The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1911-02-06
SCHOOL, S ] S .Z US
MAX ING PR 10 R ESS'
lil Fills State as a Brief
Review Of Its History
Shows.

.a9 1Ag4A4kt9St
ToN, Feb. 6-Encour-
ssH per legislation, West
nus made rapid strides
ie last half century. From
old log cabIn school where our
we're taught their A, B,
g daye pfnng the finest types Of
topl houseg Of their respective
Kinds 81 the country. From these
school houses have graduated men
hcse names are now in the hall Of
fame. West Virginia graduates are
senators governors, supreme Judges
and a fact, men in all walks Of life.
nMo Of oh.o's governors received
their educatlon in this state and the
late Governor Reuben Chapman, Of
bana was West Virginia
gradaate
lle stride that West Virginia has
made IN. educational lines Is more
than remarkable, Probably the
: IS g. =
i school house ever erected with
Al me bounds OF what Is now West
yiFgnia, was built in the year OF
5lsI47 on the Upper Potomac. Dur
ing this year, when George Washing
ton was surveying the lands Of Lord
9FairfaN on this historic old stream,
he camped near an old log cabin
school house which a few pioneer
settlers had built in what is now
Hardy county. Two years before
the French and Indian war and ten
years before the fall Of Quebec, an
old eastern sehoolmaster named
shoSck built a school near what is
now Roniney, and taught the chill
dren OF the early settlers.
December i26, 1896 the general
assembly enacted the first Virginia
school Law. by which the schools Of
Ohio county, then in Virginia, were
governed.
The most important educational
meeting ever held on West Virginia
soil was held in ClarksDurg in 1S41,
the object of which was to induce
the general assembly, or legislature,
to establish a free school system.
This meetiug was presided over by
2. Jacobs, of Ohio county. Soon as-
ter the establishment of free schools
inthis state, Jesse j.. Reno, an Ohio
county hoy, graduated from one of
the FIRST schools IN that section and
left ior Mexico, where he achieved
much honor, and was killed during
the civil war while leading the
Ninth army corps Of the Union.
An Important step taken leading
to the free school system was on the
27th day Of November, 1861, when
John Hall, of Mason county, presl-
dent of the first state constitutional
convention, sitting at Wheeling,
named committee on education.
Two years later the first West Vir-
ginia legislature convened in the old
capitol building (now Llnsly insti-
tute) and appointed Senate COM
m5ttee on education consisting OF
John H. Atkinson, of Hancock coun-
~; 7. x. McEann, of Greenbrier;
John 3. Bowen, of Wayne: Chester
D, Hubbard, Of Ohio; and ., ". e.
Venson, of Wood. ~ the tine
Spicer Patrick, OF K7nawha county,
( speaker of the E.a ; Il loll gates,
appointed a Horso Comm &c, on cd
cation composed o, A. F. Ross, of
Ohio county; Dane Sweeney. of
Tyler county, and others. These
two committees met in joint confer
enco and on December 10, 1858,
was passed an act providing for the
establishment of free schools in this
state, The law provided for the
election of a state superintendent of
free schools, and thus the free
school system of West Virginia was
established.