14.1 Story of Purcellville
- This excellent study was written in 1977 by Eugene Scheel, a well-known historian living in Waterford and along-time partner with teh Edwin Washington Society.
- We were very taken by a discussion of John J. Janney and description of the Dillon schoolhouse. There is also mention of the education of African-American children, mainly about having to walk to Lincoln or their experience with the George Washington Carver School.
- There is also a brief history of Oscar Emerick, Superintendent of Schools from 1917 through 1957. His first office was in his home, then above N.G. Miller’s Purcellville Pharmacy. The school board remained there until 1935, then moved to Leesburg. Emerick’s sister Ruth was his clerk from 1922, when the district school boards were unified under a county system, until 1962. (Scheel, The Story of Purcellville 1977).
- The Carver Colored School comes up when Scheel draws from the Minutes of the School Board from January 11, 1927. The Minutes noted that “colored people were heard concerning the erection of a new colored school at Purcellville. Action was delayed.” Construction of George Washington Carver School didn’t happen until 1947 on seven acres bought for $2,000 from Joe Cool’s heirs in 1945. (Scheel, The Story of Purcellville 1977).
- Scheel also discussed the Emancipation Association of Loudoun, which was founded in 1909. For a complete history, see by Elaine E. Thompson (In the Watchfires: the Loudoun County Emancipation Association, 1890-1971 2005), and Purcellville’s Emancipation Celebration. (History of the Emancipation Celebration 2015).