Credit: History of Washington County, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Prominent Men. Edited by Boyd Crumrine Philadelphia, Pa.: L.H. Everts and Co., 1882.
Founded in 1772, Presbyterian minister John McMillan's log cabin academy in then remote Washington County was one of the earliest schools on Pennsylvania's western frontier. Like many frontier educational outposts, McMillan's academy was closely allied with local church congregations. McMillan had been trained at a similar academy in Bucks County and after ordination and graduation from Nassau Hall, (later Princeton University) he headed west across the mountains. His early efforts led to the creation of two local schools that would merge to become Washington and Jefferson College.
