History of the Union Academy - Monroe Co. WV

The Union Academy, built in 1816 of hand made bricks from native materials
burnt in Union is located on South Street (also known as the Old Sweet
Springs Turnpike). It is a nicely proportioned building with some fine
interior wordwork that could be attributed to Conrad Burgess who worked in
the Greenbrier Valley in the 1820's and 1830's.
 
Education in Union can be traced to the establishment of the Presbyterian
Church in the area. The congegation of the Union Presbyterian Church was
formed on August 7, 1783 and by 1784 was established at Good Hope Meeting
House one and one-half miles south of the future stie of the town of Union.
This congregation along with that at Lewisburg are the first Presbyterian
churches formed west of the Allegheny Mountains and are considered the
cornerstones of their faith in this area. By the time the Town of Union was
chartered by the Virginia Assembly in 1800 the Presbyterians wereworshiping
in the town and by 1816 there was a frame church and school onlots 19 and
20 which the town founder James Alexander had given for suchpurposes. Ther
Presbyterians purchased lots 19 and 20 for $50 from the widow of James
Alexander. 

Union Academy was incorporated by the Virginia Assembly on January 27,
1820. The trustees were Hugh Caperton, Alexander Dunlap, Andrew Beirne,
George Beirne, Richard Shanklin, Michael Alexander, Henry Alexander,
Matthew Alexander Jr, William Clark, Robert Coalter, William Vass and
Michael Erskine. In that year a brick building was erected on lot 19.
 
Some of the later teachers were: Rev. S.R. Houston, William Vawter, Dr.
James Waddell, Rev. G. Gray, Delilah Byrnside, Dr. R.R. Houston,
GeorgeEdgar, Ann Edgar Randolph, Kate Edgar, Joseph Alderson and the Rev.
L. A. Alderson. John Francis, a student at the old Academy in the pre-Civil
War days and writing in the Monroe Watchman in 1894 said that it was at the
OldUnion Academy where the boys of the old Monroe families received
theireducation, families such as Alexander, Caperton, Chapman, Steele,
Shanklin, Campbell, Burdett, Nicholls, Hayes, Hinton, Pack, Tiffany, Peck,
Hamilton, Mann, Clark, Loudermild, Ballard, Pence, McNutt, Neel, Summers,
Wickline, Vawter and others. 

In 1860 the Virgniia Assembly the school was incorporated as Union College.
Trustees were Samuel R. Houston, A.A. Chapman, A.T. Caperton, George W.
Hutchinson, John W. Lanius, W.H. Roberts, Samuel Price, John Echols, JohnH.
Harshbarger, Benjamin G. Dunlap, J.P. Peck, J.C. Barr, Thomas Mathews, B.F.
Rennick, M.D. Dunlap, James Brown, Elliott Vawter, A.H. Johnston andJohn
Tiffany. Dr. James Waddell was chosen as Union College's president. 
  
Union Troops occupied the Academy during the Civil War and used the rooms
as a headquarters and a hospital.  Rev. Waddell and his wife Sarah moved in
with the Echols family and continued to teach some of the students.
Soldiers wrote their names on the walls-- writing which is still visible
today. 

Submitted by burns@asu.edu

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