Cameron Public School, Marshall County, 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 Source: History of Education in West Virginia Prepared under the direction of the State Superintendent of Free Schools 1904, Charleston: The Tribune Printing Company, 1904 pg. 156 - 157 Cameron Public School BY GEO. E. HUBBS, PRINCIPAL So far as can be ascertained from the records, the Cameron Public School is now in its thirty-eighth year. The oldest record of a meeting of the Board of Education is that of September 2, 1865; the meeting being held at Glen Easton, for the "purpose of reporting on the enumeration of youth in Cameron Township." In the early days of the free school system in this township, the regulations seem to have been very rigorous, as there is an order entered upon the minutes which reads: "D. M. Burley and Wm. J. Conkle, teachers, took the oath as prescribed by law." On April 20, 1866, a meeting of the Board of Education was called by T. Wilson, at Glen Easton, at which meeting it was decided "to purchase a site from John Parkinson, on the Waynesburg Road, near Rock Lick; also one from Dr. Stidger, in Cameron; and also one from George Hubbs, in Glen Easton." The records do not seem to have been very carefully kept, as no order can be found which relates to the building of school- houses until some years later. However, we find, when the record is clear, that the school-house in Cameron was located near where the Christian WEST VIBOINIA 157 Church now stands. This building contained two rooms and served Its purpose until 1878, when the number of pupils having increased to such an extent that more room was necessary, W. R. McDonald was authorized by the Board of Education, to purchase the old Disciple Church to be used as a school building. This amount of room served very well until 1891, when the present building was erected. Again in 1900, the school having grown rapidly in numbers, a two-roomed annex was built, making six rooms in all. At this writing, two rooms in another part of the city have been rented and fitted up for school purposes, and arrangements are being made to build a ten or twelve-room school-house for next year. In 1887, the Board of Education passed an order making; the Cameron school a graded school, but the requirements for graduation seem to have been limited to the twelve "common school" branches until 1900, when the Board of Education added to the course of study. Elementary Algebra, Physical Geography, and American Literature. Again, in 1903, Rhetoric, Geometry, Higher English, and Drawing were added to the course. The aim is to establish a District High school the coming year, and make the course of study on a level with other high schools of the State. The school has, now, a library of over five hundred volumes of choice biography, history, travel, fiction, works of reference, etc. The funds for the maintenance of the library are raised by the pupils of the school. Contributions are made and an entertainment of some kind is given each year. The watch-word is Onward and Upward.