoters did not ask to have it called a college, with the privilege of conferring degrees, although it was intended from the first to impart to its students a collegiate training.  Moreover, the charter required, on the insistence of the Government, that while open to everybody in general and to dissenters in particular, its teachers were to be Presbyterians or Anglicans.

    These conditions greatly hindered its growth and usefulness.  It naturally could not ask support from anybody except members of its own faith, and as the Presbyterians numbered only about twenty congregations in the Province, it loaded them with a heavy financial burden.  However, they raised about one thousand pounds, to which the Government added about five hundred pounds more, and the building, a picture of which appears on another page, was erected.  Dr. McCulloch was made principal and a class of 23 students was organized in 1817.  They met first in a private residence, but moved into the Academy building following its completion in 1818.  Dr. McCulloch, while continuing as pastor to Prince Street Church, was unstinting in his devotion to the new institution.  He taught Hebrew, Greek, Logic and Philosophy.  He had one assistant for a number of years, who taught mathematics in the Academy, in addition to his duties as head of the Grammar School.  Students who were sufficiently advanced, and who wished to enter the ministry, he privately instructed in theology, and in this way in a measure, carried out the original purpose of the institution.

    Its success encouraged the trustees to ask the government in 1823 for a permanent endowment.  Up to this time they had received about 1300 pounds in yearly grants.  The application for an endowment, while passed by the Assembly at its sessions in 1823 and 1824, was rejected in both instances by the Council, although a grant of 400 pounds was agreed to by the Upper House in the latter year.

    In 1825 began the struggle for recognition and public aid which has become historic.  The dissenters numbered nearly four fifths of the population of the Province, the greater number of whom were Presbyterians.  The latter felt that they should at least have an endowment equal to Kings College, whose tests were such as to bar all but Anglicans, and these only numbered one-fifth of Nova Scotia’s population.  The trustees asked that the tests saddled on the Academy be removed.  They petitioned for the right to confer degrees, and asked for the founding of a divinity professorship, while at the same time renewing their request for a permanent endowment.  All these applications, while passed by the Assembly, were rejected by the Council, although they agreed to pass the yearly grant of 400 pounds.

    In the meantime the friends of the institution were active in its support.  Government opposition urged them on to greater effort.  The Presbyterian church synod took up subscriptions for its maintenance.  Ladies’ Penny-a-week societies were formed to raise money for it.  Dr. McCulloch visited Scotland, in its behalf, and as a result the United Secession Church recognized its claims, and urged its congregations to forward financial help, which they did, while the students of Theological Hall pledged themselves to raise 200 pounds.  A respectable library was collected and a philosophical apparatus was installed.  Later a chemical apparatus was added, and with the assistance of his family Dr. McCulloch collected a museum of natural history, which at the time was the largest in the Province, Audubon pronouncing his collection of native birds among the finest he had ever seen.

    Up to this time the opposition to the Academy had come from the leaders of the established church, who were in the majority in the council, although four of its nine members, as well as influential Anglicans of the Assembly championed its right with great oratorical ability.  Now they were to meet opposition in their own ranks.  Presbyterian was arrayed against Presbyterian.  The trustees were asked to drop the teaching of the higher branches, by members of the Church of Scotland.  The former refused.  The petitions sent to the Assembly during the next few years asking for a change in the school, influenced the council to refuse all aid, while the management remained under the then trustees, although they later agreed that 400 pounds placed in the hands of the Governor for the benefit of the institution.

    Thus the struggle continued until 1831.  Bill after bill was passed by the Assembly with large majorities—sometimes unanimously—and as often rejected by the Upper House.  A great amount of political and religious animosity was engendered.  But speeches were also made in behalf of education and popular government, which have no superior in the annals of Nova Scotia history.  In the same year Jotham Blanchard was entrusted with a mission to England to lay the case of the Academy before the British Government, which after hearing him, virtually sustained all his contentions.  The Local Government was severely reprimanded.  As a result, a compromise measure was introduced in the Assembly, and after several modifications, was passed by the Council.  Both Collegiate and Grammar School studies were to be taught in the same building and 100 pounds of the 400 pound government grant, was to be devoted to the latter.

    From now on the institution declined.  In 1838, Dalhousie College, which had been established in the meantime, received a grant of 800 pounds, and Dr. McCulloch was appointed its president, a position he held until his death in 1843.  Pictou Academy continued to do efficient educational work, but its glory had departed.  The collegiate studies were gradually abandoned, until it reached the status of Grammar school, and as such it remained until 1865, in which year under the Nova Scotia School Act it was remodelled as a County Academy.

    Altho the institution did not confer degrees, it gave its students a thorough classical and scientific education.  Three of the students belonging to the first class which had graduated from the Academy won on examination the degree of M. A. from Glasgow University.  It has trained a large number of men for stations of usefulness in Church and State.  It has educated more than 300 men for the ministry.  It has given eight college presidents to Canada, and several to the United States.  Among its graduates was the alte president of McGill College, Sir Wm. Dawson, one of America’s famous scientific men, Sir T. D. Archibald, Baron of the English Court of Exchequer, Judge Ritchie of the Supreme Court of Canada, Sir Hugh Hoyle, Chief Justice of Newfoundland, D. D. M. Gordon, president of Queens College, Toronto, and others who have won distinction in the professions and business.

    It largely advanced the cause of higher education in the Province.  The crushing of Pictou Academy, called Dalhousie College into existence, and the class in theology by Dr. McCulloch culminated in Pine Hill, the Presbyterian Theological College at Halifax, while its educational struggles, and the movement for responsible government which grew out of it, gives it a unique place in Nova Scotia’s educational history and has invested it with a hallowed frame, which the years cannot dim nor the hand of time erase.

    With the enactment of the Nova Scotia School Act, grants of $600.00 were made for each County Academy to which students passing the entrance examination were admitted free.  Pictou Academy, with about six other institutions, on account of their superior equipment, received grants of $1000.00 instead of $600.00 per year.  The increased amount greatly added to its efficiency.  Under Dr. A. H. MacKay, who became principal in 1873 it made renewed headway.  It became celebrated far beyond the limits of the county, and the number of students increased to such an extent, that a new building became absolutely necessary.  To that end about $20,000 was raised, and the new school was erected on the site of the present one, making it at the time one of the finest high school buildings in the Province.

    Under the Act passed in 1885 to encourage Academic Education, Pictou Academy, on account of the high charater of the educational work done, was entitled to the largest grant the Government offered.  In 1895, the Academy building was struck by lightning and the greater part of the valuable museum and many interesting records were destroyed.  A new one double the size of the old, was erected in 1896, and completed in 1897.  It is an attractive building, as the picture shows, and occupies an imposing position on the upper levels of the town.  It has four class rooms and a well equipped chemical and scientific laboratory as well as a well selected museum.

    The faculty is composed of the Principal and four instructors.  The course of studies embraces four years.  Ancient and Modern  languages, physics, biology, zoology, and other studies are taught, passing which a certificate admits students to any of the Nova Scotia colleges.

    The town has two buildings for teaching primary and intermediate studies, in which eight teachers are employed.  The West end school is the original Academy building erected nearly one hundred years ago, and is still in a good state of preservation.

    The catholics support a separate school, known as Stella Maris Convent, under the direction of the Congregation de Notre Dame.  It is conducted both as a boarding and day school, which latter is attended by 165 pupils.

    The Pictou School of Music is affiliated with the Royal College of Music and Royal Academy of Music of London, England.  Its founder, Professor T. Singleton has had wide musical experience.  He is at present the organist of St. James Church, before which he was engaged with the Methodist Church of Port Hope for 23 years.

    The school has been very successful.  Over 50 pupils received certificates since it was established, among whom was Catherine Singleton, aged 6 years and 4 months, who up to that time was the youngest child in Canada to pass the primary grade examination.