General Sumter Memorial Academy was a forerunner of the modern consolidated rural high school. Founded and led by Colonel John Julius Dargan, a noted educator, it offered classes in agriculture, home economics, and music, and day students from four districts were transported by mule-drawn covered wagons. The academy was housed at Acton, built on this site in 1803 by the Kinloch family, from 1905 until 1911, when the building burned. In 1908, the U. S. Department of Agriculture established one of the earliest school demonstration farms here, and J. Frank Williams, the agriculture teacher, later became the first Sumter County Farm agent.