Marion 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. 214 - 215 Marion County BY CARTER L. FAUST, SUPERINTENDENT In the noble effort of the State to provide for the free education of the whole people, Marion county is awake to her educational interests. The present force of teachers show marked ambition and a desire to bring credit upon their office by improving the work of the schools. The county has 153 school buildings, with 225 teachers employed. Some of these buildings have been in use many years, but they are being replaced by attractive houses, over which a bright American flag is often seen floating. According to the superintendent's report for 1902, the value of all school property in the county is $258,142.00. This includes houses, lands, furniture, apparatus and libraries. Within the past two years, Fairview, in Paw Paw District, and Farm- ington, in Lincoln District, have each built houses that are a credit to any county. The school boards of these respective districts acted upon sound business principles and built to accommodate the future of these growing centers. The Fairview house is an eight-room modern brick building with clock and tower. While at Farmington a six-room buffi brick building with beautifully planned grounds, adorns a hill overlooking the town. The building at Mannington just completed this year, is said to be the finest high school building in the State. Most of the rural schools are supplied with apparatus, as charts, globes and maps, while Mannington District, which is the largest in the county, is fully supplied with slate blackboards. In the rural and village schools there are 52 libraries, containing from 25 to 200 volumes each. In some of the districts where libraries have been started the boards of edu- cation have given cases suitable for holding the books. The High Schools at Fairmont and Mannington each have fine libraries. In 1902 there were enrolled in Marion county schools 7,904 pupils. Of these 91 were colored, for which we have two schools. One, a four-room brick building in Fairmont, and the other a one room building at Monongah, in Grant District. There are 23 graded schools in the county. At Seven Pines, in Mannington District, the board of education, in harmony with the universal tendency of the age, has consolidated three sub-districts into one graded school. This is the first consolidated country school in Marion county. Marion county pays to her rural teachers an average of $40.00, $35.00 and $30.00 for the three grades of certificates. About one-fifth of her teachers are normal school and university graduates. Last year 47 pupils were graduated from the public schools. To sum up Marion county, with over a quarter of a million capital invested in school property, 225 schools in operation, 8,000 children under Intellectual training has reason to be proud of her comparative success.