Knox Hill Academy was a boarding school founded in 1848 by the Rev. John Newton, a Presbyterian minister who also served as headmaster. It was first located near a spring northeast of the Morrison Place on Knox Hill, replacing the log Henry School House. Sponsored originally by the Campbells, McLeans, Gunns, Morrisons, Gillies, McCaskills, McPhersons, and McDonalds, its first building was a split log house on a hilltop furnished with single desks and blackboards, with slates and chalk used for writing. Between 84 and 100 regular pupils attended. In January 1859, the academy moved to a large two-story frame building north of the original site, with older students on the second floor and younger students on the first. The school was highly acclaimed and drew students from West Florida, Southwest Georgia, and Southern Alabama, from Pensacola to Tallahassee, and it included a laboratory for chemistry and physics. John Newton closed the academy in 1871 and moved to Mary Esther, where he opened a school. His motto was, “You must learn and obey.”