Julia Ann Tevis

Julia Ann Tevis  (Shelby, 1799-1880)
Opened Science Hill Female Academy in 1825.  She directed the school for more than 50 years with a philosophy that science and math were important for young women to study.

Julia Ann Hieronymous Tevis was one of America's great educators. In 1825, Tevis founded Science Hill Female Academy in Shelbyville.

Julia Ann Hieronymus, a Virginian by birth, married John Tevis, a Methodist minister, in 1824. The girls' school they operated, initially with support from the Methodist Church, was unlike any other in Kentucky. Unlike the curriculum in many girls' schools, the study of chemistry did not give way to embroidery and the study of mathematics did not yield to the making of reticules and antimacassars.

By 1857 the school boasted 230 students. John Tevis died months before the Civil War broke out. His widow shocked her supporters by sheltering Union troops at her school. ''The state must hold together,'' she told those who condemned her. ''The Negroes must be freed.''

In 1879 Tevis sold the school to Dr. Wiley Taut Poynter. The Poynter family ran Science Hill Female Academy until it closed in 1929, always espousing its founder's creed: ''Woman's mind is limitless. Help it to grow.''