Longwood College - Virginian Yearbook (Farmville, VA)

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First Board Of Trustees

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' 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.

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The First Graduating Class, June, 1885 Annie Lydia Blanton was the first honor graduate of the first graduating class of the State Normal School in June, 1885. For several years following, she was an assistant in the practice school of the Normal School. In August, 1891, she was married to Hon. Fermor Barrett, of Washington, Ga. She died in Toccoa, Ga. December 31, 1908, survived by her husband and four children. Lulu M. Duncan, after graduating, taught in the public schools of Virginia for eighteen years, with the exception of one year spent at Alderson, W. Va., and one at Rockbridge, Fla. In 1903 she was married to Mr. John M. Moir, of Kinston, N. C, where she now lives, devoting herself to making a happy home for her husband and three-year-old son. Lulu O. Philips, in September following her graduation, entered the Richmond High and Normal School as a teacher, remaining until the spring of 1904, when she resigned for a much needed rest and change of work. After giving her attention to other work for three years, in September, 1907, she became teacher of English Language and Literature in Shenandoah College at Reliance, where she is at present. A photograph of Miss Duncan could not be secured. Reprinted from the 1909 Virginian. ■:miimmmmmmmmmmm '