Pea Ridge Masonic College  The Pea Ridge Masonic College was a private school located in Pea Ridge, Arkansas that offered a structured education in primary, secondary and collegiate levels. It served primarily as a normal college or teaching school, where students were taught to work as primary and secondary education teachers. It operated from 1874–1916, before being absorbed into the town's public primary and secondary schools. The beginning of the Pea Ridge Masonic College, also known as Mount Vernon Normal College, Pea Ridge Academy, Pea Ridge College and Pea Ridge Normal College, dates to 1860, when Rev. Elijah Buttram, a circuit-riding Methodist preacher, founded Buttram's Chapel east of Pea Ridge, the present site of Buttram's Chapel Cemetery. Between 1860 and 1874, educational services at the site were sporadic and led by volunteers and local clergy. Pea Ridge had become the educational center not only for the area, but also for aspiring scholars from across county and state lines. In 1884, the Pea Ridge School District #109 was approved as a tax-supported school. The county court had been approached with a petition requesting approval, with Professor Roberts making the presentation of the petition to the court. A board of directors was in charge of the public school grades, while trustees handled affairs for the college, both of which coexisted in the same building. In 1894, while the college was experiencing some financial issues, Professor Roberts left the college and returned to the Springfield, Missouri, vicinity. After Roberts's departure, a new administration led by B. H. Caldwell reorganized the school as Mount Vernon Normal College, also known as the Pea Ridge Normal College. (The name "Mount Vernon" comes from the Mount Vernon township in which the town of Pea Ridge is located.) Commencement materials from 1895 show that—in addition to the teacher-training programs suggested by the school's new name—music, literature, and other humanities programs were important in the curriculum. Benton County historian J. Dickson Black reports that, in 1902, the college was advertising itself as one of the best business schools in Arkansas. In 1904, the college went through a second reorganization. Details of the circumstances are sketchy, but it seems a group of nine Masonic lodges teamed together to sponsor the college's operation. The school adopted the new name Mount Vernon Masonic College, although the institution's other names would endure in popular usage through and beyond the active life of the college. In 1914 Professor Roberts returned to visit the school he had helped found and to take part in the observance of the 40th anniversary of the college.