Shepherd University - Cohongoroota Yearbook (Shepherdstown, WV)

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91 0 . . -Pl 1

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the Trustees of the College and the State Superintendent of Free Schools the Board of Regents for the government of Shepherd College Normal School.-Acts 1873, Chap. 31. Before the school could be organized under this amended Act, the Legislature revised the whole school law and amended Section 93 of that law so as to annul the Act apprhved February 14, 1793 for the establishing of a branch Normal School in Shepherd College, and placed said school again under the jurisdiction and control of the Regents of the State Normal School, in the same manner and to the same extent as the State Normal School at Marshall College. -Acts I873, Chap, 123. This repeal of the former Act was doubtless done unintentionally and was not noticed until the publication of the revised school law. Thus, it will be seen that the Acts, establishing a branch of the State Normal School in Shepherd College, bears date April 12, 1873. In june, 1873, the Normal School Regents met in Shepherd College building for the purpose of putting into force this Act, and then made an order establishing said branch of the Normal School nunc qro tune, that is to say, to make the order date back to September, 1872, and gave an order for the payment of the same amount of money that each of the other schools received for that year. At this same meeting, the Board formulated its first course of study and prescribed the conditions for graduating the pupils who complete the course of study Hence, our Normal School dates its beginning from September, 1872. Of the salaries received for the year 1872-73, the Principal made a present of 5800 to the Executive Committee, who used it in taking out the middle partition in the large room upstairs, removing the double floors and railings in the large room below, fitting up the room with desks and blackboards and making other arrangements for the large number of pupils that entered in September, 1873. It is a singular, but Well known fact in the history of this Normal School, that no appropriations for repairs or improvements in its buildings were made by the State until 1885. Thus for thirteen years all the repairs and improvements in the buildings and grounds were made at the expense of the teachers employed therein during this period. The Regents made their first appointment of teachers for this school in june, 1873, and named the following: Professor Joseph McMurran, Principal, and Professors D. D. Pendleton and S. S. Smeltzer and Mrs. Lilie P. Lee, assistants. Since that time, Shepherd College has steadily grown in usefulness so that it is now one of the leading institutions of its kind within the State. II