Schools

No interest in the neighborhood, either past or present, has had so much 

of value as has that of the schools. From the days of the earliest 

settlements to the present the community has maintained some kind of a 

school, though not always its chief point of interest. There is no earlier 

record of the pioneer schools in the neighborhood than that furnished from 

the personal notes of Bishop Thomas A.Morris, who lived in the 

neighborhood from 1804 to 1816 and received his first schooling here in 

the days of the real pioneer school. Copying from his notes, his 

biographer says: 

"The means of education were very limited at that early days throughout 

the western states and territories, and especially in the northwestern 

part of Virginia, where the Morris family resided. Teachers were few in 

number, and for the most part ill-qualified for their work; nor were the 

most competent, of them in very much demand, for many of the early 

settlers of that wild region cared little for books, so they could but 

obtain plenty of fresh land, good range for their stock, and an abundance 

of game. Still there were schools, not continuing, however, longer than 

one-quarter of the year, and that always in the winter, when boys could 

best be spared from the farm. By such limited means, the children of that 

day on the frontier, obtained what little knowledge of books they 

possessed; nor was it generally deemed important that the course of study 

be very extensive or thorough. To master Dilworth's Speller, learn to read 

the New Testament, cypher to the "rule of three", and write a fair round 

hand, was regarded as quite an accomplished education and ample for all 

the practical purposes of life. This curriculum Thomas had passed through 

creditably by the time he reached his eighteenth year. About that time 

(1812) he became a member of the first grammar class ever organized in 

Cabell County. It was taught by William Paine, a native of England, a 

thoroughly competent teacher, and an earnest Methodist. This worthy old 

gentleman, besides performing his professional duties, gave his pupils 

many sound moral lessons, and though gathered to his fathers long years 

ago, his memory is cherished fondly by all his surviving students". 

Thus it is observed that there were schools in the neighborhood some time 

prior to the year 1812. This mention of William Paine, the grandfather of 

our former county superintendent of schools, Charles Paine, is of interest 

to many Cabell County residents. 

The first schools taught in this section held forth in some vacant house, 

often one no longer deemed fit for a dwelling. Later a community school 

house was built by private donation, or by the men of the neighborhood 

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