On Sept. 15, 1909 — exactly a century ago next week — Hargrave Military Academy opened its doors to receive boys whose parents desired that they be educated in a Christian environment. From 1975-2007, girls were admitted as day students. The school began under the name of the Chatham Training School; but in 1925 the trustees abandoned the reformatory-sounding name and honored their most generous early benefactor, J. Hunt Hargrave of Chatham.
Fred Anderson
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From its inception there was a Baptist flavor to the school. As early as the 1880s the Baptists of Pittsylvania County began expressing the need for a superior secondary school in their area. Charles Warren, a minister, did open a school in Chatham in 1906; but without broad support, its possibilities seemed slim.
In 1908 a dynamic young minister was called to Chatham Baptist Church. T. Ryland Sanford was a graduate of the Baptist school, Richmond College; and he was possessed with zeal, vision and energy. In addition to his three churches on the Chatham field, he wanted to begin a new school. With Charles Warren as headmaster, Sanford promoted the Chatham Training School and served as its first president. The local Baptists endorsed the effort.
Sanford explained the school’s intentions: “We wish to give the very best training at the least possible cost. Those who control the affairs of the institution have no desire to make money out of it. There is not one dollar in the school placed there as an investment save in the education of boys and young men. The trustees employ the teachers and they are determined to have the very best.”
Jesse H. Hargrave and his son, J. Hunt Hargrave, were engaged in several businesses in Chatham and they were active in the local Baptist church and association. They gave the start-up money along with the initial land and other citizens of Chatham gave funds. Within two years Sanford could boast of a modern building which was erected at a cost of $16,000. As enrollment grew and expansion was needed, area churches made pledges.
About the beginning of the 20th century, the Baptist General Association of Virginia established an Education Commission to oversee the work of the several schools which were affiliated with the BGAV. The commission’s secretary, John W. Cammack, paid a visit to Chatham and was impressed with the program. He encouraged the General Association to make a financial contribution; and in 1912-13 the school received $1,000 from Virginia Baptists. It was the beginning of statewide Baptist support.
Hargrave’s cadets on parade, in an undated photo.
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When the Cooperative Program was born in 1925, the school, which now was known as Hargrave Military Academy, was included with a 1 percent allocation of the BGAV’s statewide portion of the budget. Aubrey H. Camden had become president in 1918 and he was prudent as regards finances. He followed a shrewd course by investing the Baptist dollars in a building fund and by operating solely on tuition fees. When the building fund was adequate, he could present expansion opportunities to the trustees; and when Baptists visited, they saw the results of their gifts in bricks and mortar.
Camden also operated the school in a fiscally conservative manner. Year after year in reports to Virginia Baptists, the president would stress that the school never operated in the red and avoided debt. At the same time, the faculty and staff were paid very modest salaries and frequently made personal sacrifices on behalf of the school.
In February 1950, the school faced its greatest challenge when fire swept through three of the buildings. Some whispered that the school might have to cease. After a two-week vacation the cadets returned to find temporary quarters had been provided. At the time of the fire, construction already was underway on a new building. English Construction Company stepped up their schedule; and when the building was completed, English donated their profits on the construction job back to the academy.
The time of the disaster coincided with the approaching retirement of Aubrey Camden. He was a respected Baptist leader in Virginia, serving a term as president of the General Association and holding a brief tenure as BGAV treasurer after his formal retirement from Hargrave.
Camden was succeeded in 1951 by another notable Virginia Baptist, Joseph H. Cosby, who had been pastor of several prominent Virginia churches. He preached a strong message: “Virginia Baptists are making a living and lasting investment in the future through this school. The changing of lives, the salvation of souls is witnessed with a personal and a Christian emphasis. We are privileged to witness the emerging man from the chrysalis of boyhood.”
From the very beginnings of the school spiritual life was an important part of the Hargrave experience. Bible was taught and given the same weight as any academic subject. Chapel services were required; and early in its history the school employed a chaplain. Nearly every year of its century, Hargrave sponsored a religious emphasis week and invited a Virginia Baptist minister to serve as guest preacher. Cosby kept alive his dream of a permanent and worthy chapel building; and eventually he secured a donor. Owen Cheatham was a captain of industry who owed his beginnings to his education at Hargrave and to the willingness of one of Chatham’s leading citizens to loan him seed money for a new business. He listened to Cosby’s appeals and made possible the chapel which bears his name.
Vernon T. Lankford followed Cosby as president. In his 38 years of association with the academy, he considered Hargrave a mission field, referring to the opportunity to share Christ with youth who had no religious background. “The mission ministry of our school must ever be in the foreground of our consciousness.”
Since 1999 Hargrave Military Academy has been led by Wheeler Baker as president. At the centennial, Hargrave deserves a heart-felt salute from Virginia Baptists for remaining constant and true to its worthy beginnings.
Fred Anderson is executive director of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society and the Center for Baptist Heritage and Studies. He may be contacted at fredanderson @vbmb.org or at P.O. Box 34, University of Richmond, VA 23173.