Martin Institute

The Martin Institute was a school in Jefferson, Georgia, from 1818 to 1942. History On November 20, 1818, the Georgia General Assembly approved the formation of the co-educational school to be called Jackson County Academy in Jefferson, Georgia. The Jackson County Academy operated under this name, and informally as the Jefferson Academy, until December 1859 when a judge in the Inferior Court of Jackson County from 1819–1827, William Duncan Martin, willed upon his death a substantial endowment to the school; the name was soon changed to the Martin Institute. The Martin Institute was the first privately endowed educational institute in the United States of America. In 1874 the Martin Institute was granted collegiate status, which is roughly equivalent to high school or lower undergraduate today. Between 1870 and 1882, the number of students in attendance ranged from 120 to 270.