Notes of Charles Town Academy & Its Founders

Leaves From the Bygone.
In the year 1857 the late Rev. Nathaniel Green North wrote a series of interesting contributions to the SPIRIT OF JEFFERSON under the caption of “Notes on Jefferson County.” Among them was a sketch of the old Charles Town Academy and its founders. A part of this appears in the issue of April 7 of that year, which Gen. W. P. Craighill has kindly shown us, (we are deficient in having complete files of the paper,) and from which we append a few paragraphs:

Nathaniel Craighill.– This gentleman was a native of Westmoreland, and was a near neighbor there and friend of Col. James Monroe, of Revolutionary fame, the fifth President of the United States. When Mr. M. passed through this place during his Presidency– visiting even at that early day, the Shannondale Springs, for the benefit of his invalid grand child, (which child died here,) the old soldier and statesman spoke with special interest concerning his school boy companions, Nathaniel Craighill and William his brother. Wm. Price Craighill and Mrs. William Little were children of the gentleman at the head of this paragraph; and the present Teller of the branch of the Valley Bank is his grandson.

John Mines.– This gentleman was the second instructor employed in the Academy– succeeding Wm. Hill, the first. They were both Ministers of the Gospel of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Mines married a daughter of John Kearsley, as mentioned under LI. He afterwards lived in Leesburg, Va., and Rockville, Md. He was a father of Rev. Addison and Rev. Flavel Mines.

[It was at the home of John Mines, in Charles Town, a place of some importance in connection with the proposed centennial celebration of this county, that the first term of the Jefferson Circuit Court was held, and this locality we would like to have designated now, if it is possible to do so. Who can locate it?– ED. SPIRIT.]

George North– In 1795– the era of founding the Academy– this gentleman was comparatively a stranger in Virginia. He came hither from his native region, Chester county, Pennsylvania, about or before 1790; and resided some ten years or more at Keep Tryst Furnace, on the Potomac, one mile below Harpers Ferry; removed thence, in 1801, to Mount Jefferson, a farm of 400 acres which he bought of Thos. Worthington, (No. 14,) and which he afterwards sold to the late Samuel Wright; thence about 1806 or ’07, removed to Charles Town; thence about 1811, to the neighborhood of Alexandria, where, at his home, (in Fairfax co.,) he died on the 29th of Dec., 1814, aged 63 years afer a residence of only 24 years in the State. His forefathers, for some two or three generations had resided in Chester county, Penn. They were originally from England, His mother was a Swedish lady, and inherited from her ancestors a share in the old Church in Philadelphia, founded by the colony of the Swedes. That share, undivided, is now held by all her descendants. Many of them believe that to this day they enjoy a blessing in consequence of her prayers to Him who remembereth and keepeth covenant. Her name was Lydia Rambo. Mrs. Lydia Rambo Gibbs, a daughter of Capt. North, was a grand daughter of this Scandinavian or Norse emigrant, who, in coming to the waters of the Dele[a]ware, forgot not the faith she had breathed on the shores of the Baltic.

Capt. North was the youngest of seven brothers; and the only one of the seven that ever came Southward. All the seven served in the war of the Revolution– and all, it is said, were in one battle– that of Monmouth, perhaps. Col. Caleb North, well known as a merchant in Philadelphia till about 20 years ago, (when he died,) was an older brother, and was commandant of a troop of horse raised early in the war. This troop George joined when quite young; and he served in it till the war was over. The old Colonel, Caleb, had a peculiar fondness for the yo[u]nger brother, George; and at the close of the war, he retired, leaving to the junior his sword, a pair of pistols used by a progenitor at the Boyne water, (about 1690,) and a fine black charger which had borne him at the head of his troop on many a hard fought field– and especially Monmouth, concerning which field there is in the family an autograph letter of compliments from Washington himself. The sword had on its blade this inscription– Pennsylvania Light Dragoons: For God and my Country;” and it is now in the possession of one of the sons of Capt. George. What became of the pistols, is not known to the present generation. They where [were] borrowed in the war of 1812– but no one remembers by whom. The writer of these Notes believes that the pistols were lost before his birth– certainly before his earliest recollections. He would rejoice to see them, or to get a hint whereby he might trace them, even to their recovery. The fact that they were used, and in behalf of “God and the Right,” 197 years ago, is a sufficient cause for such desire. [Grandfather of the Mannings, (Nat and Monroe,) who once lived here.]