A HISTORY OF

Robersonville Public Schools

1878 - 1959

By Mrs. Thelma M. Smith

Robersonville, North Carolina

1959

 
STEPHEN AND SUSAN

Educational Servants, Martin County, 1850-1900

Professor and Mrs. Stephen W. Outterbridge

 

 

 

PREFACE

Out of the tedium of writing a
history of our Robersonville
Schools there had to be inspira-
tion. There was much inspiration.
This was derived from records
and conversations with many per-
sons several of whom have mem-
ories of the earlier days of which
we have no records. There was
real encouragement and helpful
assistance from Mrs. William
Gray, Robersonville Township
Historian for the Martin County
Historical Society; Mr. V. J. Co-
lombo, District Principal of Rob-
ersonville Schools District 2, who
requested this history; Mr. J. C.
Manning, Superintendent, Martin
County Schools, who furnished in-
formation and loaned valuable
records of the County Board of
Education; and Mr. Warren Biggs

who from his vast store of know-
ledge of Martin County history

filled in and set the record

straight on many events of impor-
tance. Acknowledgement is made
to these people and to others too
numerous to mention here, Let it
be borne in mind that this history
has been requested by the prin-
cipal of the local high school as
partial requirement of the school’s
application for membership in the
Southern Association of Colleges
and Secondary Schools. The sub-
mitting of this application has
been a part of the school’s antici-
pated program for the past sev-
eral years.

The writer can truthfully say
that the facts and events which
have unfolded from records and
interviews have inspired a won-
derful sense of progress of our
schools. This progress moved me
to ren my inspiration. I trust you,

who are interested in Roberson-
ville Schools, will appreciate its
revelation of truth in the lives of
thousands of people who have
made her history. It follows:

Walk and Talk Higher and Higher

You are a fragment of-a whole.
You shall in your own time

Do your part.

You shall leave on earth

Your share of eternity.

Thus were you created -
A part of a whole
To be readied to make bold.

Posterity moves to walk
On feet of little children.
Let us take care

How they shall talk.
Each for another

Shall talk and walk

As he has been taught
And has caught

Our walk and talk.

On goes the river,
On roll the sands.
Whither do they go?
Whither do they roll?

They seek their level;
Together they seek their level.
Men seek a level,

But theirs can be higher

Tf a man has paused

Befcre he seeks,

Before all seek together.

Man’s level shall be higher,
Higher than the river,
Higher than the sands.
Walk and Talk

Higher and Higher.

{20660

 
 

 

INTRODUCTION

A history of Robersonville
Schools has been needed for sev-
eral obvious reasons: 1) that the
future of the schools may be guid-
ed by the best in the past; 2) that
appreciation for the progress that
has been made may be expressed;
3) and that a better interpreta-
tion of the past in our local
schools may be made in the light
of facts available from records
and in the invaluable memories of
older citizens who have made
these facts come alive.

This history is not complete. It
is hoped patrons of the district
will make known any added
knowledge for the record. The
writer has kept in mind the im-
mediate need of a history of the
high school, but at the same time,
endeavored to meet the pertinent
needs of people interested in see-
ing that the Martin County His-
torical Society has its own history
for posterity. It will be noted in
some instances that the record of
Negro schools will appear along
side that of the white. It is to be
borne in mind that the present
district comprises 3 white and 4
colored schools. The teachers have
been key persons in the success of
our schools, and their names are
being given in a separate section.
The roster for 1923-59 is the only
one that makes an attempt at be-
ing correct from records of the lo-
cal board of trustees. Effort has
been made to include much in-
teresting history of former schools
in the district. At all times the
writer has endeavored to verify
this history.

This paper consists of six main
divisions: 1) Early beginnings
from Colonial times to the 1880's;

2) Many free schools from 1880’s

to 1902; 3) A mental picture of
early schools and teachers; 4)
Graded School Movement from
1902-23 and Beginnings of High
School Movement; 5) High School
Consolidation Movement from
1923-35; and 6) Robersonville
Schools on the March 1935-59.
Sources of Information

First, facts are taken from the
census of 1790, 1840, and 1850.
Second, copies of Mr. C. B. Has-
sel’s county treasurer records
from 1876-79 and an excerpt from
his autobiography, 1840, are sourc-
es. One of the most valuable of
these is a Memorandum of School
Payments, 1879, all of which are
in the possession of Mr. Warren
Biggs, Williamston, North Car-
olina. Third, there are the minutes
of the Martin County Board of
Education beginning December
1, 1884. Those of this date are the
first. The Martin County Court
House burned in 1882 and was
rebuilt in 1885. In the meantime
all official business of the county
was conducted in the upstairs of
the late S. R. Biggs’ store, which
also burned in 1884. Fourth, a few
records of Professor Stephen Out-
terbridge are in hand from Mrs.
Vada (Joe) Manning. Fifth, The
Weekly News, published and edit-
ed by Charles Hunter, formerly
of Hillsboro, North Carolina, July
31, 1903, Vol. 1, No. 24, a full copy
of which has been preserved by
Mr. Vernon Page. Sixth, The
Enterprise, tobacco editions, 1930-
45 owned by The Enterprise Pub-
lishing Company, Williamston,
North Carolina. Seventh, The
Tarborough Southerner, July 1877
issue, from which an article was

 

 

 

 

reprinted in The Enterprise was

valuable. Eighth, there were pic-
tures, letters, news items, family
records, and tokens in homes.
Ninth, the history of the schools
back of 1876 is being pieced to-
gether from information in the
above mentioned list, from state
records in texts and from know-
ledge handed down and in the
memory of living persons. The
writer has had to rely for general
facts on the history of public
schools in North Carolina, and for
some Martin County information,
from three reliable authors. The
titles of these books and their au-
thors are as follows: Public School
Education in North Carolina, Ed-

gar W. Knight, Ph. D., History of

the Public Schools of North Car-
olina, M. C. S. Noble, and Tar
Heel Editor, Josephus Daniels.
Tenth, Mr. Lacy Waverly Ander-
son, Principal of Robersonville
Schools 1937-44, through a thesis
toward the degree of Master of
Arts in 1941 from the University
of North Carolina, Chapel Hill,
came to the aid of the writer with
facts. These were for a period in
which minutes of the local school
committee are missing. Eleventh
and finally, the minutes of the
Robersonville Board of Trustees
and the Robersonville Schools
Committee from 1923-59 have
proved indispensable.

 

 

 
 

 

SECTION I

Early Beginnings from Colonial
Times to the 1880’s

Prior to the formation of Mar-
tin County in 1774 from Tyrrell
and Halifax counties, there were
laws in the Royal Colony of North

Carolina regulating the estates of
orphans and guardians. These
laws, based on the laws of the
Virginia colony, mark the begin-
nings of public school education
in North Carolina and Martin
County. Public school education
is the primary concern of this
paper. These laws set the pattern
of State responsibilty in education
instead of church responsibility.
They were to mark a trend to-
ward separation of Church and
State.1 Based on the Virginia
law of 1643, they directed that the
county courts “enjoin the over-
seers of the poor and guardians of
‘orphans to educate and instruct
them to their best endeavors in
Christian religion and in the
rudiments of learning and to pro-
vide for them necessaries, accord-
ing to the competence of their es-
eh,

A bill looking to the establish-
ment of free schools was intro-
duced in North Carolina in 1749,
but no bill calling for public
schools was passed. Following
the revision of the Constitution
in 1835, the first public school law
was enacted.2 This provided that,
1) for every one dollar (twenty
dollar minimum) raised in a
school district in a county, two

1The laws of 1775, 1760, and 1777.

dollars would be forthcoming
from the library fund of the state
established in 1825; 2) Five and
not more than ten persons were to
be elected as superintendents of
common schools in each county;

3) One was to be elected chair-
man; 4) Each county was to be
divided into school districts “‘con-
taining not more than six square
miles, but having regard for the
number of white children in
each.”; 5) The superintendents
were to number the districts.
“They shall appoint not less than
three and not more than six
school committeemen in each dis-
trict.”; and 6) “If any refuse or
show negligence, he shall forfeit
and pay the sum of fifty dollars
to be recovered by action of debt,
in any court of record in the
State”, the amount to go to ths
literary fund. The twenty dolla13
matched by the forty dollars fror
the literary fund was to go
“where the school. houses have
been erected to accommodate at
least fifty scholars.” This law
carried in Martin the first time
a general state election was call-
ed. It did not carry in Edge-
sombe, a neighboring county.3
At that time, according to the
sansus of 1840, one-third of our
adult whites, by their own state-
ments, were unable to read and
write. The people at this time
were “tenacious of old habits,
conservative to the point of stub-
bornness, with no neighboring
precedents or examples, and no
persons trained under such sys-

2Extract from defection fragment of Wheeler’s Reminescenses - 1884.
Mr. Asa Biggs (1811-78) was a member of the Convention to amend

the Constitution in 1835.

8Edgar K. Knight, Public School Education in North Carolina, (Cam-
bridge: The Riverside Press, 1916), p. 140-44.

 

 

 

tems.”! Before this time the
teachers of primary subscription
schools were called “old field in-

structors.”

Mr. C. B. Hassell (1809-1880),
Martin County citizen, father of
Elder Sylvester Hassel, his illus-
trious son, and himself renowned
as an educator, author, merchant,
and divine in the Primitive Bap-
tist Church, speaks of one of these
early schools in his autobi-
ography, written in 1840. The
particular one he attended was
three miles from Williamston.
Speaking of himself he says, “His
disposition to rudeness remained
with him at least until he reached
his third year, when it was agreed
by all hands, crazy Luke Bennett,
the school master, included, (he
was deranged only at times) that
the chap must go to school in
order to be kept out of mischief.
To this proposition the child had
no serious objection, and he was
often seen afterwards with his
basket on his arm, trudging over
the fields and along the road to
the school house, in company with
a large-sized friend who, once
for all, carried a pillow for our
youthful hero, because it was
understood from the first that he
should be allowed to take a nap
near the master’s chair whenever
he became sleepy, and so he did.
It was soon discovered that he
was a little apt and his master
recommended that he lay aside
his ‘Primer’ and take a spelling
bock. This was accordingly done,
and that spelling bock, as strange
as it may appear to the present

1Ibid p. 147.

generation of leaf-tearers and
book-spoilers, was kept by him
until he was grown.”?

Evidence of school organization
as early as 1840 is also found in
Mr. C. B. Hassell’s autobiography.
He says that he was “chosen one
of the committeemen for School
District Number 5 in 1840, and
went to work by getting subscrip-
tions for a house to the amount of
$100.”8

On December 4, 1852 a law was
passed ¢reating the office of State
Superintendent of Public Instruc-
tion. Dr. Calvin H. Wiley, Guil-
ford County, was elected the first
superintendent. This act author-
ized a state system of common
schools, known as public schools
today. Dr. Wiley, speaking of
this period, said, “No people can
or will be free who are unable or
unwilling to educate their chil-
dren.” Dr. Wiley also said that
North Carolina in 1860 had the
best system of primary schools in
the United States.

The evidence just given and
further evidence to be given will
indicate there was a_ district
school at Robersonville at this
early pre-Civil War period. How-
ever, there was no incorporated
town until 1872. It was known
by name and number, Roberson-
ville 22 as was Powell 24 as early
as 1878. From a copy of Mr. C.
B. Hassell’s tr urer records for
that year he indicates there was
a tetal of $73.84 cr $1.04 per capita
to be divided between the two
districts. Powell district was be-
tween Gray’s Upper (Gold Point)

2By permission of Mrs. William Glover (Great- Granddaughter of the

author).
8Tbid.

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

and Hurst’s. Everetts was organ-
ized. By deed in July 1878 S. P.
Everett granted “free use of a
well situated on my land in front
of my dwelling house near the
railroad to the school .. . in dis-
trict number 13.”

Mr. Jessie A. Bynum Cooper
who became second county super-
intendent sometime after the
Civil War reorganized the school
districts in 1878. But we have
from Hassell records in 1877 the
following names and numbers of
districts comprised in the present
district: Number 3, W. L. Hurst’s
in Williamston Township; number
4, S. P. Everett’s in Williamston
Township; number 7, Cross Roads,
Williamston Township; and num-
ber 8, Leggett’s, Williamston
Township. One earlier record
from the same source, 1876 lists
three townships — Hamilton, ap-
propriated $237; Williamston,
$358; and Jamesville, $469. Ever-
etts and Coffields colored, Wil-
liamston Township is listed for
1877. Committeemen for W. L.
Hurst were W. W. Purvis, W. W.
Hurst, and Jessie Griffin; for S.
P. Everetts, Daniel Clark, Thomas
Lanier, and N. Thomas Gurganus;
for Cross Roads, James Mobley,
Amelic James (Ed., Will. and
Neal James’ father), and A. P.
Barnhill (Jule, Gid., and Sam
Barnhill’s father); and for Leg-
getts, Joseph B. Leggett, John B.
Leggett, and Robert Robuck. State
records show that in 1858 there
was a school in every district and
a school house for nearly every
district.

There are only a few persons
now living who have a memory
of having attended any of the

above named schools. Mr. John-
nie L. Whitfield, 93, attended a
school in 1871 at the late Sid
Barnhill place near Reuben Ever-
ett’s on the Robersonville-Cross
Roads highway. This district was
not known as Keel’s until form-
ed between 1879-85. His teacher
was Miss Annie Lynn Stokes, Pitt
County. Mr. Whitfield knows of
the existence of two schools, one
near the first he attended in front
of Mrs. Ab Ausborn’s home and
the toher, a log structure, at Cross
Roads. Crosses are named in the
1790 census. Mrs. Allie Roberson
(W. E.) Page, 89, attended at Ev-
eretts in 1875 under Simon Peter
Everett. “This school building
was replaced by 1886”, says Mrs.
Gertrude Everett (Gid) Barnhill.
Mr. J. H. (Jim) Roberson, Sr., at-
tended his first school in Rober-
sonville in 1875 under Mr. John
Henry Johnson. The school was
located diagonally across from the
Adkins and Bailey Warehouse.
Mr. Johnnie Whitfield and the
late Mr. Gilly Gray walked into
town to this school. In 1877 it
was moved by Mr. Roberson’s
father, George, to his place diag-
onally across from the First Bap-
tist Church. Mrs. H. A. (Betty)
Gray attended the first remem-
bered school in Smith’s district
number 21 in 1882 under Miss
Betty Guilford (Mrs. John Croom,
Lory Croom’s mother). It was
known in the late 1800’s and early
1900’s as the Stanley E. Brown
School and was located on the
Robersonville - Stokes highway
five miles south of Robersonville
on the present Hugh Roberson
farm. Mr. Abram Roberson says
that this very small school, re-

1C. B. Hassell county treasurer records. The railroad bed had been
laid at that time, but the first train was not to run from Tarboro to
Williamston (all the way) until October 19, 1882.

 

 

 

placed in 1883, was used as a car-
riage house by his father. The
first full record, listing 32 white
and 22 colored school districts in
1879, gives names and numbers in
consecutive order.

Wilson Academy, located on the
late Billy Wilson farm between
Everetts and Gold Point (Vance
L. Roberson farm), was establish-
ed by Mr. Billy Wilson soon after
the Civil War, when he moved to
this place from Beaufort County.
He was Dr. J. M. Kilpatrick’s
grandfather. Since the academy
was a forerunner of the high
school, the existence of Wilson
Academy would further indicate
there were “old field” or common
schools, or both, in the Roberson-
ville area before and up to the
Civil War. The only other known
academy in the upper end of the
county was Mimosa Grove at But-
ler’s Bridge near Hamilton. It
was established and taught by Mr.
Stephen W. Outterbridge (Born
Jan. 23, 1825-Died Jan. 28, 1915)
before the Civil War and main-
tained by him for a number of
years after he returned from the
War. Mrs. Allie Page says that
he taught three generations of her
family — her parents (Elder
George Daniel Roberson and Sal-
ly Luvenia Smith), herself, her
husband (John Clayton Rober-
son), and their children. Mr. Out-
terbridge taught both public and
private schceol (by record) at
Robersonville beginning in 1885
in the oldest building on Main
Street (1871), and _ continuing
through 1896. He then taught pri-

vate school next door to his sec-
ond home in Robersonville on
what is now Outterbridge Street,
to 1900. His home was the present
Grady E. Smith home and his
school was the back section of
Donnie Hardison’s house.

School was first held, said to be
private, in the Masonic Hall in
1881 according to Mrs. Kate Piver
Tripp. She attended this session
of school under Miss Mattie No-
ble, Trenton, North Carolina. She
says that Dr. W. H. Watson, (born
around 1830—died around 1890) a
highly educated man and second
medical doctor in this area fol-
lowing Dr. J. L. Teel, taught in
the Hall in 1882.1 At the same
time, or in 1883, Mr. Lemuel Ross,
a bachelor from Beaufort County,
was teaching free school in the
school house across from the First
Baptist Church.

Record should be made of one
other very early “old field” or
common school which sat on the
fringes of the present Roberson-
nile School District 2. Martin
County Board of Education min-
utes for 1888 record the formation
of Roanoke D ict Number 40
(Spring Green). In outlining the
boundary, named as a point in the
line was the “Mac Gilbert Taylor
old school house” (Leroy Taylor
farm Hamilton-Williamston high-
way). This school must have been
built before or during the Civil
War if built by Mac G. Taylor. He
was the grandfather of the writ-
er’s husband, Claude T. Smith,
and from family records—a deed,
the farm had been bought by his

1Mr. J. A. Teel, son of Dr. J. L. Teel (home and office on present Mrs.
John Powell farm on Robersonville-Everetts highway No. 64) taught
in 1887, according to S. R. Biggs’ county treasurer record, in Turkey
Swamp district number 15. He was paid $37.50 per month, the highest
salary commanded at that time in free school. Mr. Teel later became
Register of Deeds of Martin County around 1892.

 

 

 

 

 
10

 

 

father, Irving Taylor, and deeded
to his son. He came from Edge-
combe County in 1858 to settle on
the farm where the school was lo-
cated. Brick from the chimney
still remain on the site. The house
has been moved to another place
on the farm and is being used.

The 1850 census of Martin
County lists only 900 pupils, 25
tax supported schools and four
private schools or academies. The
academies known to be in exist-
ence at that time but not named
in the census were Williamston
(1817), Jamesville ( ), Horner
(Hamilton) in existence before
1945, and Mimosa Grove, Butler’s
Bridge.

In the very early years before
the Civil War and following, it
was a fixed habit to have school
every year or two in the common
schools. The average terms were
four months; the average salary
$24; and the average attendance
forty pupils with one teacher. By
1860 the per capital expenditure
for each pupil was $1.25. Up un-
til 1860 the county superintendent
was called county supervisor. He
was also called supervisor for a
short period from April 1898 to
July 1901. At this latter time
there was a board of directors
serving with the supervisor, Mr.
R. J. Peele. At the same time,
provision was made for ten dis-
tricts in the stead of the three—
Williamston, Jamesville and
Hamilton that had prevailed from
1876 and before. The two for the
Robersonville area were Cross
Roads No. 6 and Robersonville
No. 7. There were five committee-
men appointed to each of the ten

new districts or townships in the
stead of the three that had been
for each school district before.
The only part of this new organi-
zational set up which continued
beyond July 1901 was the ten dis-
tricts, the county board returning
to the old school committee set up
of three to the individual dis-
tricts in the townships.

According to available records,
Mr. Archibald H. Coffield was the
first superintendent of common
schools in Martin. His term of of-
fice began in 1859 and continued
until sometime during the Civil
War. Mr. Coffield lived on his
own farm now owned by Mr. An-
drew Clark. In 1846 and again in
1848 he was a member of the Leg-
islature. In the North Carolina
Assembly of 1866 James E. Moore,
Representative or Senator from
Martin County, backed a bill by
inserting an amendment to appro-
priate funds for the support of
common schools from the state
treasury. This bill failed due to
the uncertainty of the times.!

The movement toward free
public and universal education
gained impetus through Superin-
tendent Wiley’s “North Carolina
Reader” used before and through
the War. It is to be remembered,
however, that during the war
years the common schools in Mar-
tin County as well as over the
State, ceased to function, or, we
do not know much about them
until around 1879. After Mr.
Cooper’s reorganization in 1878,
he received a letter in 1879 from
Mr. J. C. Scarborough, State Sup-
erintendent of Public Instruction.
The letter (Mr. Warren Biggs’)

IM. C. S. Noble, History of the Public Schools of North Carolina,
(Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1930), p. 280.
The Moores from around Everetts at this time were not many years

removed from Ireland.

11

 

 

informed him that no funds from
the State would be forthcoming
that year.

The Reconsruction Period,
rather than the War, was to prove
the greatest hindrance to public
schools. The Constitutions of
1868 and 1876 aided by forming a
new basis for state taxation for
education. The public endow-
ment or literary fund continued
but was not to be the main source.
The carpet bagger and scalawag
were to adversely affect the econ-
omy and the collection of funds
for education, both state and
county.

It is to be remembered in this
connection that at least five main
hindrances to public education
had been at work since Colonial
times. These were, according to
Edgar W. Knight: 1) Legislative
aid to private schools and acad-
emies; 2) Fear of taxation; 3) In-
trustion of the state into parental
obligation; 4) Lack of common in-
terest in education; and 5) Lack
of teacher qualifications.

From the full list of thirty-two
school districts in 1879 there were
nine within the general confines
of the present Robersonville Dis-
trict No. 2. A thirty-fourth, Keel’s,
was formed between 1879 and
February 2, 1885. There were by
1885 thirty-seven white and twen-
ty-four colored districts. The Con-
stitution of 1868 had provided for
separate schools. Robuck’s No.
35 was organized in 1885. Wynn’s
No. 38 in the Everetts area was
formed in September 1887.
Eborns’ No. 47 and Parmele No.
48 were formed in 1895. There
were now fourteen districts, the
total number for this general area
before consolidation was to begin
in 1903. A listing of the districts,
the year of formation, and the

year of consolidation follows:

District:

Hurst No. 12, 1878—With Roan-
oke No. 40 (Spring Green) 1920.
Spring Green consolidated with
Everetts in 1931.

Everetts No. 13, 1878 — High
school with Robersonville in 1934.

Cross Roads No. 16, 1878—Ever-
etts in 1931.

Leggetts No. 17, 1878 — Bear
Grass.

Smith’s No. 21, 1878—Roberson-
ville in, 1931.

Robersonville No. 22, 1878—Be-
came district No. 2 in a reorgani-
zation of eight districts in the
county in 1933.

Pages No. 23, 1878—Parmele in
1905.

Powells No. 24, 1878 — Grays
(Upper) (Named Gold Point in
1906) in 1924.

Grays (Upper) No. 25, 1878—
Ninth Grade in 1926-27; eighth
grade in 1927-28; seventh by 1939-
40; and remaining six grades in
1946-47, all with Robersonville.

Keels No. 34, 1879-85—Rober-
sonville in 1928-29.

Robucks No. 35, 1885—Cross
Roads and Leggetts in 1903.

Wynns No. 38, 1887—Consoli-
dated with Everetts, from which
it had been formed, in 1915.

Eborns No. 47, 1895—Gold Point
in 1906.

Parmele No. 48, 1895 — High
school in 1907; elementary in
1934,

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

SECTION II

Many Free Schools
from 1880’s to 1902

The organizational picture for

the thirty-seven white and twen-
ty-four colored school districts in
1885 may be had by a look at the
minutes of the county board of
education. There were 2421 white
children; 2551 colored. On De-
cember 1, 1884 the board members
present were Jos. D. Biggs, chair-
man, William A. Haislip, Ben R.
Jenkins (Robersonville), W. B.
Mangum and S.-L. Wallace. Ata
meeting in June, 1885, the board
appropriated to each school $1.10
for each child listed in the school
census, fifteen cents less than in
1860 in a state average. In 1889
state records show the average
appropriation through counties
per pupil was two cents. This
was On paper only as it had been
in 1879. Not until 1899 did the
public schools receive any legis-
lative appropriation from the
state treasury. Two years before
this, 1897, the Martin County ap-
propriation by a new and im-
proved method was $1.53. The
per capita method of appropriat-
ing school funds had prevailed
until 1885 when the new method
was adopted. It provided for
two-thirds to be paid on a per
capita basis and the remaining
one-third to be “apportioned in
such manner as to equalize: school
facilities in all the districts with-
out favor or to the prejudice of
either race.”

On June 1, 1885 the board of
county commissioners and jus-
tices of the peace met in joint
session in accordance with Section
2545 of the School Law of 1885
and elected a County Board of
Education: Jos. C. Smith, Stephen

W. Outterbridge (Robersonville),
and Thos. B. Haughton. On July

_6, 1885 the board of education

elected Mr. Haughton, chairman,
and Jesse A. B. Cooper, superin-
tendent. In 1887 Mr. Cooper was
made chairman and T. B. Haugh-
ton, superintendent. Mr. Outter-
bridge was still on the board. The
Rev. Mr. Haughton consented to
serve and did so until his death
on Noy. 28, 1894. The Rev. Mr.
Haughton was a chaplain in the
Confederate Army. After the
War he moved to Williamston to

become rector of the Episcopal
Church. According to a frag-

ment of Wheeler’s Reminiscences,
1884, Mr. Outterbridge was a
member of the State Legislature
in 1856 and again in 1864. Mrs.
Vada Manning says that he serv-
ed as a teacher in Arkansas dur-
ing the War years. Teachers were
supposed to be exempt from ac-
tive service. Mr. Jesse A. B.
Cooper (Hamilton area) served in
the Legislature of 1825 and again
in 1842. He was a member of
the Constitutional Convention of
1835.

On December 7, 1894, Mr. Syl-
vester Hassell, noted educator and
minister’ in the Primitive Bap-
tist Church, was elected county
superintendent. Mr. Hassell was
awarded the highest honorary de-
gree from the University of North
Carolina in 1861. He served as
superintendent through July 3,
1895, when Mr. J. B. Coffield act-
ed as superintendent and served
to July 5, 1897, at which time Mr.
R. J. Peel (Miss Eva Peel’s fath-
er) was elected supervisor. When
Mr. Peel resigned in May 1914 to
become Clerk of the Martin Coun-
ty Superior Court, Mr. Asa J.
Manning was elected. He remain-
ed superintendent until August

 

13

 

 

1923 when Mr. R. A. Pope was
elected and served to July, 1931.
At this time Mr. J. C. Manning,
son of Mr. Asa Manning, was
elected and has served to the
present time.

The records show that the aver-
age size of the new schools built
in this area between 1885 and 1905
was “thirty feet long by twenty
wide, twelve feet between the
joists.” Land and contributions
of money were given to schools.
At the same time land was con-
demned when needed and not of-
fered as a gift, in which case a
value was set to determine the
price to pay the owner. Some
times land was lent to a school
committee.

A deed, recorded in the Regis-
ter of Deeds’ office in 1883, shows
than Stanley E. Brown and his
wife, Anne E. Brown, gave “one
fourth acre to the Public. School
Committee out of good will for
the public schools” in Smith’s dis-
trict. There was an unusual ex-
ception made in the deed, “.. . it
is given upon condition that no
parties or any kind of revelling
shall be held in the house allowed
by committee at any time or this
deed is null and void.” Stanley
Brown signed his name; his wife
made her mark in signing the
deed. In 1891 they gave together
another one-fourth acre to adjoin
the first. Mr. Aaron E. Smith
and his wife, Lizzie Taylor Smith,
(the writer’s father and mother-
in-law) lent a tract which was a
part of his farm “at a_ point
eighty-five yards eastwardly of
the crossing of the Washington
and Williamston County roads...”
(Robersonville-Cross Roads-Wil-
liamston road). A state law was
passed around 1901 which forbade
the county board to take title to

any lands having exceptions in
the deeds.

During the years from 1885-
1905 there was much transferring
of pupils from district to district.
At times the boundary lines were
changed to accomodate the trans-
fers. Teachers were paid thirty
dollars per term (about two
months) in 1885. Five dollars
only might be added if permission
had been obtained from the coun-
ty superintendent. The teacher
boarded in the home of a patron,
paying eight to ten dollars per
month. Record was made in at
least one instance in the county
when money was paid from the
school fund of Hardison district
No. 9 (Jamesville area). Six dol-
lars was paid to Miss Susanna
Fisher in 1889 for tuition for
teaching Mr. H. P. Noland’s chil-
dren who were of said district.
This area was on the old James-
ville-Washington railroad, now
taken up, and at Dymond City,
now a dead town.

Parents sent their children to
free school, beginning around
July or August, before the days
of growing tobacco, in the late
1890’s, and continuing two
months. Then, beginning in Oc-
tober or November, private
school was conducted for about
four months, possibly longer,
though not all the pupils enrolled
for the entire time. Everetts and
Robersonville held private school
in extra sessions. About two to
three miles northeast of Everetts
on Simpson Hill was another pri-
vate school conducted in the area.
This was the John D. Simpson
School. The teacher was paid
fifty dollars to teach around fif-
teen pupils for five months dur-
ing the years 1880-84. Mrs. Kate
Tripp and Mrs. Allie Page attend-

 

 

 
 

14

 

 

 

ed this school at this time under

the Misses Betty (taught first)
and Lula Jenkins. The daily fee
at Everetts and Robersonville was
five to ten cents. The Everetts
free school enrollment in 1885
was ninety-seven; Robersonville,
78. There were enrolled in the
county, 2891 white pupils in 1891;
2866, colored. Appropriated to
leach pupil was only $1.13.

The county paid half the cost of
constructing new school houses
and half the cost of repair begin-
ning in the 1880’s. The county
board governed the removal of
school houses or their location in
another area of a district for a
school session. This was a natural
request in view of the times, most
every child walking to school. It
meant the same children would
not always be the nearest or the
fartherest from school.

There have been in consecutive
use four known buildings at Ev-
eretts; two in Hursts, north of

Evereitts; three at Gold Point;

one, Eborns; two, Parmele; three,
Smiths; three, Keels; three, Cross
Roads; two or more Leggetts (just
beyond Cross Roads at the junc-
ture of the Everetts-Bear Grass
road); and six, Robersonville. At
Robersonville these include the
two brick (grammar and high
school, but not gymnasium), the
Masonic Hall where both entered
and free school was conducted
from 1881-1902, the free school
moved by Mr. J. H. Roberson,
Sr.’s father from the warehouse
area to the First Baptist Church
area, and one other free school us-
ed one known year in Mr. Rober-
son’s, Mr. Alonza Roberson’s and
Mr. George Crofton’s memory,
around 1877. The last named still
stands as a colored home in front
of the colored Baptist church. It
was used as an entered school as
late as 1899 when Miss Alice
Grimes (Mrs. A. R. Dunning, Wil-
liamston) taught there.

1Mr. Simpson petitioned the Martin County Board of Education in
1886 to create a new district for his school which did not prevail.

15

 

 

SECTION III

A Mental Picture of Early
Schools and Teachers

A mental picture of the inside

of the early one-teacher schools
in the Robersonville area shows
long unbacked homemade bench-
es in rows, a book shelf along a
side wall with wall-desks for the
practice of Spenserian writing
with pen and ink on foolscap pap-
er, and sometimes a twenty-by-
thirty inch blackboard. Later,
but before 1900, homemade back-
ed benches were used. There were
slates for individual use. A few
pupils brought cloths with which
to erase the chalk. Left to the
imagination of the reader, is the
erasing with mouth-wetted fing-
ers. The common dipper or gourd
at the well-bucket was possibly
more sanitary. The writer can
remember the hard introduction
by the teacher of hand-coned
paper cups in the early 1920’s at
Mewborn’s two-teacher school in
Greene County, North Carolina.
There were so many who failed to
bring their aluminum folding-
cups.

Sometimes the inside of the
weather-boarded building was not
entirely sealed inside, and the
rafters often showed. The com-
mon practice of painting the
school inside and outside was not
adopted until the early 1900's.
The Robersonville Masonic Hall
downstairs section (thirty-six by
twenty-four feet), lent, perhaps
for a fee, did afford a small stage
at the eastern end where classes
were heard. The north-west cor-
ner was reserved for the assisting
teacher, often an older scholar,
for instructing the younger ones
to read from the Blue Back Spell-

er (Webster’s). Miss Leona

Moore, 89, teacher in Roberson-
ville from 1915-42, tells of the
difficulty her younger brother
had in learning to read in the
early years at Old Sparta, North
Carolina. This, no doubt, hap-
pened in Robersonville to some
equally harassed scholar. She says
that her brother wore out four to
five Blue Back Spellers (10c each
retail) on about the fifth or sixth
page from having held his thumb
so long between the lower leaves
of the book. Since his pappy sold
the school books at his country
store the hapless little fellow had
no difficulty securing another
copy from an eager father. No
wonder there was so much diffi-
culty when a six-year-old had to
learn his A B C’s and to spell
before he was permitted to read.
Under Mr. Outterbridge in the
Masonic Hall, Mrs. Kate Tripp
studied in Davie’s Reader, which
was followed by Holmes’ Reader.
Not many got beyond the fifth
reader or the sixth and last of
this series. She went from the
Blue Back to Townsend’s Speller.
Town’s Speller followed Town-
send’s.

Mrs. H. A. Gray refers to the
pretty picture her first teacher,
Miss Betty Guilford (Mrs. John
Croom), presented in 1882 at
Smith’s (Brown’s) School. She
wore a spotless white-ruffled, big-
bowed apron. “Miss” Betty says
that the older brother or sister sat
beside the younger to help teach.
There was the continual standing
up of the younger to look over the
back of the bench in front to see
what a fellow classmate was do-
ing.

Children found humor in life
then as they do now inside or out-

 

 

 
 

16

 

side the school. The folk games
of the centuries — “The Fox, the

Goose, the Gander” and ”Drop the
Handkerchief”, and others were
enjoyed at recess. Mrs. Wiley
Rogerson, Sr., recalls the older
scholars were allowed to study
outside, on their own, on warm
spring days at Cross Roads. Mr.
Jim Roberson remembers in 1875
at Robersonville how an older boy
paused to watch through the win-
dow and to talk with his farmer
friend who was plowing with ox-
en. He also remembers the whip-
ping the fellow received at the
hands of his first teacher, John
Henry Johnson. Mr. Johnnie
Whitfield tells that in the early
1870’s his first teacher, Miss An-
nie Lynn Stokes, Bethel, required
a young chap who misbehaved to
slide back and forth on a see-saw
so he would bump himself. He
laughs now at the “whee” sound
the boy uttered over and over
from a-bumping. These incidents
may seem insignificant in them-
selves, but they do help to create
a true picture of that day of be-
ginnings in our schools. Women
were just beginning to teach. Be-
cause teaching was not consider-
ed “proper” work for women, the
few in the South immediately aft-
er the War had been imported
from the North. Many missionary-
minded ones taught in the Negro
schools.

Mrs. Kate Tripp recalls the
Friday afternoon speech making
in the early 1880’s in the John D.
Simpson (private) School. Mr.
Whitfield recollects how Mr. Net
Hammond, teacher at Flat Swamp
(Pitt County, front Mrs. J. R.
Jenkins) in the late 1870’s, deter-
mined the time to let out the long
school day. He measured the

needed hour before sun-down by
the span of his hand against the
tree-tops. Mr. Whitfield walked

the four or more mile distance
more often than he rode the mule
and cart. Mrs. Allie Page remem-
bers Mr. Simon Peter Everett,
teacher at Everetts in the late
1870’s, going to school in the
morning dressed in his bleached
white and starched linen pants.
This special dress caused the chil-
dren to say, “Watch out. He’s go-
ing to whip somebody today.” His
farm encompassed the present
town of Everetts. Commencement
for the Robersonville school was
conducted in the Masonic Hall in
the 1880’s and 1890’s and later had
to be held in the upstairs of what
is now R. L. Smith and Sons store
when attendance grew.

A July, 1877, issue of The Tar-
boro Southerner provides an in-
teresting and enlightening bit of
news of Robersonville at that time
when the memory of our few old-
est citizens is only a child’s mem-
ory. A correspondent for this
newspaper writing under the pen
name “Alexis”, and his “pardner”
visited the town as they were on
their route into Martin going to
Hamilton, on to Williamston and
Robersonville and back to Tar-
boro. He termed Robersonville
“a thriving little village.’ For
Henry Daniel Roberson, who
greeted him in such a friendly
manner, he had only praise. Ar-
riving late in the afternoon, Hen-
ry D. showed him around to the
new stores and homes going up.
He referred to the mercantile es-
tablishments as thriving. The first
two stores and a “grog” were lo-
cated a block below the first Bap-
tist Church on the same side of
the street. “Alexis” made partic-

17

 

 

ular mention of a “handsome
piece of architecture, one church,
which is nearly completed, beau-
tifully embellished, with fresco-
ed walls, and is to be dedicated
on the third Sunday in this
month, so I was reliably inform-
ed.” After such hospitality, be-
ing shown around by Henry D.,
he invited “me and my pard” in
to tea. The table was sumptuous,
laden with “delicious viands of
meats of all kinds... and sam-
ples of the vineyard.” It was a
day of special entertainment.
“Tableau at Robersonville-Guild-
ed Sunshine and Rosebuds of
Glory” was presented in a house
he did not name, but noted was
“literally crowded almost to suf-
focation.” When the curtains
were drawn aside, the stage ap-
peared, decorated artistically
with greenery and was fragrant
with “roses and jasmin.” He was
delighted with the program put
on by the adults and young folk
“in so short a time.” A hilarious
part of the evening was the anti-
climax to the next announced ta-
bleau—“The Sleeping Beauty.”
Sleeping Beauty was a jet black
reclining figure dressed for the
part.

When the tableaux closed at
11:30 p. m., the young adults re-
paired to the school for a dance.
Miss Maggie Andrews (Mrs. Vada
Manning’s aunt) was, in his eyes,
the “belle of the evening.” He
was also attracted to the “Misses
Gainors, Miss Everett, Miss Rob-
erson and Miss Nannie Williams,
Williamston.” The men furnish-
ed plenty of lively music, pre-
sumably fiddle music. The dance
over at 2:30 in the morning, “Al-
exis” and his pard went on their
way, arriving in Tarboro in the
wee hours of the morning.

Music was taught by an assist-
ing teacher, Miss Minnie Whitak-
er, Halifax County, in the Mas-
onic Hall in 1885. This may have
been the first instance of music-
piano being taught in the public
schools. Miss Whitaker used the
Disciples of Christ Church next
door to the Masonic Hall. In this
same year, and at the Hall, Mr.
Outterbridge was continuing his
teaching of advanced pupils. The
year before he had taught Mr.
Jchnnie Whitfield at Hamilton
Preparatory Institute. The year
before that, in 1883, Mr. Johnnie
had studied under Prof. John
Duckett. Prof. Duckett was an
outstanding teacher who went to
Greenville to teach at the end of
that school year. Mr. Whitfield
himself taught his first free
school in 1884, and 1885, July and
August, in Keel’s district, but con-
tinued his studies under Mr. Out-
terbridge in Robersonville in the
fall of 1885.

In 1891 a ruling was made by
the county board of education
that when an area was incorpor-
ated into a district, the teacher
was requested to obtain a certifi-
cate from the county supervisor.
The supervisor was being paid
one dollar per examination in
1897. Teacher certificates had
continued in three grades in 1881
following a state ruling, although
effort had been made to improve
this situation. There had been be-
fcre 1881, five grades of certifi-
cates. The applicant was examin-
ed to determine whether he was
“proficient in spelling, reading,
and the four fundamental rules of
arithmetic.”

Elder Sylvester Hassell, “a no-
ble gentleman and profound
scholar,” examined Mr. Stephen
Outterbridge in 1895. He missed

 

 

 
18

 

 

a few questions but Mr. Hassell
passed him. Pupils of these two
were equally proud to say, “We
studied under Mr. Outterbridge”
or “We studied under Mr. Has-
sell.” Many could say they had
studied under both.

County institutes for teachers
were held in the 1890’s for Mar-
tin County teachers. Money from
the Peabody Fund paid for the
services of those coming into the
county to assist. The county board
paid for the local expenses. Coun-
ty institutes continued into the
1920’s for colored teachers. Sep-
arate institutes were held in Sep-
tember and October 1893. One
for white teachers was held in
August 1899. Gradually training
schools and colleges assumed this
responsibility of training teach-
ers.

Mr. Outterbridge was elected to
the county board of education in
June, 1885, and served until 1889.
In 1891, he returned and on July
3, 1899, tendered his resignation.
The following, for that date,, ap-
peared in the minutes: ‘‘Consider-
ing his most valuable services in
the past and the great need of
them in the future, (the board)
could only accept it with sorrow,
but knowing that he is in extreme
old age and very poor in health,
they had to become reconciled to
the same, hoping they might be
able to fill the vacancy with a
just and noble man.”

Mr. Outterbridge was greatly
beloved by the citizens of Rober-
sonville. His 81st birthday and
fifty years of teaching were cele-
brated with a special speaking in
January 23, 1906, at the insistent
suggestion of Mr. Justice Everett,
Palmyra, and others of his old
students. The program for the
day was as follows: “Welcome

Address — J. D. Everett; Re-
sponse — Rev. (Eld) M. T. Laur-
ence; Introduction of Speaker—A.
R. Dunning; Address—Hon. F. D.
Winston; Planting of tree in front
of academy in honor of Prof. and
Mrs. Outterbridge.” Two trees
were planted. One was named
Stephen and one Susan. Mr. Wil-
liam Gray, Mr. Thomas House
and Mr. C. Abram Roberson, sen-
ior students, helped to plant these
trees. “Mrs. Outterbridge was as
fine a person and as beloved as
Mr. Outterbridge,” says Warren
Biggs. He boarded in their home
in 1894. His father had sent him
to school under the Professor to
get him away from a_ wrong
crowd of boy companions in Wil-
liamston, his home town. Prof.
Outterbridge’s boarding students
remained at the dinner table
when it was cleared around seven
and he supervised their studying
from the head of the table, peer-
ing now and then over his glasses
from reading to answer a ques-
tion. At nine, all went to bed
carrying a candle.

Mr. and Mrs. Outterbridge kept
at their home as “handy-boy” a
young Negro boy, Henry Rober-
son, during these years when he
had boarding students. He was
treated as a son, though never
adopted. The young students and
adults living at the time said that
he was a good and a smart boy.
In their home he gained the rudi-
ments of learning and even learn-
ed to knit. His widow, Annie
Bell, living in Robersonville at
the present, is held in highest
respect.

From the same issue of the En-
terprise which featured the birth-
day program, appeared the fol-
lowing lines: “They were both
too modest and retiring to desire

19

 

 

this public recognition, but they
yielded to the wishes of their
friends and former students who
desired to meet them on this oc-
easion, and to acknowledge their
debt of gratitude for the whole-
some instruction and lofty ex-
ample of their old teachers. Their
example of righteous living and
devotion to duty are worthy of
imitation for all peoples in all
ages. Their lives are blameless
before man and, we believe, be-
fore God. . . . His influence has
always been on the side of ad-
vancement in education, knowing
as he did, that it is the trained
mind and sterling character that
make citizens and honorable his-
tory for a state.’ Mr. and Mrs.
Outterbridge were members of
the Primitive Baptist Church and
devoted to the church. He was
ordained a deacon in the Church
at Spring Green in February,
1870. He attended James Horner
Military Academy, then in Ham-
ilton around 1845, and known in
the 1880’s as Hamilton Prepara-
tory Institute. They had under
their care many children, but
none of their own.

In a brief history of Roberson-
ville appearing in The Weekly
News, July 31, 1903, Vol. I, num-
ber 24, Prof. Outterbridge stated
that “with teacher after teacher
having been employed at short in-
tervals, indicating no permanency

. about eighteen years ago a
board of trustees was organized
and a teacher employed of over
thirty years experience at a sal-
ary, since which time the school
has been permanent and self-sus-
taining, and the town has been
gradually building up and street
after street added.” This teacher
wes Prof. Outterbridge.

Since the economy of a com-

munity is so closely tied to the
march of progress of our public
schools, and our private schools
as well, note should be made of
the town’s founding fathers. Hen-
ry Daniel Roberson, mentioned in
the July, 1877, issue of The Tar-
boro Southerner, was one of three
brothers owning the land of the
town and living here before its
incorporation in 1872. Staton
Everett built what was known as
the John Stevenson big house on
his farm in the northwest section
of the town. Part of the farm is
now owned by Robersonville De-
velopment Corporation and occu-
pied by Austin Farms, Inc. and
the town-school athletic field,
bought by the school for $9050 in
1949. The old vacant Stevenson
house burned in 1954, taking one
life, that of Harvey Perkins, col-
ored, whose body was found in
the remains of the fire. The Rob-
erson brothers were George Out-
law ,born Dec. 1, 1821—died Aug.
27, 1887), father of Mr. Jim Rob-
erson, Sr., Henry Daniel (born
Oct. 10, 1824—died Sept. 14, 1884),
and William (Billy) Wynn (born
Sept. 1, 1819—died May 11, 1845).
The home of Billy on highway
No. 64, near the high school, and
known as the Johnny Edmondson
house which he recently sold, is
believed to be the oldest house
in town. It has tiny windows.
The next oldest is the late Willie
Roberson two-story home flanked
at either end with brick chim-
neys, and is located two doors
from the First Baptist Church.
This was Henry D’s home where
“Alexis” dined in 1877. The Jesse
Ben Roberson house on the edge
of town, Flat Swamp Road, was
George’s home. Henry D. remain-
ed at home during the Civil War
to look after the widows. He was

 
20

 

the father of the Atlantic Coast
Line Railroad, then incorporated
as Seaboard and Raleigh Railroad
Company. He introduced a bill
in the Legislature of 1879 on
March 13 making it possible for
the railroad to be completed. He
has therefore, been named father
of the railroad from Tarboro to
Williamston. Mrs. Kate Tripp,
Mr. Henry D’s step-daughter, saw
him shed tears of joy at a well on
Main Street when he witnessed
the first train roll through going
from Tarboro to Williamston. The
train made the complete run on
Cctober 19, 1882. Mrs. Tripp re-
members the many _ occasions
when her mother, Mr. Henry D’s
second wife, was hostess to num-
erous railroad officials here on
business for the railroad.

A religious scrap book of Mr.
Outterbridge’s reveals a few facts
about the private school he con-
cucted at the Masonic Hall. The
book had been his roll and record
book, but it is almost pasted
over with his religious clippings.
Mrs. Vada Andrews Manning in-
herited his scrapbook from Mrs.
Winnie Briley Benjamin. Ten
cents must have been his daily
tuition fee. Spelling, reading,
arithmetic, grammar and _= ge-
ography were taught. Alonza
Everett paid 30c for one speller,
and Allie Everett, 90c for one
North Carolina History, and
James Roberson, 75¢c for one
Speaker. School opened in 1885
on October 12th and continued
eight weeks. A spring session
began January 11, 1886, and ran

for twenty weeks. This would
make seven months‘ private
school, but not all the pupils en-
rolled for the full time. Among
his mottoes were these taken also
from his scrapbook. “Education
is to the mind what grinding is to
the ax.” “To utilize dry putty is
to pour in the oil and hammer
well.” “A finely equipped ship
without a rudder is soon wreck-
ed.” “Promptness is the life of
business.” “Study to be obedi-
ent.” “Determine to do right and
govern thyself.”

Mr. J. A. Whitley, first Master
of Stonewall Masonic Lodge No.
296, Robersonville, was appointed
to the county board of education
from this area in 1899. Later he
was elected chairman and served
“long and faithfully” with real
worth until 1906. At that time he
was elected to the General As-
sembly. Mr. L. B. (Lamm) Wynn,
Everetts, was elected to fill the
unexpired term of Mr. Whitley’s
and did so until he resigned in
1916, at which time Mr. W. H.
Holliday was appointed to the
board.

A map showing the various dis-
tricts of the public schools in the
county was requested by the
State Superintendent in Septem-
ber 1892. It is presumed this map
was supplied. The County Board
of Directors, organized in April
1898-July 1901, laid off the coun-
ty into ten school districts. The
two for the area of the present
district were Cross Roads No. 6
and Robersonville No. 7.

21

 

 

SECTION IV

Graded School Movement from
1902-23 and Beginnings of
High School Movement

While the surrounding area of
Robersonville moved forward
from 1885 to create new school
districts that every child might
be within walking distance of a
school, a consolidation movement
was also under way. Mr. John C.
Scarborough, State Superintend-
ent of Public Instruction, 1875-85
and 1893-97, was discouraging the
tendency to increase the number.
It decreased the amount of money
for each school and shortened the
length of the term. In 1881, tax-
es for schools were only eight and
one-third cents on the hundred
dollars worth of property, and
twenty-five cents on the poll. In
1885 only 52% of the school
population was enrolled.

From 1889-1900 there was a
real awakening of the State and
Robersonville to the need and de-
sire for education. [Illiteracy in
the Robersonville area was being
fought through 1910 and beyond.
Keel district No. 34 and Parmele
No. 48 were the only two report-
ing any illiterates from enrollees
—seven males and one female.
The county took steps in 1913 to
enforce attendance by appointing
officers for each of the ten dis-
tricts. L. L. Roberson was ap-
pointed for Robersonville and G.
D. Gurganus for Cross Roads.

The graded school movement
which had begun in the towns and
cities after the Civil War was
continuing. It was pointing the
way to local taxation, for pro-
gressive rural communities all
over the state. It was arousing
in them the spirit to vote special

taxes for the education of their
children. Local citizens could
thank Edwin A. Alderman and
Charles D. McIver for having
waked up the state through their
holding county institutes which
reached many more besides teach-
ers in county mass meetings.
They were to thank Governor
Charles B. Aycock (1901-04) for
his stumping the state with his
gospel of education: There is the
“right of every child born on
earth ‘to have the opportunity to
burgeon out all that there is
within him.” They could thank
the Legislature of 1904 for mak-
ing provision for the first state
loans in 1903 when Dr. J. Y.
Joyner made these. Robersonville
was among the first districts in
the county to vote a special tax in
1900. Mr. John Dawson Everett,
local citizen teaching in Bethel,
around 1900, came over to Rober-
sonville to lead her graded school
movement. The vote for a county
school tax in 1897 had failed.
Dardens voted a tax in 1905.
There were eighty-one colored
and white districts in ten town-
ships in 1897.

The growing of tobacco, the
establishing of a tobacco market
in 1900 linked to the A. C. L., en-
couraged the town to file a special
deed in the Register of Deeds of-
fice May 6, 1902. It was made by
Real Estate Company to Rober-
sonville High School Company
and was signed by A. S. Rober-
son. An article on education in
Robersonville appeared in The
Weekly News, July 31, 1903. It
states, “The community that does
not look well into its educational
interests must take a back seat in
all matters of progress and indus-
try.” Mr. J. C. Andrews, accord-

 
22

 

 

ing to this paper, took the lead in
establishing Robersonville’s  to-
bacco market in 1900 and in the
building of the first warehouse,
“Old Carolina.”

Note should be made at this
point that local board of trustee
records for 1902-23 are lost if any
were made. These were the first
twenty-one of twenty-four years
during which the school operated
under private charter. Any de-
tails that would have been here
are not recorded in the county
board of education minutes.

Robersonville is listed in coun-
ty board minutes as a graded
school in 1905. Williamston had
become a graded school in 1904.
In 1907, Robersonville colored
graded school was created. It had
had been known as Willow
Springs. The academy referred
to by Mr. Outterbridge in his
short history of Robersonville in
1904 is what local citizens now
call the first graded school. It was
built in time to be occupied in
1902. When Robersonville obtain-
ed a private charter from the
State, it was following the pat-
terns of towns and cities in the
state securing charters for the
operation of graded schools or
high schools or both. This same
charter permitted a high school
also. This meant Robersonville
Graded School was not under the
jurisdiction of the county board
of education.

Mr.-C. H. McLaurin was the
first principal of Robersonville
Graded School, 1902-04. The
above mentioned Weekly News
mentions that under Mr. McLaur-
in there was a noticeable increase
in enrollment. There was better
attendance and discipline. It con-
tinuas, “Mr. C. H. McLaurin’s

ample qualifications, clear head,

good judgment, conscientiousness
and tact have been a dominant
item in its present prosperous con-
dition.” Students came in from
the surrounding area to board
and room and go to school here.
Mrs. Ora (Silas) House, the Wynn
sisters from Everetts and a Mr.
Harper from Parmele boarded at
Mrs. Arch S. Roberson’s in 1902
and went to Mr. McLaurin. His
assisting teacher the first year
was Miss Neva Hassell (Mrs. Ste-
phen Ross); and the second year
his assistant was Miss Leyta Car-
ter. Miss Janie Mason was his
piano teacher. Miss Allie G. Lit-
tle (Mrs. N. C. Everett) was one
of the more advanced pupils. She
entered North Carolina College
for Women, Greensboro, after at-
tending under Mr. McLaurin.
Mr. George Washington Mew-
born, with his wife, Mrs. James
Beatrice Mewborn, as assistant,
and young daughter, Esther,
piano teacher, was the princip-
al 1904-05. He went the follow-
ing year to Hamilton to teach and
remained there until his death in
1908. He was a relative of the
writer. By county record there
were in 1904 in Robersonville 140
pupils. There is no record that
the local trustees had taken out
insurance on the new school, but
it is interesting to know that the
county minutes show no school
under county jurisdiction had tak-
en this step before 1905. This
came with the much increased
school building program in the
county in 1906. Gold Point and
Cross Roads were the two dis-
tricts in the Robersonville area
to be appropriated building funds
in that year, Gold Point receiving
$312.50 and Cross Roads $265. The

 

23

 

 

pay-as-you-go support of school
houses took a turn in 1909. Dar-
dens was the first district in the
county to acquire a loan of $600.
In 1907 Everetts floated a loan for
a new building.

Mr. John Dawson Everett, Rob-
ersonville native and a graduate
of Peabody College, came from
Bethel in 1905 to become prin-
cipal and remained through 1909.
He and Mrs. J. D. Everett (Miss
Lelia Thornton), and Miss Dora
Mae Krider (Mrs. (Dr.) R. J. Har-
grove) taught the first high school
studies in the eighth and ninth
grades. The high school was well
under way in 1907 with Miss Kri-
der’s coming. The Weekly News,
July 31, 1903 referred to the
school at that time as a high
school but it must have been in
name only. There were only
three teachers in the school, in-
cluding the music teacher. Miss
Krider taught the first Latin and
Mrs. Everett the first art. Mrs.
Everett also taught elocution ancl
English. There was an eight-
months term. There were six
teachers in 1910-11 and judging
from the roster of teachers sup-
plied from the memory of persons
acquainted with these years, there
must have been five to six teach-
ing each year. Funds for the op-
eration of the school, supplied by
the county superintendent, were
turned over in a lump sum with-
out individual teacher vouchers;
consequently, the county has no
record of Robersonville teachers.
Miss Ethel Peele (Mrs. Edgar
3rockwell) was the first woman
graduate in 1908, and Mr. C.
Abram Roberson was the first
man graduate.

In the interest of good parent-
teacher relations, Mr. Everett was

known to have instructed his
teachers to remember that every
person in Robersonville was re-
lated or kin. “Interested in stud-
ents as people ... Mr. Everett’s
chief aim was to become a good
teacher and to develop Christian
men and women.” After he left
Robersonville, his life, until his
death, was devoted to teaching in
the Department of Education and
Psychology at Carson-Newman
College, Jeffferson City, Tenn. He
was head of the department from
1919-42,

Mr. W. C. Allen followed Mr.
Everett as principal in 1909-10.
There is evidence that he was the
same Mr. W. C. Allen who had
been principal of Vine Hill Acad-
emy, Scotland Neck, in 1889. If
so, he later became principal of
Wake County Schools. Mr. J. D.
Eason served as principal in 1910-
11. In the second year of Mr. W.
H. Mizzell’s seven-year interim as
principal, 1911-17, the tenth grade
was added. In his last year the
eleventh grade was added. The
county was supporting six months
of the school term. Outstanding
students were produced under
Mr. Mizzell. One was W. H. Gray
who represented Martin County
in debating at Elon College. He
later attended Elon College. An-
other was Mr. Turner Grimes,
now of Miami, Florida, and a
business man. He was a debater
in one of the two county com-
mencements in either 1915 or
1916. A special train was run
from Oak City via Parmele and
Robersonville and back for the
all-day occasion. Thereafter, Rob-
ersonville held its own com-
mencement. Graduates receiving
the first diplomas for the comple-
tion of eleven grades in 1917-18

 

 
 

 

24

 

 

were eight in number. It was the
first year of Mr. Barbee as prin-

cipal. They were Walter Dee
Taylor, Rocky Mount, N. C., Inez
Manning (Mrs. Thomas Hughes,
Wilmington, N. C.), deceased,
Lurlene Ross (Mrs. Arthur John-
son), Hattie Green (Mrs. Ralph
Sadler, Whiteville, N. C.), Martha
Dell Gray (Mrs. Jim Gray, Sr.).

A Miss McNeill, Ellerbe, N. C.,
taught art in private lessons at
the school. She taught Mrs. May-
bell (Hugh) Roberson, talented
and trained artist, who is herself
teaching art lessons in her home
studio.

Mr. F. Q. Barbee, Benson, N. C.,
served as principal 1917-19. Debt
on the school building was liqui-
dated in February, 1916. For this
purpose $400 was paid by the
county board. The school, a frame
building, had added rooms since
it was built in 1902. It was locat-
ed on the site of the present Out-
terbridge (brick) Grammar
School and sat behind the cedar
trees, Stephen and Susan. A val-
uable high school teacher, Miss
Eva Irene Peel, joined the faculty
in 1917. Her teaching of English
and Latin through 1937, with the
exception of two years, was to be
recognized by college teachers of
her former students. She was one
of the few teachers paid a sup-
plement in the 1920’s for “talent
and special fitness.” The State
was beginning to make the change
of salary based on certificate at
about this same time. Miss Peel
was to make the first beginnings
of a high school library in the lat-
ter 1920’s. The Martin County
Rural Library Movement which
had begun in the nation in 1879
was launched in Martin County
in the early 1900’s. Mr. H. D. Ev-

erett was rural librarian for Rob-
ersonville in 1907 and was paid a

supplement. Mr. B. D. Tew was
the librarian at Parmele, it being
the first school in this area to
adopt this service by raising the
necessary $10 to have county
funds added thereto. While Mr.
Barbee was still principal in 1918,
five hundred dollars was appro-
priated by the county board for
the erection of two additional
rooms.

A resolution, which was never
challenged and which reflected
the extreme patriotism of the
times, was passed by the county
board in 1918. It reads as follows:
“Our government is involved in
a great war, and all our resources
and powers are taxed to the limit,
requiring the unlimited and pa-
triotic cooperation of all our citi-
zens, therefore no teacher shall
be allowed to teach in the schools
in Martin County who is not in
sympathy with the aims and pur-
poses of our government.”

Mr. P. E. Shaw served two
years as principal, 1919-21. French
was introduced in the curriculum
and the high school unit system of
teaching by subjects put into ef-
fect. Miss Hattie Wilson was the
first teacher of French. Eight
were graduated in this first class
under the new system in 1920-21.
They were Myrtle Taylor (Mrs.
Nathan Roberson), Myrtle Green
(Mrs. Vance L. Roberson), Eve-
lyn Barnhill (Mrs. S. L. Rober-
son), Katie Mae Roberson (Mrs.
A. P. Barnhill), Lillian Everett
(Mrs. Edgar Johnson), Lelia
Green (Mrs. Oscar P. Smith), Irv-
ing L. Smith, and Espy Manning.

Mr. G. W. Rhodes was principal
from 1921-24. In January of his
last year the new brick building

25

 

 

was occupied. In 1919-20 a mis-
understanding arose between the
teachers and the board of trustees
concerning pay for the rather long
period in which school was closed
on account of bad roads and the
influenza epidemic. The result was
that the principal, Mr. Shaw, went
to Parmele to teach and some
of the teachers went to Oak City
to teach. In that year at Oak
City a young student by the name
of Marvin M. Everett was inspir-
ed under the guidance of Miss Eva
Peel, teacher, to go to college. He
is, and has been, a teacher in Rob-
ersonville High School and the
seventh grade from 1931. He be-
came building principal of the
Outterbridge Grammar School in
1932. It is interesting to note that
Mr. Everett was the first driver
(but not regular) of a _ school
truck (bus) in the county at that
time. Robersonville was to ac-
quire its first two trucks (buses)
in 1927. They were first men-
tioned in the minutes of the local
board of trustees on March 7,
1927, but the drivers are not nam-
ed.

While the resolution of the
county board of education con-
cerning World War I went un-
challenged, World War I, never-
theless affected the schools. Af-
fecting its economy in 1920, the
county found it necessary to re-
new its note taken in 1919 for
$25,000 in order to maintain the
six months term for teachers. In
spite of these stringent measures,
the county was maintaining in its
budget in 1918-20 funds 1) for in-
creasing the school term; 2) voca-
tional work; 3) teacher training;
and 4) Home Demonstration and
Club work. Evidence of the first
auditing of county treasurer rec-

ords through state action came in
1922. The county treasurer re-
ported for education cost $40,-
121.85 in 1922 and the books were
audited “as per Act of the Gen-
eral Assembly.” State Superin-
tendent E. C. Brooks reported to
the county superintendent that a
$5,000,000 bond issue, authorized
by the General Assembly, had
been adopted by the State Board
of Education.

Effort was made in 1919 to have
indoor toilets in one-fourth of the
county schools. Twenty sets were
ordered, but they never arrived
due to some default of the com-
pany from which they were ord-
ered. After the enactment of the
Smith-Hughes Act in 1917, Farm
Life applied for and obtained ag-
riculture and home _ economics
teachers in 1922. Oak City ob-
tained a home economics teacher
at the same time. Robersonville
was to have its first home eco-
nomics teacher in 1926, and its
first agriculture teacher in 1939.

By 1923 Parmele Training
School, colored, and the other col-
ored schools of the county were
having the services of a rural sup-
ervisor. Thirty dollars per month
had been apportioned in the coun-
ty budget. Mary S. Gray was a
colored supervisor in 1931. The
white schools were to have their
first supervisor of elementary
education in the first years fol-
lowing World War II. This sup-
ervisor was Miss Lissie Pierce,
Princeton, North Carolina. In
1923 Parmele Training School had
the eighth and ninth grades of
high school. Vocational work for
both boys and girls was being
taught. Financial assistance was
coming from the Slater Fund and
had been from 1916. There was

 

 
 

26

 

 

a dormitory for girls at the
school.

The name of the school had
been changed from that of Par-
mele Institute in 1913. At that
time in a special session of the
county board of education, the
principal of the Institute, W. C.
Chance, had presented to the
board the aims of the school. The
board “agreed to apportion an-
nually for the next two years the
sum of $250 for the maintenance
of the school, provided he secur-
es sufficient funds and does build
and equip a suitable building for
the school, provided further that
said school shall be under the
supervision of the county board
of education.” Negro schools
shared in the special tax for
schools at that time. Parmele In-
stitute Trustees offered twenty-
three acres of land in the town of
Parmele for the sum of $1000 with
the promise that the Phelps
Stokes Negro Education Building
would furnish to the Board of
Education the sum of $2000 upon
the erection of a school building
on said lands in Parmele.” The
board accepted the offer and re-
ceived the deed for said lands.
Record was not found of the es-
tablishing of Parmele Institute in
county board minutes, but Mr.
George James, Parmele, says that
it was around 1900.

The little town of Parmele has
interesting beginnings. The rail-

road project from Tarboro to Wil-
liamston, designed as part of the
means of tying more closely to-
gether eastern and western North
Carolina, was incorporated Albe-
marle and Raleigh Railroad, Feb-
ruary 1883. Around this time a
Mr. Parmele from the North came
down, having connections with a
lumber company. He established
Parmele - Eccleston Company,
which later became a planing ma-
chine company. Before 1896,
there was also established North
State Lumber Company, for, ac-
cording to The Scotland Neck
Democrat, published at that time,
a dynamo was put in by these
companies for electric lights in
and around the premises. These
were the first electric lights in
Martin County. However, the
first school, white, at Parmele,
formed from Page’s when it was
abolished in 1895, did not have
the services of this dynamo. This
first school was built “on the
south side of the Albemarle and
Raleigh Railroad.”

In keeping with nearly all the
school districts in the county in
1922 and 1923, Robersonville was
to vote a special tax for a new
school building. Evidence of the
need for consolidation at this time
is shown by the fact that in 1916
there were fifty-one white schools
in the county. By 1943 there were

to be only ten (eight large) in the
county.

27

 

 

SECTION V

High School Consolidation
Movement from 1923-35

A) A New Brick Building

In 1919 a resolution by the coun-
ty board of education was passed
adopting a plan of consolidation
for the country one-teacher
schools. The first two schools con-
solidated in the county following
this action were Wards No. 32 and
Smithwicks No. 5 in June 1916.
The Legislature of 1931 eliminated
quite a few including Smiths No.
21 to Robersonville and Cross
Roads No. 16 to Everetts. The
9th grade at Gold Point No. 25
combined with Robersonville in
1927-28, the 8th in 1926-27. The
7th grade from this school was
coming in in 1939-40 and by 1946
was entirely consolidated. Par-
mele elementary consolidated
with Robersonville in 1934. High
school (8th and 9th grades) were
consolidated in 1907. Everetts
high school (8th, 9th, 10th, and
11th grades) combined with Rob-
ersonville in 1934.

The way was paved for putting
this plan into operation in the
Robersonville area in June 1923.
The board of trustees called for a
special tax levy in Robersonville
Township of thirty-three and one-
third cents on all taxable real and
personal property. This tax car-
ried following much discussion
pro and con and writing through
the Weekly Herald. The June 2,
1922 issue offered a poem, “More
Sales Than One” by Mrs. A. O.
Roberson, and an article “Food
for Thought” by Mrs. Vernon A.
Ward, Sr. Each was in favor of
the tax. Ten per cent of the tax
was deducted for school purposes.
Mr. Arch Roberson, tax collector,

was appointed to deduct the
school’s part. Bonds were let and
a contract for a new building was
also let in June 1923.

Members of the board of trust-
ees in 1923 were: Mr. J. H. Rober-
son, Jr., Mr. Johnnie L. Whitfield,
Dr. V. A. Ward, Mr. Eli Rodgers,
Mr. H. C. Norman, Sr., and Mr.
J. W. Bailey.

The old frame graded school
building was sold in two sections
for $600, one section being sold
to B G. Armstead for $200 to be
used as the Robersonville Graded
School (colored) district No. 23,
and the other to Mr. H. C. Nor-
man. This building had been used
for Robersonville Graded School
since 1902. In 1924 a loan of $500
was secured by the trustees to
complete the colored school and
to pay the teacher’s salary. The
total cost of this school was
$3,269.24. Telephone service for
the colored school was installed
in 1926.

The new white building, built
at a cost of $62,406, was occupied
in January 1924 with six grammar
school and four high school teach-
ers on the staff, including the
principal, Mr. G. W. Rhodes. Im-
proved facilities not enjoyed be-
fore included electric lights, run-
ning water, inside toilets, and
janitor service. Telephone service
was installed in 1926.

Under a new principal in 1924-
25, Mr. R. I. Leake (1924-37), the
school reported to the trustees
that it was meeting the state’s re-
quirements for an _ accredited
school, and that the state was pro-
viding for three-fourths of the
teacher’s salary or six months of
the eight months term. The
trustees sold a lot in 1925 for $500.
It was sold to J. E. Page and was

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

located on the corner of Roberson
and Academy Streets.

At the beginning of the 1925-26
school term there was such a
large first grade the trustees rul-
ed that all children under six
years of age be excluded. In this
year the high school went on the
state minimum requirement list.
Science was introduced with Miss
Emily Gayle, Farmville, N. C.,
teacher in the spring term when
the enrollment warranted. En-
rollment on April 16, 1926, was
398, enough to hire five high
school teachers for 1926-27 year.
One of these new teachrs was to
be Miss Alma Murray introducing
Home Economics with state and
federal aid. Miss Irene James
(Mrs. Dixie Roberson) was the
first George Reed teacher begin-
ning in 1937. 1945 saw the begin-
ning of F. H. A—Future Home
Makers of America.

Although the state basic salary
schedule, according to certificate,
was being followed in 1926-27, ex-
ception was made to Miss Eva
Irene Peele who was paid $145
per month. In this year Mr. H. C.
Norman who had been secretary-
treasurer of the local board from
1925, resigned to assume his duties
on the Martin County Board of
Education. Mr. G. H. Cox and Mr.
J. R. Morris were to serve the un-
expired terms of Mr. Norman and
Mr. Lester House who had been
elected to the board in 1925. Mr.
Eli Rodgers became the newly
elected secretaryltreasurer and
served ably in this capacity until
1933. Mr. J. H. Roberson, Jr., who
had been elected chairman of the
board in 1925, was re-elected
chairman and served well until
1926.

In the spring of 1926 the Rober-

sonville Graded School district
No. 22 surrendered its charter and
$2,145.75 on hand to the Martin
County System of Public Schools.
The local trustees requested at the
same time that the money turned
over be put aside as a sinking
fund reserve which the county
so ordered. An additional $3,000,
acquired from the sale of one and
two-thirds acres of land, was plac-
ed in the sinking fund also. This
money was from land given by
Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Rawls.

“In this aligning process of at-
taching to the county board the
following privileges were to be
enjoyed: 1) annexing outlying ter-
ritories to present school system;
2) permanent provision for trans-
portation of school children; 3)
permanent provision for a Coun-
ty Training School for teachers.”
Now Martin County Board of Ed-
ucation was assuming full juris-
diction and administration of Rob-
ersonville School District No. 22.
The colleges were able to assume
responsibility for the training of
teachers, so there was not a per-
manent County Training School.

For the school year 1926-27 two
trucks (buses) were operating in
the Gold Point areas at 7c and 6c
a day per pupil. These areas close
by Robersonville had been includ-
ed in the district voting of special
tax in 1901 and in 1923. Now the
average daily attendance was 397.
The school was complying with
the state requirement of classify-
ing teacher certificates in this
year of 1926-27. The year 1927-28
saw high school math (higher al-
gebra and geometry) and chemis-
try added to the curriculum. Mr.
T. R. Jenkins was employed to
teach science, biclogy and chem-
istry.

 

 

29

 

 

In July 1927 Mr. S. T. Everett,

Mr. Jasper Johnson, and Mr. T. H.
House, school committtee men of
Keel’s District 34, petitioned the
admission of their district to Rob-
ersonville School District No. 22.
When instructed to secure a spec-
ial tax to cover the seventh and
eighth months of teaching, they
did so and were admitted in 1928-
29. Mr. R. S. Crisp, Faulkland,
North Carolina, high school teach-
er was the first athletic coach
with salary supplement. The con-
stitution of Robersonville Athletic
Association, adopted in this year,
stipulated “no training or games
shall have precedence over class-
room instruction or home study.”

In the year 1930 another inno-
vation in the curriculum was pub-
lic school music. Miss Stella Eth-
eridge, Selma, No. Carolina, was
the first teacher. Music in private
Piano lessons had been taught in
the schools almost consecutively
since its beginnings in 1885. By
state requirement the public
school music teachers would be
teaching in all the grades. Miss
Etheridge was given permission to
teach private piano lessons also.

A nucleus of interest in what
was to develop into a first quality
band and band program in 1958-
59 began in the years between
1927 and 1931. Mrs. C. L. Wilson
contributed a music lover’s inter-
est and enthusiasm, herself being
a mother and a piano teacher.
Young adult musicians, just home
from college, gave inspiration
through their dance band. Mr.
Fred Rogers, barber, taught the
first private lessons in trumpet
and saxophone. Mr. Charles Mc-
Cullers, band leader from Wil-
liamston, North Carolina, follow-
ed Mr. Rogers and gave group

lessons. Mr. and Mrs. William
Gray, Mr. and Mrs. C. L. Wilson,
and Mr. and Mrs. Nun C. Everett
lent interest by providing lessons
for their children. When Mr. Mc-
Cullers went to Edenton, Mr. Nun
C. Everett manifested the real in-
terest and backing necessary to
bring the first band leader. Mr.
J. E. Aiken (1936-42) was en-
dorsed to organize a band and
promised cooperation in his
work.”

During the years from 1938-42
his 36 piece band entered the
North Carolina State High School
Contest Festival in Greensboro
and Greenville. In Class I for one
year it rated a I in field drilling.
Another year in Class C it receiv-
ed a rating of excellent in per-
formance. Three instrumentalists
won certificates of award, honor
rating I and II in 1938-42. These
were Ned Everett, saxophone,
James Robert Daniel, trombone,
and Gene Taylor, baritone. When
Mr. Aiken entered World War II
in 1942, Mrs. Aiken carried on
valiantly and ably through 1944
when she joined her husband and
the band disbanded. Mrs. Aiken
was adept on the trumpet and as a
tap dance instructor.

The key to the success of the
band was in the material coopera-
tion given by the patrons and par-
ents. The patrons aided through
the Robersonville Chamber of
Commerce. It needed the band’s
participation in town festivals and
parades in the surrounding area
in support of the local tobacco
market. The band participated at
a bridge opening, a tulip festival
and responded to many other
out-of-town invitations. Mr. Ben
Dixon . McNeil, North Carolina
Journalist, paid the band tribute.

 

 

 
 

 

He said, “I do not claim to be a
music critic, but I do know the
Robersonville Band does make a
mighty pretty noise.” The band
members wore blue and white un-
iforms, blue and white being the
school’s colors.

The Betterment Association,
forerunner of the Parent-Teacher
Association, had had its begin-
nings in 1917. It had begun by
1925 to press its organized weight
behind many influences for bet-
ter schools including the cause of
a band. Miss Eva Irene Peele was
the first president of the Better-
ment Association and Miss Millie
Roebuck, the first secretary-treas-
urer. The first record of action of
the association in the minutes of
the local school] committee was in
December 1924 when it was re-
funded $49.89 for playground
equipment. At the same time $150
was appropriated to this group.
On January 6, 1925 funds in the
amount of $225 were set aside for
curtains for the auditorium.
Around 1926 the ladies of the Par-
ents-Teachers set $60 worth of
shrubbery around the front of the
grammar school which was paid
for by the Woman’s Club. A Wo-
man’s Club member was typical
of women in the years to come
when she assisted in the setting of
the shrubbery on a cold winter’s
day. Mrs. H. T. Highsmith, a past
president of the P.-T. A., was Di-
rector of District 9 of the North
Carolina Congress of Parents and
Teachers from 1955-58.

B) A High School Building

A thirty-three foot street was
opened up on newly acquired
land for a new high school be-
tween Rail Road Street and high-
way No. 64 in April 1928. Then a
building committee composed of

G. H. Cox, V. A. Ward, and Eli
Rodgers from the local school
committee began to work with
the Martin County Board of Ed-
ucation to build a new school. This
building was occupied in Septem-
ber 1929. The first commencement
exercises in the new high school
auditorium were held in April,
1930.

The year 1929 was momentous
for the grammar school. The
school committee asked that the
required equipment for making
the elementary school standard
be supplied. This standard also
called for A-certificates for all
teachers. Both standards were
met.

The local committee ruled in
1929 “any teacher marrying dur-
ing the school term is requested
to resign for the following year
and at the same time give thirty
days notice.” The depression was
dictating one paycheck to a fam-
ily. In 1930-31 the state commit-
ted itself to only six months sup-
port and the local district assum-
med the entire cost of the seventh
and eighth months. The lost pay
check during the year 1931 was
made good through county funds
in May 1932. The salary for the
public school music teacher in
1930-31 was set at only $30 per
month and $3 tuition per month
for each piano pupil. It was fur-
ther restricted in 1931-32, there
being no guaranteed provision for
music in either grammar or high
school.

The School Lunchroom Pro-
gram had its humble beginnings
in 1930 or 31 in the old home ec-
onomics room of the grammar
school building. This was begun
by Mrs. H. A. (Betty) Gray and
an assistant for the express pur-

pose of supplementing the diet of
needy children. They were spon-

sored by the Woman’s Club in
1933 when the school was in need
of a sponsor in order to have la-
bor paid by the Works Progress
Administration. Soup at 10c had
been served but now more
varied and balanced meals were
undertaken. In its beginnings the
idea of hot lunches must have ap-
pealed to the patrons. Without a
market for their produce many
were glad to exchange chickens,
eggs, ham, milk, etc., for meals
for their children.

Under the guidance of the Wo-
man’s Club with Mrs. Vernon
Ward, Mrs. Haywood Wilson, and
Mrs. Betty Gray at the helm, sum-
mer garden and canning projects
went forward for the lunchroom.
In 1939-40 more than 110 lunches
were furnished daily, about 95 of
which were free. Mrs. Betty Gray
worked regularly in the lunch-
room for five years, lending much
to its management and never ac-
cepting pay for her services. Mr.
Marvin Everett, Building Princi-
pal of the Outterbridge Grammar
School, assumed the _ business
management of the lunchroom in
1938-48. A ruling was passed in
1944 requesting pupils of the
grammar school to bring lunch
and eat in the lunchroom. An im-
portant by-product of the lunch-
room was the group feeling that
was created by all eating togeth-
er

A high school lunchroom was
maintained for two years, 1944-46,
under the management of Mr. A.
L. Hendron, principal. When vo-
cational agriculture was resumed
in the teaching program follow-
ing the War in 1947-48, the agri-

31

 

culture building being used at the
time as a lunchroom, had to be

vacated. The high school students
now bought tickets in advance and
ate in the grammar school lunch-
room. Some surplus foods were
available from the federal govern-
ment through these years and con-
tinue to the present. A new grad-
ed school lunchroom, built in
1948, continued to be used for
both schools until the high school
gained its own new lunchroom
in 1954.

To return to 1930-31, the tax
rate was lowered from 25c to 23c.
The total taxes for white and col-
ored schools as of September,
1950, was $8,196.72. The cost. to
operate for that year was $7,-
872.67, leaving a balance of only
$324.05.

The second vocational subject
—-commerce including typing and
bookkeeping—was begun in 1931
with Mrs. J. M. Dean, Selma, N.
C., teacher. This department was
run on a tuition basis.

In 1931 Mr. H. C. Norman was
elected to the local committee and
succeeded Mr. G. H. Cox as chair-
man, Mr. Cox moving to Washing-

ton, North Carolina.
The first recorded report of a

health program for the school is
that of a clinic for the removal of
tonsils in April, 1933, at the school.
This health program was continu-
ing in 1941 in pre-school clinics,
school health check-ups and den-
tal clinics.

Following an absence of the
minutes of the local committee
from June 30, 1933, to May 24,
1935, the board was recognized
on the latter date with the follow-
ing members present: William
Gray, made chairman, I. M. Little,

 

 

 
32

 

 

made secretary, J. M. Dixon, N.
C. Everett, and G. W. Taylor.
There had been a reorganizing of
districts in the county in 1933.
Robersonville Schools District be-
came No. 2 in this year 1933.

By this date the major consoli-
dation moves had been made. On-
ly one more elementary school,
Gold Point, was to come in in
1946-47. In a reorganization of the
school district by the county
board at this time nine schools

were included under a supervis-
ing principal, (R. I. Leake). The
schools at that time are as fol-
lows: Robersonville elementary,
9 teachers, high school, 8; Eve-
retts elementary, 7; Gold Point
elementary, 2; Robersonville ele-
mentary colored, 6; Parmele ele-
mentary colored, 6, high school,
3; Gold Point elementary colored,
4; Everetts elementary colored, 4;

and Smith’s elementary colored,
1;

 

 

33

 

 

SECTION VI

Robersonville Schools
On the March

A) 1935-46 World War II
Interrupts March

With major consolidating al-
ready done, Robersonville Schools

began to march forward. Much
progress was made by 1945 in
spite of World War II. They were
to get on the march in earnest by
1951 when a number of major
moves were in process of comple-
tion as the result of the special
20c local tax voted in 1946-47.

Mr. R. I. Leake’s resignation,
submitted in May, 1937, was ac-
cepted with regret and thanks was
expressed for his long and faithful
services and it was so recorded
in the minutes. Mr. L. W. Ander-
son, Principal of Williamston
Schools, who had been serving a
two year interim for the princi-
pal on leave, was elected princi-
pal in May, 1937. He was to serve
through 1943-44.

Evidence of the high school
gymnasium-auditorium not serv-
ing school and community needs
is shown by the following decision
recorded in the minutes of the lo-
cal committee for May, 1937. “No
town athletic team will be per-
mitted to play basketball in the
high school gymnasium.”

With the construction in 1939
of a vocational agriculture build-
ing with state and federal aid at
a cost of $6,000, the third voca-
tional course could now be added
to the curriculum. The first teach-
er was Mr. Conner Winchester.
Mr. Frank Meacham, now of the
State Museum of Natural History,
taught agriculture during the
years of World War II, 1943-45.

 

He was loaned by North Carolina
State College.

On October 12, 1938, a resolution
was presented to the Martin
County Board of Education to ob-
tain permission to contract for the
construction of a community
building to be in front and across
from  Outterbridge Grammar
School. The labor was proposed
from the W. P. A. This community
building, our teacherage, was con-
structed in 1942 at a cost of $14,-
000. Before that time teachers had
boarded and roomed in private
homes, the Wilson Hotel, and in
the Paul D. Roberson apartment
house (old Edward Roberson
home.)

Minutes are again missing from
January, 1939, to January, 1944.
This period covers part of Mr. L.
W. Anderson’s seven year interim
as principal and the first four
months of Mr. A. L. Hendron’s
three year term, 1944-47.

The following data is available
from a handbook, ‘Cultural Life
of Robersonville and Vicinity”,
compiled by Mrs. Vernon A.
Ward, Sr., and edited in this por-
tion by Mr. L. W. Anderson: In
1939-40, 340 pupils were enrolled
in the elementary school, 310, high
school; around 800 books in the
elementary library, and four sets
of encyclopedias, 2000 high school;
radio victrola and motion picture
machine; 35-piece high school
band; a number of high school
students in Robersonville Sym-
phonic Chorus, directed by Lewis
Sidney Bullock, a graduate of
Westminster Choir School and a
resident of Greenville, North Car-
olina. There were among extra-
curricula activities in the high
school, 17 different clubs— Senior
Dramatics, Junior Dramatics,

 

 
34

 

 

Boys Athletics, Girls Athletics,
Debating, 4-H, Home Economics,
F. F. A., Beta, Junior Red Cross,

Rocking Chair Athletic, Newspap-
er, French, Band, Interesting
Books, Monogram and Hostess
Clubs.

A Graduate Thesis 1941—A
Study of the Robersonville Post
School Youth for the Period 1937-
38 to 1940-41 and In-School Youth
During the 1940-41 Term, by Lacy
Waverly Anderson submitted to
the Faculty of the University of
North Carolina in partial fulfill-
ment of the requirements for the
degree of Master of Arts in the
Department of Education, Chapel
Hill, in 1941 is revealing of this
period. It deals in a Youth Sur-
vey made at a time when there
was a shift in emphasis in educa-
tion for living. Mr. Anderson
states that while the study “is
limited in scope (195 students), it
did furnish considerable informa-
tion, some of which was used by
the faculty in revising the curric-
ulum offerings the following year
(1941-42) in the high school.” It
marked the beginning of a guid-
ance program. “The program of
studies meets the needs of only
a small percentage of its students
who plan to enter college, and
contents of courses of study in-
clude quantities of academic ma-
terials with little place being giv-
en to the practical and little atten-
tion heretoforegiven to interests of
its. pupils.”! There was an im-
petus of interest in expanding the
courses of study beginning with
the economic depression of the
early thirties.

“In an effort to reach all the

students the following withdraw-
als are noted: 1937-38, 26; 1938-39,
17; 1939-40, 18 and 1940-41, 22
making a total for these years of

93 withdrawals and 118 graduates.

Graduates over a period of four
years entering college were 4 in
1937-38; 10 in 1938-39; 7 in 1939-
40 and 5 have made application
so far for 1940-41. Sixty-seven per
cent of the courses are of an aca-
demic nature; only 33 percent are
vocational. More training is need-
ed for democratic living. There is
insufficient intelligent vocational
guidance activity. There is very
little tie-up between school and
community.” The foregoing are
five of twelve points which Mr.
Anderson had for consideration
through questionaires submitted
to students.

The tie-in of the community
with the school is noted by Mr.
Anderson in his thesis: ‘The civic-
religious organizations and their
sponsorships are indicative of the
public spirit among a small but
aggressive group of Roberson-
ville’s citizens. The Rotary Club
subsidizes the Boy Scouts, contri-
butes to school organizations, and
has a student loan fund. The Sen-
ior Woman’s Club sponsors, with
the aid of the W. P. A., gardens,
canning projects, and the school
lunchroom. During the session of
1940-41, the lunchroom served
needy school children 15,000 free
lunches. The Junior Woman’s
Club (and the Senior Woman’s
Club, say the living members)
sponsors the town library and is
making preparation to cooperate
with the State in order to partic-
ipate in the library fund set up by

1fn 1820 in-the nation nine courses of study were required for entrance
to the professional colleges.

 

35

 

 

the State General Assembly.

Through this program Roberson-
ville and its surrounding commun-
ity will be served weekly by a
bookmobile and a trained librar-
ian. There is an active Chamber
of Commerce and many of the
farmers are members of the Farm
Bureau. The two secret fraternal
organizations are the Masons and
the Junior Order. The cultural in-
terests of the town are served by
two book clubs, a music club, and
an International Relations Club.
The community is unusually sen-
sitive to its spiritual needs and
possesses three active churches:
the Methodist, Baptist, and Chris-
tian.”

The spiritual sensitivity of Rob-
ersonville is still true. On Sun-
day, March 15, 1959, 768 members
of the Sunday Schools of four of
its five white churches - the Chris-
tian, First Baptist, Pentacostal
Holiness, and Methodist—attend-
ed a mass Sunday School in the
high school auditorium. This ser-
vice climaxed a ten day Steward-
ship-Evangelism Crusade led by
the Leet Evangelistic Team of
Houston and Dallas, Texas, Rev.
L. O. Leet and Mrs. Idalee D. Mc-
Cullar (ordained minister).

In the Robersonville School
District, Mr. Anderson continues
to say, “There are four white
schools; an eight-teacher gram-
mar school at Everetts, five miles
east; a two-teacher grammar
school at Gold Point, three miles
north; and a nine-teacher gram-
mar school in Robersonville. This
(the high) school has a faculty of
eleven teachers. The high school
is a brick building with sixteen
rooms including an auditorium
and gymnasium, a suite of rooms
set aside for home economics, a

music room, principal’s office, a
library, and classrooms. The plant
also includes an_ agriculture
building of two master rooms in a
separate but nearby unit. There
are ample and safe water facili-
ties.

“The School Curriculum until
1938 was the traditional limited
to the present college preparatory
courses and few elective courses.
In order to graduate every stu-
dent had to hurdle two years of
foreign language, four years of
English, two years of algebra, and
one of geometry as borne out by
records in the principal’s office.
Withdrawals were numerous. A
study of the local interests and
needs of Robersonville High
School students convinced the fac-
ulty that certain changes needed
to be made and committees were
selected to make recommenda-
tions for 1) a more selective cur-
ricula and 2) a guiding philoso-
phy of education. As a result, the
curriculum was revamped to per-
mit students more freedom in the
choice of their subjects. On en-
tering high school students were
permitted to follow a general cur-
riculum requiring no foreign lan-
guage, algebra, geometry and al-
low the substitution of dramatic
art or speech for junior or sen-
ior English; or they could follow
the old traditional curriculum if
they planned to enter college.
Students were alowed to change
from one curriculum to another
if the need arose. Certain shifts
of subjects were also made to oth-
er grade levels with electives al-
so being placed in the ninth grade
preceded by a general course in
mathematics in the eighth grade.
Courses in band music, Democra-
cy (civics), and agriculture, along

 
36

 

 

with the dramatic arts and
speech courses just mentioned
were added to the curriculum to
give the students a total of thir-
ty three subjects from which to

select.

“The twelfth grade also grew
out of this study. There seemed
to be a desire on the part of the
students and parents for an addi-
tional year of work. Since the
school employed three vocational
teachers above the state allot-
ment, the classes were not neces-
sarily crowded. A twelfth grade
was therefore added without aid
from any outside source. Each
year since (1939), the graduates
of the eleventh grade have been
invited to return to the twelfth
grade. So far over 50 percent of
the graduates have returned each
year. They are given a supple-
mentary diploma upon the com-
pletion of four units.”

Rebersonville High School had
six graduates who gave their lives
in the service of their country
in World War II. They are as fol-
lows: Murray R. Cargile, died at
Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941;
Nathan Thomas Edmondson, kill-
ed in a bombing mission over To-
kio Bay, July 17, 1945; James
Robert Daniel, killed in airplane
crash near Goodland, Kansas,
July 18, 1946; Louis T. Holliday,
died at Hoten Camp, Manchuria,
December 7, 1942, as a prisoner of
war; Reginald F. Rawls, killed in
battle of Okinawa, May 17, 1945;
Edward E. Bcwers, Bethel, North

ina, In Burma, September
1944, and Roland E. Moore.

A. bronze plaque in the hall way
of Robersonville High School
reads: ‘In Memoriam Roland E.
Moore Personal aide to Col. James
Roosevelt, Marine Raider Battal-

ion. He gave his life in the Pacific
serving his country March 20,
1943.”

The war years affected school
attendance, the need for buses
being one of the problems. A new
bus was obtained in February,
1945, which immediately showed
a pickup in attendance in March
of 94 percent. A coal shortage had
called for discontinuing the
school’s program of after school
activities, including athletics. Mr.
and Mrs. Cleveland Wilkie, high
school teachers at the time, were
giving of their time to the youth
in the athletic program conduct-
ed during and after school hours.
Mr. and Mrs. Wilkie were com-
mended by the school committee
in 1945 for their wholesome in-
fluence on the young people dur-
ing these stringent years. They
were presented a gift by the
school board, this being the only
recorded instance of a gift made
to a faculty member. The local
tax had been discontinued in 1933.
Rev. Wilkie was pastcr of the
First Baptist Church from 1943-
45.

Mr. Hendren made three major
changes in the school in 1944-45:
1) Reorganization of the school
system—Hight-Four Plan (8th
grade in the first year of junior
high school and 12th grade in the
final year of high school) as re-
commended by the state was ap-
proved; 2) Institution of three
curricula—college, general, and
commercial; 3) Institution of a
central financial accounting sys-
tem.

B) 1946-59 On the March

Following the war in 1946-47,
a special tax of 20c was voted in
he local district to raise the stan-
dard of our school and to supple-

37

 

ment the minimum school pro-

gram. Gold Point No. 25 was in-
cluded in this and consolidated
with Robersonville in 1946-47.
The two teachers of that school
at that time, Mrs. A. Pitt Rober-
son and Mrs. Alida (John) Tyler
joined the faculty of the graded
school at Robersonville. Mr. C. B.
Martin was elected supervising
principal in April, 1947. He re-
mained through 1957.

The school committee worked
very closely with the county and
state program, asking Mr. J. C.
Manning to meet with them in
1947. The following improve-
ments were made: 1) $10 per
month supplement went to each
state alloted teacher; 2) Public
school music paid out of local tax
at state salary her certificate de-
manded (Lightened the elemen-
tary teacher load); 3) $120 allot-
ted to Negro school; 4) Athletic
coach hired with local funds, his
supplement not to exceed $30 per
month, $15 to a coach of basket-
ball; 5) Librarian’s salary paid
half by district and half by coun-
ty. Each principal of the several
schools in the district submitted
the list of teachers for his school
for approval by the district com-
mittee.

In April, 1947, Dr. J. M. Kilpa-
trick was named to succeed Mr.
W. H. Gray, chairman, who was
resigning due to illness. Mr. N. C.
Everett was elected chairman. Mr.
I. M. Little was re-elected secre-
tary. Mr. S. L. Roberson, who had
been elected to the committee in
1947, was elected secretary in
September, 1947, in the stead of
Mr. Little. Resolutions of respect
to Mr. Gray were written and at-
tached to the minutes.

420660

The trained librarian mention-

ed by Mr. Anderson in a county-
state library service for the town
of Robersonville became a reality
in 1947 as the Martin-Beaufort-
Hyde (BHM) Service. It began to
serve the elementary school and
does so to the present. BHM also
serves the colored elementary
schools of the county. The first
trained librarian with a college
degree in library science was Miss
Jessie Richardson, Greenville,
North Carolina, who came in
1937-57, serving faithfully and ef-
ficiently to the early fall of 1957.
She was taken seriously ill at that
time and died on September 18,
1958, at the home of her niece in
Kinston, North Carolina.

When application was made for
an All Purpose Department Home
Making Unit for the high school
in 1952, it was stated in the re-
cord of the committee minutes,
“The new unit is to make more
library room in the main build-
ing by vacating the present home
economics department. The li-
brary meets standards as far as
quality and methods as any of
comparable size in enrollment.”
The present principal, Mr. V. J.
Colombo, of Brockton, Mass.,
states, “An indication of the value
of the library to the students was
shown by the Iowa Tests of Edu-
cational Development in 1958-
59. Tenth and twelfth grade stu-
dents ranked in the 62 percentile
in ‘Use of Sources of Informa-
tion.’ This was based on national
norms.” Robersonville High
School is proud to claim among
its numerous outstanding grad-
uates, Mrs. Elizabeth House
Hughey, State Librarian.

A number of books in the li-

 
 

 

brary have been given in the
memory of school patrons. The

McDowell Music Club in addition
to giving a number of volumes
on music remembered, with a
book, the late Mrs. W. G. (Betty)
Barnhill in 1949. The Book Lovers
Club remembered in the same
manner the late Mr. Nun C. Eve-
rett in 1958. Numerous individ-
uals have given books to the li-
brary including the late Mrs. Ver-
non A. Ward. Mrs. Ward’s son,
Vernon, has a volume of his poe-
try, “Of Dust and Stars”, 1958,
first edition, in the town library
presented by the Book Lovers
Club. The high school library has
secured its own copy. When Miss
Joyce Long, high school senior
in the class of 1958-1959, died in
March, two books were given in
her memory; one by Mrs. Wiley
Rogerson’s children, Betty Anne,
Wiley, and Madge and one by
Brayom Anderson and Fate Eve-
rett.

At the September, 1947, meet-
ing of the local committee Mr.
Martin gave a detailed report of
his first quarter es principal. En-
rollment, 616, was short from last
year. At that time there were 11
high school teachers and 14 ele-
mentary. He announced a pro-
gram of building a better school
with the cooperation of the P.-T.
A. and other school auxiliaries
with a four point program offer-
éd as follows: 1) Better
school spirit; 2) Physical educa-
ticn; 3) Better equipment; 4) Par-
ents Day. At that time he sub-
mitted a financial report of the
lunchroom. Mr. Marvin Everett,
Building Principal of the Outter-
bridge Grammar School, turned
over his business management of

the grammar school lunchroom in
1948.

It was not very difficult for the
patrons of the school district to
keep in mind the announced goals
of Mr. Martin. They were follow-
ing along and entering into ex-
panding fields of community and
educational betterment which the
war had been holding back. His
first goal—build a better school
spirit—took root in an annual Hal-
loween Carnival which had been
operating under the P.-T. A. and
began to expand in 1947-48. Men
in large numbers joined the P.-
T. A. The Halloween Festival has
continued to 1958-59 and moved
at an increasing gallop netting
from $1800 to $2200 each year in
increasing benefits to the school.

On December 17, 1947, plans
for a new building—a gymnasium
and lunchroom with added class-
rooms—were presented to the
Martin County Board of Educa-
tion. In January, 1948, $700,000
was allocated to the colored
schools of Robersonville District
No. 2 for 1949-50. Mr. V. L. Rob-
erson, chairman of Robersonville
Town Commissioners, appeared as
a visitor before the local school
committee and explained the need
for a community-school recrea-
tion and athletic field. He ex-
plained the need was so great it
was retarding progress of school
activities. He was supported by
Mr. H. C. Norman, member of the
county board of education. This
resulted in the purchase of the
present athletic field (part of the
Stevenson land) at $9500 in 1949.
Total improvements from 1933-49
had been represented in $78,650.
This figure began with the agri-
culture building.

 

39

 

 

Mr. Cecil Powell (Gold Point)
was elected to the Martin County

Board of Education in April, 1949.
At that time Mr. N. C. Everett,
chairman, Mr. J. M. Dixon, and
Mr. H. L. Roebuck, retiring from
the school committee, were writ-
ten letters of appreciation. Fol-
lowing Mr. Powell’s death, June
12, 1953, the local committee ex-
pressed sorrow and regret at his
passing and included resolutions
in its minutes. Mr. S. L. Roberson
resigned from the committee to
become a member of the county
board in the stead of Mr. Powell.
Now Mr. Eugene Roberson be-
came chairman and remains chair-
man. Mr. E. B. Whichard was
elected secretary. The three oth-
er members serving at the pre-
sent time are Mr Oscar Ayers
(Cross Roads), Mr. Irvin Daven-
port (Parmele), and Dr. J. M.
Kilpatrick. Mr. Charlie Forbes
(Gold Point), who had been serv-
ing on the board in 1955, was
elected in 1956 to the county
board.

In June, 1951, the motto of the
school committee was declared to
be “A better education system for
the children of the schools in the
district rather than the selfish in-
terest of groups of individuals.”
By this date all procedures for
school business were strictly by
North Carolina State Board of
Education laws. It was announced
in July that Mrs. Vara Hairr Dav-
enport, a teacher in special edu-
cation—Hearing and Speech—
will work part time in the sys-
tem. She will be paid entirely by
the state and supplies will be
furnished by the county.

From the minutes of the local
committee, April 24, 1951, is a

report of “Robersonville Schools

on the March” covering the years
from 1947-51 and respectively sub-
mitted by Mr. C. B. Martin. It fol-
lows
“Robersonville Schools
on the March

During the past four years the
local schools through the coop-
eration and interest of the Par-
ents, P.-T. A. and administration
have attained a set of goals for
the, schools which it had antici-
pated would take several more
years. A long range planning pro-
gram which was worked out. by
the local school committee, the
P.-T. A., Principal C. B. Martin,
and Supt. J. C. Manning included
an elementary cafeteria, athletic
field, renovation of elementary
building, public school music,
physical education building, sci-
ence lab, and curriculum revi-
sions and a band: Since these
plans were made in September
of 1947 the local schools have
made the following improve-
ments. A new elementary cafe-
teria has been added to the Out-
terbridge Grammar School. This
cafeteria has been fully equipped
with all modern conveniences and
modern furniture. This equipment
was paid for by the local P.-T. A.,
including gas stove, steam table,
hot water heater, booster heater,
sinks, knives, forks, plates, all
cooking utensils, twenty tables,
one hundred sixty chairs, and va-
rious miscellaneous items. The
lunchroom feeds about four hun-
dred students and teachers each
day. Five women including a sup-
ervisor operate the cafeteria and
meals including milk are furnish-
ed the students for twenty cents.

At the cost of about $10,000 five

 
ee

i

 

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i

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j

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iq

fi!

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4)

 

 

acres of land was purchased for
an athletic field. This land was

put in shape for football, base-
ball, and outdoor basketball, and
a fence was put around the land
and a grand stand erected, also a
field house providing hot and cold
water was built. These improve-
ments were made possible
through the interest and cooper-
ation of civic minded citizens. The
field today is a credit to this
school system and to the com-
munity.

During the summer of 1949 the
Outterbridge school underwent a
complete renovation. A new foun-
dation was put under the build-
ing, a new top was added, a new
system of lights were installed,
and the building was painted on
the inside. The county spent about
$25,000 on the job. During the
meantime new furniture was add-
ed to the library, new desks were
added in the grammar grades, and
all the equipment necessary for
teaching was added.

One of the first plans to be put
in effect was the addition of Pub-
lice School Music. Mrs. Norman
Wilkerson was hired to conduct
the music program in the school
which included theory, harmony,
writing, singing, glee club, toy
orchestra, duets, trios, and assem-
bly singing. The program has pro-
vided an opportunity for all stu-
dents to participate in singing,
and to share in the music contest
of the state. This addition has
been most helpul and enjoyable
to. the students. Concerts have
been given at the school, in
churches, and in most of the oth-
er county schools.

In. the first stages of planning
the ‘necessity for a physical edu-

 

cation building which would in-
clude a cafeteria and band room
was discussed and made a major

item in the program. Today the
contracts have been awarded and
most of the material has been
placed on the ground ready for
work. However, steel seems to
be the question holding up the
project and according to our lat-
est information the steel will soon
be on its way and the building
will get under construction. The
building will provide for a cafe-
teria, band room, boiler room,
dressing rooms, a gym, and one
class room.

The addition of band will de-
pend upon the completion of the
present program, as there is no
place available at present to con-
Guct band classes. The auditor-
ium is used to teach public school
music, glee club, chapel, plays,
and basketball, 4-H meetings.
During the current school year
a modern science lab has been in-
stalled by the county at a cost
of about $4000. The science de-
partment is now equipped to
teach all the sciences and meets
all the standards required by the
State Department of Education.
New science tables equipped with
gas, electric current, and water
were installed.

Added to our curriculum were
journalism, extra courses in math,
glee club, and guidance. The next
course to be added will be band.
We now have the three major vo-
cational curriculum: Agriculture,
Home Economics, and Commerce.

After having added the neces-
sary instrumental supplies
through local and county funds, it
was necessary that our school
added to its visual aid equipment

41

 

 

and hence the following equip-
ment has been purchased: A 16

mm. projector, 3 film strip and
slid projectors, 1 recorder, 1 phon-
ograph, 2 pianos and 357 film
strips, several new typewriters,
and one new adding machine.

In the instructional program
the school ranks as one of the 23
highest in the state. This rating
means that the program of in-
struction in the school meets the
standards of the best program be-
ing offered in the state. At the
present time the Robersonville
Grammas school is the only ac-
credited Grammar school in the
county.

Respectfully,
C. B. Martin”

Mr. Martin submitted a further
report covering the period April,
1951-April, 1953, which is thus re-
corded in the minutes of the local

school committee:
“Report to Robersonville School

Board April 23, 1953

During the current year we
have enrolled 490 students in he
Elemenary school and 242 in the
High School. We have had 15
teachers in the Elementary school
and 11 in the High School. Four-
teen of the Elementary teachers
were alloted by the state, 8 of the
High school teachers were allot-
ted by the state, one of which is
teaching in the Everetts school,
2 are vocational teachers and one
igs a Band teacher.

During the current term the
athletic facilities have been im-
proved by adding lights to the
athletic field. The physical educa-
tion building was dedicated (in-
cluding band room and cafeteria)
and put to use on a full time basis.
In December the services of Mr.

E. C. Black were acquired as a
Band Director and the Band was

organized with 45 members. Many
library books, instructional sup-
plies, a new victor projector, a
new phonograph, and ten new
typewriters have been added. We
now have a full time librarian, a
full time physical education
course, and a full time music in-
structor. We offer vocational
courses in Agriculture, Home Ec-
onomics, and Business Education
besides courses in Band and Music
both vocal and piano.

As we look back upon such im-
provements as the addition of two
lunchrooms, an athletic field, a
gym, a band, a music teacher, an
A-1 rating we feel that some mea-
sure of progress has been accom-
plished; as we look back and see
that a good number of students
are in college doing well, and a
greater number are in jobs doing

-well we feel again that progress

is being.made, and as we look to
the future we see many needs
facing us. Among these are:

Gym seats, 40 new desks for
high school, window _ shades,
chairs and risers for the Band
room, heat for the agriculture
building, a Home Ec. unit, paint-
ing grammar school lunchroom,
a urinal for grammar school boys,
renovation for high school audi-
torium.”

Following the loss by fire of the
Parmele colored high school in
the fall of 1953, the Robersonville
School District Committee No. .2
and the county board decided to
build a new high school at Rober-
sonville on a site containing 15
usable acres. $210,000 had been
appropriated for the colored
school in the local district for

 
 

 

 

1950-51. In 1954 the Gold Point
colored school was consolidated
with Everetts colored school and

provision was made to build a
new school. East End at Rober-
sonville and North Everetts at
Everetts have been completed and
are in operation. N. W. Slade is
principal of East End High School
and E. L. Owens, North Everetts
Elementary. Parmele elementary
colored added toilet facilities, a
heating plant and assembly room
in 1954. At the same time Rober-
sonville elementary colored add-
ed a heating plant, library room,
and drained the school grounds.
In 1954 storage facilities for the
lunch room at Everetts white ele-
mentary school were added, and
shades and bulletin boards were
provided for the rooms. The haz-
ardous and dangerous situation
still existing at each end of Out-
terbridge Grammar School called
attention to in 1954 has been cor-
rected. Need for two additional
classrooms in this school was cit-
ed in 1954. Need for more play-
ground space was expressed. The
Johnson heirs property adjoining
the school has been purchased for
$6,000 in 1959 and the old home is
in the process of being cleared to
make way for the playground
space. In 1954 need for a home for
the principal was voiced. Land
available next to the teacherage
has been set aside for this pur-
pese. The request in 1954 for heat
to be piped to the agriculture
building from the gymnasium has
been met. An intercommunica-
tion system for the high school
was installed in January, 1954.
The All-Purpose Home Making
Unit, requested in 1952 and meet-
ing the recommendations of the

Director of Vocational Education,
has been built as has a foyer for
the gymnasium at the same time

at $205,000.

The band which Mr. Martin
mentioned in 1953, was organized
in December, 1952 with Mr. E. C.
Black director. Band parents and
patrons have worked long and
persistently in the years since in
upholding the director, and in
buying uniforms, instruments, and
other equipment. The Roberson-
ville Chamber of Commerce has
aided yearly by subscriptions. The
Band Boosters Club of band par-
ents .and patrons has raised
through various projects an aver-
age of $2000 annually. One hun-
dred dollars has been given an-
nually by the P.-T. A.

The present senior band has 71
members; the junior, 52. Mr. Jo-
seph Secrest, present band direc-
tor, has as the band’s aim higher
quality rather than increased size.
In the North Carolina State High
School Music Contest-Festivals
fer 1959, Greenville, the senior
band was awarded honor rating
superior in grade IV music. This
band has never made a rating
lower than excellent. This year
the junior band also entered the
Contest-Festival and received the
honor rating of excellent in grade
II music.

The history of music in Rober-
sonville Schools would not be
complete without mention of the
six annual concerts of the North
Carolina Little Symphony from
1947-53. These were sponsored by
the McDowell Music Club of Rob-
ersonville with a co-sponsor, the
P.-T. A., for several of these years.
The public school music teacher
capitalized on the annual event by

43

 

the special preparation of her pu-
pils, beginning with the fourth
grade. Everetts grammar school
children shared in this experience.
All school children were admitted
free. The Band Boosters Club in
1959 sponsored the appearance of
the Duke University Concert
Band on March 24. The sixth,
seventh, and eighth grades share
in an annual county singing fes-
tival. This phase of public school
music began around 1952.

Driver education which was be-
gun in 1940 with Chief of Police,
William Gray, sponsor, and taught
by Patrolman Jackson (now Dep-
uty U. S. Marshall, Wilmington,
North Carolina), was taught that
year only. It is to be continued
this summer under a new state
law. Mr. Joe Secrest is to be the

teacher.
Since September, 1957, formal

steps toward meeting require-
ments for membership in the
Southern Asosciation of Colleges
and Secondary Schools has been
in progress. “The Evaluative Cri-
teria” is being used as a basis for
the evaluation. The faculty has
been placed on committees to
complete reports in the study.

On April 8 and 9 a visitation
committee of educators represent-
ing the Southern Association of
Colleges and Secondary Schools
will evaluate the school program.
The results of this evauation will
determine the further progress of
Robersonville Schools.

Patrons of Robersonville Dis-
trict No. 2 believe they are not
being unjustly proud when they
claim “No community is so poor
it can afford to neglect its chil-
dren.”

 
 

 

 

ROSTER OF TEACHERS

A Roster of Teachers of the
Robersonville Schools, 1902-1959.
Thanks is expressed to the many
interested patrons who aided in
this roster available in no other
way. It follows:

D. Indicates deceased if known.

C. H. McLaurin, principal 1902-04.

Neva Hassell (Mrs. Stephen Ross)
1902-04. D.

Leyta Carter, 1903-04

Janie Mason, piano, 1902-04.

George W. Mewbern, principal
1904-05. From Greene County.
D.

Mrs. Geo. W. (James Beatrice)
Mewbern, 1904-05.

Esther Mewborn, piano 1904-05.
The three taught at Hamilton
Preparatory Institute until Mr.
Mewborn’s death in 1908.

John Dawson Everett, principal
1905-09. Math. 8th and 9th
grades. D.

Mrs. J. D. Everett (Miss Lelia
Thornton) 1905-09, Eng., elocu-
tion and art.

Mrs. Lorne Briley (Miss Maggie
Manning), Ist 1905-15, 1920. D.

Alice Grimes (Mrs. A. R. Dun-
ning, Williamston, N. C.) 1906-
08, primary. Salary $30.00.

Maggie Peele (Mrs. H. C. Nor-
man) 1905-06, D. June 24, 1952.
Attended Atlantic Christian
College.

Lydia Roberson (Mrs. Heber
Mumford, Ayden, N. C.) 1905-
09, 5th and 6th.

Dora Mae Krider, Salisbury, N.
C. (Mrs. R. H. Hargrove) 1907-
10, 8th including the first Latin.
Was graduated from Claremont
(Lenoir-Rhine).

Robena Malone, Mebane, N. C.
(Mrs. W. R. Jenkins) 1907-10,
2nd and 3rd.

Margaret Chandler, Mebane, N.
C. (Mrs. J. C. Smith) 1908-11,
4th and 5th. Graduated from
Bingham Academy, Mebane, N.
C. The senior year there was
the equivalent of the first year
at the U. N. C., Chapel Hill.

Clara Salisbury (Mrs. W. Z. Mor-
ton, Greenville, N. C.) 1905-09,
piano.

Mr. W. C. Allen, principal 1909-10.
Mr. J. D. Eason, principal 1910-11.
high school.

Susie Chandler, Mebane, N. C.
(Mrs. C. E. Correll, Chapel Hill,
N. C.) 1910-11, 5th and 6th.

Anna Phelps, Lake Phelps, N. C.,
7th, 1910-11. Her former pupils
say she was an excellent teach-
er.

Lula Sauls, Norfolk, Va., 1910-11,
piano. She became Mrs. J. D.
Eason in 1911.

Margaret Hoard (Mrs. Orenda)
1911-12, piano.

W. H. Mizzelle, principal 1911-17.
From Jamesville, N. C. There
was already an eight months
term; the 10th grade was add-
ed in 1912; and the 11th was
added in 1912; and the 11th was
added in 1917.

Mary Moye (Mrs. Sidney Eagles),
1912-13, English.

Miss Wilson, 1911, High School.

Bertha Krider, Salisbury, N. C.,
(Mrs. J. H. Roberson, Sr.) 1912-
21, 1926-29. 5th and 6th. Attend-
ed Mont Amena Seminary, Mt.
Pleasant, N. C. and Duke Un.

Addie Coburn (Mrs. H. L. Mead-
or, Williamston, N. C.), 1913-15.

Marie Robertson (Mrs. Jasper
Johnson), 1912-13 grammar.

Miss Susie Dailey, 1912-13 ele-
mentary.

45

 

 

 

Kate Moore, Old Sparta, N. C.,
19-14-15, grammar.

Leona Moore, Old Sparta, N. C.,
19-15-1942. Attended Hopewell
Female Seminary, and East Car-
olina Teachers College.

Emma Robertson (Mrs. Dowell
Burroughs, Norfolk, Va.) 1912.

Sally Alleen, 1914-17, 7th.

Vivian Roberson (Mrs. C. Abram
Roberson), 1912-15, piano.

Miss McNeill, Ellerbe, N. C., 1915-
16, art, private.

Elsie Gardner, Wilson, N. C.,
1915-17, piano.

Gladys Jerome (Mrs. Herring,
Thomasville, N. C.) 1915-16, 1st.

Faye Everett (Mrs. Will Salsbury,
Ayden, N. C.) 1916-18, 1st.

Sally Whitley (Mrs. W. H. Miz-
zelle’s sister) 1914-15,

Grace Pierce, grammar.

Stella Ward (Mrs. Quinton Roe-
buck, Farmville, N. C.) 1915-19,
piano and voice. D.

Nolie Robertson (Mrs. Roy Hop-
kins, Plymouth, N. C.) 1915-19,
piano.

Millie Roebuck, 1916-20, 1921-56,
3rd and then 4th and 6th grades.
A. B. Degree in 1925 from East
Carolina Teachers College, M.
A., 1942, Peabody College, Nash-
ville, Tenn.

Irene Hardison, Faison, N. C.,
1916, art only. D.

Maude Hodges, Washington, N. C.,
1916-18, 4th.

Frances Sessoms (Mrs. Ben Lon
Reeves, Littleton, N. C., 1917-
18, 6th.

Eva Irene Peele, Williamston, N.
C., 1917-20, 1921-24 , 1925-37,
English, Latin, Labrary.

F. Q. Barbee, Benson, N. C., prin-
cipal 1917-19. D. in Durham, N.
c.

Bertha Riley, Wilson, N. C., 1919,
piano.

Fanunie Bell Roberson (Mrs. C.
L. Wilson) 1919-20, 1923-24,

piano.

Trustees 1917-18: J. C. Smith, A.
L. Roberson, R. L. Everett.

P. E. Shaw, principal 1919-21,
math including geometry.
Teaching by subjects for unit
credit toward graduation began
1919-20. The first graduation
class under the unit system was
in 1920-21. Eight graduates
named in main body of history.

Mrs. P. E. Shaw, 1919-21, 1st
grade.

Lucy Cahoon (Mrs. Bell, Green-
ville, N. C., 1919, 1st.

Frances Smith (Mrs. Durward
Everett), 1920-21, 1st.

Geneva James (Mrs. Lynch Wea-
ver), 1920,

Swanie Davis, Wade, N. C. (Mrs.
Frank Crofton, N. C.) 1919, 4th.

Helena Frances Crofton, (Mrs.
John Hadley), 1920, 4th. D.

Irene Horne, Yamassee, S. C.,
1919, piano.

Rev. and Mrs. J. M. Perry, 1920,
piano and voice.

Ruth Clarke, Weldon, N. C., 1919,
high school.

E. B. Quillian, Ayden, N. C., 1919,
high school.

Virginia Inge, Goldsboro, N. C.
(Mrs. Johnson, Weldon, N. C.),
1920-22, 5th, and 1922-23, 4th.

Myrtle Morris, Atlantic, N. C.,
1921-24, 2nd.

Clara Griffin, Pinetops, N. C..
1921-24, 5th.

Leona Tyson, Pitt County (Mrs.
Kelly Rawls), 1921-22, 6th, and
1922-23, 7th.

Bessie Foye, 1921-23, 6th.

Hattie Wilson, Dunn, N. C., 1920-
21, French and taught for first
time.

Lou McMillan, Lumberton, N. C.
1920-21, English and history.

 
 

 

 

46

 

Ruth Taylor, McCullers, N. C.,
(Mrs. Hilliard Massey, Benson,
N. C.) 1921-24, French.

Margaret Stevenson, Chesapeake,
Va., 1921-22, piano.

Sally Ferrell, 1922-24, 7th.

Minnie Cochran, 1923-59, Ist. A
graduate of Atlantic Christian
College and Duke Un.

Miss McDonald, 1922-23, Ist.

G. W. Rhodes, principal 1921-24,
high school subjects.

Clara Griffin, Elm City, N. C.,
1922-24, 5th.

Lina Ruth Beck, Durham, N. C.,
1923-24, 5th.

Louise Johnston, 1923-25, math.

R. I. Leake, Rich Square, N. C.,
principal 1924-37. Taught math.
Now teaching Williamston High
School.

Louise Dixon, Elm City, N. C.,

1924-29, 1932-52, 2nd _ grade.
Taught thirty years. D. in 1952.
The altar in the Robersonville
Methodist Church was given by
her family in her memory.

Mary P. Shields, Windsor, N. C.,
1924-26, 6th grade.

Juanita Butler, Roseboro, N. C.,
1924-26, 7th.

Elizabeth Hunt, Oxford, N. C.,
1924-26, as Mrs. R. K. Adkins
1927-28, French and history, and
girls basketball Coach.

Emily Gayle, Farmville, N. C.,
1925-26, high school cience, first
time taught.

Hattie Manning, 1924-25, English,

Mary Adkins (Mrs. Murphy
Smith), 1925-27, piano. D.

Maybell Barnhill (Mrs. Hugh
Roberson), 1924, 1925, art, tu-
ition basis.

Cook Perry, janitor, first named
in local records, 1925-27.

Ralph Aiken, Durham, N. C.,
1925-26, math and coach of ath-
letics. Records do not mention
any salary supplement.

Mr. Phillips, 1925-26, history.

Annie Laurie Phillips, Lumber-
ton, N. C. (Mrs. A. P. Rober-
son, 1926-27, history and French.
1946-59, 5th and 6th grades with
exception one year when taught
French in 1953-54. Working on
M. A.

Elizabeth Shaw, Lumberton, N.
C., 1926-27, 7th.

Alma Murray, Durham, N. C.
1926-1929, home economics.
First time offered.

Agnes Jenkins, Durham, N. C.
(Mrs. Moore, Durham) 1926-27,
7th grade, 1927-29, history.

Harold Haney, Canadian, 1926-
29, high school and athletic
coach. First time offered and
under state salary.

Ida Whitehurst, Pitt County, 1927-
31, 5th grade.

Mrs. T. R. Jenkins (Omah Wood,
Durham, N. C.), 1927-32, 7th
girls (first year division made
in girls and boys of 7th grade)..

Elizabeth Elliott, Hertford, N. C.,
1927-31, 7th boys.

Allen Jenkins, janitor, 1927-29.

Essie Robinson (Mrs. Robert Bev-
erly, Bethel, N. C.) 1927-29,
piano.

T. R. Jenkins, Durham, N. C.
1927-29, science. Entered min-
istry. Ruling went into effect
in 1929 that only one member of
a family could teach. Reason,
depression.

Maud Maness, Biscoe, N. C., 1927-
30, 2nd.

Ruth Best, Warsaw, N. C., 1927-
28, 8th girls home room. En-
glish.

G. P. Moore, 1928-29, history.

47

 

 

R. S. Crisp, Faulkland, N. C., 1928-
29, math and coach of athletics.
Paid a supplement. Athletic
Association organized. D.

Gilbert Smith, 1929-30, coach of
football. No salary. Not a teach-
er.

Mary A. Gray, 1928-29, French.

Minnie Hobbs, Magnolia, N. C.,
1929-41, 1st and 2nd. Earned M.
A. degree at Peabody College in
1941.

Dorothy Schwab (Mrs. Wilbur
Congleton, Rocky Mount, N.
C.) 1929-30, history and math.
R. E. Coburn, 1929-3- into de-
pression years, janitor.

Bernice House (Mrs. Bogue Gur-
ganus, N. C.), 1929-38, 2nd and
5th.

Margaret Womack, Bethel, N. C.,
1929-31,6th.

Katherine Deaton (Mrs. Victor
Meekins, Manteo, N. C.), 1929-
-30, piano and voice.

Carrie T. Smith, Fountain, N. C.,
1929-31, French and English.
Stella Etheridge, Selma, N. C.,
1930-32, public school music
(first time taught) and piano.

Ira C. Ainsley, Oak City, N. C.,
1929-31, science and coach of
athletics.

Carrie Lee Roberson, Roberson-
ville, N. C., (Mrs. C. B. Martin)
1930-31, 2nd, 1947-57, Ist.

Myra Sales, 1931-32, 5th.

Thelma Dail, 1931-32, 6th.

Roy Roberson and Pete Bunting,
1931, coaches aides. Not teach-
ers. No salary. Thanks express-
ed.

James H. Smith, 1931-33, 7th. Be-
came Baptist minister.

Marvin M. Everett, 1931-32, his-

tory, 1932-59; 7th and building
principal grammar school, from
1932; general business high
school class 1959.

Frances Smith, Greenville, N. C.
(Sister of Katherine Smith),
1931-32, math

H. A. (Betty) Gray, 1932-40, vol-
unteer manager of first lunch

room sponsored by Womans
Club and W. P. A. No salary.

Belle Hockaday, Fuquay Springs,
N. C., 1931-32, French.

Margaret E. Smith, Raleigh, N. C.
(Mrs. Durward Williams, Wash-
ington, D. C.) 1929-32, 1933-35,
home economics.

W. Cecil Brake, Rocky Mount, N.
C., 1931-37, science, math and
coach of athletics.

Katherine Smith, Greenville, N.
C., 1932-33, home economics.
Ruth Jones, Kenly, N. C., 1932-
33, public school music, her sal-
ary to be what she could make
of it. Special tax discontinued.
J. M. Dean, Selma, N. C., 1931-33,
business education. Tuition bas-

is. First time offered.

Ila Mae Bost, Shelby, N. C., (Mrs.
Alfonso Roebuck), 1932-34,
French and English.

Mrs. Fred Rogers, Robersonville,
N. C., 1932-34, piano.

Josephine Wildman, Parmele, N.
C., piano on own responsibility.

Fannie Woodard, Warsaw, N. C.,
1932-33, 5th.

Margaret Gorham, Rocky Mount,
N. C., 1932-33, 6th.

Marjorie Smith (Mrs. J. R. Jenk-
ins, Aulander, N. C.) 1933-34,
business education.

Ruth Modlin, Jamesville, N. C.
(Dr. Ruth Modlin, East Carolina
College), 1933-37, 6th.

Margaret Riddle, Burlington, N.
C., 1933-35, 5th. D.

Holly Butler, Vanceboro, N. C.
(Mrs. Leo Everett), 6th.

Bertha Piland, Oak City, N. C..,
1933-35, history.

 
 

B
3
J
»
»
a

 

 

 

 

Susie Thrift, Plymouth,'N. C., now
Durham, N. C., 1933-41, math
and history.

Mr. Kennedy, Fayetteville, N. C.,
1934-35, French.

Mrs. Selma Meadows, Roberson-
ville, N. C., 1935-59, piano.

Mr. Barringer, 1934-35, high
school.

Eva Mae Whitley, Washington, D.
C., 1935-36, 5th.

Hilda Modlin, Jamesville, ele-
mentary

Marie Nobles, Ayden, N. C. (Mrs.
Melvin Morris, Richmond, Va.)
1934-36, French.

Alice Irby, 1934-36, business edu-
cation.

Mrs. J: B. Usry, Oxford, N. C.,
1935-36, 7th. In 1935 a first year
teacher under state salary with
A-certificate drew only $84.
Reason depression.

Mary Louise De Bruhl, New Bern,
N. C., 1935-36, home economics.

Olivia Forbes, Greenville, N. C.
(Mrs. Wesley Fowler) 1934-36,
French and English, D. in N. C.

Carrie Gardner, Wayne County,
(Mrs. Brantley Speight, Winter-
ville, N. C.) 1935-36, 6th.

Ruth Jenkins, 1935-36, 6th and
7th.

Kate Turner, Halifax, N .C., 5th
and 6th.

Lena Briggs, Asheville, N. C.,
1936-38, 7th.

Marie Palmer, Franklin, N. C.,
home economics.

Hilda Spence, Goldsboro, N. C.
(Mrs. Fred L. Guerin, Mel-
bourne, Fla.) 1936-38, French
and English.

Mary Rolfe, Hertford, N. C., 1936-
8, English, math and science.

Maxine Clarke, Canton, N. C.
(Mrs. Millard Hall, Lexington,
N. C.) 1938-40, French and Eng-
lish.

Katherine Alexander, Tarboro, N.
C., 1936-37, business education.

L. W. Anderson, Altavista, Va.,
supervising principal district
No. 4, 1937-44, dramatic art and
speech. Now Dean of Students
Greensboro Senior High School,
Greensboro, N. C.

Rebecca Webb, Hertford, N. C.,
1937-40, math and English.

Irene James, Weeksville, N. C.
(Mrs. Dixie Roberson) 1937-41,
home economics, 1946-59, 8th
grade. She was the first George
Reed teacher, nine months
work, now ten months in some
counties.

Raymond Wells, Elm City, N. C.,
1937-39, science.

Jessie Richardson, Greenville, N.
C., 1937-57, Latin, English and
library. Became full time li-
brarian in 1946. Degree in li-
brary science, University of
North Carolina. D.

Thelma Mewborn (Mrs. Claude T.
Smith) 1937-39, English and
civics, coach of debating.

Margaret Evans, Blenheim, S. C.
(Mrs. Wiley Rogerson), 1937-40,
1951-53, business education.

Helen Poole, Troy, N. C., 1937-40,
5th. Now teaches in Troy.

Sally Mac Prevatte, Lumberton,
ton, N. C. (Mrs. Howard Peed-
ed, Wagram, N. C.) 1937-40, 6th.

J. E. Aiken (Lutz, Fla. RFD pre-
sent add.), 1937-42, band. First
organized.

Georgia Sugg, Hookerton, N. C.
(Mrs. (Dr.) Roy T. Parker,
Duke Hospital, Durham, N. C.)
1939-41, English.

Joe Lydia, 1938-39, history. Re-
signed. Mr. Raymond Snipes,
Wayne County, filled vacancy.

Reece Little, Altavista, La. (Dr.
Reece Little, New Bern, N. C.)
1939-41, science and coach.

49

 

 

 

 

 

 

L. Dennis Marlow, Sutton, W. Va.
(Lawyer at 22 Elizabeth St.,
Delaware, Ohio), 1940-41, b. ed.

Connor Winchester, 1939-41, agri-
culture. First time taught.

Miss Brantley, 1941-42, high
school.

Ida McCracken, 1941-42, English.

Mary Frances Ford, Nichols, S.
C. (Mrs. Bill Phillips Nichols),
1941-43, home economics.

Helen Davis, Enfield, N. C. (Mrs.
R. T. Purvis, Hobgood, N. C.)
1942-45, business ed.

J. E. Aiken, 1942-44, band.

Dorothy Owens, Big Gap, Va.
(Mrs. Fry), 1941-42, math?

Josephine Mahler, Four Oaks, N.
C., 1942-46, math.

B. T. Wigley, 1942-43, agriculture.

Frank Meacham, State College,
Raleigh, 1943-45, agriculture.
Now of N. C. State Museum.

Mrs. _Thelma_. Garr,- Anchorage,
Ky., 1943-45, Spanish and Eng-
lish. First and only time taught.

Lady Dole and sister, 1943-44, 8th
grade. First year as part of jun-
ior high school and nine months.

A. L. Hendren, Roxoboro, N. C.,
principal, 1944-47, high school
subjects.

In 1946-47 there were 12 high
school and 12 grammar grade
teachers including principal
and piano.

Mrs. A. L. Hendren, 1945-47, 1st
and 2nd.

In 1946-47 there were 12 high
school and 12 grammar grade
teachers including principal and
piano.

Mrs. A. L. Hendren, 1945-47, Ist
and 2nd.

Mrs. Rosalie (Ross) Froneberger,
Williamston, N. C., 1944, 3rd.
Anna Floyd, 1945-46, business

education.

Harriet Everett (Tom) Winslow,
Palmyra, N. C., 1946-47, busi-

ness education.

Josephene Stevenson, Fuquay
Springs, N. C., 1945-46, French.

Maud Ketchum, Rocky Mount, N.
C., 1943-46, home economics.

Mrs. Janie Perry Day, Roberson-
ville, N. C., 1944-46, 5th.

Mattie Lyons, Oxford, N. C., 1944-
49, 7th.

Kemp Bunn, Zebulon, N. C., 1945-
47, 6th and 7th.

Reba Winstead, Whitakers, N. C.,
1945-49, 3rd.

Susie Jenkins, (Mrs. Jim Hipps),
Eatonton, Ga., 1944-45, Ist.

Mildred Hodges, Asheville, N. C.,
1944-46, public school music.
First since early thirties.

Mrs. Sally Kitrell, Washington, D.
C., 1943-45, matron of teacher-
age.

Evelyn White, Colerain, N. C.,
1942-44, Ist and 2nd.

Mrs. Cleveland Wilkie, 1944-45,
science and coach of girls bas-
ketball without supplement.

Rev. Cleveland Wilkie, 1944-45,
8th grade and coach of boys
basketball.

Mildred Everett, Robersonville,
N. C., 1944-45, math. and
English.

H. H. Yates, 1945-47, math and
basketball coach.

Mrs. H. H. Yates, 1945-47, English.

Lissie Pierce, Princeton, N. C.,
1944-52, elementary supervisor
ef Martin County Schools.

Agnes Ellis, 1945-46, 3rd.

Mrs. John Tyler, Robersonville,
N. C., 1945-59, 2nd and 3rd and
4th. Working on M. A.

Meredith Tunnel, 1946,49, 6th.

Mrs. Doris (Jim) Roebuck, Rober-
sonville, N. C., 1945-51, 7th.

 
7
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Florine Clark (Mrs. Walter Ellis
Everett), Robersonville, N. C.,
1945-46, science.

Cleo James (Mrs. Beaman Which-
ard), Robersonville, N. C., 1945,
6th.

Janice Eggleston, 1944-47, 8th.

Marjorie Privott, Hertford, N. C.,
1946-47, science.

George McRorie, Robersonville,
N. C., 1946-48, English and
coach of girls basketball. Now
Assistant Principal Greenville
Senior High School, Greenville,
N. C.

Ruth Hollowell, Hertford, N. C.,
1946-50, math and 8th.

George Roberts, 1946-48, agricul-
ture.

Mae Bowen, 1946-47, English and
French.

Ellen Riddick, Hobbsville, N. C.,

(Mrs. Kelly Abeyounis, Bethel,
N. C.) 1946-51, bus. ed.

David K. Wood, 1946-49, 8th
grade. Minister.

Hilda Sumrell, Ayden, N. C., 1946-
54, 5th grade, 1954-56, 6th.

C. B. Martin, Jamesville, N. C.,
1947-57, principal and history.
Now superintendent Tarboro
City Schcols.

Mrs. Beatrice Stalls (J. E.) Mul-
len, Robersonville, N. C., 1947-
53, 1954-59, French and English
and librarian since 1958-59. Was
graduated from North Carolina
College for women, and Uni-

versity of North Carolina,
Chapel Hill.

Kelly Abeyounis, Bethel, N. C.,
1946-52, social science.

James Wallace, Jamesville, N. C.,
1947-51, science, math and de-
bate coach. Now a teacher of
history in the University of
North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Queenie McGowan, Greenville, N.
C. (Mrs. Garland E. Warren),
1946-53, home economics.

Mrs. Elizabeth (Norman) Wilker-
son, Greenville, N. C., 1947-49,
public school music. Paid
through special tax.

Miss Lula Purvis Gray (Mrs. R.
O. Clarke, Alameda, Calif.)
1947-48, 6th.

Miss Nell Anderson, Tarboro, N.
C., 1947-57, manager of lunch-

room. Home part time in Ber-
muda.

J. E. Mullen, Robersonville, N..C.,
1948-49, agriculture.

Mrs. Sophia (B. A.) Critcher, Wil-
liamston, N. C., 1949-51, public
school music.

Adrian Brown, Manteo, N. C.,
science and athletic coach. Sup-
ported by sp. tax.

Jack Scott, Greenville, N. C.,
1949-51, science.

J. H. Dixon, Parmele, N. C., 1949-

59, agriculture. Graduated from
N. C. State College.

Estell Scott, Greenville, N. C.,
1949-50, elementary and library.
First paid.

lla Warren, Newton Grove, N. C.,
1949-52, English.

Emma Lou Taylor, Williamston,
N. C., (Mrs. Leigh Traylor, Nor-
lina, N. C.) 1949-51, 3rd.

Mrs. Evelyn Cherry, Stokes, N.
C., 1948-59, 7th.

Maylon McDonald, 1950-51, 8th.

Mrs. Maylon McDonald, 1950-51,
7th.

Charlotte Sasser, Greenville, N.
C., 1950-51. (WesternN. C.)

Nancy Eller, 1950-51, English.

Franklin Harrell, 1951-53, science.

R. B. Lee, Robersonville, N. C.,
1951-54, 1955-59, physical edu-
cation.

51

Frances B. Chandler, Plymouth,
N. C., 1951-52, public school

music.

Frances Spruill, Columbia, N. C.,
1951-53, elementary.

John Roberson, 1951-56, 1957-59,
math and science. Working on
M. A.

Truman Cherry, 1951-52, English.

Mrs. Marie (Truman) Cherry,
1951-52, 2nd.

C. C. White, 1951-52, 8th. Became
principal in Bertie County.

Penelope Bogart, 1951-52, busi-
ness education.

Clara Woolard (Mrs. J. H. Dixon),
1951-56, 1957-59, 5th.

Jeanne Taylor, Robersonville, N.
C., 1952-55, public school music.
Now teaching p. school music in
Laurinburg, N. C.

Grace Whitehurst, Conetoe, N. C.,
1952-57, English. Now teaching
in Tarboro.

Mrs. Vara Hairr Davenport,
Jamesville, N. C., 1951-53, spe-
cial education — hearing and
speech.

Addie Lee Meador, Williamston,
N. C., 1953-59, speech therapy.
. H. Whitehurst, Greenville, N.
C., 1952-59, 8th.

. Polly Bailey Grimes, Ever-
etts, N. C., 1952-53, 4th.
rs. Ella (Eugene) Morrow,
Swanquarter, N. C., 1952-59,
2nd.

Mrs. Cora Guard, Ccinjock, N. C.,
1952-55, 2nd.

Mrs. Mary (Ottis) Woolard, Rob-
ersonville, N. C., 1952-59, 3rd,
4th, and 5th. M. A. from E. C.
C:

E. C. Black, 1952-54, band. First
org. after W. W. II.

Mrs. Paul Davenport, Pactolus,
N. C., 1953-59, piano.

Emma Dean Calfee, Belhaven, N.

C., 1953-55, business education.

Betsy Tyson, Selma, N. C., 1953-
55, English and French.

John Walker, 1953-54, social sci-
ence.

Mrs. John Walker, 1951-55, 3rd.

Catherine Ingram, Taylorsville,
N. C., 1953-59, home economics.

Robert Craft, Beulahville, N. C.,
1954-56, band.

Ann Bynum, Farmville, N. C.,
1954-55, business education.

Mrs. Josephine (Wallace) Bul-
lock, Robersonville, N. C., 1954-
58, 4th.

Mrs. Dennis Roberson, Roberson-
ville, N. C., 1954-59, 2nd. Work-
ing on M. A.

Elbert Moye, Farmville, N. C.,
1954-55, physical education.

Harold Brown, Robersonville, N.
C., 1954-59, social science.

Mrs. Elizabeth Wilson, Green-
ville, N. C., 1954-55, science.
Carroll Jackson, 1955-56, science.
Nicholas Garner, Newport, N. C.,

1956-57, science.

Patsy Smith (Mrs. Malloy Oowen,
Greenville, N. C.), 1955-59,
business education.

Frances Smith, Robersonville, N.
C., 1955-57, public school music.

John Swart, Wilmington, N. C.,
1956-57, math.

Jean Cargile, Parmele, N. C.
(Mrs. J. Wetaehrington), 1957-
58, Ist grade.

Durwood Bray, Elizabeth City, N.
C., 1956-58, band.

Willie Augusta Gee, Burlington,
N. C., 1957-58, library.

Mrs. Annette Plyler, Greenville,
N. C., 1957-59, English.

Suzzanne Hardison, Jamesville,
N. C., 1957-59, publie school
music.

Mrs. William Warren Taylor,
Robersonville, N. C., 1957-59,
6th grade.

 
 

 

 

Frances Jenkins, Robersonville,
N. C., 1958-59, 4th grade.

Thomas Adams, Parmele, N. C.,
1957-59, science.

Mrs. Mary Oakley Dilda, Farm-
ville, N. C., 1958-59, English and

civics.

Joseph Secrest, Morganton, N. C.,
1958-59, band.

Evelyn Arlene Manning, Bethel,
N. C., 1958-59, Ist grade.

Mildred Manning, Bethel, 1952-54,
elementary supervisor, Martin
County.

Mrs. Ann Carson (Fred) Cargile,
Greenville, N. C., 1958-59, 7th
grade.

Mrs. Hattie (Harvey Lewis) Rob-
erson, 1957-59, manager. of
lunchroom.

ROBERSONVILLE GRADED AND
HIGH SCHOOL

1902 - 1923