Longwood College - Virginian Yearbook (Farmville, VA)

Page 24 text:

' v taobtiii thoroughly familiar with the needs of the teachers, and so best fitted to meet them. The Board wisely allowed him great latitude in the organization of his faculty, and authorized him to seek in the North and East three per- sons familiar with the organization and methods peculiar to normal schools. His choice fell upon Miss Celest E. Bush, of Con- necticut, for vice-principal; Miss Clara M. Brimblecom, of Boston, for vocal music, and Miss Lillian A. Lee, of Connecticut, for drawing and mathematics. To this number were added Miss Pauline Gash, of North Carolina, teacher of English, and Mrs. Clara Bartkowska, of Richmond, to take charge of the preparatory school. So the Normal School was opened promptly at the appointed time, in spite of the very discouraging outlook six weeks before. During the first year Mr. Beverly H. Robertson was added to the faculty as teacher of science, Latin, and algebra, and Miss Belle Johnson as teacher of piano music. The results of this first session ' s work were one hundred ten students, of whom forty-four were accommodated in the bulding, and three graduates. To Dr. W. H. Ruffner and Dr. J. L. M. Curry undoubtedly belongs the credit of the normal school idea in Virginia, and the State was indeed fortunate in securing the services of two such able men to guide the new undertaking. Dr. Ruffner had contributed most valuable aid to education in Virginia by his masterly work as State Superintendent of Public Instruction. He knew better than any one else at that time, perhaps, what it requires to make a real teacher, and very early in his work realized that the common schools could not become the important factors in the uplift of the people that they should be until they were supplied with specially trained teachers. Dr. Curry was already distinguished as a statesman, diplomat, educator, and author, and was especially interested in educational conditions in the South, his motto being, Education for all. As agent of the Peabody Fund, he gave material financial aid to the undertaking, adding what was of even higher value, the great strength of his mind and character in shaping and supporting the new scheme. It was he that framed the original bill introduced into the Legislature for the establishment of the institution, and he was the first president of the Board of Trustees. He was more than once heard to say that he wished for no higher eulogy than to be called Father of the State Normal School of Virginia. It is an interesting fact, though generally unknown, that Dr. Ruffner and Dr. Curry did not wish the benefits of the school confined to girls, and that they were also dissatisfied and disappointed with the mere pittance set aside for its support. A paragraph for the Virginia School Reports for 1884, as well as their own words to others, show their thoughts: It is due to the promoters of this enter- prise to state that the original bill, as drafted by the Hon. J. L. M. Curry and presented to the Legislature for its sanction, provided for a normal school in the broadest sense of the term, and had no purpose of restricting its benefits to the ' females ' only of the State; but after the wisdom of the Legislature had done with the bill its progenitor was hardly able to recognize it; but we are deeply thankful for even the little that was done, and hope, by improving that, to make good our claims for more.

Page 23 text:

' %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

Page 25 text:

First Board Of Trustees