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Virginia are the cucumber, yellow poplar, poplar, lin, wahoo, fetid buckeye, sweet buckeye, striped maple, mountain maple, sugartree, soft maple, red maple, ashleaved maple, locust, black cherry, sweet gum, sour gum, dogwood, big laurel, white ash, red ash, green ash, sassafras, slippery elm, rock elm, sycamore, butternut, black walnut, shellbark hickory, black hickory, brown hickory, bitter hickory, white oak, basket oak, chestnut oak, red oak, quercitron oak, black oak, Spanish oak, pin oak, possum oak, laurel oak, chestnut, beech, ironwood, blue beech, yellow birch, red birch, black birch, aspen, white cedar, red cedar, white pine, pitch pine, yellow pine, black spruce, hemlock and balsam fir.

32. Wood Pulp. Within the past few years the manufacture of wood pulp for paper making has become a leading industry in West Virginia. Logs are grappled by machinery and are firmly held against large grindstones and are thus torn and ground to exceedingly fine splinters, These splinters are pressed into sheets of paper. Paper was formerly made almost exclusively of rags, and as early as 1839 a paper mill was in operation at Morgantown.

33. Tanbark.-An important industry of West Virginia, of recent development, is the cutting of bark for tanning purposes. The chief barks used in the State are oak and hemlock. Sumach is used in tanning morocco leather.

34. Newspapers.-The first newspaper published in what is now West Virginia was the Monongalia Gazette, founded at Morgantown in 1803. The Farmer's Register, at Charlestown, was the next. These were the only two papers printed

in the State in 1810. The oldest paper still being published in the State is the Virginia Free Press, printed at Charlestown. It was founded in 1821. Of all the newspapers within West Virginia when it became a State, only eight are in existence now. These eight are, The Wheeling Intelligencer, Wheeling

Register, Clarksburg Telegram, Charlestown Free Press, Charlestown Spirit of Jefferson, Shepherdstown Register, Wellsburg Herald, and Point Pleasant Register.

35. Change in Manners and Customs.-The closing fifteen years of the nineteenth century witnessed greater changes in the manners of the people of West Virginia than had taken place in the preceding hundred years. These changes were due to the introduction of new industries and new people. The opening of new mines brought miners where none had been before, and the rural district was converted into a mining town. The building of railroads brought people who live upon railroads, and villages sprang up where forests had held possession. The lumber industry and the tanbark industry brought people of different habits. The developments in the oil and gas belts wrought changes there. Manufacturing plants, such as glass houses, woolen mills, tobacco factories, carshops, and other lines of work, all had their effect. The operators and laborers employed upon these new enterprises were not all people from other States. Many of them are native West Virginians who have left their small farms to try their fortunes upon or among public works. But whether natives of this State or immigrants from other States, the change in the manner of life has been no less marked. New ideas have been introduced; money has come in. Generally speaking, the people are in better circumstances than when public enterprises in the State were few and small. Those who have not sought employment among the new industries, have been at least able to share in the prosperity by selling their coal, land, or the products of their farms and gardens. Thousands of modern and comfortable homes throughout the State, where cheap, small and dark houses stood fifteen years ago, are evidence of the era of better things. Agriculture has made progress, keeping it abreast of development in other lines. Better breeds of stock have been introduced; better farm machinery; better grain; larger fields; and cleaner fence

rows; more commodious barns; warmer shelter for stock; better comforts and more luxuries for the family. Good newspapers and wholesome books furnish reading for the people who have reason to be better contented than ever before.

CHAPTER XXIII.

EDUCATIONAL HISTORY.

I. The Beginning of Free Schools. The State of Virginia never encouraged free schools until after the Civil War; although the laws provided funds in a small way, and many schools were supported, in part, by public money. But the conditions and requirements were such that the pupils who accepted the public money were too often looked upon as paupers. Family and individual pride, and a general sentiment against free schools, made the system of little value. But after the Civil War broke down many barriers which had hedged about popular education in Virginia, there was a reaction in favor of schools which should be free for all. This was the case particularly in West Virginia after it was so fortunate as to free itself from the domineering influence of the old State.

2. Private Schools.-Efforts were made to establish private schools in western Virginia soon after the Revolutionary war. These schools ranged from very primary affairs to academies and colleges of a high degree of excellence. Nearly every county had one or more of them. Some were very small and obscure, and were presided over by itinerant pedagogues of questionable learning; others were capable of giving an education by no means inferior. But taken as a whole, those schools were not the equals of the public schools of the present time. It was not possible for any considerable number of the youths of the country to attend, and the education of the poor was usually neglected.

3. Disappearance of Private Schools.-No sooner did the State provide means for public schools, than the private ones began to disappear. There was little division of sentiment on the subject. All the children, poor as well as rich, are

entitled to an education; and the property of all ought to be taxed for that purpose. The voters of each district were at first, and are still, given an opportunity at school elections to say whether or not a tax for school purposes shall be levied; and it is an unusual thing for a vote to be cast against the tax.

4. Normal Schools. When West Virginia first provided funds for free schools, there was a scarcity of competent teachers. Nothing else was to be expected from the system of educating its people which had been followed by Virginia. Improvement was slow at first. Better teachers were absolutely necessary to the success of the free school system. From this need grew the sentiment which led to the founding of the State Normal schools for educating teachers.

5. The Graduating System.-When public schools were first established in West Virginia they were conducted upon no uniform plan. Each teacher followed ideas of his own, and his ideas were too often few and poorly defined. System was lacking. The course of study was frequently left to chance. Each pupil studied what he pleased, or what he could. The more intelligent educators were not slow to see that the best results were impossible in that state of affairs. The first to formulate and put into practice a system under which all the schools of the State could work in harmony, and along the same lines, was Alexander L. Wade, of Monongalia County. In 1874 he organized schools with regular courses of study, and two years later the first class graduated. The system, with divers modifications, has been very generally adopted, not only in West Virginia but into more than half of the schools of the United States.

6. State Educational Association.-As early as 1865 a number of teachers in the West Virginia schools met to discuss matters relating to their profession. From that small beginning has grown the State Educational Association which now wields a powerful influence for good in our State.

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