Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1920-03-18
A Community Center Of Other DAYS.
BY ]. o. Knott.

- "'~ ioiHST Jays as pcttCf IMAM
the present ones. In this age Of vel
fare work, write OF a Community
Center in a rural section far from
the maddening crowd, where neither
the scream Of a locomotive nor the
monk OF an automobile disturbed the
peace OF the happy citizens in the
good old days. Probably the bugle
OF a ooatman on the Chesapeake and
ohio Canal was the only unusual sound
to be heard along the quiet Potomac
in this favored community Of Jefferson
County, West Virginia, in the DAYS of
the childhood of the writer.
The Reinhart school-house stood
not far from the Potomac river, hard
BY the road that led to the then little
heard-of center. now known as Moler's
Cross Roads. The school-house was
low, shingle-covered, brick building,
with three windows on either side,
and with door long innocent Of paint.
Within the building were to be seen
pine desks. some locked and others
unlocked, but carved by iack-knives
and overwritten by lead pencils, sug-
/ costing the hieroglyphics of an Egyp-
tian obelisk. The ground about the
school-house was shaded by a few
locust trees, but the grove near by
was at the service Of the school chill
dren. Here in this beautifully cleared
woodland the boys would play mush-
pot, and the girls dance and play those
ring games Of song and much kissing,
| probably just TO tease the envious
boys, who would stop their ball play
ing to watch the flowing hair and rud-
dy cheeks of the happy country girls
at recess hours. The Reinhart school
house was the only building in the
community that could be utilized for
school, church, Sunday school, debating
clubs, and singing schools. II was the
one community center that drew to its
precincts the people for miles around.
The grove itself became the we'll
known site for a yearly bushmeetine.
under the auspices of the Methodists
IN the community, and thus gave added
interest to the name of the school-house
center.
. My earliest rscollections of this
school-house gather about the school
itself. was initiated into my educa-
tional life at this place, under James
M. Hendricks Commonly known as
"Matt"0 who had been a Confederate
soldier, student of medicine, and had
taken the school as one link in the
chain of many notables that taught
the children in this section of the
State. Matt" Hendricks was then
quite a youth, with blondest of hair,
fair skin, clearest of blue eyes, and
quick in movement. He had keen
intuitions as to the things that are
found in books, and thus was not
wholly dependent on books. Later in
life he was the only man in the COM
munity who read the Scientific Ameri-
can, or any up-to-date scientific book.
When | became an embryo preacher,
found that he knew the difficulties in
the way of conservative biblical inter-
probation and was fully twenty We
years ahead Of most preachers we had
as pastors. wish to say further that
he has probably the best general idea
of the Civil War from a community
standpoint of any man now living
there who was in the war. The Reg
lister should have him write what he
has seen and known instead of granting
this space to me.
Among the teachers we had in those
days was one who, though in many
particulars able and equipped, occas-
ionaily slipped a cog, as the follow
ing will show: He was encouraging
dull students by telling them how slow
Daniel Webster had been with book
learning. He said that Webster had
barely gained his diploma at college
In fact the professor in giving the
diploma to him on the commencement
rostrum felt called to say to the audi
ence that Daniel barely "got through"
Ia most unlikely tale); "You know the
result" said the teacher, as the ex-
pectant country children listened with
open-eyed wonder, "Webster went out
and wrote the dictionary" ! would be
ashamed to tell how long trod this
earth thinking that Daniel Webster was
the dictionary maker, and what shock
| got when one day saw the name Of
"Noah Webster" on the title page.
think particularly of Harry B. Lee
as teacher at this school at a sensitive
period in my educational life. AS the
! dave on nv I have on ;pcreacinu admir-