101 N. Main Street

On the west end of Lot 17 where the William Lynch School is today once stood the Salem Academy.  The Salem Academy faced West Second Street to the North.  The building was constructed by A.E. Dye around 1870.  The bricks were made by a man with the last name of Burright.  The school was two stories high with six classrooms and a recitations room.  There were two halls and two closets for coats and hats on the first floor.  The hat hooks were located on the stairway for the boys. 

The bell for the school hung inside the cupola on top of the school.  There was a frame building 20 feet by 24 feet that was used for a music room where piano and violin lessons were taught.  The music teacher was a blind man by the name of Hight Wooliver. 

Mr. Wooliver also organized the first brass band in Salem.  The debating society held meetings in this building.  Courses taught at the Salem Academy were: academics, intermediate, primary reading, writing and orthography, music, Greek, Latin, German, French and bookkeeping.  Professor William H. Lynch was the first Superintendent who came to Salem from St. James.  He was also Superintendent at a school in Steelville, but decided to stay at Salem due to the outlook for success and higher wages. 

Professor Lynch came to Salem in 1874 and remained here for 10 years.  Alumni which graduated from the Salem Academy were:  a Commadore of the U.S. Navy, a Colonel of the Sixth Missouri Regiment, lawyers, judges, noted musicians, newspaper editors, educators and other noted professionals in our community and beyond.  Unfortunately the Academy was torn down in 1931.  The present day William H. Lynch Elementary School was built with the school facing Main Street (Highway 19 South). In honor of Professor Lynch the school was named for him. The only remaining object from the Salem Academy is its school bell which once hung in the cupola atop the school.

Franz Adelmann
12/25/1821 – 6/17/1875

Francis Melinda (Duckworth) Adelmann
10/26/1836 – 8/6/1908

John Doss Gibson
4/28/1865 - 10/20/1939

Carrie A. Adelmann Rudd
9/6/1869 – 8/20/1944

Amie Adelmann Elmer
1/10/1872 – 10/15/1963

Franz Agustus Adelmann
3/15/1874 – 7/14/1956



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