Grant County Schools, West Virginia This file was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm History of Education in West Virginia Prepared under the direction of the State Superintendent of Free Schools 1904, Charleston: The Tribune Printing Company, 1904 pgs. 201 - 203 Grant County BY JOS. L. REXROAD, SUPERINTENDENT Grant county, named in honor of General Grant, was formed from the county of Hardy in 1866. It is situated in the eastern panhandle of the State and surrounded by the counties of Mineral, Hardy, Pendleton and Tucker. It is not wholly made up of mountains and hills as shown upon most maps of the State. It possesses that portion of the South Branch Valley in and about Petersburg, whose soil is very fertile and well adapted to corn and wheat growing. To it also belongs that part of the Alleghenies from Mineral to Tucker county, which is covered with fine timber and whose surface is underlaid with coal containing the new mines of Henry, Bayard and others. As to the educational position and development of the county we do not claim a first place and we would resent the idea of being placed last. Hardly had the free school system been heard of, when the people of the western part of Hardy county said, "Give us a new county and its name shall be a monument to the memory of the great general." Thus, the first free schools of Grant county, came into existence with the organization of the county, numbering the first year about fifteen or twenty. They were taught principally in log houses with a space between floor and ceiling of little more than six feet. They were built upon the theory, "the smaller the space the easier to warm." Since, the number has increased to sixty-six, the great majority of which are roomy and comfortable. For the great improvement in school buildings and the furniture therein perhaps no man in the county deserves more credit than Edward F. Vossler, who was born and educated in Germany, and located in Grant county in his early life. He was the first county superintendent of the county, and has ever since been in some way connected with the public schools. As a member of the First Free School Legislature under the new constitution he was chosen as a sub-committee with State Superin- tendent W. K. Pendleton to frame the Free School Law of 1873. Of the superintendents who followed were Wm. M. Davis, from 1879 to 1885; J. C. Judy, from 1885 to 1889; H. W. Kuhn, from 1889 to 1891, and Jos. L. Rexroad, the present superintendent, who has served the office since 1891. Under the supervision of the schools by the latter about twenty-five new houses have been built, nearly all of which have been furnished with modern desks and a moderate supply of apparatus. The examinations for teachers for a number of years have been rigid. Therefore, a scarcity of teachers. The motto of the examiners has been, better be a little short than have a surplus of inferior teachers. The first year's uniform examinations did not diminish the teachers' roll in the county. At the close of the examination for the first year under the uniform system no applicant failed, and no teacher was turned away with a lower grade than formerly held under the county board. The school system of the county is in a fairly good condition and we believe that there is a growing sentiment toward a longer term and better teachers' wages.