Thetford Academy, founded in 1819 by Thetford citizens led by Rev. Asa Burton and Judge Simeon Short, was co-educational from the start. Its academic building, with a belfry and separate doors for boys and girls, housed what is now Vermont’s oldest secondary school. On the windy evening of November 14, 1942, that building, along with the girls’ dorm, the first Latham Library, and a nearby barn, burned. Another group of citizens, under the leadership of principal Carl A. Anderson, rebuilt the Academy at its present location. Notable attendees include Sen. Justin Morrill, Mary Leavitt, Gen. John Eaton, Mary Gibson, Sherburne Wesley Burnham, Thomas Morris Chester, Lt. Alanson Sanborn, and William Baxter Closson.