Here's a story from Harriet Branton's new book, Washington County Chronicles! You can pick up a copy here at the historical society for $22.
The disastrous fire during the winter of 1790-91 that deprived Washington County of its first courthouse also left the fledgling Washington Academy homeless. Plans to proceed with the construction of a new courthouse began almost immediately. However, the future for Washington Academy was not so rosy. In vain did the prestigious John McMillan, Thaddeus Dod and David Johnston, principal of the academy, plead with the townspeople for financial help to get the school back on its feet. It was a futile effort. Years later, in 1817, McMillan wrote of the attempt to rebuild the school in Washington. He reported, with more than a suggestion of disgust, that "so indifferent were the inhabitants of that town to the interests of literature in general and to the demand of the church in particular that notwithstanding the state's donation an academy would not be supported."
What to do? The trustees took their problem to Colonel John Canon, eight miles away. It so happened that Canon and other McMillan supporters had hoped for some time to found an academy in Canonsburg, either by enlarging the McMillan school or starting a new one. Here was their chance. in almost no time at all, a group of men, including Canon and McMillan, found themselves meeting after church one day in a field "under the shade of some sassafras bushes." Exercises were held that July day in 1791 invoking the blessing of God upon a new academic institution. It began that very fall, holding classes in temporary quarters until Colonel Canon's fine new stone building, being constructed on land he had donated, was ready. Canonsburg Academy was in business. It continued the work begun by McMillan in his own log school in 1780-81 that was alleged to be the "first literary institution west of the mountains." in 1792, the Pittsburgh Gazette advertised that the building for Canonsburg Academy was finished and that the grammar school was in operation under the direction of David Johnston, former principal of the Washington Academy. Course offerings included English, geometry, trigonometry, astronomy, algebra and bookkeeping. Board was available in the neighborhood. The institution had the financial support of Redstone Presbytery.
In 1794, the school was chartered by the Pennsylvania legislature as the Academy and Library Company of Canonsburg, with the continued enthusiastic moral and financial support of Presbyterians throughout the region. Contributions flowed in to repay Colonel Canon for the funds he had advanced for the building and to pay the faculty salaries and help young men who were studying for the ministry.
By 1800, a movement was underway to convert the academy into a college, and McMillan, along with three others, drafted a petition for presentation to the legislature. Their efforts were successful, and Canonsburg Academy officially became Jefferson College on January 15, 1802. Its first president was John Watson, a son-in-law of John McMillan. By 1816, the college had outgrown Colonel Canon's original stone building. A new structure, College Hall, was built in 1816-17 on Central Avenue property bought from Canon's widow. In 1833, a third building, Providence Hall, was constructed at the same location.
In the meantime, back in Washington, the leading citizens now regretted their decision to rebuff McMillan and his friends. John Hoge finally donated land, and, through the joint efforts of the townspeople and the Pennsylvania legislature, a second building for Washington Academy was begun in 1793. In 1806, Washington College also recieved a charter from the Pennylvania legislature. The stage was then set for an intercollegiate rivalry that continued for more than half a century. The circumstances that destroyed the quarters of the Washington Academy and resulted in the founding of Canonsburg Academy created the ideal situation for the "college war," which continued for more than a half a century. The two institutions drew students from the same area, and this fact alone began to place a strain on the financial resources of both. Another complicating issue was the fact that the two schools even shared presidents, Andrew Wylie and Matthew Brown.
As early as September 1815, there were serious suggestions to unite the two schools, and committees at both institutions were appointed to explore this possibility. Jefferson students wanted the school to be situated in Canonsburg. Washington folk wanted their college to remain where it was. The fat was really in the fire when, in 1817, Andrew Wylie, DD and president of Jefferson College, was lured to that same post at Washington College. Jefferson trustees were outraged by Wylie's defection and refused to discuss the mattre of unity any further. Accusations and communications, both public and private, flew briskly between the two campuses until 1820. Even the Presbyterian Synod tried, without success, to unite the two schools at Washington. Nothing more was done about the unification until the 1860s.
As if things weren't already complicated enough, there was the matter of Matthew Brown's appointment to the presidency of Jefferson College in 1822. This development resulted from a bitter feud in Washington about the desirability of the same man holding both the presidency of Washington College and the pastorate of the First Presbyterian Church. The occupant of both hot seats was Reverend Dr. Brown, who had been serving as Washington College's first president since 1806. Caught between two opposing political factions, he resigned as president of Washington College in 1817.
This was the point at which Wylie, late of Jefferson College, took over. Brown remained in Washington as a pastor of the First Presbyterian Church for five years. In 1822, depressed by the death of his wife and the complicated state of affairs between the college and his church, Brown decided to quit Washington entirely and head west. Before leaving, he called on his good friend Samuel Ralston, who happened to be president of Jefferson College's board of trustees. The board was looking for a new president and offered the job to Brown. He decided to take it. and his acceptance resulted in a twenty-three-year period of greatness for Jefferson College. During his administration, 772 students graduated, three times as many under his predecessors. A strong and decisive leader, he was more compatible with the Canonsburg community than with Washington. Prior to his appearance on campus, Jefferson College had just survived a period of student rebellion, and the trustees were relieved to obtain a man of strength to run things.
After Brown's tenure drew to a close in 1845, Jefferson continued for another twenty years under four presidents, whose terms ranged from two to eleven years. Financial problems were an ever-present worry- the college had always been poor. It had no endowment for the first fifty years of its existence. Finally, it raised $60,000 by selling "cheap scholarships." This was no help, for it then lost income from student fees, since every student secured a scholarship that intitled him to free tuition. During its sixty-three years of existence, the student body only once approached 300, yet it graduated 1,950 men. Of course, 940 went into the ministry, 428 became lawyers and 208 were physicians. Large number served as college presidents, governers and army officers. Two became members of presidential cabinets, sixty were in the Congress, sixty on the bench and eighteen achieved high ecclestical office.
The Civil War proved to be the undoing of Jefferson College. The school's financial resources were not equal to the demands as costs increased at the end of the war. The conflict itself depleted the ranks of the student body as men departed to enlist with both Union and Confederacy. Two hundred forty-six alumni served in one army or the other; thirty-six died in service with the U.S. Army, while eleven gave their lives for the Confederacy. Back in Canonsburg, the situation became so desperate that, in 1865, by action of the boards of trustees of both schools, Washington and Jefferson Colleges were at last united.
