In January of 1864 Professor Henry Nold was faced with a new challenge. Aranama College in Goliad, where he had once served as president, had closed, and its 30 male students elected Nold as captain of their newly formed military company.
Col. John S. Ford, CSA, in San Antonio, accepted the "Aranama Cadets" into Confederate service, and the company was ordered to report for duty in Victoria. But, at age 40, Nold was unsuited for the military life. Years after his death, Mary Nold Mathis recalled that her father, "never a robust man, soon succumbed to the rigors of outdoor camp life, and after a short term of service was honorably discharged because of ill health." Nold would have to look outside the South for employment -- Mexico. The war had already cost him his beloved Ingleside College.
Nold was born in Burk's County, Pa., in 1824. He received both A.B. and A.M. degrees at Centre College in Kentucky. Nold and his wife Elizabeth (Godden) moved to Texas, where Henry served as president of Aranama College. Determined to establish his own school, he purchased 89 acres at Ingleside, on the north side of Corpus Christi Bay, and built "large, convenient, and well ventilated" buildings which also served as his family's residence. The school opened in 1857. With only a few families residing in the area, Ingleside College (also known as Ingleside Male and Female Academy) was primarily a boarding school with a limit of 30 male boarders. Girls boarded with the family of John W. Pollen, whose large ranch home was close by. In an advertising flier, Nold assured parents and guardians that his school's isolation along with his constant vigilance would protect their children "from every species of vice and temptation that might corrupt or distract the minds of the students." The cost of room and board for 10 months was $150, with a year's tuition set at $170.
1863 report card
The 1860 federal census for San Patricio County lists the occupation of both Henry Nold and his wife Elizabeth as "School teacher," but, because the census was taken after the school term had ended, no other teachers and no students were listed. Nold was himself responsible for teaching Greek, Latin, German, and modern languages and other subjects as required. The older Nold children would likely have been enrolled as day students, along with offspring of John Pollen and wealthy stock raiser John Vineyard.
One known boarding student during the 1862-'63 school year was 13-year-old Stephen Austin Menefee from Jackson County, son of planter-politician John Sutherland Menefee. The boy's report card, dated Oct. 2, 1863, records his having completed nine courses, with maximum achievement in spelling and practical arithmetic.
In addition to his regular duties at the college, Nold was frequently called on to serve the community "by lancing boils, extracting aching molars, and administering 'blue pills'." With no hotel in Ingleside, the Nold home was always in a state of 'open house'.
Tragically, the Civil War brought an end to Ingleside College. With the coast vulnerable to raids from the federal blockaders, Nold had little choice other than sending his students safely to their homes and returning with his family to Goliad. The federal soldiers occupying Mustang Island required lumber to build shelters, and the empty school buildings and abandoned homes of Confederate sympathizers were dismantled and removed for that purpose. Ingleside College was never rebuilt. Henry Nold continued to teach, briefly in Mexico, then Kentucky, Rockport, Texas, then back to Kentucky where he died of influenza at age 62. A dedicated educator to the end, he must have often reflected on the school that had been his proudest achievement -- Ingleside College.
Norman C. Delaney is retired history professor and honored Piper Professor at Del Mar College. E-mail: email@example.com