Piedmont School Artifacts – Griffith Preservation

Piedmont School circa 1920’s
Virginia. Dept. of Education. School Buildings Service.
[View Image on Library of Virginia Site]

Small schoolhouses like this one were very common across rural Virginia at the turn of the 20th century. According to “Along the Dry Fork Road” by the late Dail Yeatts, Piedmont School was built around 1900 and operated for about forty years before it closed in the early 1940’s. The building once stood near Hopewell United Methodist Church and the old Elliott’s Store (the present location of the Butcher’s Block) in the community of Dry Fork in Pittsylvania County. Piedmont School taught lessons by the books and offered an education equivalent to the third grade level at that time. However, the broad and practical knowledge taught there is not exactly comparable to modern grade levels. There were three rooms in which a total of forty to fifty students attended.

In Dry Fork, my great-grandparent’s generation attended Piedmont School as their only education. The 1940 census states that my great-grandmother Louise and her brother Oscar completed third grade, and the rest including their parents, older sister, and younger brothers only completed a first grade education. Several artifacts from this time including school textbooks, a slate, and leather book strap were saved and passed down the family. It appears that the books were shared among the neighboring family of Willie Walter Stowe & Lorena Hearp Stowe. At least four of their children signed the book, including Major, Jessie, Delphia, and Flossie Stowe. In addition, the name “Annie Demott” is inscribed. She was an aunt to the late prominent county historian Glenn Giles (1931-2021).

Out of the three books in this collection, two have significantly more wear than the newest one (1921). The spelling book was only written in by a younger sibling, Joe Meadows. In all, there are ten identifiable names written in the school books over a century ago. Here’s a list of the book titles and the ten people named inside:

Modern Primary Arithmetic (Smith, 1914)
Primer of Hygiene (Ritchie & Caldwell, 1915)
The Test and Study Speller (Starch & Mirick, 1921)

Nettie G. Meadows (1903-1997)
Oscar F. Meadows (1908-1986)
Cassie E. Meadows (1906-1977)
M. Louise Meadows Grant (1912-1975)
Joseph L. Meadows (1916-1989)

Annie L. Demott (1900-1991)
Major M. Stowe (1901-1991)
Jessie L. Stowe Jones (1902-1990)
Delphia M. Stowe Jones (1905-1990)
Flossie Stowe Elliott (1907-2003)

The 1920 census shows the Stowe family neighboring the Meadows family

Family of Dock Meadows & Alice Pruett Meadows, circa 1911
Children (Left to Right) are Nettie, Oscar, and Cassie Meadows

Family of Willie W. Stowe & Lorena Hearp Stowe, circa 1905
Children (Left to Right) are Oscar, Jessie, and Major Stowe

Here’s the slate, books, and strap with “Modern Primary Arithmetic” from 1914 is stacked on top.

This page has my great-grandmother’s name, “Louise Meadows” several times, as well as her older sister Cassie.

The title page is also signed by Cassie.

The name “Oscar” is written twice here. There is evidence of his sister Cassie’s signature on this page as well.

This page features Nettie’s signature. She was the oldest sibling and likely the first of the Meadows children to use the book. The copyright date of 1914 is visible at the top.

The book provides various mathematic exercises to practice. It’s interesting to see the old fashioned illustrations and the references to common prices at the time.

In the subtraction exercises, one of the questions asks,

“If Mr. Moore has 72 cows and sells 17 of them, how many cows has he left?”

The answers are in the back of the book.

One of the final pages details this is the Virginia edition of the book with a retail price of 25 cents. A deadline at the bottom ended over a century ago.

Here is the “Primer of Hygiene” from 1915. One look at the condition of this book tells that it was well-used at school.

This busy page features signatures of “Jessie Lou Stowe” and “Miss Delfie Stowe.” There’s also an inscription “Dry Fork, VA Nov. 25, 1918”

This page has evidence of writing from Louise Meadows and Jessie Stowe.

“Louise Meadows Dry Fork, VA”

The title page is signed by three Stowe siblings, “Delphie,” Major, and Flossie. The date 1915 is printed at the bottom.

Louise printed her name here, minus the final “s” in her last name.

The book goes into detail about anatomy, bathing, healthy habits, and wholesome food. Again, the illustrations have a lot of historic character. Here, under a depiction of men at a campfire, it says

“Outdoor life and exercise are very important in keeping the digestive organs in health.”

In the middle of the book, the name “Miss Annie Larie Demott” is written. Her grandfather Charles DeMott owned a carriage manufactory in the town of Chatham (located at the current site of 34 Main St. in the 1870’s).

Both Major Stowe and Flossie signed here. Flossie’s address was Route 2, box 49.

The third schoolbook, “The Test and Study Speller” was published in 1921.

The inside cover is signed by one student, Joseph Meadows (born 1916.) His older siblings were already finished with school by the time this book was published.

The exercises are mostly a collection of simple sentences to analyze and understand word context. The choice of topics relate to the interactions of nature or family life.

Some of the sentences hint at the age of the book, such as exercise 50:

“I like to make things out of wood.
I use a hammer, a saw, and nails.
After school I split some wood.
A man saws it first with a saw.
Then it can be cut up with a hatchet.”

This slate was paired with the books when I first found them upstairs in the family home. It was likely used by several of the Meadows children between approximately 1912 and 1921.