Elliott School and Mr. Brill
As a general rule of thumb, one-room schoolhouses for
White students were built no more than ten miles apart. This would ensure a student would walk no
more than five miles to school.
Most were built much closer, to five miles apart.
The one-room schoolhouses East of Delmar on what is today Dorothy/Whitesville
Road were about that distance apart.
Starting with Callaway’s School (public school number 87) to Morris
School (public School number 39) at Smith Mill, to Elliott’s School (public
school number 38), and finally to the Whitesville School (public school number
95 and 126).
Elliott’s School was located at the intersection
of Whitesville Road and Line Church Road.
The story of it and the other one-room schoolhouses in the Delmar School
District is a work in progress.
Currently, a photograph of the schoolhouse has not been found nor a deed
reference, so we can only guess that the schoolhouse followed the custom of
being named after the family that donated the land for the School to be built.
We also do not know when the schoolhouse was built, but online records start in
1914 when Effie E. Baker taught at the School for forty dollars a month.
The area had families with the last names of
Elliott (with various spellings), Brumbley (with different spellings), Callaway,
Figgs, Brittingham, Cordrey, Davis, Warren, Burton, Scott, Parsons, and Brill.
In 1921 Elliott School had 33 pupils. It also had one of the worst records of days
attended School by the pupils. Elliott was in the center of rural farming
country, and when sweet potatoes are being dug, holly gathered for wreath
making, and when strawberries are ripe, the students at Elliott had work to do.
In addition, the roads were dirt and turned to mud at each rain, giving a
student another reason not to walk to school.
Some of the teachers who taught at Elliott; 1914
Effie Baker, 1916 Oliver Collins, 1918 Jerdie D. Parsons, 1919 Mamie L Webb,
1921 Jennie Wells, 1923 Mable Hearn, 1924 Erma Ramson, 1929 to 1931 Lewis
Brill.
Between 1915 to 1925, Delaware built "farm to
market" roads throughout the state. Not only did Delaware see the need for
stronger roads due to the motor truck, they realized that on a paved road, a
farmer could haul a load of five to six thousand pounds with a pair of mules as
opposed to a two thousand pound load on a dirt road. An improved road also
increased the value of the farms on the road, this way increasing property
taxes. Altho referred to as nine-foot roads, they were, for the most part, a
road with two nine-foot wide lanes. One lane was paved, and the other lane was
dirt. The dirt lane was intended for use in dry weather. The Whitesville road,
until recent years, was one of those nine-foot roads and was called the
nine-foot road. It was widened and paved its entire width in the 1950s.
With the paved roads, in 1925, there was a big
push by the Delmar school to consolidate all the one-room schoolhouses into the
Delmar School district. The Delmar
businessmen went to each School and promoted the advantage of a consolidated
school (in Delmar, of course). In spite
of the vote in 1925 at Elliott School of seven “for” and eight “against”
eventually (1931), Elliott was consolidated into Delmar. The roads had improved to the point where
school bus service could be dependable provided, and each school day, the
Elliott school kids made a long ride from to Delmar.
above Mr. Lewis Brill
Lewis Henry Brill (1871-1933) was born in West
Virginia, the son of William Brill and Eleanor C. “Ellen” Engle. About 1876, he
was adopted by his Uncle and Aunt Lewis Hawkins and Margaret Cooper
Hawkins. In 1893 he married Alice M.
Sirbaugh (1871- ). The marriage did not
work. He married in 1895 Susan Taylor
French (1877-1964) in Hampshire, West Virginia.
They had a family of five daughters; Katie, Alice, Mary, Marion, and Edna. He worked as a teacher. The marriage did not work, and he was
divorced in 1912 due to adultery. He went to live in Blacksburg, Virginia. In July of 1915, he purchased 86 acres for
$2,692.50 on the road from Ward to Whitesville.
Today it would be at the intersection of Whitesville Road and Russell
Road. Perhaps he moved here due to the strawberry boom, which was attracting
out-of-state farmers to move to this area.
In the school year 1916/1917 he started teaching at the Whitesville
school number 95 for $45 a month. At the
age of 46, he married a third time in 1917 to Minnie Elizabeth Jane Brumley
(1890-1975). She was the daughter of
Isaac and Olevia Brumley of the Melson area.
Her sisters had married into the Elliott family. Lewis and Minnie had
four daughters; Cora, Elias, Lena and Betty and one son, Arthur. He farmed, and
he taught in the local schools. It was
unusual to have a male teacher, and besides Mr. Brill, there was Mr. Carmel
Moore, who taught at the Callaway School. Mr. Brill would die in 1933. He is buried in the Elliott Cemetery. Mrs. Brill would move to the Wilmington area
with her children and live there for many years.
