Chapter 4 Public Education

[pp. 134-147]

Beginning with Opposition 1870-1900

Five years after the war between the States Virginia founded her system of state-supported public schools for both white and Negro children. The convention that assembled on July 3, 1867 framed a new constitution, ratified July 6, 1869, which provided for public education under state control and eliminated the permissive feature that had formerly impeded the progress of free schools. The superintendent of education was elected by the general Assembly until 1902, when a new constitution provided election by popular vote. In 1928 the constitution, giving the governor authority to appoint the state superintendent, subject to confirmation by the General Assembly. On March 2, 1870, Dr. William Henry Ruffner was elected first state superintendent and required to set up for Virginia a uniform system of public education. . . .

In November 1870 the wheels of the state educational mill began to turn. About 2,900 schools were open; about 130,00 pupils were enrolled; and about 3,000 teachers were employed. In Sussex, as elsewhere, deep-rooted prejudices blocked immediate progress. Because, through all the history of Virginia, free education and pauper education had been synonymous, the public school system can scarcely be said to have had a hospitable reception. From 1870 to 1879 Sussex and Greensville constituted a school division; from 1879 to 1907 Sussex comprised one division; from 1907 to 1921, Sussex was combined with Prince George; since 1921 Sussex has been again a separate unit.

In 1870 Captain William H. Briggs was appointed superintendent of public schools for Sussex and Greensville. Captain Briggs had been born in Sussex County on October 16, 1833. He was the son of Doctor William Briggs and Rebecca Dillard Briggs and had been educated at the University of Virginia. Because he had served in the Confederate army, he could not accept the office. His place was filled by John K. Mason, a young man with a zeal for public education.

Two white schools were opened at once in Courthouse District, two in Stony Creek District, and one in Henry District; and each of these districts started one Negro school. John K. Mason, according to his report, worked 60 days, traveled 350 miles, visited five of the eight schools, licensed eight of the nine teachers he examined, wrote 100 letters, and spent $15 in discharging his duties. His salary for the year was but $15. At the end of the year he was able to say that though most of the whites had at first opposed public education, many had been converted.

This was the day of small beginnings. The school term was brief—four months and a fraction—and the teacher's average monthly pay check was but $22.09. In eight schools of the county, six men and three women—all white—were employed to teach 105 whites and 134 Negro pupils. During the long vacation of nearly eight months, most of the rural teachers turned to other jobs. Mr. Mason magnanimously declared that in his opinion $25 to $40 a month was needed to obtain the best teachers. The 239 Sussex public school children studied the following textbooks adopted by the county: McGuffey's spellers and readers, Davies' arithmetic, Bullion's grammars, and Guyot's geography. The equipment would make Exhibit A in an educational museum: the crude backless benches, the tin heater, the waterbucket in one corner with its communal dipper—customary in an age unconscious of germs. A fair education at these schools was generally limited to the ability to find one's way through a dictionary, a Spencerian hand, and perfect spelling—a value gone with oxcarts. Indeed penmanship was classed as an art along with drawing and vocal music.

By 1872 schools were operating in Newville, Waverly, and Wakefield districts. The fist teachers' institute in Sussex was held near Jarratt on August 8, 1872 and was attended by about half of the corps. John K. Mason, in his report for that year, again struck an optimistic note. some people, he reflected, still opposed the system but "a large majority . . . have come over to us, and are working earnestly for the advancement and prosperity of the cause." The Negroes continued to "manifest a great desire for education." The method of raising local school funds would be satisfactory, he said, "if the right men could always be secured as Supervisors," and he suggested that the trustees be allowed to vote with the supervisors. "With some trifling informalities," Mr. Mason continued, "the records of the district . . . school boards . . . are properly kept." Referring to the teachers' institute, he commented "I think the effects of the meeting will be felt in carrying on the system during the coming year."

The statistics for 1872 listed for Sussex 18 schools for white and 10 for Negro children. Nine of these schools were constructed of long the rest of frame. Of these, six were equipped with blackboards. Twenty-six white and two negro teachers were employed, and the total enrollment was 995 pupils—507 white and 488 Negro. three districts—Newville, Waverly, and Wakefield—owned no school property, and the value of that owned by the remaining districts was $184. The year 1872 was also the first in which school taxes were levied in Sussex. The rate was 7 1/2 cents on the hundred dollar valuation in each district, an amount raised in 1873 to 20 cents, consisting of a 10-cent district levy and a 10-cent county levy. The total cost of public education in Sussex County that year was $4,470.09, and of the 2,697 children of school age 28 per cent were enrolled.

Captain William H. Briggs was appointed superintendent of public schools for Sussex and Greensville counties in 1873, the legal technicality barring him from office having been removed. . . .

By 1875 Sussex schools had increased to 17 for white and 9 for Negro children, the total enrollment being 885. The 22 white and 4 Negro teachers taught an average of six months for an average salary of $27.83. . . .

In 1880 the system in Sussex County showed, by the statistics, unmistakable improvement. There were 21 white and 11 negro schools with a combined enrollment of 1,202 pupils educated at a cost of $4,636.07, including the teacher's salaries, which for the 26 white and 6 Negro teachers had descended to an average of $22.64.

"The school system," ran the superintendent's report, has promoted a general desire for education, more particularly with the colored." Negro children of the more ignorant classes, though surpassing "their parents in intelligence" and being "equal in morals," he found "far behind in industry," and added, "I am unwilling, however, to say this is due to the public school system, but rather to the fact that they are less in contact with the whites than their parents."

After the close of Dr. W.H. Ruffner's administration in 1882, the advance of public education suffered retardation of tempo. By degreees the schools were completely the victims of politicians. W.N. Blow, whose superintendency of Sussex County schools ran from1883 to 1885, served when public instruction was fights against odds. . . .

Junius Edgar West became superintendent of Sussex County schools in 1889. . . . he began in the public school system of Sussex County a long and distinguished career, which included membership in the General Assembly and in the State senate, and the Lieutenant governorship of Virginia.

As superintendent, Mr. West suggested innovations that would improve the system in Sussex; a nine-month school term, better qualified teachers with increased pay, better schoolhouses and furniture, and a reasonable compensation to trustees for their services. In 1890 Jesse F. West, his brother's successor, reiterated these pronouncements, adding the recommendations that counties be allowed to supplement salaries of superintendent and that all teachers be required to attend county institutes "conducted by the best normal teachers of the State," whose salaries the state should pay. the new superintendent was, of course, none other than the beloved citizens of Sussex who served as county judge from 1893 to 1904, as circuit judge from 1904 to 1923, and then on the Virginia Supreme Court of appeals until his death in 1929.

Beginning a New Century

By 1900 the Virginia public school system had almost tripled in size. The enrollment had increased to 370,595; daily attendance had leaped to 216,464; 8,954 teachers were employed; and the value of school property was $3,536,293. The people of the state were no longer doubting the permanence of the public school system. The first three decades of the twentieth century, however, were to see many changes and improvements. Scattered about the county in 1900 were 33 schools for white children and 21 for Negroes. School property was valued at $13,085. Working for an average monthly salary of $29.56 were 58 teachers, white and Negro.

Incorporated in the constitution of 1902 were provisions that contributed much toward the development of schools as they exist today. The state board of education, formerly consisting of three members, was expanded to include three educators from college faculties and two divisions superintendents and was authorized to make all necessary rules for management of public schools. The General Assembly was given the power to establish compulsory education for children between the ages of 8 and 12 years. provision was made for free textbooks for children of indigent parents, and appropriations for any school not under the exclusive control of the state were banned.

Educational conferences, initiated for the improvement of negro schools, began with a meeting at Capon Springs, West Virginia. Within a year Mr. Robert Curtis Ogden, a wealthy New York philanthropist, became the leader, and lifted the plan from a provincial to a national level by setting forth as its objective the promotion of universal education in the South through better school legislation, more and better secondary schools, the increase of normal schools, and the introduction of vocational training.

The sixth conference, held in Richmond in 1903 under the stimulating influence of Governor A.J. Montague and a group of intellectuals and educators, deployed into the field an army for the 30-day May campaign of 1905. one hundred meetings in cities, towns, and countryside manifested all the fervor of a religious revival or a hotly contested political election. The Cooperative Education Association was formed to implement the conference; new school legislating and improved school conditions, curriculum, and instruction were among the first fruits.

Instituting Reforms

These spring tides brought new life to the schools of Sussex. On March 5, 1905 the state school examiner of the second circuit addressed the teachers' institute at Waverly. On March 23, the day before an election in Wakefield to authorize an eight thousand dollar bond issue to build a schoolhouse, both the state school examiner and Willis A. Jenkins addressed the voters of the town. The election was carried by a large majority, and the school was in operation by the following year.

Virginia high schools, between 1906 and 1910, increased from 74 to 396, and their enrollment from 3,405 to 15,334. Technical training as part of public school education had been advocated long before. In 1891 J.E. Massey, Superintendent of public instruction, announced that it would "be the aim of this Department to introduce and encourage" industrial education "as extensively and rapidly as it can be done." reiteration of this purpose was found in Mr. Massey's reports of 1891 and 1893. Pupils should be "given such mechanical instruction as may enable them to enter upon the industrial pursuits of life," he stated, suggesting, at the same time, that vocational training be introduced first into the city schools as a manner of paving "the way to make manual and industrial training a part of our educational system."

The Smith-Hughes Act of 1917 provided Federal aid for vocational training in public schools. This legislation was followed in Sussex by the gradual inclusion of vocational subjects in the schools of Stony Creek, Waverly, and Wakefield.

Teacher certification also came in for its share of stabilization by the creation in 1905 of the State Board of examiners and Inspectors, which together with the superintendent of public instruction, was granted the power to issue all teacher certificates. This was an important innovation. . . .

In addition to making the county or the city the local unit of school administration, other improvements in public education were brought about by the act of 1922 and the changes provided in the revised school code of 1928. The most significant of these were: 10 the provision for the appointment of a small lay board of education, 2) the appointment, rather than election by popular vote, of the superintendent of public instruction, and 3) election of the division superintendent by the local school board from a list of eligibles prepared by the state board. Some of these provisions have had the beneficial effect of divorcing politics completely from school administration.

Since this date, applicants for the position of division superintendent have been obliged to meet rigid requirements. A master of arts degree, that comprehends courses in professional training, is a prerequisite, as well as practical experience either in business or in school supervision. As for county officers, all are excluded as teachers, except the superintendent, who may—with the approval of the state board of education—serve as school principal. . . .

Women compose the large majority of the 15,000 V.E.A. [Virginia Education Association, 1898] members. Two women have srved as presidents—Miss Lula D. Metz in 1923 and Miss Lucy Mason Holt in 1933. . . . The Virginia Journal of Education, official organ of the VEA, was founded in 1907 by Dr. J.A.C. Chandler, with the Virginia School Journal of 1891 and the Educational Journal of 1869 as collateral ancestors.

Isaac A. Smith & the State of Negro Education

The Negro teachers organized at Lynchburg on August 13, 1887 a professional society, which they named the Virginia State Teachers Association; its official organ is the Virginia Teachers' Bulletin. The society, moreover, came into existence about 22 years after the War between the States, when the rank and file of Virginia negroes were still illiterate, and has been continued without interruption.

The standards in Negro schools—insofar as both equipment and the quality of teaching are concerned—have steadily improved since the inauguration of the public school system. William H. Ruffner, in his first report, felt constrained to offer statistical proof of the Negro's capacity to profit by scholastic instruction. By and large Southerners were amazed to discover that the children of former slaves were eager to acquire knowledge. When the schools conducted by the Freedmen's Bureau between 1865 and 1870 were closed, the burden of Negro education was assumed by the white population of the South. In spite of the poverty and confusion that followed the war, Southern states paid over a hundred million dollars between 1870 and 1900 to educate Negroes.

For some years after the opening of the public school system, little was done in Sussex to leaven the mass of illiteracy among a Negro population that far outnumbered the white. The Negroes of Jarratt, stimulated in 1880 by Isaac A. Smith, a Stony Creek public school teacher from North Carolina, formed a "Charitable Association of Learning No. 1 of Sussex County, Virginia," seeking to establish an institution of learning at home" and "to encourage and support the Sabbath School among the poor and ignorant, for of such we are the chief." Smith thought that aid would come if the Negroes made known their "awful conditions." A pamphlet was issued, "as a relief to our penury and ignorant and sinful condition," containing this plaintive appeal: "The colored people of this neighborhood have been preaching in a private house, when they have any; they have Sunday school in a private house, when they have any; they have their public school in a private house, in one corner, when they have one." Though the result of this appeal is not fully known, the effort is significant.

Northern Philanthropy

Northern philanthropists have greatly aided the South in supporting separate schools for the two races. George Peabody of Massachusetts established a fund in 1867 to aid both white and Negro education in the south. In 1882 John F. Slater of Connecticut gave the income from a million dollars to assist Southern Negro schools. The Jeanes Fund, established in 1907 by Anna Thomas Jeanes (1922-1907), a Philadelphia Quaker, has contributed to the improvement of the small rural negro school, though its capital of a million dollars is comparatively small, measured by modern standards. Dr. James Hardy Dillard of Virginia, tireless advocate of Negro education, was the first president of the board appointed to administer the Fund.

The Jeanes Supervisors had their origin through the work of Virginia Randolph, a negro teacher of Henrico County, who began early in the twentieth century to teach her pupils simple crafts and household arts. Her plan was adopted by the Virginia department of education and soon spread throughout the South. In 1900 Lillian Sophronia Bagnall was appointed the first Jeanes agent in Sussex County. Since that date, through her efforts and those of her successors, negro school buildings of Sussex and their equipment have been improved, industrial and home economics courses have been introduced, and more teachers have been provided.

The funds founded in 1911 by Caroline Phelps-stokes and in 1912 by Julius Rosenwald include Negro education among their objectives. In 1930 the Rosenwald Fund contributed four million dollars toward better Negro schools in the rural South. The Jeanes, Slater, and Peabody funds have been consolidated under the Southern Education Foundation, with Dr. Arthur D. Wright of Virginia as president. In Sussex the first Rosenwald school—now known as Sussex Training School—was erected in 1923 at Waverly; New Hope, the second, was built at the courthouse village in 1926.

Gains & Expenditures on Education in Sussex

Comparative statistics show the gains in negro education since 1871, when out of a Virginia Negro school-age population of 164,019—5 to 21 years—38,554 were enrolled in the public schools. Of the 706 teachers in the Negro schools, 70 per cent were Negroes, a proportion that fell to 50 percent by 1875 and then rose to 99 percent by 1910. In 1940 out of a Negro school-age population of 195,427—7 to 19 years—125,778 attended school daily for a session of 181 days. The Sussex Negro enrollment in 1941 was 2,021 with an average attendance of 1,4427 and a percentage of 80 in schools operated 180 days. the value of Negro school property in Virginia was estimated at $9,740,350; the value of white property at $70,098,749. Sussex County reported the value of white property in 1941 as $416,500; of Negro as $88,250. . . .

Detailed statistics of the Sussex schools should be an aid to understanding. the county school funds are in good health, with expenditures not in excess of appropriations. For the session of 1940-41 the school board spent $4,486.90 for administration, $68,249.09 for instruction, $2,579.75 for instructional costs, $14,669.66 for pupil transportation, $6,589.62 for janitor service, light, water, and fuel, $2,260.48 for repairs to buildings and equipment, $2,143.82 for insurance, $67,071.26 for new equipment, land, and new buildings, $10,400.66 for debts, and $344.53 for other costs. The total disbursements, including transfers, were $186,973.02. At the end of the year there was  a balance of $46,154.92 in the operating and debt funds. the county had a net debt of $83,491.92 or $13,731.72 more than that of 1939-40.

The per capita cost in Sussex for elementary instruction in 1941 was $51.66 for the white pupils, $14.37 for Negro. The state-wide county averages for 1939-40 were respectively $27.11 and $17.68. The Sussex per capita cost of secondary education in 1941 reached $71.83 for the white pupils, $41.28 for the Negro. The state-wide county per capitas were respectively $48 and $28.40 in 1939-40. The total per capia for the counties fo the state, including elementary and secondary instruction, was $42.61 in 1939-40. Mr. Foster points out in his report for 1941 that the relatively high cost for white education in the Sussex schools "is due to small enrollment in correspondingly small classes, or teacher load. It is not the result of high salaries paid teacher in Sussex County."

The school enrollment in 1941 of 925 white and 2,021 Negro pupils, making a total of 2,946, shows a decrease of 24 white and 37 Negro pupils. the average attendance of 760 white and 1,427 Negro pupils represent a decrease of 59 white and 24 Negro children. The percentage of attendance for the session of 180 days was 90 for the white pupils, 80 for the Negro—as compared with the year before, a decrease of two per cent in white and one per cent in Negro schools. A survey of the statistics for the preceding five-year period shows a rapid decrease in elementary white enrollment, with a nearly  static high school enrollment. The loss of 713 school children between 1935 and 1940, or a school population of 3,864 instead of 4,577, is offset by a definite gain in literacy. The 212 illiterates reported in 1935, or 12 whites and 200 Negroes, fell to 50 in 1940, or one white and 49 Negroes.

The Sussex business man or woman, accustomed to meeting one or more of the county's 16 school buses—14 loaded with white pupils, 2 with negroes, and transporting a daily average of 476 white pupils and 63 negroes, with no accidents in 1941—would be surprised if told that 40-odd years ago pupil transportation at public expense was criticized as smacking of paternalism and socialism. . . .

In 1895 few schools had libraries. . . . The educational renaissance of the early twentieth century loosened the purse strings of the General Assembly and brought about in 1908 an appropriation of $5,000 for school libraries—a paltry sum compared with the $100,000 of 1941. Sussex County entered the records in 1908-09 with $166.93 expended for school libraries. About ten years later Sussex reported eight schools with libraries and a total of 2,193 volumes. After 20 years Sussex was of one 43 counties spending annually more than two thousand dollars for books. In the session of 1940-41 the Sussex school libraries had 21,568 volumes—15,539 for the white and 6,029 for the Negro schools. the books were valued at $18,443. [pp. 134-147]

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Negro Schools—Historical Sketches

[Webmaster; sketches below 159-162]

New Hope School [1885--1941]

This school, the only one that has been in this community, was located about a quarter of mile east of the courthouse village on old State 40 until a church was built that served as a classroom for several years. Then a building 18'x20', erected "near the branch" in 1886, was used until 1912. After the enrollment had passed the hundred mark, the school was moved "farther up the hill" and a 12' section added. This building, in turn, was superseded by the present structure, which was erected in 1925-26.

Faculties

Booker School (No.2) [1888-1941]

In 1888 this school occupied a one-room log house, which contained a large fireplace, a table and chair, and one "primary chart." It continued unchanged until 1895 when, on an acre procured by the school board near Booker, there was erected a building measuring 16'x25', which had six windows, a table and chair, stationary desks, a globe, a map, and charts. water was obtained from an open well. within a few years the school acquired a library and was enlarged by an addition of approximately 12'x16'. Finally, in 1934, a new one-room building about 21'x36' was constructed. the present-day furnishings include, together with the library and sufficient desks, a modern wood stove and a fire extinguisher, two coat closets, and blackboards.

Faculties

Loco School [1901-1941]

Aware of the need of a negro school in the locality, the school board in 1901 converted the discontinued white school located on the Halifax Road near the present Tyus home into the Loco School for negroes. Forty-eight pupils were enrolled the first year under Josie turner. Within three years, the enrollment had increased to 75 pupils. To accommodate this increase an addition was made to the building in 1904. A new and modern school 24'x48, was constructed in 1938 at a cost of $2,300. The school lot contains three acres.

Faculties

Hunting Quarter School [1915-1941]

This evolved about 1915 from a private school built by B. J. Johnson. For a while the school was supported by about ten families that in time "were not able to pay" and sent their children to Loco. When the distance to Loco proved too much for the smaller children, the parents appealed successfully to the church and to the school board. The church contributed to the construction of a building on its grounds; the school board paid half the teacher's salary for the 1919-20 term and thereafter regularly assumed payment of the whole. In 1935 the Hunting Quarter Baptist Church donated three acres of land on which the school board constructed in 1937 a new and modern building, 24'x48', at a cost of $2,300.

Faculties

Hickory Hill School [1915-1941]

Two women, Hanna A. Young and Annie Vaughn, by means of benefit entertainment and direct solicitation, raised the money that founded this school in 1912. the growth through the years of its initial enrollment of from 20 to 25 pupils caused the building to be enlarged in 1924. In 1937 the Hickory Hill Baptist Church donated 1.3 acres of land on which the school board constructed a new and modern building, 24'x48' at a cost of $2,300.

Faculties

Yale School [1909-1941]

The first Yale school for Negroes was established in 1909 in a house owned by S.J. Parson, located at Junction, four miles from Yale. When John Massenburg, who was interested in the education of his children, submitted a list of 20 prospective pupils to W.W. Edwards, the superintendent, Lou Blow was engaged as teacher. About five years later the patrons decided Junction was inconveniently located for many pupils and had the school moved into the Negro lodge Hall at Yale.

Here the immediate enrollment of about 40 so crowded the hall that patrons began raising funds to buy land for a more commodious building. Shortly after the third term opened, the school was closed for lack of a teacher. During the next two years the number of children in the community who attended Hickory Hill School increased, and John Massenburg prevailed upon Mr. Edwards to reopen the school. The teacher, pearl Elam of Waverly, found an enrollment of 50.

During the eighth and ninth terms of the revived school, its last teacher, Inez Cypress, spurred on by an enrollment of almost 60 pupils, worked with John Massenburg and Dennis Walton for a new school. Upon the advice of the superintendent, T.D. Foster, John Massenburg, acting for the patrons, bought two acres from W.N. Edwards for a school site, paying $200. When title to the land was procured, Mr. Foster sent Mr. A.P. Kubrock, carpenter, to assist the patrons in erecting a building at a cost of $1,200 to the school board. That school, completed in the summer of 1930, continues in operation

Faculties

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White Schools [Henry District] Historical Sketches

West View School

Samuel Emory came from the North in 1872, settled on a farm near Jarratt, and became the teacher that year of the West View Public School, which had been established on the Saunders farm near the Halifax Road (US 301), about two miles north of Jarratt. The building was an unpainted frame structure of one room—barren of window shades or draperies and furnished with home-made desks and benches. Doubtless this was the school referred to in the successful application made February 26, 1875 to the State Board of Education by the Henry District school trustees "for authority to allow a certain school in the district to continue with an average attendance of 12 pupils." In 1875 Mr. Emory was succeeded by Miss Lou Creath and she, in 1879, by Mrs. Amanda D. Chambliss, who taught here until 1882, when the school was closed, and Mrs. Chambliss and her 46 pupils were transferred to Jarratt.

Mrs. W.H. Batte was a graduate from this school.

Border School

Mrs. Amanda D. Chambliss, who was graduated at the age of 17 with high honors from Miss Williard's School for Girls in Troy, New York, returned to Sussex County, passed a teacher's examination, and began her teaching career in 1874 at the Border School, which was built for her. This one-room structure of pine logs was located near the Sussex-Greensville County dividing line on the B.A. Bailey farm near Allen's Road, about a mile northwest of Jarratt. The benches had no backs and were unpainted. About 1878 the school had 46 pupils enrolled. The Border School was discontinued in 1879 when Mrs. Chambliss succeeded Miss Lou Creath at the West View School.

Jarratt School

Some time during the winter of 1882 a public school in Jarratt began, with Mrs. Amanda D. Chambliss as teacher. The school was located in a building on the west side of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad at the crossing on Grigg Avenue, some 75 yards south of the Grigg House, the residence of Dr. T.F. Jarratt (1941).

In the following year (1883), a schoolhouse was built on the east side of the railroad. The equipment of this frame building, part of the Ray Williams residence (1941), consisted of home-made desks and benches, a tin heater, a water bucket and dipper, and one innovation—an easel blackboard 2'x3' in size. the pupils used slates. School opened at nine in the morning and closed at half past three in the afternoon. The building, conveniently located just across the railroad from the Catholic Church and parochial school, was later bought by the Catholic Church to house its teachers and priests who came from Richmond during week ends.

In 1892 Farley's store—in which Mrs. Tom Lyon had conducted a private school—was bought, and in September a graded school was opened in the two-room building, with Mrs. Amanda D. Chambliss as principal from 1892 to 1894 and Miss Susie White of Petersburg, Virginia as assistant from 1892 to 1893. Located directly on the Halifax Road at the northwest corner of the present school lot, this building—first known as Farley's Store and Bar—has survived to the present day, but is now disintegrating rapidly. Pupils entered at the age of five, and attended for a term that lasted generally five months, January to May. No one was "graduated," according to Mrs. Minna F. Person. The "scholars," as they were called, "finished."

Indoors, such games were played as "Blind Man's Buff," "Fishing," and "Tag"; while outdoor games consisted of "Hide and Seek," "Drop the Hankerchief," and "Cat," a game similar to the present-day soft ball. The advanced class was instructed in the afternoon in spelling and was assigned three columns of "dictionary." A week of perfect answers placed a pupil on the honor roll."

Early in the twentieth century, public schools were located in Henry District at Jarratt, Grizzard, Gray, Harrells, and Owen. the school at gray was eventually moved to the Gilliam neighborhood, and the one at Owen was transferred to Jones' Church, then back to the Halifax Road Loco, near the present Tyus house. Eventually this school was discontinued, and in 1901 its building began to be used by the Loco Negro School.

In Jarratt at the turn of the century the one white school was a two-story building with about six rooms. In 1908 the Henry District School Board (C.M. Brown, J.A. Johnston, and L.M. Creath), together with W.W. Edwards, superintendent, began plans for establishing a high school at Jarratt. By the autumn of 1909, an addition had been made to the Jarratt school building large enough to accommodate teachers and pupils of the high school. O.B. Ryder, principal during 1909-10, had as teacher Ethel Chewning (1908-1910), Adelaide Everett, Genevieve Eubank (1909-15), and Carrie Ratcliffe (1909-16). the enxt year, 1910-11, T. Stuart Luck was principal, and had as teachers Hattie Robertson (Mrs. B. f. Jarratt) (1910-13) and Nannie Bennett (Mrs. C. F. Owen) (1910-13).

The barn-shaped auditorium, recalled Miss Bernie Jarratt, who graduated in 1919, "had posts going up through it and had an enormous, high stage. During my days we wrapped these posts in crepe paper of the class colors and stuck ferns between the wrappings for each commencement occasion. It was awfully ugly; painted yellow and blue and brown. Trimmed in crepe paper it must have been a scream! But that was the yearly custom. It was also a custom to have a stenciled cut-out of the class motto in colors across the back of the stage. But we had high class commencements lasting five nights consisting of Greek plays and the like! Everybody in town got at least three new dresses for the biggest social event of the Jarratt year. Brick ice cream was sold and the crowds lingered for hours in social conversation."

The old school building was used until the session of 1922-23, the year the school at Grizzard was discontinued and the final consolidation of schools in Henry District was accomplished. Then, following the regulations of the State Board of Education, the present building was erected, the school board in charge of the construction consisting of C.M. Brown, B.T. Horne, and C.F. Owen. Mr. Brown was succeeded by J. H. Batte. The old building was taken down and rebuilt elsewhere as a Negro school, which was used until it burned several years ago.

Jarratt's present brick school building accommodates 9 teachers and about 200 students, of whom 60 are enrolled in high school. In conjunction with academic work are a two-year commercial course, a nursing course, and a music course. Equipment consists of a new library, a moving picture projector, a mimeograph machine, a community room provided with a complete kitchen, and various courts and fields for athletic contests. between 1912, the year of the first graduating class, and 1941 there have been 165 graduates. During the session 1939-40 the enrollment increased approximately 50 as a result of the location of the Johns-Manville plant.

An addition made to the Jarratt High School was used for the first time at the beginning of the session of 1939-40. It includes a library, library workroom, infirmary, and music room. The cost of the addition and equipment was approximately $15,000, 45 per cent of which was received from the Public Works Administration.

In 1923 the Greensville County School Board appropriated $5,000 toward the construction of the Jarratt High School. Although the building cost between $30,000 and $35,000, the Greensville County School Board held a deed for one-third undivided interest. Before the addition was made in 1938-39, the Sussex County School Board purchased the one-third interest owned by Greensville County for $4,000. This amount is being paid in the form of tuition charged Greensville County pupils in attendance at the Jarratt school. The payment will be completed in 1942. [pp. 164-167]

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Negro Schools—Historical Sketches

[Webmaster: Sketches below, 172-175]

Bethlehem (Field's Chapel) School

Field's Chapel, as this school was originally called, was founded about 1878. Until 1883 the teachers were white. Three years later, John Walton gave an acre of land located north of an adjoining the Bethlehem Church lot to be used for school purposes only. A school was erected here, and the name was changed to bethlehem School. The walton donation, however, was made by a deed with a faulty title; as a consequence, in 1921 or 1922, the school league purchased from the Gray Lumber company three acres of land south of an adjoining the Bethlehem Church lot. Here a four-room school was erected in 1922 or 1923. This building burned during the Christmas holidays of 1923 (see Grizzard School, p. 173), and in 1925 the present two-room school building was erected on the same site.

Faculties

Jefferson School

This was first a private school established at Chapel Hill in 1908 by the Jefferson families, who paid the teacher and contributed the school building. The initial enrollment of 15 pupils rapidly increased. In time the school was taken over entirely by the county. In 1912 Jefferson School was rebuilt to accommodate the increased enrollment. In 1928 or 1929 the school was moved to a new building on US 301 about one mile from Jarratt. Increased enrollment about 1931 caused the addition of another classroom and another teacher. In 1937 one of the classrooms was enlarged, and closets were added. the county has provided much of the school's necessary equipment, such as filing cabinet, globes, maps, and a pump. Recently the league purchased a coal stove for each classroom at a cost of $80.

The enrollment (1940-41) was 185 pupils, with an average attendance of 112, who was taught by 3 teachers.

Faculties

Rivers (Gray's Shoal) School

In 1914 J.R. Rivers bought an old shanty from a sawmill company, had it torn down, and used the material in the construction of a small schoolhouse on the Dobie farm on Butts' Road. Called Gray's Shoal, the school continued to increase until a hundred pupils were enrolled. At this stage, a building similar to the shanty was bought and the material used to enlarge Gray's Shoal School. In 1927, the year after the name had been changed to Rivers School, a movement to collect $500 for a new building was started by the patrons. In 1930 the present building was erected by the school Board at a cost of $1,890.

Faculties

Creath (Number Five) School

Opened by Isaac Smith in a private house on the Halifax Road (US 301), the school, some years later, was moved about a mile down the road to a log building erected expressly for the purpose. Here Mr. Smith continued as the teacher. Subsequently the school was moved back to its former location on the Halifax Road, then to a place on the Henry Road. At the suggestion of the school board, the Creath school league bought the building that was used by a white school and located opposite J.M. Tyus' gate, and the school board moved this structure to land procured from L.M. Creath. Eventually the one-room Creath or Number Five School, as it was called, was increased by the addition of a one-room school building moved from Jerusalem Church. About 1913 the Creath and Jerusalem schools were consolidated at Creath and now occupy two large rooms. The last addition was made in 1937—and now occupy two large rooms. There are 2 teachers, an enrollment of 128, and an average attendance of 106.

Faculties

Grizzard School

In 1924, 40 children from the southern part of the community served by the Bethlehem School, which had burned the year before, were assigned tot he white school building at Grizzard under the instruction of Ruth Harvey, one of the Bethlehem teachers. In 1937, when Earnest Harvell—owner of the Grizzard school building—resumed control of his property, the School Board built the present Grizzard School at a cost of $2,300

Faculties

[Webmaster Note: Nannie Speed, the wife of Rudolph Speed, would spend a long term at Jefferson School, maybe several generations.]

Hassediah School

No historical sketch was provided for this church school.

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Negro Schools—Historical Sketches

[Webmaster Note: The schools below come from a district in Sussex near US 35 and US 40, east of the Courthouse, pp. 181-183.]

Jack Cole School

Free schools for Negroes in this community began about 1867 with John Reed (white) teaching in a privately owned building located approximately one mile north of the present school on the Cabin Point Road. This first effort was discontinued after several years.

The present school is named after a native Negro, Jack Cole, who furnished the property and building for the education of local children before the state assumed that responsibility. This school was about 500 yards from the school's present location.

Jack Cole School as established by the state had one room. Increased enrollment caused another room to be added in 1924, the community and the county school board each sharing half the expense. It continued as a two-room school until 1938, when it again became a one-room school.

Faculties

Littleton School

This school began in 1875 with about 50 pupils at the Old Academy building located near Mr. Savedge's Store. When it was discontinued in 1880, leaving Littleton without a school, the enrollment was between 55 and 60 pupils. The children attended Homeville School, where Scrap Lowery was teaching, until 1902.

In that year school was opened in Littleton in a building erected by the people near Pleasant Grove Church on land given by the Surry Lumber Company. At this time the school board did not employ the teacher. About 60 students were enrolled. The number of children attending from Littleton section caused the school to be moved in 1910 to its present place in a building formerly used as a white school.

Between 1917 and 919 there was no school in Littleton because the patrons could not afford one. In 1937 additional land was purchased and a room 24'x48' was added at a cost of $2,300, at which time it became a two-teacher school.

Faculties

Newville School

This school was established by the county in 1878. Previously, instruction had been given in an old academy (owned by John Parham, a relative of Hamilton King), which at one time was used by white people. The initial enrollment reached  nearly one hundred students. They were and continued to be taught by one teacher. Five years after the building was painted and given a new ceiling in 1915, a room was added. This was done in the hope that, since the enrollment was large, it would be made a two-teacher school.

Faculties

Plank Road School

This school, called "The sand Bar School" after the name of its first location, was opened in 1912 as a private school near Nebett's Bridge. Its initial period saw an enrollment of 35 to 40 students. But from 1916 through 1919 there was no teacher, and the pupils were sent to Newville School. In 1919 it was made a public school, though conducted in a private building, and in 1920 Ula B. Williams became the first teacher to be employed by the county.

When additions were made to Hall School nearby, "The Sand Bar School" was closed and moved in 1921 near the Plank Road Baptist Church. On this site, whence it took its present name, the attendance increased to about 80. In 1919 the school board purchased two acres of land, and in 1930 the order of St. Luke's donated the present building and one acre of land.

Faculties

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Negro Schools—Historical Sketches

[Webmaster Note: The schools below come from a district in Sussex near US 301 and US 40, west of the Courthouse, pp. 196-198.]

Little Mill School The first school for Negroes of this community was begun by volunteer (white) teachers soon after the War between the States for children who were not at work. Later a night school was operated for adult Negroes. From these beginnings evolved the Little Mill School of today. In these early schools grade levels were designated by names such as "Speller" and "Dictionary." The present two-room building was constructed by the school board in 1936 at a cost of $3,300.

Faculties

Hawks School

Established by the state in 1885, this school opened with an enrollment of about 70 pupils. The first building burned in 1917. the following year a new school was built, which still continues in use.

Faculties