Destined to serve the educational needs of the time, this Taylor County property has been home to West Virginia College, College Hill Nursery School, and most recently, Flemington Elementary School
This story was originally published in the September 2021 issue of Wonderful West Virginia. To subscribe, visit wonderfulwv.com.
Written by Wendy Holdren
Photography courtesy of Dennis Cromwell
For the past 40 years, Dennis Earl Cromwell has saved a box of newspaper clippings, photographs, and typed documents. After years in West Virginia, the archival information survived a move to Maryland in his retirement and found a new home stowed away in the back corner of his attic. For some, the keepsakes may be trash. But for Cromwell and the residents of Flemington, they’re treasures.
His collection tells the story of a piece of property in Taylor County that was destined for education. Over its storied history, the Flemington lot has housed West Virginia College, the College Hill Nursery School, a round of elementary and high schools, and, since 1939, Flemington Elementary School.
Cromwell, the principal of Flemington Elementary from 1974 to 1985, wanted his pupils to know the history of their school grounds, so he set out to create a pictorial display at the K–6 school. “We thought it would be nice for the kids, as well as the folks in the Flemington community, if we could put the picture display up, mount it, caption it, and so forth,” Cromwell says. “The wealth of information I was able to find 40 years ago was a big success in the Flemington community. People in the town and people who had kids at the elementary school were excited about the picture display. The students had no idea what a flourishing community Flemington once was. I thought, ‘They need to know this is part of their heritage.'”
The First Chapter
Cromwell’s research yielded a rich history, beginning with the establishment of West Virginia College. In 1855, under the leadership of Reverend Flavius J. Cather, a Baptist minister, the Flemington Baptist Church members formed a joint stock company to purchase a site, construct a building, and form an institution of higher education.
Records show they raised $7,000 for the enterprise, and on June 12, 1865, the company gave $375 of it to Mr. Emory D. Flemington for 5 acres of land. The stone foundation was laid. Bricks for the building were made on the site, with the mixing machine turned by a horse. Before the building was completed, however, funds were exhausted.
In 1867, the Free Will Baptists purchased the property and completed the work so the building could be used for school purposes. It was a two-story brick structure measuring 90 feet by 50 feet. There were seven rooms on the lower floor—two rooms on the west end functioning as dormitories, with lodging costing $2.50 per week, and the east end of the building holding the living quarters for teachers. On the second floor, two classrooms sat over the dormitories. Across the hall was a large room used as a chapel, study room, classroom, and auditorium.
West Virginia College was incorporated by an act of the state Legislature on June 26, 1868—a
year after West Virginia University making it the first fine arts college in the state. The new college opened in September with Reverend Alvin B. Williams as its first president.
About 120 students enrolled for the first term, with a tuition fee of $6 for a 10-week period. The college boasted a printing press, a large library, and a chapel that would seat 200 people. The only other building on the college grounds was a stable for the students’ horses.
In an effort to increase enrollment, an ad was distributed in 1870 that described the college as “Progressive, but not reckless: Conservative, but not fossilized.” The faculty included a professor of ancient and modern languages, tutors in mathematics and Latin, and teachers of drawing and painting, instructional music, and English branches.
In 1874, the college began operating as a private enterprise, but enrollment had diminished by the early 1890s, and the school was forced to close its doors in 1892.
The college operated for only three decades—but the building had not outlived its usefulness.
Education Continues
In the mid- to late 1890s, Clark Cather and others used the building for subscription schools and summer courses. In 1899, the Flemington District Board of Education Commissioners purchased the property for $2,200. The board used it as a two-room district school.
In the decades that followed, the Taylor County Board of Education and its Flemington District proved to be progressive in education. Flemington established the first district high school in the state, for example. Known as College High School, it operated alongside lower grades in the old West Virginia College building until a new building was constructed for it in the late 1920s. The elementary grades moved out of the building a decade later when Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration built a new brick elementary school adjacent to the old college building, along with four others in the county.
And, meanwhile, the county school system opened the innovative College Hill Nursery School in the old college building in 1934. While the concept of a nursery school to serve 4- and 5-year-olds was relatively unknown in this region at the time, Taylor County Board of Education Superintendent Lloyd Shriver believed the program was worthwhile. Shriver recruited Mrs. Hazel Nye of Grafton as the school’s first teacher.
She was hesitant at first, saying to Shriver, “But I don’t know a thing about running a nursery school.” He responded, “Neither do I, but we’ll learn together.” Nye’s first challenge was traveling to each area home to convince parents about the benefits of the school. Although reading and arithmetic skills were not offered, she assured parents that the youngsters would receive a positive learning experience, including how to get along well with their playmates and how to take good care of themselves. When classes began, Nye’s efforts had paid off: 30 students were enrolled.
The year-round nursery operated during the Great Depression, and the school made the most of its modest furnishings. Tables and chairs were fashioned from orange crates. Building blocks were scrap wood acquired from a Clarksburg planing mill. A teacher or an aide walked children to and from school each day—the school day lasting from around 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., with a hot lunch and an afternoon nap.
After seven years, the nursery school closed. The old West Virginia College building was briefly used by private groups for meeting space but, over time, it was neglected and eventually deteriorated. Flemington Lions Club representatives appeared before the Taylor County Board of Education in 1952 requesting that the building be removed, as it posed a danger to the students at the adjacent Flemington Elementary School. After a bidding process, the building that had once housed so many educational institutions was demolished.
Preserving History
Today’s Flemington Elementary School, built in 1939, carries on the legacy of education that was established on its property more than 150 years ago, in 1867, when West Virginia College opened next door.
Recognizing the value of that legacy to the community, Cromwell worked in 1980 and ’81 to compile the historical materials. An archives search at West Virginia University yielded photographs and a few letters from Earl Core, the biologist and Monongalia County and regional historian for whom the Core Arboretum at West Virginia University is named. Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton Cather of Flemington loaned pictures of the college in its early years from their private collection. Mrs. Nye, the one-time nursery school teacher, also provided photographs of the interior and exterior of the school as it existed in 1939-40.
On December 30, 1981, The Mountain Statesman of Grafton ran an article featuring the finished historical display. It reads, “History is a part of our lives. World history, American history, West Virginia history. We study it in school, we read about it, we make it. Local history is an area that is sometimes forgotten in the rush to learn bigger things. Often, this sort of history is not written down—it is locked in the memories of the older people in our communities and, unless they make it known to us, the knowledge may die with them.
“Many people may not care what happened 10, 50, or 100 years ago in the community where they lived. They may not wonder what once stood on the ground where they now walk, work, and play. One man—one very influential man—in Flemington, cares.” The following year, in 1982, thanks to the efforts of the Flemington Women’s Club and primarily then-president Alma Costilow, the Archives and History Foundation granted funding for a West Virginia College historical marker. Late that year, the marker arrived and was erected directly in front of Flemington Elementary School.
Flemington Elementary School is the only one of the five Works Progress Administration–constructed elementary schools that remains in operation today. When it, too, is eventually replaced, thanks to the efforts of Cromwell and other area residents, the storied history of the land it sits on will remain a cherished community memory.