A more extensive movement for the education of the Negroes was taking
place during these years in the central part of West Virginia,
following the line of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway and the New and
Kanawha Rivers. This work did not arouse equal interest in all of the
counties along these routes, but in Greenbrier, Monroe, Summers,
Fayette, Kanawha, Cabell and Mason Counties, reached a point of
development deserving mention. It can be readily observed that this
progress in education resulted largely from the early settlements of
Negroes in the east-central counties of the State and from the influx
of Negro laborers into the New and the Kanawha valleys to work on the
salt works, and later from the migration of Negroes to the coal mines
opened along the Chesapeake and Ohio and the Kanawha and Michigan
Railroads. Negro schools, with such few exceptions as those at
Marshes, in Raleigh County, at Madison and Uneeda in Boone County, at
Red Sulphur Springs in Monroe County, and at Fayetteville in Fayette
County, were unsuccessful when removed from those important
thoroughfares.
The earliest teaching of the Negroes in the east-central counties of
the State came as a result of the sympathetic interests of benevolent
slaveholders who, living in a part of a State with a natural endowment
unfavorable to the institution of slavery, failed as a whole to follow
the fortunes of the slaveholders near the Atlantic Coast, and, hoping
to see the ultimate extinction of the institution by gradual
emancipation, gave the Negroes an opportunity for such preparation as
they would need to discharge the functions of citizenship. Immediately
after the War, when there was no public opinion proscribing such
benevolence, sympathetic white persons privately instructed Negroes
here and there. Such was the case at White Sulphur, long since known
as a summer resort, attracting from afar persons of aristocratic
bearing who, coming into contact with the Negro servants whom the
resort required, not only proved helpful to them by way of contact,
but gave them assistance in realizing limited educational aspirations.
The private school in White Sulphur finally gave place to one
established by the district. It had the support of the best white
citizens of the community and was maintained largely by the enterprise
of progressive Negroes seeking to provide for their children all
facilities for education offered elsewhere. About the same time, that
is, in 1866, the Freedmen's Bureau had a school in Lewisburg, under
the direction of one Miss Woodford. After serving the people well for
a year or two, this institution gave place to a public school.[19]
In Ronceverte, where the Negro population increased more rapidly and
where these persons of color made more economic progress than in the
case of White Sulphur, Negro education had a better chance. After
passing through the stage of such private instruction as white
persons interested in the man far down felt disposed to give, an
actual school was opened in the early seventies with an enrolment of
thirty pupils. The first teacher was Mr. Robert Keys of Charleston,
West Virginia. Mr. Keys was well prepared for that time and served
there creditably for two years. Mr. Keys had the support of such
well-known families as the Crumps, the Capertons, the Gees, the
Petersons, the Eldridges, the Browns, the Eubanks, the Williamses and
the Hayneses. There served also Miss Carr of Harrisonburg, Virginia,
and Benjamin Perkins of Lewisburg, West Virginia. Mr. Robert D. Riddle
was also one of the early instructors. Mr. Riddle retired from
teaching several years ago, but is still living in the city of
Ronceverte, where he has distinguished himself as a successful truck
farmer. Some years later Rev. R. D. W. Meadows, who has for a number
of years served as a missionary in West Virginia, labored as a teacher
in these parts, leaving a favorable impression on the system. The
school was first taught in the small one-room house privately owned.
When it increased in later years, it was found necessary to divide it
so as to teach a part of the school in the Negro Baptist Church until
the larger building could be provided. It is now a well-graded and
junior high school with many modern facilities.[20]
Union, in Monroe County, was not unlike the other large settlements of
this section having considerable Negro population. There was at times
even as early as 1855 a healthy sentiment in favor of the improvement
of the few slaves there, and this was not lost after the Civil War had
ended. So general was the interest in behalf of the Negroes that this
proved to be a most favorable community. Union was one of the first
towns in that section to establish a public school for Negroes. At
first there was some difficulty in having well prepared Negro teachers
in the county itself; for one John Didell, a white man, was the first
teacher of the public school. He had the support of such respectable
Negroes as Julius Smalls, Andrew Bailey, Malinda Campbell, Henry
Campbell, James Clair, Christopher Whitlock, and Charles Campbell. Two
of the products of this school are Miss Charlotte Campbell and Bishop
M. W. Clair of the Methodist Episcopal Church.[21] Among those who
came in later to stimulate the first efforts of the teachers were Mrs.
Leota Moss Claire, now a resident of Charleston, West Virginia, and J.
M. Riddle who, after having taught at Sinks Grove in Monroe county and
preached for several years in various parts of West Virginia, engaged
in the ministry in Ohio and later went to California, where he is now
serving as a State Missionary of the Baptist church.
In Summers County, the large settlement of Negroes was at Hinton. This
place had a Negro school of fifteen pupils as early as 1878, with one
T. J. Trinkle as instructor. He was a man of limited education, but
prepared to help those who had not made advancement in the
fundamentals. What he lacked in education he made up in moral
influence, and his career is still remembered as a success. The cause
of education among Negroes of Hinton was fearlessly supported by E. J.
Pack and C. H. Payne, once a teacher in a rural district in this
county himself and later a minister and a public servant in this
country and abroad. The school in Hinton began in a one-room structure
rented for four months, the length of the school term. Teachers were
paid at the rate of $15, $25 and $30 a month for third, second, and
first grade certificates respectively. It has recently developed into
a well-graded school having a junior high school running nine months,
with teachers paid at the rate of a combined monthly salary of $600.
The Negro public school experienced a later development in Fayette
County than in the case of the counties nearer to the eastern border
of the State or nearer the Ohio River; for, unlike those parts which
had a larger number of slaves than the central and northern counties,
Fayette County never before the eighties had Negro groups in
sufficiently large numbers to warrant an outlay in education at
public expense. The beginning of Negro education in this county was
consequent upon the migration of Negroes to the coal fields. Many of
them were interested in education and became its best patrons. Among
those were Samuel Morgan, A. W. Slaughter, J. H. Shelton, J. D.
Shelton, Aaron Chiles, Thomas Chiles, Randal Booker, Thomas Bradley,
Oliver Jones, Ballard Rotan, Anderson Rotan, R. J. Perkins, Aaron
Calloway, Mat Jordan, Henry Robinson, S. H. Hughes, Wellington
Henderson, John Carrington, James Caul, George Moss, and Pleasant
Thomas.
The first school established in Fayette County was that at Montgomery,
in 1879. It was opened by H. B. Rice, a pioneer teacher in Kanawha
Valley who had completed his education at Hampton Institute. For three
years Mr. Rice taught in one room of the home of Thomas H. Norman, an
intelligent and progressive Negro who, realizing the importance of
education as a leverage in the uplift of his people, early made
sacrifices for the establishment of this school. The school was then
taught in a shanty. Inasmuch as at the end of one year, that is, by
1883, the Negro population had rapidly increased, this uncomfortable
building was very much over-crowded and the school had to be divided
so that part of it could be taught in the Baptist church nearby, until
it secured better quarters. Among the teachers who toiled in this
district were Mrs. A. G. Payne, Mrs. Anna Banks, Misses Sadie Howell,
Julia Norman, Annie Parker, M. E. Eubank, Mrs. F. D. Railey, Mr.
George Cuzzins, Mrs. M. A. W. Thompson, Miss L. O. Hopkins, Miss
Lizzie Meadows, Mr. J. W. Scott, Miss Rebecca I. Bullard, Miss Mattie
Payne Trent, Mrs. Lola M. Lavender Mack, Miss Nellie M. Lewis, Miss
Ida M. King and Mr. H. H. Railey. The last mentioned not only attained
distinction as the principal of this school, but so impressed his
constituents as to be elected to the West Virginia Legislature.[22]
The impetus given to education at Montgomery was productive of
desirable results in other towns in Fayette County. The second Negro
school to be established in Fayette County was that Quinnimont in
1880. A storm of protest made the life of the teacher almost
intolerable, although he was a white man. The school-house had to be
guarded, but Rev. M. S. G. Abbot taught it two years. Then came Mr. R.
D. Riddle, mentioned above in connection with the school at
Ronceverte.[23]
At Eagle, not far from Montgomery, there settled groups of Negroes
sufficiently large to necessitate educational facilities for their
children. A large one-room school followed and this had not been
established very long before it was necessary to employ two teachers.
Among the prominent laborers in this field were Mrs. Mary
Wilson-Johnson and Mrs. A. G. Payne. This work experienced most
extensive growth under the direction of Miss A. L. Norman, Miss M. E.
Shelton and Mr. A. C. Page.
There soon followed schools at Fire Creek, Hawk's Nest, Stone Cliff,
Nuttallburg, Sewell, Fayetteville, and elsewhere in Fayette County.
Prominent among the teachers serving in these towns were D. W.
Calloway, A. T. Calloway, Miss L. E. Perry, Mrs. Lizzie Davis, Miss
Bertha Morton, Mr. James Washington, Mrs. F. Donnelly Railey, Mrs. H.
C. A. Washington, Mrs. J. B. Jordan-Campbell, C. G. Woodson, and Mrs.
E. M. Dandridge. These teachers did not generally serve a long period
in any one place, as there was a difference in salary in various
districts and the best teachers usually sought the most lucrative
positions; and sometimes, in the battle for bread and butter, the
rather keen competition in certain districts led to the periodical
dismissal of teachers without justifiable cause.
To those mentioned above, however, is due the credit for the
development of the Negro schools in Fayette County. This is especially
true of Mrs. E. M. Dandridge, who doubtless had a more beneficent
influence in Fayette County than any teacher of color who toiled
there. She taught for twenty-five years at Quinnimont, where she was
not only a teacher but a moving spirit in all things promoting the
social, moral, and religious welfare of the Negroes of her own and
adjacent communities. She was fortunate in having a natural endowment
superior to that of most persons and enjoyed, moreover, educational
advantages considered exceptional for most Negroes of that day. She
still lives to continue a noble work well begun and to complete a
useful career in the same county where she cast her lot years ago.
For almost a generation earlier than this, Negro education had been
launched with much better beginnings in the county of Kanawha. There
were no free schools in West Virginia until 1866, but as in the case
of several other settlements in the State, private schools were
conducted for Negroes immediately after their emancipation. There had
come into the county of Kanawha Rev. F. C. James, an Ohio Negro, the
father of C. H. James, the wealthy wholesale produce merchant of
Charleston. This pioneer was a man of fundamental education and
unusual native ability. He opened at Chapel Hollow, or Salines, two
and one-half miles from Malden, in 1865, probably the first Negro
school in the Kanawha Valley. He thereafter taught elsewhere and later
became the founder of the First Baptist Church of Charleston. The
following year Miss Lucy James from Gallia County, Ohio, opened the
first Negro school in Charleston. Among the first patrons were Matthew
Dillon, Lewis Rogers, Alexander Payne, Lewis Jones, Perry Harden,
Julius Whiting, and Harvey Morris. Mrs. Landonia Sims had charge of
the school one year also. At this time Rev. Charles O. Fisher, a
Methodist Episcopal minister of Maryland, had a private and select
school which was later merged with the free public school. Between
1866 and 1869 Rev. J. W. Dansberry, another Methodist Episcopal
minister from Baltimore, Maryland, belonging as did Mr. Fisher to the
Washington Conference, served also as a teacher while preaching in
this State. The Simpson M. E. Church, their main charge, was being
developed during these years and was in 1867 housed in a comfortable
building on Dickinson and Quarrier Streets. Mr. C. O. Fisher was a
well-educated man, but Mr. Dansberry depended largely on natural
attainments.
Rev. I. V. Bryant, who has toiled for many years in the Ohio Valley as
a Baptist minister, started his public career as a teacher at Baker's
Fort school, about two and one-half miles from Charleston. Rev. Harvey
Morris, another minister, opened a public school at Sissonsville in
1873, Rev. J. C. Taylor another at Crown Hill in 1882, and not long
thereafter this school was attended by such distinguished persons as
Mrs. M. A. W. Thompson and Dr. A. Clayton Powell of New York City.
This work in Kanawha County was accelerated too by the assistance from
the Freedmen's Bureau which sent to this section C. H. Howard, brother
of Gen. O. O. Howard, the head of the Freedmen's Bureau, to inspect
the field, and later sent one Mr. Sharp to teach in Charleston.[24]
One of the first schools in Kanawha County was organized at Malden.
Immediately after the Civil War this town had a much larger and more
promising Negro population than the city of Charleston. Many Negroes
had been brought to Kanawha County, and after their freedom many
others came to labor in the salt works. This private school at Malden
was conducted by Mr. William Davis, the first teacher of Booker T.
Washington, who a few years before had come from Halesford, Virginia,
to Malden.
Mr. Davis's career is more than interesting. He was born in Columbus,
Ohio, November 27, 1848, remained there until his thirteenth year,
spending parts of the years 1861, 1862, 1863 in Chillicothe. During
these years he mastered the fundamentals of an English education. He
moved back to Columbus in the fall of 1863. On December 18th of that
year Mr. Davis enlisted in the Union "Light Guard," called "Lincoln's
Body Guard," at Columbus. He served in the army eighteen months and
was discharged at Camp Todd Barracks, Washington, D. C., June 24,
1865. He then returned to Columbus and after remaining there about a
month went to Cincinnati, from which he proceeded to run on a boat
from Gallipolis to Charleston for about a month.
About this time the people of Malden, under the wise guidance of Lewis
Rice, a beloved pioneer minister, better known among the early Negroes
of the State as Father Rice because of his persistent efforts in
behalf of religion and education, had decided to establish a school
for the education of their children. Mr. William Davis thereupon
abandoned his work on the boat and became the teacher of this private
school, established at Malden in the home of Father Rice, in 1865. As
the school had to be conducted in the very bed-room of this
philanthropist, it was necessary for him to take down his bed in the
morning and bring in the benches, which would be replaced in the
evening by the bed in its turn. The school was next held in the same
church thereafter constructed, and finally in the schoolroom provided
at public expense, as one of the schools of the county.
About the only white person who seemed to give any encouragement to
the education of Negroes at Malden was General Lewis Ruffner. It
seems, however, that his interest was not sufficient to provide those
facilities necessary to ease the burden of this pioneer teacher. When
we think, however, that out of this school came such useful teachers
as William T. McKinney, H. B. Rice, and one of the world's greatest
educators, Booker T. Washington, we must conclude that it was a
success.
Mr. Davis's worth as a teacher rapidly extended through the Kanawha
Valley. He was chosen by the authorities of Charleston to take charge
of their Negro schools in 1871, when it was just a two-room affair. In
this field, however, Mr. Davis had been preceded as mentioned above by
noble workers in behalf of the Negroes. Building upon the foundation
which other Negroes had laid, he soon had a school of four instead of
two rooms, and before he ceased to be principal it had increased to
five, with a well-graded system, standardized instruction, and
up-to-date methods. His early assistants in this work were Charles P.
Keys, P. B. Burbridge, Harry Payne, James Bullard, and William T.
McKinney.
Mr. Davis received some cooperation from a few white persons, the
chief one of whom was Mr. Edward Moore of Pennsylvania, the father of
Spencer Moore, now a bookseller in the city of Charleston. Mr. Edward
Moore taught a select school for Negroes and helped the cause
considerably. Mr. Davis served about twenty-four years as principal,
although he was a member of the teaching staff for a much longer
period, serving altogether forty-seven years.[25]
Because of the unsettled policy of the Charleston public schools they
changed principals every year or two, to the detriment of the system
and progress of the student body. Rev. J. W. Dansbury served for a
while as principal, and H. B. Rice, who entered the service as an
assistant in 1888, became principal some time later and served about
four years. Mr. Davis, who had been demoted to a subordinate position,
was then reinstated, but not long thereafter came Mr. C. W. Boyd, who
had rendered valuable service in Clarksburg and had later found
employment in the public schools of Charleston. He succeeded Mr. Davis
as principal. At the close of one year, however, Mr. Rice was
reinstated and served for a number of years, at the expiration of
which Mr. Boyd again became principal and remained in the position
long enough to give some stability to the procedure and plans of the
system and to secure the confidence of the patrons of the schools.
Some of the valuable assistants serving during this period were Mr.
William B. Boss, Miss Blanche Jeffries, Mrs. Fannie Cobb Carter and
Byrd Prillerman, whose career as a teacher includes a period of short
and valuable service in the Charleston public schools.[26]
At what is now Institute, in Union district, there was established in
the fall of 1872 another Negro school, opened on the subscription
basis in the home of Mrs. Mollie Berry, née Cabell. Mrs. Berry was the
first teacher of this school. The building is occupied at present by a
Mr. James and owned now by Mrs. Berry's daughter, Mrs. Cornie
Robinson. In the spring of 1873, Mr. William Scott Brown, who had by
marriage connected himself with the Cabell family, was elected trustee
in the Union district, and by his efforts a Jenny Lind one-room
building, small and creditably furnished, was erected on a lot
purchased by the board of education from Mrs. Cabell for twenty-five
dollars, on the site now occupied by the family of Mr. Solomon Brown
of Institute. The trustees chose Mr. Samuel Cabell as the first Negro
public school teacher of the district. The method of qualifying as a
teacher was purely perfunctory, as a license to teach was easily
obtained by nominal examination. The term was four months.[27] The
line of teachers from 1886 may be traced from records of the board of
education of the district. Short tenure of office for a few years
seems to have been the rule until the recent years dating from 1918.
It is the opinion of Mr. W. A. Brown and others of the old system that
the quality of the local school has grown better. The establishment of
the West Virginia Collegiate Institute at this point is considered the
greatest factor contributing to such development.[28]
The next school of consequence established on Kanawha River was the
Langston School of Point Pleasant, in Mason County. This institution
was organized in 1867 by Eli Coleman, its first teacher. He toiled for
seven years in the one-room frame structure at the end of Sixth
Street. At the very beginning the enrolment was sixty-four, some of
the students being adults. The school continued as an ungraded
establishment for a number of years, working against many handicaps,
until the independent district was established and provided better
facilities. This school then had a board of five trustees, three
whites and two Negroes, and was incorporated into the city system by
the Board of Education and placed under the supervision of the
Superintendent of the Point Pleasant Public Schools.
Some of the early teachers following Mr. Coleman were J. H. Rickman,
later principal of the colored school in Middleport, Ohio, P. H.
Williams, Mrs. Lillie Chambers, Florence Ghee, Fannie Smith and Lida
Fitch. In 1885 the school had grown sufficiently to justify the
employment of two teachers. These were then L. W. Johnson as principal
and Miss Hattie C. Jordan as his assistant. Mr. Johnson served until
1890 when he was succeeded by Miss Lola Freeman as principal with
Samuel Jordan as assistant for one year. The Board of Education then
secured the services of J. E. Campbell as principal. Under him the
school moved into a five-story brick structure vacated by a white
school when better quarters for the latter had been provided. The
Negro school was then named the Langston Academy in honor of John
Mercer Langston, a Negro congressman and public official of wide
reputation. Miss Iva Wilson of Gallipolis succeeded Mr. Campbell as
principal, with Miss Jordan as assistant. Later there came as
principal Mr. F. C. Smith, A. W. Puller, and Ralph W. White, and
finally the efficient and scholarly Isaiah L. Scott, a promising youth
cut off before he had a chance to manifest his worth to the
world.[29]
Somewhat later than this, another group of Negro schools developed in
Cabell County, the first and most important being in Guyandotte and
Barboursville. These schools followed as a result of employment of
Negroes on the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad, terminating in the
seventies at the Ohio River, where it gave rise to the city of
Huntington, West Virginia, laid out in 1870. Most of these Negroes,
prominent among whom were James Woodson, Nelson Barnett, and W. O.
James, came from Virginia. The first school established near
Huntington was opened in the log house on Cemetery Hill, one and a
half miles east of the town and a little west of Guyandotte. The Negro
school enumeration was so small that the two towns had to cooperate in
maintaining one school.
The teacher first employed was Mrs. Julia Jones, a lady who had most
of the rudiments of education. Some old citizens refer to James
Liggins as the first teacher in this community. In this precarious
status of stinted support the school did not undergo any striking
development during the first years. Not until 1882, some years after
the school had been removed to Huntington itself, was there any
notable change. The first impetus which marked an epoch in the
development of this school came with the employment of Mr. and Mrs. W.
F. James, products of the Ohio school system. They were for their time
well-prepared teachers of foresight, who had the ability to arouse
interest and inspire the people. Mr. James at once entered upon the
task of the thorough reorganization of the school and by 1886 brought
the institution to the rank of that of the grammar school, beginning
at the same time some advanced classes commonly taught in the high
schools. He was an earnest worker, willing to sacrifice everything for
the good of the cause. While thus spending his energy as a sacrifice
for many he passed away respected by his pupils and honored by the
patrons of the school. His wife continued for a number of years
thereafter to render the system the same efficient service as the
popular primary teacher upon which the success of the work of the
higher grades largely depended, until she passed away in 1899.
The school then had the services of Mr. Ramsey and Mr. J. B. Cabell
who seemingly gave some impetus to the forward movement. Another epoch
in the history of the school was reached when W. T. McKinney became
principal in 1891. With the cooperation of the leading Negroes of the
city he succeeded in inducing the board of education to build on the
corner of Sixteenth Street and Eighth Avenue the Douglass High School,
which in its first form, prior to the making of certain additions,
consisted of a well-built six-room school costing several thousand
dollars. Mr. McKinney added the high school course and in the year
1893 graduated the first class of three. Following Mr. McKinney there
served the system efficiently as principals C. H. Barnett from 1890 to
1900, C. G. Woodson from 1900 to 1903, and R. P. Sims from 1903 to
1906. J. W. Scott, who succeeded Mr. Sims, is today principal of this
school, ranking throughout the State as one of its foremost educators.
Following along the line of Wayne County there soon appeared a school
at Ceredo and another at Fort Gay, just across the river from Louisa,
Kentucky. Under Mrs. Pogue, a woman of ambition and efficiency, this
school accomplished much good and exerted an influence throughout that
county. A number of students trained through the sixth, seventh, and
eighth grades later attended schools in other parts and made good
records because of the thorough training they first received. At Fort
Gay in this same county, however, no such desirable results were
achieved because of the small Negro population, the inability to
secure teachers for the small amount paid, and the tendency on the
part of local trustees there to change their teachers. Mrs. Cora
Brooks Smith, a graduate of the Ironton High School, who toiled there
a number of years, and Miss Susie Woodson, an alumnus of the Douglass
High School of Huntington, West Virginia, who also labored in the same
field, should be given at least passing mention in any sketch setting
forth the achievements in education among the Negroes in Wayne County.