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Giles County (Va.) School Records, 1818-1911; 1920. Local government records collection, Giles County (Va.) Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va. 23219.
These items came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court papers from Giles County.
The collection is located at the State Records Center. Contact Archives Research Services staff for access information, directions, and hours.
On February 21, 1818, the Virginia legislature passed a school bill which appropriated $45,000 annually from the Literary Fund for the education of poor children. (The Literary Fund had been established in 1810 with passage of a bill to appropriate "certain escheats, confiscated, and forfeited lands" for the "encouragement of learning.") Under the provisions of the 1818 School Act, each county court was required to appoint five to fifteen commissioners to establish and/or administer schools for children of the poor. A more comprehensive public school system was established by the legislature in 1870. Prior to 1818, county courts were given the option of whether to appoint a Board of School Commissioners.
The Virginia Constitution of 1870 mandated Virginia's first statewide public school system. The schools were racially segregated by law until the mid-twentieth century.
Giles County was named for William Branch Giles, United States senator from Virginia in 1806 when the county was created. It was formed from Montgomery, Monroe (now in West Virginia), and Tazewell Counties, and parts of Wythe, Monroe, Mercer (now in West Virginia), Craig, and Tazewell Counties were added later.
Giles County (Va.) School Records, 1818-1911; 1920, contain Board of School Commissioners records, 1818-1843; Board of School Trustees records, 1869-1884 (bulk 1869-1871); Public School Teachers' Registers, 1886-1911, and School Board records (3 items), 1920.
Board of School Commissioners Records, 1818-1848, contain minutes, annual reports to the Virginia Literary Fund, treasurer's accounts, 1818-1848, and school commissioner claims, 1839-1843. Minutes, annual reports, and treasurer's accounts document the annual disbursement of money from the Virginia Literary Fund, including money paid to individual schoolmasters, number of children taught, number of days taught, price per day, per pupil; and money spent on books. Reports and minutes also record the number of schools operating in the county, estimates of the number of children who qualified to attend them, the number attending, names of schoolmasters and schoolmistresses teaching in the schools, salaries paid to teachers. School commissioner claims document commissioners' enrollment of students. They contain the name of student, names of parents, dates of entrance, number of days attended, price of tuition per day, amount spent, branch of learning each child was taught, and school books used.
Board of School Trustees Records, 1869-1884 (bulk 1869-1871), contain administrative records of the Board. They include statistical reports on private schools in Giles County, 1870-1871, correspondence on the subject of textbooks, 1871, receipts for salaries paid to teachers, 1871-1877; a teacher contract, 1884, notes summarizing difficulties encountered by the Board, such as opposition from taxpayers and apathy among the poor; a list of school teacher examinations; and other administrative records of the Board. The statistical reports were compiled for the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. They record name of teacher, grade of school, number of students on rolls, average attendance, total number of teachers, average monthly charge per pupil, estimated amount received from school by teacher per session, number of months school is kept open during the year, and number of primary school houses in the districts.
Public School Teachers' Registers, 1886-1911. Registers contain daily attendance records and monthly and annual statistical summaries of attendance information. The attendance records include name of teacher and name, age, and attendance for each pupil, and subjects studies. The records also contain annual summaries of statistics for each school and a list of text books used. Some registers include information about the school buildings such as style of school house. The collection includes registers for various segregated schools, designated "white" or "colored," in Pearisburg, Narrows, Bluff City, and Boyd Farm on Wolf Creek. Also included are registers for Flat Woods School, Thomas Hale School, Pearisburg High School, and Narrows High School.
School Board Records, 1920, are comprised of three pages documenting the allocation of the four-cent tax warrant among four school districts in Giles County.
Additional Giles County School Records can be found on microfilm at the Library of Virginia. Consult