‘True Origins’ Of W&L Only Date To 1770s
June 29, 2026 Editor, The News-Gazette: Larry Spurgeon’s new series on Washington and Lee’s history is a welcome addition to the popular scholarship on one of America’s finest institutions. But he needs to be careful not to perpetuate the same myths the university has been guilty of espousing for the last 150 years.
For the sake of brevity — and relevance — I will not focus this letter on his discussion of Robert Alexander, John Brown, or William Graham. His research on these men is admirable, even if the former two can hardly be considered founders of Liberty Hall Academy, the predecessor of Washington and Lee University.
Mr. Spurgeon’s first article begins right where it should end, with Ollinger Crenshaw’s critical appendix on “The Problem of the Origins” (1969). To this day, nobody can claim greater expertise on the university’s past than Crenshaw. If he couldn’t find any antebellum evidence to support the alleged 1749 founding of Augusta Academy, nobody can.
Rather than continue promoting a great myth, Mr. Spurgeon should tackle this historical debate in greater detail. He claims that despite “some suspecting nefarious motives,” “[t]he more likely explanation” for the 1749 founding date is “post-war nostalgia coupled with the discovery of a mysterious ‘note’ in the school’s records.” That is the history readers deserve to learn, and I hope Mr. Spurgeon will consider exploring it in a future installment.
Until then, he should refrain from further entertaining what he calls “the traditional narrative of W&L’s evolution.” A reliable history of the institution instead begins where Mr. Spurgeon’s second installment does: with the Hanover Presbytery in the early 1770s. Those are the true origins of Washington and Lee, “traditional” narrative aside.
KAMRON M. SPIVEY Fancy Hill
