Port Dumfries — Going to School in Dumfries

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Going to School in Dumfries

By: Lisa Timmerman, Executive Director

One of our favorite outside walking tour destinations (regular and October’s Ghost Walks!) is Dumfries Elementary School, located right down the road from The Weems-Botts Museum. This charming school contains a lot of history!

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The idea of a free statewide public education system was unpopular, to say the least, before the Civil War, politicians actively discouraging and/or preventing any education for enslaved persons. Thanks to Reformation and the Virginia Constitution of 1869, Virginia finally had the ability to create the network, although politicians decided to segregate the students despite opposition and protest from black members of the House of Delegates. The 1870s were a tumultuous time as people openly opposed educating disadvantaged families and the black community. The Census of 1870 indicated that 44% of people in the state older than the age of 10 could not read. 1 of 4 white children and 9 of 10 black children could not write. The state had 2,024 schools, but only about seven went beyond the elementary level. By the 1880s, while voters were able to keep politicians and officials who actively worked to oppose public education out of office, many problems remained, such as funding and segregation. By 1886, officials recorded about 197,000 white students and 111,000 black students enrolled in Virginia schools. The formation of many of these early schools came from the parents. They often worked to locate a suitable building and even actively rallied for teachers. Due to the funding issues noted above, teachers occasionally worked without pay – needed maintenance took priority and county money would be diverted to those projects instead of salaries. Typical Virginia education included spelling, reading, handwriting, and map, with grammar and geography offered as advanced. Textbooks taught children the basics while reinforcing values such as hard work and self-discipline.

Fast forward to the early 1900s, and we find Dumfries Elementary taking shape. Dumfries residents, Eula Waters and Cecil Garrison, remembered their schoolhouse as a two-room wooden building, with grades 1-3 in one room, and 4-7 in the other. Wooden stoves provided heat and oral histories note children obtaining water from the Merchant’s well – the well currently sitting near HDVI’s Annex structure. In 1917, the Dumfries District School board funded and opened a larger frame schoolhouse with a metal roof, hosting 5 classrooms, an auditorium (with a piano), and a partial basement.

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(HDVI Archival Files: Dumfries Elementary School, Teacher: Nettie Robinson Speake, Promotion Certificate for Goldie Keys, 1917)

Enrollment records from the 1933-1934 indicate that approximately 150 students attended with an average daily attendance of 116. Of those students, 130 received promotions, 30 failed, and 17 dropped out. 4 teachers taught roughly 42 students each in 4 classrooms. In 1933, the school had playground equipment and shrubbery eventually planted along the walkways. The average student attendance rate improved drastically the following year. In 1939, PWC built a one-story brick building in front of the old school and it continued to operate as the primary white elementary school, called Dumfries Graded School. This building had 5 classrooms, an auditorium, office, and 2 bathrooms. Gone were the days of wooden stove heating and well water, as water pumps and electricity modernized Dumfries. The PTA was fundamental to the school’s daily operations and longevity – they paid everything from the school’s gas bill ($234.58 – 2 bills, 1940s) and milk (.04 cents, 1940s). Buses reportedly had up to 93 children packed on them and the PTA successfully lowered that to 75. The most popular fundraiser was the “Womanless Weddings” – fathers dressed as members of the bridal wedding party, including the bride. In 1956, builders added a large one-story addition. The school remained segregated until 1966 when Mary J., Porter, one of the Courageous Four, piloted the desegregation program at Dumfries Elementary School. You can read more about desegregation of the PWC schools in one of our earlier blogs, “The Courageous Four”. It is important to note that while schools received significant reform support during the Progressive Era, schools for white students improved more, increasing the gap between white and black students.

Today, Dumfries Elementary School continues to promote their mission, “Every day we will focus on our goals and encourage each other by making positive choices and working together.” Thanks to dedicated and devoted teachers, encouraging and proactive parents, and passionate administrators, Dumfries Elementary continues to provide our community with many resources and memories.

Note: You can help Historic Dumfries Virginia by donating or joining/renewing our non-profit organization today! For a single payment of $10-$30, you can actively support our efforts to keep local history alive in the community. Thanks to all HDVI members for their continuing dedication to local history!

Interested in a virtual presentation on Dumfries? Set your price with a donation ticket to our “An Artful Fellow: Slavery in Dumfries in the 18th Century” presentation – tickets here!

(Sources: HDVI Archival Files: Dumfries Elementary; “Dumfries Elementary Lessons in History”, Washington Post, 1989, Alice Digilio; Yesterday’s Schools by Lucy Walsh Phinney; Dumfries Elementary School & PWC school information – websites); Encyclopedia Virginia: Establishment of the Public School System in Virginia; Virginia Museum of History & Culture: Education in Virginia)

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