four years. He then followed his sons, who had long before settled in Kentucky, and died at Frankfort, in 1803. His wife was Margaret Preston, daughter of John Preston. At the commencement of his pastorate he opened an academy, to which he gave greater attention as his own sons came to need educational care. His home, or rather the home of his people, in County Limerick, had borne the name of Liberty Hall (I found the place still so called and still inhabited by Browns in 1877), and I think it is not a very strained conjecture that the early name of 'Liberty Hall,' which Washington and Lee College bore, may have had something of suggestion in the old man's memories of his youth. At all events, the germ of the college was his school, and his own home, the stone walls of which yet exist, was 'Liberty Hall.' When he came to Kentucky, he took charge of Pisgah Church, in Woodford, residing in the neighborhood. He actively promoted what was known as Kentucky Academy, at that place, and was to some extent an instructor, but chiefly an emeritus and advisor. The active principal was Mr. Moore. This Kentucky Academy, and another institution called 'Transylvania Academy,' were blended in 1798 into Transylvania University by a legislative act. I think with much satisfaction of my reverend ancestor as being a pioneer in educational matters in both Virginia. and Kentucky. He has left a number of old papers, chiefly sermons, dull and hard to read. But among them is one preached in 1759, to his Calvinistic congregation, in which is sounded the first note of question of royal authority. It traces the origin of kings, the probable way in which hereditary right came to be claimed and recognized, and the fallacy of the claim, and concludes with the general proposition that governments and governmental institutions have no existence save in the consent of the people, and no right to exist except so far as they represent the will of the people. It was very bold language for that early day. Dr. John Todd' (class-mate of my great-grandfather) be

1Rev. Dr. John Todd graduated at Nassau Hall in 1749, in the second class admitted to a degree. He was licensed by the Presbytery of New Brunswick in 1750, and was sent to the colony of Virginia, at the request of the Rev. Mr. Davies. In the year 1751 he was ordained by the New Brunswick Presbytery, and on the 22d of April, 1752, obtained from the general court of Virginia the license required by law for a dissenting minister, and became the assistant of the Rev. Samuel Davies.

After Mr. Davies removed to Princeton, Mr. Todd became the leading minister in the Presbytery east of the Blue Ridge Mountains. During the Revolution he was a staunch Whig. For a number of years he superintended a classical school in Louisa County.

His nephews, John and Levi Todd, went from Pennsylvania to Virginia, and were educated at this school. They both became distinguished citizens of Kentucky. He preached in Virginia for forty-three years. In July, 1793, he attended the Presbytery in Albemarle County, and on Saturday, the 27th, after its adjournment, set out for home. Whether from the infirmities of age or in a fit of apoplexy, is not known, as he was alone, riding on horseback, but he was found in the road lifeless. His son, bearing his name, was licensed by the Hanover Presbytery, September 13, 1800.

For some time he supplied the churches left vacant by his father, but in the year 1809 removed to Kentucky with his family, leaving none of his name in Virginia. (See Sketches of Virginia, pp. 45-50.)

came also a Presbyterian minister, and conducted a famous academy in Louisa County, Va. It was at his instance that Dr. Gordon, of London, collected books and apparatus, to form, with Dr. Todd's additions, the library for Transylvania Academy in Kentucky. This academy was, as I have said, united with Dr. Brown's Kentucky Academy in 1798 to form Transylvania University. Dr. Samuel Brown, son of my great-grandfather, was one of the first professors of Transylvania University. This Dr. Samuel Brown married Miss Percy, of Alabama. You are thus, by marriage with my cousin, allied to two educational pioneers, Rev. Dr. John Brown and Rev. Dr. John Todd, and their descendants may feel glad that their worthy names are to have a chronicler.

"I inclose a memorandum of some sources from which you may glean other bits of interesting information.

"Very truly, yours,

"Hon. N. H. R. DAWSON, "Washington, D. C."

"JOHN MASON BROWN.

FINAL NOTE BY THE EDITOR.

Colonel Brown's valuable memoranda are incorporated with the bibliography of Washington and Lee University, appended to the historic sketch. An interesting notice of the Rev. John Todd may be found in John Mason Brown's oration, delivered on the occasion of the centennial commemoration of the battle of Blue Licks, August 19, 1882, and published under the auspices of the Kentucky Historical Society. The worthy Presbyterian divine trained up at his famous classical academy in Louisa County, Va., a nephew, John Todd, who afterward be. came famous as a leader in border warfare, and as a pioneer of law, government, and education in Kentucky. Col. John Todd was one of the first two burgesses from the county of Kentucky (created out of Newcastle County, December 31, 1776). He was largely instrumental in persuading the Virginia Assembly and Patrick Henry, then Governor, to commission George Rogers Clark for the conquest of the Northwest Territory. Colonel Todd took part in that eventful campaign, which secured the Northwest to Virginia and the United States, and he succeeded Clark in command of the frontier, being commissioned "Colonel Commandant and County Lieutenant." He appeared in the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1780, and was there the successful champion of a system of public education for Kentucky, a system based upon land grants. He was one of the earliest advocates of emancipation in Kentucky, and favored the exclusion of slavery from the North-west Territory. This noble pioneer of liberty, education, law, and order upon a 1 See Collins' History of Kentucky, II, 183-4, and Winterbotham's Historical Account of the United States, republished in Barnard's Journal of Education, XXIV, 125.

dangerous frontier; this friend of Daniel Boone, who with him and a few trusty companions first organized government under a great elmtree at Boonesborough, lost his life in the battle of the Blue Licks, with the Indians, on the 19th of August, 1782. "In the blood of that day were cemented the solid foundations of a powerful State." The coming student of the educational beginnings of Kentucky, the daughter of Virginia, will learn more of those remarkable pioneers of Scotch Presbyterian ancestry. The Todds and the Browns were men of good blood and fine character. (See Foote's Sketches of Virginia, second series, 44–49, 94-99). Their descendants are numerous, and are now scattered throughout the Southwest from Kentucky to Louisiana. The Rev. John Brown, principal of Augusta Academy, married the daughter of John Preston,1 of Staunton, himself the ancestor of a distinguished line. Among the first graduates of the old academy were the sons of the principal: John Brown, who became a member of Congress from Kentucky; James Brown, who became United States Senator from Louisiana and afterwards minister to France; Samuel Brown, who became a professor of medicine in Transylvania University, Kentucky; Preston Brown and William Brown, who both became physicians, the one in Kentucky, the other in South Carolina. Among the first students at the old academy was Archibald Stuart, afterwards a prominent lawyer, legislator, judge, and a member of the Virginia Convention in 1788. He married a sister of the Rev. John Brown, and was the ancestor of the Hon. Alexander H. H. Stuart, the present rector of the University of Virginia. Blood is thicker than water in Virginia and Kentucky.

Collins, in his History of Kentucky, Vol. II, p. 183, says that Transylvania University, the first literary institution of the West, was estab lished in 1780 by the Legislature of Virginia; one-sixth of the surveyor's fees, formerly contributed to the College of William and Mary, with 8,000 acres of the first land in the then county of Kentucky, which land was to be confiscated, were granted for the endowment and support of the seminary.

Kentucky and Tennessee are fields of educational history which should be entered and explored. It will be pioneer work, but none the less profitable on that very account. The whole country will be glad to see educational inquiries pushed where they are most needed, into the North-west and South-west and beyond the Mississippi.

1 John Preston was a native of County Derry, Ireland, and, with his wife Elizabeth Patton, came to America in 1740, and settled in Augusta County. John Preston died in 1747, leaving five children, all of whom were born in Ireland: William, who married Miss Susanna Smith; Letitia, who married Col. Robert Breckenridge; Margaret, who married Rev. John Brown; Ann, who married Francis Smith; and Mary, who married John Howard, all of whom, except William, emigrated to Kentucky, where they left a number of descendants, who have multiplied, and are now found in many of the Southern and Western States. (Peyton's History of Augusta County, p. 303.)

BUREAU OF EDUCATION

CIRCULAR OF INFORMATION NO. 2, 1888

CONTRIBUTIONS TO AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL HISTORY

EDITED BY HERBERT B. ADAMS

"Here was a colony of men from civilized life, scattered among the forests, hermits with wives and children, resting on the bosom of nature, in perfect harmony with the wilderness of their gentle clime. With absolute freedom of conscience, benevolent reason was the simple rule of their conduct. Are there any who doubt man's capacity for self-government, let them study the history of North Carolina; its inhabitants were restless and turbulent in their imperfect submission to a government imposed on them from abroad; the administration of the colony was firm, humane, and tranquil when they were left to take care of themselves. Any government but one of their own institution was oppressive." (George Bancroft.)

“Almost invariably, as soon as a neighborhood was settled, preparations were made for the preaching of the Gospel by a regular stated pastor, and wherever a pastor was located, in that congregation there was a classical school." (Foote's Sketches of North Carolina.) "The progress of society and civilization depends upon the education and virtue of the people." (Hon. Bartlett Yancey, in 1810.)

"In an ardent and increasing zeal for the establishment of schools and academies for several years past, we do not believe North Carolina has been outdone by a single State. The number at present is nearly fifty, and is rapidly increasing." (North American Review, January, 1821.)

"We can diffuse the blessings of education and become a virtuous if not a great people. I wish the State University were located in Raleigh, for I do not believe in that kind of education which is obtained in cloisters. The manners of boys should be attended to as well as their morals. The society of the city of Williamsburg, Virginia, is said to have been the most polished in America, and its college, William and Mary, has turned out more celebrated men than any other institution within my knowledge." (Nathaniel Macon, in North Carolina Constitutional Convention, 1835.)

"The University does not lack the sanction either of the Constitution or of the people. Under the loving care of the people of the State, led by wise master-builders, much more than from the liberality of the General Assembly, the University grew in the lapse of nearly a century to be a great institution, the nursing mother of the ingenuous youth of the State without distinction of party or sect. Embracing all her children in her great catholic heart, she has always striven to allay sectional feeling, to moderate sectarian heat, to cultivate and encourage a broad, ardent love for the State, a veneration for her early history and traditions, an appreciation of the domestic virtues of her citizens, and a love of liberal learning.” (Hon. John Manning, LL. D., professor of law, University of North Carolina.)

"I remember in my young manhood the University of North Carolina was always spoken of with the greatest respect among men who knew anything about an American collegiate education. While the Universities of Virginia and Johns Hopkins have to some extent drawn attention away from it, I see no reason why its present Faculty should not give it a commanding position in the south-east of our Republic." (Hon. Andrew D. White, Ex-President of Cornell University.)

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