Education-minded members of Hopewell Presbyterian Church opened a six-room coed academy to the east in 1855. John Covert led builders using whip-sawed timbers, and only nails were bought. The academy's literary societies flourished. Before the Civil War, it rivaled Franklin College, and Hanover College accepted its graduates as sophomores. Heated by wood stoves, the academy closed in 1884 as Indiana established public schools.