JEFFERSON SEMINARY OF LEARNING 1811-1815 was located in the courthouse of the Jefferson Community in old District 6. The courthouse had been abandoned when the county seat was moved to Lytle property in what is now Murfreesboro.
The legislature made John Coffee, Peter Legrand, Shelton Crosthwaite, George Simpson, and Walter Keeble, trustees of the school.
The two-story log courthouse had been started in 1804 and completed in 1806. It was on the square from which a road led to the river where the east and west forks of the Stones River meet.
It is likely that the school may have been established earlier under the provision of the Act of 1806 which provided for the establishment of academies in Tennessee. If so, it may have been the first school
established in the county.
Old Jefferson is now covered by the waters of Percy Priest Lake. (ed. note – Old Jefferson was never covered by the water of Percy Priest Reservoir as intended).
SOURCES: *Gene Sloan, “Jefferson Probably Had County’s First School,” The Daily News Journal Accent, Sept. 4, 1977. Mike West, “Old Jefferson; the First County Seat,” The Daily News Journal, July 13, 1975. *Homer P. Pittard, “Famous Institutions Once Taught Local Students 100 Years Ago,” The Daily News Journal, Nov. 13, 1963, p. 12.