In 1749, Augusta Academy was founded by the Presbyterians in Augusta County, and it was the first classical school located west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Its name was later changed in 1775 to the patriotic title of Liberty Hall. This academy was the forerunner of the Washington and Lee University. Colonel Thomas Lee was acting Governor from 1749 to 1751. He encouraged westward expansion in the Virginia Colony and believed that the French should be expelled from America. He was the father of the most famous family in Virginia history: the Lee family. He built the now-famous family homestead, Stratford, in Westmoreland County in 1725-1730. During his governorship, some wealthy Virginians formed the Ohio Company whose purpose was to settle a colony west of the Allegheny Mountains on a tract of land 500,000 acres in size. Four years later, the company constructed a fort at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers where the present city of Pittsburgh is now located. One hundred and twenty miles north of this fort, the French proceeded to construct Fort LeBoeuf on the Allegheny River. Since many Virginians and other Englishmen from other colonies had been settling in the Ohio Valley, they became much alarmed at the construction and occupation of this French fort. Consequently, the British-Americans began to observe carefully the activities of the French in this region. Colonel Lee had the unusual distinction of being the only Virginian to have a Crown Commission of Governor awarded to him even though he died before the commission reached him.