Longwood College - Virginian Yearbook (Farmville, VA)

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Dr. William H. Ruffner shall be ex-officio a member of the board of trustees. 3. Said trustees shall, from time to time, make all needful rules and regulations for the good government and management of the school, to fix regulations for the number and compensation of teachers and others to be employed in the school, and to prescribe the preliminary examination and conditions on which students shall be received and in- structed therein. They may appoint an execu- tive committee, of whom the Superintendent shall be one, for the care, management and government of said school, under the rules and regulations prescribed as aforesaid. The trustees shall annually transmit to the Governor a full account of their proceedings under this act, together with a report of the progress, conditions and prospects of the school. 4. The trustees shall establish said school at Farmville, in the County of Prince Edward: provided said town shall cause to be conveyed to the State of Virginia, by proper deed, the property in said town known as the Farmville Female College; and if the said property is not so conveyed, then the said trustees shall establish said school in such other place as shall convey to the State suitable grounds and buildings for the purpose of said school. 5. Each city of five hundred inhabitants, and each county in the State, shall be entitled to one pupil, and one for each additional representative in the House of Delegates above one, who shall receive gratuitous instruction. The trustees shall prescribe rules for the selection of such pupils and for their examination, and shall require each pupil selected to give satisfactory evidence of an intention to teach in the public schools of the State for at least two years after leaving the said normal school. 6. The sum of five thousand dollars is hereby appropriated to defray the expense of establishing and continuing said school. The money shall be expended for that purpose under the direction of the trustees, upon whose requisition the Governor is hereby authorized to draw his warrant on the treasury. 7. There shall be appropriated annually, out of the treasury of the State, the sum of ten thousand dollars to pay incidental expenses, the salaries of officers and teachers, and to maintain the efficiency of the school, said sum to be paid out of the public free school fund: provided, however, that the Common- wealth will not in any instance be responsible for any debt contracted or expenditure made by the institution in excess of the appropria- tion herin made. 8. The Superintendent of Public Instruction shall render to the Second Auditor an annual account of the expenditures under this act. mMMmimm0

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VIRGINIA PASSES NORMAL SCHOOL ACT A system of public free shcools for Virginia was established July 11, 1870, by the first Legislature to as- semble after the War between the States. As these schools struggled year after year for a stable footing, it became more and more evident that they must be supplied with specially trained teachers before they could reach the desired efficiency. To make provision for this pressing need, the Legislature at its regular session in March, 1884, passed the following act establishing the Normal School: Be it enacted by the General As- sembly of Virginia: 1. That there shall be established, as herinafter provided, a normal school expressly for the training and education of white female teachers for public schools. 2. The school shall be under the supervision, management and government of W. H. Ruffner, J.L. M. Curry, John B. Minor, R. M. Manly, L. R. Holland, John L. Buchanan, L. A. Michie, F. N. Wat- kins, S. C. Armstrong, W. B. Talia- ferro, George O. Conrad, W. E. Gaines, and W. W. Herbert, as a board of trustees. In case of vacancy, caused by death, resignation, or otherwise, the successor shall be appointed by the Governor. The Superintendent of Public Instruction

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' %wt.mf m i W It was not until 1886, however, that the institution was incorporated by the Legisla- ture, under the name of the State Female Normal School. That Farmville secured the school was owing to the fact that the town offered to give to the State a bulding formerly used as a girls ' school, and this offer was warmly supported by such influential men as Dr. W. H. Ruffner, Dr. James Nelson, then pastor of the Baptist Church at Farmville, and Dr. W. H. H. Thackston, at that time mayor of Farmville and most anxious to promote its interests. The first meeting of the Board of Trustees was held in Richmond, April 9, 1884, and organized by the election of Dr. J. L. M. Curry president. Dr. J. L. Buchanan vice- president, and Judge F. N. Watkins secretary and treasurer. The Board was confronted by a serious difficulty at the outset in the shape of the seventh section of the law establishing the school. This provided that the money set apart for the support of the school should be taken from the public free school funds. The question was at once raised as to its constitu- tionality. It was the opinion of the Attorney- General, and, later, the decision of the Court of Appeals, that the seventh section was un- constitutional and void in so far as it at- tempted to divert the public school funds. The Board of Trustees thus found itself without funds for the purposed work, until an extra session of the Legislature amended the section, August 23, 1884, by passing a law requiring that the ten thousand dollars be paid out of the treasury of the State, which was just what it should have done at first. At the first meeting of the Board, Dr. W. H. Ruffner was unanimously chosen president. At the same meeting a committee composed of Dr. Ruffner, Dr. Curry, and Dr. Buchanan, was appointed to formulate a plan of organiza- tion of the school. The committee made its report June 10, 1884, but because of the delay in getting the funds to run the school, the report was not adopted until September 17, 1884. The school was then ordered to be opened October 30th, following, although, to quote Dr. Ruffner ' s words, all they had was a principal, an appropriation, a rough scheme, and an old academy building, — not a teacher, nor a book, nor a piece of apparatus or furniture. The first and most difficult step was to secure teachers, for teachers in a normal school sould be specially trained for their work, and the normal school idea was dis- tinctly new in Virginia, though old in some other states. Dr. Ruffner, by his long connec- tion, as Superintendent of Public Instruction, with the public free school system, was Dr. J. L. M. Curry