The Journal of Negro History, Volume 7, 1922. Various
of persons,
On the reverse—
That is, indeed, a remarkable utterance, coming from the Southern Baptist Missionary Convention, in the year 1851.
22
This study was undertaken at the suggestion of President John W. Davis, of The West Virginia Collegiate Institute. He appointed a committee to collect the facts bearing on the early efforts of workers among the Negroes in West Virginia. The members of this committee were C. G. Woodson, D. A. Lane, A. A. Taylor, S. H. Guss, C. E. Jones, Mary E. Eubank, J. S. Price, F. A. Parker, and W. F. Savoy.
At the first meeting of the committee, C. G. Woodson was chosen Chairman and at his suggestion the following questionnaire was drawn up and sent out:
A QUESTIONNAIRE ON NEGRO EDUCATION IN WEST VIRGINIA
Place.......................
1. When was a Negro school first opened in your district?
2. What was the enrollment?
3. Who was the first teacher?
4. Was he well prepared?
5. How long did he serve?
6. Were his methods up-to-date or antiquated?
7. Did he succeed or fail?
8. Who were the useful patrons supporting the school?
9. What was the method of securing certificates?
10. What was the method of hiring teachers?
11. What was the method of paying teachers, that is, did the school district pay promptly or was it necessary to discount their drafts or wait a long period to be paid? 12. Did the community own the school property or was the school taught in a private home or in a church?
13. What has been the progress or development of the school?
14. What is its present condition?
15. What persons in your community can give additional facts on Negro education?
Name........................
From the distribution of these questionnaires there were obtained the salient facts of the early history of the pioneer education among Negroes in the State. A number of names of other persons in a position to give additional information were returned with the questionnaires. These were promptly used wherever the information needed could not be supplied from any other source. Members of the committee, moreover, visited persons in various parts and interviewed them to obtain facts not otherwise available. Wherever it was possible, the investigators consulted the available records of the State and county. In this way, however, only meager information could be obtained.
The most reliable sources were such books as the annual
At the conclusion of this study, President John W. Davis made the celebration of Founder's Day, May 3, 1921, a convocation for rehearsing the early educational history of the State. Most of the living pioneers in this cause were invited to address this meeting, as they would doubtless under the inspiration of the occasion, set forth facts which an ordinary interview would not evoke, and thus it happened.
Of those invited Mrs. E. M. Dandridge, one of the oldest educators in the State, Mr. S. H. Guss, head of the Secondary Department of The West Virginia Collegiate Institute, and President Emeritus Byrd Prillerman responded with forceful addresses. Mrs. Dandridge gave in a very impressive way a brief account of education in Fayette County. Mr. Guss delivered an informing address on the contribution of the early teachers from Ohio, and President Emeritus Prillerman expressed with emphasis a new thought in taking up the rise of schools in the State and the organization and growth of the West Virginia Teachers' Association. Prof. J. S. Price, of the West Virginia Collegiate Institute, showed by interesting and informing charts the development of the Negro teacher and the Negro school in West Virginia.
At the conclusion of all of these efforts the facts collected were turned over to C. G. Woodson to be embodied in literary form. Prof. D. A. Lane, of the Department of English of The West Virginia Collegiate Institute, also a member of the committee, read the manuscript and suggested a few changes.
23
Report of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1864, p. 31.
24
25
See West Virginia Constitution.
26
27
28
29
30
These facts were obtained from local records.
31
32
These facts were obtained from the local records, from Mr. S. H. Guss and from Mr. D. H. Kyle, both of whom served as teachers in Clarksburg.
33
34
These facts were obtained from local records.
35
36
This fact is stated in a letter of J. E. Robinson.
37
38
These facts were obtained from Mrs. Brady's daughter.
39
Facts obtained from a former teacher at this place, Freida Campbell.
40
41
Facts obtained from local records.
42
These facts were obtained from the teachers and oldest citizens of the town, who actually participated in these early efforts.
43
These facts were supplied by Mary Campbell, an old citizen of Union.
44
45
Facts obtained from old citizens and former teachers.
46
These facts were obtained from old citizens and from local records. See also J. P. Hale's
47
This is largely Mr. Davis's own statement verified by several other authorities and by local records.
48
These statements are supported by the records of the Board of Education of Charleston.
49
In the summer of 1874 there was circulated among the teachers of this school a petition in behalf of Miss Bertha Chapelle, who was chosen to teach the second term of the high school. In this way the last month of the session was taught with but one scholar attending. In the year 1875 Miss Mollie Berry was chosen to teach this school, and she was followed in 1876 by Mr. Frank C. James, who had taught previously the first public school in the county at Kanawha City, in 1866. He was succeeded in 1877 by Mr. Pitt Campbell, who was followed by Mrs. Bettie Cabell in 1878. She was in turn succeeded by Mr. Brack Cabell the following year. In 1880 the school was moved to the site now occupied by the two-room village school, and was called the Piney Road School. Mr. J. B. Cabell was chosen