What was going on in the world when the first high school classes began in St. Albans, WV one hundred years ago?  How long did it take for the world news to filter down to our small town?  And, how did they get the world news?

St. Albans history books can not pin point exact dates but it is likely the “St. Albans Herald” was being published in 1909.  The ownership of the paper changed several times between 1900 and 1917 and if it was being published it was not a daily paper.  Papers from Huntington and Charleston would arrive via train, and more often than not, a day late.  However all towns that were on the railroad line had depots and all train depots had a telegraph operator who transmitted in Morse code, not only the location of trains, their arrival and departure times from other stations along the line but breaking world and state news.  The railroad telegraph was the fastest way for major news to reach small communities.

One of the major news stories of the world occurred on April 6, 1909 when Admiral Robert E. Peary finally achieved his goal of reaching the North Pole after five previous attempts.  The Admiral was accompanied by Matthew Henson, a black man, and four Eskimos.

William Howard Taft was elected President of the United States in November of 1908.  The twenty seventh president was inaugurated in March of 1909 as President of the forty six states.  He was a Republican who had been groomed for the office by Theodore Roosevelt but his conservatism angered the former President who refused to support him in the next election.  Taft’s administration broke up both Standard Oil and Tobacco trusts and instituted the Department of Labor.  One Hundred years later the Taft name is still synonymous with the Republican Party and politics in the state of Ohio.

Another news story which probably did not garner a lot of attention was the May 30^th National Conference of the Negro.  This 1909 Conference continues to impact our world today because it was the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People or NAACP.

March 4^th, 1909 the State of West Virginia inaugurated the thirteenth Governor of the state, William M. O. Glasscock.  His administration was beset with problems from its beginning.  It was during this administration that the famous Mine Wars became headline news.  The Governor had a personal antagonist in the person of the famous Mother Jones.  She was in the state to organize unions for the Coal Miner.  A fiery, small woman who did not personify a proper lady of the times, she had a colorful vocabulary and an un-printable nickname for Gov. Glasscock.  He was responsible for her arrest and internment in eastern Kanawha County.

Sadly, mob justice could still rule in the state and did.  In Whitmer, Randolph County a mob of hooded men broke into the jail and lynched a man by the name of Joe Brown.  Mr. Brown had shot the local Police Chief of that small town.

In April of 1909, the Charleston Gazette printed a story about a group of women that met in the home of Mrs. W.B. Shober.  Nine women were in attendance and although they had much to discuss, including the right of women to vote, this meeting was the formation of the Women’s Club of Charleston.  They established the dues as 5 cents a month or 60 cents per year.  The Charleston Women’s Club will be celebrating their beginnings with teas, dinners and various functions through out 2009.

In western Kanawha County, the small town of St. Albans was growing and as testimony to that a new bank began at the corner of Main St. and Pennsylvania Ave; The First National Bank of St. Albans.  A new business known as St. Albans Bottling Works began on 4^th Ave.  Its bottled soft drink was quite successful and outlets were established all along the Coal River.  The local telephone company relocated to the second floor of the new Hereford Building on Main St.  In November of 1909, the first long distance call was made from the location to Cincinnati, Ohio.  This long distance call would have had to be routed through other switch boards between St. Albans and Cincinnati.  Today the Hereford Building is occupied by Chandler Floor Covering.  W. L. Lynch owned a furniture store on Main St. and he built a sturdy two story home on Sixth Ave.  The Lynch home is still an occupied residence and a charming asset to the 900 block of Sixth Avenue.

The Rector of St. Marks Episcopal Church, Arthur W. Lewis received a check from the Federal Government in the amount of $2,400.00 for damages incurred by the Federal Troops when they used the Church as a stable during the Civil War.

Ulysses S. Jarrett was the Mayor of St. Albans. At that time the Mayors were elected to one year terms between the years of 1899 and 1915 Mr. Jarrett served seven terms as the City’s Mayor.  He was either a good man or one heck of a politician.

W. W. Trent, the man who can truly be called the founder of St. Albans High School, was hired as Principal of St. Albans Grade School for the sum of $112.50 a month.

These highlights were taken from Almanac’s, History Books and a Facts and Trivia Page from the Internet. It helps also to have a friend and former class mate who is a Research Librarian so many thanks to Margaret Bassitt.

As St. Albans High School prepares to celebrate its Centennial Celebration the first week end of October, 2009 it presents a perfect opportunity to give accolades to a family that in all likelihood holds a record.  Their amazing record has probably not been equaled or surpassed in the past hundred years.  They had thirteen children graduate from St. Albans High School.

James Ruffner and Ida Miles married in 1921 and settled on a farm in the Brown’s Creek area close to St. Albans where they raised fifteen children; one child died in infancy.  Thirteen of those children graduated from St. Albans High School. One son had his education interrupted due to military service however he did later complete his education by earning his GED.  The value for education and the work ethic they instilled in their children is reflected by this record number of graduates from one family.

The numbers continue to grow as James and Ida had twenty two grandchildren graduate from SAHS and to date 12 great grandchildren.  The total number of their direct family to have graduated is 47.  Listed below are the names of the first generation of graduates and the class’s they were in:

Trilbe                   1940                Stanley Ross 1959
Olive Ruth           1942                Sandra Kay    1960
Kelly Thornton   1944                Dennis Ray    1962
Velma Sue         1946                Barbara Jean 1964
Leroy                   1948                Linda Lou       1966
Glen Carrol        1950                Gerald Kyle     1968
Robert Eugene 1952

August 17th, 2009

In the spring of 1909, the minutes of the St. Albans City Council show that they hired a gentleman by the name of W.W. Trent to serve as Principal of St. Albans Grade School.  Mr. Trent was hired on the recommendation of one of the schools esteemed teachers, Mr. S.C. Blair.  His starting salary was one hundred and twelve dollars and fifty cents per month.  In the new fall term he was not only to serve as Principal but to teach the first freshmen class of the new high school.

The year that W W. Trent came to St. Albans the city did not have a Board of Education, all decisions regarding schools were made by the seven members of the St. Albans City Council.  The city operated and ran its own school system; a board of education was not named by the city council until 1913-1914.

Who was W.W. Trent and what was his background?  What kind of man was the man who began the first St. Albans High School Classes?   Since he initiated the very first classes for the new ninth grade it would be remiss not to acknowledge his work and something about the man who began an institution which has survived a hundred years.   

William Woodson Trent was born on January 31, 1878 on a farm near Mt. Nebo in Nicholas County.  He was the fifth of seven children born to Thomas Trent and Mary McClung Trent.   All of the Trent children received their education in local schools.  At an early age he realized he wanted more than the precarious, hard life of a farmer and his ambition to be an educator began.  He studied and passed the examination for a teaching certificate and began his teaching career in 1896 in a rural school on Big Laurel Creek in Nicholas County, he was 18 years old.  With money saved from his teaching job and by living with an older married sister who resided in Huntington he was able to attend Marshall State Normal School, now Marshall University, completing his courses in 1902.

He served as Principal and taught for the next three years at New Martinsville High School.  Again, by saving his money he was able to attended West Virginia University for the next two years. He accepted the position in St. Albans as Grade School Principal and began higher level classes for about thirty students.  He remained at St. Albans for only one school year leaving to become Superintendent of Davis Schools in Tucker County where he remained for the next five years.  While residing in Tucker County Mr. Trent attended summer classes and completed his degree in 1912 from West Virginia University

In 1915, Mr. Trent became Superintendent of the Elkins Schools and also began attending summer classes at Columbia University in New York, N.Y. working toward his Masters Degree in Education.  It took him nine years to complete that degree graduating in 1921.

W. W. Trent was a man of stamina, energy and fortitude with deep religious convictions. While employed in the field of education and studying to complete his own education he still found time to serve on the executive committee of the state education association (1917) was secretary of the West Virginia Education Association (1919-1927) and was editor of the influential West Virginia School Journal (1923-1927).  He was becoming well known through out the state for his vision of education for West Virginia children and as an outspoken advocate for teachers.

Always a man of deep religious faith and active in The Baptist Church at both the local and state level his lifelong beliefs and aspirations combined and came to fruitation when in 1927 Mr. Trent was appointed President of Alderson and Broaddus College, a Baptist College in Philippi, WV.  He served in that capacity for six years from 1927 until 1933.

While serving as President of Alderson and Broaddus College, Mr. Trent decided to enter the West Virginia political arena.  Having risen through the ranks from teaching in a one room school to serving as a top college administer and at 55 years of age Mr. Trent ran for the office of State Superintendent of Schools.  He ran as a Democrat in the 1931 election and took office the same year that Franklyn Roosevelt became United States President and Herman B Kump was elected Governor.

Mr. W. W. Trent soon became a force to be reckoned with as he was forceful, fierce and an outspoken defender of school teachers.  He was re-elected to the office of Superintendent of state schools five times. Polling statistics show he polled more votes each election than the men running for Governor.

In 1933 he was instrumental for the employment of Negro assistants to county superintendents in all 55 counties which had 50 or more Negro teachers.  When Brown vs. Brown came down from the United States Supreme Court in 1955 thanks to Mr. Trent and Gov. Wm. Marland all of the state schools were integrated in a peaceful and speedy manner.  The state was spared the ugly scenes that ensued in other southern states.  His political career ended in 1957 with the landmark election of a Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower and a Republican Governor Cecil Underwood.  He was 79 years old when he the left the Superintendent office having served in some area of education for 61 years.

St. Albans had to hold special memories for Mr. Trent because he came to the town with his new wife, their first year of married life was spent in St. Albans.  W. W. Trent married Isabel Carmichael in August of 1909; they had met while both were students at Marshall Normal School. They had delayed their plans for marriage seven years.  Mr. Trent stated that the job in St. Albans allowed him to propose marriage to Ms. Carmichael as a gentleman could not marry that could not support a family. Three children were born to the couple; William C., Mary Bell and Agnes, they had a total of nine grandchildren.  The Trents maintained a home in Elkview, WV.  Mr.Trent was visiting cousins, the Huling family, in Teays Valley when he suffered a massive heart attack and was pronounced DOA at Thomas Hospital in South Charleston on June 15, 1960 at the age of 82.

In his book, Mountaineer Educator published in 1960, he fondly remembers St. Albans and said, “It was my privilege to organize and teach its first freshmen class.”  It was St. Albans High School that was privileged to have had such a dynamic founding father.  Not since his demise has the state had such an outstanding leader in Education.  Mr. Trent’s life is a testimony to the one theme that was a constant throughout his life; EDUCATION.  He was the consummate educator and thousands of West Virginia children still benefit from his hard work, foresight and vision.