Locust Grove Institute began in 1894 after a community mass meeting called by B. J.W. Graham, pastor of Locust Grove Baptist Church, and was established as a coeducational school by Locust Grove citizens who donated the land and an initial $2,000, matched by the Flint River Baptist Association. It opened on November 1, 1894, with 13 pupils and Y.E. Bargeron as principal. Claude Gray, a native of Butts County and one of the great educators of his day, served as president from 1897 to 1928. Supported largely by the Flint River Association, assisted by other associations under a representative board of trustees, the school was taken over by the Georgia Baptist Convention in 1917. Under Mr. and Mrs. Gray and an able faculty, this short-lived institution rose to a leading position in Southern education and was among the first to be accredited by the Southern Education Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges. It was discontinued in 1929 because diminishing patronage and support followed the large expansion of public education, but it lived on in the minds, hearts, and accomplishments of hundreds of graduates.