A Voyage Through Time

Onancock, Virginia, 1607-2007

Chapter 8: Education: A Love of Learning

In his 1804 inaugural address, Thomas Jefferson declared the United States to be “in the full tide of a successful experiment.” Onancock was a small but flourishing part of the successful American experiment. The center of town life was the dock which accommodated large sailing vessels, and later, steamships, carrying produce as well as farm and home goods. The town grew because it welcomed trade and commerce, but, from its settlement in 1655, its citizens understood that their continuing prosperity depended on the education of its youth. Just as Onancock was a center of commerce for the Shore, it became a destination for education as well.

Records show that most of the early English settlers were able to sign their own names on deeds and other official documents, so it is probable that basic literacy was the norm. They may have had the experience of guild schools and petty schools in England where elementary arithmetic, reading, writing and catechism were taught. It would take at least a century before formal schools would be established in Onancock, but it would be a mistake to suppose that the lack of formal schools meant a lack of formal schooling. Parents were responsible for the education of their children, and children were educated in their homes. Wealthier parents were able to hire governesses for the younger children and tutors for the older ones. After completing their tutoring, the sons of some settlers were sent to England or to early American colleges such as The College of William and Mary (chartered in 1693) for a university education; others apprenticed with businessmen and professionals in the area to prepare for a successful life.

Whether they were local clergy or laymen who boarded with the family, tutors did not have an easy life. They often “heard recitations” from their students for eight hours each day. Students learned English grammar, ancient and modern languages, writing, arithmetic, and music. Tutors received room, board, laundry services, and a small fee for their labors. Nonetheless, Onancock was seen as a hospitable community whose residents welcomed tutors into their homes, churches, and community life.

Children from other local families often joined the tutoring sessions, and the tutors were allowed to keep their tuition. Over the course of the late eighteenth century, students and tutors gathered in private homes or separate school houses. There are records of a small schoolhouse on Bayside Road south of Onancock which employed a paid instructor. The concept of the neighborhood school was born.

In 1786, Isaiah Bagwell, a disabled revolutionary war veteran, started the first formal school in Onancock. He planned to teach 25 children; and, in his first year, 25 families subscribed to the school. Bagwell charged a fee for each student for heat, candles, and a modest living for himself. The school stood east of the wharf around where Davis Oil is located today. Another school was started by the rector of Saint George’s parish, the Reverend Cave Jones, near the town square in 1797.

Children came from the local area walking or using whatever transportation was available. It is likely that Governor Henry Wise’s sons attended an Onancock school, coming in by boat from the creek or walking into town. We know that their school served both boys and girls as Richard Wise recalled his crush on a “red-headed girl” who rivaled him in spelling class.

Bagwell’s and Jones’ schools were typical of the small “academies” that served the more affluent white children of the area. They were the precursors of today’s private schools. In Child of the Bay, Anne Nock lists five small private schools operating in Onancock from 1786 to 1900; all were in the vicinity of the town square. Often boys and girls were taught separately, had separate entrances and play yards.

By the 1850’s, the demand for trained teachers to staff local academies had become critical. A group of Baptists with a commitment to high-quality female education purchased property in a secluded spot on what was then the outskirts of town. This property later became the site of the Onancock School on College Avenue. The local newspaper described the six-acre campus with views of Onancock Creek as “the Eden of the Shore.” The school became the Atlantic Female College which opened its doors in 1859.

The Atlantic Female College attracted students from outside the local area. School buildings and dormitories were planned to accommodate one hundred students; and, in its first year, the school enrolled 44 boarders and 12 day students. During the Civil War, many of the boarders were daughters of southern sympathizers living in northern states. The destructive effects of the Civil War were not felt in Onancock leaving the Atlantic Female College to prosper in relative serenity. However, whether because of politics or economics, by 1867 enrollment had fallen, and the school closed its doors. The college left a legacy on the Shore, as many of its graduates taught in local schools; in Onancock, the name of College Avenue and the use of the site for education continue to this day.

In 1877, Onancock Academy was chartered. In 1886 its stockholders provided the school with a turreted, two-story, clapboard building on the south side of Kerr Street. The new school boasted six large, well-ventilated classrooms and one and one half acres of grounds. Frank Brent, a University of Virginia graduate, was brought to Onancock as principal, and W. C. Marshall as a teacher. They taught all the upper school subjects including history, English, Latin, Greek, German, French, science, instrumental and vocal music and book-keeping; the purpose of the school was to provide a broad, liberal education. Other female teachers assisted with the younger children. Physical activity including rowing and skating on Onancock creek was encouraged.

Like the Atlantic Female Academy, the Onancock Academy was not simply a neighborhood school. Although there were certainly many local children, students came from all over the peninsula and even from across the Bay. One student came from far-away Fauquier County. Advertisements for the school featured the ease of transportation to Onancock both by land and by water. Lodging for students and teachers was provided by local families.

Throughout the 1800’s other academies were established on the Shore including schools in Accomac, Machipongo, and Bobtown. Margaret Academy in Bobtown was founded in 1807 where it thrived until after the Civil War. Economic hardship and the advent of public education in the 1870’s caused enrollment to dwindle, but the trustees felt that the academy, once described as the finest classical school on the peninsula, was too great an asset to the Shore for it to be lost. Several towns including Cape Charles, Wachapreaque, and Onancock were considered as sites for the revivified school in 1893, and Onancock won the day. The Cape Charles newspaper published a scathing editorial, but the Wachapreague paper praised Onancock as a community that welcomed scholars to high “moral and social surroundings.” Wachapreague predicted that the new Margaret Academy would be a great success.

Continuing the tradition of Onancock Academy, Margaret Academy was not planned to be simply a local school. Its brochures touted the excellent transportation available to Onancock and the availability of telephone and telegraph communications. In fact, Margaret Academy merged with Onancock Academy and welcomed Frank P. Brent from the Onancock Academy as its new principal. The buildings of the old Atlantic Female Academy were refurbished, and the prediction of success seemed to be true. However, over time, the competition of the new public schools proved too strong, and Margaret Academy closed in 1902.

The history of Margaret Academy may be a largely forgotten episode in the history of Onancock, but its legacy continues into the present day on the Shore. In 1918, the trustees sold the site to the Town of Onancock, and interest from the sale benefited the Eastern Shore Public Library, the Northampton Accomack Memorial Hospital (now Shore Memorial Hospital), and Broadwater Academy; in 1970, the remaining fund was given to the library and Broadwater.

In 1878, a new era in education began in Onancock when J.C Weaver, the first superintendent of Accomack Schools, appointed G.G. Joynes the first public school principal in Onancock. The tiny school met in the somewhat run down chapel of the old Atlantic Female College until a large, airy, four-room school was completed. Called the Field School, it was located on the North side of Kerr Street. The school thrived, and, in 1900, was officially named “Onancock High School.” The building was expanded to meet increasing enrollment. There were three teachers serving 111 lower school and 18 high school students. The first high school class graduated in 1903, and the school continued to grow. By 1907, the enrollment of 210 children, including 61 high school students, had begun to strain even the expanded buildings. The old Onancock Academy building, which had been used as a shirt factory, was acquired by the public schools. The Field School was rolled across the street and attached to the back side of the old turreted building. Local white students could receive an excellent free education; the high school was one of 25 in the state recognized by the state university.

From 1908 through 1915, Onancock High School expanded its curriculum to include teacher education. Juniors and seniors were allowed to take the “Normal School” classes to train as teachers while completing their regular studies. The lower school classes were used for their practice teaching.

By 1918, the school had again outgrown its buildings. The newly purchased Margaret Academy property was chosen as a site for the first brick, architect-designed school building in Onancock.

Students were moved from Kerr Street into the crumbling Margaret Academy buildings while construction progressed. The marble cornerstone containing a copy of the Accomack News was placed in 1921, and a symbolic brick from the old building was included in the back wall.

The principal of the Onancock School was Major Archibald Tanner, a World War I veteran who believed in scholarship and physical education. Major Tanner was known for drilling students on the 14-acre campus with wooden rifles and military precision. He also organized a brass band and was active in the life of the town. The school welcomed town residents assisting in school activities. Before schools provided lunches, townspeople delivered soup and sandwich lunches for needy students.

The new building became more than just a school for the town. Plays, concerts and town meetings were held in the auditorium. Onancock was proud of its school.

In the 1960’s the Onancock school district was consolidated into the Accomack County School Board. By 1970, the school on College Avenue was used only for high school students, and younger students were bussed to county schools. The high school drew both black and white students from the county until Nandua High School opened in 1985.

Since the closing of Onancock High School, the building has been known as Onancock Learning Center housing an alternative school, administrative offices, and a marine science program for talented and gifted students. The age of the venerable building has begun to show. No students fill its halls, and when it is no longer used for offices, the building will revert to the Town of Onancock. Whatever use is made of the College Avenue property in the future, it is hallowed ground.

The public school founded in 1878 by Weaver and Joynes expanded opportunities for education in Onancock to children whose families could not afford private education, but it did not extend those opportunities to black children.

Before emancipation, Virginia law outlawed education for slave children making it a crime for teachers to teach and for black students to learn. In 1867, after the Civil War, a two-room schoolhouse was provided for about 30 young black children in the Poplar Cove section of town. The Bethel AME Church, renovated with funds from the Freedmen’s Bureau, provided space for students who could not be accommodated in the school house. The minister, Josiah H. Hughes, served as teacher saving the cost of boarding a tutor. Supplies were scarce so oral learning often replaced written work.

It was not until 1933 that black children from Onancock had the opportunity to attend high school when the first Mary Nottingham Smith School was built in Accomac. A new Mary Nottingham Smith School was built in northern Accomack in 1953 as a black high school. It became a middle school after integration in the 1970’s.

Although legislation was passed in 1965 which made public schools available to all races, it was 1970 before Accomack County provided equal education for all races.

No one goes to school in Onancock today, and even the last school building on College Avenue will be only a memory soon. Yet Onancock has a rich history of education which should not be forgotten.

Reprinted with permission from author Mary Kay Milligan January 2017

Sources and references

• Anne B. Nock. Child of the Bay. 1992, Hampton Roads Publishing Company

• Kirk Mariner Private research notes on Onancock history.

• Norma Miller Turman. Eastern Shore, 1775-1783. 1976, The Eastern Shore News, Bicentennial Project.