Mountain Mission School of Grundy, Virginia, founded by Samuel Robinson Hurley in 1921, is an anomaly of the mission school era of 1880 to 1940. Unlike other mission schools, Mountain Mission School was independent from its inception and was founded by a self-taught, self-made millionaire from southwest Virginia. The school's purpose to "reclaim" the child from material and spiritual poverty lay in Hurley's desire to develop a child's mind, body, and soul through a Christian, industrial education. Through personal commitment to the school and tireless fund-raising efforts for the school, he inspired others to continue the mission he began. Primary sources from Radford University, Milligan College, and Mountain Mission School, plus contemporary articles published in the Christian Standard, defend these claims.