Elijah Fletcher (July 28, 1789 – February 13, 1858) was a 19th-century teacher and businessman, who also served as mayor of Lynchburg, Virginia for two terms in the early 1830s, as well as on the city council.

[1] Tonnie was born in Ludlow, Vermont, to farmer, revolutionary war veteran, town clerk, and justice of the peace Jesse Fletcher (1762–1832) and his wife, the former Lucy Keyes (1765–1846).

[2] By July 6, Elijah had started southward with a horse and borrowed $20, economizing by stopping at farmhouses for soured milk and eating only dinner (usually only bread and cheese, but five times a meal on the 15 day journey from Albany, New York).

The following May, having met U.S. Representative James Garland, Elijah Fletcher accepted a job as principal of New Glasgow Academy in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

[3] Thus, after riding one of Congressman Garland's horses and stopping at Monticello to meet Thomas Jefferson, Fletcher arrived at a 50-house village which later became Clifford in Amherst County, Virginia.

There, Fletcher taught at two separate buildings for young men and women, as well as sent money back home to pay the family debts, educate his younger siblings, and give presents.

Elijah Fletcher soon learned to manage Tusculum, and his father-in-law appointed him administrator of his estate (which included four plantations worked directly and another three leased to tenants) before W.S.

Around 1858 in New York City, Indiana met J. Henry Williams (1831–1889), a recent graduate of General Theological Seminary, who would marry her and move to Virginia in 1865.

[1][20] After the American Civil War ended in 1865, slaves were emancipated, but several continued to work for pay and live at Sweet Briar and other plantations.

When Indiana Williams died a widow in 1900, she willed the land and much of her assets to a trust, and founded Sweet Briar College for women, which opened in 1906.

[24] Tusculum was listed on the National Register for Historic Places in 2004, but the house itself was dismantled in 2006 (archeological excavations having been conducted at various times) and plans to reassemble it on campus fell through, so it still awaits restoration.

San Angelo (which is now site of the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts – VCCA),[27] but which was acquired by Indiana after her death as some nuns in Lynchburg refused the bequest, and later sold by Sweet Briar College during its first decade.

Lucian would later flee to Canada, return to Amherst County, enlist in the Confederate Army (after killing another man in 1860, but soon was reduced to private and spent much of the war subject to court martial or imprisoned) and continued a "colorful" lifestyle.