Harper Carroll's education

Robert Goodloe Harper Carroll began his education with tutoring at home, then proceeded to St. Mary's College in Baltimore. St. Mary's was established in 1805 as a university and in 1922 became the country's first seminary. Harper's father, Charles Carroll of Doughoregan, had also attended St. Mary's, and at least one of his brothers, John Lee Carroll, attended as well. Though it was called a college, students were accepted at the elementary school level. The college was on Paca Street and was run by the Sulpician Fathers, a group that had long been supported by the Carroll family.

Although his father and at least two older brothers, Charles and John Lee, went briefly to Mount St. Mary's College in Emmitsburg, Maryland, there is no record of Harper having attended there. Instead, he was admitted into the Jesuit run Georgetown College on September 5, 1853. The two oldest Carroll boys, Charles and John Lee, had attended Georgetown University from 1844-1846. While there, John Lee Carroll earned an award in Christian Doctrine, one of the categories for "premiums" or academic awards. In 1853, both Albert and Harper came to Georgetown. Eighteen year old brother Albert was admitted into the highest level of Humanities (1st level) and the beginning level of French and Mathematics. Harper, at age 14, was admitted into the highest level of Mathematics and the lowest level of Humanities and French. His records show a continuing proficiency in mathematics, but was a good student in Humanities, as well. At the graduation ceremony in 1854, he was recognized for proficiency in Humanities which at Georgetown involved Latin, Greek, and the study of Roman writers as well as Geography and Geometry. The following year, he was awarded First Premium in music for proficiency on the piano. Besides earning awards, or premiums, in arithmetic, he was also awarded "accesserunt" (the third level of awards) for French.

The account books for the years he attended show that his father paid for additional piano and dancing lessons. Harper also had a few expenses for recreational activities, such as the Hippodrome, the circus, and sleighing. He was a member of the Reading Room Association, a group whose object was "to give all the students who may think proper to avail themselves of its advantages, the opportunity of acquiring early and accurate information upon the leading topics of the day" by furnishing a room with periodicals and newspapers.

As the letter below indicates, he was troubled with a persistant cough in 1855 and after he went home to Baltimore on December 20th, he briefly attended Loyola College. He returned to Georgetown on April 2, 1856. He had not achieved enough credits to graduate with his class in 1858, perhaps because of more difficulties with his health. However, he did not return the following year, but rather took a job as a clerk in Ellicott City, near Doughoregan Manor.

Georgetown was established in 1789 and was the nation's first Catholic University. The courses offered were based on a classical education, but Georgetown was particulary rigorous, with the students having to rise at 5:30 to attend mass and have regular confession. All correspondence going to students and coming from students was read by the priests and anything deemed inappropriate was confiscated. There were strict limitations on secular reading materials as well.

Harper would have been surrounded at Georgetown with the Catholic elite, particularly from the South. Many of the students were also related to him, at least distantly. His future brother-in-law, William Lee, was at the college, as was Richard H. Lee. Phillip M. Carroll attended, as did Daniel Carroll, who died a few years later while a midshipman in the Confederate Navy (Carroll had graduated from Annapolis after leaving Georgetown.) The family was also distantly related to the Digges, making Harper kin to Eugene, Francis, and Charles Digges. Harper was in Humanities class with James R. Randall, the man who would later be prompted by the Baltimore riot of 1861 to write "Maryland, My Maryland," a famous song in the Confederacy and now the official state song. Of the 1,500 students of military age at the time of the Civil War, 1, 141 served, all but 216 in the Confederacy.

Sources: Georgetown Entrance books 1850-1895, Georgetown University Special Collections, Tuition Ledger Book L, Georgetown University Special Collections, Account Book, 1853-1858, Georgetown University Special Collections, College catalogues 1853-1858, Georgetown University Special Collections, "Blue and Gray: Georgetown University and the Civil War," by James S. Ruby (Washington, 1961) pp. xiii.