History of Blue Ridge School

                       

HISTORY OF BLUE RIDGE SCHOOL

Blue Ridge School opened on January 22, 1889. Thomas B. and Mary J. Barnard donated two acres of land to Jonathan E. Cox of High Point, North Carolina, the Treasurer of Friends' Blue Ridge Mission School, for a school and graveyard purposes.  The Friends or Quakers bought an additional twenty-five acres for $100.00, making a total of 27 acres. Colonel Abram Staples of Patrick County worked with Friends circuit rider David E. Sampson to begin the school in western part of the county.

By 1898, the school was known as Blue Ridge Academy.  According to a bulletin published by the school, the course of study covered a scope of work which gave to those who completed it a 'well-rounded education.' Bookkeeping, Latin, Botany, Astronomy, Mathematics, Philosophy, Zoology, Elocution, Composition and Rhetoric were taught in the Academic Department.  The aim of the school at this time was to give thorough instruction, and to give careful moral training.  Any person agreeing to conform to the regulations was admitted. Sabbath School and Sunday Meeting were mandatory on Sunday.

The Friends Mission Church at Ararat, Virginia

The school continued under the leadership of the Friends until 1918, when the entire plant (five buildings) was bought by the Presbyterian Mission Board and was operated as a Boarding School under the leadership of Reverend Newton Smith.  Another building was added which was used as a manse until 1925.  This building later burned in 1929, and was replaced by a nine-room building. During this time the school was partially supported by tuition paid by the students. Elementary students paid $0.50 per month and high school students paid $1.00.

Other schools existed in the Ararat area of Patrick County. Schools claiming to be "separate, but equal" existed for the African-American students of the area at Willis Gap, which had one teacher, and at the Crossroads section called Clark's Creek, which had two teachers. Other schools were in the area for the White children such as the school on Rabbit Ridge known as J. E. B. Stuart and at Chestnut Grove.

Black School On Willis Gap in Ararat, Virginia

Hunters Chapel School

By the late twenties the school had become a fully accredited high school. To accommodate the growing number of students a new building was built and ready for use by the fall of 1928.

The school and several acres of land were sold to the Patrick County School Board and operated as a county school during the term of 1933-34.  In they school year 1935-36 there were eight teachers and 365 students with a library of 3, 200 volumes.

Above and Below the Female Dormitory at Blue Ridge School.

From 1933 through the school year 1969-70, the school had several additions and was operated as Blue Ridge High School.

In the fall of 1970, all high schools in the county were consolidated and Blue Ridge High School became Blue Ridge Elementary School.  With a new addition, the school was ready for use by the 1970-71 school year.  Additions were made again in 1981-82 including six new classrooms.

Blue Ridge School celebrated one hundred years of education the children of Ararat and western Patrick County in August 1988. Principals of Blue Ridge Elementary School were Charles Cook, Erie Perry, Fred Brim, Fred Barneycastle and present Principal Carolyn Deekens.

Recently, new lighting and a new roof were installed to make Blue Ridge Elementary School more handicapped accessible.

Winston Reynolds left and his friend young Mister Young far right share a moment with Principal Fred Brim, the first African-American to serve as a Principal in Patrick County at Blue Ridge, the school he could not attend as a child.

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Monument Erected To Honor Retired Employees at Blue Ridge School  Ararat, Virginia, May 25, 2006
 
            At 1 p.m. on May 24, a ceremony was held to dedicate a granite monument to thirty-one employees of the Dan River Supervisory District with at least twenty years teaching with at least one year at Blue Ridge School. Principal Carolyn Deekens welcomed the crowd, Supervisor Jonathan Large spoke of the project, Historian Tom Perry gave the keynote address honoring those chosen and Superintendent of Patrick County Schools Judy Lacks accepted the monument for the Patrick County School System.
 
            For many years Perry wished to see his father honored for his twenty-eight years of service in the Patrick County School System as a teacher at Blue Ridge High School, Principal at Red Bank Elementary School and Principal at Blue Ridge Elementary School. Perry met with Supervisor Large and Dan River School Board Member Billy Aldridge in January to discuss the matter. From that meeting a plan to honor all still living retirees that met the criteria and some recently passed away was decided.
           
            Large and Perry worked with Sarah Leigh Collins of the Patrick County School Board Office and Fern Agee of the Patrick County Retired Teachers Association to make a list of honorees. Consulting with Principal Deekens and Superintendent Lacks the information was collected and a list decided upon for this year’s ceremony. It is hoped that in the future those who retire and those who have passed away can be honored as well. The marker has plenty of space for more names.
 
Perry raised money with the community of Ararat while Supervisor Large worked with Cory Goad of The Granite Guys, a Mount Airy firm that works with granite. Mr. Aldridge presented the plan to the Patrick County School Board at their last meeting and it was approved. Aldridge assisted in the installation of the marker along with Keith Puckett and Kent Pendleton of Patrick County Maintenance.
 

Tom Perry’s Comments at the Ceremony

 
“In January 1889, the Barnard Family donated two acres to the Quakers to establish a school here. Today, one hundred and seventeen years later we honor some of those educators and staff of the Dan River District who spent their careers in the Patrick County School System at Blue Ridge School.
 
My personal thanks to School Board Member Billy Aldridge for his support and work on this project. Thanks to Principal Deekens and the staff of Blue Ridge Elementary School for making today possible.  I would like to thanks the many private individuals who donated to this project especially Ann Guynn Marwith and her family, the family Zeb Stuart Scales, many family members of the honorees and the guys of the White Pines Country Club who know one of our honorees as Erie-sistible.
 
Jonathan, leadership is being willing to move ahead of the curve and to take risks. I know that this process has been frustrating for you, but you kept to your guns and because of your perseverance we are here today. I thank you for that and your service to the Dan River District.
 
Twenty years ago Teacher and Astronaut Christa McAuliffe said before she went to touch the face of God on the space shuttle, “I touch the future, I teach.” The thirty-one people we honor today have effected the future in more ways than will ever know. Today, I am not objective today. I think I could tell a story about everyone of the people we honor today including my second, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh grade teachers.  I think Blue Ridge is the greatest school in the world.
 
A school does not live by teachers alone today we recognize the teachers aides, people who cooked and served in the lunch room, custodians, bus drivers and support staff of this school:  Mary Burkhart, Arlene Gwynn, Delcie Montgomery, Philgene Montgomery, Omelia Pilson, Burton Reynolds and Annie Tolbert.
 
Teachers who touched the future include: Peggy Best, Mary Sue Bowman, Sandra M. Clement, Jeanne Currier, Nona Flippin, Mary Lee Montgomery and the greatest basketball coach in the history of this school Edward Nester. I never had Dorothy George, Becky Holland, Ann Radford or Toni Wray as teachers, but I think I always had them as friends.
 
We want to acknowledge several married couples who together made a mark on this school: Jean and Charlie Cook, Margie and Homer Hall, Peggy and Clyde Marshall, Maxine and Wendell Smith. Maxine, I think I learned more from you than any teacher I ever had. Peggy, thanks for the letter. Homer, Margie was simply the best. We want to acknowledge the service of Thompson sisters, Maybelle Smith and Mattie Young. I wish Mattie was here with us today.
  
I would like to close with three people who I thought about the most when planning what I would say today. First, let me say to you Evelyn Powell Kurtz. Of all the teachers listed here today and I think all these people were teachers, you had a very special influence on my life. Great teachers bring their subject to life. You took me to my first play. You exposed us to music and art. You were my librarian and other than my mother, you brought books into my life. I thank you for sharing what was not in the textbooks.
 
We want to remember the service of Fred Brim, who could not attend this school due to segregation. He had a dream. He aspired to one day being principal of this school and he achieved that goal. For the students assembled here today let me speak to you in his words, “Do not come to me complaining. You can do whatever you set your mind if you are willing to work and to put forth the effort. Do not let anything stand in your way of getting an education.” I would also tell you to look to the example of Fred Brim. He is one of the best men I have ever known.
 
Today we acknowledge the history of this school. Thirty-Two years ago, I was sitting in the same spot that my favorite drummer Tyler Joe Scales will tomorrow when he graduates from the seventh grade at Blue Ridge and goes off to Patrick County High School. That year was the only year I had my father Erie Meredith Perry as principal, but I have had “Erie-sistible” 45 years as a father. Today we honor his 28 years and the other thirty individuals whose names are carved on the stone sitting beside the flagpole representing nearly a century, 1000 years, of service to Blue Ridge and Patrick County.
 
The Quakers who started this school believe in peace. I hope we have given some peace of mind to these honorees by remembering their service to the school system of Patrick County and their effect on the future through the children they educated. We did not need to carve your names on a stone and if we got it wrong I apologize, but I would rather try than do nothing. You deserved more than that and we needed to say thank you.”
 
Names of Honorees
 
Peggy Best, Teacher                                  
Mary Sue Bowman, Teacher                      
Fred Brim, Principal                                 
Mary Burkhart, Teacher’s Aide           
Sandra M. Clement, Teacher                                  
Charlie Cook, Principal                     
Jean S. Cook (Charlie’s wife), Teacher’s Aide                       
Jeanne Currier, Teacher                      
Nona Flippin, Teacher                                              
Dorothy George, Teacher                      
Arlene Gwynn, Teacher’s Aide                       
Margie Hall, Secretary                                
Homer Hall (BR High School)                       
Becky Holland, Teacher                      
Clyde Marshall, Teacher                                  
Peggy Marshall, Teacher                      
Delcie Montgomery, Custodian       
Mary Lee Montgomery, Teacher                      
Philgene Montgomery, Custodian       
Edward Nester, Teacher                      
Erie M. Perry, Principal                     
Omelia Pilson, Lunch Room               
Evelyn Powell, Librarian                     
Ann Radford, Teacher                                  
Burton Reynolds, Bus Driver              
Maxine Smith, Teacher                      
Wendell Smith (BRHighSchool), Teacher       
Maybelle T. Smith, Teacher                      
Annie Tolbert, Lunch Room               
Tony Wray, Teacher                                  
Mattie T. Young, Teacher 

                                               

On May 17, 2007, at 1:30 p.m. a ceremony was be held to honor eight teachers and staff for their service to the Patrick County School System was held. Last year Tom Perry worked with Supervisor Jonathan Large, School Board Member Billy Aldridge and the staff of Blue Ridge Elementary School and the School Board Office to honor his father retired Blue Ridge Principal Erie M. Perry and thirty others with twenty years of service in the school system from the Dan River District or at Blue Ridge School.

Honorees For 2007

Teachers                                               Staff

Evelyn Hazelwood                                Clarence Bowman

Katie Hiatt                                           Gray Bowman
Agnes King                                           Otis Clements
Betty Kirkpatrick                                  Jewell Haynes
Lola Weatherman

Comments by Tom Perry

            Thank you all for coming today. I especially want to thank those former honorees who contributed to continue this project, Peggy and Clyde Marshall, Dorothy George and Maxine Smith. I would like to thank the Blue Ridge PTO and especially Ann Guynn Markwith, Lola Weatherman’s niece, who twice has come through to assist with this project.

            The original idea here was to honor the service of people while they are still alive. We made some mistakes last year, but I would rather try and fail than not to try at all. We should remember the positive contributions that people make and we should say thank you. I wanted to honor my father’s nearly thirty years of service to the school system of Patrick County and am glad he could join us today for this event.

            I especially want to thank Supervisor Jonathan Large, whose family gave the two acres of land for this school 118 years ago. Without you Jonathan this would have never happened. Thanks to Principal Deekens, School Board Member Billy Aldridge and congratulations to Superintendent Judy Lacks on her service and her upcoming retirement. No disrespect to Mrs. Lacks, but the new Superintendent Roger Morris co-wrote a novel about J. E. B. Stuart. You can never have too many books about Ararat’s own J. E. B. Stuart. Today we honor Betty Kirkpatrick, who retires this year after taking care of the J. E. B. Stuart books and all the books in the Patrick County High School Library.

            James Ewell Brown “Jeb” Stuart did not attend Blue Ridge School. Nor did Orlean Puckett, but the third most famous person from Ararat, Bob Childress I believe did. The children here today have these famous people from the same place they come made their imprint on this nation whether in the military, helping to bring children into the world and saving the souls of those before they left this mortal coil. One person who did attend Blue Ridge was Fred Brim, who due to our nation’s segregation policy had to watch the bus go by him every morning because of his race he could attend Blue Ridge, but he became the principal of Blue Ridge Elementary.

            I brought my first grade annual, Harvest, with me today as Fred Brim taught Chemistry and Math in 1967. We were the first segregated class in Patrick County history. It was the “Summer of Love” when hippies were invading San Francisco and The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper. That year the annual was dedicated to one of our honorees Evelyn Martin now Hazelwood, who taught Math. Another honoree was Lola Weatherman, who taught Home Economics and sponsored the Future Homemakers of America. We are pleased to have Lola’s brothers Theodore and Gray Guynn with us along with wives Bertie and Louise and niece Marie Guynn, who is the Secretary of this school.

            Katie Hiatt taught fourth grade in 1967. Two years later she would teach third grade and be my teacher. I did not have much hair in the 1960s, but Katie Hiatt found it.

Bus Drive Otis Clements was in the annual and we are pleased to have his daughter in law, our former Dan River District Supervisor Kathy Clements with us today. After school I walked across the road and spent several hours with Agnes King, who we honor today. Aunt Aggie was a place for Coca-Cola, Fifth Avenue candy bars and talk about history when not playing Rook with Arthur Boyd.

            These nine people we honor today did as the marker says they touched the future they taught. If you do not think a bus driver influences the kids on his or her bus, you never rode from Willis Gap all the way to Patrick County High School. Today we honor the service of

Clarence Bowman

Gray Bowman

Otis Clements

Jewel Haynes

Evelyn Hazelwood

Katie Hiatt

Agnes King

Betty Kirkpatrick

and 94 years young Lola Weatherman, Aunt Lola.

            Like the Friends of Quakers who believe in Peace, I hope today we bring some peace of mind to those who spent their lives touching the future educating the children of Patrick County. These nine and the thirty-one from last year who touched the future.