tion at
public expense. The beginning of Negro education in this county was
consequent upon the migration of Negroes to the coal fields. Many of
them were interested in education and became its best patrons. Among
those were Samuel Morgan, A. W. Slaughter, J. H. Shelton, J. D.
Shelton, Aaron Chiles, Thomas Chiles, Randal Booker, Thomas Bradley,
Oliver Jones, Ballard Rotan, Anderson Rotan, R. J. Perkins, Aaron
Calloway, Mat Jordan, Henry Robinson, S. H. Hughes, Wellington
Henderson, John Carrington, James Caul, George Moss, and Pleasant
Thomas.

The first school established in Fayette County was that at Montgomery,
in 1879. It was opened by H. B. Rice, a pioneer teacher in Kanawha
Valley who had completed his education at Hampton Institute. For three
years Mr. Rice taught in one room of the home of Thomas H. Norman, an
intelligent and progressive Negro who, realizing the importance of
education as a leverage in the uplift of his people, early made
sacrifices for the establishment of this school. The school was then
taught in a shanty. Inasmuch as at the end of one year, that is, by
1883, the Negro population had rapidly increased, this uncomfortable
building was very much over-crowded and the school had to be divided
so that part of it could be taught in the Baptist church nearby, until
it secured better quarters. Among the teachers who toiled in this
district were Mrs. A. G. Payne, Mrs. Anna Banks, Misses Sadie Howell,
Julia Norman, Annie Parker, M. E. Eubank, Mrs. F. D. Railey, Mr.
George Cuzzins, Mrs. M. A. W. Thompson, Miss L. O. Hopkins, Miss
Lizzie Meadows, Mr. J. W. Scott, Miss Rebecca I. Bullard, Miss Mattie
Payne Trent, Mrs. Lola M. Lavender Mack, Miss Nellie M. Lewis, Miss
Ida M. King and Mr. H. H. Railey. The last mentioned not only attained
distinction as the principal of this school, but so impressed his
constituents as to be elected to the West Virginia Legislature.[22]

The impetus given to education at Montgomery was productive of
desirable results in other towns in Fayette County. The second Negro
school to be established in Fayette County was that Quinnimont in
1880. A storm of protest made the life of the teacher almost
intolerable, although he was a white man. The school-house had to be
guarded, but Rev. M. S. G. Abbot taught it two years. Then came Mr. R.
D. Riddle, mentioned above in connection with the school at
Ronceverte.[23]

At Eagle, not far from Montgomery, there settled groups of Negroes