USA > West Virginia > Tucker County > History of Tucker County, West Virginia, from the earliest explorations and settlements to the present time; > Part 13
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No, the history of the past cannot be laid aside. I am
12
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HISTORY OF TUCKER COUNTY.
firmly of the belief that the human race, as a whole, im- proves from the experience of past races, just as an indi- vidual grows wiser by remembering his past successes and failures. It is a dark subject to me; but, so far as I can understand it, I see nothing that does not confirm me in the belief that there is a universal mind, or spirit, or soul, or nature, or something not exactly expressed by any word in the world, that is composed of and includes all the minds in the world, as a great and perfect whole. It is hard to express myself on this subject. Tennyson in Locksley Hall does it for me better than I can do it :
Yet I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs, And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns.
When one generation dies from the world, the next does not have to commence in knowledge where its fathers did, but, in a measure, where its fathers quit. The "increasing purpose " does not die with the races of men. It lives from generation to generation, from age to age and from century to century, ever stronger and stronger. As the old rocks from the cliffs of the mountains and from the caves of the ocean are ground into powder to furnish material for new formations, so must the experience of the past be picked apart to furnish material for the rebuilding of newer and better institutions. So must history be used in the present. So must we build by the ruins of the past. But the simile is not perfect, for the intellectual world builds grander and better and finds constantly some new material to introduce into the work, while the geological world constructs from the same material over and over again, and the new work, although newer, is in reality not a particle better than the old.
Scientists disagree, whether intellectual power is trans-
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MISCELLANEOUS STATISTICS.
mitted from generation to generation. On the one side is arrayed the long catalogue of illustrious families, the splen- dor of whose talents has been observed for generations, and a similitude noticed in all. On the other hand, it is claimed that a savage infant, the child of savage parents, may be trained to civilzation and enlightenment and be none the less refined and gifted than one born and reared in all the conditions of civilization. There are two sides to the ques- tion, and either is not void of argument; but, it must be ad- mitted that parental characteristics, of mind as well as body, are transmitted from generation to generation. How else could there be an increasing purpose running through the ages, as there surely is? Then there is occasion still for learning, and from the past, all there is to know or to be known. We cannot learn from the future. The present is only the twilight of the past.
As the world stands now, there is more benefit to man- kind in the sermons of Talmage than in the histories of Gibbon. The times are turning. There is greater change in one year now than there was in a century some thousand years ago. At least, this is true so far as we can tell; but if we could see as things were seen when Virgil sang and Demosthenes raved, we might know that we are mistaken. They laughed at Pythagoras when he thought that the world was round. Is no one being laughed at to-day who will be remembered when the deriders are forgotton? Is there not extant some theory so ridiculous that it is hardly worth laughing at? Who knows what the philosophers two thousand years hence will say of it? What was the woman's name who laughed at Newton and called him a simpleton for sitting in the orchard to see the apples fall ? The circumstance alone is remembered, and that because
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HISTORY OF TUCKER COUNTY.
of its surroundings. Too many people are like the young lord, on whose hand the king leaned, in that beleagured city, where the famine raged, and where the prophet fore- told plenty, and to whom the young lord answered that such a thing might be if the windows of heaven should be opened.
In 1880, there were in Tucker 3,139 persons of American birth, and 2,053 were born in the State: 936 were born in Virginia. Of the remainder, 3 were born in Ohio, 58 in Pennsylvania, 38 in Maryland. There were 12 of foreign birth, of whom 2 were from Ireland, 2 from Scotland, 4 from Germany and 1 from France. The rest are ungiven.
Of the 3,151 persons in the county in 1880, 1,625 were males and 1,526 were females. From the age of five to seventeen, inclusive of both, there were 546 males and 512 females. From eighteen to forty-four, inclusive of both, there were 580 men. There were 618 men twenty-one years of age, or over.
In 1880, Tucker had 385 farms, containing 19,632 acres of improved land. The value of the farms, including all they contained, fences and buildings, was $590,782. The farm- ing implements and machinery were worth $23,661. The value of stock was placed at $102,917. The building and repairing of fences cost $18,223. This was for the year 1879. The value of fertilizers purchased was $456. The value of all farm productions, sold, consumed and on hand, was placed at $75,152.
In 1880, the county produced 5,784 bushels of buckwheat ; 63,632 bushels of corn; 15,221 bushels of oats; 1,247 bush- els of rye ; 7,973 bushels of wheat. The value of the or- chard productions was $7,581. Of Irish potatoes, there were 7,216 bushels ; sweet potatoes, 56 bushels ; hay, 1,253 tons ; tobacco, 2,061 pounds.
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MISCELLANEOUS STATISTICS.
In 1880, Tucker County had 642 horses, 57 mules, 35 working oxen, 940 cows, 1,451 other cattle, 3,535 sheep, 3,655 hogs. The wool produced was 10,733 pounds, which was a fraction more than three pounds to the sheep. The production of butter was 40,592 pounds. That of cheese, 1,846 pounds.
The average production of butter for each farm was a little more than 105 pounds. The average production for each cow was over 43 pounds. The average for each per- son in the county was nearly 14 pounds. There was one farm to about every eight persons. There was a milch cow to every three and a third persons. There was a fraction more than three horses to every farm, and two and two- fifths cows to every farm, and more than nine sheep and nine hogs to every farm. There was less than five pounds of cheese produced for each farm. To each farm there were 15 bushels of buckwheat, 165 bushels of corn, 39 bushels of wheat, and the orchard products averaged $19 to each farm.
There were in the county in 1880, five manufacturing establishments, with a capital of $5,000, and giving employ- ment to ten men, with an aggregate yearly pay of $860. The material cost $3,660 and the manufactured goods were worth $5,608. The monthly pay of the men was $7.16 each. This was twenty-seven and a half cents a day. The manu- facturing of the raw material increased its value $1,948. This was an increase of value on the first cost, of 53 per cent. Each man earned about $9 per month above what he received as wages. The clear gain of the manufactures was about $1,000 per year. This was a gain of 20 per cent. on the capital invested.
The assessed value of the real estate in Tucker in 1880 was $418,703 ; that of the personal property was $60,999,
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HISTORY OF TUCKER COUNTY.
total, $479,702. The State tax was $2,035; county, $6,903; town, village and school district, $2,297; total, $11,235. In 1880, Tucker was in debt $118.
If the tax had been equally divided among the farms, it would have been $29 for each. It was $3.56 for each man, woman and child in the county. It was $18.21 for every voter. The tax was $2.34 on the $100.
It may not be amiss to give some scattered figures rela- tive to the schools of the county. In 1882, there were 96 trustees in the county, and 15 members of the board of education. There were 34 school houses, of which 8 were made of logs and 26 were framed. There were 35 rooms in all. The St. George school had two rooms. Of the 35 rooms, all had desks but four, and altogether there were 117 square yards of black-board. This was 33 yards to each room. All the school-houses togetlier were valued at $6,- 144, and the value of school lands was $367. The average value of the houses was $181. The school furniture was valued at $215, and the apparatus at $262. The total value of school property was $6,989.
Between the ages of 6 and 16, there were 422 boys and 425 girls. Over 16 and under 21, there were 146 boys and 84 girls. Total, 1,077. Of this number, 817 attended the public schools. The average daily attendance was 489. Three-fourths of the children in the county attended school. Of those enrolled, 59 per cent. attended school all the time during the term. During this year (1882) there were 62 boys and 56 girls enrolled for the first time. The boys were tardy 75 times, and the girls 63 times. Among the boys there were 25 cases of truancy, and among the girls, 14. The number whipped was 62 boys and 66 girls. One girl was suspended from school, and no boy. Of those nei-
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MISCELLANEOUS STATISTICS.
ther absent nor tardy, there were 33 boys and 35 girls. The average age of the boys was 11 years, of the girls 10 years. There were only two cases in which teachers were absent from their schools. Not a teacher in the county had at- tended State Normal School. Of Tucker's 36 teachers, 27 were men and 9 were women. The men taught 82 months, the women 29 months. The average length of term was 69 days.
In Geography, there were 82, Orthography, 36, English Grammar, 80, Arithmetic, 297, History, 37. Of the teachers, three men and no woman subscribed for an educational journal. Seven men and 3 women were teaching their first term. In the First Reader, there were 93 pupils; Second Reader, 99; Third Reader, 81 ; Fourth Reader, 138; Fifth Reader, 80; Sixth Reader, 109. In writing there were 281, and in spelling 666. The County Superintendent made 26 visits to the schools. The members of the board of ed- ucation made 70 visits, and the trustees 99. Other persons visited the schools 277 times.
At the close of the last school year (1881) there was in the treasury, Teachers' Fund, $691. The levy on real and personal property was $1,334. From the State School Fund $841 was received. Total receipts from all sources for Teachers' Fund, $2,868.
In 1882, the teachers holding No. 1 certificates received salaries which, in the aggregate, amounted to $787, of which the men got 8490 and the women $297. The teachers with No. 2 certificates got $1,203, of which the men received $881 and the women $322. There were no women teaching on No. 3 certificates. The men on No. 3's were paid $162. The Sheriff received $215 for handling this money. "The total expenditures of the Teachers' Fund amounted to $2,252, and there was in the treasury a balance of $708.
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HISTORY OF TUCKER COUNTY.
Of the building fund at the commencement of 1882, there was in the treasury (from the preceeding year) a balance of $157. The levy on the total value of the property was $1,292. The total receipts from all sources were $1,450. The county paid $117 on the bonded school debt. Other expenditures were, for land, $15; for houses, $20; for fur- niture, $1.50 ; for apparatus, $35; total, $189. Paid $10 for rent ; $7.80 for repairs ; $185 for fuel; $11 as interest. The Sheriff's commission was $82 ; the Secretaries received $75. The total cost, from the Building Fund was $809.
The Tucker County Institute that year had an attendance of forty-two, of whom thirty-six were men and six were women. The Institute was conducted by Prof. A. L. Fike. There was in attendance one teacher who had taught ten years or more, and nine who had taught over five years. The others had taught shorter terms, 1, 2, 3 and 4 years.
At the commencement of 1877, Tucker County had on hand as Teachers' Fund, $273, and received from the State, $826, from the levy, $1,560, from other sources, $48 ; total, $2,709. Of the Building Fund, there was on hand a balance of $809. From the levy for the Building Fund, $1,228 was received ; total, $2,037. There was paid, for land, $10; for houses, $1,004; for repairs, $81; for fuel, $84 ; for furniture, $35; for apparatus, $1.50 ; for interest, $1.50 ; for commis- sions, $11 ; for enrollment, $17 : the Secretaries of boards of education were paid salaries to the amount of $115; the contingent expenses were $59 ; total, $1,421.
In 1877, Tucker had 22 school-houses, of which 18 were frame and 4 were log. Three were not yet completed, and two were completed that year. The value of land was $227; that of the school-houses $6,257; of the furniture, $119; apparatus, $142; total, $6,745.
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MISCELLANEOUS STATISTICS.
In the county in 1877, there were 1005 school children, of whom there were 526 boys and 479 girls. Six of these were colored. In attendance at school there were 556, of whom 296 were boys, and 260 were girls.
Tucker had that year 30 teachers, of whom 25 were men and 5 were women. The men taught 78 months and the women 14 months ; total, 92 months. The average length of the schools was 2.83 months. The average age of the boys at school was 10} years, of the girls 92 years ; general average, 10g years.
The number studying in each branch was as follows : Or- thography, 546; Reading, 385, Writing, 298; Arithmetic, 234; Geography, 43; English Grammar, 94; History, 14; Other branches, 44. There were 5 Secretaries in the county ; 15 Commissioners ; and 25 Trustees. The County Superintendent made 32 visits to the schools. Other per- sons visited the schools 76 times; total, 108. The average cost for each pupil, in 1877, was $13.50.
A complete list of the teachers of the county from its first organization to the present time would prove interest- ing to so few, and is so hard to compile, that it is omitted, and in its stead is given the name and grade of each teacher of the county since 1876. The Superintendents of that time have been W. B. Maxwell, L. S. Auvil and J. M. Shafer.
LIST OF TEACHERS.
1877.
NUMBER ONE.
C. M. Moore Miss Agnes Gilmore
Miss M. C. Purkey
G. W. Day
Miss Lizzie Parkey
L. E. Goff
R. F. Harris
Charles Skidmore
Mrs. A. D. Adams J. P. Call
M. C. Feather
J. M. Shafer
NUMBER TWO.
NUMBER THREE.
Miss S. C. Liston
J. T. Mason
Miss S. V. Garner Thomas Marsh J. S. Poling
G. W. Shirk A. Hudkins J. G. Digman
NUMBER FOUR
Miss F. L. Mason
S. L. Stalnaker Lloyd Hansford S. N. Swisher Miss Jennie Maxwell
L. S. Poling
E. C. Moore
J. W. Freeman
I. P. Propst
J. W. Lambert
A. G. Lambert
Talbott Ferguson
J. W. Moore
D. L. Dumire
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HISTORY OF TUCKER COUNTY.
1878.
NUMBER ONE.
N. D. Adams S. N. Swisher J. H. Snyder
NUMBER TWO.
T. G. Danels
1 .. E. Gainer
(). L. Phillips
J. H. Mester
E. C. Moore
J. S. D. Bell
R. F. Harris
J. F. Jewel
G. W. Shaffer
Mary James
C. S. Watson
1879.
NUMBER ONE.
J. M. Shafer
Miss A. E. Fansler Miss M. A. Gutherie
J. A. Swisher
M. L. White
D. A. Hooton
.
NUMBER TWO.
Isaac Hetrie S. C. Baker G. N. Day L. E. Goff
NUMBER ONE.
J. A. Swisher M. A. Gutherie J. B. Cox J. M. Shafer
NUMBER TWO.
H. G. Daniels J. L. Pifer P. W. Lipscomb S. C. Baker
NUMBER ONE.
A. G. Fike
J. A. Swisher Stuart Wilworth Julia M. Evans Hu Maxwell W. C. Parsons S. Yorents
NUMBER TWO.
G. W. James Eliza Parsons
NUMBER ONE.
Iu Maxwell
J. M. Stralin JJ. C. Roby A. M. Stemple
S. C. Baker (+. W. Shaffer J. B. Lambert
NUMBER FOUR.
L. W. Harris
P. Y. Runner
S. P. Ilayes
J. T. Shaffer
L. E. Goff
J. S. Poling
Frank Ashby
S. P. Hayes
J. T. Mason
J. M. Shafer
L. S. Copper Miss Lerie Lynn
G. Y. Day
W. Bennette
G. W. Shafer
James Poling
J. P. Auvil
J. D. Stalnaker
R. K. Philips
C. L. Watson
D. W. Wright
Mrs. M. M. Class
G. Furguson
NUMBER FOUR.
Miss Lizzie Purkey
Miss Agnes Gilmore
Miss A. F. Bowman
Mrs. S. V. Mester
1880.
H. M. Godwin
Isabel Parsons
C. W. Long
A. C. Dumire
L. W. James
Carrie Parsons
W. B. Jenkins
Q. S. Poling
T. II. Goff
Alice Hansford
R. R. Philips
S. S. Roderick
F. M. Arnett
J. L. Wince
A. E. Poeling
Mary James
1881.
Ozella Hansford
Alice Hansford
W. B. Jenkins
J. H. Snyder
P. W. Lipscomb
Carrie Parsons
.I. S. Cornwell
D. W. Ryan
A. S. Hough.
C. W. Long
Mary James Kate Dumire
Isabel Parsons
S. M. Adams
A. E. Poling
(. A. Goff
Ii. J. Dumire
G. E. Goff
R. R. Philips.
1882,
Kate Dumire HI J Dumire Charles V. Adams
NUMBER THREE.
J. N. Iluffman
J. W. Moore
J. H. Snyder
G. W. Stalnaker
J. C. S. Bell
F. C. Bradshaw J. B. Lambert G. W. Shirk
S. F. Hart
Vance Graham S. J. Posten U. G. Hartley Lewis Johnson
NUMBER THREE.
S. H. Godwin
J. F. Hunt
G. W. Shaffer
S. C. Barker James Boner
J. F. Hunt
NUMBER THREE.
D. W. Wright
F. M. Arnett
J. H. Cordray
Carrie Parsons C. W. Long Joseph selby
NUMBER THREE.
JJ. B. Blackman A. Moore
Miss Lizzie Purkey
Miss A. G. Gilmore
George W. White
Talbott Fesguson
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MISCELLANEOUS STATISTICS.
NUMBER TWO.
Samantha Dumire
A. C. Poling
Ozella Hansford
Eliza Parsons
J. L. Philips
W. J. James
S. M. Adams
J. B. Lambert
P. W. Lipscomb,
J. E. Mason
A. Y. Lambert
L. H. Goff,
Guy P. Schoonover
W. A. Ault
G. W. James,
D. W. Ryan
1883.
NUMBER ONE.
E. J. Domire R. K. Phillips
Lizzie Purkey
Jesse G. Vanscoy
J. L. Phillips
NUMBER THREE
Carrie Parsons
J H. Moore
Eliza Parsons
W. R. Shaffer
M. J. Harris A. J. Douglas
C. H. Streets
W. P. Jett
D. B. Smith
C. W. Adams
F. M. A. Lawson
G. B. Skidmore
S. M. Adams
C. C. Douglas
G. W. Shirk
NUMBER TWO.
G. W. Shafer
Alcinda Shafer
David Long
D. W. Wright
Some may find interest in looking over a few scraps of statistics, selected at random from old reports.
In 1867, the levy for the Building Fund in Tucker was only $250, and the receipts from it reached only $25. Noth- ing was received from any other source. Nothing was ex- pended. The reports detail nothing, if there were any transactions in this business. The County Superintendent got $108.33. No other officers got anything.
At that time, 1867, Tucker had 17 districts, with two frame houses and ten log houses for schools. The average value was $92; the aggregate value $1,275. There were ten schools taught, and in attendance there were 348 boys and 340 girls, total, 688. There were ten teachers, nine of whom were men. The average salary of the men was $23 per month ; the woman received $18. The general average of the wages was $22.5 per month." There were sixteen applicants examined. Two failed to get certificates. One person got a No. 1 certificate ; the rest got lower grades. From the general school fund, in 1867, Tucker got $733.
As documents only, the Reports of the County Superin-
* The State Superintendent's Report places the general average at $21; and, for his deficiency in arithmetic, he may stand corrected.
Alice Hansford W. S. Godwin
Alcinda Shafer
L. W. Nester
N. C. Lambert
John F. Hunt
WV. B. Ault
M. J. Fansler
J. F. Hunt
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HISTORY OF TUCKER COUNTY.
tendents of 1867 and 1877 are given. A decided improve- ment during the intervening ten years may be noticed ; but the school interests of the county have gone forward more since 1877 than during the ten years next preceding.
It may be of interest to some to see side by side the Re- ports of the County Superintendents of Tucker for two years. For this purpose the Reports of 1867 and 1877 are given as follows :
TUCKER COUNTY .- 1867.
The school system is not receiving as hearty a welcome as it de- serves. There are many who are bitterly complaining of its gen- eral principles ; that it is not acceptable to the rural districts. The country is very thinly settled, and the school districts are very large. The school-houses are few. Taxation is oppressive, and many live too remote from the school-houses to receive any advantage from them. They have their proportion of the tax to pay, and their children are wholly deprived of schools. These par- ties should of right be exempt from the school tax. Of the three townships into which this county is divided, two (Hannahsville and Black Fork) levied a tax sufficient to continue the schools four months or longer. St. George township refused to make any levy for school or for building purposes.
The schools that were taught last winter did well. In the winter of 1865-6 the boards of education in their respective townships put in operation many more schools than the funds under their con- trol would sustain, thus incurring a heavy indebtedness on the townships. This policy was a bad one, and produced unfavorable results. I think the boards are guarding against this evil for the future. But little is said or done as yet in the way of putting schools in operation. Some districts are beginning to move in that direction, and I hope for favorable results.
A. H. BOWMAN, County Sup't.
TUCKER COUNTY .- 1877.
In submitting this, my second annual report, I have the satisfac- tion of knowing that the same is substantially correct, althoughi there appears to be some difference between the columns of receipts
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MISCELLANEOUS STATISTICS.
and expenditures as against the balances, yet this rises from the fact that the Secretaries have counted as balances the amount in the Sheriff's hands at his settlement with the County Court at the June term, 1877 ; whereas, at that time there was a large number of orders for money outstanding, which outstanding orders were reckoned by the Secretaries as expenditures. The boards have no means of knowing what claims are outstanding, or what paid only as they can get it from the Clerk of the County Court ; the Sheriff of this county having hitherto wholly neglected to settle with the boards. However, this will be remedied by the late amendments to the school law.
In my opinion, the report required of Secretaries might be made less complicated, and yet contain all the necessary matter required to give proper date, &c. Our county imports too many teachers from other counties, and even from other states. When we have more resident teachers, it will be better for us.
All the boards of education, at the beginning of the school year, passed orders that they would allow nothing for sweeping and building fires. The result was a suit in which the court decided that as the boards have general supervision of school matters, that such an order may be made. While the attendance upon our schools the past year has not been as large as might have been wished for, yet it must be kept in mind that our county is thinly inhabited, and that many of the pupils have to travel three or four miles to get to the nearest school house. But, regardless of this and other difficulties, our people have become firmly endeared to our school system. As a rule, there appears to be a steady im- provement in our teachers year by year.
All of which is respectfully submitted.
W. B. MAXWELL, County Sup't.
CHAPTER XI.
NEWSPAPERS OF THE COUNTY.
ON November 22, 1878, appeared the first copy of the Tucker County Pioneer.# It was edited by Charles L. Bow- man, and was printed every Friday morning at St. George. The subscription rate was one dollar per year. It was the first paper published in the county, and its need was felt by the people. The paper had a "patent" side, printed in New York. In politics, the paper was independent. It claimed to represent the best interests of Tucker County.
The first issue was of three hundred copies. Within a week two hundred and fifty subscribers were obtained. Since then, the subscription has ranged from three hundred and fifty to seven hundred names.
During the remaining weeks of 1878, and the year 1879, the Pioncer flourished, with nothing to interrupt its success. It was supported by Democrats and Republicans alike ; and its corps of correspondents consisted of the best talent in the county.
1880 was an election year, and in Tucker County, local politics ran high. There soon became room for contention, and the Democrats split their party into two factions, one known as Independents and the other as Conventionals.
* As long ago as 1869, an effort was made to start a newspaper in St. George. W. Scott Garner, of Preston County, endeavored to form a joint stock company for that purpose, but the amount subscribed was insufficient, and Mr. Garner returned to Kingwood, where he engaged in journalism, and established a "Tucker County Department " in his paper. The name, Tucker County Pioneer, was first used by Mr. Garner, In connection with a manuscript paper started by him in the winter of 1874-5, while teaching the White Oak School, a short distance above St. George. This paper was read every Friday afternoon, during the regular literary exercises.
191
NEWSPAPERS.
Old family feuds were probably at the bottom of it all; and this family quarrel was carried to such an extent that it became incorporated with and lost in the political issues.
1
One wing of the Democrats favored a convention to nou- inate county officers, while the other wing opposed it as unnecessary. Contrariness was more of a faction in these issues than real policy ; but, still, the Conventionals went ahead in their plans for a convention.
The Pioneer was opposed to the convention from the very first, and waged an uncompromising war against it. It claimed that there was no occasion for it, and that it would excite an opposition that would divide the Democratic party, and split the political solidity of our county into fragments. But, there was much room for difference of opinion, and the partisans of the convention went forward in their work, and called the convention together on the twenty-first of June, 1880. They put their ticket in the field. The forebodings seemed ominous from the very first; for, a murmur of dissatisfaction went up from every part of the county. The men put in nomination were evidently not the choice of the majority of the people.
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