The Academy
Early 1900 Student Float
The Academy Today
[Copied from The Cheraw Chronicle Bicentennial Edition] A two-story wooden building built in 1786 served as a courthouse. It was located behind the present courthouse and measured 50 feet by 40 feet. In 1825 the early courthouse was moved to another site where it was used as a schoolhouse giving Academy Street its name. (editor’s note: I can’t find it today, but I recall reading that the first building was made of logs.) [Copied from Chesterfield Advertiser: This article refers to a September 3, 1925 Advertiser account of W. D. Craig’s first visit to Chesterfield.] “My first visit to Chesterfield was made November 12, 1845, the memorable famine year of this section of the 19th century. There was almost nothing made on the farms. They could not get supplies enough for people and stock ...... Coming on down the street to where S. M. Jackson now lives, we came to a big grove and an imposing two-story building, 40 by 50 feet, which was the village schoolhouse.”
[Copied from Baptist Church History] Some years later the organization moved to the present location, purchased the old Methodist Church building for a sum of $400. The church had been used as a Court House since Sherman burned the Court House in March of 1865 and it was not rebuilt until 1884. The Baptist, after using this building for a few years sold it to the Trustees of the School who moved it to the lot now occupied by the residence of S. M. Jackson. (Editor’s note: Mr. S. M. Jackson was the father of David Jackson who lived in the house in the 50’s.
[Copied from Chesterfield Advertiser:Some Historical Facts about Chesterefield 1786 - 1970 by Madge Craig Curtis] (Refering to Chesterfield Baptist Church) “In January of 1886 they bought the old Methodist Church which stood where the Amoco Service Station is now. This building had not only been used as a Church, but as the Court House about twenty years following the burning of our Court House. The Baptist worshiped in this building only a few years, and then sold it to the trustees of the school who moved it. The building stands where David Jackson now lives.”
[Copied from Cheraw Chronicle Bicentennial Edition] “Our first schoolhouse was used as early as 1830. There were two large rooms but not many facilites for the young children, so some of us spent our first years in the private school of Miss Lizzie Geddes down on the east side of Green Street.
[Copied from Walter R. Burr, Jr. Handwritten History 1886, Page 4] “The night of March 2, 1865 General Wm. Sherman gave his men orders to burn the Chesterfield, SC County Courthouse. The torch was also put to the Chesterfield Academy that was located on the South side of main Street and on the corner of Main Street and old highway # 85 South. The torch started several other fires in our town of Chesterfield.”
[Written article by Sarah Trotti at the Children of the Confederacy Meeting] "In writing this article of Chesterfield County's Courthouse of 1827 - 1865, I must tell a little about her first Courthouse, as the story would not be complete without it. The first Courthouse in Chesterfield County was a wooden structure built in 1786, one hundred and forty years ago, just one year after the county came into existence. This building was 50 x 40 feet, a two story model and stood just back of the Courthouse now in use. In 1827, ninety-nine years ago the people of the county decide to build a more modern and larger Courthouse, therefore the original one was moved to where Mr. Maxey Jackson now lives and used as a school house."