ACADEMIES & PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS
MOUNT DEMPSEY ACADEMY
The following information was extracted from
the book, History of Perry County Pennsylvania; H. H. Hain; Hain-Moore Co.;
Harrisburg, Pa.; 1922. Chapter XVIII.
Rev. T. P. Bucher founded the Mount Dempsey Academy, which he then called the
Landisburg Classical School, at Landisburg, on April 8, 1856, its location being
in the basement of the Reformed Church. It closed about 1864, largely because
the War Between the States called the young men to arms. Rev. Bucher was elected
county superintendent in 1857 and filled that position in connection with his
work at the academy. Later principals of the academy were F. A. Gast, David
Evans (later superintendent of the Lancaster County schools), Rev. R. X. Salem,
William H. Sheibley, S. H. Galbreath, Rev. G. C. Hall, S. C. Cooper, J. C.
Sheibley, and Lewis B. Kerr (later superintendent of the Perry County schools).
Rev. Samuel Wagner, still a resident of the county and long a noted minister,
was one of the students. Many lawyers, physicians and ministers secured the
rudiments of their education at this pioneer institution. The late George
Patterson, of Landisburg, interviewed by the author in 1919, while engaged in
the compilation of this book, was a student at this institution in 1861.
