The Cherokee Wesleyan Institute was organized in 1850 by the Methodists of Cave Spring, Floyd County, Georgia. They had two buildings that were used for primary, high school, and college classes, but all were suspended during the Civil War. In late 1866, the Board of Trustees was reorganized, and the school continued until 1876 when the academy was sold to the Georgia Department of Education to be used as a school for African American deaf children.