During the first eighteen years of W.H. McGuffey's life he had no
opportunities for education other than those afforded by the brief
winter schools supported by the voluntary subscriptions of the parents
in the neighborhood.

In 1802 Rev. Thos. Hughes, a Presbyterian clergyman, built at
Darlington, Pa., the "Old Stone Academy" for the education of young men,
having obtained the necessary funds by traveling on horseback throughout
Pennsylvania and eastward even to Newburyport, Mass.

This seminary of learning was conducted on lines of the utmost economy
to meet the needs of the boys living on the frontier. The tuition was
only three dollars a year and the charge for board was seventy-five
cents a week. The food was simple. For breakfast, bread, butter, and
coffee; for dinner, bread, meat, and sauce; for supper, bread and milk.
The only variation allowed in this bill of fare was the occasional
omission of sauce or coffee.

[The Old Stone Academy]

At the close of a summer day in 1818, Thomas Hughes was riding horseback
through Trumbull county. The dust on the highway deadened the sound of
his horse's feet. While passing a log cabin, half hidden from the road
by intervening trees and shrubs, he heard the plaintive voice of a woman
who was in the garden, out of sight. The clergyman stopped his horse and
listened. He heard the woman earnestly praying that some way might be
opened for her children to obtain such education as should fit them for
the duties of life. Riding on, the clergyman inquired at the next house
regarding the inmates of the log cabin. He was informed that a Mr.
McGuffey lived there. Turning back he sought the prayerful mother and