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Ashwood School holds rich history
BY MARGO OXENDINE • STAFF WRITER
ASHWOOD - Sometimes, a building can become so much a familiar part of the landscape that it can seem forgotten. And surely, the old Ashwood School - disbanded in 1969 in favor of a shiny new school across the road - had fallen into disrepair. The roof had caved in, the floors were a mess, debris was four feet high in places.
Yet it was still a place that evoked fond memories of golden school days. And now, those memories can be stirred yet again at the rejuvenated Old Ashwood School Antiques.
Owners Pat Broyles and Dean Humphries have worked long and hard to renovate and rebuild the brick icon, so dear to so many hearts. All the while, Broyles and Humphries kept a keen eye on history. To that end, they invited a group of school-aged children to participate in an archaeological dig last summer.
"We sure found out that kids love to dig," Broyles said last Saturday, during an open house at the renovated school. "When they were forced to take a break during the rain, they kept begging to go back outside and dig."
While the kids played inside the 8,000-square-foot school during the downpour, Humphries got a thrill.
"The halls were echoing with kids laughing, talking and playing," he said. "It gave us a true feeling of how the place must have sounded so many years ago."
Architect Charles M. Robinson designed the building, which first opened its doors as a high school in 1908. In 1927, when Valley High School opened in Mitchelltown, Ashwood became an elementary school. It served that purpose for more than 40 years, until 1969.
A display depicting the history of the school sits just inside the front door of Old Ashwood School Antiques. On one side are bookshelves, and on those shelves are schoolbooks that chronicle six decades of learning and enjoyment. Inside the flaps are scrawled students' names, who loved whom, what the homework for March 3, 1942 might have been. Those who attended school in Ashwood should take a special look at these; there is a handwritten list on one shelf that shows the names longgone students wrote inside the books.
A display case features artifacts dug up during that fun day last summer - the penknives that were not yet illegal to possess, pencils sharpened by those knives until they were less than an inch long, fountain pen caps, milk bottles, toy soldiers depicting both World Wars.
These toy soldiers are a testament to the vibrant, vital life the school led, as it served three, four, or perhaps even more generations of students.
The Pete Haynes family, touring the building and buying little somethings Saturday, attested to the fact that Pete's wife Charlotte's mother, May Smith, had Mrs. Vina Shaver for her first grade teacher. So did Pete Haynes. So did his daughter, Kathy Johnson.
The teachers at Ashwood were most beloved. Every person passing through the place Saturday smiled when they walked into Vina Shaver's, or Mary Simpson's, or Una Waskey's classroom. They remembered Miss (Mary Susan) Revercomb with more affection than an elementary school principal might hope for. "She was a lot prettier than that, as I recall," one old student said, looking at her photograph.
Mrs. Shaver was the self-appointed historian of Ashwood School during its heyday. In the late 1950s, she typed a history of the place for the PTA.
She began her reminiscences with an eloquent paragraph about those who have gone before: "Tiny tombstones or larger shafts dot our surrounding cemeteries, marking the graves of a host of noble men and women who have left us a heritage we call History," she wrote. "These markers are at best but a token of respect; the real significance of the lives whose dust lies underneath is marked by the lives they lived here, and the contribution they made in service to this community
"The present and future of this community is so tightly bound up in these past lives that we name them here É as a tribute to the memories of those who were our friends, our neighbors, our fathers and our mothers. Literally, 'There were giants in those days.' Here they are," she continued. "The past patrons of this early school."
On the page are names familiar to any Bath native. John Hornbarger, Robert Mustoe, C.W. Richardson, H.T. Herman, Dave Burger, Harry Snead, Henry Hoover, Tom Jackson, N.H. and Layton Williams. The list continues with J.F. Lowman, James Fleshman, Benjamin and James Layman, and three Keysers - Marsh, Floyd, and L.M. The families of James Matthews, C.L. Rayburn, William Payne and George Chaplin are also preserved for history.
"This group was instrumental in organizing the first School League in 1915," Mrs. Shaver wrote. "Mrs. H.T. Herman was the first president, and Mrs. C.W. Richardson was the first secretary and treasurer. This organization was a very active one, and accomplished many things for the welfare of the school and community. Ashwood School was the first high school of Bath County, and along with Warm Springs School, is one of the two oldest high schools in the county."
Mrs. Shaver's history, preserved by and borrowed for this article from the Bath County Historical Society, also notes, "Many of today's outstanding citizens were pupils at this school, and this history would not be complete without mentioning a few of these students. Mrs. George Taylor, Mrs. Ruth Hoover Lide (and) Mrs. Tim Carpenter were three former students and very successful teachers of Ashwood School. Gratton Payne, Bruce Richardson (and) Carl Hoover became very successful superintendents of schools in this county."
Other Ashwood students who received Mrs. Shaver's acclaim were Mrs. Helen Jackson, Mrs. Gladys Devenny, Bruce, Tom and Dick Richardson, Sadie Hornbarger, Mrs. Odie Smith, Sam Snead, Berlin and Morris Herman, Edward Lowman, Harry and Ottie Jackson, Mrs. Harvey Chaplin, Miss Maude Layman and Maude Hornbarger Harris. She also mentions Jess, Anthony and Robert Mustoe, noting that Robert "was principal of Ashwood School and is now our county treasurer, a very outstanding citizen."
Mrs. Shaver's piece continues, "last, but not least, we mention our own Doctor (Ira T. "Tom") Hornbarger, the son of the John Hornbarger family, a faithful, courageous, and wise physician of this valley, who also served on the school board for a number of years."
In 1929, shortly after Ashwood became an elementary school, the "School League" became known as the Ashwood PTA. It was the first such organization in the county.
Just because many longtime Hot-Warm-and-Healing Springs residents will welcome being reminded of these now-gone stalwarts of our community, we offer Mrs. Shaver's list of PTA presidents at Ashwood from 1930 through 1954: Mrs. Orvis Dunham, Mrs. Earl Adams, Mrs. J. Arthur, Mr. W.F. Challender, Mrs. Jesse Mustoe, Mr. George Taylor, Dr. Hornbarger, the Rev. Harry Coffman, Mrs. Frank Thompson, Mrs. Pierre Dufour, Mrs. Gordon Haynes, Mrs. Ralph Helmintoller, Mrs. Dan Ward, Mrs. Bart Shaver, Mrs. Jeannette McElwee, Mrs. C.N. Loving, Mrs. Doris Bonner and Mrs. Robert Burrus.
And we should all take heart in and heed Mrs. Shaver's summation:
"Those who have lived in our little community and have gone before, have, we think, provided the wisdom and vision and understanding to inspire those of us who are left to carry on."
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