In 1849, when the Romney Literary Society revamped the operating code and bylaws for the institute, Foote took offense; he established a rival school, Potomac Seminary, the next year.

Nelson revived the school and was succeeded in 1866 by William C. Clayton, who later served in the West Virginia Senate; the institute was disestablished shortly thereafter.

[3][4] Around this time, several academies in present-day West Virginia were aspiring to provide a college-level education, as there were few post-secondary institutions in the region prior to the American Civil War.

[5] To remedy this issue and improve educational opportunities for local children, the Romney Literary Society began an initiative to raise funds to construct a new school building.

[4][6] The society made arrangements with James Gregory of Jersey City and Daniel McIntyre of Philadelphia to finance the lottery, "for raising a sum of money not exceeding twenty thousand dollars, for the purpose of erecting a suitable building for their accommodation, the purchase of library and Philosophical apparatus."

The bid advertisement also stated that the end of the building was to be the main façade, which was to be embellished with a "handsome portico the whole width of the house."

The committee for the school building's construction, which consisted of E. M. Armstrong, John B. Kercheval, and David Gibson signed this advertisement.

[12][13][14] The institute operated first under the principalship of Presbyterian minister the Reverend William Henry Foote, who had been a teacher and principal at Romney Academy.

On November 15, 1850, the Phrena Kosmian Society debated the question, "Would the Southern States be justified in seceding from the Confederacy under present circumstances?"

[15] Romney attorney Andrew Wodrow Kercheval delivered an address to the society on April 3, 1851, which was later printed at the office of the Virginia Argus and Hampshire Advertiser that year.

[22] The following year on March 1, 1851, the Virginia House of Delegates rejected John Kern, Jr. and other Board of Visitors members' petition to amend the institute's charter.

The fourth grade was taught by the institute's Junior Department and included courses in writing and preparatory English grammar and geography.

First grade, the school's highest, was instructed by the Classical and Mathematical Department and offered studies in Greek, Latin, French, geometry, algebra, trigonometry, surveying, mensuration, navigation, astronomy, and bookkeeping.

[24] According to an advertisement for a female teacher in the Baltimore Sun on November 9, 1853, William C. Clayton was serving as the institute's principal by late 1853.

[25] Later in 1853, Reverend Joseph Nelson became principal, and he continued to serve in this capacity, and preach in the school's chapel, until the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861.

[15][28][29] In December 1859, John Kern, Jr., was the secretary of the school's Board of Visitors,[12][13] and the institute advertised the position of principal, and received applications until January 5, 1860.

Though Nelson had purportedly accepted a position in Mississippi,[12][13] there are no records to indicate that he left his post prior to the American Civil War.

[12][13] By February 1861, Nelson had purchased the institute and its buildings from the Romney Literary Society, thus becoming its sole manager and proprietor as president.

According to Nelson's advertisement, "parents desiring for their children a sound English, Classical and Mathematical Education would do well to patronize this School."

Despite the institute's effective disestablishment after 1866, a meeting was held on May 15, 1869, with nine original members of the Romney Literary Society: James Dillon Armstrong, David Entler, William Harper, John C. Heiskell, Andrew Wodrow Kercheval, Samuel R. Lupton, James Parsons, Alfred P. White, and Robert White.

[37] The society passed a resolution on April 12, 1870, by which it agreed to deed, free of cost, the institute's building and grounds to the state for the planned schools.

The Board of Regents accepted the society's offer, and a formal transfer of the Romney Classical Institute campus was made.

[39] The West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and the Blind opened on September 29, 1870, in the former Romney Classical Institute building, which provided space for administration offices, classrooms, and dormitories.

In West Virginia and Its People (1913), historians Thomas Condit Miller and Hu Maxwell averred that the Romney Classical Institute "exerted a great influence upon the educational work of the South Branch Valley.

[46][48][49] During the American Civil War, McDonald served in the Confederate States Army as aide-de-camp to General Arnold Elzey and was killed in battle on May 29, 1862.