Wayne County, NC - First Common School Law in NC Enacted

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Author unknown

 The first common school law in North Carolina was enacted on January 8,
1839. This law, titled "An Act to Divide the Counties of the state into
school Districts, and for other Purposes", was the legal authority for 
the beginning of our system of public schools. This law set forth certain
basic principles which have been fundamental in the operation of the 
public schools throughout their entire history.

 The first section of the law provided for a vote of the people for or
against a tax to support the schools. For every dollar yielded from the
levy so voted two dollars was furnished from the State Literary Fund.
Here we have the principle of school support based upon a combination of
State and local funds, a principle that has been present in varying
degrees with all subsequent school legislators.

 This law also made provision for the operation of the schools in those
counties that voted favorable by specifying that 5 to 10 persons should
be elected "as superintendents of common schools" in each county. These
superintendents were to lay off the county into districts and appoint
committee men in each district to assist them "in all matters" relating
to the establishment of schools for their respective districts".

 This provision was the gem of the county board of education. Noble in
his "History of the Public Schools in North Carolina" said of those men
who gave us the first school of law, weak and incomplete as it was, 
that they "laid the foundation of the greatest single service the state
has ever yet rendered".

  The old records of the Wayne County Schools include the rules adopted
on April 11, 1874 to follow in determining school districts and a
description of each district. Members of the Committee were: J. W Cox,
N. G. Holland, Washington Winn, J. K. Smith, and E. B. Jorden (Borden?),
chairman, followed. Their first rule was "that school districts shall
contain an area equal to from four to seven miles square." The third
specified "that the School House shall be as near the centre of the
school population of the district as practicable."

 From this humble beginning under very unfavorable conditions, the
public school system has grown and borne fruit because the people
have believed in schools, have worked for them and have paid for them.
From this small beginning has evolved the system of public education
as we know it today.

 In 1852 an act creating the office of State Superintendent of Common
Schools was passed. The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction
has been operative since then to lead and assist local systems.

 At the opening of the War in 1861 the State had one of the best school
systems in the South.

 During the War (1861-65) some schools were kept open, but the system
as a whole suffered a severe blow when, as a result of the depression,
the Literary Fund was practically swept away.

 The period following the War until about 1900 was utilized in building
up that which had been destroyed and in reconstructing the school system.

 The Wayne County Board of Education organized as a County Board of
Education on March 11, 1872. The members were: Thomas A. Deans, Chairman,
J. T. Pearson, Lewis Saper, John Hollowell, and R. H Jones.

 Available records of the Wayne County Schools begin in 1872. However,
some individual school records date back to earlier times.

 The Falling Creek High School, now Grantham, was but a continuation of
the old French school which was established about 1840 by the Everetts,
Smiths, McKinneys, Coxes, Granthams, Hoods, Popes, Bizzells, Howards,
and other prosperous planters of that spendid community.

 The French school flourished a number of years under the management of
professor Levi French, of Massachusetts, as principal, assisted by Miss
Magdalene McKinney. Its patronage extended throughout the county of
Wayne and scores of boys and girls from other counties were numbered 
on the role of the French school. They found room and board with 
families living near the school for a nominal sum.

 Falling Creek High School is one of the oldest schools in the State,
and its influence has been felt more than any other school in the county.
From the close of the Civil War to the early 1900s the school was known
as Falling Creek Academy. The County Board of Education changed the 
name of Falling Creek Academy to Falling Creek State High School on
July 1, 1907. Under the act of the General Assembly of 1907, the people
of the district had voted a special school tax for the district for the
support of the school on May 14, 1907. This was the first rural district
in the county to vote a special school tax.

 When the building was burned in 1887, a new building was erected just 
across the road from the place where the Falling Creek Baptist Church 
now stands. Doctor J. B. Kennedy, Richard Whitfield, T. I. Sutton, Gideon 
Grantham, Walter Blackman and others composed the board of trustees.
The late Dr. David Rose, a prominent Wayne County physician, surgeon,
and politician and a graduate of Falling Creek High School, said it
was the first consolidated high school built under the Charles B. Aycock
education plan.

 Robert Teague was the first principal of the rebuilt school. Public
funds were used to operate the school for four months of the year and
the students paid tuition in order to have a longer term. There is still
in existence a self-study of the Falling Creek High School dated
1911-1912.

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This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by
Dorothy Price Holt
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