In 1872, The Academy was established one quarter mile northwest of here in a grove of oak trees on the south bank of Dog Creek as the first secondary school in Fresno County. J.D. Collins, later sheriff, was its first teacher. Just east of The Academy stood the small M. E. South Church, built in 1869 and still in use. The stage route from Visalia to Millerton passed nearby, and a small village soon sprang up with a hotel, store, stables, and a post office that took the name Academy. Later, it became a stopping place for the Tollhouse teamsters. Many of Fresno County's earliest families settled in the area, engaging first in sheep raising and later in the cattle business, and many of them and their descendants rest in the nearby pioneer cemetery.