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Early Education |
Early Education in Boone County
The history of education in Boone County is one of long and sow growth. The crude, dangerous life of the frontier settlements was not conductive to any great developments of intellectual pursuits due to needed skill in hunting and shooting which took precedence over training for proficiency in reading and writing.
In those early days of settlement, instruction in the three R's was largely a domestic affair. The parents taught the older children, who in turn, instructed the younger members of the family. The circuit rider also furnished some assistance in instructing children in his area.
Early schools were often in the homes of settlers. The parents paid the teacher a small amount of money for each child. Sometimes the teacher went from house to house to teach the children of the family. Other times one house was used as the school house for a number of children. In some places, the teacher lived for a period of time with the families of his or her students.
At these early schools teachers taught reading, writing, spelling, and arithmetic. Students practiced reading and writing by drill. Words were read over and over until they were learned. Children learned to write all their "ABC's" by copying sentences, such as "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog", which includes every letter of the alphabet.
The typical West Virginia school grew out of pioneer conditions, the hardy frontiersmen meeting, selecting the site for the schoolhouse, and then the hiring of a teacher, who taught all, and as many of the children as could be sent by the parents, for a term of indefinite length.
No matter how the selection of site was made whether by valet or among hills, the schoolhouse was always built close to a stream. When the schoolhouse was built, it was rude in structure, size perhaps 16 by 18 feet; the walls were built of logs, interstices chinked with sticks and stones and daubed with clay. The rood of clapboards was held in place by heavy weight poles; the door of wooden slabs hung on wooden hinges; the floor, if any, was made from puncheons split from the body of a large tree and hewn down so as to have somewhat a quality of smoothness; a fireplace, spanned over one half of one end of the building was surmounted by a "cat and clay" chimney. Logs split in half answered for seats. Along the side of the wall, pins were inserted and on them rested board slabs, sloping downward, used as writing desks. Just above the desks was a log chopped out and in its place a single row of panes of glass or greased paper was sometimes pasted to admit light. The schoolhouse was used for school purposes five days a week and worship on Sundays.
Some old Field Schools were established in abandoned slave cabins, tanneries, count churches and deserted dwellings.
The first definite proof that schools teaching the elementary grades existed in Western Virginia was mentioned by George Washington in one of his reports when surveying for Lord Fairfax in which he listed as a reference point, "the Schoolhouse Old Field" in what is now Hardy County.
Just two years before the first family settled in what is now Boone County (1798), the first school law that dealt with the problem of free schools was passed by the General Assembly of Virginia. This act was known as the Aldermanic School Law and was the outgrowth of a plan proposed by Thomas Jefferson in 1779. Three county officials called "aldermen" had authority to divide the county into districts, levy, and collect taxes for the purpose of building and maintaining schools. This law was not very successful, largely because the wealthier prospects for aldermen felt they had to bear too much of the financial load and did not exert the initiative they might have done otherwise.
The territory now comprising Boone County came under the provisions made by the General Assembly of Virginia. In an act passed in 1846, the Virginia Assembly gave school commissioners, holding office under the act of 1817, authority to supplement state aid for the poor by local taxes. Since Boone County was formed in 1847, provisions of the act of 1846 were not met, and free schools did not come into operation until the reorganization following the Civil War.
According to the Census of 1850, Boone County had a total of seven public schools. All these were one teacher schools, and had an enrollment of 171 pupils. The total income to finance these schools was %586. The annual report to the State Superintendent of Schools in 1867 listed a total of ten public schools.
Boone County Superintendents of Schools From 1865-1990
G.W. Standley; 1865-1867
J.P. Williams; 1868-1869
Rufus Workman; 1869-1871
John W. Mahan; 1872-1873
Gary Toney; 1874-1877
John Morris; 1878-1879
Gilbert M. Ball; 1879-1883
A. W. Croft; 1884-1887
F. M. Vickers; 1888-1889
Isaac Eustace; 1890-1891
G.M. Ball; 1892-1893
Lewis F. Vickers; 1894-1895
J. S. Phipps; 1895-1899
William Osborne; 1900-1902
A. G. Hager; 1903-1906
W.W. Hall; 1907-1911
W. W. Nelson; 1912-1918
M. T. Miller; 1919-1923
C. N. Coon; 1923-1931
Virgil Jones; 1931-1934
Cecil W. Billups; 1934-1939
Albert W. Nelson; 1939-1945
Clarence D. Tamplin; 1945-1961
Troy Floyd, Jr.; 1961-1967
Willis W. Elkins; 1967-1970
Gary D. Sumpter; 1970-1975
Kenneth R. Mabe; 1975-1988
Deloris Jean Davis; 1988-1989
James C. Smith; Jan. 18, 1989-May 31, 1989
Manuel Arvon; 1989-1990
Gary D. Sumpter; 1995-2000
Steve Pauley; 2000-2009
John G. Hudson; 2009-2016
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Elementary Schools in Existence During 1931 |
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Name of School |
Principal |
Enrollment |
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CROOK DISTRICT |
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Bald Knob |
Stella Wood |
48 |
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Hatfield |
Omar Elkins |
94 |
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Pond |
Robert Tolbert |
47 |
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Cazy |
Ruth Vaught |
57 |
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Bandytown |
Sears Miller |
40 |
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Whites Branch |
Clifford Myers |
104 |
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Quinland |
Amelia Perkins |
39 |
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Brown |
Mary T. Barrett |
82 |
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Freedie |
Tessie Tanner |
88 |
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Y and O |
Blanche Patterson |
135 |
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Jarrells Branch |
Ruby Crouse |
142 |
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PEYTONA DISTRICT |
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Ashford |
J.W. Bias |
67 |
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Brush Creek |
M.W. Wood |
63 |
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Brushton |
Dallas Hollingsworth |
64 |
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Nellis |
A.L. Givens |
182 |
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Peytona |
Gerald Smith |
70 |
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Rumble |
Glenna Miller |
40 |
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SCOTT DISTRICT |
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Altman |
Elva Dolin |
41 |
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Danville |
J.A. Covert |
168 |
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Lower Rock Creek |
Esta A. Echols |
53 |
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Foster |
J.A. Vandelinde |
101 |
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Laville |
Oliver Weekly |
60 |
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Julian |
Arley C. Ball |
57 |
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Camp Creek |
Ira Dolin |
64 |
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Lory |
Lora T. Stollings |
33 |
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Madison |
Everett Perry |
207 |
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Morrisvale |
W.W. Nelson |
117 |
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SHERMAN DISTRICT |
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Comfort |
E.R. Coon |
206 |
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Pure Oil |
Nellie Kinnison |
67 |
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Orgas |
G.W. Johnson |
101 |
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Prenter |
Herbert Heslip |
140 |
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Racine |
Alfred McClung |
83 |
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Camp No. 3 |
Rudie Skeen |
28 |
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Seth |
Lydia Midkiff |
184 |
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Whitesville |
Clifford N. Coon |
517 |
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WASHINGTON DISTRICT |
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Clothier |
Josina Gulledge |
32 |
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Greenview |
Roxie Smith |
74 |
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Spencer |
Connie Montgomery |
71 |
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Jeffrey |
L.L. Jeffrey |
100 |
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Hatfield |
Garnet Garnett |
60 |
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Hopkins |
Roncie D. Ball |
47 |
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Edd Hager |
T.E. Westfall |
27 |
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Laurel City |
E.E. Browning |
131 |
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Ramage |
Gertrude Sampson |
80 |
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Secoal |
Burl S. Ball |
53 |