John Clark, Caleb Spangler-Same School, Fuqua Farm
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Pupils of Miss Marie Crawley proudly line up in front of Prince Edward School No. 20 located on the Fuqua farm in Elam.The school was in operation from 1876-1908.Caleb Spangler is the boy to the far left and next to him is Irving Spangler.Carl Spangler is the next boy on the front row.Minnie Spangler is the third girl from Irving and Della Spangler is the second from the right in the back row.The remainder of the children are unidentified.
The Farmville Herald, date unknown
One picture is worth a thousand words, the saying goes.
Study the 1899 picutre accompanying this bit of Prince Edward history for which The Herald is indebted to R. Aumon Bass, of Rice.
How many words would it take to: Describe construction methods of small country schools at the turn o the century; or tell about the dress, hair styles, footwear of elementary and secondary school youngsters of Southside Virginia as the Commonwealth ushered in the 20th century?
What words would be used to describe the obvious decorum and seriousness of purpose mirrored in these youthful faces and in those of the adults at the rear of the group , including Miss Annie Cox, the teacher (# 15)?
This rare photograph was taken at the “Bass School” on Route 696, the Green Bay Road, four miles east of Route 460.Its name derives from the fact that it was built and donated for public schooling by the late Charlie M. Bass, father of R. Aumon Bass, loaner of the picture.(#1 at left among the boys.)
The school had been in use several years before the picture was made, according to Mr. Bass.Already having attended the school and gone then were John Clark, who became sheriff of Prince Edward County, his sister Fannie Clark and James T. Bruce, according to Mr. Bass’s reckoning.
He reports that all are deceased except five.The living five are J. Hugh Gilliam (#2), Annie Gilliam (#27), Meda Gilliam (#17), Ruth Gilliam (#9), and Aumon Bass (#1).
Mr. Bass reports that schools then had limited terms, with sessions starting “in October and running through April or May.”
A few years later than the 1899 picture another school was built just across the road on the Bass farm.When the busses came, the same framed school building was transferred up the road to “somewhere near Green Bary.”
Charlie M. Bass, the building donor, ws on the county school board for some years, his son recalls.
The names are listed on the back beside each number, and the last names read like a true historic log of the Sandy River area families.They’re either a Bass, Gilliam, Bruce, French, Garland, or Crawford, except the teacher.