When Pocomoke Was Young- A continuing weekly feature.

 

(Chapter flow:)

ITS ORIGIN AND TOWN LIMITS

TOWN LIMITS

GROWTH, CHANGE OF NAME, ETC.

MERCANTILE ASPECT

MANUFACTURING

TRADES ETC.

SHIPPING INTERESTS

EASTERN SHORE STEAMBOAT CO.

SHIP BUILDING ETC.

HOTELS, LIVERY STABLES, ETC.

PHYSICIANS

LAWYERS

POST OFFICE

PRINTING OFFICES

SOCIAL ASPECT, ETC.

MORAL ASPECT

TEMPERANCE CAUSE

SCHOOLS

CHURCHES

Note:  In duplicating this material for publishing on The Pocomoke Public Eye we have made minor adjustments to correct some of the spelling, punctuation, etc. We believe the errors were not in Rev. Murray's original writing but occurred in the process of formatting the material to a digital format for viewing online.

SCHOOLS (CONTINUED. I) 

In 1865, The General Assembly oi Maryland passed a 
general free school bill for the state, and in 1867, the 
High School Building, in New Town, was erected. Its 
dimensions were fifty-six, by forty feet. It is two stories 
high, with two vestibules fourteen by twenty feet, contain- 
ing in all six school rooms and two vestibules. Four 
of these rooms are twenty eight by forty feet, and two of 
them are fourteen by twenty feet, and will furnish sittings 
for, probably, three hundred scholars. This High School 
Building has been pronounced, by the Superintendent 
of the Public Schools of Maryland to be the finest building 
of the kind on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. It stands 
on a plat of ground of about three acres, in an eligible 
part of the town. It is well laid out with trees of different 
kinds, and is enclosed with a plank fence, with a good 
hedge coming on. The Free Public High School of New 
Town was opened in 1867, with Rev. Joseph L. Polk as 
principal. His successors in that office were, William X. 
Page, R. K.W 'imbroughand, (?) Dr. Sidney W. Handy who is 
the present principal. They have had the following named 
persons associated with them as assistant teachers, Nettie 
O'Daniel. Mary M. Hearn, Charles H. Council, Millie 
Primrose, John W. Murray, George S. Bell, Eudora E. 
Hay, Ebenezer Hearn, Julius T. Hall, Richard A. Wilson 
Fannie Matthews, Maggie Webb, Rose Tull, Hillary T. 
Stevenson, John S. McMaster, William S. Dix, Emma 
Robinson, Ella Scott, Rose Marshall and Sally Henderson. 
The school is graded into primary, grammar and High 
School departments, and is at present taught by the 
principal and five assistant teachers, who are infusing a 
spirit into their scholars, to excel. 

There have already gone out, from this school, young 
men well qualified for any position to which any of the 
various callings of life might invite them. Some are 
ministers, some physicians, some lawyers and some teachers. 
While there are others filling the most important places of 
trust and responsibility in business life. Many of the 
young ladies, who have graduated at this school, are 
teaching various schools in this and the adjoining county. 

I shall close the subject of the High School and the 
grand work it is performing, by giving a brief sketch of 
the principal and teachers, or make such remarks in 
regard to them as I may be able. The Rev. Joseph L. 
Polk, was born near Princess Anne, in Somerset County, 
Md and was educated in the academy of that place, and 
at Jefferson College, Penn. After graduating at the latter 
place with honor, the degree of A. M. was conferred upon 
him. He then commenced teaching school in Dorchester 
County, Md; but feeling that he was called to preach the 
gospel, he entered the theological seminary at Princeton, 
N.J., where he remained for two years, when he received 
a unanimous call to become the Pastor of the Pitts Creek, 
Presbyterian Church at New Town, Md. To this work 
he gave his earnest and ardent efforts, and was very 
successful. 

When the New Town High School was established in 
its new and handsome buildings, Mr. Polk desirous of 
seeing the cause of education placed upon a higher and 
more advanced plane, was induced to apply for the position 
of principal, to which he was appointed by the County 
Board of School Commissioners. For this position he was 
peculiarly fitted, having a deep interest in the young, and 
being a natural educator and fond of the work, and withal 
a man of large public spirit, he entered upon this work 
with energy and zeal. Being aided by a competent corps 
of teachers, this school was at once placed in the front rank 
and was soon recognized as the best organized and most 
successful school on the Eastern Shore. Parents from the 
adjoining counties and some from a distance recognized 
the character of the school, and wishing to have their 
children under its instruction, availed themselves of this 
opportunity, and the school increased in numbers until 
over three hundred pupils names were on the school 
registers. Then it became necessary to enlarge the corps 
of teachers and two or three more assistants were added. 
To Rev. Joseph L. Polk the citizens of Pocomoke City 
and vicinity owe more perhaps than they are aware of, 
for while the work of education went gradually on without 
ostentation or display on his part, it is a fact that whatever 
success has attained by and through this institution, it is 
due largely to his ability and to his wise and judicious 
management in the organization and conduct of the school. 
As a minister he was popular and greatly beloved by his 
church. After serving them faithfully for seventeen years he 
was urged to take charge of the Academy at Newark, Del., 
and he felt constrained by a sense of duty to his growing 
family to resign his charge and accept the proffered 
position. Mr. Wm, N. Page succeeded Mr. Polk as prin- 
cipal of the High School. He, however, only remained 
one year in that position. He was a native of Virginia; 
he had a fine education and was a high-toned Christian 
gentleman. After resigning the position he returned to 
Virginia again. 

In 1872, Mr. Richard I. Wimbrough succeeded Mr. 
Page in the principalship of the High School and held that 
position for three years. Richard Kelly Wimbrough, the 
son of a respectable farmer, was born in Accomac County, 
Va., in the year 1843. At an early age he lost both of 
his parents and came under the guardian care of Mr. 
Nehemiah W. Nock, a farmer and merchant of Mappsville 
in Accomac County. This gentleman took young Mr. 
Wimbrough to live with him, treated him with great kind- 
ness and sent him to school whenever there happened to 
be any school open near enough for him to attend. At 
ten years of age he had him apprenticed in Snow Hill, 
Md.to learn the trade of a tailor. Nothing was observed 
at this time either in the young apprentice's conduct or 
disposition that indicated for himself a career different from 
that of other boys of his class and circumstances; in other 
words, it was supposed he would make a tailor simply. 
But shortly after he acquired a great fondness for reading 
and developed an earnest disposition to study. From the 
Academy boys who used to frequent "the shop" and 
often prepare their lessons there, he obtained books, the 
boys becoming his teachers. But no time was given him 
for study; his method was this: While working on the 
board he would keep his book propped open at his side, 
at whose jeweled page glancing from time to time he 
would glean from it the substance his young ambition so 
much craved. All spare moments, too, were given to 
study. In winter he would sit up long after "working 
hours" and often with no other light than that furnished 
by the door of the store, he would pore over page after 
page of spelling, English grammar, arithmetic, geography 
or history, regardless of the lateness of the hour or the 
labors of the ensuing day. In this way these studies were 
successfully pursued and that foundation laid upon which 
was based afterwards, effected by the same unremitting 
toil and diligence, a fine classical education. 

In the meantime occurred an event which would have 
been of the greatest benefit to Mr. Wimbrough if his 
influence toward securing it had been equal to the measure 
of his deserving it. A free Scholarship became vacant in 
Washington College, a state institution situated at Chester- 
town. It was to be filled by a competitive examination of 
the candidates. Many of young Wimbrough's friends 
being desirous that he should become a candidate and 
promising aid to secure his release from his indentures if 
he should be successful, he applied for the position. The 
contestants came from the several academics of the 
county, fresh from their books and their teacher's instruc- 
tions; young Wimbrough came from "the shop." But 
by some ill luck, although it was known that the result of 
his examination was not inferior, he did not receive the 
appointment. It was a sad blow to his hopes, but did not 
check his ardent eagerness for learning. He went back 
to "the shop" and his books, to try again. Another 
opportunity might occur, he would be prepared the next 
time. But no such ever occurred: his college goal had to 
be reached by means wholly of his own making. These 
efforts, directed in the way I have described, could not 
fail to attract notice and win friends. His intimate 
associates were the more advanced students among the 
academy boys, who now one, now another had been 
mainly, his teachers. The older men, too, often spoke 
kind and encouraging words. But his most valuable 
friend was found in Mr. Sewell T. Milbourn, a young man 
of superior talents and of high social position, who had 
recently returned to Snow Hill, from Dickinson College 
where he had graduated with distinction. This young 
man became his friend and teacher, inspiring him by his 
own learning and giving time and personal care to his 
instructions. The influence of this connection was of 
the greatest service to young Wimbrough, as it enabled 
him to pursue those higher branches, — Latin and Greek, 
algebra, geometry and higher English, which he was soon 
to turn to a practical use. In 1859 his health broke down 
so that he was unable either to work or study. A plan 
was therefore arranged by which he might purchase the 
remaining years of his apprenticeship. With some means 
he had in his guardian's hands this was done; after which he 
was free to pursue his studies exclusively. But for a long 
time he remained delicate and was unable to make much 
progress. In 1861, Mr. Milbourn removed to Cambridge, 
Dorchester County to practice law. Thither, the next 
year, Mr. Wimbrough, now a young man of nineteen, 
followed, and engaged in the teaching of a private school, 
in which he was so successful that after a year and a half 
he was elected principal of the Cambridge Academy, in 
this he was equally successful, but resigned after two years 
to take charge of a goverment office connected with the 
Internal Revenue; engaging at the same time in conduct- 
ing a newspaper, the Cambridge Herald, of which he was 
both proprietor and editor. In 1867, having disposed of 
his paper, he went to Dickinson College, where he entered 
the Junior class thereby graduating in two years. As an 
evidence of how well he had studied in former years, 
besides the fact that he was able to pass over the first 
two years of the college course, he was noted in College 
for his accurate knowledge of the English language and 
unusual proficiency for a student, in Latin; on account of 
which he was allowed optional attendance in that department 
during the whole of the junior year. He was graduated 
a Bachelor of Arts in 1869, and took the Master's degree 
three years after. Since graduating, Mr. Wimbrough has 
engaged mostly in teaching. 

He was elected principal of the New Town High 
School in 1872, continuing in the same till 1875, a period 
of three years. Afterwards he was principal of the Snow 
Hill High School for four years. As an instructor Mr. 
Wimbrough is thorough, earnest and capable. From his 
life gleams this great truth: "Honor and fame from no 
condition rise: act well your part; there all the honor 
lies." 

Rev. Joseph L. Polk succeeded Mr. Wimbrough in the 
High School and continued in the position until 1877, 
when he resigned, and was succeeded by Dr. Sidney W. 
Handy. 

Dr. Handy was appointed principal of the High School 
in Pocomoke City in the fall of 1877 and has continued in 
that position to the present. Dr. Sidney W. Handy was 
born in Somerset County, Md., on the 4th day of October, 
1845. He was educated partly in his native county and at 
the Columbian College in Washington, D. C, at which 
latter place he went through a four years college course 
and graduated in 1868. He attended the first course of 
lectures in medicine at the University of Virginia in 1869 
and 1870, and the second at the Jefferson Medical College, 
Philadelphia, Penn., graduating in 1872. Dr. Handy, 
although a graduate in medicine, has never practiced his 
profession, choosing rather the position of an educator as 
being more in accordance with his intellectual taste. In 
his wise and judicious management of the High School he 
is meeting the highest expectations of the Trustees and 
Board of Education who have placed him there, and is at 
once a scholar and a Christian gentleman. 

CONTINUES NEXT SATURDAY HERE AT THE POCOMOKE PUBLIC EYE.