ACADEMIES & PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS
THE FIRST ACADEMY
The following information was extracted from
the book, History of Perry County Pennsylvania; H. H. Hain; Hain-Moore Co.;
Harrisburg, Pa.; 1922. Chapter XVIII.
From Presbyterian records it is noted that Rev. James Brady, of Carlisle, was
called on March 10, 1803, to become pastor of the church at the mouth of the
Juniata (predecessor of the Duncannon Presbyterian Church), of Dick's Gap Church
and of Sherman's Creek Church. He was installed October 3, 1804, and
"located on a farm, where he opened an academy" and conducted that
work along with his duties along religious lines. He died April 24, 1821,
and his remains are interred in the cemetery on the heights, above Juniata
Bridge Station, at the junction of the two rivers. While the date of the
establishment of this first higher institution of learning within the borders of
what is now Perry County--for it was then yet a part of Cumberland--is unknown,
yet it must have been soon after his coming, as is implied by the sentence,
"located on a farm where he opened an academy." Should it have
been at a much later period the record would likely have read "where he later
or in later years opened an academy." No Name is given to the
institution, so it is here designated as The First Academy, which, in
point of fact, it was. The inference is that it was only a day school, but
that the higher branches were taught.
