n. In the spring of 1873, Mr. William Scott Brown, who had by
marriage connected himself with the Cabell family, was elected trustee
in the Union district, and by his efforts a Jenny Lind one-room
building, small and creditably furnished, was erected on a lot
purchased by the board of education from Mrs. Cabell for twenty-five
dollars, on the site now occupied by the family of Mr. Solomon Brown
of Institute. The trustees chose Mr. Samuel Cabell as the first Negro
public school teacher of the district. The method of qualifying as a
teacher was purely perfunctory, as a license to teach was easily
obtained by nominal examination. The term was four months.[27] The
line of teachers from 1886 may be traced from records of the board of
education of the district. Short tenure of office for a few years
seems to have been the rule until the recent years dating from 1918.
It is the opinion of Mr. W. A. Brown and others of the old system that
the quality of the local school has grown better. The establishment of
the West Virginia Collegiate Institute at this point is considered the
greatest factor contributing to such development.[28]

The next school of consequence established on Kanawha River was the
Langston School of Point Pleasant, in Mason County. This institution
was organized in 1867 by Eli Coleman, its first teacher. He toiled for
seven years in the one-room frame structure at the end of Sixth
Street. At the very beginning the enrolment was sixty-four, some of
the students being adults. The school continued as an ungraded
establishment for a number of years, working against many handicaps,
until the independent district was established and provided better
facilities. This school then had a board of five trustees, three
whites and two Negroes, and was incorporated into the city system by
the Board of Education and placed under the supervision of the
Superintendent of the Point Pleasant Public Schools.

Some of the early teachers following Mr. Coleman were J. H. Rickman,
later principal of the colored school in Middleport, Ohio, P. H.
Williams, Mrs. Lillie Chambers, Florence Ghee, Fannie Smith and Lida
Fitch. In 1885 the school had grown sufficiently to justify the
employment of two teachers. These were then L. W. Johnson as principal
and Miss Hattie C. Jordan as his assistant. Mr. Johnson served until
1890 when he was succeeded by Miss Lola Freeman as principal with
Samuel Jordan as assistant for one year. The Board of Edu