Noah Linsly, 1772 – 1814

 

In Mt. Wood Cemetery there is a plain marble shaft with the inscription:  “Noah Linsly, a native of Connecticut, the founder of the Lancastrian Academy, the friend of youth, and the benefactor of mankind.”  This monument, dating from 1814, reminds us how one life can impact so many others through 200 years of history.

 

Linsly was from all accounts an intellectually gifted and honest man.  He was born February 9, 1772.  Noah’s family was of English descent, his ancestor John Linsly emigrated from London to New Haven in 1644. Noah was admitted to Yale College in 1787, graduating “with a high reputation for scholarship” in 1791. In 1793, after teaching school, he was offered a tutorship at Williams Academy (now Williams College). Noah next graduated from Litchfield Law School and settled in Morgantown, (West) Virginia from 1797-98.  Perhaps seeking greener pastures, he relocated to Wheeling in 1799, where he spent the remainder of his life.  He became one of Wheeling’s leading citizens, serving as a member of city council and the mayor of a city of 300 homes and 1200 people.

 

Noah Linsly, a bachelor, died of a lung hemorrhage March 25, 1814, age 42. He was so popular that business in Wheeling was suspended during his funeral. Linsly knew well the importance of education and so left the bulk of his estate to set up a school in Wheeling based on the “Lancastrian system.” He wrote:  “The Academy shall (be) a free school for poor white children.  The Academys (sic) Guiding Principle shall be, Forward and no Retreat.”

 

The charter for the Lancastrian Academy was obtained in November 1814. A lot was purchased on the west side of Chapline at 13th Street and a building constructed. Thus began a school named in his honor that has evolved to become one of the oldest, most revered institutions in the Ohio Valley.