In about the year 1866, three years after West Virginia became a state and soon after the Civil War, the people of the communities of Peach Tree and Linn Camp saw the need for a school. David JAMES, a citizen of the community, freely donated property for the building site of a school house. The men of the community built a log building in a hollow close to the mouth of Linn Camp, Normantown, WV, to serve as the first Peach Tree School.
The building was very small and extremely crude. The bare earth, which was packed down very tightly, served as the floor. The seats were made of rough logs, split in half, with wooden legs driven in them. There was a board inserted between two of the logs in one side of the building for a desk. The building was poorly lit, the only window being a missing log in the side of the building with greased paper over the opening. They had a very large, open fireplace about 5 ft. by 2 ft. It was made out of rocks piled on top of each other. The chimney was made out of split poles laid on top of each other and cemented with mud. They were called "cat and clay" chimneys.
The first Peach Tree School teacher was Calvin KESSINGER. He built the fires but never swept the floors. School lasted from 9:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. and a term was three months. Some of the other teachers that taught in that building were David JAMES and Dave KNIGHT.
Tragedy soon visited the first Peach Tree School. The building was burned to the ground a few years after it was built. The cause of the fire was unknown, but the spot where the building stood is still known as "Burnt Schoolhouse Hollow".
The second Peach Tree School house was built about one hundred yards from the mouth of Peach Tree run. This building was also a log building. In 1899, the third Peach Tree school was built. It was a white frame building, but it had only one room, as the old ones had. The open fireplace was replaced with a "pot-belly" stove which would burn coal. This school house was located on a bank and had to be moved because of a slip that came under the building. It was brought off of the hill in 1912 by using a block and line pulled with horses. The building was brought to stand at the exact mouth of the Peach Tree Run road, and there it remains today, although no longer used as a school.
One of the teachers was Mr. John JONES. At the age of eighteen, in 1896, he taught at Peach Tree. At that time the teachers were appointed by three trustees. Mr. Jones said one of the trustees informed him that the Peach Tree school had a discipline problem the year before and that something had to be done. Mr. Jones promised that there would be order even at the price of fewer lessons. He spanked fifteen children during the first month of school. Included were Jessie and Frank JAMES. They were not the notorious outlaws, however!
At Christmas time it was always busy. The room had to be decorated and a tree brought in and trimmed. One or two of the older boys would go to the hills and get a tree. The little, one-room schoolhouse became a stage by means of sheets fastened to wires and students would present Christmas plays.
The Peach Tree School had a few unique teachers. Mr. Virgil MILLER was known as the "bawling teacher". He was very religious and would start school with a reading from the Bible and a prayer, accompanied by a crying spell. Mr. Miller was very disturbed when school had to close because of measles. He walked the floor, wringing his hands and weeping bitterly. Clavel James, 6 years old and in his first year of school, didn't know what was going on so he said he roared and bawled, too, out of sympathy for the poor man.
The school closed in 1956.