Miller School of Albemarle - Blue Ridge Blast Yearbook (Charlottesville, VA)

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x 5 - PRIMARY SCHOOL

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with a -great number of instructors and it has had in the South a far-reaching influence. Every year this course in the School is getting better and better, and the work that is fitting pupils for life is being, as experience teaches us, better fitted for the demands of the South. The call on the School for teachers and for trained men and women, put it in the lead in the South of the great industrial army that is to guide us from our old ways of not knowing how to do things, into that which will develop our great industrial forces. ?'93Z'Q ' '1'f' 'QS' ora--o.'P--'diatom u.---ff -,- -g - -. V - , - . , A 0 Q 0 0 0 -9g.0gQ , - ,Q ,- C 1 it Q00 03 'gi' g-19- Q:4.1Q.o5.QE 0222522352.4289!222z73g ggqfi f-:-670 P7 ' A ' n . C309 : .oo-9: 03' ,l ,N ,v :Q-gf -Q--Q-4 gn.-b.-, '.,d l.,: I xl V gl QOO- Z9- ' 20f lAf,f' VME? - , . 3fl'1'fJ - xg? sqggi gggg -fi-M -. : Q2 5,353 . - Q .' - ' . 16' -L05-o -'Q-.'g+. ig- ,.-.- - .3 . -.- by -5- fi- at 179'3'.?. Q-..- o. Q- Oo ---: -..-Q Q 0 fy- 9 ,gf - gg,0. ,Q Jap.- 0:0..-.c.s.-,o:..Q-gb:'a-.eoL?4.'a:ui'::Ee-123:23 ggfggg 30 l D , ,M...+....-

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Recollections of Early Days of the Miller School QI878 TO 18855 T is written in black on white in the record-books of the School that I was entered Qby a long-suffering guardianj on the 19th of Qctober, 1878-H age 8 years, weight 73 pounds, brown hair and eyes. Many years have been added, much avoirdupois gained, the hair-alas! but these eyes have seen the glory of the Miller School! The realization, the culmination of the hopes and ambitions of those early days, for history was just beginning for us in that October, twenty- seven years ago. To Captain Vawter had been entrusted the I-Ierculean task .of organizing,1equipping and directing the institution. I shall never forget the first time I saw him. I-Ie was standing in the main hall in the characteristic attitude of hands thrust deep in his pockets, his head bowed low in thought. No longer than yesterday I saw him standing in the same place, and in the same attitude, and the years have dealt kindly with him. Assisting Captain Vawter in the preparations for the care of the pupils was Mrs. Virginia Preston Means. There is not one of us who is not better for having known her. The good that was in us, her love and gentleness brought out 5 her faith in us kept down at least some o-f the bad. We called her Mammy Jennie, and we loved her, tho-ugh we were tough citizens. Qwing to the small number of pupils Mr. J. Roy Baylor, jr., was the only teacher employed during the session of 378379. The pupils were assigned to classes and regular class work begun with little delay. The question has often been asked by the students of later years: VVhat practical course was offered during the first few years? Manual labor, pure and simple-an exhaustive course in it, too. The machine-shops, physical, biological and chemical laboratories were but possibilities. Qnly enough space upon which to erect the main building had been cleared, and there was much work to be done, brush to be cut and burned, rocks to be piled, fields to be cleared and tilled. Gut of this primeval forest the boys of those days hewed the way for those who came after. Captain Vawter utilized much of the dogwood that was cut. In my mind's eye see him now, in his hand poised in mid-air a dogwood switch that would soon descend upon my graceless back. It was then I realized the gloomy signifi- cance of the number I bore-13. I am inclined to believe, however, that the day 32