der of power and influence throughout the State of
West Virginia. He reorganized the school, improved the methods of
instruction, and supplied it with a library. He endeared himself to
the people here, as he did wherever he was known; and, although he was
several times offered higher salaries elsewhere, he preferred to toil
among the people of Weston for less compensation. The results which he
obtained, while laboring among these people, stand as a monument
justifying the sacrifice which he made to serve them.[13]

The next school of importance in this part of the State was that of
Piedmont, since then designated as the Howard School. Educational
efforts began in this section about six years after the Civil War.
Prior to that time the few Negroes coming into Piedmont were too
migratory to necessitate any outlay for their education. Some efforts
were made to secure their education through private instruction in the
fundamentals, and a little progress therein was noted. Years later
there came such substantial friends of education as the Barneses, the
Masons, the Thomases, the Biases, and the Redmons. There was no
organized effort to establish a real public school, however, until the
year 1877, when one John Brown, being influential with one Mr. Hyde,
then President of the Board of Education, induced him to provide a
school-room and hire a teacher for the instruction of the Negroes. The
following persons, since known as Mrs. Emma Stewart (Mason), Miss
Mary Thomas, Mr. John Brown, Jr., Miss Alice Brown, and Mr. Harry
Bias, presented themselves as the first students of this school. One
Mr. Ross, a white man, was the first instructor. The next teacher of
this school was a white man, and he was followed by a member of his
own race.

The early history of this school published in 1919 states that the
attendance was regular and that after three years of conducting a
private school the board of education formally established this as a
public school in the year 1880, with Mrs. Steiglar, a white woman, as
instructor. The school was still held in the private building which
has since been occupied by the Williams, Redmon, and Taylor families
of that vicinity. After this school was conducted thus for about ten
years, there came a change which marked the epoch of progress in
education in Piedmont. This was the time when the white teachers were
exchanged for those of Negro blood, who having more interest in their
race, and treating the