Buckingham Notables: Arnaud Eduard Préot
Courtesy Longwood University
During the Civil War, Buckingham Female Collegiate Institute closed its doors for the last time. The college’s music instructor, composer Arnaud Préot, successfully continued his career and became President of Farmville Female College, today Longwood University. His tenure there lasted from 1862-69.
Longwood University’s website provides this brief biography:
The second principal of Farmville Female College and the seventh overall president, Arnaud Preot, a native of Lille, France, took over for the recently departed George La Monte in the midst of the Civil War. He had previously taught at Walkhill Academy in Pennsylvania and was a professor of music and languages at Southworth College in Petersburg, Va. He moved to Buckingham County in the 1850s to teach music at the Female Collegiate Institute, which faltered at the beginning of the war. Preot took a job as a music and French teacher at Farmville Female College and was then named president.
Under Preot’s tenure, the faculty was enlarged and a three-year degree program for select students was instituted. Tuition and fees at the college had been raised by that time to $63 for music and language tuition, and $64 for board. By 1864-65, enrollment had increased to 87 students, in addition to a number of other scholars seeking certificates of proficiency. Preot resigned the presidency in 1869 to teach at Danville Female College. When that institution closed the next year, he accepted a position on the faculty of Roanoke Female College, eventually serving as principal there.
Information for this biography included several sources, among them was Longwood College: A History by Rosemary Sprague.
Click here for more about the history of Longwood University’s Presidents.
Search Slate River Ramblings for more about Buckingham Female Collegiate Institute.
slate river ramblings . . . . 
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