The Public Schools of Piedmont, Mineral 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. 172 - 178 The Public Schools of Piedmont BY SUPERINTENDENT C. B. MURRAY The early part of the history of the Piedmont schools is inseparably connected with the history of school affairs in the county, and even more closely with that of the older town that occupies the encircling Maryland hills on the other side of the Potomac. With Westernport it is particularly close, for in the earlier days of the town, and even back in the times when there was no town, there were no educational opportunities at all to be found on the Virginia side and such children as received any schooling got it in the private schools that were usually maintained over in Maryland. These were for the most part what were called the "old field" schools— "old field" because they were apt to be placed in any old field that was so worn out or otherwise useless that it could not possibly be put to any other civilized use, and for that reason was expected to make a good breeding ground for brains and hatchery for culture. Similes or comparisons based on the likeness too often existing between the sterility of the school and that of the ground on which it was placed are too obvious to be either necessary or useful. Yet, to a very great extent, such were the ordinary schools in the days before the war throughout the great Southland; and, what is still more strange there were many of these schools that produced some pedagogical results that were quite wholesome and sound. Perhaps this was as much due to the fact that there are some of the laws of mental development in the healthy child so strongly fixed as to refuse to be perverted as it is to any fact that could be alleged in favor of the "schoolmasters" who then held sway; also with the additional fact that the school courses were not so overloaded with subjects as they are apt to become now. Many of these "masters" were from the North,—New England and elsewhere—and it is far from likely that they represented the choicest results of Yankee culture and scholarship. Cream is not the only essence that has a tendency to rise; scum and froth have an equally strong disposi- tion to do the same; and the latter have an even more marked pro- pensity to overflow and seek new levels. So it is to be feared that in at least some instances, the Yankee school teachers were impelled to come to the South by their own individual inferiority as compared with some of their fellow-craftsmen in the North and a shrewd opinion that the relatively lower educational status to be found south of Mason and Dixon's line would offer them superior opportunities for the pursuit of their profession. Many persons who attended these schools have funds of interesting anecdotes illustrating the peculiarities of this or that one of the school- masters under whom their young ideas began to shoot. The master was a real autocrat. His pupils paid a tuition of from one dollar to one dollar and a half per month. There was usually little or no competition so that fear of a pupil's quitting did not act as a very strong deterrent. Then the master's authority and responsibility extended, not merely in theory but in actual fact, from the time that a child left its parental domicile in the morning until his shadow again darkened its threshold at evening; and "good discipline," which meant pretty straight and prim conduct both on the streets and in the school, was the one cardinal, never failing test of the master's success. And so he might even be a despot—a tyrant. Floggings were numer- ous and severe; but other means were often used. Although the Constitu- tion of the United States enjoins the ordinary civil authorities from using "cruel and unusual" punishments in the maintenance of justice and good order, no such limitation was ever put to the powers of the head of the old field school. It is said that one of these teachers had a log chain with lock and key and with it he would manacle some unlucky culprit until he would repent of his sins. The master lived across the way, ana solitary confinement in his calf pen outside, or in the attic inside, was another favorite means to the same end. He was known to prepare a decoction of bitter herbs which was forced down the throat of some re- calcitrant boy, evidently trying to attack his conscience by the internal route—perhaps in a slightly varying application of the old theory concern- ing the nearest way to the heart of boys of larger growth. One law- breaker was made to keep up a feather in the air by blowing under it with his mouth. A neighboring minister also was considered such an authority on the problem of unregenerate human nature that he was sometimes called in for a solemn consultation upon the means to be employed in the case of some youth of unusual incorrigibility. Neither the material equipment of the room nor the mental outfit of the teacher were such as would now be esteemed adequate for the work in hand. The seats used by the pupils were the same as those used by the church attendants during the regular meeting times of the Church. A hinged board ran along one side of the wall. When writing time came this was swung up, supported by props, and the children seated on puncheon seats cultivated proficiency in the noble art of wielding the pen. Apparatus in the modern sense of the term was very scarce. In text books no discrimination was made between the beginning pupils and the advanced. Primary geographies, arithmetic, language books, were then unknown. The little child, who started some times as young as tour years, was put into the same books—as soon as he could use books at all—with the oldest pupils. The teacher had taught twenty- five years throughout the South, and was a Connecticut Yankee. He could not take his pupils any further than the "Rule of Three" in the old Pike's Arithmetic. Up to Syntax was the limit of his travels in English Grammar. He once honestly told one of his patrons whose child had gone to him some three or four years that he could not fairly charge for sending the child any longer, because he could not take him on any longer excursions into the fields of knowledge than the child had already gone. Reading was taught by laying great emphasis on two things the first was to make very carefully proportioned pauses at the punctuation marks; the olher to read in a voice as strong and loud as it could possibly be made. Where all pupils studied "out loud," however, this latter arrangement has somewhat the more of reason. Oftentimes in the evening the geography class was taken around to the neighbors that the parents might be given satisfying evidence of the pupils' amazing proficiency in that science—which pro- ficiency consisted of a rote knowledge, word for word—of the answers to certain lists of set questions given in the book, and in some cases the knowledge extended to the questions themselves, which could be re- peated in order as they came without a break. Sessions were long and holidays rare. The coming of the first pupil generally marked the beginning of the session; and in those days of early rising some of the pupils were sure to be on hand not later than 8 o'clock. Evening dismission was at half past four. The master himself frequently shortened the wearisome length of his own dally confinement by taking a refreshing nap; but such indulgences were not for the scholars. School was held the year round except on the Fourth of July and in the holiday time between Christmas and New Years. The older or more advanced pupils all assisted in the instruction of the younger or less advanced hearing them study and recite their lessons. Sometimes, on a pretty after- noon, the whole grove at the rear of the school house would be filled with classes, each under the care of a pupil-teacher, and the schoolmaster from the window exercised a benevolent supervision over all. Verily, the "train- ing classes" of our normal schools to-day are no new thing. Such is a fair picture of one of the old-time schools of Westernport as described by those who attended it, and is given here because it was in this one and in others that it fairly typifies, that the children of Piedmont and of the South, in times gone by, got their early education. The town of Piedmont was founded about the year 1850, springing up very quickly after the arrival of the B. & O. R. R. There were, of course, no free schools in either Allegheny county, Maryland, or in Hampshire county, Virginia, in which Piedmont lay. Mrs. Jesse Bickford started a private school in her own home in 1852, but it could not stand thp compe- tition of the larger school of Mr. Warren across the river, and was soon discontinued. There was no other school of any permanence until 1856, when Miss Annie Ambrose, of New Hampshire, opened a school in the home of her aunt, Mrs. Bickford, a house then standing on the corner, lut now back of the Methodist Episcopal church. The superiority of her methods, and those of Dr. Connor, a graduate of Dickinson College, who started a school for higher studies in Westernport about 1858 or 1859 sounded the knell of the old field schoolmasters, who had so long held sway. As an instance of her superiority to the old regime it may be mentioned that Miss Ambrose brought the best and latest text-books to be had, and especially that she brought the first primary books ever brought Into the community. Mr. Nathaniel Ambrose followed his sister in the school begun by her, and some persons so much appreciated the opportunity then offered as to take up some such higher work as Latin and Algebra. A great many persons either could or would not send their children to the private schools just referred to; the result was that the attention of the teachers was concentrated upon a few children and these received really excellent instruction. The influences of the Civil War worked in various ways to break up and prevent the private schools and the history of education throughout that stormy period is almost entirely a blank. Mr. O'Gorman taught about this time, in a school held in a basement of the old Presbyterian church that once stood where the Davis School now stands. A Miss Mary Jarboe, —afterwards Mrs. Carless—taught on the Piedmont hill, though the dates. of this are lacking. Even information concerning the establishment of the public schools, and their history up to a comparatively recent time, can not be found in any detailed, accurate, and well-authenticated foiin; for the official records,—although there is ample evidence that they wer& kept in the best possible manner—have become lost. In the late sixties Mineral county was separated from the mother county and was given its own organization. Mr. Thomas P. Adams was elected as the first County Superintendent of Free Schools. He appointed Boards of Education in the various districts. Their task was a hard one. There were neither school-houses nor school districts, nor money, nor teachers, nor books. There was no great sentiment in favor of free schools and there was a great deal of sentiment against them. For Piedmont District, which was, at that time, called Mt. Carbon District, it seems that the first Board of Education appointed by Mr. Adams was as follows: Wm. Knight, President; Emil Nefflin, K. S. Jones, J. T. Blakiston, Jas. A. Burris, all of whom were good friends of popular education. Mr. Nefflin later became President of the Board and served from his appoint- ment in 1868 until 1893—in all, twenty-five years. One of the first schools after the war was in a building originally a market-house, standing where the Town Hall now stands, which was re- modeled into a school-house and in which Mr. N. M. Ambrose was Principal and Mrs. Jennie Nesbit assistant. The cause of free education steadily grew in influence and strength; but even the names of principals, teachers, and Members of the Board of Education, who by their labors contributed to this growth, are in a great many instances—owing to the loss of the records above referred to—no longer to be found. In 1871 Mr. Nemin was able to secure an allotment of $300.00 from the Peabody Fund, which was allowed annually thereafter for several years until the fund was diverted to the support of the State University and other uses by act of the Legislature. It seems that this was the only district of the county that was ever able . to secure this Peabody grant. Mr. Wm. O'Gorman, referred to above, was one of the early principals. of the public schools. He also taught the school at the Junction for a long while. Miss Lizzie Russell, who taught in both public and private schools, is worthy to be mentioned here by virtue of her later career. She became a missionary in Japan, and founded there a girls' school, which later developed into a college with branches over the kingdom. May, Wilson, Van Horn, Purinton, are the names given by various per- sons as having been principals of the public schools at different times. during the seventies. From 1883 till 1887 the position was held by Mr. John Newlon, now of Pruntytown. Mr. David Arnold, now of Elk Garden, succeeded, and held the place one year. Mr. D. W. Shields, from Ohio held the position one year also, going from here to Keyser, where he remained some years. Mr. R. M. Colllns was the next principal (1889- 1891). Mr. Collins is now at Davls. He was succeeded by our worthy townsman, Mr. W. M. Foulk, whose administration of the affairs of the school was for many reasons a notable one, and who held the position for twelve years, only resigning it to take up another responsible and more re- munerative position. Among the assistant princlcpals that deserve men- tion in any account of the schools have been Messrs. Wolverton, Grimm, Bunner, Tapp, Richardson, Hahn, Sanders, and others, of whom, per- haps, Mr. H. S. Richardson is the only one that is now a citizen of the town. The names of what is said to have been the first Board of Educa- tion have been already given. The presidents of the Board, besides the two there named, have been P. S. Hyde, J. C. Kuhnly, H. C. Thrush, and D. E. Parke, the latter of whom together with Judge John H. Keller and Mr. Newcomb constitute the Board of Education at present. Among the many citizens who have served on the Board Mr. Henry Kight is deserving of mention for long and honorable service. The present Secretary is Mr. D. Ross Metzger, who was preceded in that position by Mr. Tom F. Kenny. The present high standing and splendid condition of the schools bear ample testimony to the fact that the District has had excellent men on the Board of Education; and the present Board, to those who are acquainted with it, needs no commendation on the score of faithful, diligent, and enlightened devotion to the interests of the public schools. The building referred to before and sometimes known as the Fredlock school was for many years the principal school house, another school of two or three roms called the Adjunct school standing on the west corner opposite from where the Davis School now stands. In 1883 the Hill school was built for persons living in that part of the town and the Ad- junct school was soon discontinued. The Hill school is the one now used as the Colored school. The school at the West Virginia Junction is in the same system as the Piedmont schools, all being under the control of the Board of Education of Piedmont District. The building has three rooms and was erected about 1892, the previous building having been destroyed by fire. One of the most notable things in the educational history was the gift of the Davls school building, in 1890. United States Senator Henry G. Davis, who had lived and done business in the town for twenty- five or thirty years, seeing the need of better educational facilities and realizing that the town was not in a good condition to raise the money by taxation, built and gave to the town the fine structure that bears his name, thus giving lasting evidence of his generosity and his interest in the cause of popular education. Since that time the schools have moved to a constantly higher stand- ard of usefulness under the administration of Principal Foulk. One of the things accomplished was the establishment of the nine months term. Another was the formation of a regular high. school course. The first commencement of the High School was held in 1892, and since then seven- teen young men and forty-two young ladies have finished its work and gone out to take positions of usefulness in active life. By a constant strenghten- ing of the course of study the High School has been raised to the rank of an accredited school to the State University, which is one of the best possi- ble evidences of the strength and thoroughness of its courses and instruc- tion. The list of teachers of Piedmont District at present is as follows: Davis Free School.—Principal, Mr. C. R. Murray; Assistant in High School, Miss Nan K. Hepburn; Vice Principal, Mr. Floyd T. Holden; room No. 4, Miss Kate Murphy; room No. 3, Miss Alice Welton; room No. 2, Miss Florence Renshaw; room No. 1, Miss Mamie Faherty. West Virginia Junction School.—Principal, Mr. E. H. Offner; Inter- mediate room. Miss Alice Hartley; Primary room. Miss Clara Renshaw; Colored School.—Mr. J. W. Martin. Many of these teachers have done long service and all have done faithful and efficient service. Each one is without doubt working with his fullest powers for the advancement of the pupils, and the interests of the schools and the town at large. It is among the present alms in the management of the Davis Free School to provide it with adequate library facilities. The movement has been but lately begun, but it has the cor- dial support of the teachers, the school authorities, and of the citizens of the town in general, and bids fair to be very successful.