Permanence and Impermanence of an Academy in Augusta during the American Revolution

"It was the Presbyterian faith of the Scots, emphasizing a well-educated clergy which could produce informative sermons, that was principally responsible for this interest in education."
McDaniel, Watson, and Moore (1979). From Liberty Hall Academy: The Early History of the Institutions Which Evolved into Washington and Lee.

The Larkin Spring Site (MAP)

Washington and Lee University’s claim to a 1749 date of origin wasn't established until the late 19th century (Wilcox 2018), resting primarily on oral tradition (Patton 1890) and James McNutt's estate, which was settled by Thomas Beard in the early 1750s. James McNutt's will, probated around 1753, noted debts for payment to Robert Alexander for "schooling" his two sons James and Robert, who were around 8 years old. In the same estate settlement, McNutt's older son Alexander is noted as receiving "schooling" from James Dobbins and would have been around 13 years old (Chalkley 1912: 30). Robert Alexander likely tutored other young men, including Samuel Doak for a short time around 1765 (Foote 1846: 310), but the extent or continuity of his teaching is unclear, even though the term "schooling" is used. Even though the elder McNutt's settled debts spanned more than a decade, the debt to Robert Alexander for "schooling" only covers the year 1748. Robert Alexander's great nephew, the Reverend Doctor Archibald Alexander (named after Robert's brother) noted in his autobiographical notes that Robert taught mathematics when he came to America, but he makes no mention of him teaching a school once settled in "New Virginia" as the Great Valley was then called by the early settlers (Alexander 1854: 1). An additional claim about Robert Alexander having obtained a masters degree seems wholely to have been fabricated in the late 19th century. The Reverend Doctor does, however, note that his grandfather, Archibald, "At the solicitation of others, and for the sake of the his children,...gave lessons to such of the neighboring youth as would resort to him at night" (1854: 6).

There were other examples of country schoolhouses in what became Rockbridge County, for example one set up along Woods Creek by Robert Alexander's nephew William (Alexander 1854: 12), who was also a founding Trustee of Liberty Hall Academy when it was chartered by the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1782. A man named Carrigan operated another school roughly a half mile north of the North River, where children visited every day (Alexander 1854: 1-12). Oren Morton (1920) notes that early in the colonial effort of Rockbridge County "education was then altogether a matter of private effort, such mention of schoolhouses or teachers as we find in the public records is purely incidental...(but) schools there were." He then notes that Carrigan is the earliest teacher in the Borden Grant. He also notes that it is James Dobbins who taught Alexander McNutt in 1748 (184). He also notes that a man named Robert Fulton appears as a teacher in 1765. Needless to say, many private homes acted as ad hoc "schoolhouses" throughout the area during this era.

William Alexander is an interesting figure in the discussion of this claim to an early founding of an academy in 1749, since he was Robert Alexander's nephew but was well-known to have gone uneducated during his youth, having been born in 1738. The Reverend Doctor Archibald Alexander, William's son, noted: "William Alexander...enjoyed fewer opportunities of education; yet being an active mind, and having more access to books than his companions, he acquired a considerable fund of knowledge" (Alexander 1854: 7). If there had been a going concern acting as an academy to educate young men and prepare them for entrance to the College of New Jersey, especially one operated by his uncle, why did William Alexander lack such an education? This lack of aducation is cited by his son Archibald as one of the reasons for William pushing to establish his own school along Woods Creek and for then backing Liberty Hall Academy in its move to Lexington in 1782. William Alexander's school, run by a man named John "Jack" Reardon, "...was large, and some of the scholars were nearly grown. It consisted of both boys and girls" (Alexander 1854: 13).  

In any case, the education provided by the Robert Alexander--and later at his nephew's school, among others--was elementary in nature as a grammar school. This type of education was one in which students were prepared in the skills necessary to enter college, which was generally limited to the study of ancient languages and literature with the express goal of allowing young men the capacity to engage in Biblical studies. 

The Mount Pleasant Location of Augusta Academy
Located near the present town of Fairfield, the Mount Pleasant School was first referred to in 1773, when the Reverend Mr. John Brown, a graduate of Princeton, mentioned the elementary educational program of his students there. Ebenezer Smith was also noted as a teacher for a year there, before moving on. He was the brother of the Reverend Samuel Stanhope Smith, who was the initial Rector of Hampden-Sydney College, established by the patronage of the Presbytery of Hanover in 1775.

It was not until the same presbytery decided to "establish & patronize a publick school which shall be confined to the County of Augusta" (Presbytery of Hanover Minutes: 13 October 1774) that there was an academy with a direct line of descent that leads clearly and eventually to Washington and Lee University. Initially thinking this school might be established at Staunton, the congregations of New Providence and Timber Ridge induced the Presbytery to establish the school further south at the Mount Pleasant site to be "managed by Mr. William Graham a gentleman...& under the general inspection of the Rev(erend) Mr. Brown" (ibid).

William Graham, a graduate of Princeton and friend of Samuel Stanhope Smith, was invited at Smith's urging to come teach at the school with the vacancy of the other teachers. He soon established his renown and was licensed to preach the Gospel the following October.  In addition to being named the teacher of the school now know as Augusta Academy, he became minister at Timber Ridge and Hall's Meeting House (New Monmouth) congregations (Graham 1821: 254). One of his first tasks was to travel to Philadelphia to purchase a library of "well chosen books, and the most essential parts of a mathematical and philosophical apparatus" (Graham 1821: 255). It was this point in the spring of 1776 that the Presbytery decided to name Graham as the Rector of the Academy and Mr. John Montgomery as his assistant, with twenty-four Trustees (Graham 1821: 255). 

The Timber Ridge Location-Liberty Hall Academy

Later that spring, and with a spark of revolutionary fervor, the Trustees decided to rename the school Liberty Hall Academy.  For the remainder of the year they debated the merits of a permanent site of the school, and they chose a location near the Timber Ridge meeting house at the behest of its elders, some of whom promised to donate land and other resources for its erection and upkeep (Graham 1821: 255). Even with the advent of war and the rising recognition that military-aged men would be asked to volunteer and eventually be eligible for the draft, the Academy thrived at first as 1777 began. But as volunteer companies were mustered and their officers selected, Mr. Graham's military zeal for the cause led to his being selected as a Captain, which subsequently distracted him and his students from the duties of the Academy as they began to procure supplies for the expected militrary campaign. The call never came, however, the depreciation of the currency as a consequence of wartime inflation made life hard on Graham, and the lands he was supplied at Timber Ridge were not adequate to grow the food necessary to feed his family (Graham 1821: 257). 

Arrival at Mulberry Hill

On April 7th, 1778 William Graham purchased from Joseph Walker a 291 acre farm on the south side of the North River for £460 (Rockbridge County Deed Book A: Page 7), though it took almost a year fro the Trustees to give him permission "to remove his family to his farm" requirng that he "visit the Academy every week and spend two or three days at it as circumstances might permit" (Graham 1821: 257). Within about six months the Academy at Timber Ridge ceased operations. A number of his students, however, followed him to his new location and either boarded with him directly or in the newly-established town of Lexington so they could continue their studies under his direction (Graham 1821: 257-258). This circumstance, with more or fewer students studying with the Reverend Graham persisted until the autum of 1781 with the students having been "taught for some time in an old house which had once been used as a dwelling house" (Graham 1821: 260). It should be noted, however, that this land purchased by William Graham did not include the location of Mulberry Hill, either the landform or the mansion house now owned and occupied by the Kappa Alpha National Chapter. William Graham did not purchase this land, containing one-hundred and eighty-eight acres, from Joseph Walker and his wife until nearly a decade after his initial move to Lexington..

October 19th, 1781, when Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, the Trustees once again put into motion efforts to re-establish Liberty Hall Academy on a more permanent footing in the vicinity of Mulberry Hill, through its petition for a charter from the House of Delgates and the purchase of roughly 20 acres of land from William Graham, William Alexander, and Joseph Walker on October the 2nd of 1782.