Buckingham Schools: Award-winning Teachers

Buckingham High School.  Courtesy Historic Buckingham.

Many years ago, the oldest records concerning Buckingham County schools were destroyed. Today, scattered records can be found in archives and, occasionally, we can learn something about schools and teachers in announcements printed in historic newspapers.

In December of 1911, Richmond’s The Times-Dispatch printed a congratulatory article, sent from Arvonia, listing prize-winning teachers and their schools—both white and African-American. The awards were given out on Patron’s Day, observed on October 27.

Here’s a list of the best of Buckingham’s educators in 1911 and their schools:

White teachers

First prize: Miss Agnes White, Gold Hill School, Marshall District. Miss White received a set of books.

Second prize: Miss Bessie Patteson, Cut Bank School, Maysville District. Miss Patterson won a set of books.

Third prize: Mrs. S. B. Bondurant, Buckingham High School, Maysville District. Mrs. Bondurant was given a book.

Colored teachers

First prize: Jennia A. Starr, Tongue Quarter School, Curdsville District. Miss Starr won “a handsome picture.”

Second prize: Mary Tharps, Cedar School, Curdsville District. Miss Tharps received a book.

Third prize: Annie Coleman, Red Bottom School, James River District. Miss Coleman also won a book.

Honorable mentions included: Miss May Woody (Andersonville), Miss Anita Hall (the Snoddy School), Miss Mollie Butcher (Mount Zion School), and Mamie Spencer (Well Water School, colored).

Patrons Day was enthusiastically celebrated, with about seventy schools involved. Roughly 700 patrons were present. Forty speeches were made by visitors and approximately $500 was collected for “general purposes”—presumably for supporting the Buckingham County school system. The article concluded, “The County school board appropriated a sum at its last meeting for the purpose of supplementing the sum given by the division superintendent for prizes to teachers.”

Do you have a Buckingham County school teacher in your family? Please comment below.

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