This research investigated the history of Ginásio Leopoldinense, located in Leopoldina City, in Zona da Mata Mineira, as well as its educational project, throughout the period of 1906 to 1926. This time frame corresponds to most of the Old Republic or the First Republic, a scenery marked by the alternation in power by the oligarchies of Minas Gerais and São Paulo, between 1890 to 1930. In 1906, this educational institution was founded and stood out of the other schools created in the city, by offering many levels of education: kindergarden, primary education, agricultural, high school, training college, military and higher education in Dentistry and Pharmacy. Most of these courses ran until mid-1926, when this private institution was owned by the city. With the exception of Agricultural Learning, created for the poor children and orphans, the courses had a clearly selective character, both in social sense as in the pedagogical and professional. The students came from wealthy social classes, in general, the children of farmers and self-employed professionals, and were recruited since primary school, preparative, until college. Our hypothesis was that this institution was responsible, during its first twenty years of operation, to develop an educational program to form the Zona da Mata Mineira s elite and teacher training for primary education, ruled by the principles and desires of the Republican Party of Minas Gerais of modernization, progress and, at the same time, maintenance of the oligarchic structure. From there, I ve looked for evidence that helped with intelligibility which educational practices guided this learning program and the people who built this institution. For this, the sociability network and professional careers helped to think about the history and the institutional program, in it s relation to local, state and national policies. Horta (1985), Holanda (2006) and Leal (2012) contributed to the debate on patriarchal practices and coronelismo revealed by the school culture. This, in turn, was analyzed from the authors point of view, such as Chervel (2003), Vinão Frago (2006), Julia (2001) and Magalhães (2004), authors who have brought contributions to the analysis of the history of Ginásio Leopoldinense, in which might reveal details of the legislation and educational reforms, as well as well as on formation, professionalization and construction of the teacher identity.