Trimble County High School - Elbmirt Yearbook (Bedford, KY)

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Hollowells Retire Mr. and Mrs. Cropper, Mr. and Mrs. Peyton helped honor the retiring superintendent and teacher. After many years' service in Kentucky educa- tion, both as a teacher and administrator, Mr. C. A. Holiowell retired in the spring of 1965. He and Mrs. Hollowell were honor guests at a party in May which recognized his years of commendable and faithful service. The Trimble County teachers presented them with a silver coffee service. Mr. Shirley Long also retired from teaching and he and Mrs. Long shared the spotlight with the Hollowells at the teachers'. Thank You! 9

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Trimble County Board of Education Dr. Carl Cooper, Jr., Chairman Virgil Welty, Eldred Fisher. Sylvan Scott, Robert Hargrove, Superintendent Joe Ross. 8 Board Members and their Wives.

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T.C.H.S.’ Development in the Horse-and- (Most of the following information comes from R. A. Edwards, Richmond, first TCHS principal and now a retired professor of Eastern Kentucky State College.) The early history of public education in Trimble County is typical of that of Kentucky as a whole. Both advanced as public interest spurred new legislation. For 47 years after the inauguration of the Federal Government, no successful attempt was made to establish free public schools. Kentucky tried several times. In 1798 the General Assembly granted 6,000 acres of land to found seminaries of learning. Henry County was organized in this year, including the territory now Trimble. Many counties accepted the lands, disposed of them at low prices and mismanaged the funds. Few seminaries survived. Kentucky had no early public school pattern. The old English idea that education was a matter of private concern prevailed. People with sufficient means could afford tutors in the home. The public school bore the stigma of poverty and was intended chiefly for the poor. The average family grew up with little or no schooling. Three things of major importance to local education happened in 1836. The Federal Government appropri- ated $1,433,757 to Kentucky to equalize the grant of public lands to newer states for school purposes, the first two McGuffey readers were published, and the Kentucky General Assembly passed an act creating the county of Trimble. The Trimble County government was formally organized in March 1837. Eleven months later Kentucky set up a State Department of Education. So Trimble had its inception simul- taneously with that of the State's school system. This particular time in American history marks an epochal advance in democracy. Government was beginning to serve the masses. Children were given an opportunity to learn. An 1838 Kentucky law required counties to lay out school districts before receiving State funds. Each district must have 30 pupils, build its own school house, and support it through local taxation or tuition. At first only 27 counties organized public school districts. After 1850 the picture changed. The common school was firmly established and the three-month school became free in 1851. Parents selected their children’s texts under the first textbook law of 1847. After 1851 the State Board of Education adopted the books, but the author- ity went to a county board of examiners in 1874. Kentucky has had uniform adoption since 1904. Trimble's educational gain preceding the Civil War was not forgotten during the horror days when the County was run over with marching columns of soldiers and guerillas. At the war's end, school was resumed in Bedford in the Baptist Church, located where the Roberts Radio Shop now stands. The school then moved to the Christian Church, in a former building at the present location, and in 1869 to a brick building at the site of the Howard Egerton residence. The school furniture was typical of the day--yellow poplar plank benches, a writing shelf along the wall, a teacher's crude desk. For about 20 years after the war, the free school term was only three months. After its close, the teacher conducted a subscription term for as long as parents were willing to pay tuition. The State passed an additional property tax of 15 cents on the hundred dollars in 1869 which, with the existing 5-cent tax and school bond in- terest, increased the fund to more than $800,000, making the large per capita of $2.37. As this amount came ® from the State, some schools could afford five months free school.