Joseph Salyards, A Forgotten Early Educator in New Market
The name of educator Joseph Salyards didn’t resonate with me until I heard a talk “Joseph Salyards (1808-1885): The Eternal Sage of Shenandoah” at the New Market Area Library by E. K. Knappenberger in April 2025. Historian and retired teacher Dale MacAllister also shared information about Salyards, whom he has researched at the library program. Much of the information in this article came from those two men. Joseph Salyards’ name is not recognized by many although he is perhaps the most accomplished educator in New Market history.
Joseph Salyards was born on April 9, 1808, in Front Royal, Virginia. He was the son of Levi Sollars (Salyards) and Alice Edwards. According to Kappenberger, Levi went off to fight the Indians and never returned. This backwoods family was “poor, illiterate, and fatherless;” however, Joseph Salyards who only attended a few weeks of school, taught himself and could read, write and translate 8 different languages. A genealogist who traces his roots to Salyards says his middle name was Monterville but there are no printed records showing that, and some say his middle initial was “H.”
Salyards was hired at age 17 to teach at New Market Academy. The Town of New Market collected money for him to buy clothes which were appropriate for teaching, and books for him to use. The original New Market Academy was a log structure built in 1817 and was destroyed by fire. In 1841, a second academy was built of brick; it also burned. The third New Market Academy, also built of brick in 1842, was run by Salyards. Salyards was in McGaheysville from 1838-40 running Oak Hill Academy. He also ran an academy in Harrisonburg where the Kavanaugh Hotel is located; Salyards ran the Cedar Grove Seminary which John Kline started.
In 1870, the New Market Academy became the New Market Polytechnic Institute, a college. Salyards was a professor there for 50 non-consecutive years. He was the third President of Faculty from 12884-1885. The Polytechnic Institute was operated until 1895 and housed other schools over the years including the Virginia Normal Music School (1875), the New Market Normal Institute for Teachers (1881), several classes of public school (1895 and 1920s), the Shenandoah Lutheran Institute (1913) and Emmanuel Lutheran Church School (1921). The building was torn down in 1942 to build a church parking lot, but there is a plaque about the school erected on the western end of the parking lot by historian Nancy Stewart, author of Schools in New Market Shenandoah County, Virginia Volume 1: 1766 – 1870 and Volume 2: 1800-1991. Both books have information on Salyards, and the schools noted.
Salyards could very well be called the Founder of Higher Education in the Shenandoah Valley and beyond! The founders of JMU, EMU, and Bridgewater College all have connections to Salyards. His second wife was the sister of Bridgewater College founder Daniel Christian Flory. Samuel Schmucker, a great abolitionist and the founder of Gettysburg College, was a colleague and friend of Salyards. Henry Ruffner, recognized as the Father of Public Education in Virginia, had roots in New Market with Salyards. Salyards was good friends with pioneer music teacher, composer and publisher Joseph Funk of Singers Glen, who invented the shaped notes system used in Harmonia Sacra. Salyards had connections with John Wayland, who wrote poetry as well; they were in the Bridgewater College Literary Society.
One of Salyard’s interesting students at the New Market Academy in 1870 was James Padgett, who later became a District Attorney in D. C. Padgett wrote down many “spirit communications” which he said were received from Salyards after his death. Over 300 “Padgett Messages” can be found online.
Salyards was the author of one book Idothea or The Divine Image. A Poem. His pen name was Philemomelos; his book was not published until 50 years after it was written. A thesis on the book noted that it had “classic, enduring value.” The book is still available on Amazon and in the Library of Congress. The James Madison University Libraries Special Collections houses the Article of Agreement (March 29, 1875) giving Ambrose L. Henkel the exclusive right to sell the 1874 edition of the book, published by Henkel, Calvert and Co. Printers of New Market. The JMU Special Collections also houses the Henkel Family Papers (1783-1916) with information on Salyards.
The Shenandoah County Library Truban Archives has a file with the book The Life of Joseph Salyards, Scholar and Poet published by Henkel Press in 1893 as well as 9 boxes of approximately 213 files containing photos, documents, local history publications 1717-2016 related to Salyards, who taught women as a private tutor, unusual for that time.
Salyards was married twice; first to Sarah Rebecca May from Timberville around 1828; they had at least 9 children (4 sons and 5 daughters.) Sarah died in 1860. He married his second wife Elizabeth Flory on March 9, 1861, and they had 3 children (2 sons and 1 daughter.) Elizabeth died February 8, 1903.
Salyards died on August 10, 1885, at the age of 77. He died poor; his family could not afford a gravestone for his grave in Emmanuel Cemetery beside the parking lot that housed the two schools at which he worked. Friends erected a gravestone in several years after his death with a metal plaque in front quoting some of his poem. And so Salyards’ life came full circle from teaching at an early age to his final resting spot nearby in New Market. It is interesting that nothing that I could find in New Market is named for Joseph Salyards, and except for the plaque on the parking lot where the New Market Academy/New Market Polytechnic Institute once stood, there is no mention of him.
