In southern West Virginia there were at first few schools for Negroes,
inasmuch as the small Negro groups here and there did not warrant the
outlay. What instruction such Negroes received prior to 1888 was
largely private. That year an epoch was marked in the development of
the southern portion of the State by the completion of the main line
of the Norfolk and Western Railroad, opening up one of the largest
coal fields in the United States. As the discontented Negroes of
Virginia and North Carolina were eager for industrial opportunities in
the mining regions of the Appalachian Mountains, these coal fields
attracted them in large numbers. Bluefield, which developed in a few
years from a barren field in 1888 to a town of almost ten thousand by
1900, indicates how rapidly the population there increased. Other
large centers of industry, like Elkhorn, Northfork, Welch, and
Keystone, soon became more than ordinary mining towns.
When these places had worn off the rough edges of frontier settlement
and directed their attention to economic and social welfare, they
naturally clamored for education. The first school for whites was
established in Bluefield in 1889 and one for the Negroes, with Gordon
Madson as teacher, followed in 1890. Prominent among the pioneering
teachers in Bluefield were Mr. A. J. Smith and Mrs. L. O. McGhee, who
began their work in a one-room log building in the suburbs of the
town. About the end of the nineties there were Negro schools in most
of the important mining towns along the Norfolk and Western Railroad
between Bluefield and Williamson.
The Negro school in Bluefield had an interesting history. The school,
of course, was poorly equipped and the teachers were not then
adequately paid, but they continued their work two sessions of five
months each. In the third year the school was moved to another town
called Cooperstown where it was housed in a two-room building more
comfortable than the first structure, but not a modern establishment.
As it was situated in crowded quarters, the children had no
playground. Several years thereafter, the work was continued by Mr.
Patterson and Mrs. E. O. Smith. When, however, a large Negro
population settled in North Bluefield it was necessary to provide
there a two-room building between them. In this school-house taught
Mr. P. J. Carter with an enrolment of about thirty pupils. Not long
thereafter the building in the suburb of Cooperstown was burned. Two
additional rooms were then annexed to that of North Bluefield, but
before that could be occupied it was also destroyed in the same way.
The Board of Education then opened a school, in a building used first
as a bar-room, then as a pool-room, and finally as a courthouse.
Thereafter an old store-room was used for four years.
There were then four teachers in Bluefield, Mr. H. Smith, Mr. T. P.
Wright, Mesdames Lane, and E. C. Smith. In time Mr. Wright and Mr.
Smith were replaced by Miss H. W. Booze, Mr. W. A. Saunders and Mr. R.
A. McDonald. Mr. Saunders remained for one year and then was followed
by Mr. G. W. Hatter who was in his turn succeeded by Mr. R. F.
Douglass, who served as principal four years. Mr. Douglass had the
board of education appropriate funds for a six-room building and
increase the corps of teachers to five. By raising funds in the
community through entertainments and the like, the teachers purchased
a library of 100 volumes. In later years Mr. Douglass was followed by
Mr. E. L. Rand, a graduate of Lincoln University.
At Keystone in 1890 Mr. J. A. Brown opened its first Negro school with
an enrolment of about twenty-five. He was a man of fair education, but
could not accomplish very much because the term was only three months
in length. The school was held in one of the private houses belonging
to the coal company and later in the church. In subsequent years
there was very much development in the right direction, which proved
the quality of the teachers employed in the school. Among these were
Rev. J. Whittico, Mrs. Josephine D. Cannady, Mary A. McSwain, and
Maggie Anderson. This school was later combined to form the
Keystone-Eckman graded school, and now has an eight months' term and
well-qualified teachers.[30] A school had been established at Eckman
in 1893 by James Knox Smith.
In November, 1892, one Moses Sanders at Northfork opened a school with
an enrolment of twenty. He had only a rudimentary education. He served
at Northfork for three terms using methods considered fair for that
time, and his work, as a whole, was regarded as successful. He had
there the support of such a useful person as Henry Glenn, now a member
of the board of education.[31] This school has later developed into a
standard elementary graded school and a junior and senior high school
of more than one hundred students. It has done well under the
reorganization and direction of the efficient J. W. Robinson.