Town of Mount Croghan

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History of Mt. Croghan (2)

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In 1836, the people of Mount Croghan were concerned about organizing a school to educate their children. At that time, academies were important types of schools. It was then decided that an academy should be started.Stephen Jackson Mary Burch gave the land for the school to be built about a mile north of Mount Croghan at the old Elizabeth Church. Joseph Burch, Stephen Jackson, John Huntley, Sandy May, Joel Baker and Samuel Timmons gave of their time and materials so that this school might be built.

When the Academy was started, it was the only school within a radius of twenty miles. Alexander Whitton was the first teacher at the Academy.

The importance of the old Elizabeth Academy increased until it meant more to the people educationally and socially than any other place in the small community. The Academy was considered equal to a high school, and some of the children who attended were later considered the best educated people in Chesterfield County. Mount Croghan was one of the towns burned down by General William T. Sherman and his army in 1864 as Sherman and his troops divided the South. Most of the recorded facts of Mount Croghan’s history were destroyed. During the Civil War, the northerners burned the Academy and stuck their swords and bayonets in the surrounding ground to see that nothing of value was buried there. Mount Croghan Academy failed in the year 1900.

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