Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College was founded as a land-grant military institute in Blacksburg, Virginia, in 1872. The campus initially consisted of the repurposed facilities of the former Preston and Olin Institute, a Methodist school for boys, and 250 adjoining acres of the Solitude Farm. Charles L. C. Minor served as the college's first president, from 1872 to 1879. One hundred and thirty-two students enrolled in the new college during the first year of classes. In 1896, the institution's name was changed to Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College and Polytechnic Institute; in 1944, to Virginia Polytechnic Institute; and in 1970 to Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. It is known popularly today as Virginia Tech.

George Lewis Sively was born in Virginia on April 7, 1829. During the American Civil War, he served in the Bath Cavalry, the 17th Battalion Virginia Cavalry, and the 11th Virginia Cavalry. The 1870 census lists a 41-year-old farmer named George L. Sively as a farmer residing in Bath County, Virginia, with wife Mary, 34, and four Sively children. He died in Bath County, Virginia on March 31, 1883, and was buried in Sively Cemetery, Bath County.