encer; and also by a more
recent visit to the Southern country, to encourage the inhabitants in
the cause of independence, soliciting him to succeed Dr. Alexander in
the presidency of the Academy.

Dr. McWhorter having declined accepting the presidency on account of
the deranged state of his affairs at that time, Mr. Robert Brownfield,
a good scholar, and belonging to a patriotic family of Mecklenburg,
agreed to assume the duties of the office for one year. During the
next year, the invitation to Dr. McWhorter was renewed, and a
committee consisting of the Rev. Samuel E. McCorkle, and Dr. Ephraim
Brevard was sent to New Jersey to wait upon him; and in the event of
his still declining, to consult Dr. Witherspoon and Professor Houston,
of Princeton College (the latter, a distinguished son of old
Mecklenburg,) respecting some other fit person to whom the presidency
should be offered. In compliance with this second invitation, Dr.
McWhorter removed to Charlotte and immediately entered upon the duties
of his office with flattering evidences of success. Many youths from
Mecklenburg and adjoining counties, yet too young to engage in the
battles of their country, and others of older years, whose services
were not imperiously needed on the tented field, flocked to an
institution where a useful and thorough education could be imparted.

But, owing to the invasion of the Carolinas by Cornwallis in the fall
of 1780, the operations of the Academy were suspended and not resumed
during the remainder of the war. After a short service in the
Presidency of the Academy, Dr. McWhorter, to the great regret of the
patrons of learning in the South, returned to New Jersey.

During the occupation of Charlotte by the British army under Lord
Cornwallis, Liberty Hall Academy, which stood upon the lot now owned
by A.B. Davidson, Esq., was used as a hospital, and greatly defaced
and injured. The numerous graves in the rear of the Academy, visible
upon the departure of the British army, after a stay of eighteen days,
bore ample evidence of their great loss in this "rebellious
county"--the "Hornet's Nest" of America.

After the close of the war, Dr. Thomas Henderson, who had been
educated at the Academy, and who frequently represented Mecklenburg in
the Legislature near the beginning of the present century, set up a
High School, and carried it on with great reputation for a number of
years. Classical schools of a high order were numerous after the