Since we start SOL’s this week, I thought we might discuss a couple of the earlier schools that were located in the town of Stuart. Stuart Normal School was established in 1867 and was located on Blue Ridge Street near the A.D. and Essie Hopkins residence and the old Owl Diner.
In the Danville, Virginia Anti-Liquor Supplement Volume I, Number 8 published on the first of December 1890, President of the Stuart School, J. W. Giles, published the following advertisement…
“Come to Stuart Normal College, Stuart, Virginia, if you wish low rates, if you wish thorough instruction, if you wish the best normal training, If you wish friends for teachers, if you wish to make a specialty of shorthand and typewriting, instrumental and vocal music, teaching, painting, and drawing, or preparation for any profession, come to Stuart Normal College. Stuart Normal College is the nursery of aspiring youth, where school work becomes a pleasure; where the total expense for five months is $60; where the total cost of a full course in shorthand and typewriting will not exceed $68; where students have the cheering atmosphere of usefulness in which to grow ; where good conduct, honest work, and worth of character are tests of honor and position ; where there are no vacations, but instead each session is 12 months. Where you are guaranteed satisfaction if you work. Information furnished on application. J. W. Giles, President”
The following passage was published long ago in the Enterprise and written by J. R. Barnard concerning his school days at Stuart Normal College. “When I was 16 years of age in the year 1901, I decided to go to Stuart to school. It was the last day of March, which was the Sunday that I started. My father sent me on horseback to Lovers’ Leap, as he had two horses, Mr. James Lawson, riding one while I was riding the other. Upon arriving at the Leap. Mr. Lawson left me and then I started walking to Stuart, 10 miles. I arrived there on that Sunday evening at 4 p.m., at the home of the late Mr. and Mrs. T. Lee Clark and got to board with them. After spending the night at their home, next morning Monday, April 1, 1901, I started to school and on my way I looked back toward the Blue Ridge Mountains, and to my surprise the entire mountain was covered with snow. It was clear on Sunday even, and the March sun was shining, and it changed all in one night to snowing. I arrived at school at 9 a.m.. Professor Marion Royall from North Carolina was the principal teacher, and the next year, 1902, he was assisted by his brother, Professor Louis Royall, who also was a splendid teacher. A number of students were in attendance, all working to get a certificate for teaching. Some of those attending Stuart Normal College were: Beirne Stedman, Frank P. Burton, Paul Sanford, Vance Stedman, Posie Via, Milton and Bunion Stovall, John Brim, Richard Harbour, Taz Nowlin, Will Nowlin, and a number of smaller boys. Some of the girls were: Ethel Thompson, Ethel Shockley, Ethel Bishop, Mary Via, Maude and Kate Handy, Elsie Gilbert, Ida, Ella and Sue Griggs, Ruth Koger, Mollie Harbour, Girty Wiggington, Lucy Dunkley, Marie Tatum and many whose names I can’t recall. Quite a lot of difference in Stuart today. There were not any automobiles in town in 1901. At that time, they used horses for riding and buggies and surreys for traveling. At Hotel Perkins, a number of hacks were kept by Mr. Perkins to hire and haul passengers and tourists. In 1901, Highway 58 was a dirt road and was known as Danville and Wytheville Turnpike with cobblestones to walk across the road above the courthouse to the Patrick Bank Building. The bank was at that time cared for by W.B. Rucker as a cashier. Carter McIntosh was a depot agent. Bishops had a small drug store and sold medicine. Rev. M.F. Sanford was the Baptist minister, and he was an able preacher and entertainer, while at the Methodist Church was Rev. Williams, another good preacher who knew where of he spoke. There were large crowds in attendance at both churches, the Baptist and Methodist. I would go to church every Sunday morning and Sunday night. J.H. Rangeley had a large store where the bus station is now, and T. Lee Clark had a large department store and he and J.B. Beach had a large hardware store, both nearby where the Patrick Co. Bank building is now located. The store buildings later got burned. Downtown Clark Bros had just erected the hardware store and Rangeley and McIntosh had a large department store. Some of the people I remember seeing in Stuart at that time were Dr. R.S. Martin at the Mothers’ Home Hospital, Dink Woolwine, Sheriff; Charlie Reed Martin, Clerk of court; Attorneys, E.J. Harvey, J.M. Hooker, S.A. Thompson, and Powhatan Bouldin. I also saw Arch Staples and Joe Staples, and John Taylor was a young man at that time. John Campbell and T. B. Campbell. The editor of The Enterprise, I think, was A.L. Williams. Young men were Russell Perkins, Dudley and Lucian Rucker, Edd Turner, Cabell Staples, Edgar Woolwine, and Moir S. Martin, who is now at Mt. Airy.”
R. Barnard was the son of Elisha Patterson Barnard and Louise Webb of Laurel Fork. J. R. served Patrick County as a schoolteacher for twelve years, school board member for twenty-six years, and was a merchant and farmer.
The first Stuart High School used the buildings of the Stuart Normal School and added extra rooms. In 1912, students moved into a brand-new, square, brick building located in the “Chestnut Orchard”, a lot adjoining the lower end of Stuart Cemetery. It was supposed to accommodate the students for many years but did not. Fourteen years later the school was crowded to the “bursting point”. A decision was then made to construct the Stuart High School and use the square school for elementary students. In 1926, the new Stuart High School was constructed on the homesite of Colonel Abram Staples and in 1939, a new elementary school was built adjacent to the high school building. These buildings, along with the additions, are the present Stuart Elementary School campus.
The photos (from the Patrick County Historical Museum and the Enterprise) are the side view of the “square school” on Chestnut Street and one of the last classes to complete at the “square school.”
Woody may be reached at rockcastlecreek1@gmail.com or 276-692-9626.
